Immortals And Melodies (Blood And Guitars #2) (19 page)

“Something’s bothering you,” I said. “Spill it.”

He looked at me and said, “No fair. The moon disappeared hours ago.”

“I don’t have to read your mind to know you’re worrying about something.”

“It’s nothing,” he insisted, turning his head to look out at the ocean through the giant window. “It’s just that I have to go back to work tomorrow. Not much of a honeymoon, is it?”

I reached over and squeezed his leg. “I’ll take it,” I said. “Two days of having you all to myself. I don’t see any reason to complain. Besides, don’t you love making music videos?”

He turned to face me again, smiling. “Not nearly as much as I love being here with you,” he said.

“We have the rest of forever to enjoy each other,” I reminded him. I wore a smile, hoping he wouldn’t hear the words I wasn’t saying. The simple truth was that everything was about to change. Trey only had three days left as a human, and, technically, he’d be a zombie for two of those days while filming the video for “You Only Live Twice.” His mortality would come and go with the next full moon. For now, I could only hope everything would go as planned.

“I guess we should pick up a few of our things,” Trey suggested, changing my train of thought. “I managed a surprise wedding, but I didn’t get much packing done for either of us.”

“It’s a plan. I’ll go get ready,” I said. “The sooner we do that, the sooner we can get back here and enjoy our day.”

We were in Trey’s BMW an hour later and reached the house not long after that. Trey pulled his luggage out of the giant room he calls a closet and tossed them on the bed.

“Take the big one,” he told me.

“Thank you,” I said as I unzipped it and began putting some of my clothes inside. Thankfully, we’d brought some of my things over a few days ago, which meant we didn’t have to make two stops. Trey packed enough clothes in his suitcase to last a week at the beach house and then put some of my blood stash in a cooler, loading it all in the BMW. I was standing in the kitchen when he came back in from the garage.

“Is that everything?” I asked.

“I think so,” he said, putting his phone in his pocket. “Tara offered to keep Cowboy for as long as we need.”

I nodded and then turned toward the direction of the front door. “Are you expecting someone?” I asked curiously.

Trey raised an eyebrow at me. “No. Is one of the guys here or something? They should know better than that today.”

Chapter 24

Trey

AURORA AND I WAITED in silence until a knock sounded on the door, and I went to it. I pulled it open only to stare into the face of a man I hadn’t seen in ten years.

 
“Hello, son,” was all he said.

I gawked for a moment before my mouth could form words. “Dad?” Aurora came to my side, taking my hand and studying the man in the doorway.

“Can I come in?” he asked.

I eyed him warily, not sure what I should be feeling. “Actually, we were just leaving.”

“You can’t spare five minutes for family?” he insisted.

“I learned from the best,” I said to him. Everything I’d buried for all these years started to bubble up inside of me again. It only made me angry. “And thanks for making this easy.” I moved to shut the door, but he stuck his foot out, blocking it.

“Trey, please.”

I could feel my blood pressure rising. He’d had the same effect on me during our last encounter when I was in junior high. He’d dropped in a week after Christmas to say hi. Before the visit had ended, he’d upset my mom and left without so much as a goodbye, true to form. Over his shoulder, I glimpsed a girl in a blue jumpsuit. It was Cali, one of my neighbors who just so happens to be a huge Catalyst fan. She smiled and waved at me as she walked her dog past the house. I nodded my head to her, trying to smile. Not wanting to cause a scene, I reluctantly opened the door and said, “Five minutes.” Dad stepped inside, and Aurora caught my eye, nodding toward him. “Aurora, this is Jon Decker.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Aurora,” Dad said, offering his hand to her. She put on a kind smile and shook his hand, though I knew she sensed my trepidation.

“This is a nice place you have here,” he said as he wandered over toward the couch in the living room. I followed him, Aurora right behind me.

“What do you want, dad?” I asked, crossing my arms.

“First of all, I wanted to meet my new daughter-in-law,” he said. “A man shouldn’t have to hear about his only son’s wedding on TV.”

“A man shouldn’t have to hear about his son’s anything on TV,” I countered. “Unless that man just abandons his family and disappears.” I ran my hand over my face, suddenly feeling tired. Aurora took me by the hand and led me over to the other sofa where I sat down next to her.

“Look Trey, I know I haven’t been around for you like I should have been –” I let out a humorless laugh. “I’m back in town now, and I thought maybe that could change.”

“I’m going to make some lemonade,” Aurora said, excusing herself to give us some space. She gave me a sympathetic smile as she left the room.

I gazed at my father. He looked just like I remembered, except older. Crow’s feet lined the edges of his eyes now, and his hair was a little thinner. I realized with a strange twist that I’d never look exactly like him, despite the fact that I looked like a younger version of him now. Soon, I’d be frozen as my twenty-two-year-old self. The thought was a little reassuring. He wasn’t the kind of man I wanted to grow up and be like.

“So, that’s it?” I asked. “You want to reconnect?”

“I know you won’t believe this, son, but I’ve kept an eye on you all these years.”

“Is that so?”

