9. - – Misha
CHAPTER NINE
-
MISHA
I never knew sex could be so good. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve always enjoyed it, but holy shitballs, that was intense to the extreme.
I’m sore everywhere as I lay in Paul’s lap, curled up like a sweaty little kitty cat, purring in my exhausted contentment.
The concert down the hall is in full swing, and the heavy rock music with Cary’s wailing vocals just adds a completely amazing aura to the aftermath of the best fuck of my life.
I can tell where they are in the show by the lyrics that waft through the building, and I know that in just a few minutes the intermission, led by the dueling guitars, will begin.
I can’t wait to relax here in the arms of the man I’ve finally admitted to loving while listening to the sweet music of my boys.
It really is the best thing I could imagine right now.
Paul’s fingers lazily make little circles on my back as I snuggle with him, his touch making tiny goosebumps rise on my skin as my body cools down. It’s heaven, but not for long, and the guitar solos never begin. Instead, there’s nothing. Dead silence in an arena filled with twenty thousand people.
“Do you hear that?” I ask Paul, sitting up to look at him before I glance over at the closed door that leads out to the other backstage rooms and eventually the stadium’s stage.
“Hear what? I don’t hear anything.”
“Exactly.” I say, pushing off him, trying to get my rubbery legs to work as I search the floor for my discarded clothes. “It should be the end of ‘Run From Me’. Cary should be wailing his undead heart out.”
“You don’t think…oh shit!” Paul yells, jumping up off the couch, almost falling on his face as he leaps for his shorts and t-shirt. “You were asleep, you don’t know.”
“Know what?”
“They found the guy who started the fire. He’s in the crowd tonight. They planned on…”
“Ending him brutally?” I finish for him, knowing exactly where this is going. “Fuck.”
“Yeah, fuck!”
I’ve never dressed so fast in my life as I pull everything back on, thanking all that is holy that he didn’t shred my clothes again.
In minutes, we’re running from the green room and hurriedly making our way to the main stage area, hoping to God that the boys haven’t ousted themselves in front of thousands of people.
“I wouldn’t put it past Lucian.” I say to Paul as I acknowledge what we’re both thinking while we come to a screeching halt at the edge of the backstage area, looking out and over to where the guys should be playing.
“Or the rest of them.” Paul adds, then points out to the crowd where the mass of people parts, and four leather and denim clad vampires make their way through.
“Goddamnit guys.” I curse and grab Paul’s hand, pulling him out onto the vacant stage with me, and down the wooden steps into the pit.
The new security guards look confused as all hell, and I don’t blame them, but they snap into action, helping us over the metal barricade and into the crowd.
“You stay here. I’ll go get them back.” Paul says to me, stopping me from entering the sea of fans that are silently watching their idols run through them in confusion.
“Hell no. They’re my boys too.” I yell at him and blow past him, knocking my shoulder into his as I pass by to let him know that I may be weak from my cancer, and I may be tired from the pounding he just gave me, but I sure as fuck ain’t helpless, especially when it comes to family.
“Alright, then.” He chuckles and joins me, taking my hand again and giving me a little grin as we rush through the aisles, weave through the seats, and follow where the guys took off out the left rear exit of the arena.
They have a head start, and we lose them around a few corners in the hallways, but the sound of their shoes on the floor and their excited words to each other keeps them easy to find as Paula and I move as fast as we can.
“At least they’re not doing it on stage.” Paul laughs as we tear around a corner and he comes to a dead stop, making me crash into his back and almost land on my ass.
“No, out here is much better.” I say, rolling my eyes as I steady myself and look around him to the far side of the long hallway that stops in a dead end. There’s no door and no way for the man who’s encircled amongst them to escape. “Well, then.”
They’ve hunted this guy for weeks, and now that he’s here, it’s going to be a bloodbath. Whoever he is messed with the wrong rockstars, and now, now he’s dead meat.
“Stay behind me, just in case.” Paul says as he steps in front of me, not letting me go around the corner like him. “Let them take care of what they want to. We’ll keep any witnesses back.”
“Fine.” I say to him, begrudgingly. I’d love to be there with them, finding out why he did what he did.
What could he have gotten out of it? Why would he do something like that?
