Come Alive

by Madelynne Ellis

  ‘You’ll be playing again before you know it.’ Ginny gave him a reassuring squeeze.

  ‘I guess that leaves me.’ Rock Giant left his cushion mountain and grabbed two hessian sacks tied up with string that had been sitting against the terrace wall. Xane had assumed they contained garden waste. ‘Here’s this year’s tribute.’

  ‘Potatoes, mushrooms,’ Xane guessed.

  ‘Mate, you’re not even close.’

  The remark wasn’t overly reassuring. Still, there was nothing to do but pick open the knots and hope that when he shoved his hand inside the bag he didn’t find anything icky.

  Xane’s digits brushed against hard plastic … some sort of tube? A trigger mechanism? Realisation clicked. ‘You utter star!’ He lifted the first of his new toys out of the sack, revealing it to be a bright orange ping-pong-ball-firing bazooka. ‘That is way cool.’

  ‘Got you some targets too.’ Rock Giant pulled out a roll of papers that had been stuffed into his back pocket and revealed them to be photocopies of Iain Willows’s ugly mug. He held them up so that Xane could pop off a shot at them.

  ‘How many guns are in there?’ Spook enquired.

  ‘Loads.’

  ‘NERF war,’ Ash yelled, ignoring Ginny when she flapped around him attempting to curb his enthusiasm.

  ‘Goth Stealer,’ Xane suggested.

  ‘What’s that?’ Dani asked, peeping curiously at his new collection of brightly coloured guns and foam-dart ammunition.

  ‘It’s a game from our university days. We’d probably have landed a recording deal a few years earlier if we hadn’t wasted so much time playing it.’

  ‘Goth Stealer. Get the goth,’ Spook and Rock Giant chanted. They both dived on the pile of weapons and started tooling up.

  ‘No fair.’ Ash raised his hands. ‘I just got out of hospital.’

  ‘OK, birthday boy it is. He’s more goth than you are these days anyway.’ Rock Giant levelled a Tommy gun at him.

  ‘Fuck you, Paul.’ Xane claimed two tiny one-shot pistols and a refill pack of ammo. ‘You lot are totally going down.’

  ‘What do we do?’ Dani asked, standing beside him looking confused. Ginny had already decided it was a waste of time trying to get Ash to sit out the game and was perfecting a Lara Croft pose.

  ‘Grab a gun.’ Rock Giant pushed an enormous purple and white contraption into Dani’s hands. ‘And then shoot the fuck out of him before he gets you.’

  ‘That’s it?’

  ‘Except he’s allowed to go hand to hand and we’re not. So go easy on the ammo,’ Spook elaborated, stepping in to help her fit the beast Paul had presented her with over her narrow shoulders. It made her look mean – not. ‘If he gets hold of you, you’re out, and you come back here to base.’

  ‘OK,’ she drawled dubiously. ‘I think I’ve got it.’

  ‘Good, in which case, Ash and Ginny, you stick together, Dani with Paul, and Luthor with me. Xane, you have two minutes’ head start. Stay out of my house.’

  Chapter 27

  Dani looked down at the piece of heavy artillery she’d been handed, as she jogged along after Rock Giant, struggling to keep pace with his long-legged stride. ‘How exactly does this thing work?’ She’d tried squeezing the trigger and nothing had happened.

  ‘Pump and point. The average seven-year-old can figure it, so I’m sure you can too. I’m certain you’re familiar with the wrist action.’ Rock Giant demonstrated by holding his gun upright before him and jerking a mechanism on what she thought of as the barrel, but likely had a more technical name, before pulling the trigger. The dart hit her in the chest.

  ‘Sorry.’ He flashed her a decidedly unapologetic grin as the dart pinged off her nipple and landed in the undergrowth.

  Dani waited until he turned around, then copied his actions and shot him in the back.

  Correct. It was easy. ‘Sorry, thought I ought to try a practice shot.’

  ‘Hm.’ He pursed his lips as he retrieved the two coloured darts. He slotted one back into the chamber of his gun, and offered her the other one to reload. Dani used the near point-blank range to her advantage and shot him in the gut.

  ‘That’s just uncalled for,’ he complained. ‘Your aim’s not bad, but how about you save ’em for Xane.’

