Vampiric speed had never been so welcomed. I got to her within a foot of the floor and threw her up onto the stage. She'd have bruises, but she'd survive.
I wasn't sure I would. Some of the surging angry crowd had tried ripping up floorboards and a sharp upturned piece of wood was about to go through me. I felt it push through my chest and I waited to combust to dust.
Stacey
I rolled across the stage floor, smarting as my bony bits hit, but then I flew up, my only thoughts of Noah being okay.
But as I looked over the stage all I could see was a group of people, one being Mya who was shouting. "Noah, oh fuck, Noah."
Harley grabbed me. "He's okay. I don't know if I am because I'm seeing some weird as shit stuff this evening and I'm wondering if I've had a breakdown."
"No, it's real." I told her and I ran down to where I realised Noah lay on the ground. A piece of wood had gone through his chest and must have just missed his heart. Mya was carefully extracting it and as it finally came out with a resounding pop that made me feel sick, the gap closed and healed up.
"Oh thank God. My son, I thought you were going to leave me." She began to cry, which was disconcerting as red tears tracked down her cheeks.
Death joined her. "We need to go, Mya. We have to deal with Dan."
She looked up at him, her fangs bared. "I hate you."
Death just shrugged. "I know you do, but you're the Queen of the Damned, so tough titty."
"Let me have a moment with my son." She snarled. Everyone stepped back including me. "And you, Stacey. This concerns you."
With everyone rushing around trying to deal with the aftermath of the final going haywire, I sat alongside Noah and Mya on the floor at the front of the stage.
"So Dan was killed." Noah said. "Shit, wonder what happened there?"
"Oh I drained him." Mya said looking at her fingernails as if she hadn't just confessed to murder.
She looked up and caught mine and Noah's wide-eyed expressions. "Oh, his time was up. Death told me. He accidentally said it while we were watching the auditions. Told me he'd seen his name on the board. Was gonna get hit by a bus. Anyway, I secretly came to the earlier auditions to keep an eye on you two, and I saw him threaten Harley. Said if she didn't leave, he would… well, it wasn't nice stuff he threatened to do with her. His aura was all off, he smelled bad. He'd have done something evil. So I offed him a week early."
Noah sighed. "Mya, did you by any chance have anything to do with the disappearance of Jack Brooks?"
"What?" I half-shouted.
Mya just shrugged. "He was another one. When they're truly evil I can smell them; they're like really bad diarrhoea after sprouts. I couldn't stop Stacey giving away her virginity, she did that freely, but he was going to attack her after." She looked at me. "He was going to hurt you, and I always hoped you two fools would work things out. I didn't want you having psychological issues from that moron, so I did the world a favour."
"Mya, you can't just go around draining people." I said.
"I'm a vampire, sweetpea, that's exactly what I can do." She patted my hair. "Bless."
Rising to her feet, she knocked dust off the back of her dress. "Right, me and Death need to get moving. I'm hoping you two can finally stop wasting time, although you're gonna become a vampire and live with him forever now."
"MYA." Death shouted. "The book is confidential. How many more times?"
"Oops, I'm in trouble again. Hopefully I'll get punished." She winked, kissed our cheeks and went to Death's side and then they were gone.
And then we realised the hysteria surrounding us.
"I need to do my bit." Noah said and he whizzed to the stage.
I guessed what he was going to do and sure enough he held the audience, staff, and judges in a huge compulsion, clearing their minds off anything that had happened.
The power of suggestion meant that everyone believed an overwhelmed Bill had suffered a breakdown on live TV. A production member then added that a substitute programme had hastily been added to the schedule.
The production team gathered the members of the two bands together and Bill himself came to find us. He looked a lot better, though shellshocked.
"Look, darlings. I'm not sure what happened this evening, but it's clear I've obviously been working myself into the ground. The results came in at a dead heat. Never been known. With that in mind you'll both be joining my team. Someone will be in touch, okay?"
I looked across at Noah. "Seven Sisters would have won if there was one more voter."
He looked back at me. "Come on, Stace, give it up. It's a dead heat. We drew. Can we finally call a truce?"
I took a deep breath. Now I needed to decide what my future held. Were music and Noah a part of it?
Mya
On my way out of the building with Death I'd passed Bill. "Just a minute, sweetie. I need a quick word with him."
Denny, (he didn't like being called this, but then I didn't much like the gig he'd landed me with, so hey fucking ho), sighed heavily, but stood still and folded his arms over his chest.
I got the medics standing with Bill to move away with a kind word in their ears (aka the power of suggestion) and then I looked deep into Bill's eyes.
"You will cancel the phone vote and refund every penny, and you will believe regardless of the results that it was a dead heat."
He nodded.
No one would ever know who actually won the competition.
Are you annoyed? Now you know what my mood was like when someone turned me into a vampire and made me Queen of the Damned.
Fucking infuriating isn't it?
Noah
Bill walked away, the production crew left us, and our two bands sat dumbstruck. It was an expression we'd worn on more than one occasion that evening.
Harley walked in with a bottle of champagne in each hand and passed one to Roman. She was about to pass one to Stacey, but I shook my head and she quickly changed direction and handed it to Donna instead.
I'd just asked Stacey what was happening now, but as Roman popped the cork and my bandmates started jumping around, I once again realised that this wasn't the time either. Maybe there'd never be the right time. Donna dragged Stacey by the hand and they popped the cork of their bottle. Then champagne was being shaken and poured over all of us and we began to realise we'd won a fucking recording contract.
"Let's move this party somewhere better." Donna said.
"I know just the place." Zak answered.
And with that we all set off for Sheol.
I watched from the edge of the dance floor as Stacey moved her hips to the beat of the music. She raised her hands and swayed, while around her, her bandmates made similar moves. But I wasn't interested in them.
The Paranormals had celebrated our future with shots and as a bevvy of females began to keep approaching us, we realised that life was about to change. Don had sent Aaron down to make sure no one harmed his incubus. Zak was going to be a busy boy.