“I know every word to every song you sing,” he added. “I’m your biggest fan.” I shook my head, blindsided by his declaration and confused by how it made me feel. “You’ve done just fine without me,” he added, gesturing with a sweep of his hand to the house. “Look at this place. Marble floors, leather furniture, fancy art on the walls.”

“Aurora painted that,” I said, following his gaze to the painting of
Pier 60
I’d bought from The Waking Moon the first time I visited it.

“She’s an artist?”

“I’m in the middle of my honeymoon,” I said. “I have a music video to shoot and a new album dropping before I go on tour. Your timing is terrible. Things are crazy right now.” What I didn’t say was ‘Meet your new daughter-in-law. She’s a vampire, which sort of fits right in with my nocturnal band schedule, so we’re actually quite perfect for each other. Oh yeah, I’m going to be a vampire in a few days, too, so, if we ever get chummy and have a family barbeque, I’m going to want my steak bloody.’ I sighed, running my hand through my hair, and settled for, “How’d you find me, anyway?”

“You’re a big shot,” he said. “You’re not that hard to track down.”

“Is that so? Could have fooled me.”

He sighed. “I guess I had that one coming.” We sat in silence for a moment while I willed my blood pressure to drop. “I was sorry to hear about Wes,” he said at last. “It was all over the TV. I know you were close.”

That did it for me. “Don’t pretend you know anything about Wes,” I stated. “If you’d been a decent father at all, you’d have known him. Mom did. The fans did. He was the closest thing I had to a father figure. But you ... you don’t get to talk to me about Wes.”

Aurora returned then with a tray carrying a glass of lemonade for each of us. I took a sip and thanked her as she sat down next to me again.

“So, what brought you back to town, Mr. Decker?” She asked, trying to lighten the conversation.

“Please, call me Jon,” he said, smiling at her. “And the answer to your question is a job. Who knows, if it works out, I might stick around a while.” I rolled my eyes and took another drink to keep from commenting. “How’s your mother?” he asked after a moment.

“Fine.”

“Good. She deserves to be happy.” He finished his glass of lemonade and thanked Aurora. “I should be going,” he said, getting to his feet. He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and held it out to me. I stood up, reluctantly taking it from him. It was a phone number.

“Call me,” he said. “When things aren’t so crazy for you.”

I thought about pointing out that things are always crazy for me but decided against it.

“It was nice meeting you,” he said to Aurora. She nodded and smiled at him politely. “I can show myself out,” he said as he walked over to the door. He turned to me one more time and said, “Take care, son.”

I nodded and watched my father walk away. Again.

Aurora set her glass down on the coffee table and came to stand before me. “Are you okay?” she asked, lifting her hand to my chest.

I met her gaze and found concern in her green eyes. “I’ll be okay,” I reassured her. “There was a time when that man had the power to ruin my life. It’s not like that now. There’s no way I’m letting him ruin our honeymoon. I know that much.” I smiled, and Aurora leaned against me. I wrapped my arms around her and held her close to me as my heart rate returned to normal.

Only an hour after my estranged father had shown up at my front door, Aurora and I were enjoying the cool ocean water back at the beach house. If the feel of the saltwater on my skin wasn’t enough to wash away my stress, seeing Aurora in that black swim suit would have done it. She looked amazing as she laughed and splashed water at me. Her long dark hair fell in damp waves down her back and her green eyes shone in the sunlight. She caught me staring and smiled, making her way toward me in the waves. I wiped a drop of water from her cheek with my thumb and bent down, brushing my lips against hers. She kissed me back, soft and slow. The sea water lapped against us as we stood together, the sand beneath our feet moving with the tide. Things couldn’t possibly get better than this. In that moment, I wanted for nothing.

“Thank you,” I said when the kiss ended, wrapping my arms around her waist. She tilted her head and looked up at me, her wet skin glistening in the light.

“For what?”

“For being you,” I said. “And forgiving me for this.” I splashed water at her and she squealed in the way girls do. Then she put her hand to my chest and shoved me backward into the water with enough force to submerge me. I spit and laughed as I found my feet again, shaking my wet hair out of my face. “It’s too easy to forget that you’re Wonder Woman,” I teased.

Chapter 25

Aurora

I MADE TWO CUPS of hot chocolate, something I’m still nostalgic about from my human days, and carried them into the front room of the beach house where Trey was sitting on a blanket on the floor. The flames in the fireplace danced and crackled, casting shadows on the walls.

“Thank you,” Trey said as I sat next to him and handed him a cup. He took a sip and then let out a long, drawn out breath. “That really hits the spot.”

“You’re welcome,” I said.

“How is it that you’re still so good at the human stuff?” he said with a smile, bumping me lightly on the shoulder.

“I’m not,” I said. “At least, I’m not usually.” Trey just grinned at me. “You bring it out in me,” I admitted. “Something about being with you just makes me feel all domesticated.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” he said, grinning before he took another sip of cocoa.

“Not bad, just weird. For me, anyway.”

“Well, I think it’s cute when you’re all
domesticated
.” I felt the shift in his mood as clearly as a light being turned off, and I knew his thoughts had gone elsewhere.