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Meara opened the door to the apartment, and tossed her purse and things on the entry way table. She unhooked the small terror's leash and let her loose into the space, hoping she would be on best behavior from here on. She waited for Jack to get inside before closing and latching the door as she didn't want random drunks to wander into her place. "Please make yourself at home." Meara said as she started to head to the couches and living space to the left to retrieve her instrument.

She seemed to be on autopilot as she picked up her violin, placed it under her chin, then started to tune it, all while continuing conversation. "On the coffee table here is a packet of documents for you as per our verbal agreement. There is coffee and blood bags in the kitchen if you get thirsty. And if you feel moved to play along you can do that too." Meara smiled at him, though it was forced a little to mask her anxiety. It had been a really long time since she had ever played for such a private audience that could see her. In fact she could hardly remember the last time she played for anyone like this. "This piece is something I composed a little while ago, I hope you enjoy it."

Despite her bubbly exterior, Meara was sometimes a little shy when removed from crowds. She had a hard time making and keeping friends, lovers, really anyone close to her. People tended to abuse her trust because she was so friendly, and over time that made her more hardened to sharing herself with others on this intimate a level. A long drawn out exhale escaped her lips as her eyes closed and bow was brought to strings. The room around her sprung to life as she started playing with the resonant sounds of the violin echoing around them. As she played, the petite woman's body would sway to the music. As she had always dreamed of being a ballerina, that type of movement came out as she twirled, dipped, and spun along to the tune she herself had composed.

Upon hearing the door open, Jack wandered up to Meara’s entryway and followed the young vampiress inside. The first thing he noticed was how neat and tidy the place seemed. It wasn’t that he’d expected to walk into a mess or anything. Meara didn’t have the look of someone who’d throw wild keggers in her place. And Jack didn’t get the vibe that she lived by the mantra of ‘Why do today what can be done tomorrow?’ He was quite grateful that it didn’t smell of stale coffee, old cigarettes, and cheap cologne, like similar situations he’d found himself in in the past. Still though he’d thought the place would have looked a bit lived in. The vampire was sure he could eat off of her floors...if he still did that kind of thing, that is. He sincerely hoped that Meara hadn’t gone to a lot of trouble. He also wondered if he should kick his boots off. Usually he had no problem mucking up the places that he found himself haunting and she did invite the vampire to ‘make himself at home.’ Jack appreciated to cordiality, but if the vampiress was a neat freak, far be it from him to mess up her pristine vibe.

Jack lingered by the doorway for some moments, before deciding to no longer be awkward. Besides Meara was hailing him towards some paperwork. Though it wasn’t something he looked forward to, the musician knew that reviewing it was vital to their new business partnership. The thought of legalese sent a creeping cringe up his spine. As did the thought of feeding again tonight. Accepting that you were a monster wasn’t always as cut and dry as it could be. The vampire was still coming to terms with it. He reached down, unlaced his boots, and slipped them off. His feet were clad in dark, argyle socks and much cleaner than the soles of his boots. At least he could keep his conscience clear in one regard this evening.

As he made his way towards the coffee table to inspect the paperwork, Jack caught a glimpse of Meara tuning her violin. The instrument had a classic, custom look to it and the musician was more interested in expecting it than the pile of papers on the mantel. “That must be your infamous fiddle,” he commented with a grin, but the violinist seemed lost in her own world. Jack could understand that. He often found himself in a similar state when he was writing a song or when a diddy was being born from his strings. They could be solemn moments. Even though the gleam of the cherry stain under the soft light demanded his attention, the vampire knew he needed to give Meara her space as she prepped her axe.

Jack slid his guitar bag off of his back and laid it gently across the couch. He sat on the floor beneath it, leaning back against the base of the large piece of furniture. It put him square in front of the coffee table and sitting with his legs crossed, his knees were just jutting under it. His inner voice gave him a pep talk on the importance of reviewing the documentation thoroughly, but he was rather excited to listen to what Meara was going to play. Maybe not so much what she played, but how she played. From where he was sitting he had a front row seat to the show. He pretended to inspect some of the paperwork as she continued to get herself ready. Jack didn’t want to seem like he was staring, at least until she began to play.

