Come Together

by Madelynne Ellis

  Chapter 45

  Dani watched the performance from the wings with her fists clenched against her mouth. Today had seen its fair share of highs and lows already. She prayed she wasn’t about to see Black Halo hit rock bottom. Everything depended on Luthor.

  It didn’t take long to establish that on this occasion her fears were unfounded. Luthor wasn’t good, he was downright awesome. Like the other members of the band, there was something about his playing that set him apart. Xane had his tremendous voice, Spook his awe-inspiring fingerwork and Ash his mesmeric licking. Each of them contributed something individual that blended into a fantastic whole. Listening from the wings, Dani thought the band sounded more rounded and connected than they had at any point on the tour, and their performances to date had been far from shoddy. Still, there was magic brewing on stage tonight. The crowd could obviously feel it too. They went mental, screaming their approval as Xane hit the chorus of their opening number. She watched her lover stalk across the front of the stage, urging the audience to keep on roaring their approval. Spook and Ash were perfect mirrors, standing back to back on the riser, while Rock Giant was practically making love to his bass.

  She jigged on the spot, made merry by the effervescent atmosphere. Things, it seemed, were going to be all right.

  ‘Get out of the fucking way.’ Iain rudely shoved past her, heading for his spot at the back of the stage, only to stop dead as it dawned on him that they were already mid-song and somebody else was hogging his spotlight. He turned on the balls of his feet and shot a blistering stare at Dani. ‘Who’s playing?’ he demanded. ‘Who is that?’

  ‘Luthor. You were late.’ She kept on dancing, though she did sneak a few glances in Iain’s direction. Ash had obviously hit him hard. There was a cut along Iain’s cheekbone, and one of his eyelids had ballooned and turned purple, a fact he’d obviously attempted to hide with concealer.

  ‘What did Ash hit you for?’ she asked.

  ‘None of your business.’

  He stepped away from her to the very lip of the stage, where he bounced from foot to foot, waiting for this song to end, so he could slip into position before the next began. Only the band segued straight from one number into another, with Xane speaking to the crowd over the intro riffs. He introduced the band and Luthor as their drummer for the night.

  Iain flung a drumstick at him, which luckily clattered harmlessly at Xane’s feet. Dani didn’t doubt that, if he’d had something bigger and heavier, he’d have lobbed that instead. ‘You fuckwit! You goddamned slimy bastard,’ he yelled, though she doubted anyone could hear him over the ear-splitting wail of Ash’s guitar. Then he turned and glared at her with such an intense expression of loathing that she stepped back and went over to where the crew were lurking on standby.

  ‘I suppose you know he’s an arse bandit. Him and Luthor are at it all the time behind your back. That’s when he’s not rogering Ash or screwing groupies.’

  She knew that wasn’t true, but the accusation still cut deep. ‘Jealous that he’s not fucking you?’ she sniped.

  ‘I wouldn’t let that thieving bastard near my dog let alone my arse.’

  ‘I think you’d better leave.’ Tony came to her defence, backed up by Cave Troll. ‘Don’t listen to him, Dani. It’s plain as day that Xane’s besotted with you. Maybe you should take Iain outside for some air, Troels.’

  ‘Fuck that, you overweight ape.’ Iain ripped off the bandana he was wearing to keep his hair out of his eyes, and threw it to the ground. ‘I quit, as if I ever wanted to be in this shitty band anyway.’ His petulant mouth curled into a nasty sneer. ‘It’s going down hard. You’re all going down hard.’ He stalked off.

  ‘What does he mean by that?’ Dani asked.

  ‘He’s just posturing,’ Tony reassured her. ‘Ignore him.’

  * * *

  ‘Good going.’ Someone slapped Luthor on the back as they came off stage. He realised it was Rock Giant as he was recovering from the sting spreading through his back. ‘Much better than the other dude.’

  ‘Love the flourishes you added to “Perverted Wraiths”.’ That came from Spook.

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Never would have guessed you had that in you.’ Cave Troll beamed at him. ‘You’re hot, dude.’

