Marked By Fire (Dragons Of The Darkblood Secret Society Book 2)

by Meg Ripley

  When Ron had met with him, he’d told us afterwards that Mark had barely been convinced to even continue working at all; though Ron hadn’t been able to get out of our drummer whatever it was that had set him off. Mark had mostly agreed, Ron had told us, because he didn’t want to be kicked out of the band; that was the next move from the label, if the album didn’t move forward. I had to admit to myself that I didn’t want another drummer for the band either: I wanted our own drummer to stop being such a dick.

  Would it really solve anything if I had it out with Mark? I knew he was pissed at me--apparently, above and beyond the rest of the band, since he didn’t even want to be in the same room as me--but I couldn’t even convince myself that it had that much to do with Sophie. If it had been over Sophie, then hooking up with a handful of girls on Tinder would have taken his mind off it and he’d be over it by now. It had to be something more than that--at least, as best as I could figure.

  The real question is: what possible harm could it do to meet with him? As bad as things were in the band, I didn’t want to risk making them worse. But how much worse could they really get? We were already at a point where whether or not we managed to actually get the fucking album done, we weren’t going to be able to promote it properly, or tour it. If Mark didn’t want to have anything to do with us, and especially me, it was going to be impossible to keep the peace on a damned bus.

  I went back inside, and found Jack in the control room. Nick was in one of the side rooms, laying down a guitar track for one of the songs Mark had worked on earlier in the day; Jules was on the phone with Fran in the break room. “I need a favor,” I told Jack as soon as I sat down.

  “What kind of favor?” I pressed my lips together and considered whether I was really willing to go through with what Nick had suggested. If it came to a fight, it wasn’t like Mark and I were in any danger of actually killing or hurting each other seriously. But I was goddamned tired of having to meet with every other member of the band but him, and having to hear about him secondhand, or having to listen to the tracks he’d laid down hours before and figure out which one I agreed with the other guys on. We worked best when we worked together, and Mark was fucking that up for all of us.

  “I want you to call Mark,” I told Jack. “Have him come in--whatever pretext you want to give him.”

  “I thought you’d all agreed to split up the sessions,” Jack said, looking at me askance. I shrugged.

  “I’m tired of it,” I told him frankly. “I want to get whatever the hell the problem is out into the open, and deal with it. Are you having any fun doing the recordings this way?” Jack laughed.

  “It’s getting done, but it’s more work than fun,” he told me. He sighed, glanced at the panel and then looked at me again. “You want my input on the situation, whatever was going wrong between you guys was going wrong before you started dating some girl Mark had his eye on.” I shrugged.

  “That’s about what I’ve decided,” I said, nodding. “But until I get him to at least talk to be about whatever his malfunction is, it’s going to keep being like this.” I lit a cigarette and Jack shoved the ashtray towards me. “If something doesn’t change, we’re going to lose the band, and the record will never even see the light of day.”

  “Worse,” Jack said, glancing again at the meters on the boards. “It’ll get made, and the label will put it out, and it’ll go nowhere on the charts because none of you guys will be able to coordinate enough to make anything happen.”

  “So, you’ll do it?” Jack considered.

  “Give me thirty minutes and I’ll see if I can get his ass in here,” he said. “Maybe I can pull a fast one on him if I think of something good enough.”

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  The whole time that I waited to hear that Mark was coming into the studio I was distracted; I didn’t even need for Sophie to be there. Nick came in from doing his play-through of the guitar parts, and I went into the bass room to do my own part. Jack had told me to give him thirty minutes, but between one thing and the other, more than an hour passed and I had next to nothing to show for it; I kept flubbing a particular part of the bassline, and I couldn’t seem to get my fingers to work right, in spite of the fact that I’d nailed it in practice earlier in the day.

  I took a break and ran into Jules, hanging around outside; he’d been chatting with Fran about something, to judge by the look on his face. “What’s on your mind tonight, Danny boy?” I shook my head.

