Scarlett wasn’t under any illusion she’d actuallygethim, but a girl could wish.The man had women hanging all over him.Definitely not relationship material.Between Seth and her brother, the rest of the band was shit out of luck.OK, that wasn’t exactly true either -- they all had women at their beck and call.She wasn’t going to be one of the groupies.No matter how much she wanted Seth, she absolutely would not be anyone’s “beck-and-call” girl.
“You know, there are devices you can use that will make tuning a twelve-string guitar much easier.Andmore accurate.”Seth leaned his hip against the doorframe lazily while Scarlett continued to work.“Ever hear of the G-Force Tuning System?Or Gibson Min-ETune?Doing it by ear isn’t going to work.Not if you don’t want it to sound like fucking shit.”There was a scowl on his face.One that said he hated dealing with amateurs.Which just pissed her off.So she ignored him, continuing her task.When he realized she wasn’t going to answer him, he said, “I can see this isn’t going to work.Arsen is just going to have to suck it up for one more concert.”
Instead of rising to his bait, Scarlett gave the guitar a chord progression, adjusting a couple of things, then strummed once more.She reached for a nearby tuning fork, struck it gently on the nearby table, and tested her “A” string once more.She didn’t need the tuning fork; she had perfect pitch.It was all to show Seth he was about to get more than he’d bargained for.Once more, for her own benefit, she ran through the chord progression.
“Sounds just about perfect,” she mused, not looking up.
“Not quite,” Seth challenged.“I’ve been listening to a twelve-string guitar my whole life, and yours doesn’t sound like it should.Can’t put my finger on it but…”
She gave him an “embarrassed-for-you” look before explaining like she might to a child.“That’s because I custom-tune my twelve-string.I don’t always use a standard tuning.It will make the songs I wrote sound like they were supposed to sound in the first place.”
“When Arsen brought them to the band, he made themhissongs.SnowFyer’s songs.The crowd expects them to sound a certain way.You’re going to make a mess of things.”
“Arsen and I agree on most things, but he plays his guitar his own way.I play my guitar my way.Some songs I’ll play his way, others I’ll do differently.Arsen is a great guitarist.He taught me everything he knew in the beginning.But, if you ask him, he’ll tell you I learned a few things he wasn’t interested in.SnowFyer has a certain sound, and he’s a big part of that.”She gave him a smug grin.“I, however, am not Arsen.But I can play every song, every single riff the exact same way he does, if the band wants me to.”
“Of course we want that!Are you crazy or just stupid?”Seth looked absolutely livid.Scarlett was headed that way herself, but she couldn’t afford a show of temper.Yet.She was right, and she knew it.She just had to make it through one rehearsal session with the entire band -- Arsen included -- and let them see the error of Seth’s thinking.
She smiled sweetly.“Only when I put up with bullshit from a fucking vocalist trying to tell me how to play my guitar.”When he opened his mouth to speak, she held up her hand.“Tell it to me after rehearsal, mic boy.”There was no anger in her voice, though her words were more than a little bitchy.Instead, she rose gracefully and left the room.Scarlett acted cool and collected, but her heart was pounding.If it hadn’t been for how much she wanted this to work, she’d have smashed her guitar over his handsome head.Instead, she strummed the strings for comfort as she made her way to the stage.
The band sometimes liked to have an hour’s rehearsal in the main venue before sound checks the next day.Scarlett even had it written into the contract, so they could do it as late in the evening as necessary in order to be alone.This was also the best way to reveal Scarlett’s unique sound to everyone.If it was too much of a change, they would tell her and she could, indeed, mimic Arsen’s style.Arsen, of course, already knew and had encouraged her to use her own unique flair.It would definitely work on the songs she’d written for the band.On other songs, she’d use the standard tuning for her double-neck six- and twelve-strings.If this went according to plan, she’d have five guitars set up for the concert, which included her backups and guitars with alternate tunings so she didn’t have to tune on the fly.Not as many as Jimmy Page, but she wasn’t that good.Yet.
Scarlett took her time getting to the stage, needing to compose herself.She had the support of her brother and Ferris.The band would go along with whatever they said -- he and Ferris were the guitar experts -- but if Seth didn’t like it, no matter how much Ferris and Arsen berated him, she would be a no go.Because once she’d committed to doing this her way, there was no way in hell she’d alter her mindset or her belief in the music in order to please a man too stubborn to see her as an equal.And that was what it all came down to.Sure, there were a few women out there who made it into the mostly male club of hard-rocking guitar players, but they were few and far between.This was a man’s world.One they only let women into grudgingly.