Was he just a crazy fan? Was it an accident?
Was he trying to kill Red? “Where is Red, anyway? Or the rest of the women?” I blurt out loud as if Paul could have been listening to all the questions in my head.
“At the hotel. Strict orders from Cary.”
“And they listened?”
“For once.”
“That’s a surprise.” I giggle, trying to peek around his arm to see what the guys are doing.
If it’s as bad as what I know Lucian wants to do, I probably shouldn’t see it, it might trigger the PTSD from my assault when I was younger to see all the violence and the blood. But if I’m even considering becoming a vampire like them to save my life, I’m going to have to get over all that.
The guys are surrounding the man at the end of the hall, watching him, intently eyeing his movements that appear to be nothing more than jerky, terrified jolts as he tries to bolt back and forth away from them.
They don’t let him go, though, they step in his way, blocking him, and start moving in like a pack of hungry wolves stalking their prey, because, well, that’s exactly what he is now.
Not only does it look like an animal hunt, but it sounds like it when Cary makes the first move, lunging towards him, his hands outstretched, and his face scrunched up to expose his long fangs. He snarls as he leaps in the air, but before he grabs the man, a loud bang rings out.
The gunshot echoes through the hallway, bouncing off the walls and corners, deafening me as I watch Cary fall to the floor in a motionless heap.
“No!” I yell out, trying to run around Paul to get to my boy, but he stops me, and steps in front of me, keeping me back, just as everyone looks up at us, including the man with the smoking gun.
Everything becomes slow motion as he raises the black pistol in our direction, and Lucian rushes towards him, cursing.
Another loud bang happens, and I jump, and then another just as Luc tears him to the ground, and the other two jump in, mauling him with the most insane sounds of flesh ripping and teeth clashing.
Sighing with relief, I brush off a bead of sweat from my brow and smack Paul on the shoulder. “That was scary.” I say, but he doesn’t answer me. He’s silent and still. “Paul?”
With a wheezing rattle from his mouth, he falls to the floor, his hands holding the front of his chest, and a puddle of blood forms around him on the white tile.
“Paul!” I shriek. “Paul! No, no, no, Paul!” I cry over and over again as I sink to my knees next to him on the cold floor, feeling my knees warm when his hot blood spreads and seeps under me.
He rolls onto his back, and I see a small hole in the middle of his torso leaking copious amounts of blood quickly. It’s hot and sticky as I place my hands against it, trying to stop the flow as I scream out in wailing cries.
The noise in the background of the boys shredding the man is still going, and I feel so alone as I hold on to Paul’s chest, begging him not to die.
“Please stay with me. Please.” I sob over him, pressing harder on him as the blood seeps out from between my fingers. “Don’t die. It’s supposed to me that goes, not you.”
One moment I’m huddled over his dying body, and the next I’m lifted in the air and spun around, being placed on my feet by Derrick as Marcus slides down to the floor.
He’s already covered in blood and pieces of ripped flesh from their attack on the guy, and it mixes with Paul’s as he lifts him up and holds him close.
“You’re gonna die, mate, there’s nothing I can do about that.” Marcus says to him, as I fight against Derrick, who holds me back, his fingers digging into my arms as he keeps me from throwing myself back onto the man I love.
“I know.” Paul says with a raspy cough, and a stream of blood leaks from the corner of his mouth. “As long as she’s safe, that’s all that matters.”
Hearing his dying wish of me being safe breaks me, and I shatter into a million pieces, falling into Derrick’s arms, leaning all my weight on him as he cradles me to his chest.
“Do you want to come back?” Marcus says to Paul, looking down at him as he coughs and sputters out little red droplets that land on the drummer’s face.
“Only if she turns too. I’m not living forever without her.” He says with his last rattling breath.
I scream in the agony of my heart breaking as I watch his eyes close, and his head flop to the side in Marcus’ hold.
“Deal, brother.” Marcus says, and I barely hear him over the sound of my own cries, but somehow I catch just enough to stop my heart from imploding the rest of the way and falling from my chest.
Still, it’s too much. The pain is too hard to bear, the guilt is too intense, and my already tired body fails me. With a gasping breath in, I lose consciousness and everything goes as black as death.