Lunacy (5 page)

Mouth agape, I started to say her theory was insane
when she leaned away from me and pointedly engaged in conversation
with Mia. Muttering under my breath, I looked to Jynxx on the other
side of me. It was far too loud for him to have picked up on any of
our exchange. I hoped.

“You look fancy today. Get all dressed up for the
show later?” He made a valiant effort to keep his eyes out of my
cleavage.

“The skirt not only looks nice, it’s also to deter me
from moshing.”

He smirked knowingly. “You’re not wearing heels. You
know you’ll still wanna throw down, just a little.”

I shook my head fervently. “Nuh-uh. No moshing.
Nobody else that I know is going, and last time I went into a pit
on my own I took a windmill kick to the back of the head by some
halfwit hardcore dancer.”

Jynxx waved a hand at me dismissively. “You and that
pretty hair of yours will be all sweaty and messed up before the
night’s out if I’ve got anything to say about it.”

I tried hard to ignore the potential dual meaning in
his words. And clearly, he underestimated my willpower. “You’re
on!”

Taylea looked over her shoulder at me, the expression
in her lavender gaze the farthest thing from approval. It was hard,
but I was doing my best not to be angry with her. She was my friend
and she was just trying to look out for me. From all our years of
friendship, I knew that Taylea’s mother never saw good things.

***

“
Five dollars, please.” The very
polite and painfully pretty guy, sporting bright orange hair and a
thick black slave collar that matched his shirt with torn off
sleeves, gave me a smile that almost melted me into my
boots.

Jynxx walked up behind him and the table that let
none pass without the approval of the doorkeeper and a fee. “It’s
all good, Feign. She’s with us.”

Jade green eyes peered at me with scrutiny then, a
shocking contrast to his deeply tanned skin. “You must be Kacea,
then.” The seriousness in his demeanor disappeared almost
instantly. “Head on inside, hon. You’ve still got a few minutes to
stretch before the show starts.” He gave me a wink and I pointed at
Jynxx accusingly.

“I said I’m not moshing!”

“Not, schmot. Don’t try and feed me your lies,
woman.” He came around the table and grabbed my wrist, tugging me
along behind him.

Feign wiggled his fingers at me in farewell, the
tattooed muscles bared by his sleeveless black tee flexing
deliciously. “Nice meeting you, Feign!” I hollered back to him as
the much taller Jynxx led me into his world.

His world was what Heaven must have looked like;
people from all different walks of life and in all sorts of styles
of dress talking to each other as if this place was a haven free of
judgment. It felt right; it felt like home. I’d never been inside
Club Luna before, so the cavernous three-tiered setup that
resembled the inside of an industrial warehouse was a bit of a
shocker at first. Bustling with activity, there were people rushing
back and forth with instruments and equipment here on the ground
floor. Aside from that there were a fair amount of other teens,
some perhaps a little older, milling about waiting for the show to
start. Some were here on the floor, where the pit would be, while
there were others hanging about in the two upper tiers that were
surrounded by thick metal rails.

As I’d expected, I didn’t see very many people that I
recognized. On stage I saw the Derringer triplets tuning their
instruments and waved to them, gaining a nod from Josh -the
youngest of the three- and a wink from John. Joe -the middle
triplet- was immersed in perfecting the positioning of his drum
kit, pounding out a few experimental beats on the bass drum that
emanated through the club and resonated deep within my chest.

“Whoa,” I murmured.

“What’s up?” Jynxx asked, concerned.

I shook my head. “I haven’t been to a live show and
had the bass rattle me internally like that in a while.”

He grinned. “Feels good, doesn’t it?” I nodded with a
little laugh of my own.

Ten minutes came and went and the area around us
filled with people. Unfamiliar people. There was still a
comfortable amount of space, but I found myself stepping closer to
Jynxx in anticipation of needing his protection. I’d never been a
big fan of crowds.

I felt even safer when Teigan and the others from
Jynxx’s band gently jostled their way through the throng to join
us. Conner stood next to me, between the towers that were Jynxx and
Teigan, looking nauseous. Gavin was somewhere behind us, and that
made me mildly nervous. More so than I wanted to admit aloud. It
made me wonder if Taylea’s mother had seen Gavin anywhere in her
portents of doom.

