The Devil's Metal (34 page)

We both slipped our clothes back on, me
feeling more shy than he was. I grabbed my bag off the top bunk
which had an extra pass for Mel inside.

“Come here,” Sage murmured. He came up to me
and pushed the hair off my face and ran his thumb over my lower
lip. He gave me a quick and sweet kiss.

“Thank you for that,” he whispered. I didn’t
have to be a genius to pick up on what he was really saying. That
could have been the last time—for both of us.

I smiled sadly then wrapped my arms around
him. He returned the embrace, squeezing me hard. He kissed the top
of my head.

“I’m glad you didn’t run away, Dawn.”

“Me too.”

I sighed into his chest and we stood like
that until time was wearing thin.

“You go get your friend and bring her back
here,” he said, pulling away from me. “I want to meet her.”

“And she wants to meet you,” I grinned. I
turned and skipped out of the bus.

It wasn’t until I was outside and in the
golden hazy Texas afternoon that I remembered what I had planned. I
had to protect Mel at all costs and I was already thinking of
bringing her back to meet the band. One round in the sack with Sage
and my mind was all over the place.

I decided a quick meeting wouldn’t hurt.
Then she and I would do our own thing during the night. I focused
on that and scampered across the parking lot toward the main
security gates.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

I heard Mel before I even saw her, giving
sass to the security guard. I spied her through the chain link
fence, my heart beating loud in my chest, and waved her pass at the
guard.

“She’s legit,” I told him. “This is her
pass.”

He sighed, unfolded his bulky arms, and
opened the gate. Mel ran toward me like a tiny little rocketship
made of boobs and butt.

“Dawn!” she cried out, throwing her arms
around my waist. I reached for her, squeezing her hard.

I broke down. I started bawling right there,
holding Mel to me as tightly as I could.

“Dawn, whoa, what’s going?” she exclaimed
into my chest. She tried to pull back but I wouldn’t let her. The
tears wouldn’t stop coming and I didn’t care who saw. I felt like I
didn’t even have the strength to stand anymore.

“Holy shizz, child.” She patted my back.
“It’s okay. Let it out.”

I probably cried for ten minutes straight.
Without me even realizing it, she had moved us over away from the
guard and the hopefuls and placed us on the other side of a station
wagon. I fell onto my ass and stayed there until the sobs dried
up.

When I was done I felt as dry and empty as a
husk.

“I’d ask if you are okay but you’re
obviously not okay,” she remarked, folding her legs on the hot
asphalt. “I’ve never seen you cry before.”

I nodded and wiped underneath my nose and
eyes. I was a mess through and through.

“Do you want to tell me what’s going on?”
she asked carefully. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”

To borrow a phrase from Jimmy Page (who
borrowed a phrase from Jake Holmes), I felt dazed and confused. I
shrugged. “I don’t even know anymore.”

“Okay, don’t freak, man. Relax. I’ll talk.
I’ll let you know about the stinky pervert I had to sit next to on
the plane. But first…”

She reached into her flower-dotted purse and
pulled out a joint.

I gave her a wry look and leaned back
against the car door. “How did you smuggle that on the plane?”

She beamed cheekily. “I’m good at
distraction.”

She brought the joint to her lips and lit it
up. She took a hit then passed it to me.

“I’m sure you’re up to your eyeballs in
this,” she said through a cough.

I took it and puffed back, shaking my head.
“I’ve had too much to deal with.”

“Dude, grass makes your problems easier to
handle.”

“Not my problems.”

She sighed and took the joint back. “Okay,
well let me tell you about how things are back in Ellensburg.”

She told me about her new man and how good
he was in the sack. She said she thought she was in love and wanted
to have his babies one day. She said she was debating about going
back into nursing for another year, but decided to stick it
through. She told me that her brother crashed the Gremlin one night
and it’s totaled. He’s okay though and he said he’s going to get a
sexy muscle car next but Mel’s not allowed to borrow it. It felt
good to listen.

“What about Eric and my dad?”

“Eric’s okay. He looks happier. He told me
this chick he likes that turned him down before has been calling
him and wanting to do homework together when school starts. So who
knows what that’s about. But he’s happy. And your dad is great.
Really. Eric said he stopped drinking cold turkey.”