  ‘I like Xane. I don’t want to shoot him. Can’t I blast anyone else?’

  ‘He’s the goth, and we’re playing Goth Stealer. Ergo, you shoot him.’

  ‘I’d rather shoot someone who deserved a bullet in the head.’ She lifted her gun and made an attempt to sight along the barrel as if it were a rifle.

  He laughed at her attempt, and pulled her shoulders back to improve her stance. ‘Stand like that too long and you’ll turn me on.’

  She gave him her best warrior-woman lip curl.

  ‘Phwoar! I never realised you were so bloodthirsty. Was there someone in particular you had in mind for obliterating?’

  ‘Elspeth,’ she confessed, killing his humour. Instead he was all frown and schoolboy pout. If schoolboys ever looked like hardened ninja metal heads. ‘What? She seems determined to screw up my relationship with Xane even when she’s not around. Is that not a reason? Last night wasn’t exactly a whole heap of fun, and I know we’re all chilling and playing games today, but Xane’s still stewing on the inside. It was a really nasty, petty thing to do, to expose his private life in that way, especially the stuff about him and Steve. What happened to preserving the dignity of the dead?’

  A deep V-shaped groove had chiselled itself into Rock Giant’s forehead by the time she paused for breath. ‘Why’d she do it? Do you know?’

  ‘I’ve no idea, Dani.’

  ‘I thought she loved him. Steve, I mean, not Xane. Seems a funny way of showing it.’

  He straightened out his long legs and resumed stalking over the blanket of pine needles, forcing her to run to keep up with him. ‘I’m not psychic. I can’t see inside her head.’

  ‘You must have an opinion though. I know the pair of you are close.’

  He battered his way through a thorny bush and emerged into a bank of ferns. ‘Sorry, I don’t know. I don’t do idle speculation.’

  ‘Ouch!’ Dani complained as a branch whipped back and scraped her with its thorns. She licked at her arm where blood had beaded in the wound. ‘I suppose you think Xane brought it on himself.’

  ‘Don’t put words into my mouth.’

  ‘Spook said she could turn up. Do you think she’s going to?’

  ‘I’m not thinking. I’m playing a game.’

  A loud bleep sounded from inside his pocket.

  ‘Fuck,’ he muttered under his breath, but not so quietly that she didn’t hear him.

  ‘Do you need to answer that?’ She nodded towards the pocket where his mobile was stowed.

  ‘It’ll wait.’

  ‘Is it from her?’ All her instincts told her it was.

  ‘I’m still not psychic.’

  No, but he was twitchy as hell, and definitely hiding something.

  Back when she’d first met the members of Black Halo, Dani wouldn’t have dared to challenge this man. Rock Giant was huge. Today he hadn’t moulded his hair into the spikes he so often sported on stage, but he still towered over her, making her feel like a pixie squeaking up at him from the woodland floor. The guy was broad too, in a muscular, I-take-working-out-seriously kind of way. If he threw a punch, as she’d seen him do a couple of times now, and you were unfortunate enough to be the target, crunch was the inevitable result. He could probably lift her over his head and carry her like that. The thing with living at close quarters with people on a tour bus was she now knew that, despite his appearance, he was the ultimate softie. Scary to look at, all fluff inside.

  ‘Paul –’ she’d never used his first name before, but she used it mercilessly now to create the required intimacy ‘– are you in contact with Elspeth?’

  He twisted a lock of his camo-coloured hair around his finger. ‘Not as such.’

&n
bsp; ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘It means I haven’t spoken to her. That she’s not answering her texts—’

  ‘—but she is sending them.’

  His big brown puppy-dog eyes grew worrisomely round.

  ‘What’s she saying?’

  ‘It’s private.’

  ‘You mean the kissy, hugs, this is not meant for anyone but the recipient kind of private?’

  He hissed through his teeth at the less than subtle dig.

  ‘Sexting private,’ she elaborated.

  ‘We’re not like that. We’re not intimate. She’s practically my sister.’

  ‘You can give me the edited highlights.’

  He kept on striding away from her, threatening the middle distance with his glacial stare.

  ‘Paul Reed, if I find out you know something that might have stopped Xane getting any more hurt and you kept it to yourself, so help me God, never mind foam darts, I’ll ram the butt of this gun up your ruddy arse.’

