Disclaimer: I don't own anything Twilight that honour belongs to the wonderful Stephenie Meyer. Oh and I don't own Dawn of the dead either that honour belongs to George A Romero.

Edward hadn't realised that he had stopped singing or that he was gripping the microphone stand in front of him with such force until two things happened almost simultaneously.

First he felt a slight nudge to his ribs, and then as he turned his head to see who it was the microphone stand suddenly snapped from the pressure he was pushing down onto it. One of the bottom pieces of the stand flew across the stage and lodged itself in one of the amps sending a shower of sparks across the side of the stage.

Matthew who had been standing closest to the amp jumped away in shock and narrowly missed falling off the edge of the stage. Once he had regained his balance his eyes turned to join his band mate's in staring at Edward in shock and confusion.

Edward had turned his attention back to the crowd, desperately trying to locate the source of the smell that was still filling his lungs. While doing this he was listening intently to their thoughts and it was obvious that they were torn between thinking the strange antics on stage were all part of some elaborate act and the realisation that something had gone seriously wrong on the stage in front of them.

He wasn't even slightly interested in these thoughts at the moment though, he just needed to know who was torturing him with the appallingly luscious smell.

Edward became vaguely conscious of Noah pulling on his arm and he turned the full force of his dark eyed stare upon his band mate, knowing that underneath the blue contacts he wore to protect his identity his eyes would have turned black.

"What the hell is going on?" Noah whispered, obviously struggling to get the words out under the force of Edward's glare.

Just as he finished getting the words out a roadie appeared at the side of the stage obviously trying to figure out what was going on and more importantly whether the equipment could be salvaged for the rest of the gig.

Ethan took this as his cue and walked over to the microphone that had fallen to the floor and picked it up to address the crowd. The microphone crackled slightly as he began to speak but he managed to make himself heard "As you can see we are having a few technical glitches, so while things get sorted we're gonna go catch our breath but we will be back as soon as possible." He said to the obviously confused crowd before turning and helping Noah to drag Edward off the stage.

Normally two humans would be no match against his vampire strength but Edward was so busy struggling with his inner monster that he allowed himself to be dragged off the stage.

As they got to the edge of the stage, Edward's hands closed around on of the spare guitars that were sitting there and he felt the wood splinter in his hands so he hurled it onto the floor to make it look like that was how he broke it. The others who had been walking slightly ahead of him turned round at the noise and the confusion grew even more pronounced on their faces.

As soon as they were all out of the view of the now disgruntled crowd all their eyes turned to Edward awaiting an explanation for his sudden, bizarre behaviour.

Edward let a low snarl escape from his lips, he was still fighting back against the monster who was screaming that they were collateral damage and no one would care if he killed all of them right now.

The reasonable part of his brain knew that there were too many people milling around the backstage area and that meant that there was too much chance of getting caught in the act. A very tiny part of his brain was also telling him that these were his friends and the closest thing to family he had and he didn't want to kill them. The rest of his brain was ignoring this part.

Slowly the reasonable part of his brain started to take over from the monster, the scent was fading now he was away from the crowds though he could still taste it on the back of his tongue.

Edward lifted his eyes to see that they were all still staring at him, awaiting an explanation for his actions. He was finding it slightly easier to think now that he was away from the crowd but he was still struggling to come up with an answer for them. How could he explain what he had just done without arousing any suspicion?

The silence stretched on as they waited and Edward tried to think of a plausible explanation. Finally his brain landed on just the thing that he knew would work.

"Sorry, the drugs I bought off that guy today must have been dodgy. It was a bad trip is all." He knew enough about this from watching all of them indulge to know what a bad trip could look like.

He had been expecting some sort of anger from them for him potentially messing up the biggest gig they had done so far, but Aiden laughed at this and Edward saw in his thoughts that he was thinking back on some of the things he had been through while tripping. "You weren't seeing the crowd as zombies were you? That happened to me once only I was in a shopping mall; it was like Dawn of the dead" He started laughing even more at the memory and the others all joined in, obviously this was something they had all been witness to.

