"You're coming in too soon," I said to Josef, who was sitting at his piano. "You've got to wait until Guillermo starts on the drums, then Logan and I on our guitars. Why are you always so impatient?"
"I'm not a machine, Mick," said Josef melodramatically. I rolled my eyes. "I can't believe you talked me into the whole band thing again, anyway," he continued. " I mean, we tried this in the sixties—to mixed reviews, I might add."
"It's because you always came in too soon," Guillermo reiterated from his drum set. Josef flashed his fangs at him, but Guillermo just shrugged. "The truth hurts, man."
"And a band is the best way to get chicks," inserted Logan.
"We've got chicks," said Josef, Guillermo and I in unison.
"Well, you guys better get it together, cause my sex life is really suffering these days."
The rest of us tactfully made no comment, and covered our smirks with drinks of Scotch.
It had been my idea to get the old band back together again. After Coraline had turned me, I'd tried to live a normal life again, but I no longer had the heart—literally—to play with my human band anymore. So, I 'd met these vampires, who were now my friends, found they were all musically inclined, and coaxed them to put together this band. We were all pretty good separately, but put us together…well, let's just say teamwork wasn't our strong suit, at least, not where music was concerned. But we all loved jazz, so we practiced every night for weeks, as excited to play in a club as kids counting the days till Christmas. And despite the frustration of trying to get our musical styles and habits to mesh, I was greatly comforted by playing, and could feel some of the bitterness at being turned waning. Until Coraline began to get jealous.
At first she seemed to indulge me in my little "human" endeavor, dropping in on our jam sessions, smiling in mocking amusement. Then, she complained I never took her out anymore. And finally, she said we were wasting our time because the band sounded like dying cattle. That was the last straw. I permanently kicked her out of our rehearsals, and things between us went from bad to worse. To make a long story short, as surely as she had sucked the life out of me on our wedding night, she also killed my desire to play music ever again. Before that, I'd been on the road to—if not forgiving—accepting that she'd turned me into a vampire. But, taking away my music—that I would never forgive. Oh, I still loved it, and listened to it. I still frequented the jazz clubs, sometimes even with Coraline. But I put my guitar in the back of my closet, where it had gathered dust for the last forty years. Until now.
Beth had changed everything. I was happy now. We were in love. I smiled even at the thought. She made me feel young again, and that's saying a lot when you're nearing ninety. So, a couple of weeks before, I'd dusted off my guitar, called my former band mates, and, through much coaxing and many bribes, they agreed to try again. We met in Logan's warehouse basement apartment. It had great acoustics, and we didn't run the risk of Beth or Simone dropping in on us before our big debut. My buddy, Daryl Morgan, who owned the bar, The Stake and Fang, had live music on weekends. Three days from then, it was jazz night. That's why we'd been practicing so hard for two weeks. Daryl said that if we didn't suck—the irony of that slang not lost on us—it could be a regular gig for us. Our repertoire wasn't very big yet, but if we could get three or four songs down, that might be a good start. I stepped up to the mike, and adjusted my guitar strap.
"Okay, guys," I said, "Let's start from the top."
I got home around midnight that night, and Beth was waiting for me, asleep on my couch. I stashed my guitar and jacket in the front closet. She'd used the key I'd given her, and I saw she had the classic movie channel on the TV. I noticed it was "Abbot and Costello Meet Dracula." I chuckled and kneeled down on the floor beside her, brushing back the blonde hair that had fallen over her eyes. She stirred a little, and her lips slightly parted. I couldn't resist; I took her lips with mine. She didn't respond at first, then, I heard her heart accelerate as she became fully awake, and began kissing me back. Her hands slid into my hair, and suddenly I was on top of her, putting all I had into it. A few hot minutes passed, before I gently began trying to slow things down a little.
"Well, hello there," she said when we'd both managed a little control. She looked up at me in a daze, her fingers still playing with my hair.
"Hi," I replied, briefly kissing her mouth again. "Did we have a date? Sorry if I forgot."
"No," she said, trying to sit up. Reluctantly, I moved off her so she could. "I was just lonely, and thought I'd stop by. I must have fallen asleep." She absently rubbed her eyes and yawned. She glanced at the clock on a nearby lamp table. "Oh my gosh! I slept for two hours!"
I laughed. "You must have been tired and lonely."
"It was a long day. So, what have you been up to this evening?" She asked curiously. The band was going to be a surprise. Which reminded me, I had to make sure she would be there Friday night. I'd have to tell a little white lie.
"I was working on a case," I told her, trying not to meet her eyes.
She looked at me suspiciously. "A case of Scotch, you mean." Oops. I guess my kisses gave away more than I'd intended.
"I had a drink with Josef earlier." The less said the better.
"And is he helping you with this…case?"
