Page 15 of The Dragon With A Girl Tattoo
FIVE
BECKET
Inoticed them shortlyafter our three-song set started.I had seen a few vampires flitting around the music festival, but since they didn’t seem to care much about the bands themselves, I stuck to my roadie glamour and just kept my head down until I was needed to perform.
The audience, for the most part, was mortal, but all of a sudden the back of the crowd seemed full of dragons.
“Where the hell did they come from?”I muttered to Deni after the first song, taking a fast couple of sips of water.The pyrotechnics from one of the other competing bands had sent residual smoke drifting our way.
“Who?I think one of the bands just finished, so we’re probably getting their audience.Love song next?”she answered, adjusting the strap holding her bass guitar.
“Yes.”I gave a mental headshake at my worry and, mindful of the clock and the contest officials watching us, turned back to start the second song, my attention split between using the glamours set for the song and watching the dragons, who now stood clustered at the back of the audience with a vampire.
By the time we swung into the third and final song of our set, I stopped worrying about the dragons and instead kept a horrified eye on a man who wore a glamour so badly created, little tendrils of black occasionally reached out to snap in the air.
“Demon in the audience,” I said softly to Billie during Skye’s guitar solo.Her eyes widened as she quickly scanned the crowd.“Possibly more than one.As soon as we’re done, I’m going to switch glamours.”
She nodded as I finished up the song, my gut twisting in a way that had me regretting the cinnamon donuts I’d bought from one of the vendors.
I bowed quickly when the audience, well primed by the fancy effects created by the glamours, erupted into enthusiastic applause.Stripping off the microphone pack, I moved to tuck myself behind a stand of speakers.I wasn’t concealed from everyone, but enough that I slapped on my roadie glamour, and hurriedly donned a pair of lavender headphones before hoisting a coil of cable.
The festival crew hustled in to move our equipment and bring in the next band’s stuff, so I hopped off the small stage and, with Deni’s spare guitar, slowly made my way through the audience, my eyes peeled for the demon.
I hesitated for a second, then, with a glance toward the cluster of dragons, decided to make sure they weren’t interested in me, as well.
“—I’m telling you, something isn’t right,” a woman said as I scooted behind her, trying to keep the guitar case from whapping anyone.“Let me get Jim.It’ll know if I’m imagining this or not, but I’m telling you that I’m not.”
“A demon?”another woman said, peering around as she limped to the far side of the stage.“Let me ask ...oh.Christian says he can feel that one is here, but he can’t pinpoint it.He’s going through the crowd with a couple of other vamps to find it.”
The first woman stepped back and bumped into me, knocking the cable coil from where I had slung it over my shoulder.
“Mille pardons,”I murmured in French as she hastily apologized and bent to help me pick up the spilled cable.I jerked my hand away, knowing that even my best glamour could be discovered if I was touched.
“Aisling?Baltic says the woman disappeared when she stepped behind the speakers.Did you find the demon?”a blonde asked as she hustled up, a lanky young man on her heels.“Brom, where’s Pixie?”
“She said she could hide in the shadows and watch for the lady,” the young man answered, rubbing his arms.“Baltic said to stay with you while he and the First Dragon search, but I don’t think I should leave Pixie.”
“No, of course you don’t have to protect me,” the blonde answered.“But neither do I think it’s safe to wander around on your own.Perhaps you and Pixie could mingle in the crowds rather than hiding in the shadows?That would be helpful.”
The young man, evidently named Brom, murmured his agreement and hustled off.
“I haven’t spotted the ...uh ...bad person yet, but it has to be pretty powerful if I can feel it before I see it.I’ll summon Jim and see if it can’t help,” the woman who handed me the cable said, straightening up to give me a wide smile as I clutched the now-tangled cable to my side.“Sorry again.Here, let me tuck the end under your arm....There you go.”
The two women watched me, obviously waiting for me to leave.I wanted desperately to hear more about what the dragons were up to, since I had no doubt the woman they’d mentioned was me.
“Great,” I said under my breath as I turned and headed through the crowd toward the big trailers containing the festival equipment.“Because it’s not bad enough that demons are hunting me, now the dragons and vampires are interested.My life blows.”
I dumped the cable on one of the crates of equipment, then left the guitar in our corner of a tent used to hold the band’s instruments, before pausing to text Billie that I’d catch up with them at the hotel in town where we were staying.
“Now,” I said to myself, glancing around the area behind the festival trailers, “to make a timely escape before that demon with the amateur glamour or those pesky dragons find me.”
Voices laughing, chatting, and calling in everything from Czech to English, French, and German swam around me as I slowly made my way through the mobs of people toward a gravel drive that led out of the pasture, determined to keep a casual appearance lest I draw any attention.
I strained my hearing for anything more from immortals who might be hunting for me, but as I hurried to the drive, now choked with people heading to the main stage for the last few performances of the night, I saw them.
