Page 76 of Bottoms Up
“Everything okay?”
“Yes.Fantastic. I wrote a song last week, when I was on my own during the day and didn’t want to gamble again. It’s about responsibility, about being a man, about doing what’s right even when it’s hard. I guess it was in my head after our talk about why I don’t feel comfortable finding a human pet? Anyway, it just kind of wrote itself, and I bought a used piece-of-crap guitar, put together the main rhythm, and then used a digital keyboard on my tablet to fill in.”
We were inside the house by then, and Hailey said, “I’m pretty sure we have another hit on our hands. It came together so fucking easy, and we’re working it up to play at the festival next week.”
“I didn’t see a guitar. In Vegas.” It was the first thing I thought of, and I realized after the words were out of my mouth, that probably wasn’t the best thing to have gotten out of all that.
“Oh, I destroyed it about six hours after I bought it. I knew it wasn’t the best when I bought it, but it annoyed the fuck out of me. I’d originally intended to sell it back to the secondhand place, but then I worried someone just learning would buy it and not understand the problem was the instrument and not them, so I broke it apart and put the pieces in the garbage. I guess housekeeping emptied it before you rose.”
“Can I hear the song?”
“Yes,” Will said as we stepped into the kitchen. “You caught us finishing up a meal. We have wine and beer if you’d like something to drink?”
“I’m good, but thanks for offering.”
Hailey sometimes smells more like a werewolf, and sometimes more like a Lugat vampire. Tonight she was the latter, which probably explained why she wasn’t eating with them. She sat at a seat with wine in front of it, and Silver motioned me toward a chair beside a plate and bowl.
“Davy made his famous taco soup, which we all love, and then he outdid himself with this cucumber-tomato salad concoction. I’m having a margarita, but just one because we aren’t finished for the night.” She held it up. “Lots of extra salt.”
“We’re actually headed to the warehouse when we leave here,” Ghost said. “Will rented a large space and had a full-size stage built. Mostly, they practice here, getting the music right, but before a show, they need to be able to practice the choreography with plenty of room.”
“It’s an old building, built with cinder blocks, so we didn’t have to add a ton of soundproofing,” Will said. “I had people redo one of the shipping bays so we can drive inside, and noone ever sees who comes and goes. It’s in an industrial area, five minutes away at night, ten during the day.”
“We have those crazy stick-people, like they have at car dealerships?” Silver said. “They get activated in the places where the special effects will be, so we’ll be used to seeing motion in those areas.”
“You’ll need to leave your phone here,” an older man said. It took me a minute to recall his name — Mitch.
“He’s trusted,” Silver said. “Marco might need a quick question answered. Julian needs his phone.”
Mitch looked to Will, who told Mitch, “He signed a personal NDA with Silver, and it includes Mythic Beast material. He doesn’t need to sign one with the group too.”
“I can sign one if it’ll simplify things,” I told Will.
Before Will could answer, Mitch lifted a tablet and said, “Ten seconds, and I’ll have it for you to look over. You can sign it and then text or email a copy of it to yourself.”
I really didn’t mind signing it, but I could scent Silver’s annoyance, so I telepathed,I’m not going to talk about your songs or anything else that’s private, so there’s no problem with me signing it. I know you trust me. Let me keep things smooth with your management.
I’ve taken several online courses to familiarize myself with U.S. contract law, so I can handle such things for Marco. Because of former positions, I’m quite versed in the same for Italian, French, and European Union law as well, but all I needed to focus on tonight was the American norms, and I respected the way Mythic Beast handled their contracts. Some companies make them sixty pages long so they can hide all kinds of shit in them, but Mythic Beast’s NDA was two pages long and succinct.
The group was talking about where to put the new song into the set when I handed the tablet back to Mitch and tuned back in, so I sat quietly and observed everyone. Ghost looked at meand touched the side of his head, so I initiated a pathway and telepathed,You want to talk?
This conversation doesn’t involve us, so I thought I’d check in with you. Silver seems happier. More settled. I’m assuming that’s your influence on him.
I’d like to think I’m good for her.
I picked up on a microsecond of surprise, and explained,Going back and forth on pronouns in my head doesn’t work for me. I stick with ‘she’ in my head, but try to fit her clothing and scent if I must use a pronoun out loud. It seems I need to alter that, so I consider the right word to use when telepathing.
No need to change on my account, it’s just that he’s more male today than I believe I’ve ever scented.
I assume this song has something to do with it?
He nodded.Yes, I can see that. I haven’t heard it since yesterday, but I think the music and vocals are settled. Today was just figuring out the showmanship stuff.
Davy was nude, walking around with a tiny little cock cage on his dick that made me wince for him — especially since I could see it was locked on through a PA piercing. Silver had warned me ahead of time that Davy’s mostly always naked in the house, but she hadn’t told me his dick is locked up.
A quick dive into his head told me he’s in it a calendar month and then out of it a calendar month, and since this was the second day of April, he had a while before he’d be free again.
Two days ago, he’d had five orgasms in one day, and his dick was still a little raw from having to beat himself off so many times. He didn’t like being locked up, but it was proof of his slavery, proof he was owned. He wasn’t dealing with it so much as resigned to it. He couldn’t do anything about it but live through it as his Masters ordered.
