"Damnit. I broke another fucking string. Ah well. The cash I slipped from that bitch should pay for it."
The sound of a bass guitar being tuned is heard, followed by some smooth, mellow riffs.
I go through strings a lot. I have built in picks, and even after I dull ‘em down before I play, they still manage to cut through strings once in awhile though. That’s why I have my brick. I always have it with me. I think it may be starting to get some grooves in it from me using it all the time. Oh well, like bricks are hard to find.
I replace the string and yell over to Jerry. "Hey Jerry, this sound in tune to you?"
"Huh?" Was the reply. Jerry was damn near deaf.
"Sounds good!" I said in a loud enough voice so he could hear me. He was practicing as well. I gave him thumbs up and a smile. He nodded his head and went back to practicing. I knew he couldn’t hear me, but I like my fun. Heh, I get a kick out of Jerry. He’s such a odd mix of things, a Jew, with purple spiky hair. He wears that crazy yarmulke on stage. Got tattoos and piercings all over the place. They call me a freak. True enough, though I think he’s more entitled to the label. Oh well, he’s good guy, an okay pack priest. Works for me.
I know the string is in tune. My senses are as sharp as my claws before I dull them on the brick. I begin retuning the others when I hear steps louder than I care for. I kill out my ‘super ears’ and go back to tuning.
"Another one?"
I looked up to see Devyn hovering over me, looking down at my bass. She was in a good mood. That brawl at The Last Call must have made her night for a while. She likes to fight, play lead, and sing. Just don’t touch her, not the touchy feely type. She’ll kick yer ass if ya do. I missed out on that fight. Had some music in my head I wanted to write down and test. I play bass, sing, and pick up some cash on the side. I do what I do cause I’m good at what I do.
"Yeah damnit. I gotta start getting better quality." I told her with a grin.
"Shit, like that’s gonna help?" She shot back.
"Never know." Did she get more earrings? Damnit, I’m gonna have to count those damn things one of these times.
"Right. Good luck." She said as she walked over to Jerry and began talking (shouting, heh heh) to him. I just shook my head. I think it’s gotten to a running joke about me needing better quality strings.
I think we’re heading to Washington again. I hear they liked us, and want us back. Good. I picked up some pretty fair cash and a few numbers last time. I can bet some of those chicks that gave me their numbers will be surprised to hear from me. Well, I like surprises, as long as I ain’t on the receiving end. Might just get some good head again. Been awhile. What was her name? Lise? Lisa? Lizzy? Eh, it don’t matter. She was good. Hope she’s still around.
"Guess I’ll find out." I mutter to myself while doing some more tuning.
The roadies seem kinda restless. Atlas is playing some game with the Hercules. Eh, best to just leave ‘em be. Now if I could just get this song down and out of my head onto paper, I’d be doing great.
As I strum out some notes, I notice I can hear it raining outside. Kinda reminds me of the night I was embraced. I never really saw it coming. Can’t say I bet too many do see it coming.
Flashback to about twenty years ago:
A garage in the suburbs in the early 80s. Nighttime. The rain is pouring down and music is heard. Looking inside we see three twenty something males, all playing in a band. The Bass player is Talon, the other two are kinda goth looking as well. Talon has longer hair, down to the middle of his back, tied back in a ponytail with a blood red streak running down the middle of his white hair. He is very pale, with dark marks under his eyes. Very goth indeed. His eyes are a pinkish-red. His bass guitar is not the same one he has now. This one is crimson red and plain looking.
They play for about three hours. They pack everything up and head out. Talon is heading home, only to run into an old friend he hadn’t seen in a few years.
"Hey you albino freak! How the hell you doing?" He shouted.
"Doing better than you, you punk ass loser!" I shouted back. I grabbed the hand of my old friend and shook it like I was planning on taking it off. Didn’t think much about it at the time, but his hand was cold. Ah well. Thought it was due to the cold rain coming down.
We walked off talking of old times and how he was doing in his new band. Syres always was one to do his own thing. Most likely that’s why he’d quit our band. No biggie. Told me he met up with some new friends and they were doing good work together.
"Cool, wanna introduce me?" I asked him half joking.
"Sure, come on, I’ll take ya on over to meet Kerricson. He’s really cool, just don’t tell him he’s hairy, it’s a sore subject." He said in a cool voice.
"Fair enough, I oughta blend in real well." I shot back.
"Yeah. You’ll do good I think." He told me.
We ran on over to this old warehouse where he said they all met. Damn, he wasn’t kidding about this Kerricson guy being hairy. Almost looked like a fuckin' animal. No prob to me. Glad he was dry, bet he would have smelled like a wet dog if he’d spent any time outside. Syres went over and talked to him for a few minutes in a low voice, pointing his thumb back at me a couple o’ times. Kerricson nodded and got up. He walked over to me, stuck out his hand and said "Good night."
