The Dark Angels: With Wings (4 page)

The band pushed through the backstage crowd to get to Angel's dressing room. Roadies kept his dressing room empty of groupies, stagehands, VIPs, press, and whoever else thought they needed to see them immediately after they performed. Megan, the band's manager and number one advocate had decided long ago that the boys needed a little time to come down off the high of the stage before facing other people.

Each band member picked different locations to crash in. Dusty sat down hard in the torn suede chair. Darius fell into the couch as Angel crashed down right next to him, moving closer so their bass player could sit down. Robin took the other suede chair closest to Josh so their knees were also touching. Megan came breezing in tossing a bottle of water to each of them.

Dusty looked over at Darius with a smirk. "Hey, Dare. You batting for the other team now or what?" Dusty loved to stir up shit.

Dare rolled his eyes at the mouthy drummer. Even though that did appear to be a valid question.

Angel kicked at Dusty's shin. "Shut up, Dust."

"Ow!" Dusty tried to keep a straight face. "What? I thought he was going to let you do a tonsillectomy right there on stage."

Josh cracked up and bit his lip, trying not to laugh when he caught the daggers Angel was tossing his way. So he looked over at Robin, who pushed his leg into Josh's giving support and a warning at the same time.

Turning back to Dusty, Angel asked, "Jealous?" His voice dripped with stage flirtation as he leaned forward to put a hand on Dusty's knee.

Dusty shook Angel's hand off. "You wish," Dusty said while chuckling at his oldest friend.

Angel looked at him and laughed. "I bet
you
do."

Dusty threw the water bottle cap at Angel's head. It hit and bounced off onto the floor.

"Jesus, you guys need to grow up," Dare said wanting to stop this whole conversation. Darius didn't want to think right now. He wanted to enjoy the glow of the performance.

Robin quietly said, "Megan's here." Turning his sweet smile to their manager, he added, "Hey, M," as if she hadn't been hanging out waiting for them to stop their bickering.

She smiled at Robin and squeezed his shoulder. "Hey, sweetie!" Then she turned to the entire band and fairly shouted, "Wonderful, boys! Simply wonderful!" She smiled at each one of them.

Megan had been with The Dark Angels since the beginning. It was her belief in the band and hard work that got the band openings needed. She tapped Dusty on the knee. "Good job on that solo, baby. Hydrate!" She insisted they all drank water right after the show to replace what they had sweated out. It was almost funny, her neurotic need to give The Dark Angels H2O after a show, but they always complied. They had learned long ago it was just easier that way. She could be hell on wheels.

Her big blue eyes landed on Angel and Darius. Megan was totally focused on the twosome as she spoke. "Whatever that was," she waved her hand in the general direction of the stage, "Keep it coming. The crowd loved it!" She squealed. "Hell, I loved it! It was like watching live yaoi!" She giggled.

Dusty's face screwed up in confusion. "What the fuck is ya-wee?" His pronunciation left something to be desired.

Darius gave a quick laugh but didn't answer the question.

Angel looked over at him with a smirk. The singer was the one who originally educated him on this manga type. "It's Japanese gay porn!"

Dusty snorted in surprise and Megan began a quick denial.

"It is not, Angel!" Megan protested stamping her foot prettily.

Angel continued his educational lecture as if Megan had not spoken.

"It is a type of manga that translates literally into 'boy love'." Seeing Dusty's face of disgust, he clarified. "No! Ew! Not like that. You are a damned pervert!" He chuckled. "Everyone is of legal age, that's just the literal Japanese to English translation. It is beautifully drawn art work of pretty pictures of boys doing naughty things with each other and here in America it is a style of erotic novels." Angel's hand fell onto Darius's knee as he slowly started to slide up his leg. He smirked at Megan and said, "The nastier the better. Isn't that right, Megan?"

Dare stopped Angel's hand before it reached its apparent goal. Angel gave him a fake pout but then threw his arm behind his head. He was glad his shirt was long enough to hide the erection that pounded at his zipper. His body was becoming as unruly as a thirteen-year-old's around Angel. He seemed to be getting erections at the oddest times.

She blushed a bit and fairly growled at him. "Yes, Angel. You are correct." She rolled her eyes at him then continued to explain it to Dusty.

"Originally the artists and writers were mostly Japanese women and it is geared towards females. However, there a number of writers who write in the genre, just not in a comic book format."

Dusty shook his head. "Pretty boys screwing each other for females?

What the
fuck
?" The 'f' word seemed to be Dusty's go to word of the day.

Darius could see Dusty was adding
yaoi
to his Internet research list.

Dusty may not have gone to college but he educated himself via the Internet on just about every subject. Usually there wasn't a question Dusty couldn't answer or fact he couldn't recall. It was quite disturbing. The guy was genius level smart. That probably explained why he never really got into the groupie scene. Maybe it was even the reason why he never had a serious girlfriend; no one was smart enough for him. No one could follow his train of thought that typically ran off the rails on any subject that was remotely related to the conversation at hand.

Dusty never liked being out of the loop. He frowned. "I have never heard of this genre of manga. I have got to get online." Dusty shook his head. His hands lifted his sweaty long blond hair to cool his neck.

"Told you! You are so gay." Angel chirped cheerfully. They were back to their old senseless debate. Angel came out to Dusty in high school and ever since he tried to convince Dusty he was gay too. Darius could never tell if Angel believed that or if he was just pulling Dusty's chain.

"You wish, Luv!" Dusty retorted.

Angel laid his head on Darius's shoulder as he spoke to Dusty. "Ha!

Not quite. But I
highly
recommend it."

Darius moved his head to look down at Angel's sparkling eyes full of mischief as he teased the drummer.

Everyone cracked up. Dare's laugh might have been a little tense, but it was hard to laugh when all the blood had pooled in his lower region.
Why
did his body react like this to Angel's nearness?