“I’m telling you, let her work, Seth.”That was Arsen, ever the peacemaker.Not only that, but this had been his idea.He’d told her to do it her own way and only compromise on the songs she hadn’t written.Even some of those, he’d told her to do her own thing, because if she sounded too much like him there would be speculation it had all been a recording.
“Are you sure she’s up to this?I know a little bit about alternate tunings but this isn’t right for us.Besides, she tries to tune her instrument by ear!That may work for the professionals, but she’s not made it that far.”
“Just go with it.Give her a chance.”He ushered Seth to the side, but Scarlett could still hear him.“I’m your oldest friend.I helped you get this band up and running.It’s as big a part of me as it is you.Do you honestly think I’d lead you wrong in this?”
With an exasperated sigh, Seth capitulated.“Fine.But if she sucks, I’m not going to hesitate to pull her ass.”
“If she is even the least bit off, I’ll pull her myself,” Arsen assured.
No pressure there.
Taking a deep breath, Scarlett strolled out onto the stage as if she hadn’t heard Seth and his tirade.She could do this.She wasbornto do this.
No one was around other than the band and a minimal crew.The stadium sound engineer had wanted to be there, but Arsen had assured the man they would be in for the scheduled sound check tomorrow and would welcome him and his crew and their technical expertise with open arms.This was their time to get themselves ready for the next evening, and they didn’t need any distractions or an audience.No one was to be let into the stadium for any reason.
Seth glanced her way and stalked over to her, taking the lead mic.“OK, sweetheart,” he said in his most patronizing voice, the sound echoing all around them in the empty arena.“You’ve got your shot.”He jerked his chin at her, cocky smirk in place, as if he just knew she was getting ready to fall flat on her face.“Let’s see what you’ve got.”
Scarlett narrowed her eyes at him, taking another deep, cleansing breath for patience.Then she started playing the haunting ballad she’d written for their latest album.
It started out with arpeggios on the twelve-string in a slow rhythm.The minor key added a note of mystery to it, but the custom tuning of her guitar added a fuller, richer, bigger sound to something so simple.At once, Ferris’s gaze snapped to her, the other man hearing the differences immediately.He stood straighter, actually taking a step toward her before Arsen put a restraining hand on his shoulder.
Scarlett tried to ignore the rest of them as best she could, not needing the added pressure of their professional scrutiny.This “audition” was hard enough.She knew she was good.Had started playing guitar as soon as she was big enough to reach around the neck with her tiny hands.Even before that she’d tried, picking up so much on her own Arsen had taken her under his wing so she didn’t learn bad habits.Now was her moment of truth.
She concentrated on playing the music, anticipating everyone’s moment in the spotlight.It was hard to do, especially for the bass guitar.But she’d written the song.She and Arsen had gone over everything before she’d turned it over to the band to begin with.She knew this music inside and out.
She proved it, leading them all through the soft beginning after the arpeggios, through the rhythm section, to the hard, fuzz-guitar section that brought the song to its climactic ending.It sounded like SnowFyer, but it also sounded like Scarlett.Her own unique abilities shone through yet kept the originality that was the band.
As she let the last note linger, she didn’t let it simply fade out as she would have if she were ending the song.She’d written “Devil’s Heart” to transition seamlessly with “Nightmare in Heaven,” the band’s signature song, so that it blended from eerily beautiful to a riot of heavy metal as, in her mind, the Devil brought sin to Eden.The arpeggio guitar riffs in “Devil’s Heart” were similar to the arpeggios in “Nightmare in Heaven.”
As she continued to play, the rest of the band stopped.Steeling herself mentally, she made the transition from one song to the next, using a few bars to change one note at a time in the riff until the harder, quicker beat became clear.Once it was obvious what she’d done, Titan picked up with the heavy drums.Scarlett switched from the twelve-string electric to that hard, buzzing sound of heavy-metal guitars on her double-neck using the same riff.Ferris gave a rebel yell of triumph as he picked up his part, and Ra and Garrick dove in behind them.
Again, she led the band through the subtle changes she’d made as seamlessly as if they’d been doing this together for years.Her backup vocals -- where Arsen would have picked up had he been playing with them -- blended seamlessly with Seth’s, the contrasts in their voices complementing each other the way only male and female voices could.Even Seth picked up his part with a vigor and enthusiasm she hadn’t seen from him in years.It was as if the song were suddenly new to them, like they were hearing a song they knew would be their anthem for years to come for the very first time.
Seth seemed to catch himself three-quarters of the way through the song and toned it down.But the damage was done, so to speak.There was no way any of them could deny she had the right to be there.
