The results show wasn't until ten pm on the next night, so as tears threatened to overflow my lower eyelids, I faked a yawn and turned to my friends.
"I'm totally beat, so I'm going to make tracks, okay? I'll see you all tomorrow."
I caught the Tube back to my house and sat with the curtains open while I stared at the moonlight. I was alone, but I felt a sense of peace I'd not had in a long time. And as I sat on my sofa looking out, I realised where I was yet again going wrong. I wanted someone to love me.
I didn't love myself.
That was where I needed to start. To find out what made Stacey Williams happy inside. And work out what came after the end of this competition.
Getting out my candles, I created a spell of optimism, and for a few minutes it seemed to hang in the air like diamond dust. I slept better than I had in years.
Noah
We came off stage high. There was just no feeling like it, well other than the time I'd sunk deep into Stacey after that concert, but I tried not to dwell on that. Our plans had been to shower, change and go watch the rest of our competition, but it soon became apparent that I wasn't going to get to do that any time soon when the door pushed open and Mya walked in, accompanied by a morose dude who made Aaron the security guy look like a comedian.
Mya flung herself at me. "Surprise!"
"I'll say. You did not let me know you were coming to London. Not even a tiny tweak on the mind meld." I hugged her.
"It wouldn't be much of a surprise if I did that, would it?" She turned to everyone else. "You were all phenomenal out there. You'd better win. I've taken a bet on you."
"I hope you got it in early, because we're on evens at the moment." Roman informed her.
"Oh, sweetpea. I haven't bet like that. I've told a tormented soul he can have ten minutes with his ex if he doesn't win."
Roman backed away from Mya pretty quickly, made his excuses and went to the showers.
"Who's Mr Chatty?" I asked her, flicking my eyes over to the dark and dismal dude.
"Oh this is my boyfriend. Well, I say that. We have our problems, so we're a little on again, off again, but currently on. His name is—"
"I'm De—"
"Denny." Mya said, smiling widely. "This is Denny."
He rolled his eyes at her. "She insisted I came here even though I said she was needed elsewhere, but no, we had to come here."
Rex walked over and held out his hand for Denny to shake but Mya jumped over and slapped it down to his side.
"Oh, he can't do that. He could accidentally kill you." She told him.
Rex looked at me, quirked a brow, and made his excuses, saying he needed water.
"Sorry." Denny said sighing, and showing he was anything but. Then his head shot to the doorway. "There's a soul here. I'm confused though. It's unhappy and happy at the same time. Are they ever straightforward?"
"Denny, darling. Can you shut up?" Mya scolded him. "I'm here to see my son."
Zak sniggered.
"What's amusing, Incubus?" She raised a brow.
"Nothing. Time for me to go shower." Zak departed.
There was only Rex left now, standing over at the drinks trolley. Rex had never felt threatened in Mya's company, not that they'd seen each other often. But vampires and shifters had a history, sometimes good, sometimes bad. A shifter would never show fear in front of a vamp and vice versa unless they really were in the shit.
"Do you want a drink? Water, beer, blood?"
"I survive on souls, but thanks." Denny told him.
"Oh, well if you get short, I know a club where they sell them on the black market." I winked.
Mya looked horrified.
"I will not be dealing with demons. They are the scourge of society." The soul eater told me. I guessed he was the thing on Zak's tattoo. I hoped to God Denny hadn't noticed it when Zak was in here earlier. It was his brand of sarcastic humour given he had to collect parts of them.
"So, Denny and I are here on business." Mya said. "But I'll make sure I get to every live round where possible and I will definitely be at the final if you get through. I'm so proud of you. Your mum would be too."
"Oh sorry, did she pass? I can try to ask for you if she can have permission to visit as a one off. I can't promise though." Said weird dude Denny.
My brow creased. "No, she just moved to Australia. Met the love of her life. Lives off grid without any television. Surfs a lot and sends me the odd letter."
"Oh."
I'd been so happy for my mum when she'd met Matt. I'd insisted she went and lived her best life. She'd done everything she could for me. I didn't want her to think she had to sacrifice anything more. Knowing she was happy made me happy. That was all I could ask for. My mother knew I was a vampire as I'd had to explain why I wasn't aging and she hadn't bought my excuse of a good face cream as she assured me she'd tried them all and 'none fucking worked, so you're lying, son'.
She'd then met Mya who had assured her she would take on a motherly role, being that she'd sired me anyway. It had all been a bit weird and she'd called me son ever since, which given she looked about three years older than me had garnered us some weird looks at times.
"My baby. You look so good. I missed you so much." She started hugging me again and dotting me with kisses which she thought mums did. She held my face in her hands.
Then she dropped her hands and sniffed the air.
"So, are you and Stacey still on the outs?" She asked.
"Yep, that ship sailed a long time ago." I told her.
"Really? Only I just smelled her approach. Her blood is so damn sweet, but then it went away so I'm guessing she changed her mind. Has her band been on yet?"
I groaned. My guess was that if Stacey had headed this way, she'd taken one look at Mya and turned on her heel.
"Seven Sisters are closing the show." I told her.
"Great, we'll stay and watch."
Denny groaned. "I can only hope someone in the audience dies."
"We'll leave you to shower. Catch you later." Mya said giving me another hug.
The room seemed deathly quiet when she'd left.
"What the hell was that dude she brought with her on?" Rex strode out from the shower area, a towel wrapped around his waist, and he pulled a face in the direction of the door they'd just passed through.
"I don't know, but he wasn't high on life, was he? Come on, let's get ready to size up the competition." I said.
"Is it me, or does the audience seem particularly enraptured by every appearance Harley makes?" Zak asked me from the wings.
"They've all been told how to act, haven't they? They said on the live shows they'd let them be a bit more natural, but they all look like brainwashed zombies."
We looked at them when Harley was on stage, mouths open, especially the guys. The guys whose wives would think they had an amazing hubby because he'd helped their dreams come true by going to the Hex Factor live shows with them, when really they were looking at Harley and the female judges and depositing material for the spank bank.