  Hot was about right, lathered in fact, and he stank like a donkey’s behind. He dragged himself over towards the refreshment table, trying to ignore the fact that Dani was wrapped around Xane and they were getting sloppy. He’d get his chance to say thank you to Xane properly later.

  Luthor grabbed a bottle of water and a banana. He gulped down a few mouthfuls and tipped the rest over his head. That felt a little better. He raised the banana to his mouth, only for Ash to snatch it off him and take a hungry bite.

  ‘Are we going to have to talk later?’ he asked, shooting a look in Xane’s direction.

  Luthor shook his head. ‘It’s all sorted out.’

  ‘I think that’s our encore, folks.’ Spook, who was bouncing on his toes as if they were about to start the show, not bring it to a close, led the parade back onto the stage.

  ‘What are we playing?’

  Xane looked at Luthor and grinned. ‘“Fatal Error”,’ he said. It’d been scrubbed from the set ever since the second performance in Amsterdam. ‘Let’s go bring the house down.’

  Chapter 46

  ‘Can’t keep living with the terror,

  Echoes of your fatal error.’

  The fatal error Xane had made had been not putting Luthor on stage before now. He wasn’t Steve. His style and the little flourishes he inserted weren’t anything like Steve’s, but he was good. Really, astonishingly good. Whatever contract they still had with Iain, they were employing Luthor forthwith. For the first time since the start of the tour, he felt properly at home performing. Somehow, Luthor’s drumbeat had injected the zest back into their performance. Four songs, he signalled to the others. The crowd were totally behind them and he was in no hurry for this to end.

  He looked around. Rock Giant was up front, on his knees raising hell. Ash and Spook were battling it out, shredding for all they were worth on the ego riser, and he could see Dani in the wings, singing along with him and just a few other people.

  God, he felt good. He rocked his ass off as he hit the chorus, and sailed right into the final verse.

  ‘Shadows flee before the light

  Blind third eye, splintered second sight.’

  Xane shot a look in Ash’s direction. His timing had become a little slack. Ash’s face was twisted into a grimace. Xane figured his knuckles were protesting about their earlier abuse, maybe getting a little sore after a strenuous 90-minute workout. He was sorry that he’d missed seeing their fight, primarily because he’d felt like punching Iain on numerous occasions over the last few weeks. Actually, every time they’d played this song.

  Abruptly the main melody cut out. Xane half-turned his head in time to see Ash pitch forward, straight off the edge of the ego riser. For a second he thought Ash was arsing around, until he hit the deck with a resounding thump and his guitar smashed beneath him.

  Everything went dead.

  Everything went mental.

  Xane dropped the mic. ‘Ash!’

  Spook was there ahead of him, reaching down to check his buddy over. ‘He’s out cold.’

  ‘Careful,’ Xane advised as various bodies rushed in and tried to turn Ash over. ‘We probably shouldn’t move him. Someone call an ambulance.’

  ‘Hey, dude, wake up,’ Rock Giant coaxed him. ‘I’m gonna doodle on your porn mags if you don’t. I’ll give all the nice ladies Groucho Marx style moustaches.’

  ‘I don’t think he can hear you,’ Spook said, brushing back his long hair.

  ‘Is he OK?’ Elspeth joined them as they huddled around him. She’d turned so pale she was almost blue. ‘Please say he’s all right. What’s wrong with him, Xane?’

  ‘I don’t know.’ Why did everyone always assume he had the answers? He smooth
ed Ash’s hair back from his face. His skin was clammy, and not just from sweating heavily during the performance. ‘For God’s sake, somebody fetch a doctor.’

  They’d already lost Steve. He was not going to lose Ash too.

  * * *

  ‘What’s he taken?’ the paramedic asked, as his companions loaded Ash into the back of the ambulance. He was still unconscious and unresponsive to questions, but at least his pulse was strong and they hadn’t needed to give him oxygen or anything else.

  ‘Taken?’ Xane shook his head. ‘Nothing. Well, maybe a couple of paracetamol,’ he amended, recalling that Ash had hurt his hand earlier while thumping Iain.

  ‘For? Did he complain of a headache?’

  ‘He got into a fight and bruised his knuckles.’