And when her bow began to tickle away at the strings, Jack found that he couldn’t but stare. The notes and harmonies seemed to come to life before his eyes, swirling in beautiful, crystalline patterns of vibrant whites and icy blues. The melodies swayed with the vampiress joining her as a effervescent dance partner. At one point during the crescendo, he could feel the tendrils of song reach out and embrace his heart. The passion in the tune seemed infused with a upbeat, yet haunting harmony. The overall experience left Jack transfixed upon the vampiress. Her performance leaving him in a trance-like state. Even if he had wanted to, the vampire couldn’t look away.

Most of Meara's music was inspired by the beeps and boops of electronica and house. Though one would be hard pressed to believe she was a part of that scene based on looks alone. Previously, she had focused on more traditional folk favorites of the Appalachians as the meat and potatoes of her set. But one night in her early 20's she went to see Beats Antique at the Asheville Music Hall. Their fusion of electronic and middle eastern music captivated her. But it also inspired her to ask: why can't I do that? And so she did.

Songs like the one that was drawing to an end was the end result. Meara began to transition into something altogether different, something more inspired by the rock music that Jack was so fond of. A tremolo started on G, setting the key before she layered her voice over top. "I pirouette in the dark. I see the stars through me." As she trailed off she started to sway along as the music coming from her instrument amplified in response to the call of her voice. Though any musician listening would be able to sense the hesitancy in Meara's voice compared to the bolder sounds ringing from the wooden instrument.

Rhythmic strokes of her bow accompanied her as she reached the chorus, her body tending to still until she stopped singing. While playing was effortless for her, she struggled to combine dance with vocals. Meara would rather let her instrument for her as she didn't like her voice. It seemed so soft and squeaky to her ears compared to the depth and richness of the violin. This would be apparent to her audience as the violin sections between vocals the redhead would lose herself in the music playing with the same intensity, if not more, as the last piece.

As the piece came to a close, she let the final notes ring through out her apartment. Meara stood there still, hesitant to break the silence that had drifted in as the lingering notes flitted away. Blue eyes glanced over to Jack as if to ask, well what do you think. Fingers idly rose to brush a piece of her fiery red mane back behind her ear as she waited for her guest to leave the meditative like state he was seeming to be in.

It wasn’t that Jack had expected Meara to be a poor musician or even just average, quite the contrary really. The vampire was well aware that the dance their kind did with Death was always rewarded with a myriad of gifts, not least among them the expansion and perfection of talents pre-existing from life. The way Meara jammed on her violin though, it completely blew him away. What she must have possessed in life would have been grand, standing on its own. He couldn’t help but wonder what the hell was she doing in Harper Rock? Other than hanging out in the vampire capital of the world.

Maybe it was a blessing that they had her for all eternity, vampire kind that is. The sounds that she produced with her violin were too perfect to be claimed by mortal ears. True, Meara could have gone grocery shopping or to the bank and passed as human. The way she glowed, radiated life, could have fooled even the most trained of eyes. But when she played a perfection flowed forth from her strings, that was a sure tell of her preternatural proclivities. The details within the harmonies were so minute and intricate that they could never be imitated, making her tunes masterpieces in their own right. It was just something a human ear couldn’t appreciate, at least to the fullest.

