Madelynne Ellis - Come Alive

‘Did I scare her off?’ Spook asked, joining Xane by the side of the tour bus.

‘She wanted to freshen up.’ He noticed her panties poking out from under the bus, and hunched down to retrieve them.

‘Corrupting her again?’ Spook asked, watching Xane stuff the scrap of silk and lace into his pocket.

‘She initiated everything.’

Spook clapped him across the back. ‘Only in your dreams.’ They stood back and looked one another over for a moment. Three weeks wasn’t a long time, considering the length of their friendship, but there had still been a few changes. Spook’s blond hair was a good few inches shorter, and the skin on his upper arm was still slightly pink around the design of a new tattoo.

‘Let’s have a look.’ Xane turned his friend’s arm so he could see the design. It was clearly another variant on the Norse theme of Spook’s other tattoos.

‘Mjolnir,’ Spook elaborated. ‘Thor’s Hammer.’

‘Looks good. That the only new addition?’

‘For the moment.’

They began walking towards the lake edge, where rows upon rows of speedboats and sailboats were moored. Xane looked back, but there was still no sign of Dani. Xane prayed she wasn’t cowering in a closet.

‘Are you sure you know what you’re doing?’ Spook asked. ‘I like her, Xane, and she’s good for you, anyone can see that, but it’s obvious she’s way out of her depth. You’re a dirty fucker, you don’t need me to point that out, and she’s like spun sugar. I’m not sure she’s really cut out to be part of your threesome fantasies.’

‘We’re not a threesome. Dani and Luthor aren’t fucking. Nor have I embroiled her in anything. She was the one who insisted on Luthor and me making out.’

‘You’re fucking them both, Xane, or you will be as soon as our new drummer puts in an appearance, and don’t pretend you haven’t been fantasising about taking them both to bed. I know you. I know how your mind works, especially when it’s your cock doing the thinking. But you need to get your head in the game, because you can’t screw this up. We need Luthor to stick around or this band is going to dissolve around our ears. Black Halo can’t take another drama. We’re barely holding together as it is.’

The last few months had been rough, starting with Elspeth and Steve’s shock marriage, followed by Steve’s untimely death and then all the unpleasantness with Iain. Yet somehow they’d weathered all that, and things had to get better from this point on … had to.

There wouldn’t be any more drama. Especially not where they were heading.

‘Do you think the others are going to show?’ Spook asked.

‘Why wouldn’t they?’

His friend shot him a side-eye.

‘They’ll be here,’ Xane said decisively. The bastards had better be, or he was going to chop them into itty little bits.

Spook rubbed the non-existent fuzz upon his jaw. ‘Well, Ash will be. He and Ginny are flying in by helicopter later today.’

‘Troels said he’d seen Rock Giant.’

‘Then I guess things look promising.’ They strolled on a little further, finally coming to a halt beside the Valkyrie, a white and blue speedboat with a sleek wood and leather interior. ‘This is us. You may as well hop on board.’

‘I’ll go back and get the bags.’ He turned to find Dani already heading towards him alongside Cave Troll, who was carrying their luggage. Having ascertained his help wasn’t required, Xane climbed into the belly of the boat alongside Spook, who started checking various dials. ‘Haven’t you been home?’ Xane asked.

‘No, I decided to stick around in Karlstad and make sure things were fine for Ash.’

‘But someone has filled the fridge, right?’

‘I have a housekeeper. I’m sure she’s stocked up on everything you could possibly want, including what anyone else would consider a year’s supply of prophylactics.’

Xane hooked his arm around Spook’s neck and planted a kiss upon his cheek. ‘That’s sweet of you to have added condoms to the shopping list.’

Spook recoiled from the contact. ‘Yeah, well, you might not consider me so sweet when I ban shagging on my property. Get the fuck off me, Xane.’

‘Bastard. You wouldn’t.’

Spook bent over, laughing. ‘Totally might if your inability to keep it in your pants starts impacting the group harmony. God, your face! Poor little Xane. Can’t contemplate going more than a few hours without sex or his knob might fall off.’

Xane stuck out his tongue. ‘Shagging is good for the soul.’

‘Not having to deal with your relationship shit is good for mine. Have to question my own sanity agreeing to hole up on a tiny strip of land in the middle of a lake with you, your two current lovers and your ex.’

‘No less sensible than riding on a tour bus with me for the last God knows how many years.’

‘Yeah, that’s true.’

Xane jabbed him in the ribs with his elbow. ‘Lighten up, will you? We’re going to relax, recuperate and emerge in a month or so with a score of new tracks and all our heads screwed on the right way.’

The misgivings swimming in Spook’s pale eyes remained. ‘That’ll be novel. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you with your head on right.’

‘Nah, mostly it’s halfway up his arse,’ a voice boomed from several feet away.

‘Paul.’

‘Rock Giant, my man.’ Xane greeted him by sticking out his hand, but the other man simply knocked it aside, locked him in a hug and thumped him across the back with enough force to leave Xane spluttering.

‘What happened to you? You look as if you’ve been dip-dyed,’ Spook asked the newcomer, squinting at the medley of green and purple tie-dye – and that was just his hair.

Rock Giant ignored the question and threw his oversized duffel bag into a corner of the boat. ‘Is this it? Where is everyone?’

‘Ash and Ginny are coming later. They’re sneaking him out of the hospital. Dani’s right here.’ Spook nodded at her as she boarded, and Cave Troll passed her the suitcases. ‘So we’re just waiting on Elspeth and Luthor.’

‘Yeah.’ Rock Giant stroked a hand through the multi-coloured strands of his hair. ‘Elspeth’s not coming. That is, she’s not coming yet. I’m sure she’ll be here in time for your party. Yep, definitely, she will be.’ He nodded at Xane.

‘What the fuck do you mean, she’s not coming? We’re supposed to be getting together to work.’

On a personal level, Xane didn’t actually give a shit whether Queen Elspeth turned up. The rift she’d opened when she’d run off and married his best friend had barely scabbed over. It’d be a long time before he forgave her for all the shit that one act of utter selfishness had caused, but on a professional level they needed her here. The purpose of meeting up and descending on Spook’s place wasn’t to chill out, eat birthday cake and have fun – though they would do some of that – but so they could start getting their shit together for the next album, and make decent use of the time they had on their hands because of the postponement of their Requiem for the Damned tour.

‘I mean she’s not coming. She sent me a text about an hour ago. See …’ He held up his mobile phone so that Xane could see the message.

E: NOT COMING. Will try to make it for the party.

‘That’s it? No friggin’ explanation?’

‘Maybe she just needs to be away from you.’ Rock Giant slipped the phone back into a pocket. ‘So, moving on to the two big questions; how long do we wait for the new guy, and who gets to drive this beauty?’

Spook made an immediate dive towards the steering wheel. ‘Oh, no, you’re not driving.’

‘Aw, come on. That’s not fair. You know I love driving, and this is … this is a speed boat.’ The way he extended ‘speed’ into the sound of a buzzing engine raised a host of smiles, but every one of them shook their heads at the same time, Spook the most emphatically.