Beautiful Musician by Sheri Whitefeather Read Free Book Online Page B

always
believed in him, but sometimes I get scared. I think it’s because
Vanessa doesn’t want him to appear.”
    “ Don’t let her doubts
cloud your belief in him. Just keep insisting to her that he’ll
come. Try to make her believe it, too.”
    “ Okay.” A stream of
silence passed between us. Then she said, “I haven’t told Vanessa
how I feel about you.”
    “ Because you know she
won’t approve?”
    Abby nodded. “She would say that
you’re not right for me.”
    I was well aware of how Vanessa
perceived me. I was too much of a bad-ass and not the kind of
hallucination she wanted hanging around her sister.
    “ You don’t have to tell
Vanessa what’s happening between us,” I said. “You can keep it a
secret from her.”
    “ What if I decide that I
want to tell her someday?”
    “ Just do whatever feels
right.” I wrapped her tighter around me, holding her with every
ounce of my non-existent being.
    Keeping the border monsters from
attacking me was the warrior’s responsibility. But oddly enough,
his life was in jeopardy, too. Vanessa had cursed him on the day
she’d created him, willing him to die when he reached a specific
age.
    Twenty-one, I thought. The age I was
now. It didn’t bode well for me or the warrior. Or the rest of
Abby’s people. The threat of monsters loomed over their heads,
too.
    But I couldn’t lose hope. I needed to
hang on, the way I was encouraging Abby to do. I had to believe
that this other man—this tall, dark stranger—really would save us
all.
    But for now, Abby was with me, close
at hand. My girl. My fae. My sweet, crazy love.
     
    End of Prequel
    (If you’re curious to know more about
Seven and why author Sheri Whitefeather made him the hero of this
story, please continue reading. Also included is an excerpt from
Book One, where you’ll meet Vanessa and the warrior.)

Author’s Note
     
    Thank you for reading
BEAUTIFUL MUSICIAN, the Room 105 prequel. The series will consist
of three more books, BEAUTIFUL CONFUSION, BEAUTIFUL WARRIOR, and
BEAUTIFUL JOURNEY.
    I’ve provided an excerpt
of the prologue and first two chapters of BEAUTIFUL CONFUSION, Book
One. It’s a full-length novel that features Vanessa and the warrior
you just learned about. Abby and Seven play a part in it, as
well.
    But first, here is the
background on Seven and how he came to be. It involves the real
musician who inspired him, as well as snippets from my life. I sold
my first romance novel in 1998, but prior to that, I fluttered on
the fringes of rock ‘n roll.
    During that era, I had
some memorable encounters with Nikki Sixx. This came about through
his association with my ex-husband, Dru, who is a leather
craftsman. He worked with Mötley Crüe for many years, designing
guitar straps, belts, and other accessories for them.
    In fact, people sometimes thought that we named our son,
Nikki Lee, after Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee. But it had nothing to do
with them. At the time, I’d heard Mötley Crüe’s music, of course,
and knew of their success, but I wasn’t aware of their individual
identities until after our son was born and people started
mentioning it. Nikki was just a name I liked, for either a boy or a
girl, and Lee is my mom’s name, which was an androgynous choice, as
well.
    The first time I
encountered Sixx was when he phoned our house to speak to Dru. I
inquired as to who was calling, and Nikki stated his name. Since
Dru’s career was still fairly new and the only work he’d done for
Mötley Crüe had come through outside sources and not from the band
members themselves, I wasn’t prepared for the call.
    In reaction, I replied,
“Oh,” thinking that Nikki was my kid’s name, too. Then, after a
moment’s pause, it hit me that this was the guy people thought my
baby boy was named after, and I repeated “Oh,” with a stronger
inflection.
    Soon after that, I was
hired to paint the sleeve of a leather jacket for Nikki, with an
image of a naked woman who resembled Vanity, the