  “I told Jack to call Mark into the studio,” I told him. Jules raised an eyebrow and took a drag from his cigarette.

  “Tired of all the bullshit?” I nodded.

  “Either we’re going to stick together as a band or we’re not,” I said. “Either Mark really is this pissed off about me dating some girl he was hot for, or he’s got some other issue, and I’m just fucking exhausted with recording this way.”

  “It’s shit,” Jules agreed. “What are you going to say to him?” I smiled bitterly.

  “It’s probably going to mostly be repeats of, ‘what the fuck, dude?’ until something happens,” I told him. Jules laughed, tilting his head back against the wall.

  “You want me or Nick to hang around when he comes in?” I thought about it. Nick had suggested that it should be just between me and Mark, and I’d pretty much been on board with that idea--but this was something affecting the whole band, not just me. Should I have the rest of the band be around for whatever was going to happen?

  “He’s not talking to any of us,” I mused. “Obviously, he’s not only pissed off at me, if that’s the case.”

  “Yeah, but he’s especially pissed at you,” Jules pointed out. “I’m not saying he’s got any reason for it, just that it’s a thing you need to keep in mind. But if you want me or Nick to be here, mediate or whatever…” I shook my head, coming to a decision.

  “Either he’ll talk or he won’t, and either it’ll get figured out or it won’t,” I said. “Whether you and Nick are here or not, the outcome will be whatever-the-fuck it’s supposed to be.”

  “Try not to get under his skin right away if you can help it,” Jules suggested. “He’s already going to be pissed that Jack got him here on false pretenses.”

  “Yeah, I know,” I told him. “I just want to get this over with. Whatever his fucking deal is, I want it out in the open and I want us to figure out where to go from here.” Jules thought about that for a moment and then nodded.

  “How’s Sophie?” I grinned.

  “She’s coming by in a little bit.”

  “You don’t think that’s trying your luck, with Mark supposed to come by too?” I shrugged.

  “It either will be or it won’t be,” I said. Jules exhaled a plume of smoke and pressed his lips together.

  “I want this cold war bullshit over as much as you do,” he said, stubbing his cigarette out. “Just make sure you don’t nuke the band.”

  I went inside after he’d gone to work on his own parts of the songs we were supposed to be recording that night, and found Jack and Nick in the control room. Jack looked up from his boards and nodded to me.

  “Mark said he’d come by at one,” he told me. “I couldn’t talk him into coming in any earlier than that.”

  “Jules and I will be out of the studio by then,” Nick pointed out. “Especially Jules. You got this?” I nodded.

  “Whatever is going to happen, it’ll all go down tonight,” I said.

  “When’s Sophie coming?” I checked my phone.

  “She’s on her way now.” It was 10:30, and I could count on a couple of hours of working, hanging out with her, and maybe a little break in one of the unused studios before Mark got there. It should have made me relax, but it was just more tension.

  I went back into the bass room and tried again on the parts I needed to nail it for us to move forward. Jack was a great producer--he had Jules working in one room and me in another, and somehow, he was able to keep track of us, to give us each individual instructions on
how to fix whatever we were doing wrong, or direction on how to change our playing. Even still, though, it was fucking miserable--and I knew I wasn’t the only one who felt that way. Even Mark had to be feeling like shit. None of us were playing with the same vibe we’d always had, and the early mixes of the songs we’d managed to finish in the first month and a half of recording weren’t what any of us wanted. Either we’ll still be a band at the end of this, or we won’t, I told myself.

  By the time Sophie showed up, I was on edge. I stepped out of the studio to meet her, and immediately brought my mouth down on hers, pushing her up against the wall. I breathed in the smell of her hair and skin, felt her body against mine. “Sorry,” I said, when the moment passed and my heart started to slow down.

  “Sorry?” Sophie gave me a crooked smile. “That was pretty exciting.”

  “Mark is coming by later,” I told her in a whisper. “It’s going to be a showdown.”