And as she played into a completely different style, the vampiress never missed a beat, never lost her flow. The second melody began on a much darker note. Jack was quite surprised to hear her voice as an accompaniment. Though the violin seemed to be the dominant partner in their relationship, Meara’s singing added a new depth to the power of her rhythm. Much like the hypnotizing motions of her swaying and spinning, it dripped with a raw emotion that amplified the power of her fiddle as the vampiress jammed on into eternity. It left him feeling inspired, energized, powerful. But it also left the young vampire a lump of proverbial clay, ready and waiting for Meara to mold. It wasn’t just the song, but the way her red locks seemed to whirl with the rhythm around her bright, heart-shaped complexion. It was the way that the blue in her eyes seemed to flow like ocean waves, insync with each and every note. Right now he’d sign any form she put in front of him, agree to any contractual stipulations, dance to any tune she decided to sing. Hell, if Meara told Jack he was a frog, he’d probably start hopping around the room right about now. The violinist’s performance had left him completely susceptible to her whims.

Once the act had ended, Jack wanted to cry out for more. The musician inside of him wanted to pull out a guitar and start jamming right along with her. He wished he had an electric axe with him, rather than his customary acoustic. A tune had brewed in his mind during her set. Something that, he feared, he’d never be able to capture with his old maghony friend. It would have been something to honor the beauty of what he had just been witness to. He let it play for a bit through the twists and turns of his thoughts before he realized that the room was silent and he was staring.

Jack turned a shade of crimson. It was a reaction he was unaccustomed to, even in the days before he had fled the realm of the living. He hadn’t even known that vampires could still flush. He hoped that Meara didn’t think him lost to the oblivion, missing her performance, missing her song. It was the exact opposite. He’d become completely engrossed in it. Perhaps that was just as bad though. He really hoped that his mouth hadn’t been hanging open. He had to find a point of recovery, something to smooth over this awkward moment of his own design. So he did the only thing he could imagine doing at a time like this. He gave the vampiress, the classic Jack Diddly smile. A true, charming grin filled with kindness, mirth, and even a bit of wonder. It had all the allure of a daydream while keeping a childhood innocence firmly intact. “Wasn’t aware that Heaven had violinists. Thought the big guy in the clouds was strictly a trumpet man,” he said in that gruff, melodious tone of his, “a girl with gifts like yours, shouldn’t be shut up behind the scenes typing up contracts,” he signaled to the pile paper on the table with his right hand, though his motion was a bit slow, belabored. Jack was still feeling the effects of Meara’s music. It seemed to throb inside of him, as if it had a life all its own.

For a moment, Meara was worried she was going to have to snap her fingers to bring Jack out of the trance he seemed to be in. Shortly after her turning, Meara noticed that if she wasn't careful her performances would act like a hypnotists pendulum and lull people into a trance. Most of the time, this supernatural sleight of hand was great because she would return home with more money per unit time. However, sometimes Meara felt a little bit skeezy because she enthralled unsuspecting victims into doing her bidding. This was the nature of both the gift and the curse of the Allurist. You could make people pay attention to you, but you could also bend their free will. However she had never put another vampire into this sort of state.

She felt relieved when she noticed Jack seeming to stir as his gaze became more focused and less like he was in a daydream. She took a few steps forward before he started to speak, which slowed her advance forward. Immediately she could feel her cheeks burning a fierce color of red as she listened to the compliments he was paying her. Meara could be in front of thousands of people cheering her name and be fine, but this? She'd rather be forced to feed from a live human. The redhead tried to play it cool as her bow was placed in the same hand as the scroll of her violin, then let her hand push her unruly hair back out of her face.

"I mean I didn't type them, my assistant Tori handles all my legalese." She mentioned offhandedly before she came over and sat next to Jack on the couch. Meara laid the violin and bow on the coffee table as she turned on the couch to face her guest with her hands resting in her lap. "I've actually never sang the lyrics to that myself in a performance. I usually have other collaborators do that. But I do hope you enjoyed it." Meara let her lips close and stay that way lest a bunch of anxious babbling came out. Between the post performance vibes and Jack referring to her as an angel, she was a little hyper ball of nerves.

