“I’m taking my friend to his concert tonight downtown.”
Beth came out of the bedroom looking incredible in an off-the-shoulder dress that fell to mid-thigh. It had a yellow and white flower pattern that showed off her coloring to perfection. She’d added a little more makeup, a necklace with a gold drop pendant, and a pair of yellow, tall heels. Yup, only she could actually manage to look better than she had before.
“After the concert I expect to see you in my office. Do you know where it is?”
“What? No,” Felicity said distractedly. Beth eyed her with a grin as she mimed using the phone with her hand and pressed it to her head. Is that him, she mouthed. Felicity nodded, trying to stifle a laugh.
“Then I’ll have my driver pick you up. His name is Anton. Expect him at midnight.”
“What, no, listen I’m not riding with him just give me the address and—”
Click.
Felicity’s draw dropped. “He hung up on me!”
Beth grabbed her purse, flinging her long hair over a shoulder. “You’ll just have to make him pay for that.”
Felicity tried not to smile but she couldn’t contain. “I guess I will.”
Chapter7
It didn’t take long for things to go wrong. They didn’t just go a little wrong, they went weird wrong. All of this happened within thirty minutes of the concert starting. Of course the night couldn’t have gone naturally. Nothing had been right since she met Dominic Blackmoore.
Hell, it wasn’t weird so much as bat-shit crazy.
Things like this did not happen. They certainly didn’t happen to Felicity Shaw. A lowly vampire whose mother who didn’t talk to her anymore, whose father she never knew, and whose best friend was human. And yet, even being ordinary enough to lie on her résumé to get a job—which she’d read online that almost everyone did—she had never seen anything so crazy in all her life as she did once the concert started. Not once her in one hundred and eighteen vampire years. Judging by Beth’s astonished expression, neither did she.
It had everything to do with Lucas Blackmoore.
The night started normal enough. Beth and Felicity arrived at the theater. Beth bought a cheap glass of wine from a vendor then an old woman showed them to their row using a small flashlight to indicate their seats. By the time the curtain went up and the lights dimmed for the show, not a seat stood empty. Felicity’s ears already hurt from all the screaming.
The Lucas Blackmoore Band consisted of a bassist, lead electric played by Lucas himself, a rhythm guitarist, and a drummer. They were all good looking in their own rights but Lucas sold the show. The fact that he seemed to be the real deal with talent to boot only made him more of an icon. Or so Beth had explained to her.
Announcers introduced the band over the speakers and then Lucas strolled out from behind a golden curtain grinning a grin that made the audience scream like sixteen-year-old girls at a Justin Bieber concert. He wore low-slung, thread-barren jeans with patches around the knees and a vintage rock t-shirt with his band’s name on it. He headed to the microphone. His hand curled around the it and just like that his grin died. His eyes flashed for a second charging with an amber glow which usually only happened when a vampire was aroused or really angry. Or when they were feeling any emotion supercharged.
Vampires didn’t exactly go around flashing their strangeness. Most of them preferred not to reveal their nature except to trusted friends or loved ones. Some were a bit more flamboyant with it and even used it to get famous. Right now in front of a massive screaming crowd for all to see Lucas Blackmoore just revealed his true nature to those who hadn’t known. To those who already knew, well, he just gave them a flash at his true nature.
And the women went wild.
Of course.
Felicity almost rolled her eyes.
The crowd ran out of their seats, some trying to charge onto the stage. The screams nearly tore off the roof. Surely people all the way across the city could hear the noise level. Guards poured down the stairs on either side of the stage to keep back them back.
“Is it always like this?” Felicity asked Beth.
Beth grinned, her eyes alight with excitement. “Sometimes, but that’s usually after he starts singing. Did you see his eyes flash like that? I’ve never see that before.”
“Yeah, I saw it.” Felicity didn’t grin back. Disquiet sat in her stomach like a lead weight.
As the rest of the band sauntered on stage behind Lucas, Beth stiffened in her seat. Her hands clasped onto Felicity’s and shook her, hard.
“What is it?”
Felicity took in Beth’s frozen stare and followed it up to Lucas Blackmoore. That look on his face reminded her of Dominic. The look held a mixture of hunger, anger, and frustration. It was Dom’s look. The hungry one that said he had already stripped her naked with his eyes and now counted the many different ways he could fuck her. Lucas Blackmoore had that same look trained right on Beth, glowing amber eyes and all.
“Um, Beth, is this normal?”
Her chest rose and fell rapidly. “He’s looking at me.”
“That he is. I take it this isn’t normal.”
Lucas blinked and then, slowly, as if he didn’t want to, he tore his gaze away from Beth. Even after their set started—a husky melody with a jump-up-and down beat--Beth still didn’t release her white-knuckled grip on Felicity.
“Honey, you can let me go now.”
Beth’s hand started trembling. Felicity turned to her in the dark, crowded room. Everyone was standing, jumping and singing with gleeful faces, but now that the music had started the crowd had calmed some. They knew all the words to his songs. They stood swaying, hands raised in the air like they were praying to God and sang along. Everyone did this except for her and Beth.
Beth looked at her and the look in her eyes reminded her of that desperate, scared look from earlier.
“I can’t do this,” she said, her voice a dry whisper.
“What do you mean? It’s just a concert.” Except not even she believed that after seeing Lucas in full-on vampire mode staring at Beth. His strange response went beyond an odd reaction for a vampire to have to someone. He was older too, so there was no reason he should not have been able to control any emotions he’d been feeling.
Beth shook her head looking about to have a panic attack. “I have to get out of here!” Frantic, Beth snatched her purse then raced down the aisle, shoving past dancing bodies in her wake.
Felicity sat there stunned for a long moment, trying to comprehend Beth’s overreaction. But what happened next knocked her from baffled straight into what-the-fuckery.
Lucas stopped singing.
In the middle of the song with his band still playing the notes, he just stopped singing.
What. The. Fuck.
The crowd stopped singing along with him. The band members looked at one another with the same confused glances not sure whether to continue playing or not.
All the while, Lucas’ gaze stayed locked on Beth’s retreating back.
The room grew hushed, confused.
Then the microphone hit the ground. The cacophony bang made everyone wince. Lucas leapt off the stage landing in a crouch. His eyes glowed amber and then he was gone in a blur, the door to the theater swinging in his wake.
Felicity stared at the swinging door for a frozen second before racing after them. Felicity pushed her way through the bodies of wild fans and pulled her cellphone out as she burst through the front of the theater. She searched up and down the streets for any sign of Beth. Nope. Not a sign of either of them. She inhaled trying to catch Beth’s perfume but she got nothing.