I heard the door lock, and this guy’s eyes went red. Like glowing red. I didn’t see anything after that.
I woke up, I remember that, kinda in a haze though. It don’t really bother me. Found about a lot of shit. Hell, vampires were real. Then again, I had always thought that anyway, though they were slightly different than the movies made them out to be. There were a lot of different ‘clans’ of vampires, and they could do all sorts of cool shit. This clan could be fast, this clan could punch through brick walls, this other clan could make you crazy. Fucked up man.
Kerricson taught me quite a bit though. I was a clan called City Gangrel. I could be fast, I could learn how to be invisible, and change my looks, and I could do some classic vampire stuff like growing claws, sink into the ground and turn myself into different things. Oh yeah, I learned how to attune my senses really well too. Syres taught me that. He’s some clan called Toreador. That was all well and good, but I was also told about the three groups of vampires. The Cammies. They hide their true form behind some mask, and were tools of really old vampires. The Sabbat who fought the really old vampires and the Cammies since they were tools. Never be a tool, you can use your own tool as much as you like, but don’t be one. There’s also a group that stays out of all of this, but they suck.
Kerricson and Syres taught me about these paths. Kerricson followed some path called Feral Heart. Sounded kinda shitty to me. Syres on the other hand, followed something that sounded cool. Cathari. Something along the lines of try not to kill people, sin a lot, and I have no problems doing just that, and indulge in what you enjoy doing. Sounds damn fine. I took to that like a fish to water.
Three years later I found out just why I had been embraced. I’d helped get Syres off of some drugs that were killing him. I mean, he was on the edge. So I guess I had more or less saved his life. Seems he wanted to repay the favor. Now that I think on it, kinda odd to pay me back for saving his life by killing me. Gotta love irony. Flashback to present:
"Huh" I shook myself out of my memories. Someone was talking to me again.
"I said that sounds like what you were playing back at the Ed’s gig." Geneva said.
I gave her a smile. "Yeh, when those rednecks started the fight I had some cool notes pop into my head." I told her with a thoughtful look on my face. Geneva is cool, and she plays drums. Really well. "You were kicking ass on those drums yourself that night."
"Thanks." She gave me a wink and walked off.
"Damn." I said under my breath. She still looks good. Course then again, she hasn’t aged, none of us have. Damn, I love being dead. I remember when I met up with Gen. I had just joined a different band since the last one went off one night into the woods and didn’t come back. Dumb fucks. That was another thing Kerricson told me. Don’t go into the woods. Seems Werewolves are real as well. I haven’t see one, I hope I never do if the stories are right. I met Geneva in this new band, but before long I realized these morons didn’t have what it took, with one exception. Geneva. She could play drums like her life depended on it. She had drums to prove it.
I talked to her about the band and general lack of talent within except for us. I think she liked hearing that. Almost seemed like she was down on her luck or something. We got out of that band and ran into Devyn and Jerry. They seemed cool, and they followed the same path as me and Geneva. They needed a bass player and a drummer. Kick ass. We took the job, formed a pack and a band. Satan’s Handbag. Works for me.
Lance signed on as a manager. Never been in a good enough band to have one of those. He’s kinda queer, but he don’t bother me, so that’s fine, we all gotta have something to enjoy. JD, now he drives the truck, that’s cool. He knows his shit. Never seen him get lost. While I can’t say I like Audis that much, that thing moves like a bat out of hell. Heh, Meatloaf. He’s getting old and fat, I’m still the same age. Maybe one day we’ll get some music on the air and kick his fat ass. ‘Life is a lemon and you ain’t getting shit back.’
As I run my hand through my hair, I can see I need to put the blood red streak back in. Once in a while I’ll go with dark blue to throw some of the fans off.
We just left a truck stop about thirty to forty minutes ago. Devyn found some Scottish guy in a kilt, now there’s something you don’t see every night. Devyn, kilt boy, and two friends of his went off. She said it was fun and didn’t say much else. Fine by me. I ain’t stupid enough to pry. Seems JD got it on with that skank leaving the cab. Looks like almost everyone’s having fun tonight.
I walked in to the gas station to see if there was anything cool. Fuck no. Damn hick truck stops. I did walk past some creepy looking guy wearing a Cubs hat. He was talking to some other loser about some ‘Champagne of beers’ or some shit like that. That man was disturbing. It’s a wonder the Brujah haven’t picked that fucker up and embraced him. Now I’m not freaked out by much, but hell, he looked like the type who’d walk into a bar just to start a fight, and enjoy it. He may have a pulse, but why risk it?
