Мишель Роуэн - Tall, Dark & Fangsome

Two hours left.

I made my way down the aisle trying to ignore the music, if you could call it that, and focus on finding Steven. I knew I couldn’t find him the old-fashioned way. It would take forever to look at faces one by one. So I decided to do something a little risky.

Here we go again, I thought.

No, I could handle it. Really. I would slide into my nightwalker skin just a little, kind of like testing the temperature of water with your big toe. He’d touched me the last time I saw him. I vividly remembered him wrapping his hand around my throat and trying to squeeze the life out of me. We all had a dark side to deal with, didn’t we?

“We’re close to the end now,” the demon speaking through Steven had told me yesterday, all red-eyed and scary. “And if you don’t step aside when the blood begins to flow it will devour you whole.”

When the blood begins to flow?

Still freaky. And yet, weirdly appetizing, which wasn’t a very calming thought at all.

Oh, how I missed the days of Chinese food and chocolate cake. The only potential victims then were my thighs.

In any case, I had to find Steven’s creepy, freaky little ass that I was totally positive was somewhere at this concert. If this didn’t work, I’d just thrall my way past the security guards, grab the microphone from the lead singer, who looked like he’d just been released for a day pass from San Quentin Penitentiary, and yell out his name. I’d done karaoke before in my prevampiric life. I could belt out a little Bonnie Raitt if the situation called for it, no problemo.

I grasped the railing in front of me and closed my eyes, focusing on Steven’s hand on my throat. The warm scent of his skin. The blood just underneath racing through his veins.

The stadium shifted after a moment to something more tangible, more alive. I could smell past the light odor of sneaked-in drugs, sweaty armpits, and expensive snacks to something deeper. Twenty thousand hearts beating, pumping blood through their young bodies.

Twenty thousand tasty treats.

No. I pushed past that thought as if it was seaweed hanging down in front of me, squishy and unpleasant, getting past that so I was able to focus on one teenager in particular.

Focus. Weaving my way through the crowd, my senses opening up and searching like fingers lightly brushing over the audience, checking and rechecking, and I knew I was close. So very close…

“Hey,” somebody said.

My eyes snapped open and I looked to my side.

A man stood there checking me out. He wore a black T-shirt with a big white skull and the band’s logo emblazoned across it.

“Hey, baby,” he said. “Cool black contacts. They so rock.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah. They rock like Death Suck rocks!” He thrust his fists into the air. “Wooooo!

Death Suck! ROCKS!”

“Sit down,” I hissed.

“Okay.” His eyes glazed and he sat down heavily right in the middle of the stairway.

I fought against the fog that rolled over my senses.

I’d already fed from two master vampires that day. I didn’t need more blood. I could keep my bitchy little nightwalker at bay for a little longer.

I had to. It’s not like I had any choice.

Do or die.

Like, literally.

I opened my eyes to see that somebody was looking directly at me, somebody other than the über-fan who had made a lame-ass attempt to hit on me. Just on the other side of the aisle where the fan now sprawled was the very person I’d been trying to find.

“Hi,” Steven said. “I was wondering when you’d show up.”

He wore a T-shirt identical to the other fan’s shirt, but Steven’s was autographed, and he held a concert program under his arm.

I waded through the mental haze I saw him through. “You were wondering when I’d show up?”

He nodded. “I sensed you were near.”

“Well, that’s convenient, isn’t it?” I drew in an unneeded breath and felt a wave of relief hit me. He was here. It was going to be okay, after all. “You have to help me.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. I need you to find somebody for me. To do a location spell.”

“Dude,” another kid came up beside Steven. “Who’s the black-eyed babe?”

My eyes were still black? Not good. Luckily I probably fit in around here. I’d just pump my fists and yell “Death Suck rocks!” if anybody gave me a hard time.

Or tear their throats out and bathe in their yumtastic blood, my nightwalker suggested.

Uh, wait. No, no, no, that wasn’t a good thought, to say the very least. Let’s stick with the first one. Only the first one.

“She’s a client,” Steven said.

“A client?”

“For my magic shit.”

“You are the man.” The friend eyed me. “What’s your name, sweetness?”

I black-eyed him with distaste. “What are you, twelve? Get away from me.”

“That’s okay,” he replied. “I like my women frisky. I can handle it. And, for the record, I’m almost fifteen.”

I ignored him and looked at Steven. “So, can you help me?”

“Oh, yeah.” The friend leered at me. “He’s going to help you, all right. Help you all night long, baby. Uh huh.”

Maybe I could rip out one throat tonight. I’d promise to make it quick.

Wait… no. Not even one.

“Stop that,” Steven told him. “She’s old enough to be my mother.”

That snapped me out of my nasty nightwalker funk. “Hardly.”

“Steve, dude, I can handle older women. I’m all about that.”

“I told you to call me The Darkness.”

“Don’t be a wiener.”

Steven scowled. “A wiener? I’m not a wiener. You’re the wiener!”

I sighed. The fate of my best friend’s life was currently in this wiener’s hands.

The night was not looking up.

About three seconds later, Death Suck wrapped up their concert extravaganza and the lights came on. Thousands of blurry-eyed teenagers with damaged hearing began filing out through the exits.

“Come with me,” Steven said to me.

His friend snickered. “Yeah, baby. Then you can come with me. Get it? Heh heh.”

I looked at the kid and channeled my thrall. “Go home, little boy.”

“Okay, bye.” His eyes glazed. He turned around and left without another word.

I followed behind Steven, keeping a close eye on the back of his stringy-haired head as we moved through the thick crowd. Finally I managed to clamp my hand down on his shoulder to stop him for a second.

“Where are we going?” I asked. “Are you going to do the location spell for me?”

“Maybe. Follow me.”

He started walking again.

“About what happened yesterday,” I said. “When you were possessed—”

He looked at me and his eyes widened a bit. “Yeah. I told you the dark magic had touched you already. I guess it must have recognized you again.”

“Will you still be able to do the eradication again if I have no other choice?” I asked. “You gave me the impression it might be possible.”

“Forget it. Not going to happen.” He shuddered. “In fact, I’d prefer never to go that deep again. No more vampire clients. Stupid demonic energy almost made me too sick to come to the concert tonight. Besides, I got a new job. Dude’s paying me loads for my mad skills.”

The crowd was thick and warm as it spilled outside and I forced myself to think about anything other than the collective scent of appetizing teenagers, all so vulnerable and tasty.

All in all, I was rather proud of my control so far tonight. Maybe it would be difficult, but not impossible, to keep my nightwalker at bay indefinitely. It was like a muscle I hadn’t flexed very much. Maybe I could simply use those new muscles to push aside any dark thoughts like thick, sticky cobwebs.