[Before we go further I snuck in some ideas from that Hush, Hush series. So the angel terms and such are ideas from Becca and wikipedia:3]
[On a totally interrupting note, this isn't Dakota updating, it's Edmond. My family is going to meet her's in two days, she sent this to me and since she was dumb enough to give me her password I decided to update for her. Tell her to thank me later;)]
Ricky brushes one of his own tears away with a amusing smile. "That's the thing, you can't love a creature like me. It's just a matter of time before the leader of this whole thing finds me, finds you, finds everyone like me with the people they love the most and line us up side by side, and kill us." I snap out of the trance I had been forced into, his voice wasn't soft anymore and his smile didn't scream 'sexy', he was dead serious about his statement. "Then you love me too?" I manage to catch the word love out of his sentence and I desperately wanted to know, he may have tortured me to the point where it felt like cutting my own head off was logical, but that didn't mean he wasn't there when I cried myself till I fell asleep in more painful dreams. He was there for me when I couldn't always hold my own ground. "Love is a very, very strong word. Almost meaningless now in this generation, couples toss it around all the time...It doesn't mean they really do." I sigh, loosing knots in my unruly black hair. I was about to ask a question that either got me a kiss or an insult, I am not sure if I want to go through with that. "Then can I ask it in a bit different tone?"
"Only if you want my honest answer." This isn't sounding good already, I can't help but fiddle with the end of my sheer tank top and the black tank top under it. "Do you like me a lot?" I try to see into his dark eyes to see what he was thinking, they didn't reveal anything to me. "I want too." He slips his cold hands up onto my neck with his thumbs squarely on my jaw. I can't help but to let the tension of keeping myself from crashing my mouth to his, under my skin. "Then, be that motivational speaker and just do it." We both smile at each other, I slide my hands down his shoulders to his biceps and down his arms. Feeling the muscles under his short loosen, no longer tense with being uncomfortable. I couldn't leave without a kiss, it was to hard for a girl like me. My craving is growing worse the more he smirks at me like he knew something I didn't, and he probably did he's always hiding something anyway.
His lips just barely brush my own before he jerks back, shaking his head, he looks so guilty. His pupils were wide and his lips pressed together. "No, don't kiss me. Stay away from me, don't let Chris kiss you either. Don't let him touch you, don't talk to him, don't let him lure you in and most importantly don't have sëx with him. Stay as far away as you can from us." Ricky gently pushes me from him onto the floor and quickly jumps up, running out the room's door. I sat on the floor, surprised my what had all just happened with my mouth gaping. I had been rejected severely by Ricky and it hurt quite a but actually, he wants me to stay away now, and apparently both Chris and him are a threat to me. Sounds like my life in one big bubble, I need to follow Ricky. I need to know more than just a warning.
I stand up and rush out the door, Chris wasn't there with the remaining men. Panic set in, what were they doing? "Which way did Ricky and Chris go?" I ask Josh, he was laying up against the wall with a cool look to him. "Left."
"Thanks, Balz."
"Hey! Just because I gave you directions doesn't mean you can call me that!" I ignore him and run down the left hallway, I catch a glimpse of Chris's jogging behind Ricky down the stairwell in a hot pursuit after him.
"No! Ricky!" I scream as I ran after them down the stairs in my heels, it's a lot tricker than the movies make it to be. "Run! Run now, Vanessa! You can outrun him if you run now and get help from Josh, no one else!" I hear Ricky shout back at me, that's when Chris snaps his head at me. Had he not realized I was following them? He wasn't as sharp as I had made him out to be. "Well, Ricky, looks like your little princess followed you anyway. Don't you think she deserves the truth about you?" Chris climbs up the the stair I had planted myself on, I didn't want to move. If I ran Chris would catch me easily and maybe hurt me to where I'd be forced to listen if I didn't run I was going to have to listen.
I went with my second choice, maybe someone would walk in just in time. "Come on, if your going to end it, you might as well do it right before I do." Chris grabs Ricky by the collar and shoves him down at me. "Ricky..." I lean down to help him up but he only shakes his head quickly. "No...I'm okay." Ricky picks himself up and leans on the stairwell rail. "Vanessa, Chris never died. He made it that way to get you here, in a place you can't get away."
