Page 74 of Verses

I wanted to make music with him, all right…but maybe not the kind of music he had in mind. “Yeah, we should.” But then the thought occurred to me that maybe that had been the reason why he’d invited me here in the first place.

And my balloon deflated.

Still…the band meant more to me than just about anything else in the world—so composing another song would be a step in the right direction.

I asked, “Have you been working on anything?”

“Yeah. I’m surprised at how the urge to compose re-emerged inside me as soon as I started playing in a band again. It’s like I have all these songs inside screaming to get out. You guys opened up a part of me that I forgot even existed. I’m writingmusic again. And now not only is my mind racing but, damn…the muscle memory. My fingers sometimes create a song before my brain even registers it. I’m always surprised at how my subconscious takes over.”

“I know what you mean. That’s why I’m always saving lyrics in my phone. Well, not really lyrics. Ideas. Phrases. Clever things to say. Poems.”

“The beginnings.”

“Yeah.”

“So thank you for getting me to join the band. I had a hole in my life that I didn’t know was there…until it got filled with Intent to Murder.”

Laughing, I said, “That sounds funny.” He chuckled as I speared a few leaves of lettuce with my fork but just looked at them for a bit. “Besides ‘Dark,’ do you have any completed songs or just parts?”

“I have two that are good from top to bottom. At leastIthink so. I won’t know for sure until you and the guys add your spin. But then I have dozens of starts, things I just need to play with for a while. I was hoping the two of us could record something to give the guys.”

“Let’s do it.”

My feelings for Wolf would have to wait.

CHAPTER 21

After we washed the dishes at my insistence, I found us in what clearly used to be a bedroom. The closet and dresser gave it away, but there was no bed inside taking up room. There was a computer on a small desk in the corner but the rest was all focused on music.

Of course, I found out later, the computer was as well.

Against one wall, Wolf had a metal guitar stand that held four guitars and one bass. “You play bass too?”

“I can. But that’s not where my passion lies—and I’ll never be as good as somebody like Pedro. He just seems to know what each song needs.”

“I know what you mean.”

“He adds a depth to our songs that I never could. And the harmonies he adds…the man’s a genius.”

I raised my eyebrows. Although I respected the hell out of Pedro (and, admittedly, he knew far more about music than I did), I’d hardly call him agenius. The guy was no Einstein. “Don’t tellhimthat. It’ll go straight to his head.” As Wolf picked up a guitar, I said, “So whatcha got?”

“Would you rather hear one of my finished songs or some of the riffs I think are killer but I’m not sure where I’m going with them?”

“Whatever you want,” I said, sitting in the chair by the desk.

“Okay.” He sat on the love seat by the guitar rack. “There’s a few riffs that are speaking to me…that I feel like could become really good songs—but I don’t know what’ll speak to you.”

“I’m all ears.”

When Wolf started riffing, I finally closed my eyes, simply enjoying the way he put sounds together—but there wasn’t anything in the mishmash that I could call song material.

Truesong material.

Until… “Wait. Can you play that again?”

“What?This?”

“Yeah.” It was another one of his haunted melodies and I imagined it would be a slower tune but, without Adrian, it was hard to put a beat to it—until Wolf kept playing. It was in between slow and fast and I could almost hear a drumbeat in my head.

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