  “It’s going to be a shit show, you mean,” she countered. She looked up at me with her big, dark eyes. “Do you want me to leave?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I want you here. Just maybe not when he gets here.” I took a shuddering breath and exhaled slowly.

  “I can go before he gets here,” Sophie said, her voice breathless. I kissed her again.

  “Maybe just be scarce,” I suggested. I was already half-hard, just from kissing her. “He’ll be here sometime after one.” Sophie nodded, trembling slightly against me, taking a quick breath.

  “I don’t want to be accused of distracting you,” she told me. I chuckled lowly.

  “I’ve been distracted all night--it’s not like you being here is going to make that any worse.”

  “Will everyone agree with you on that?” Sophie pushed me away gently when I went for another kiss.

  “Sometimes I wonder if you care more about my band than I do,” I murmured in her ear.

  “Sometimes I do, too,” Sophie said, giving me a wry smile. “Why is it only a month later that you’ve finally decided to have it out with Mark?”

  “I don’t want to talk about that with you,” I told her. “I’m settling it tonight; that should make you happy. Hell, it should make everyone happy.” I kissed her again and Sophie didn’t resist. “I’m on edge, babe. I just want to have you here, and I want to know I can keep being with you with nothing causing drama, and I want to know what the hell kind of future the band has.” Sophie took a deep breath and nodded slowly.

  “I thought you told me we were going to fool around in an empty studio,” she said, a little teasingly.

  “We can still do that.” I dropped down to her neck and nibbled just under Sophie’s ear. “In fact, before this whole idea of getting Mark in here came up, I had this great image in my mind of bending you over this big stack I saw in one of the other rooms…” I brought my mouth back up to Sophie’s, and kissed her hungrily.

  “That does sound promising,” Sophie said, her breath hitching in her throat as my hands wandered over her body.

  “Give me an hour til the next break, and I’ll show you just how promising it can be,” I told her. I could barely make myself pull back; my cock was starting to get harder, and the thought of having Sophie to myself in one of the unused studios, of screwing her brains out before Mark arrived, was so fucking hot that I almost couldn’t stand it.

  “Can you walk?” Sophie slithered out from between me and the wall and gave me a teasing grin. I snorted.

  “I’ve had way more embarrassing hard-ons than this one,” I told Sophie, taking her hand and leading her towards the entrance.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  “You’re sounding better,” Jack said from the control room. “You sure you didn’t get a quickie in with Sophie when she got here?” I rolled my eyes. I heard Sophie laughing over the intercom, and grinned.

  “No quickies yet,” I called to the intercom receiver. “You haven’t given me enough time for a quickie.” Jules had gone home for the night after spending maybe thirty minutes hanging out; Nick was still in the control room, but I knew he’d head out soon. It was almost midnight, and Mark was going to be arriving in a little over an hour.

  “Let’s do one more take of this one, and then you can have a break. I’ll give you a whole thirty minutes,” Jack said from the control room. I smirked and nodded my agreement; I’d have just enough time to be alone with Sophie before Mark would be arriving, and that was what I wanted more than anything else. A little stress relief before the big fucking mess that I was sure my meeting with Mark was going to be.

  I shifted the headphones on my ears and waited for Jack to pull up the backing track. My heart beat faster in my chest at the thought of being alone with Sophie, and the thought of confronting Mark, all at the same time. I took a deep breath and lit a cigarette and the backing track came up over my headphones. I listened for a moment, found my spot, and started playing at the cue. I closed my eyes, picturing Sophie watching me, playing the bass line for her, thinking of the last time we’d been in bed together. The track was a sexy one--Nick had written it, and I was pretty sure he’d written it about Olivia--so thinking about Sophie wasn’t off-base. As the track finished, I opened my eyes and picked up my cigarette to finish it off.

  “That’s a take, mother fucker,” Jack said over the headphones. “Sounds good. Want to come in and listen?” I laughed.

