Wicked Harmony

Chapter 14 | Sin

Chapter 14

Sin

T he next few days pass by in a blur. I lose myself in designing and spend a ton of time either watching the band practice or talking to the insane number of people involved in preparing for the gigs.

I never considered how much work went into something like this. But after hours and hours of video calls, talking to people from every area of the tour, my mind is bursting with information.

I spend hours in my little workshop with my notes spread out everywhere. I have a ton of ideas.

The tricky part is finding where my skills would fit in best. Back when I was working for the Herald and he had an Awakening, he wanted everyone to get a hit of pure joy whenever they came into the room.

Just enough to get his Devoted addicted to the feeling.

He’d also want them to be feeling buzzed and slightly reckless whenever he got to the part where he was asking for donations.

But this is a whole other ballgame. These are huge stadiums that are going to be filled with thousands of people who are ready to have the night of their lives.

When Iri first told me I’d have a month to prepare before they head off on tour, it sounded like a long time. But it’s been close to a week and I’m still at the ideas stage, then I’ll need to build or tweak whatever I come up with and test it out until it fails.

Let’s just say I’m feeling the pressure .

I’ve spent the past couple of hours watching another practice session, hoping for more inspiration, and both Cal and Micah are washing off after practice. Those guys get sweaty when they’re practicing.

Not that I’ve noticed how their t-shirts stick to their bodies or how Cal’s muscles bulge as he smacks the shit out of his drums, or how Micah sweats right through his outfits and then you can see everything.

Fine. There may be some additional distractions getting in the way of me working and coming up with ideas. Maybe.

Hell, perhaps I need to take a cold shower after practice, too.

Dorian has spent the past week avoiding and ignoring me as much as he can, which hasn’t come as a surprise since we hardly hit it off in the elevator. It suits me just fine. Sure, it’s kind of awkward when we wind up in the kitchen at the same time. But it’s no major loss to skirt around each other and not speak.

It’s during another of these special moments together where Iri is who knows where and Dorian’s sitting at the breakfast bar, downing a bottle of orange juice when I walk in. He ignores me, as is usual, but today I actually want to engage with him.

“Here.” I lob him the bit of metal I’ve been fiddling with over the past couple of days. I needed something to do with my hands while I was watching them practice and I always think better when I’m already in the middle of something.

He catches it and peers down at the scrap of material I wrapped it up in. “What’s this?”

“Open it and see.” It’s a taunt and we both know it. We’ll see if he trusts me enough to actually do what I say.

He glances up at me and furrows his brow, then lets out a long-suffering sigh before carefully unraveling the material.

It doesn’t look like much. A little badge shaped like a pumpkin I found at the bottom of my bag.

“Okay, now put it in your hand and tell me what you feel. ”

Quirking an eyebrow, he does what I say before letting out a brief hum of surprise. “Huh. You put your magic into it?”

I nod, shoving my hands into my pockets. “Figured I’d give your idea a go. It should make you feel calm and...”

“Clear headed.”

“Exactly.” Shit, I feel weirdly like a kid showing off my painting to my teacher or something, waiting for their approval. “I, er, can make a load of them. If you know of any centers that might find it useful if people are feeling overwhelmed or anything.”

I may have had it in my head that he was talking shit when he first brought this up. I figured he was probably trying to make me feel like a useless coward and he wouldn’t actually know what to do with something like this. But he surprises me by nodding.

“Yeah, no worries, I can make some calls.”

Well, then. I clear my throat. “Okay, thanks. Let me know how many you need. They’re pretty straightforward to put together.”

“How long should they last?”

“Oh, er, forever, I guess. It shouldn’t run out. It’s not like it’s a battery that needs charging.”

He lets out another hum under his breath and I think I’ve surprised him. I guess it’s not all that usual for something to have magic and never need to be topped up. But that’s why the Cedar Orlog found me so valuable.

It’s also why he was never willing to let me go.

I brush that thought aside and step back, ready to get out of here. But before I can make it to the door, Dorian catches my attention by calling my name and I spin back around to look at him.

“You’re spending a lot of time with Micah and Cal.”

I nod slowly. They’ve both been so... nice and we’ve been hanging out. One or the other of them has attempted to cook every night. And then we’ve spent the evenings vegging out, watching movies or crappy TV, sharing snacks .

Honestly, I’ve been loving it. I guess I’ve been starved of company over the past few years.

