Madelynne Ellis - Come Together

‘But we are. It’ll be fine. It’s only the first night. Once we’re through this, things will settle down.’

Dani hoped Ash was right, but at the moment she wasn’t even sure how Xane was going to manage to sing. ‘How do you and Ash know one another?’ she asked Iain.

‘We were in a band together once. Sorry, who are you?’

‘She’s Xane’s girlfriend,’ Ash said.

‘Oh, right! It was back in college. Do you ever see any of those guys any more?’

‘No.’

‘Remember Tom? I wonder if he still has a games controller welded to his hand.’

‘Probably. Shouldn’t you catch up with Xane?’ Ash nudged her in the direction of her lover. Dani caught up with Xane as he was slipping his yellow contact lenses in. He blinked to make sure they were sitting right. It shocked her just how much they altered his visage. Gone were the shadows and pain she knew he had locked up inside, replaced by a vision of ghoulish decadence.

‘What?’ he asked, curling his lip in response to her stare.

‘Are you all right?’

‘Yeah.’

‘It’s just you were –’ She didn’t want to say rude, even though that’s exactly what he’d been. ‘It’s not his fault. He’s helping you out, Xane.’

‘Yeah, ’cause stepping in to drum for Black Halo is a real hardship. He’s not helping us. He’s helping himself.’

‘Must you be quite so cynical?’

‘Yes, actually.’ He sneered, in a way that probably shouldn’t have wet her panties but did.

‘Xane.’

‘What?’

She stretched on tiptoes to steal a kiss.

‘Um,’ he responded, not pushing her away.

‘Are you always this tense right before you go on?’

‘Sometimes. Not always. It’s odd going out there without him. We’ve always done this together, and now I have to introduce him .’ He inclined his head towards Iain without looking at him. ‘Like I want to go out and say, this is our farewell to Steve and, by the way, here’s his substitute.’

‘Then don’t introduce him. Just play.’

He smiled. ‘And you think I’m rude.’ He shook his head, but kept on grinning. ‘Come here. I need another one of these.’ He demanded another kiss, and another, like he hoped to find strength inside her. Rock Giant walked past and made a loud puking noise. Xane responded by sticking a finger up at him. He didn’t release her, though, not until Ash tapped him on the shoulder.

‘Time’s up, mate. You need to put the nice lady down now.’ He grasped hold of Xane’s upper arm and used the hold to turn him away from Dani and towards the stage. ‘We just need to borrow him for a bit. I swear I’ll bring him back.’

‘Stay right there,’ Xane insisted. ‘The moment I get off …’

‘You’ll what? Get her off?’ Ash interrupted. He gave her a cheeky grin. ‘We’re having a live sex show as an encore. You never said that. If I’d known, I’d have put it on the advertising.’

Xane slapped him round the head, but Dani was grateful to him for lightening the mood.

‘Save it for later, boys.’ Spook glided past them, his guitar already in his hands. ‘You can do all the manly wrestling you like post-show.’

‘I’d rather wrestle with his special friend.’ Ash grabbed Dani’s hand and twirled her round.

Xane dragged him off her. ‘Get your own special friend.’

Ash pouted. ‘But Xane, all my friends are special.’ He waved at the girls waiting patiently in the corner. ‘Since you’re bringing Dani, can I bring them along?’

Xane shoved him up onto the stage.

‘Good luck,’ Dani called after them. She went and joined Ash’s fan club, who had a prime spot at the front of the stage. She was still surprised by Ginny’s presence among them. ‘Why are you here?’ she asked again.

‘To save you the best spot in the house.’ She dragged Dani to the front, right up against the barrier. ‘And Ash is hot. I fancied another helping. You can’t blame me for wanting a little of what you have with Xane.’

‘I don’t, but … Ginny, he’s not like Xane. He’s –’

‘Thank God. You can keep mister tall, dark and brooding. I’ll have mister –’

‘– slightly less tall and brooding,’ Dani suggested.

Ginny conceded the point with a grin. ‘Yeah, I guess.’ She linked their arms. ‘This is going to be epic. Are you ready to scream yourself hoarse?’

Dani nodded, because the band had exploded into sound and there was no way Ginny would possibly hear her reply. She had to wonder at her friend’s behaviour, though. Since when was standing in the crowd or singing herself hoarse Ginny’s idea of fun? The last time they’d come to see Black Halo, Ginny hadn’t been remotely interested in seeing them play, only on scoring herself a good time. Evidently the night she’d spent with Ash, Spook and Rock Giant had changed her mind about that. She was now yelling like she was their number-one fan.

The crowd were fucking wild, baying and whooping and slamming their bodies against the barriers that lined the front of the stage. After the post-show mayhem following their last show, security weren’t up for taking risks. There was a row of hulking brutes between Xane and his audience. It didn’t matter. He blanked out everything else, the uneasy truce that had brought him here, the imposter on his stage, the six-foot incision in his chest, and immersed himself in the music and the limelight. He dragged up lyrics and raw emotions from the darkest reaches of his soul, and then spat them at the audience – who lapped them up and worshipped him, singing, screaming along with him to the songs they knew, and communicating through the rhythm of their bodies their appreciation of the new material.

For a short time, the rapture they shared made him feel whole again. Gone were the feelings of resentment, gone his anxieties. The mechanics of the band hardly seemed to matter, as long as the music continued to come from the heart and maintained its poetic beauty.

The crowd worshipped him and they went crazy over Spook and Ash back to back, fingers working lightning-fast as their guitars duelled and Rock Giant maintained the thumping bass.

He didn’t try to blank out Steve. He let his loss show as he sang his farewell to him, and if a stray tear fell, then it was no bad thing. It didn’t make him soft. It simply expressed the extent of his grief. He knew the crowd understood, that they were shocked and traumatised by Steve’s loss too.

Xane finished off the evening with a torch song, guaranteed to pierce the hearts of the audience. It was an old favourite, from Black Halo’s first album, before they’d gone multi-platinum. In fact, this song had been the one to jet them into the stratosphere. ‘Torn Into’ struck a chord with people in a big way. The crowd crooned along with him.

Sadly, gone were the days of them holding their lighters aloft as they sang. Instead, he faced a sea of lit mobile-phone faces. It wasn’t quite the same, but probably resulted in fewer burned fingers.

Time sped up while he was out there. They said their farewells. Then came back and played a bitching version of ‘Perverted Wraiths’ as an encore, the driving beat leaving their audience adrenalin-crazed and punch-drunk. Xane took his bow as the lights faded away, feeling high and more at ease than he had in months.

Backstage hummed with activity; he could feel the buzz straightaway. The crew were all on a high, grinning as they went about their jobs. There wasn’t much time to party. The plan was to pack up and hit the road tonight, so they could settle into the new venue tomorrow without too much sweat. The first few days of a tour were always a bit chaotic, until everyone got into a routine.