Fangs And Fame Read Free Page A

work differently now, or something. I mean, there’s putting on a great show, and then there’s starting rumors that you’re lip-synching.”
    I couldn ’t help the smile on my face just then. “I don’t think you have to worry about the lip-synching rumors,” I said. “As for the guys, did they seem concerned at all?”
    “ Not really, but then again they’re probably getting used to me after rehearsals and everything.”
    “ You killed it out there,” I said. “I don’t think anyone is going to complain if you continue to do that night after night.”
    He nodded, chewing his bottom lip. “Being on stage tonight ... it was just different. That’s all.”
    “ Ah,” I said. “But tonight is different, and not just because you’re a vampire now.”
    “ Oh yeah?” he asked, a lilt of curiosity in his voice.
    “ Yeah,” I said. “For instance, this was the first time you could look down and find your incredibly hot wife in the front row.”
    He sat up then and turned to face me, that million-dollar smile back in place. “That’s true,” he said as he lifted my chin with his fingers. I closed my eyes in anticipation of the rush as his lips came down on mine, and my stomach filled with butterflies. His, not mine. He was still obviously reeling from the show. I raked my fingers through his hair, giving over to his emotions completely as they flurried around inside of me. Too soon, a bang on the bus’s outside wall startled us both into reality.
    “ Trey, you in there?” called a voice. It was Chase.
    “ No,” Trey hollered back, a defeated smile spreading across his full lips. I stifled a giggle, and he shook his head hopelessly, sighing. “Welcome to tour life.”
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

                                          Chapter 3
     

    Aurora
     
    THE SECOND SHOW OF the tour was when it really started to hit me that this was going to be my life for the foreseeable future. I’d tried to imagine it, put myself in this situation in my head over and over, but I couldn’t have completely grasped the beautiful chaos of it all until I was right in the middle of it. We were in another city, and Trey and the guys were completely amped up before taking the stage. I wasn’t sure how much of that was nerves and how much of it was pure excitement because it was radiating off them in indistinguishable waves. What I did know for certain was that they were happy. Trey was happy, and that was all I wanted. I recalled the walk he and I had taken along the shore the day Wes died. Trey was on the verge of a tailspin after spending hours at the police station, and he’d driven way too fast until we’d ended up at the beach. I didn’t know it until we reached the water, but he was trying to prepare himself for the very real possibility that he’d have to quit the band. He’d just lost Wes because of his involvement with vampires, and he wasn’t sure he could walk the fine line that would come with being a new vampire and going on tour. The decision I had made that night to join him on the road was just the first of many big moments that had brought us here today.
    I watched him now as he warmed up his voice with O’Shea – focused, but obviously enjoying every second of it. Everything I had loved about Trey as a human still existed inside the man he was today, fangs and all. He felt my gaze, then, and looked over his shoulder long enough to flash me that irresistible half-smile of his, and then it was back to business. I sat back, watching – a little envious of the way his carefree spirit really seemed to come alive before a show like this. I knew the act of painting did something similar for my own soul, but I’d always been a bit of an introvert, and painting had never forced me out of my comfort zone in that sense. For Trey, being on stage was that escape he so desperately craved, except that his endeavor pulled in countless faces in