A/N. The concept of the Night World belongs to the one & only L.J. Smith as do some of the characters you might recognize. The ones you don't know should be mine. Ummm…this is the first chap so please r/r even if it's only to flame it. And I really do mean that ( I think….) J
And also, admittedly this chapter is a bit lacking in the old action department so feel free to skim it just to get the gist of the characters but please read the other chaps.!! I promise they are a lot better. I mite have gone a bit overboard in the whole describe and detail department…oops.
Chapter One
Callysta Abilene walked into band practice no later than fifteen minutes, which was for her, as close to being on time as you could get. Being late was something she had turned into art after eighteen years of practice. Even at age nine, she had consistently been the last guest to arrive at any given birthday party. Some bad habits couldn't be changed, not that she really wanted to change it in the first place.
Her cousin, Phlox Abilene a member of the same lamia family as her own, was predictably sitting behind his treasured drum kit, going through his routine warm up. He stopped when she entered the room, filling it with her commanding presence. His eyes followed her motions as she breezed in, letting one elegant finger trail wistfully across a poster of Trent Reznor before dropping it again to throw her jacket and car keys onto one of the two couches that lined the room.
Even after releasing their latest album, which had been a success in anyone's standards, they persisted in practicing in Phlox's built in home studio. It was where they had started and it was where they were determined to stay until they had to start recording again.
The room was one of many in Phlox's mansion and was settled over the garage and away from the main part of the house. When not even distance had stopped their music from reaching Phlox's parents ears, they had had it sound proofed.
Posters of their favorite bands lined the walls. Deep Purple and Black Sabbath stood side by side with the newer generation of successful bands like the late Nirvana, Foo Fighters and Nine Inch Nails. In the far corner, a poster of their own band was framed with their signatures scrawled along the edges in thick, black marker.
Below the black swirling script of a single word, 'Dahlia', Callysta stood in the middle of the poster, her violent eyes with a dash of blue staring out unseeingly with a small, mysterious smile curving her lips. She couldn't remember how many posters of her she had signed for fans on the last tour but it was a lot.
Phlox stood at her side, arms folded, the perfect image of male machonism. To her other side, their lead guitarist, Benton glared into the camera and beside him, their final member Reck, allowed himself a small smile into the lens.
Callysta felt her eyes narrowing as they rested on Reck's smirking face. It was as if even on a flat piece of cardboard, he still mocked them and everything they had stood for.
The memory of hearing his voice telling them he was leaving the band, leaving them and leaving the Night World ran through her head. Some witch had obviously spelled the deluded idiot as he was blabbering about his soulmate (What was her name again?) and Circle Daybreak. Circle Daybreak? Their opinion of the little group of tree huggers with their 'make the world a better place' motto was the one and only thing they had unanimously agreed on.
Circle Daybreak and it's agents were a complete waste of perfectly good oxygen. They were pathetically stubborn in the belief that they could overthrow the Night World. It was ludicrous. The Night World had been around since the dawn of time and the super troopers had only re-established themselves a few years ago.
Callysta sighed and let her eyes wander to the small stage where their instruments were set up and where the amps had already been readied for their practice. The absence of their bass guitarist was annoyingly obvious and that alone caused the scowl that lighted her otherwise calm face.
Phlox was spinning his drumsticks with practiced ease and an expression of impatience and boredom mixed together. Benton was checking the sound levels on his guitar with a furrowed eyebrow of concentration.
"What's the point in having a practice when we have no bass guitarist?" Callystar asked irritably as she stepped up to the microphone, switching it on and adjusting it automatically.
"There's no point going slack just because of a minor set back," Phlox answered. His voice was flat and unemotional which pretty much described his entire personality. His blue eyes followed his drumstick as he tossed it in the air and caught it again.
"You call this a 'minor set back'?" Benton asked, lifting his head from his guitar to turn to look at Phlox with raised eyebrows. "I was thinking along the lines of a major pain in the ass."
Callysta looked away from Benton with a frown. "When are we holding auditions again?" she asked, feeling vaguely guilty at not remembering after being told at least nine times already.
