Blood and Guitars Read Online Free Page A

an
amused look. “Perhaps I’ll do just that.” I wasn’t sure if he
thought that would make me jealous or what, but I hoped he was
serious. “I do look forward to seeing you again at the Lunar
Eclipse Ritual.”
    Mark rolled his eyes and I grinned at him as
Damir walked away.
    “Now you see why I so desperately need a hot
vampire doctor,” I said, lowering my voice.
    Mark raised an eyebrow at me, incredulous.
“You’re looking at one.”
    I grinned at him playfully and set my now
empty glass down. I’d tortured him enough for one night. “Come on.”
I got to my feet. “Let’s dance.”
    Mark stood up reluctantly but didn’t fight me
as I pulled him onto the dance floor. I decided the new DJ wasn’t
half bad as Mark and I danced in the middle of the crowd. Mark was
a good dancer, most vamps are. Good coordination is just another
bonus we vamps enjoy, which was why the dance floor at Club Sanguin
was always hopping. At one point I smelled Tytus nearby and
glimpsed him watching me from the bar. Malena was still on his arm,
but didn’t notice me watching. I fought the urge to listen in on
Tytus’s thoughts and forced myself to look away, but not before
Mark caught sight of him, too.
    “Don’t let him get to you,” Mark thought,
knowing I would hear it.
    I smiled as a new song started and kept
dancing to prove that I wasn’t letting it get to me, but in the
back of my mind, I couldn’t help but feel that there was more to
Malena and Tytus than met the eye. No one trusted Melena, and I
trusted Tytus about as far as I could pick him up and throw him,
which even with my vamp strength wasn’t far by our standards. I
didn’t know how, but sooner or later I was going to have to figure
out their motive for being so close, if only for the sake of my
sanity.
     
     

Chapter 3
     
     
    Having gotten my fill of blood for the night,
I dropped Mark off at his house and drove back to The Waking Moon.
I climbed the stairway up into the loft and put on some loud music.
The piece I’d started the night before was waiting just as I’d left
it. I donned one of the aprons hanging on the wall and picked up a
brush. This particular piece was of an ancient Egyptian pyramid at
night. This piece was black and white, although that isn’t a very
descriptive label considering there are a gazillion shades of grey
in between that really make an image come to life. I patted paint
onto the canvas, creating a moon in the sky. Then I added the face
of a woman on the surface of the luminescent moon.
    I worked for an hour, maybe a little longer
before the painting was complete. I set it aside to start drying.
It would be dry to the touch fairly soon, but not dry enough to
varnish for six months. I set it aside where it would be safe and
then pulled out a painting that had just reached the six month mark
earlier this week. Working with oils made keeping a steady supply
of paintings in the studio a fickle thing. But I’d been painting
long before I opened The Waking Moon, so I’d had enough pieces
varnished and ready to go on display to make it work. I just had to
keep the process going. On occasion I put a painting up for sale
and just arranged to have it delivered once it was dry enough to
varnish, even though that was often months down the road.
    I carefully twisted off the lid of a jar I
had sitting on the table in the corner. It was full of turpentine
and the dissolved remnants of some crystal that I had suspended in
cheesecloth from the lid. The result was damar varnish that I used
to coat my paintings to protect them from dirt, dust and damage.
You could buy varnishes at any painting supply store but I
preferred to make my own so I could control the quality. We
vampires are often control freaks. This was the most obvious way
that tendency showed up in my everynight life. I thinned the
varnish slightly to get the right consistency and used a horsehair
brush to apply it to the canvas, being certain to coat the entire
surface. When