  Did she sound like a badass mama bear? She hoped she sounded like a badass mama bear.

  ‘All right. OK.’ He ground to a halt. ‘She sent me a message thirty minutes ago saying she was on the docks in Mariefred and that someone had agreed to bring her here. Most likely the text that just arrived was to say she’s almost here, and am I going to meet her.’

  Dani’s comprehension stopped at ‘almost here’.

  ‘Elspeth is almost here?’

  Horrified, she unclipped the strap supporting the brutish neon-glow weapon in her hands and let it fall to the ground. Now wasn’t the time for stupid games.

  ‘The woman who caused one of your friends to have a nervous breakdown last night, who caused him to fall back on a longstanding addiction so he could cope, is about to dock and you didn’t think it was wise to mention this fact?’ If she’d been tall enough to reach, she’d have smacked him in the face, just to knock some sense into him.

  ‘What good would it do him to know?’ Rock Giant retorted. He scooped the front of his messy hair back so that it formed a quiff. ‘It’ll just get everyone riled up and miserable. They’re happy running about playing the game. Happy is good. Happy is what we came here to find.’

  ‘Are you a complete imbecile?’ She stormed towards him, meaning to shove him hard in the belly, since it was the most easily reachable target. ‘Did you not see the state Xane got into last night? She did that to him. But you’re going to let her sneak up on him, and gatecrash his birthday!’ She collided with him, pushed and pushed against his ridiculously steel-like abs until he was backed up against a tree. He offered no resistance, only stared at her aghast, mouth working but no real sound coming out, at least none that she heard over the pounding of drums in her ears. ‘She’s a liar and bitch, and I can’t believe you, I just can’t believe you’d actually conspire with her.’

  ‘I haven’t conspired with anyone,’ he yelled. ‘I’ve had one friggin’ text, is all. Two if my supposition about the second is correct.’

  ‘Liar.’ She went back to beating his abs.

  ‘Dani, calm down.’ A hand that she realised a moment later belonged to Spook landed on her shoulder. He pulled her away from Rock Giant, giving the stupid blockhead enough space to wriggle away and catch his breath. Bent double, with a hand clasped to his chest and another resting on his knee, he sucked down a dozen or so deep lungfuls.

  Meanwhile, Spook spun her around so that they were facing. His clear blue eyes narrowed in irritation. ‘What in hell is going on? What did he do? You were about to do him some serious damage.’

  Most of the conversation she and Rock Giant had just had came rolling back out of her, but Spook didn’t seem to understand her. His white-blond hair swished against his arms as he shook his head.

  ‘Let me try.’ Luthor, whom she hadn’t noticed until now, pulled her away from the other two men. ‘Take a deep breath, eh?’ He showed her how to do it. ‘Come on, in time with me. In … and out … In … and out.’ Her heart rate steadied a little, but her vision blurred as angry tears welled and spilled. She didn’t have seconds to waste on this.

  ‘Better?’ Luthor asked.

  A little, but not really. She nodded.

  ‘OK, now tell me slowly.’

  ‘Rock-Giant’s-been-in-contact-with-Elspeth-and-she’s-on-her-way-here. We-have-to-tell-Xane.’

  He frowned and blinked a few times, as if he had a processing delay, then he turned to Rock Giant. ‘Is this true? You’re in contact with Elspeth?’

  ‘And she’s on her way here,’ Dani added.

  Still resting, bent over with his hands on his knees, Rock Giant didn’t reply. It made no difference. The look in his hazel eyes was confirmation enough.

  Luthor swore extensively in his own language. Enough to make Spook grit his teeth and wince, and for Rock Giant to look somewhat cowed. Dani had only seen Luthor lose his cool the one time, right after they first met, when Ulf, Black Halo’s sound master extraordinaire and Luthor’s uncle, had vetoed the idea of him auditioning for the band, because Ash had solved their drumming problem by producing Iain Willows.

  Then, he’d kicked a few things and slammed a door. This time he ran at Rock Giant and collided with him, knocking him off his feet. They both scrabbled around on the ground, elbows and fists flying.

  ‘Did you see the state Xane was in? Did you? Did you?’

  ‘Are you aware of the state she’s in?’ Rock Giant retaliated.