Phlox rolled his eyes. "Later this afternoon," he replied with a sigh. "It's twelve o'clock now, not that you'd know since you refuse to wear a watch," he continued with a glare in her direction. "We've got everyone coming around at one thirty to audition to 'Your Style' so we have to practice that to get it tight."
'Your Style' was one of their first songs and it had had a pretty good run on the charts. It started slowly, with an eerie guitar introduction that the bass joined in with a few bars on. After the first verse, Phlox came in on the drums and gave it a louder and heavier feel.
Callysta scowled. She hated that song. After singing it so many times that she'd lost count, the words had rapidly got boring and she realized that she hated the lyrics with a passion. Thank god she hadn't written them. The credit for those had gone to Phlox's sister and her best friend, Jasmine.
"Urgh," she muttered under her breath. She took a hold of the mic with one hand and tossed her auburn hair back over her shoulder sharply. Benton had stopped fiddling with his guitar at her customary signal to start and was alert and ready, his eyes waiting for Phlox's signal expectantly.
Phlox tapped his drumsticks quietly against one another, his head moving in time with his movements. One. Two. Three.
Benton's head was down again in a single fluid motion and his fingers ran up and down the frets of his guitar with practiced ease and grace as he plucked out the haunting melody of the song. Callysta closed her eyes and let the music flow through her as if she could breathe it in with one long inhale.
Slowly and languidly, her eyes opened to stare out to an invisible crowd as her voice, low, soft yet clear, rang out.
Hey boy, take a look around.
Just look at what you've picked up
Is it really what you wish you'd found?
She's a regular Barbie doll
Oh, she's a real treasured prize.
But boy, she ain't real
Just open your eyes.
Her voice faded into nothing as Phlox came into action behind her. With a light breath, she opened her eyes again and continued.
There's a mirror reflecting her
An image you call 'perfection'.
But is she staring deep into your eyes
Or does she need direction?
She'll try to make you smile
She'll try to take your pain away.
But boy, she ain't your style
So just tell her not to stay.
Callysta struggled through the rest of the song. It wasn't because she couldn't sing it well; she just had no emotional feeling behind it. It reminded her of all the typical, teen dance music where plastic faced girls crooned and whined about their lost loves. The genre was not her style. She liked their other songs that had a more Night World flavor to them. Those she could pelt out again and again and still relish every line.
Phlox stopped and Benton played the final bars before he adjusted the volume on his guitar to let the note die and fade slowly. He looked up at the lead singer who was waiting impatiently for a silence she could break.
"That sounded like crap," she stated bluntly. "Utter crap. Crap that dogs wouldn't even sniff at. And it'll be too easy for them to audition to. It's not challenging from any angle and if I have to sing it more than three times I'm going to kill someone."
Phlox's blue eyes lasered into her with unfaltering precision. "Why don't you cut your crap, Lyss?" He snapped. "We're doing it okay?" The guy was pretty protective about all of their songs and anyone that dared to knock them back was guaranteed to get severely knocked down. His cousin met his gaze before breaking it with a sneer that showed her annoyance more than a temper tantrum could have.
Benton was as usual remaining silent throughout yet another installment of the continuing Abilene family competitive verbal onslaught. He was always known to be perched on the fence, though Callysta could remember one time when he had yelled at her for criticizing his guitar technique. She supposed everyone had his or her pet peeve. Personally, she hated anyone with a passion if they said one bad thing about her timing, her dynamics or any other aspect of her singing. But that didn't tend to happen very often.
She gave a defeated sigh and grasped the mic again with one hand. Sending mental death wishes at the image of Reck, she made a note to destroy that poster at first chance.
Phlox scowled to himself. "Alright! We'll do a run through of 'Fear & Calculation' before they start coming. Happy?"
Callysta would have been far more grateful at her cousin's offer if he hadn't said it in such an aggravating tone. He spat the words out as if he was trying to pacify a screaming two year old. "Ecstatically happy," she returned frostily.
They went through the same procedure as they had for 'Your Style' before Callysta launched into the first verse. This time far more enthusiastically.
Let the darkness that resides in you
Unleash into the day.
It's twisting shadows of the past
Reveal memories left to lay.
Fall back into the darkness
And let the spell unfold.
Let your past float to the surface
Where your secrets can be told.
