Chapter 7

      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.

      ‘I see someone let the vultures in.’ Spook knocked knuckles with him as they joined the crowd in the green room.

      Xane’s money was on it having been their manager, because of the high proportion of media types to pretty girls seeking favours.

      Spook handed his guitar over to a waiting member of the crew. ‘What do you reckon, leg it straight for the dressing rooms and hope they’ve got bored and naffed off by the time we come out?’

      ‘Much as I applaud the dressing-room plan, I need to find Dani first.’

      ‘Six o’clock,’ Spook said, nodding toward the backstage bar. ‘Do you see her?’

      The only person Xane could see was Rock Giant, who was something of a landmark. ‘No. Where?’

      ‘Wedged between Ash and the wall.’

      ‘Where?’ Xane wasn’t normally possessive, but he knew what a snake Ash could be when it came to getting his leg over. He wouldn’t think twice about bedding Dani, or any other girl Xane happened to show an interest in. Matter of fact, in the past he’d made a point of seducing the girls the other guys hooked up with. It seemed to be a machismo thing with him, proving he was the hottest lover or something. He was also the biggest dick, much as Xane loved him. The only reason none of them had ever called Ash out over his practices was that none of them had ever been serious about a relationship before. Except for his former relationship with Elspeth and Steve. That was different. They’d all been part of the band, and Ash had never had a look-in there.

      ‘Don’t tear his head off,’ Spook pleaded. ‘I don’t want to have to shop for a lead guitarist too.’

      Xane ripped a pathway through the crowd. He trusted Dani. He placed no blame on her; she was innocent to Ash’s ways. She was probably just hanging with her friend waiting for him when Ash and his trouser snake had pounced.

      His annoyance spiked as he drew closer and realised that Iain Willows was in on the act of fucking with his girl too. He and Ash had Dani trapped between them, like the filling in some hideous sandwich. ‘Lay off her,’ he snarled, grabbing hold of Ash’s shoulder and hauling him backwards.

      ‘Watch it.’ Ash shrugged him off, shaking his head. ‘You’ve met Ginny, right?’

      Yes. Yes, he had. The tension flowed from his limbs, as he realised the girl he’d taken to be Dani was in fact her friend and housemate.

      ‘Well, hello, He-Man,’ she drawled. A vamp’s smile stretched wide across her impish face. She gave him a thorough once-over, obviously enjoying what she saw. ‘What can I do for you?’

      ‘Where’s Dani?’ he demanded.

      ‘Is that all?’ she purred, her eyes showing her disappointment. She reached out to stroke the line of his lapel. ‘I thought, seeing how eager you were to speak, that maybe you required my urgent attention with something.’

      ‘Yes, tell me where my girlfriend is.’

      ‘The little girls’ room,’ Ash replied. He reasserted his claim on Ginny by encircling her waist with one arm.

      ‘Right. Thanks.’ That was all he needed to know. Xane backed away immediately and searched over the heads of the crowd for a signpost to the ladies’ bathroom.

      ‘Seriously, he’s going to wait outside the door?’ he heard Iain remark. ‘That is so uncool.’

      Xane zapped him with his laser-beam stare. God, he resented having to have this guy around.

      ‘Odds are he’s planning on walking straight in,’ Ash replied, at which point Xane rewrote his strategy. Dani deserved better than to be groped in a venue toilet.

      ‘You know, it wouldn’t kill you to hang with us for a few minutes before you go tearing off,’ Rock Giant remarked, joining them. He had Elspeth tucked against him as if she required his support to stay upright.

      ‘I’m going to be squashed on to a bus with you lot for the next six months. Excuse me if I enjoy a little separation while I can.’

      ‘Xane, I want you to meet …’ Graham Callahan, Black Halo’s manager, stepped into Xane’s path. ‘This is Jenna from Rock Out Monthly.’

      ‘Not