“You gonna be okay?” I asked the ash blond boy beside
me, noticing he was nervously sliding a silver tongue ring back and
forth with a set time interval across his lower lip. His honey
colored eyes were focused somewhere else, the faraway look in them
giving away his distraction.

Conner jumped a little when I spoke, nodding finally
and blinking rapidly to bring himself back down to reality. “No
biggie, Kacea. Just a little stage fright... If I run off to puke
just before our set, don’t worry about it. My butterflies tend to
wear boxing gloves.”

It seemed silly to me for a guy as big as Conner, who
was almost Jynxx’s height but much more slender, to be afraid of a
little time on stage. But my having partial social anxiety disorder
was on par, so I couldn’t really say anything. I didn’t know him
very well, but I understood his plight and reached out to give him
a bear hug, full of as much positive and supportive energy as I
could muster. It ended with my nose buried in his chest, and I
couldn’t help noticing how amazing he smelled. Clean, fresh, and
outdoorsy; like taking a walk through the woods the morning after a
rainstorm. I had no words of comfort, so the hug was the best I
could do.

He laughed and patted my hair, looking a little less
like he was going to pass out from nerves as I stepped back into my
tiny spot of personal space. A group of four girls, friendly with
Jynxx and his band from the look of it, came to make our
congregation that much more colorful. Literally. One girl had hair
as blue as the ocean with eyes to match, another’s was as neon
orange as Feign’s in moderately long curls, and one had brightened
blond locks with streaks of auburn and black through it. The fourth
looked younger than me, and was the most subdued out of the four,
her hair dark to match her somber attitude. The only thing bright
about her was the row of silver hoops that hugged the entire length
of her left ear, showing through her choppy black and mussed Joan
Jett cut.

Jynxx introduced me to them. The blue haired girl,
whose chest was ridiculously large for her height, was Sherry. The
brooding younger one was Kerry. The very friendly blonde was Aya,
and the orange haired Asian girl’s name was Juri.

“We’re the next band after Triple Hack’s set is
done.” Aya put in proudly. They were the only all-female group on
the bill, not to mention in the area.

“That’s awesome!” I replied, happy to know that the
scene over on this side of the tracks wasn’t exclusively male like
it was back home. “What’s the name of your band?”

“Take My Revolution. Dunno if you’ve ever seen the
anime Revolutionary Girl Utena, but we’re big fans.” Aya
laughed.

“That just happens to be one of my favorites!”

Oh yeah. These girls and I were going to get along
just fine.

Chapter 6

Triple Hack's set was winding down, and with Jynxx
and the boys around me, I'd managed not to get jostled around too
badly. Then again, they were more alternative rock than really
heavy metal, so the mosh pit was likely tamer than it would be for
some of the later acts. From what I'd heard in the mumblings around
me, the band Blunt Trauma was full of dinosaur screaming and
excessively crunchy guitars. Even though Gavin rolled his eyes when
I asked about it, he did admit that their drummer's skills with
double bass were nothing to sneeze at.

The last few chords rang out and the boys' voices all
faded as one, their pitches all perfectly synced. It made me wonder
if there was really something to that whole theory that twins,
triplets in this case, had some sort of creepy psychic connection.
I was distracted from pondering that thought in more detail as
everyone on the floor and in the higher levels went absolutely
insane with clapping and cheering. Again, as one, the Derringer
triplets stood and bowed gratefully, hurriedly going about
beginning to pack up their equipment.

Aya lightly gripped my shoulder as she walked past
with her band. "Time to go get our stuff ready!" She gave me a sly
little wink with those very blue eyes of hers. "Hope you enjoy the
show, Kaysh."

Jynxx couldn't resist a little laugh and I looked to
him questioningly. He just shook his head and I punched his arm,
instantly waving my hand back and forth in the air and regretting
it. "Jesus! That was like punching a damned brick wall!" He laughed
even harder and I cocked my fist back again, only to have it be
caught by someone behind me. I glanced over my shoulder and Teigan
smiled at me lightly, his touch instantly cooling my Irish
temper.

"Save the violence for the pit later, Kacea."
Teigan’s voice, which usually calmed me, filled me with more anger
than I’d felt in a long time. And it was completely irrational. The
thought of getting jostled around shouldn’t have made me want to
kill someone.