The world was made for hunting,
Filled with deathly fascination.
It's not the light you thought you knew…
It's just fear and calculation.
Your days are made of spiraling suns,
The dark will always override.
A rush of midnight starry skies.
The ever present tide.
Just drink it in and relish the taste,
The world offered with open hands.
Just live within the night
Because the night makes no demands.
The world was made for hunting,
Filled with deathly fascination.
Deathly fascination.
And eternal satisfaction.
And always…fear & calculation.
Callysta's voice got softer and softer in the last chorus. It was breathy and haunting and had been once described as the music of the Sirens. She had liked the description so she had refrained from killing the human boy that had given it. It had been hard though; she had been really hungry that night.
Her two bandmates slowed and came to a halt. As the final notes echoed around the room, Callysta could hear another kind of steady beat. It was the beat of feet running up stairs and got louder and louder as it neared their small studio.
She glanced back at Benton and Phlox. They had all heard it. Phlox glanced at the door, his eyes patient and waiting. "Looks like they've arrived," Benton stated the obvious.
Callysta glared at him before turning her evil eyes to the door where she hoped to scare the hell out of whoever had the misfortune to walk in first. Phlox looked at his cousin, knowing full well what she was doing, as he was fully aware of her intimidation techniques. No doubt, today's auditions wouldn't be of an exceptional high standard. How could anyone play well after looking at those deathly eyes that held both warning and contempt in their depths?
Phlox was used to Callysta's mood swings that could change at an alarmingly speed and with such a velocity it scared people. He had grown up with her after all. Thankfully as he was two years older, he hadn't had to spend that much time with her. That burden fell onto his sister, Jasmine, who funnily enough hadn't found it such a burden.
Callysta and Jasmine had been best friends since their births and their friendship had lasted their adolescents. Jasmine was the one person that Phlox knew Callysta would always stand by and fight for. The two of them were close to inseparable and tended to attract trouble whenever they were together.
Phlox had been called down to the pick them up from police stations and to get rid of the many unwanted males that desired their attention. He'd done this almost the same amount of times he had been called to take them home after drunken nights out. Either of these happened more times than he could remember or that he would ever admit to either of their parents.
Callysta's parents were on the Night World council and were quite formidable now that the Redfern's had practically become an extinct species. They worked long and hard and had raised their only daughter to be as dangerously ruthless as they were.
Phlox and Jasmine's father was also on the Council and their mother was a successful psychiatrist who enjoyed giving her human patients massive complexes that kept them coming back to fill her bank account up.
Both families had more money than they knew what to do with but Jasmine and Lysta made a pretty impressive attempt at sending their parents bankrupt. They could spend a whole day in a shopping mall and come out with so many bags that employees from at least five different stores had to help them carry them.
Phlox' thoughts stopped as he blinked to attention. Lysta had made a tiny clicking sound with her tongue at the exact same time that the door opened to reveal a curly red headed guy who looked all of thirteen. He held a beat up bass guitar with one hand and as it knocked against the wall as he walked in, Benton visibly winced.
The guy grinned sheepishly, revealing braces and a massive piece of lettuce wedged between two teeth before moving aside to allow at least twenty other guys cram into the room. None looked too promising.
Callysta turned to glare angrily at her cousin and for once, Phlox couldn't blame her. Benton glanced at both of them with a face that a tortured guy would wear.
Yep, Phlox thought. It was going to be a long afternoon.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
After seeing so many auditions that they had lost count, the three vampires were exhausted. They sat in differing positions on the two couches of the small studio and stared at each other with similar expressions of disbelief and distaste echoing their unnaturally attractive features. Callysta had tied her hair up into a high ponytail out of her face and was having trouble coping with the idea that out of over fifty people, only a maximum of eight could carry themselves with a marginal amount on skill.
Benton, who loved music with a fervent passion, was in even deeper shock. He had been watching the way those guys had handled their instruments and it had made him sick. They had knocked their guitars against walls, some weren't tuned and nearly none of them had a guitar case.