Tommy knocked once. The kid opened the door and stepped in

quickly so he could keep all the people who were trying to push into the room out. The kid looked so young, probably more so because he was painfully shy.

Darius could barely hear him when he spoke. "Angel, everything is set." Tommy had just graduated college but had a serious lack of confidence, especially when Angel pulled him off of the usual roadie grunt work.

Angel smiled at him. "Thanks, Tom. I can always count on you." He lifted his head off Dare's shoulder and grinned into his face. "You are coming with me," he stated as if it were a decree from on high.

"Ang!" Dusty sounded disapproving but since he was like the mother hen of the group he was easily ignored.

"What?" Darius finished the bottle of water he was drinking and tossed it in the recycling can across the room. "Three points."

Josh interjected. "Only two points. You are too close for a three pointer."

Darius shrugged, holding up three fingers to Josh. "It was across the room."

Josh shrugged and touched Robin's water bottle indicating he should drink more.

Angel pointedly ignored the others and spoke to him, "Dare, we are going to Bali to finish off the next album." Angel didn't make that a question. "Robin already wrote a number of songs and pieces of others with you. We can work on the arrangements and add a few more."

"Huh?
Who
is going
where
?" He shook his head causing his side parted blond hair to flip back into place. He was trying to catch up.

Angel rolled his pretty eyes at Darius. "You and I. I have a villa rented at a private resort." Angel looked at Tommy. "Or I should say Tom rented it for me. Thanks again man for all the extra work."

Dusty shook his head in annoyance and got up to get another water bottle. As he passed by it sounded like he muttered, "Mistake."

"No problem, Angel." Tom smoothly supplied the name. "Barung Barung is the name of the resort." He smiled at Angel. "It means butterfly."

Angel grinned back at some joke between them. "Right. So we hang out at the resort and polish those songs you and Robin have been working on. Then we can write a few more."

Darius was surprised Angel knew he was working on their music with Robin. He hadn't said anything. They hadn't discussed it at all.
Bali? Alone
with Angel?
His thoughts went to what happened before the show and his stupid heart was racing a bit at the very idea of more of those same opportunities. His head was in the process of reminding his body that he was
straight
and it was work.

Dusty's prior disapproval gone and was replaced with teasing. Dustin pretended offense but his laughing green eyes gave him away. "Oh, sure Luv. Go to Bali with your
kissing,
licking
stage boyfriend but you leave your best friend here all alone." Dustin made an effort to frown but it appeared to be too much effort to cover his grin.

Everyone knew Angel and Dusty didn't make a move without

consulting each other. They were best friends and clearly this wasn't the first Dusty had heard of Bali. Darius tramped down a bit of the senseless jealousy that always seemed at the surface when he thought about the closeness between Angel and Dusty.

Angel ignored Dusty's whine and focused on him. "Dare, I need you. I have a few songs in my head and you can help shake them loose."

Dusty muttered something under his breath that sounded like, "You can help shake something else too." But Dare couldn't be sure.

"What about Robin?" Darius was a team player. He looked over at the quiet guy and wanted to be clear that he didn't want the guy to be cut out.

Robin was the true writer, the real talent.

Robin looked uncomfortably over at Josh. "I can't go. Stuff to do here," his voice trailed off.

"But they are mostly your songs," the guitar player argued.

Robin looked away and blushed. "We can email back and forth." His eyes darted back to Josh who was carefully studying his water bottle not saying anything.

Angel asked as if he didn't already know the answer, "High speed internet at the resort, Tommy?"

Tommy answered quickly, "Of course."

Darius sighed and sank deeper into the faux leather couch as Angel moved a touch closer to him.

Angel gave him a smile that said that all excuses were eliminated.

Darius was all out of arguments. Angel's eyes twinkled as he pushed the idea. "No distractions. Bali."

Dusty's barked out a laugh. "Right, no distractions." But he shut his mouth when Angel's head turned to stare him down with an evil look.

Angel smiled as he turned back to him. "Bali." That one word said it all.

Without being able to help himself, he grinned back at the beautiful singer. "Bali." Then after a moment's thought he warned, "But I want to see more than just the villa."

Angel gave him his famous crooked smile as if he wasn't single minded when it came to the music. "There are Hindi Temple dances in the evenings, beaches a short drive away, and a monkey forest." As if on cue, Tommy opened his green sack he always had slung over his shoulder and pulled out a Bali guidebook. Darius snagged it to flip through the pages. It did look a lot like paradise.

Angel tilted his head and asked the main question. "You in?"

He shrugged. What was he going to say? What could he say? He wanted to go. He wanted to write songs with Angel and to see Bali...with Angel. Being alone with Angel wasn't the main purpose but it would be interesting. "Yeah. When do we leave?"

"Now. Tommy chartered us a plane. It's on standby." Angel smirked at him.

Running a hand through his blond hair, he opened his mouth to object about all the details he needed to attend to. "I need to pack."

The assistant smiled sweetly and pointed to his bags. "All cleaned and ready to go." Before he could ask, Tommy answered his question before he even asked it. "Your keyboard is carefully packed in your carry on along with your iPod and computer. I had the roadies carefully pack up your acoustic guitar as well."

There was nothing more to say. All the details were attended to. He had no excuses. When Angel wanted something to happen, it always did.

∗ ∗ ∗

Angel had chartered a private flight. It used to seem like an unnecessary luxury but since they were recognizable worldwide, it was the only sane way to travel. If the trip was too long for a bus ride, The Dark Angels always went on private planes. Megan had brokered deals with several private airline companies to share jet time so it wasn't as expensive as he had thought. It didn't eliminate the crazy diehard fans at the airports but at least they wouldn't be accosted on the plane. They could actually get some rest between shows.