  ‘Why should I give a damn about her? She’s never given one about me, and she certainly doesn’t give a shit about the people I care for.’

  ‘You don’t know her.’

  ‘I know enough. She was a cow to me when I was part of the road crew.’

  Spook dragged the pair of them apart. He shoved Rock Giant behind him and held Luthor an arm’s length in front. ‘Cut it out.’

  Luthor wiped a trickle of blood from his lip, which had been split during the tumble. ‘She’s a self-centred, spiteful bitch.’

  ‘She’s just lost her husband.’ Rock Giant rose onto his knees and dusted some of the soil and pine-needles from his person.

  ‘That doesn’t grant her a licence to spit in everyone else’s faces,’ Dani screamed.

  ‘Thank you, Dani. That is not really helping.’ Spook lasered her with his icy blue stare again.

  ‘It’s the truth.’

  ‘It may well be the truth, but surely the more important thing at the moment is to let Xane know, not fight over the fact that a couple of people knew ahead of the rest.’

  ‘You knew too,’ Dani blurted in realisation. ‘Spook!’ Spook had known and hadn’t mentioned it. She’d never thought ill of him before, but now she was so flabbergasted, all she could do was stare at him in horror.

  ‘I’ve only known for a couple of minutes, Dani. I got a message from one of the guys Sally hired, saying there was a boat heading our way. There aren’t many people who even know where we are, so I put two and two together. It was after we started the game.’

  ‘Fuck!’ Luthor swore.

  Spook pushed him back again. ‘Can we all calm down a little? Believe me, I’m not happy about this either, but we’ll deal with it.’

  ‘What’s going on? I thought we were playing a game.’ Xane strode into their midst, his two little pistols still in his hands. Realising there was a stand-off that involved fists, not NERF guns, as weapons, he immediately tucked his pistols into his pockets.

  Dani ran to him and crushed her face up against his warm chest. ‘Elspeth’s on her way here.’

  ‘Actually she’s already here.’ Ash skidded towards them over the pine needles, leaving ruts in the powdery soil. He came to a halt beside Luthor. ‘Ginny and I just saw the boat tie up.’

  Chapter 28

  By the time Xane reached the bottom of the lawn, Elspeth had already disembarked, along with a gaunt man in black jeans and a scruffy duster coat, and the two security guards Sally Kettering had hired. Xane hadn’t stuck around to have a group conflab. In
stead, he’d hightailed it over to this side of the property the moment Ash revealed she was here.

  She’d gone blonde again, he noted as she wafted her way along the pier. Gone was the funereal black and Lily Munsteresque white stripe, replaced by ethereal silver.

  Xane didn’t much give a damn how she dressed, he was still going to wrap his hands around her throat and shake her until her ruddy teeth rattled loose, and he wasn’t certain he was going to stop then. The presence of the two security guards wasn’t going to stop him.

  Elspeth saw him coming and plucked the over-large aviator shades from her nose. ‘Xane.’

  Oh, Jeezus Christ! He jerked to a halt that threatened to dislocate his knees as shock ripped through his adrenalin-fuelled body.

  Elspeth had always been stick-thin, but her skin was almost shrunken on her bones, and even the thick lines of kohl around her eyes couldn’t disguise the deep hollows. She looked ghastly. As if one good puff of air would knock her over. If he shook her she’d snap like a twig.

  Spook came to an equally abrupt halt beside him. Most likely the rest of the group weren’t far behind.

  ‘Holy fuck.’ Spook coughed into his palm. ‘She looks like utter shit.’

  ‘Yes.’ Fucking dire. He might … actually, he did hate her – her very presence made his skin crawl – but he was not even half the monster he portrayed on stage. The woman before him was clearly sick. Really sick, given it had only been three weeks since he’d last seen her. Striking her was something only the worst kind of savage would do.

  ‘Do you think she forgot to eat, or is she using?’ Spook asked.

  He shook his head. Whichever it was, or even if it was neither, he still wasn’t letting her off the hook for being a class-A bitch. But the changes in her appearance did rein in his inner fury.

  ‘Interesting place you have here, Spook. Bit off the beaten track.’ Elspeth swayed slightly as she moved forward, as if she’d not yet recovered her land legs after being on the lake.