The Gathering Dark Read Online Free Page A

puke.”
    The furious gaze she was inflicting upon him lasted only seconds longer before Nikki let out a long shuddering breath and let a ripple of nervous laughter escape her lips. She rolled her eyes, turned, and paced halfway across the room again. When she lifted her gaze, it fell upon her guitar, a fat-bellied electric-acoustic, all tuned and ready to play. It sat upon a stand near the refrigerator.
    Suddenly she felt very stupid.
    If her mother Etta were still alive, she would have given her daughter a stern talking-to and then a loving hug and pointed her toward the door. It was all her mother’s damn fault in the first place, she thought. Nikki had grown up in a constant haze of blues music while her mother spent her nights in a constant haze of inebriation. All her life Nikki had played that same music, from Elmore James and Robert Johnson to Bonnie Raitt and the Allman Brothers Band.
    In front of people. Audiences. And she never failed to get applause. It might have been the smoky rasp in her voice, the only thing of value other than a love of music that she had inherited from her mother. But secretly she always believed it was the emotion that backed up every word. The love and the pain and the fear. Some songs called for that, though most people would never understand. Blues songs, sure, but even love songs; to really pull them off you had to know what it was like to truly be afraid.
    Nikki knew.
    Kyle moved to her and slipped his arms around her from behind. “They’re waiting.”
    And they were. The rest of the band was already out in the wings of the stage, ready to go on. The roadies were done setting up and tuning, the sound guy was set. It was all on her now. The show couldn’t start without her.
    Nikki closed her eyes, heart fluttering in her chest, and leaned back into him, letting Kyle take all the weight of her in his arms. “What if they don’t like it?” she asked, voice small.
    She felt him stiffen.
    “What are you talking about, darlin’? I’m sorry, Nik, I’m not trying to be difficult, but I don’t—”
    Swallowing hard, trying to keep the nausea from coming back, she turned to face him. “I want to change the order. Let’s start with ‘Son of a Preacher Man’ instead.”
    Now the smile was gone from Kyle’s face. He stared at her as though he thought she was a lunatic, and Nikki had to allow that maybe she was. Kyle cocked his head to one side and studied her a moment. She cared for him. He was a good man and a talented drummer. But he had never been that bright. When understanding dawned upon him, she could see it in his eyes and that sudden realization made her look away, staring at the floor, at the flowers, at her guitar. At anything but that moment when he got it .
    “I’m an idiot,” Kyle whispered. Then she heard him chuckle softly. “You’ve never played your new songs in public.”
    Without meeting his gaze, she nodded. “Actually, I’ve pretty much never played an original song in public. Not ever.”
    “Not ever?”
    A knock at the door interrupted them. The club’s manager, Rich something, stuck his head in. “Everything all right?”
    “Fine,” Nikki said, too harshly, too quickly. “We’ll be right there.”
    “Great,” Rich replied, choosing to ignore the tone in her voice, the tension in the room. He pulled the door shut behind him.
    While it was open, however, Nikki had heard them. The audience. They weren’t chanting her name or stomping their feet or any of that crap that happened at major venues, but there was a buzz out there, a hum of conversation and anticipation that made the place tremble.
    Or maybe it was just her trembling.
    “Nikki?’ Kyle ventured.
    Swiftly she crossed to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of spring water. She spun the top off and took a long drink before at last looking him in the face again.
    “I’ve always played covers. I know those songs inside and out, they’re a part of me. I understand how they’re gonna