"Now, Ricky, I can't get all the credit!" Chris says with a smirk worthy of Satan himself and slaps Ricky on the shoulder. "We are demons, you know this. Before we met you, we were told by an angel if we took a virgin then we'd become human or, if we chose, we could remain demons but be set free to peace. If we protected her, and in the end it would come down to who she and only she love. It requires at least two demons to make this happen it's like a competition. If you had kissed me...It would have lead to sëx, which would mean I took you, which means you would have to die." I watch Chris closely every time he moves, I wasn't particularly ready to die just yet and if that's what he had in mind then he'd be the one laying in his own blood after this. "Sounds like you two got nothing but bullshït tossed at you, think about it. An angel wouldn't ask you to kill someone none of the less commit any kind of sin to become human." Chris works his way even closer to me, I move up a few stair to put a distance between us.
"But that's entirely the point! Humans are born of sin, since they are born they commit sin every single day. Rather it be self-gratification, stealing a wife, or actual sëx, or maybe just slaughtering someone. We have to break a commandment to become human, and it's not as easy as it sounds for a demon. Everything has to be in place, everything has to go as planned or it won't work the way we want it too." Chris hikes up to my step, I look over his shoulder to see Ricky looking at his feet. "I promise I won't hurt you, all I need is a kiss from you, Vanessa." Chris leans into me with his forehead laying on my own, panic arises in my chest I knew what was going to happen if we kissed I would be to drawn in to end it. I remember how my only wish was to die a month ago but, now I didn't want too.
I was only nineteen I didn't want to leave just yet! There was so much I could do and so much that lay ahead of me in my future. "Ricky!" Ricky snaps his head up at my voice, he only shakes his head. "Chris is a higher rank, I can't do anything." His voice is telling the truth, his body language wasn't. Ricky starts twitching his fingers and he grimaces when Chris let his head down to the curve of my neck.
"Ricky!" I cry out for my only hope, this time he takes several steps up until Chris shoots him a glare. "Back off!" Chris snaps, he stares at Chris and I, doubt was filling his face to the brim. He couldn't stop now! He said he loved me, sort of.
Chris wraps his arms around my waist, the feeling of the cool rings on his lips touch my neck and collarbone. "Ricky, please!" Ricky looks at me then the door above the stairs. "No...Please, don't leave me." Hot tears run down my cheeks, he glances at the door again then back to me before running up the stairs right for the door handle. "No! Ricky!" When the door slammed behind him, I knew he wasn't going to come back. He was a coward, he didn't want to stand up to something much higher than him. If I made it out alive I was going to rip his legs off so he couldn't run from his problems any longer.
Chris grins and lays me down gently on the stairs, I look away from his eyes. The eyes I once had trusted. "Aw, it's no fun if you don't watch." He teases and moved my chin so I had to look at him, his eyes were dark with his lust. He lied before, he was going to hurt me. I didn't know how, but I had a bad vibe about those dark eyes. He tilts my chin up with his thumb. "I've been dying to kiss those lips since I saw you." I brace myself when he finally lays his mouth on mine, It'd be a lie if I said I didn't enjoy a kiss like the one I was experiencing. Of course, I didn't want to, I couldn't push him away as much as my arms yell at me to. I feel my body relax under him and begin to travel my hands to the edge of his shirt to remove it. I had his shirt on the floor and his jeans were about to be the next to go when his weight was off of me and we had no longer been connected by our lips. Josh had Chris up to the white wall with his arm on his neck, pressing down in wager of suffocating Chris or not. "Forgetting the oath you made to me twenty years ago, ässhole?" Josh spat through gritted teeth, Chris tried to get away from Josh with all his strength and then I knew, he was scared deeply of Josh.
"Come on, we need to get out of here!" Ricky helps me up to my feet from behind me. Ricky came to my rescue yet again and drags me out of the door at the top of the stairwell. "Are you okay? Did he hurt you?" Ricky leans me against the wall and smoothes my hair down, I nod and wipe my tears away with my sleeve. "We have to stay with that psycho for another two months?!" Ricky frowns and kisses my cheek lightly, the blush fills my cheeks and ears, I don't think I am that ashamed of it anymore though. "With Josh around, Chris won't make a move on you. Josh is a guardian angel, your guardian angel."
