Page 59 of Unleashed By Eden

I drag my eyes back down to the poster in front of me. He slides a fresh one under my wrist, and I sign my name.

***

The final lyric tears out of my throat and leaves me raw on the inside. It rattles through my teeth, down the neck of the guitar, and straight into the boards under my boots. The crowd detonates, a solid wall of sound that hits my ribs before it reaches my ears.

The floor vibrates.

One of our best shows this tour. Easy.

We were tight tonight, almost possessed. The guys were locked in, every riff, every breath was one body moving instead of four. I don’t know what lit them up.

But I know what lit me.

Vi.

She was in every verse, laced through every chorus. Knowing she was close, that I’d get to bury my face in her hair and slide back into her in a few hours, kept my blood running hotter than the spotlights overhead.

The crowd starts chanting, “Pulse! Pulse!” The sound swells until it has nowhere left to go but to absorb straight into my body.

I step back up to the mic, chest still heaving, sweat running down my face and spine.

“Thank you, Madrid,” I growl into the dark.

The roar spikes again.

I don’t stay to soak in it.

I’m already moving, legs carrying me offstage. Every step takes me closer to the only thing I’ve been thinking about since we walked into the stadium.

But the moment I make it to the wings, Mika’s camera is there, catching the comedown while the crew weaves around us with flight cases and coils of cable. Megan stands behind him, eyes sharp.

The guys spill out after me, feral from the last set.

Kai slaps a heavy hand between my shoulder blades. “We fucking killed it tonight.”

“Damn right we did,” I say, passing my guitar to a waiting tech. My hands are still shaking, but this time it’s nerves fizzing from the high.

Theo already has two girls clamped under his arms, both giggling and trying not to inhale his post-show stench. Xander’s got one woman pinned to his side, palm cupping her ass while he murmurs something in her ear that earns him a breathy laugh. Business as usual.

Then there’s Vi.

She’s leaning near the mouth of the hallway that leads to the green room, camera loose in her hands. Her hair’s pulled over one shoulder, long, black, and shiny. She isn’t smiling, but when her eyes find mine, they spark.

Her throat works once as she swallows.

My own does the same.

Everything narrows in that moment. The shouting, the laughter, the scrape of cases over concrete all fade. It’s only her and me, and this thick charge between us.

She lifts the camera.

Lens up.

Shutter click.

And then the spell cracks. I drag my gaze away before I do something obvious.

We tumble into the green room. The door’s propped open, and people are flooding in with beers and towels and the last of their adrenaline. I keep moving.