Total pages in book: 47
Estimated words: 43557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 43557 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 218(@200wpm)___ 174(@250wpm)___ 145(@300wpm)
There is one element of movement, however, and that comes from his tail. I see the very tip of that long, scaled, prehensile appendage twitching the same way an annoyed cat's does. His face might be impassive but that little flick flick motion shows some kind of irritation or arousal.
If I’m pissing him off, the feeling is mutual.
“Hey,” I say again. “I’m trying to get through here.”
He says nothing. I’m about to say a whole lot when Simon Scowl comes to consciousness with his customary post-nap roar, a sound that shakes me to my core.
Simon Scowl is a leonine alien, meaning he’s a carnivore and he has a mane. He’s my manager, and he’s the whole reason any of this is happening. Simon discovered me thirty days ago, and he has changed my life forever.
Suffice to say, he is one cool cat. His mane has been sprayed gold and pink, and he’s wearing contacts to change his naturally slitted green eyes to round blue ones. I’d say it’s uncanny, but when you’re in showbiz, you get used to weirdness. He weighs about three hundred pounds, and it’s all muscle and claws. He is almost as famous as any of the other starlets he has rocketed to fame over the years. People literally kill to try to get an audition with Simon, and I was lucky enough for him to come and see me of his own accord.
“Hey! Lyric!” He beams at me with sharp fangs. “I see you’ve already met Zayne.”
“Uh. Yeah.”
“He’s going to be your bodyguard.”
“Since when do I need a bodyguard?” Even as the question comes out of my mouth, I know it’s naive. As much as I try to pretend I am acclimating quickly to this insanely quick change in personal circumstances, I am failing dramatically on several fronts.
“Since you got death threats.”
That makes me hesitate a little. “I got death threats?”
“Yeah.”
“Why? I haven’t done anything. To anyone. I’ve been in the studio recording the tour album since it was announced.”
Simon Scowl shrugs. “It’s just something that happens once you’re famous. There are some people who want to kill everything they know about. Annihilate the world. Don’t worry about it. Zayne will keep you safe. He’s managed to keep every single starlet we’ve processed through the last ten years intact.
The phrase processed through seems a little harsh, but Simon Scowl’s just being real. My time in the limelight is scheduled for the next three years. I have to make as much money in that time as possible because after that I will be entirely irrelevant. Sure, I can keep on touring and put out records and continue to be a quote artist unquote, but I’ll never have this kind of investment backing me again. I’ll never have over a thousand shows lined up for me in a row. I am about to embark on the most exciting, profitable, grueling tour of my life, and I cannot fucking wait.
“Why don’t you two get to know each other,” Simon Scowl says. “You’re going to be spending a lot of time together over the next few months and years. May as well be friends. But nothing more than that. We don’t screw the crew. Got it?”
“I’ll try to contain myself,” I say dryly.
“Alright. Well, I’ll leave you two to get along.”
Simon Scowl leaves the suite. I notice that the taciturn Zayne makes no effort to stop him. I go to follow after him, but having moved out of the way to let my manager pass, Zayne puts out a big alien hand, scruffs me by the back of my dressing gown, and pulls me back like I’m a toddler trying to run into the path of oncoming traffic.
I hate it when dudes I don’t know grab me. The absolute audacity is too much. I do not like being treated like a thing.
“Don’t put your hands on me,” I snarl, slapping at his arm, or trying to. He grabbed me from the back, so I’m kind of left swatting and growling like a snapping turtle. “I will have you fired so fast your head will spin, buddy.”
I don’t actually know if I can have him fired or not. I’ve never threatened to have anybody fired before. I didn’t much like the way it felt coming out of my mouth, but it’s out there now so I guess I’m going to have to double down.
Zayne has yet to say a word to me. Or anyone. Is he mute?
“What? Not going to talk to me? Is that small courtesy too much to ask?”
I do not like being ignored or treated like a lesser creature just because I am human. I notice this happens a lot. Simon Scowl talks to me like people, but from time to time I get the sense he wants to eat me. That could be my leonine-related prejudice showing, though. I have to give every life form a chance. A lot of my fans are alien, and by all accounts a lot of them are better people than most humans.