Sad as it might sound, I’ve come to recognize this week quite how lonely most of my life has been.

“They both have big hearts,” Dorian says. “You better not fuck with them.”

I blink at his brusque words. “It’s not like that. We’re just hanging out. I think they’re just being nice, so I don’t feel awkward living here with you all.”

He stretches his arms above his head and I can’t stop my eyes from flicking down to the little patch of skin he bares with the movement. “I dunno if you’ve realized yet, but they’re not your typical rock stars,” he says.

I roll my eyes. It feels kind of like he’s warning me off and his attitude is starting to grate on me.

I’m neither a femme fatale nor an asshole who plans on hurting anybody.

Still... something about Dorian makes me want to mess with him. It’s like from the moment he stepped into that elevator, I discovered a new facet to my life’s purpose and it’s to fuck around and find out.

“I dunno, I’m pretty sure they’re all about the sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, baby.”

Dorian scoffs. “They’re both practically two innocent virgins who would rather spend their time rescuing kittens than trashing hotel rooms. Don’t fuck with them, or you won’t like what happens if you do.”

Huh, being warned off about damaging the virtue and the delicate sensibilities of a couple of monster rock stars isn’t something I ever expected to experience. Maybe Dorian thinks I’m Sin by name, sin by nature.

That particular thought makes me snort to myself .

Then my stomach drops at the nasty little voice in the back of my head that says he might be right.

But I push those thoughts aside, shoving them into a box at the back of my mind, which I plan never to reopen. It’s filled to the brim with all my poor decisions and, quite frankly, it can go get fucked.

“Well, as fun as this has been, I need to head back to work,” I tell him as I slink back to my cave.

I’m not running away from him. Nope. I’m just feeling the pressure of needing to have something to show for the week.

I’m definitely not rattled by Dorian’s warning words.

No siree.

I wind up working right through dinner, ignoring my growling stomach and focusing on the work in front of me. I need to get this done since it’s not like I’m being paid for the pleasure of my company.

There’s no time to get distracted by sexy rock stars in their ridiculously cozy cabin. I need to focus and hope like hell I can produce something that’ll be worth all this effort.

My head is down and my eyes are blurring from overuse by the time I come out of my feverish sprint, working on the design for one of the prototypes I’m hoping to fit in with Iri’s grand ideas.

I guess that’s how I don’t notice the Orc in the room.

The huge, muscled Orc who smells of clean laundry. Who is watching me from the doorway, a slight frown on his face.

“Have you stopped all day?” he asks, his rumbled voice rolling over me and causing me to jerk, bashing my knee against the worktop as I spin around.

“Shit. Sorry, Sin.” He strides over to me and cups my knee with one of his huge hands. I suck in a deep breath of his scent and have to fight the urge to sink into his arms. There’s something about Cal that screams comfort and safety and makes me desperate for a hug .

That doesn’t negate the other urge I have around the gentle Orc. The one that says it would be a great idea to wrap my legs around his waist and climb him like a very thick, sexy tree trunk.

“Are you all right?”

I nod, slightly mesmerized at the gentle way he’s rubbing my bruised knee like it’s a serious injury.

“I’m fine.” My voice comes out slightly hoarse and I have to clear my throat, rubbing my eyes as I stretch out my tense neck muscles.

“You didn’t come for dinner,” his gentle reprimand has my eyes lifting to meet his warm ones and I shrug.

“I kind of lost myself in the zone. I want to have something to show you guys soon, so I don’t feel like such a mooch.”

And I’m shitting myself that Dorian’s right. That you’ve been too nice to me all week and I don’t know how to handle it.

“You’re not a mooch, Sin.” He sounds genuinely horrified at the thought, and I can’t help but smile.

“We like having you here. Even if you weren’t able to come up with a single thing, I can’t tell you how good it feels to have you around.”

How can a guy who’s twice my size be simultaneously cute and sexy as hell? He’s a paradox, soft and hard, wrapped into a single glorious package.

“Sin?”

I jerk again and realize I lost myself for a moment there. “Uh, yeah?”

“You’ll come?”

Dammit. It seems like I got so hyperfocused on Cal’s general wonderfulness; I missed what he said.

“Dinner. You need to eat, Sin.” He stands and holds out his hand. My stomach growls right on cue.

“Yeah, you need to eat,” he growls.

Slipping mine into his, he pulls me to his feet and draws me toward the door.