The tension lifted from the room as all the guys shared memories of bad trips and the hallucinations that had taken place. Edward was just pleased that they had accepted his explanation so easily.

While they were waiting for the all clear from the roadies Edward's mind started wandering to the events that had just taken place. He was confused by the strength of the scent that had been coming from somewhere in the crowd, why was it not there the whole time and why was it so much better than any human had ever smelt to him before.

He was torn; he knew that they were expected to finish the set but what if he had the same reaction again when he got onstage. Would the crowd accept another 'technical glitch'? And the band surely would accept that it was another after affect of the drugs that they thought he had taken.

The longer he spent away from the crowd the more he questioned his own reaction. He had never has that reaction to a human before, maybe it was just the stress of performing in front of such a big crowd or everything that had been going on in his brain since the incident with the maid.

By the time the roadie came to tell them that things were ready onstage Edward had convinced himself that it was nothing, just an overreaction so he joined his band mates in going back towards the stage.

BPOV

Bella took the opportunity of the break in the action on the stage to work her way back through the crowd to where they had left the rest of their group. She had been getting crushed by the crowd and was desperately in need of some water before they came back out.

As soon as she reached the rest of them Jessica grabbed her arm and was practically jumping up and down "I can't believe you got all the way to the front! You're so lucky aren't they gorgeous? Though I don't know what was going on just, did you see anything being so close?"

"Um, not really, the singer looked pretty pissed but other than that I really couldn't tell what was going on." Bella felt herself blush as she said this hoping that Jessica wouldn't realise how much of her attention had been trained on the god like vision that was the singer. Bella had realised that her imaginings of what he might look like had not done him any justice at all. He was much better looking than anything her brain could come up with.

Angela pulled Bella back out of the daydream she had fallen into thinking about Edward by asking if she wanted to go get a drink. Bella remembered that this was the reason she had given up her position at the front of the stage and followed her friend over to the bar.

Unfortunately a lot of people had had the same thought as the pair of them so there was quite a queue. Bella and Angela filled the time discussing the various members of the band and the songs that they had played so far. Conversation eventually turned to the bizarre actions that had gone on before the band had left the stage and what could possibly have caused them. As neither of the girls were big gossips they agreed that they would have to wait and see what happened when they came back out onto the stage.

This happened quicker than they were expecting, and they were still waiting to be served when the boys reappeared. Bella also realised that Mike had stayed at the front of the crowd and therefore if she wanted to get back there she would have to try and push through the crowd on her own.

Thinking this she decided to stay where it was safe, with her friends and try and enjoy the rest of the show from the back.

Fortunately some people had moved around since the last time she had been in this position and she could now see the band a little better but she didn't get to pay as much attention to them as she would have liked as she suddenly had Jessica's voice filling her ear "I really want to try and meet the band afterwards, I've heard that if you wait by the back exit they might come out and talk to you afterwards. Lauren is up for it and you know the guys will do whatever I ask so it is all sorted. After the show we will go and wait by the exit door." Jessica hadn't given Bella any opportunity to object to her plan but secretly Bella was as excited by it as Jessica, she wanted to see if the singer was really that god like up close.

Just as she thought this she realised that she had seen him close up before, he was the guy who had been staring through the restaurant window earlier, and that made her want to meet him even more, he had had such a strange expression earlier that she had found herself having the urge to comfort him and she wanted to see if he was any better after the show.

EPOV

Edward followed his band mates back onto the stage with only a faint hint of apprehension. Thankfully that all evaporated when he set foot on the stage and found that whatever it had been that had tormented before seemed to have disappeared.

They got through the last few songs without any more hitches and Edward pretty much managed to keep his mind on what was happening, only a few times did it start to wander back to the scent and where it might have come from if it had really existed at all.

