A vampire with wavy brown hair and bright blue eyes speeds up the stairs and stands next to Shaun. He holds out his hand for the hat. Shaun hands it over and closes his eyes, picking a name out of the hat.
He reads it and searches the crowd. Pointing towards the left side of the crowd, he calls, “Simon! You’re the one hiding. Come on up.”
I fight the urge to roll my eyes as Pisces pushes Simon forward. Simon saunters up the steps with a bold grin. I envy his attitude a little bit. I know if I’d been chosen to hide, Amelia would have had to physically carry me up those steps. I’d have probably found some reason to bail.
In fact, I don’t really want to play this game at all, but Simon invited Goddess’ Trance and I knew we couldn’t say no. This is a great way for Amelia and the others to network with other bands, which means potentially opening for them, or getting invited to other festivals.
Thankfully, Dead Hearts doesn’t seem to be on the guest list, but the Phantoms are. I spot Grim in the crowd and he winks at me. He puts his attention back on Shaun, who is now joined by Simon and Evan.
“In a minute here we’ll put an invisibility spell on Simon and then he’ll go hide. The whole festival grounds is fair game. Out of bounds are from where the townhomes are—” he points to his left, “—and the shopping district.” He points to his right. Then he points out in front of him. “Stages are fair game, but not the parking lot beyond. And behind us—” he motions back beyond the building, “—the greenbelt is also out of bounds. Simon can pick anywhere inside the perimeter to hide. Also, you’re not allowed to seek in groups. Everyone has to separate and go alone. No forming teams.”
“This’ll be easy peasy,” Taser says confidently to Blake, who nods. They’ll no doubt be using their vampire speed to track Simon down.
“Not so fast,” Shaun says, overhearing. “Another rule,” he says, motioning for the vampire who held out the hat earlier to start handing something out. “Everyone will be wearing a special wristband. This suppresses your fae abilities so everyone has a fair shot.”
“Oh, come on,” Blake whines, pretending to pout.
“Nah, otherwise it’d be over in a heartbeat. Any wolf shifter would sniff out Simon in a matter of minutes. Trust me, this makes it more fun. The wristbands are easy to rip off if you need to access your power in an emergency, but it will disqualify you from the game.”
Everyone nods in understanding. Shaun continues on. “Simon will have a head start, and he’ll be invisible for approximately twenty minutes. So in the meantime, while he hides, we’ve got drinks.” Shaun points to a table. “So grab a refreshment and let’s make this a fun tipsy game of sardines!”
A cheer goes around the crowd.
Shaun approaches Simon with the invisibility potion. “Can I have a drink before too? Considering it might be my last one,” Simon says, grinning wickedly at Evan. Shaun doesn’t look amused and eyes the potion warily. He hands a small dose of it over to the drum tech.
“Say your prayers, mate,” Evan says, spreading his hands and shrugging. “Didn’t have time to test that properly. Hope it works.”
Simon shoots a reassuring smile at Shaun, and without much thought, uncorks the potion and chugs it down in seconds.
Almost as soon as he’s done, he disappears from sight, except for the glass vial he’s holding. He must hand it off to Shaun asit seems to float into his hands. “Alright, twenty minutes starts now,” Shaun says, setting a timer on his watch. “Cheers!”
Once we get our wristbands on, Amelia and Reese tug me over to where someone’s set up a table with coolers of beer, hard lemonade, and ciders. I select a blackberry cider, crack it open, and settle off to the side with my friends as we wait for the game to start.
I stare down at my wristband. It’s totally unnecessary. I can’t think of any advantage my power would have given me. No one will have seen where Simon went, so I can’t flirt any information out of anyone, and I can’t use my power on Simon from a distance.
I think through my options here. This game is something Voracious Maw always plays at festivals. It’s very likely that Wrath is here somewhere. If I can get to Simon earlier on in the game, I might be able to watch some of the Voracious Maw guys interact with their guards down. They could reveal something that’ll allow me to piece together who Wrath is.
Grim approaches and sweeps me into a hug. “Kinda wish we were getting to seek you out. I think I’d win.”
“And why’s that?” I ask, a flirty lilt to my voice.
“I’d be very, very motivated to find you first,” he teases. I can’t help but let out a laugh.
“I don’t think you’d be the only one,” Amelia says as she watches another group approach us. Pinkie and some others I haven’t met are eyeing us appreciatively, but it’s easy to convince myself they’re just looking at Amelia and Reese.
“You all excited for this?” Pinkie asks, grinning.
We all raise our cans and cheers, falling into a conversation about how the festival is going so far. The twenty minutes pass too quickly and Shaun shoos everyone apart to start searching for Simon.
Alright, Bliss,I hype myself up.You can find him, just think about where he’d likely hide.I can do this. Simon seems like the type to get creative with his hiding place. I send up a prayer to the stars to help me out with my plan. Maybe my intuition will guide me. I stand still, clearing my mind, and wait until a direction pops into my head.
An image of the stages comes into my mind’s eye and I decide to follow the whim. Simon, as a drum tech, would definitely know of any good hiding places near the stages. I head that direction, noting I’m not the only one who has had that same thought.
I can see Taser a few paces to my left, heading to the stage that’s furthest away from where we started. I find my way to the backstage area of the main stage that’s not currently in use. Gear is stacked, ready to be moved. A few roadies mill around, but I don’t see Simon. He wouldn’t be out in the open like this, though.
I turn down a ramp behind the stage that ends in a sunken concrete area being used to store more stuff. Maybe he’s hiding behind some of the gear. I round the corner and let out an exasperated sigh, almost turning around immediately before he can see me. Pisces is sitting on top of some instrument cases that have been stacked, playing an electric guitar, even though it’s not plugged into anything. I notice the gear cases all have Voracious Maw stickers on them, some so faded you can barely make out their logo.
“Bliss?” He stops picking the strings.