“What?” I cried out, nearly choking.

“Totally legit. I saw him a few times. Sober
as a nail. He threw out all the booze and your house looks clean
for once. I mean, really clean. Grass is mowed.”

“He never told me any of that,” I said
absently.

“Well, you know how it is for alcoholics. He
probably thinks you wouldn’t believe him. But so far, he’s doing
good. I like it. I bet he’ll be like that when you get home. Oh,
and Moonglow is fine. Eric’s actually been riding her. Just in the
field though.”

The news felt so good that the feeling was
surprising. Like I had forgotten that things had the ability to get
better. Maybe not for me, but for my family. I nearly started
crying again but the pot was at work in my system and helping me
distance myself from the situation.

“So, you wanna tell me what’s going on with
you? I mean, you said some stuff on the phone and it sounds all
heavy but…what’s really happening, Dawn?”

I opened my mouth to speak but no words came
out.

“Okay,” she drew out. “Let me rephrase that.
Did you sleep with Sage yet?”

I blushed furiously.

She smacked my leg and exclaimed, “I knew
it! I could smell it on you.”

“You can smell it on me?”

She grinned. “When I was hugging you, yeah.
Your chest smelled like cologne and man tongue.”

“Oh come on.”

“Truth. Anyway, tell me how he was!”

“Mel, I don’t even know…”

“That bad, huh?”

“No! He was…it just happened. I haven’t even
had a chance to process it yet.”

“Did you come?”

“Did I ever.” I couldn’t help but smile at
that admission. She joined me and soon we were both giggling like
schoolchildren.

When we calmed down she asked, “What’s he
look like naked? Tattoos everywhere?”

“No, just on his arms and shoulders and down
his back a bit. I couldn’t really see because he had me flipped
around.”

“Oh man, I wish I had popcorn. Big
dick?”

I grinned and didn’t say anything.

She nodded, smiling slowly. “Right on,
child, right on.” Pause. “So do you love him?”

The question caught me off-guard.
“What?”

“Hey, I’m just asking. You do or you
don’t.”

“I…I don’t think I do. Do I?”

“Beats the fuck outta me. Does he love
you?”

I shook my head adamantly. “No. I don’t
think so. I don’t really think he can love anyone. Or he doesn’t
want to.”

“What if he does love you? Would you marry a
rock star?”

I gave her a dry look.

“What?” she protested. “I want to plan a
rock star wedding, what is so wrong with that? Oh my god, it would
be so brilliant! You could accidently invite Ryan and that creep
who works at Big Ears with you and—”

“Mel, let’s drop it.”

“Okay, but I’m just saying it would be cool.
Of course you don’t have to get married if you don’t want to.
You’re a fine, independent young woman. Look at you, child, you’re
living the dream.”

“I’m living the nightmare.”

“Oh come on. It can’t be all that bad.”

I took in a deep breath, steadying my
nerves. I leaned over and pulled her sunglasses off her eyes so I
could look into them. “Mel, I’m going to tell you something and I
want you to listen and listen good.”

Mel’s face fell. She snatched the glasses
from my hand and put them on the top of her head. “Dawn…you’re kind
of scaring me.”

“You’re about to get a lot more scared,” I
warned her with as much sincerity as I could express. “I need you
to just listen to me. You’re not going to believe me and that’s
alright, I don’t expect anyone else to. I just need to talk. I need
someone to know the real story—someone who’s not part of it.”

And I chose that point to take my tape
recorder out of my bag. Mel’s brows shot up.

“I’m going to record this just in case.”

“In case of what?”

“You’ll know by the end.”

So, for the third time in as many days, I
rehashed the entire Hybrid tour. As with Jacob and Sage, I didn’t
leave out anything. Mel wouldn’t believe me, but she was my best
friend and she deserved the whole truth.

When I finished, I sat back and waited for
her reaction. I wasn’t nervous. I was planning on her telling me I
was bat-shit crazy.

It took a while for her to speak. It
surprised me that she looked a bit frightened. The whites of her
wide eyes positively glowed against her skin.

“Dawn,” she said slowly. “You’re not part of
a cult, are you? Hybrid’s not secretly the new Manson family or
something?”

“No and no. Well…Graham might as well
be.”

“And you haven’t been meditating in weird
barns or drinking weird punches or doing drugs, have you?”

