Page 49 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
TEN
BECKET
“We just have to makeit through these covers—then we’ll be in the final three.And I can’t see how we can mess up.Billie’s version of Lady Gaga is spot-on, and Becket has the other two songs rocking hard.No, we’re definitely going to make the final.The Tres Leches failed miserably and are out.Did you see them, Becket, or were you too busy snogging your new boyfriend?”Skye asked.
“He’s not my boyfriend, although ...never mind.I’m not going to deal with the fact that the man is so sexy he could drop a nun at thirty paces.I didn’t see the Spanish band, but it’s interesting they didn’t do well with their cover set.”I emerged from the tent given over as a dressing room, wriggling my toes in an attempt to make my heels more comfortable, smoothed a hand over my short, flirty red dress that would not have been out of place in a popular club, and settled into my glamour.I’d kept to the same one I’d used before while performing so as to not confuse the judges or audience, but I was a little nervous being out on the stage wearing it, since I was just with Yrian, and any demons around might have seen us.“However, I don’t like counting my chicks before they hatch, so I’m going to do my best to wow the audience regardless of how bad the Leches did.”
“The two German boy bands are out also, did you see?”Billie, clad in short red satin shorts with a matching bustier, did her usual preperformance calisthenics, mostly touching her toes, and doing an odd marching–in-place exercise that made my feet hurt just watching her.
“Am I the only one with pinchy shoes?”I asked, glancing at the others.Deni wore thigh-high boots, while Skye looked like a red catsuit had been painted on her.Neither one of them appeared the least bit uncomfortable.“Great.I am.”
“You have to suffer for art,” Deni said with a half smile.“That is what my father always told me, but he was a crap artist.Should we warm up again?”
“I don’t think we need to,” Skye said, watching the crew as they fetched the guitars after having set up Billie’s drum kit.“The rehearsal that Becket managed to make was enough.”
“I’m sorry that I was delayed by a problem, but since the people involved with that problem are keeping me—keeping all of us—safe, I’m going to be grateful rather than pissed.Shall we mantra?”
We stood together in a circle, arms around one another as Skye intoned the “we are awesome, we are winners” invocation to the goddess that the band swore by before performances.I was less confident in it, but kept my thoughts to myself, and simply gave myself up to the joy that was singing with the band.
The biggest stage was used for the day’s final nine performances, of which we were the last.I was happy to see that the crowd, rather than dispersing for the night, was the largest we’d had yet.The tall event lights made it difficult to see out into the audience, but as we were walking across the stage, I caught sight of a clutch of familiar faces.
Ysolde, Aisling, Thaisa, and May stood together, completely surrounded by Christian’s security team.Even the stage lights couldn’t hide the fact that the ladies looked annoyed, no doubt due to having been herded together on the orders of the wyverns.I gave them a quick wave before moving out onto the stage proper.
As I took my place at the microphone, I had a fast look around, but didn’t see any of the dragons other than Ysolde’s son Brom and his girlfriend.I was disappointed not to see Yrian, wondering if he had used one of the glamours I created, but as soon as I stepped out, I saw him.He was at the end of the runway that extended from the main stage, standing with his arms crossed, looking so impossibly gorgeous I wanted to race down the runway in order to kiss him again.
“Your dragon friends out there?”Skye asked as we took our places.
“Yes, but Yrian had me make them glamours.I imagine they’re out in the audience watching for demons.”We both turned when the emcee announced our band.
“Give it up for our last band of the night: Unstoppable Beings!”the man yelled into the microphone over the crowd’s noise at seeing us.“Straight from France, and currently in fifth place in the rankings, let them know how you feel!”
The cheer that followed was our sign to go, and after taking a deep breath and flashing a smile at Yrian, who didn’t see because he was glaring off to the right, I took the microphone, gathered up my glamours, and started to sing.
The crowd was so reactive that I didn’t need the glamour that encouraged people to dance, but I used it during Billie’s song regardless, having seen two other bands use similar ones earlier.By the time we started into the last song of our set, a cover of a Sia song that always made my toes tap, a hint of something not right filtered onto the stage.
I was singing and flinging out glamours that had a rain of silver stars falling onto the crowd when I noticed that Yrian was no longer at the end of the runway.I was about to start down it, throwing more star glamours as I made my way, half-blinded by the big stage lights until all I could see of the audience was a black blur of shapes bopping up and down along to the tune.
I finished with big explosions of silver blasting upward from the stage, lighting up the entire field for ten seconds with brilliant flashes reminiscent of lightning strikes.
To my left, I saw three men running toward the stalls, men I recognized as wearing my glamours.They were followed by a handful of vampires.
My stomach turned over at sight.There was only one thing that would cause the dragons to leave their wives, and that was Candy and Andy.
