Baby of the Band

Fourteen

Siren wasn't surprised by her daughter–whom she'd already pretty much admitted belonged to the front man, too–scooting down outta his lap. Her fist was still clutched around the necklace he'd taken off earlier, which she handed to her with a giggle before Returning to where she'd been sitting. Taking the string of Turquoise beads, she let her eyes slip shut and tuned out the drummer explaining what she was doing to him with a chuckle.

        After getting a good read on his Energy so she could zero in on him and only him, the young Witch started dealing another thirteen-card Celtic Cross. There was no telling what could come up in his reading, but based on what she knew about Bret–she was a fan of Poison, after all–much of it wouldn't be good, both personally and professionally.

        With the thirteen cards dealt out, she set the rest of her deck aside and shifted so she was actually sitting, rather than kneeling next to the coffee table. Only then did she start turning cards face-up, and part of her wasn't surprised by the first and second ones in the least. That just made her even more curious about what else was gonna be Revealed, and she could sense that his friends were all just as curious without even looking up at them.

        "Didn't we just see the Emperor in Rikki's reading?" Mishy asked once she'd flipped over the final card.

        "We did, but in his case, it was upright," she answered. "In Bret's, it's reversed."

        "So, what's that supposed to mean?" said front man asked curiously, leaning forward a bit to see better.

        "Tyranny, rigidity, and coldness," Siren answered matter-of-factly.

        He started to argue, but Rikki cut him off as gently as he could. "Dude, think about what a Control-freak ya are when it comesta songwriting, especially the guitar parts."

        He simply shot him a dirty look, but bit back whatever he'd been about to say.

        "I just explained what the Devil upright meant, so let's move on to the third card," the young Witch told them. "It's Death reversed, which means a Fear of Change, holding on, stagnation, and decay."

        "I wouldn't say I Fear Change necessarily, but the last two kinda sound like the band some Days," Bret admitted on a sigh. "And trying to hold on can be like riding a Bull in a bar sometimes."

        "Tell me about it," the drummer dead-panned, even Rob nodding.

        "The fourth card's the Wheel of Fortune upright," Siren continued. "That means Change, Cycles, and inevitable Fate."

        None of them could quite figure out what that meant before the front man'd a sudden brainstorm.

        "I betcha that's eluding to that call I got about CC earlier," he mused.

        Cocking a brow at him, Rikki asked what he meant, which allowed him an opening to finally discuss that call with him and the pint-sized bassist. Even though he'd said he was willing to take one for the team so they could cancel the tour, he wasn't taking the rehab program he'd checked himself into seriously. He'd been caught running through the place he was at, buck-nekkid and raving about aliens coming to get him with white powder around his mouth and nose. Bret still couldn't figure out how on Earth he'd gotten a hold of coke in a rehab center, but addicts were addicts, he supposed.

        Moving on to the fifth card, the young Witch said that it was the Magickian upright, which eluded to Willpower, Desire, Creation, and Manifestation. That could cover a broad spectrum of things in his Life, whether it was Romantic, Centered on the band, or anything in between. It didn't really give them any hints on anything, other than to say that he was a strong-Willed guy, which they already knew.