Phlox on the other hand was trying extremely hard to be optimistic. So, auditions hadn't gone as well as he had hoped they would. The people that had come were next to useless and he knew it hadn't helped that Callysta had been staring each and every one of them out with an evil regard that only the devil himself could have bettered. The last guy had started sweating when he had met her eyes, that was before he mumbled an excuse and had left the room altogether.
"Listen," he began slowly, thinking as he spoke, "I know a guy who knows a guy whose brother is meant to be an awesome bass guitarist. Only this guy doesn't want to get into a band because he's busy concentrating on his other stuff," he shrugged, not understanding what could be more important than music. "I reckon I could have a talk with this guy's friends brother and try to get him to come 'round."
Benton was silent, having decided that he was going to leave everything in Phlox's capable hands. Callysta however, still had plenty to say and no qualms at all about saying it.
"Really? Well, I'm sure I know someone who knows this girls cousin whose brother in law's sister is married to the step-brother of the bass guitarist from Red Hot Chilli Peppars girlfriend. Maybe I could get hold of him to make an appearance?" she snapped sarcastically.
Phlox waited patiently throughout this tirade with arms folded and a bored expression on his face. "Finished?" he drawled.
"No, I'm not actually," Callysta snapped. "In fact, I'm pissed off. More than pissed off even. I'd like to slam someone's head through a wall. If it wasn't for Reck and those damned Daybreakers we wouldn't need to go through all this shit! We could be rehearsing properly instead of searching for mediocre bass players."
Benton tended to agree with Callysta on that count and he allowed himself a small nod. Phlox's eyes caught the gesture but he didn't comment on it because they all knew that Callysta was right. Reck had pretty much given them a mighty shove up shit creek after forgetting to give them the paddle. Phlox was still confused over the whole thing, and yeah he was angry in his own way. Just not angry in Callysta's 'yell, scream and smash any unlucky guy's head in' way.
"It was a bastard thing for Reck do, I agree," Phlox replied in tones that contrasted sharply with Callysta's with their calmness. "But build a bridge and get over it, Lyss."
His cousin stared at him in disbelief, fully believing that Phlox wasn't taking the whole matter in a serious enough light. They had been double crossed! Even, dare she say it, betrayed? And Callysta Abilene was not a girl who let insults go without due punishment. In a final gesture of defiance, she stood and stalked to the wall the poster of their band had been hung on. She yanked it down with one hard tug and held it at an angle against the floor and then let her foot come crashing down the middle, splitting it in half.
When she looked down, even she was surprised to see that the split ran right down the middle of Reck's smirking face. Phlox held a frown of disbelief on his usual impassively held features and Benton, quietly passionate and easily swayed Benton, was staring with an open mouth.
She pretended that she had known that was going to happen, that she had done it on purpose but she couldn't be sure if Phlox was buying the casual shrug and small smile that she gave him. You could never be sure with Phlox because he had an uncanny habit of knowing when you were hiding something and could even go as far as to guess what it was.
With a stunning smile that could dazzle anyone, she pulled on her dark jacket and scarf then picked up her keys. Her violent eyes betrayed the witch blood that had entered her line centuries ago as they sparkled with coldness. "I'll see you guys tomorrow," she directed at them coolly before letting the door slam behind her.
Benton frowned at his friend. "Something's eating at her," he stated.
Phlox didn't look at the guitarist. He walked to the window that gave a view of the street and pulled the curtain back to look at Callysta as she stalked angrily to the car. He studied her lithe and graceful movements as she moved at an easy speed. Dressed in a tailored jacket and silk scarf with fitting jeans and a black hi necked jersey, she looked gorgeous in anyone's standards. But compared to what she wore for concerts and going out, that outfit was a potato sack.
"She's a vampire, Benton." He finally replied. "She's meant to do the eating."
He watched as she tossed hair of a deep red colour over her shoulder and got into her jaguar in a single motion. Phlox sighed to himself. Benton was right, something was wrong with her and he couldn't put his finger on it.
He wondered whether to be worried then finally decided against it. Callysta was tough and she could look after herself. And he could always talk to Jasmine about it if he got really worried.
"Do you want to work on the guitar riff for that new song you're writing?" Benton asked hopefully.
"What? Oh, yeah," Phlox answered, remembering. He smiled forcefully and nodded. "Yeah, sure."