"Yeah, his input has been invaluable." I smiled inside, remembering how he'd finally gotten his timing right on that last song. We were sounding pretty good. Now, if Logan would just stop trying to put a rock spin on his bass guitar…
"Mick? Are you listening to me?"
"Huh? Oh, sorry. Just thinking about the, uh…case."
"Right. Nothing you can share with me?" It was still hard for me to get away with lying to her now, and judging by the way she was looking at me, she wasn't buying anything I was telling her.
"Not yet. But hey, what are you doing Friday night? It's jazz night at Daryl's bar. You wanna go?"
"Gee, I don't know Mick," she said, mildly sarcastic. "You've been busy practically every night for the past couple weeks. You sure you have time?"
This was starting to sound annoyingly familiar. She's not Coraline. She's not Coraline. I had to say it a few times in my head so I would remember that. Beth wasn't going to go crazy on me and stake me to keep me home like Coraline did one time. I tried to remain reasonable. After all, technically I was lying to her.
"Please Beth. I'll make it up to you. Just come with me Friday, and I know you'll have a great time."
She considered me a minute, and then decided to trust me.
"Okay. On one condition."
Here it comes, I thought. The demands. The pleading. The hurt . The anger.
"What condition?"
"You finish what you started here on the couch," she said suggestively, reaching out to unbutton my shirt. As I began helping her undress too, feeling the warmth of her skin and the softness of her loving gaze upon me, I remembered that she most definitely was not Coraline.
When I awoke in the morning, I was in Mick's bed, but Mick wasn't. He had bought the bed while he had been briefly human from Coraline's vampire "cure," but it had been delivered after he'd already been turned back by Josef. I was happy he'd decided to keep it anyway. And I was also happy that he'd finally bought sheets for it. I saw the note on his pillow—he loved to leave me silly little notes when he had to leave me too soon.
Catching some zzzz's in the freeze. I love you.
I laughed and groaned at the same time. I remembered my clothes were still downstairs where he'd taken them off. I padded down the carpeted steps, completely naked, flinching as the morning sun shone too brightly through the open blinds. Just when I got to the couch, Mick's front door opened, and in stepped Josef. For a minute, we stared at each other in shock. Then, Josef smiled evilly and stood there, basking in the warmth of my embarrassment.
"Well, well, well. So very nice to see you Beth."
Bending over to get my clothes would just make matters worse. I finally just decided to stand proudly, though flushed from head to toe, and face it like a modern woman, unashamed by my nudity. Yeah, right.
"Turn around Josef, so I can put on my clothes." I'm sure I looked hilarious, naked, with my hands on my hips.
"No way. This is too much fun."
"Mick will kill you if he finds you leering at me."
"Yeah, but think of the last vision I would have before he cut me down. Hey, you are a natural blonde."
I threw a couch pillow at him. It missed by a mile, but was a momentary distraction so that I could bend down to pick up my clothes, and practically ran back toward the stairs. His mocking laughter followed me all the way up.
Angry and embarrassed, I hastily dressed, then debated whether or not to wake up Mick so he could tear Josef limb from limb. I walked to the stairs again and peaked down. Josef was in the kitchen, helping himself to a glass of blood, lacing it with a liberal shot of vodka. I know he heard me, as any vampire would, so I descended like a queen, trying to act as if I'd forgotten the incident.
"Don't you ever sleep?" I asked him rather rudely.
He chuckled in appreciation of my foul mood. "I was just on my way home. I had to drop something off for Mick." He indicated a large envelope on the counter. " I assume he's in the deep freeze?"
"Yes, lucky for you." So much for forgetting the incident. For something to do, I began making coffee. "I'll tell him you stopped by," I said dismissively.
"Now, Beth. We're two adults. Surely we can get past this. Believe me, you have nothing to be ashamed of. As a matter of fact, now I understand what all the fuss was about." I turned to face him, and he was right behind me, grinning from ear to ear. He slowly backed me up against the counter, leaning against me… to reach the cabinet above me. He opened it and withdrew a swizzel stick, smirking at my surprised reaction.
"Oh, excuse me," he said, not the least bit apologetic. He used the swizzle stick for his drink, then downed it in a gulp. "Well, this has been uh…very nice, but I do need to get home to my own cooler. Something tells me I'll be having some very pleasant dreams today." He grinned again.
I could think of nothing to say to that, so I watched him stroll casually out of the kitchen, back through the living room, and out the door again, closing it behind him with a soft click. I released the breath I'd been holding, and looked down at the envelope curiously. No, I wouldn't violate Mick's privacy, but I somehow knew the contents of it would explain what they'd been up to these past two weeks. I was proud of myself for resisting the urge. I happened to glance at the clock on the wall. Crap! I was late for work. I shut off the coffee maker before it had even had a chance to perk, grabbed my purse, slipped on my shoes, and made my way out the door.