  “Yeah, let’s make sure Nick approves it, then we can take a break.”

  I put down my guitar and took off the headphones and went into the control room. Sophie sat sprawled on the couch, and I smirked at her as soon as I saw her there; maybe it wasn’t obvious to everyone else, but I could see the look in her eyes, the waiting, knowing expression that told me that she was more than ready for a little alone time.

  I threw myself down onto the couch next to her and glanced at Nick and Jack, both seated at the control panel. “All right,” Jack said. “You ready for this?”

  “I’m ready to wander off to a dark room with my girlfriend,” I told him. Nick snorted. “Don’t get all holier-than-thou on me, you asshole. You took Olivia into how many fucking closets on tour?”

  “I didn’t tell anyone about it, though,” Nick countered, raising an eyebrow at me with a grin.

  “That’s because you were hiding it. I’m not ashamed of my lust.”

  “Here we go,” Jack interjected. He hit the playback and I settled in to listen, reaching out blindly for Sophie’s hand. I played my fingertips over the center of her palm, pressing and stroking while the song played back. There was something the track was missing--but that was obvious. We only had a skeleton of it so far; drums, a couple of guitar tracks, and now bass, with the vocal demo--not even the finished vocals. But it sounded good already. Jack turned around in his chair to look at me. “Feel like you nailed it?” I looked at Nick; it was his song, after all.

  “Sounds good to me,” Nick said with a shrug.

  “I like it,” I told them both. “Enough that I feel like I’ve earned my goddamn break.” Jack and Nick both rolled their eyes and my hand tightened on Sophie’s. I could feel the excitement in her, and I knew she was just as turned on as I was at the prospect of a tryst.

  “Go on,” Jack said, turning back to the control panel. “Clean up after yourselves.”

  “I’m going to head out,” Nick told me. “Let me know whatever happens with Mark.”

  “I’ll text you in the morning,” I told him. I broke away from Sophie to give Nick a quick hug. “If the band implodes, at least you have photojournalism as a backup.” Nick laughed and shook his head and then he was gone.

  I grabbed Sophie’s hand and led her out of the room while Jack busied himself with something at the mixing boards. “Now I do want to know something,” Sophie said as I turned a corner and headed for the darkened part of the studio, where the unused rooms were.

  “What’s that?” She stopped and I turned to look at her.

  “We’ve been seeing each other for a month,” Sophie s
aid, licking her lips. “Are we doing this because you just can’t get enough of me and want to spend time with me, or because you want to fuck me before Mark gets here?” I stared at her.

  “I didn’t even plan on trying to talk to Mark tonight until after I’d invited you,” I told her. “I’ve been wanting to get you alone all day.” Sophie smiled slowly.

  “As long as you’re not just using me…” I pulled her to me and kissed her, wrapping my arms around her waist.

  “I would never, ever use you,” I told her firmly. “I’ve been trying to make that as clear as possible to you ever since you made that little speech about local guys only wanting to date you to get something from you.” Sophie’s eyes widened and she grinned up at me--a genuine, sweet smile.

  “You still remember that?” I laughed and kissed her again.

  “Of course I remember that,” I murmured against her lips. “I want you. Not the bartender from Respects.” My hands slid along the curves of her body and I dipped down to her throat, kissing and nibbling. “I’m willing to risk setting the goddamn band on fire to date you, Sophie-baby. You think I want something from you other than awesome sex and a little bit of your time?” I brought my mouth up to hers again. “Because right now the only thing on my mind is how fucking good it’s going to feel to be inside you.”

  “Okay,” Sophie said, her voice breathless. “Okay--I believe you. I just had to check.”

  I pulled her in my wake down the hallway to the studio I’d scoped out earlier in the day when I’d invited her to drop by. There wouldn’t be anyone in there; even the security people only came through every couple of hours at night, as long as someone was in the complex. I didn’t even bother to turn on the light in the live room. It was pitch black, but it was mostly cleared out, since no one was using it.