The energy produced by Meara’s music was still buzzing through him. It was as if Jack had become a transistor. Songs of his own design, though inspired by the vampiress’s performance, seemed to blink into and out of existence second after second. He’d be satisfied if he could hold on to just one. He took flight in the depths of his mind, sliding down a staff of celestial colors and synchronized sounds. Melodies and harmonies shot this way and that all around him with a speed that reflected the lively energy he’d become a conduit of. With arms outstretched he attempted to grab onto anything that happened to fly into his path, anything that he could pull out of his imagination before it returned to the abyss of swirling stars below. The notes collapsed in his hands though, as if made by so many grains of sand, and drifted off into the darkness below.

Upon Meara’s approach, Jack slid his guitar case to the side, giving her some room to sit. While she pushed a bit of her wildfire hair back from her eyes, he noticed she had become a bit flushed as well. The vampire assumed that it was from the playing she’d just done. A performance had the potential to be quite taxing. Especially when executed in the manner hers had been. At least he wasn’t the only vampire that could blush.

“I hope I didn’t put you to too much trouble,” he began as Meara plopped herself down on the couch above him. When she passed the violin onto the coffee table, Jack snuck a closer look at it. A fine tool it was, albeit one he knew very little about. He looked back up at the vampiress as he continued, “havin’ you play for me, I mean.” Jack really was concerned that he had put the vampiress out. Though Meara, didn’t seem to be angry, he pondered on different ways he might be able to remedy the situation. “I am glad you decided to sing ‘em tonight,” he flashed that smile again before continuing, “you should do that more often. You have a knack for it.”

‘ACK, JACK, JACK!’ A jolt of cold pain stabbed through his brain and down his spin. It was as if his mind were being jabbed with a dull steak knife. In one swift motion, the vampire visibly winced, grabbed hold of the back of his head with his left hand, and cursed. It was May’s voice. Throughout the performance she’d been unusually quiet. ‘What the hell!’ He shouted back with his inner voice. ‘I’ve been trying to get through to you for the past half hour! I thought you were dead, well more dead, or like getting killed, I don’t know, you just wouldn’t resp’ the phantom's panicked voice cut out abruptly. And for whatever reason, Jack didn’t think too much of it.

"Its hard to sing and play."Meara mused with a small smile. "You kinda have to choose two: dance, sing, or play. I mean think about Michael Jackson, he sang and danced. You sing and play - though I suspect you might be a good dancer." This of course was an assumption on her part. Meara alikened Jack to Ed Sheeran in her head, primarily based on looks and instrument of choice. Jack's dopple danced in several of his videos, so at least to Meara's logic, Jack probably was at least serviceable. Much like she was with her voice.

She gave a loose shake of her head. "Nah-its not a problem at all. I just get more nervous in this in-" When Jack yelped in pain, Meara gave a small gasp of surprise. "Oh my goodness, are you okay?" She queried while leaning in to check jack's head and the couch for whatever had caused the man's distress. He hadn't even started to work for her yet, there was no way he could get hurt already. Alex would kill her if she got her sort of sibling hurt, even though she was sure Jack could handle himself. "What happened?" Blue eyes looked back at him, full of concern.

Quick thinking would be required now, lest their secret be outed. Now Jack didn’t much care if folks knew that he kept a phantom paramore, or rather that one kept him. He figured they’d think him crazy anyway and dismiss the fact as a raving. It was May who took issue. On night one she had sworn him to silence about their partnership. After everything that had happened, keeping said silence was the least the vampire could do. Jack was usually pretty good at playing things down, literally and metaphorically. Usually if someone caught them conversing, Jack would just say he was going over song lyrics or if they caught him staring off, he’d chock it up to daydreaming, which was kind of true anyway.