  The paramedic sighed as if that was more or less what he expected. Xane was immediately irritated. Just because they wore leather and splashed a bit of fake blood around, it didn’t mean they were a bunch of Satan-worshipping, pill-popping thugs. Spook, obviously having spotted that Xane was biting his tongue, stepped in to answer the rest of the guy’s questions. He also conducted the conversation in Swedish, probably to stop Xane becoming any angrier.

  Covering the pertinent points didn’t take very long. ‘I’m going to ride with him to the hospital,’ Spook said. ‘They’ll only allow one of us to go, and it makes most sense if it’s me. That way I can translate if necessary. Don’t worry, I’ll keep you updated.’

  Xane nodded. Spook’s suggestion made perfect sense, though he’d rather have been the one to stay with Ash. ‘Look after him.’ He gave Spook a tight hug and clapped him upon the back. ‘I’ll be there as soon as I can.’

  Dani held his hand as the ambulance pulled away. He needed that support. Everything had finally come together, but now it was all coming apart again.

  ‘I think I ought to call Ginny. She was sick yesterday too, and if this is related to that, she might also be at risk.’

  ‘Do that,’ Xane agreed, though he wasn’t sure the two things were related. How could they be? Ash had been fine yesterday evening and all of today until they’d returned to the stage for that encore. His mind raced over the details of their brief stage exit and return, but couldn’t perceive any reason why Ash might suddenly have been taken ill. The only rational explanation was plain old-fashioned exhaustion. Ash wouldn’t be the first person he’d seen succumb to the heat of the lights, or the sheer physical exertion of performing night after night. In his time on the circuit he’d witnessed a few hulking, hard-ass brutes go limp and floppy. That said, they’d all come round within a minute or two. Ash’s longer trip to la-la land might indicate something less benign.

  ‘I won’t be long. My phone’s on the tour bus.’ Dani gave his fingers a reassuring squeeze before releasing him. ‘I think Graham’s called a cab to take us over to the hospital to be with Ash. It should be here soon.’

  ‘I’ll watch for it.’ Better that than going back inside and listening to the crew speculate about what was up.

  A couple of minutes seemed like an eternity as he stood in the dark on the tarmac. Hopelessness and a sense of having failed both his band and his friends swallowed the high he’d felt during the performance. Where the hell was that taxi? He needed to be doing something. Not that he supposed there was a lot he could contribute at the hospital. Still, if Ash came round, he wanted to be there. And if he didn’t come round, he wanted to be there too. Steve had been alone at the end. No way was he going to let that happen to Ash.

  ‘Xane.’ Luthor emerged from the shadows at the side of the building. ‘You know I still have the hire car. If you want to get to the hospital, I can take you there now.’

  Didn’t that prove how addled his thoughts were? They’d hired a car and driven to Karlstad, but that had slipped his mind. He nearly hugged Luthor, except he’d promised Dani he wouldn’t touch him without her being around to supervise. All right, he was probably being over literal in his interpretation of her rules, but stress did tend to bring out the worst in him. One hug would probably have turned into rather more.

  The car was parked fairly close by, towards the rear of the car park, overlooking what he guessed was a tributary that fed into Lake Vänern. Xane climbed into the passenger seat while Luthor was jabbing at the navigation app on his phone.

  ‘It looks as if the emergency facilities aren’t too far away. Along the road and then turn left.’

  ‘I expect it’s signposted.’

  A shadow passed behind the car. Xane caught the person’s reflection in the windscreen. People were leaving the venue now. Pretty soon the road would be busy, full of people going home. He fastened his seatbelt. ‘Come on. I thought you had it.’

  Luthor reached for the door handle, but seemed to stumble unexpectedly. His head smashed against the window.

  ‘Luthor? Fuck! Are you OK?’ He reached for the door handle to get out and go round and help, but then the driver’s-side door opened and Iain Willows leaned into the car with his arm raised. He was wearing dark glasses although it was close to midnight. Behind him, Luthor was sprawled upon the gravel.

  ‘What in hell?’

  Iain squirted an aerosol straight into Xane’s face. His vision blurred. A chemical smell filled his nostrils. Jesus H. Christ! His eyes were on fire, and a second inferno raged inside his throat. Xane gasped as his lungs filled with the vapour, spreading the conflagration down into his chest.