Almost glad to be back on the road. The sound of the tires is kinda soothing. They sometimes carry a cool rhythm to play to. Ah, there we go.
Hercules, the other roadie, is complaining about Atlas trying to cheat him. Heh, now that I think on it, it’s kinda nice to have those two around, I mean, who really wants to carry all that shit around and set it up?
I think back to the gig at Ed’s. That was a fuckin' riot. The crowd loved us. More so after the fight started and we did some improvising on the spot and played some music to fight to. Damn! That was fun! I started in with a good beat, and Geneva picked up on that and started to pound out some awesome rhythm. Devyn and Jerry joined in and we had mayhem going.
Some of those notes are still bugging me to put them on to paper. Why not then. I’ll see what Devyn has to say about it when I get them written down.
I think it’s about time to hit on Geneva again. I know she’s had a rough embrace, I keep hoping I can get somewhere with her and maybe ease her pain. Who knows these days?
I start humming out loud and I think Geneva looks over at me. I’m careful not to let her know that I see her doing it. While I can’t say I ever had a thing for Asians, she is damn fine.
I sing out loud some lyrics I’ve been thinking of for a song that’s been kicking around my head for a while now. Now Devyn sings lead, but I have to say I have a pretty damn good voice. They don’t know it, but I sing with a little gravel in my voice on purpose. I can sing damn clear when I want. When I do, look out. Damn near made one fan wet her shorts just using my voice when I was giving her a ‘private show.'
"It’s the sacrifice of hiding in a lie, and the sacrifice is never knowing why." my voice drifts off with some fading cords of my bass. She’s still looking at me, but I can’t really make out her expression. Oh well, there’s always later.
Devyn has gotten a recorder like JD did and has been talking to it a lot. I can’t say I really like those things, but if it helps, why not. Jerry looks like he’d like to grab the damn thing and shove it somewhere, course Lance would like it if it got shoved... eh, I ain’t finishing that thought. Some things ain’t worth thinking about.
We’re coming up on Washington. I think we should be there soon. Time to play…
Geneva has come over and sat down with me. This is an odd move for her. Maybe it’s the music. I have been trying to get close to her since she told me about her embrace. Maybe it’s starting to pay off. I mean, I really do care for her, though I can’t say I ever had these kind of feelings for anyone before. Course chicks aren’t really big on albinos. Fuck ’em.
"Talon?" She inquires.
""Yeah? How are ya doing?" I ask her with small smile to let her know I really want to know as I set my bass down.
"Hold me Talon." She says me as she wrapped her arms around me.
She’s upset. It’s not the first time she’s done this. I always get this little voice somewhere in the very back of my head reminding me what her drums are made out of. I know she wouldn’t do that to me. She holds on tightly and I run my fingers through her hair while trying to soothe her as best as I can.
"You’ll be fine Geneva. Just fine. We’re all here for you." I tell her. "I’m here for you." I add in a slightly lower voice.
"Really?" Comes the muffled reply.
"Really. We went through some bad bands together, and we’ll get through anything the world throws at us." I say to her. I hear some loud thunder outside. Sounds like the rain has moved into being a storm. She flinches from the sound.
I have lyrics starting to roll through my head. I can’t spare an arm to write them down so I start softly singing them.
"Every night’s another day, another way, I tell you. I’m here for you. The Storm rages, it can’t hurt us, can’t touch us, yet it rages anyway. The night’s darkness won’t stray, the sun’s rays won’t stay, I'm still here for you."
I notice that Geneva has leaned back to look at me. "Did that sound like it was any good? I get inspiration at the damnest times." I say to her.
She nods her head, hands me the bass and lays her head down on my lap, looking up at me. Maybe she knows me better than I thought. I start strumming the bass and she smiles. I’d say it warms my heart to see her do that, but my heart is a long dead thing, though it’s still a nice sight to see. She’s running her hand up down my leg. I take a quick pause and lightly brush my hand over her cheek. She smiles more and seems to relax some.
I try out a few chords and beats that sound right to the words and I grab some paper that I keep nearby for just this reason and begin writing down notes. We may have a new song. Who knows? Me.
I stop writing to notice that Geneva is giving me a look that I haven’t seen before.
"Hon, you ok?" I ask her.
"Better than I have been in some time." She replies.
I have to take a moment to process all that. She means what she said, but there is what sounds like a come on line there as well.
"When we stop next, let’s spend some time together Talon." Geneva tells me.
I stare at her for a moment with my eyes. That’s had an effect on people before. "You got it." I fire back.
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