“Yeah, apologies,” he began in that melodious, drawling tone of his as he looked up to Meara with a smile on his face, “just a bit of a headache, happens from time to time.” Did vampires even get headaches? Jack wasn’t sure. He supposed that they could considering that some were brought on for mental, rather than physical, reasons. Not even the blood could cure insanity. Meara seemed genuinely concerned. It was kind of cute and Jack laughed a little, “all’s well, now what was it you were sayin’? Dancin’?” The vampire truly did appreciate the concern, but turning the subject away from his ghostly girl and the ailments she sometimes brought on, was the best decision.

“I don’t know ‘bout any dancin’,” Jack continued with a bit of a nervous laugh and a shy smile. He couldn’t recall the last time he danced. There had been nights with May of course, in the crowds at shows with their favorite bands or in the darkness of the holes where they’d lay their heads. It was nothing formal, mostly just silly swaying with the music or an excuse to hold each other, not that they ever needed one. He needed to get his mind away from May, but it drifted back to days long passed.

It might be different now that he was a vampire though. Surely his shot had sharpened. Not just at throwing darts, but also at blowing the brains out of monsters. It had become a past time these last months and there was always another one or three to kill. Maybe like his aim, his groove had improved as well. Not to mention the advancement his skills for sleight of hand and the art of illusion. Hell, maybe he could dance these days. “Been awhile since I did anythin’ like that,” he finished softly, his mind stuck sinking into the past while rising to the present. He hadn’t realized it, but he wasn’t looking at Meara any longer, just staring down into his lap, fiddling with his hands.

Meara got the feeling from jack's quick change of subject back to what they were talking about that he didn't want to talk about whatever was the cause of his malady. She didn't think vampires like them could suffer from headaches, but it wasn't like she knew Jack well enough to pry further. Besides she had used that excuse to get out of things as a human, so she knew that was her clue to butt out.

"Well if you like, we can fix that some time. Course I wouldn't try to make you cut a rug on the spot." Meara teased as she leaned back into the couch cushions. "Okay, so do you have any questions before we finalize the annoying bit of business? I'd rather get to the fun part of making music together and starting to plan gigs." Her blue eyes glanced back to the paperwork before them, mainly to show she was serious about having him involved on his terms in her little venture. A prize winning grin was flashed as her fingers reached to pick the blue pen off the table and offered it to Jack, hoping to not seem too over-eager.

But as she waited for the man's reply her mind was already painting a picture. She had recently been in talks with the city for a Indian Summer festival, that was hopefully going to be held at the end of August. And she was going to be coordinating all the entertainment. She had a mind to make Jack the headliner, and perhaps join him for a few numbers. She had already booked the saxophonist and his jazz group from the night she met Jack in the bar, as well as a local indie group. If she had Jack's eyes helping her scout talent, they could probably get it down pat in nothing flat.

“I think that’d be grand, just go easy in me,” the young vampire replied turning back to Meara with a wink and a smile. He knew that he should have had a million and a half different questions about the terms of their agreement, however, none were coming to him right now. It was as if the vampiress’s music had wiped his mind of any doubts he may have had. It might have wiped a bit more than that, he was still feeling a bit heady from the score. At any rate, Jack was ready to sign his soul away.

Accepting the pen from the smiling redhead, Jack asked the only thing that seemed relevant, “Where do I sign?” Much had already changed for the musician since starting his dance with death and he was sure there was plenty more change to come. One thing remained static for him though, his love for making melodies. If it was song that was to be his anchor to life, then so be it. He couldn’t think of anything better to keep him grounded, to keep him from truly becoming the monster that lurked in the depths of his being.

Looking down at the pile of paperwork he awaited Meara’s instruction. Another question popped into his head, but it was one that was probably better left unasked. It was rather silly, a musing more than a question, really. It was just hard to comprehend that his name on a dotted line was his potential ticket to a decent lineup of shows. They didn’t call it ‘the business’ for nothing. Meara seemed to have her head on straight, from what Jack had seen from her. He had no reason to question her process or capability. Most would wave this off as a formality yet hold it over your head later on when it most suited them. Meara seemed to view it as nothing more than a formality, something for which the vampire was grateful.