•••
"Here you are, remember the notes?" Ricky gives me a thumbs-up when I hand him my guitar. "Just go have fun." Ricky says while covering the microphone in front of him to keep our words a secret. I walk over to Chris as he stalls for Vinny and the others to switch instruments out. "I want to end this kick-äss concert on our end with a song my friend Ash Costello sang with me. Covering for Ash will be my own guitarist, Vanessa Erualli." He introduces me to the crowd of Florida who screams at me in return. "After this a meet and greet will be held with this band backstage." Chris says before double-checking to see that everyone was ready to play. "Looks like Ryan finally got the strap over his neck so I think we are ready, the guitarist filling in for Vanessa is Ricky Olson, he's a good friend and one of our back-up guitarist." Ricky waves his hand at the screams that overwhelmed the venue, piercing my ears.
Some girls need to know when enough is enough.
I'm tossed into the song before I even realize it, I hate my voice over the speakers while Chris's sounds just like the records. "Watch out the devil's inside." I scream out the last word with all I could to meet Ashley's with it sounding professional, I positioned myself close to Ricky towards the end and made sure to keep away from Chris. I remembered what we planned on before the whole Josh-is-an-angel thing played out, we'd kiss then get off stage and wouldn't say anything about it in the interviews and meet and greet afterwards. That's not how I wanted it though, not then and not now. Ricky had warned about the costs of just one kiss, my life.
I suck in breath after the long note and rush over to Ricky before he can run away, I can't help the smile when he hugs me tightly right back. The guitar was in the way but that's what new strings were for right? I pull back from his shoulder and move my hands from his back to his jaw. "Vanessa..." His voice holding so much edge and warning, if you haven't found out yet, I love to live dangerously apparently. I pull him to me enough so the space closed between us, a strike of warmth shoots up my back and my stomach did a little jerk like at the drop of a rollercoaster. I feel fuzzy and warm as if I was laying in my own bed feeling protected, because I did feel so protected right now with Ricky holding me. "Vanessa..." My name rolls off his tongue in a much less serious tone this time, almost a moan while I bite his lip, accidentally drawing a small amount of blood. I break away just in time before my legs almost give way to him. I wanted him more though and he knew that too, his body language was all the evidence I needed to know. He licks his bottom lip with the tip of his tongue, collecting the blood. "Did you bite me?"
I poke his nose gently and run off stage with him close on my heels, see? No demon or angel spell can stop Vanessa Dawn Erualli! I am invincible!
Greg cheers when we all run of stage, I collide into his chest with laughter coming from me. We share a tight hug, laughing so hard we both cry. "That was the best performance you have ever given!" He watches Black Veil Brides run onto stage right after us. "Man, I don't know if we can follow such a performance." Ashley groans at me with a smirk, he was as much trouble as any man, thinking he could make any girl laugh when he gave them a smile. "Good luck and don't screw up, pretty boy." I shove him gently onto the stage with his band and turn to see the members of my own band staring at me, sweaty and out of wind, I almost couldn't help but look at each of them in a way I shouldn't.
Even Josh looks beyond the comprehension of good-looking. "Here it comes, give me the lecture." I roll my eyes when Ryan opens his mouth. He closes it with a shake of his head as if it would do no good to explain his thoughts. "What lecture? That had to seal the deal! As fans would say: I ship it." Vinny breaks the ice, we chuckle at him and even Ricky doesn't appear to upset with me. "Shower time! I think we deserve a night of lap dances and alcohol!" Vinny yells, jumping like a rabbit to the dressing room. "And what about moi? I am a woman and don't want to be with you men when these lap dances happen." I joke with the excited drummer, he frowns and goes into thinking mode where he sat down and hummed while scratching his head at times. "No worries, I got this one covered." Ricky scratches my head with a smirk, heading to his and I's dress room. "Hey!" I follow him with a annoyed walk to show the others nothing was going to happen between us.
I open the door to our dress room and see Ricky stripping the wet shirt from his body. "What do you mean? I'm covered?" Ricky turns to me with a smile as he starts to unsnap his black belt that was strewn around his hips, his black jeans hanging dangerously low. "No." I hiss in hopes he was joking around and the innuendo wasn't truthful.
"Relax, I hope you packed nice clothes. I'm taking you on a date tonight, babe."