Eventually the show finished and the five of them left the stage to thunderous applause and cheering, it appeared that the crowd had thoroughly forgiven him for his bizarre actions earlier.

Edward followed the rest of the band back to the dressing room to collect their things and then followed behind as they made their way to the exit. He trailed behind slowly still lost in his own thoughts as they made their way out of the building.

By the time he caught up with them Aiden was already chatting to a group of teenagers, thanking them for coming out to see them and staring at two of the girls who were very little clothing even though it was pretty cold out now that the wind had picked up.

Edward walked over to join them just in time to hear Aiden ask if they would like to come back to their hotel for an after show party. As soon as he said these word Edward stopped listening to his thoughts, knowing exactly what would be going on inside his head. Instead he turned his attention to the group of teenagers.

The three guys were a little apprehensive about going with them but were imagining the bragging they could do to all their friends back home if they had partied with a band, the two girls in the skimpy outfits were almost over excited at the thought. Edward soon turned his attention away from the two of them, fearing that their minds may go down the same route as his band mates already had.

He turned his attention to the last two girls in the group who were standing a little way away and immediately noticed something very strange, he could only hear one set of thoughts. This confused him greatly; he had never had any problem reading people's thoughts before, no one's mind had ever been closed off to him before.

This day was just getting more and more strange for Edward, first the group of vampires, then the overwhelming smelling blood, then this inability to hear someone's thoughts. Edward wondered briefly if he was cracking up, if the pressure of hiding his identity from so many humans on such a regular basis was finally getting to him and he was losing his mind.

Edward opened up his mind to all the thoughts of those around him and listened carefully but he only heard the voices he had already heard. He stepped closer to the two girls and focused his attention solely on the two of them trying in vain to find out why there was a voice missing and which one.

At that moment of the other girls called over to them "hey Angela, Bella, Aiden has invited us all back to their hotel for an after show party! Let's all go, it will be so good!"

"Um, okay I guess. What do you think Bella?" Asked the one named Angela and Edward realised that this was the one whose thoughts he could hear.

As he stepped closer to the other one, Bella he now knew her name to be, to try again to hear her thoughts. As he did so the wind suddenly picked up and he was once again overwhelmed by the luscious smell of blood and he realised that it was coming from this girl in front of him, the one with the mind that seemed to be closed off to him.

He unconsciously found himself reaching out towards her but before his hands made contact one of the boys from the group was there pulling her away, a concerned expression on his face.

As if he thought he could be any match for a vampire, Edward almost laughed out loud at the thought. But he let him pull her away from him slightly while the monster inside thought about the best way to get her alone so that he could taste her.

He decided that the best thing would be to let them all go back to the hotel and then seduce her into going to his room with him, where they would be no interruptions from any of the others and he could really savour every last drop of her tantalising blood. He knew it might be difficult to get her away from the boy but if he needed to kill the boy first then he would but only if he got in the way.

He slowly followed the group as they made their way to the hotel, allowing the monster free reign over the many ways he could get her alone and how he would kill the others if the need arose.

The logical part was almost lost to the monster but every so often it would assert itself and try and convince Edward that she was just an innocent girl who had done nothing wrong and had not threatened his secret in any way so didn't deserve to die. The monster was paying no heed to anything no matter how logical it may be.

Soon enough they were back at the hotel and making their way up to Aiden and Ethan's room where it had been decided the party was to be held. Edward stayed as close as possible to Bella but the boy was trying to keep her attention focused on him. It was obvious that he had got a thing for her but he could tell from his thoughts that so far the affections had been unreciprocated.

Every so often Bella's eyes would sneak to Edward's face and whenever she realised she had been caught her whole face would turn scarlet and the monster inside Edward would roar and thrash, not wanting to wait any longer. Soon he kept thinking, soon he would have her all for himself.

A/N: hope you all liked that, coming up in the next chapter Edward Vs Mike for Bella. Who will win? Remember reviews are very good; they make me a happy writer.