The World Will Stain Us

Warped Tour

The day of their very first Warped Tour show had arrived, and Jinxx couldn't be more excited.

Nervous, too, of course―playing Warped was a big deal. But his excitement rather overpowered the nerves. Even though they were on a sidestage, they were playing one of the biggest (and only) rock festivals in the US―somewhere Jinxx had never thought he'd be. It was a prospect that would have anyone's excitement up.

They were set to take the stage after We Came As Romans. Jinxx didn't know them, though he vaguely remembered Jake saying something about how they'd been one of the other nominees for the 'Best New Band' category at the Golden Gods. It was hard to believe the awards show had been two months ago already―for all that time didn't matter so much to a vampire, it seemed to be passing far too fast.

Maybe it was just because they'd been so busy that Jinxx hadn't noticed the time passing, he thought. That happened sometimes, when life became too busy and fast to notice that it kept marching onward. It hadn't happened to him in a long time―they'd never really had something this big to look forward to before.

Jinxx shook himself. He was supposed to be tuning and making sure his violin was ready― "Saviour" was part of their setlist for the day. Around him, the others tuned their own instruments; Andy was running through a couple of vocal exercises to warm up; crew members moved about double-checking things and managing the stage for We Came As Romans. Jinxx didn't envy them their job; it seemed like such an exhausting prospect, running back and forth all day configuring and reconfiguring sound equipment and lights and pyrotechnics for every band that took the stage. 

He looked down at his tuner. It was still showing his G as being sharp. He frowned at it and adjusted the fine-tuner again; the arrow on the tuner moved slightly closer to the green, but not enough.

"Damnit," Jinxx muttered.

"Something wrong?" Jake asked from behind him. Jinxx turned to see the other guitarist approaching from the other side of the backstage area, where he'd been talking to CC.

Jinxx shrugged. "My G string is being stubborn again. Too sharp."

Jake winced in sympathy. "You've always had issues with that string."

Jinxx shrugged again. "I may just have to replace it. But I'll get it tuned eventually."

"You've got time," Jake assured him, careful not to hit his guitar against anything as he came to stand beside Jinxx. "We Came As Romans aren't going to be finished for another fifteen minutes yet, and then you know it'll take at least fifteen or twenty for the crew to get everything ready again."

"I know," Jinxx sighed. "I've never been a fan of this part. The waiting."

"Me neither." Jake glanced around, then stole a quick kiss when he was sure no one was watching. "But it's necessary."

"I know that, too." Jinxx heaved a sigh. "You think the sunscreen'll hold?"

"It has so far," Jake shrugged. "I just hope it can withstand us playing."

Jinxx hoped so, too. Andy had indeed called Nikki Sixx about the direct-sunlight issue, and the elder vampire's advice had essentially been SPF 50+ sunscreen reapplied every hour. Their warpaint would help as well. Jinxx wasn't so sure―while their hypersensitivity to sunlight was far less severe than every legend made it out to be, it still didn't seem right that all a vampire had to do was apply strong sunscreen once an hour to be able to walk in the sun.

So far it seemed to have been working, though Jinxx wasn't holding his breath on that since they'd endeavored to be somewhere out of the sunlight as much as possible today. Maybe waiting to test it until the very last second was risky, but they'd all been drinking already today, so logic had largely gone out the preverbial window―and besides, Jinxx was realizing as their set time drew closer that he'd come to prefer being out in the night after being a vampire for so long, and didn't partiularly want to test his ability to survive in the sunlight.