  ‘Does that sting?’ Iain asked. He turned the car ignition and the engine woke with a purr. ‘I hope it fucking stings.’

  ‘What the effing hell are you doing?’ Xane rasped, clawing at his face. He couldn’t manage to open his eyes long enough to see what the bastard was up to. They were streaming and itchy, like he’d rubbed habañero chilli into them, only the burn extended into his brain. It was impossible to breathe too. He sounded as if he was having an asthma attack. ‘If this is about Luthor,’ he wheezed.

  ‘It’s about Ash.’

  Ash!

  Oh, my God! ‘What have you done to him?’ If he hadn’t been disorientated by his lack of vision, and struggling for breath, Xane would have pummelled Iain into oblivion for whatever he’d done. ‘What have you given him?’ He wasn’t sure how much of either sentence he spoke aloud, but apparently it was enough for Iain to get the gist.

  ‘That was supposed to be you,’ he snarled, slamming his foot down hard on the accelerator pedal. ‘You’re the one who eats the fucking bananas. If he’s ill it’s your fault. This is all your fault. You ruined everything. I’m going to destroy you. I tried working from within. I planted so many seeds of dissent, but they’re all so fucking dumb, they haven’t the brains or the guts to turn on you. Your girlfriend’s the only one who acknowledges your true colours and even she crawled back quickly enough when you got your magic dong out.’

  ‘You’re just not as good as Luthor. We have to make decisions based on what’s best for the band.’ It hurt like hell to get the words out. His throat seemed to be narrowing all the time.

  ‘I told you, it’s not about Luthor. You poached Ash, you and your poxy band. We were about to get our big break, and you stole him. You climbed over me to get what you wanted. Well, I’m climbing over you now. I’m going to drown your fucking band. Let’s see how long they last without you.’

  ‘Iain – where are we going? Iain – what are you doing? Don’t do anything stupid.’

  He heard a decisive click, and then cold air blasted the side of his face from where Iain was sitting. The thrum of the car engine sounded very loud. Had he got out? They were still moving.

  I’m going to drown you.

  Oh, shit! They were pointed towards the river. The front of the car smashed into something hard, while the back end skidded sideways over the loose gravel but didn’t slow the forward momentum. Xane struggled blindly against the grip of the seatbelt and somehow managed to release it. The door handle proved more tricky. No matter how hard he tried, his eyes wouldn’t open.

&n
bsp; Seconds … he had seconds.

  He finally hit the handle and yanked. The door swung open, dragging him with it just as the car tilted and toppled over the edge of the bank.

  Fire continued to rage inside his head as he hit the water with a smack. Unbelievable cold seeped into every pore, shocking him into opening his mouth. Water filled it as he was dragged down by the current.

  Xane kicked. Leather wasn’t the easiest thing to swim in and he was disorientated. His head was full of flames and spinning. Cold weight pressed into his chest. He was vaguely aware of voices calling for him in the distance, and struck out towards them. Still everything remained distorted and the world became increasingly black, until that’s all it was, just one vast ocean of darkness.

  Chapter 47

  Dani heard the crash from the tour bus. She couldn’t find her phone. The contents of the bus were upside down. Someone had gone through it like a tornado, ripping items from cupboards and leaving them scattered.

  ‘What the hell was that?’ Rock Giant came hurtling out of the back bedroom with Elspeth on his tail. He’d brought her back here to lie down, because after she saw Ash fall she’d looked about ready to drop herself.

  Rock Giant paused at the head of the bus steps when a loud splash followed a second later. ‘Maybe you two should wait here.’ He swung down the length of the steps and ran towards the sound of the commotion.

  Elspeth and Dani looked at one another, and then made a silent and unanimous decision to do the exact opposite of his suggestion.

  The scene was surreal as she ran after Rock Giant towards the river bank. A vehicle had smashed through the fence and was now wallowing just above the waterline. Its tail-lights pointed skywards, still glowing red. Exhaust fumes poured from the back end, giving the illusion that a huge dragon was clawing its way onto land.