“None of the above.”

“Your name is still Dawn Emerson?”

“That’s what the press pass says.”

“Huh,” she said. She fell silent for a beat
and dug another joint out of her purse.

“Mel?”

“I’m thinking.” She lit it up, crackling
burning papers, and took in a deep breath of smoke before rubbing
the joint out on the ground.

“Oh, just tell me I’m nuts, Mel.”

“Bitch, you ain’t nuts. I believe you.”

My brows rose to the heavens. I had to
shield the overbearing sun with my hand to get a better look at
her. “What, are you serious?”

She nodded quickly. “I do. Dawn, you’ve
never lied to me. Except when you told me that you hadn’t been
kissed before Ryan came along because I know Doug Campbell got you
in a closet at Sheena Meister’s party. And when you lied and said
you weren’t in love with Sage just now. Those were the only two
times. I know you aren’t lying about this.”

I paused. “So you believe me in the sense
that you believe that
I
believe what’s going on.”

“I don’t even think you believe what’s going
on.”

“Sometimes I don’t,” I said with a sigh. “So
what do you think?”

“I couldn’t tell you. Except that you have
to stay with me and my cousin for a few days and you need to get
off this tour. Like, now. If I didn’t think it would break your
heart to leave Sage without saying goodbye, I’d suggest we leave
right now and forget about them. Never look back.”

“But you believe me? You believe that Sage
Knightly made a deal with the devil? And now they are coming back
to collect before his twenty-eighth birthday and I may or may not
be included in those terms and conditions?”

“Yup.” And I could see on her face that Mel
was serious. And why wouldn’t she be? When we became friends back
in Ellensburg, we both took a lot of flak for it. At first her
mother didn’t trust her hanging around a “honky” white girl, always
suspicious that I was going to turn on her daughter. She came
around, of course. As for me, I was personally called a bunch of
negative words that made my skin crawl, all because I was a white
girl with a black friend. But through it all, we stuck together.
And she was still here, all these years later, sticking with me
when I needed her most.

“Dude, I love you,” I cried out, tears
threatening my eyes again.

“Dude, I love you, too. But I’m serious
about getting you out of here. I’m sure my flight out won’t be
packed. We’ll get you a ticket in the morning and this will all be
over.”

“But it won’t be.”

She leaned over. “But it’s not your problem.
Think about yourself. And your dad. And Eric. And your horse. And
me, of course, Melanie Jones.”

I nodded, knowing she was right.

She patted my knee. “Okay, writer girl, how
about you introduce me to your rock star sex god?”

***

I always thought my best friend was one of
the coolest chicks on the planet. And when I say cool, I mean cool
as a cucumber.

She was not cool when she met Hybrid. Not in
the slightest.

But that was to the benefit of the band.
They were smiling and cracking jokes like it was day one of the
tour all over again.

First, Mel practically fainted when she saw
Robbie, and when she recovered, she started jumping up and down and
hugging the poor bastard. I’ll always remember seeing her wrap her
dark legs around his waist and him raising his injured wrist high
in the air, trying to keep it out of her way.

With Sage though, she was totally the
opposite. She giggled demurely and coyly and Mel doesn’t do
demure.

At one point on the bus, while she was in
the midst of reveling among rock gods, she whispered into my ear,
“I’ve been watching closely. Sage has gotten at least one boner
just from looking at you.”

I decided after that I wouldn’t talk to her
until her perverted mind was under control and she stopped staring
at Sage’s crotch. It was probably my fault he kept staring though,
since I had slipped on that blue dress of hers that she had
originally given to me to wear on tour. It was one hot number and a
nice change from my jeans and vests.

But the way Mel acted around me, I had to
wonder if she really did believe in the deal Sage made. To her it
was just fun and games. But I had to remind myself that when
someone throws something absurd at you and then plunks you in a
room full of famous rock stars whose music you love (because that
makes a huge difference), you’re going to giggle at those rock
stars. It was like if someone came up to me and was like, “Hey, my
friend Mick Jagger is actually a woman and the gender-confused
leader of a Satanic cult,” and then in the next frame they were
like, “Oh and here’s Mick Jagger,” I’d probably forget all about
that first sentence and start drooling on Mick’s shoes.