"You rotten bastards! I am NOT going to be involved
in a mosh pit!" I almost yelled, the familiar heat of rage swelling
inside me. I wrapped it around me like an old blanket and felt safe
again, starting to wonder how Teigan could alter my mood so
quickly.

Before I could think on it further, there was a
tugging at my other hand and I met the stressed amber gaze of
Conner. "What's up?" He tilted his head to the left, but held onto
my hand, apparently wanting me to follow him somewhere. I looked
askance at Jynxx and he nodded.

I went with him and we ended up back away from the
floor, out in the much cooler hallway near the soda machines and
bathrooms. I was about to ask him what he needed again when he
doubled over, his knuckles turning white from the death grip he
suddenly had on his knees. The veins in his forearms stood out in
dark ropy tendrils, even through the deep tan of his skin. His
breathing was labored for a moment and, as I put my hand on his
shoulder, I swear I felt his temperature jump at least ten degrees.
But then it was like nothing had happened and he straightened, his
hand only pleasantly warm as he covered mine and held it to his
shoulder. His eyes seemed much calmer than before as they met
mine.

“What in the blue hell was that?!” I shrilled,
feeling like he could have had a seizure and died on me right then
and there and I’d have been the only one around to witness it or be
close enough to try to save him.

He smirked a little, a confidence I didn’t think he
was capable of on his pretty face. “Stage fright,” he said simply,
as if that would explain it all away.

“I call bull and shit, son.” I pointed at him with my
free hand. “Stage fright doesn’t make all the veins in your body
look like they’re about to burst. Stage fright doesn’t make your
core temperature rise so rapidly that you’re practically friggin’
radiating heat in waves. Stage fright doesn’t--”

Appearing from nowhere, Kenshin’s voice cut me off.
“He’s okay now, Kacea. Don’t worry about it.” I opened my mouth to
protest, but something in his icy green stare told me that dropping
it was the best course of action. The air around them felt
dangerous. Very dangerous… But it was quickly gone and both Conner
and Kenshin coaxed me back to the floor.

In the few moments we’d been gone, Aya and the girls
had gotten everything set up. Kerry was doing a sound check and my
jaw dropped as her fingers danced along the fret board with the
grace of Fred Astaire, the scales and arpeggios bubbling from her
fingertips like a waterfall of metallic goodness.

“Wow…” My jaw dropped at her skill.

Jynxx’s only response was a grin. Conner seemed
especially hyped for their set, but I really knew nothing about
what was going on behind the scenes with everyone here. There were
a lot of young people and that usually meant a more than healthy
amount of drama. For all I knew, they could be seeing each other.
Or they could even be related. It didn’t really matter to me. I was
more interested in seeing them play after the awesomeness of
Kerry’s sound check.

Another moment of random noise from the other girls
and -not surprisingly- it was Aya who took the mike. “Evening,
everyone! Put your hands together for our good friends the
Derringers and their band Triple Hack!” Like any good audience,
everyone clapped and cheered madly for a few seconds. As it
quieted, Aya nodded her approval, a smile on her lips as she
continued. “For those of you who’ve never heard or seen us before,
we’re Take My Revolution. We’re the only all-female group in the
tri-county area, and we’re here to show you that girls can rock
just as hard as guys can!” Many feminine shouts of agreement, mine
included, followed that statement. “So, without any more chitchat
bullshit, here’s a song about being one with something greater than
yourself. It’s called ‘Moonshine’.”

Aya’s vocal range blew me away as she went from
almost operatic and clean to guttural and nigh-demonic. But the
lyrics were beautiful, and all about feeling like you’re a part of
the Night, and the Moon being your mother. Musically, it was pretty
and flowing, and then choppy and angry when she mentioned no one
understanding how the stars were her family.

Just when I thought the song was almost over, my
worst fears were realized as the beat picked back up, the rhythm of
the drums building to a fever pitch that made me wonder how in the
hell the slight Juri could be keeping the pace. The group of people
around me had grown while the opening band had been playing, more
so than I would have thought possible in such a short amount of
time. Apparently being fashionably late to these shows was common.
The crowd had grown from around thirty people to somewhere closer
to several hundred. And, much to my dismay and due to my location,
I was almost directly in the center of where the mosh pit was
starting. I took a second to internally calm myself, or I was gonna
get knocked over and squished under an army of unknowing boots.