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

by Meg Ripley

  I combed my hair back from my forehead and looked at the shapes of her legs under the bedsheet. “I like you a lot,” I said finally. I couldn’t look at Allie while I said it. “I’m scared of how much I like you. It’s fucking complicated as hell.”

  “I like you a lot too,” Allie told me. “I’ve never met anyone like you, Mark. And the sex is fucking amazing.”

  I reached around on the bedside table until I found my cigarettes. “I need a smoke.”

  “I’ll join you,” Allie suggested. I almost told her not to, but it was obvious that we weren’t going to be able to get back to fucking each other’s brains out until we came to the end of the conversation. I grabbed my cigs and lighter and climbed out of the bed. My boxers were on the floor, halfway across the room, and I snagged them on my way out to the balcony attached to by bedroom.

  Allie settled for my bathrobe to cover herself up, and we both went out onto the balcony. I lit a cigarette and I handed her one as well. “So,” she said. “We like each other. The sex is incredible. We’ve been doing this for weeks. What are we calling it?” I took a long drag--as long as my lungs could stand--and held it for a moment before exhaling.

  “Do you want to be my girlfriend, Allie?” I barely met her gaze. I hadn’t realized how much the idea of actually naming what was going on between us--meeting up at each other’s apartments, grabbing dinner somewhere, fucking each other’s brains out, talking until dawn--was eating at me. I had thought I was over the Sophie and Dan thing. Apparently not.

  “I’d like to, yeah,” Allie said, her voice rippling with amusement. “Do you want to be my boyfriend?” I chuckled and took another drag of smoke down into my lungs.

  “Jesus fuck that sounds weird,” I said, shaking my head. “Yeah, I want to be your boyfriend.”

  “You’re not about to tell me that you’re going to keep this a secret from the band still, right?” I glanced at Allie.

  “Why are you so keen on meeting them?” Allie rolled her eyes, giving me a bland look.

  “They’re a big part of your life,” she pointed out. “You spend most of your time with them. They’re obviously important to you--so yeah, I want to meet them.”

  “And get some amazing pictures?” Allie pulled on her cigarette.

  “I won’t bring my camera,” she told me. “I’ll just meet them as your new girlfriend, that’s all.” I looked at her for a moment. She was beautiful--more beautiful every time I saw her. She had gone ahead and sold pictures of me to a magazine, but I knew she’d be shopping them around. None of the pictures she’d taken were anything I should be ashamed of; nothing had been captured that I hadn’t told the guys about afterward. But part of me liked having some kind of secret from them--it felt like a weird kind of payback for Dan keeping Sophie a secret, for the way that no one in the band seemed to really be discussing the new dynamic, even though we were playing together better than ever before.

  “Okay,” I said. “I’ll introduce you. But no camera equipment. And let’s not tell them you’re a photog until after they already know you.” I finished off my cigarette and stubbed it out.

  “One of your guitarists is dating a journalist and you’re worried they’re going to think I’m horrible for being a photographer?” Allie shrugged. “And what if they ask about my job in the first ten minutes?”

  “Olivia is already part of the Molly Riot Girlfriends club,” I told Allie. “They’re used to her. But things are tense right now.” I kissed her on the forehead and turned to go back into the apartment. “To prove that I’m on board, I’m going to go set up a hangout right now.” I grinned at Allie. “Assuming anyone is actually free to hang out tonight.”

  I went inside and found my phone and decided to try Dan first. I opened up my messages and typed a quick text. Hey bro. You free tonight? There’s someone I want you to meet. Dan would know right away what that meant--he and I had actually, shock of shocks, managed to hang out on occasion, since things sort of cleared up between us. He kept dropping hints about the woman he thought was in my life, but didn’t push it if I told him to back off.

  I sent texts to Jules and Nick saying almost the same thing; I almost didn’t text Alex, but at the last moment I decided I might as well get it all out of the way if it was humanly possible. “You hungry?” Allie looked up from her phone in response to my question.

  “Pizza?”

  “Definitely.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  I could tell that Allie was trying not to fidget. The guys had all--one by one--agreed to meet with me, and I was pretty sure they’d all figured out that I wanted to introduce them to my new girlfriend. “It’s going to be okay,” I told her. “You’re just meeting them as my girlfriend.”

  “Yeah but you’ve got me all squirrely about it,” Allie said, giving me a quick, nervous smile just before she took a sip of her beer. “Avoiding telling them about myself, all that.”

  “It’s going to be fine,” I told her again. “They’ll love you.”

  “So you say,” Allie said, setting her beer down. She took a deep breath. “I’ll try not to be nervous.”

  I’d arranged for the guys to meet us at Dubliner, since it was more or less central to where everyone lived. We’d played there a few times--good shows, all of them--and I figured it would be as good a meeting place as any, with the good memories attached to it. I knocked back a shot of Jameson and looked around, wanting to make sure if possible that I spotted whoever got there first before they spotted me.

  I saw Dan step into the bar, and took a sip of my beer. “One of four,” I told Allie quietly. He hadn’t brought Sophie with him--I assumed she was working. I raised a hand and waved him over, and Dan spotted me. He nodded and walked over to the table I’d taken, smiling. Sophie is good for him.

  “You must be the new girlfriend,” Dan said, sitting down and reaching across the table to Allie.

  “Allie Havers,” Allie said, shaking his hand.

  “It’s good to finally meet you,” Dan told her. “Should I buy a round for the rest of the guys?” I shrugged.

  “I was going to wait until at least one more showed up, but we can go ahead.” Dan raised a hand and one of the waiters came to the table--the same one who had brought beer and shots for Allie and me.

  Nick arrived as the waiter walked off to get a round for all of the band, and the introductions started up again. I felt both relieved and anxious at the same time, as Allie chatted with my bandmates. Jules showed up next, and came to the table looking less morose than usual, more interested in what was going on. After a while, Alex came in too.

  “So, I’m assuming you met Mark at the festival a few weeks ago,” Alex said, giving me a look. “How’d it happen?” My heart pounded in my chest; Allie looked at me and smiled weakly, and then turned her attention back onto my bandmates.

  “I took a picture of him,” Allie said. “He was walking back to the Bent Bridges green room after hanging out with another band, and I saw him…” she shrugged. “He just looked perfect that way. And I just had to do it.”

  “What brought you to the festival? Are you a journalist? Or crew, something like that?” Somehow while everyone was arriving, the topic of what Allie did for a living had fallen by the wayside.

  “Photographer, actually,” she said. “Freelance.” Alex raised an eyebrow.

  “She got some pictures of me and Bent Bridges into Spin magazine,” I told the rest of the guys in the band. “From what I saw they were pretty fucking decent.”

  “You’re just so photogenic, though,” Dan said, giving me a pretend-flirty look.

  “How much did you make on them?” Nick sipped his beer. “Liv is thinking about freelancing.”

  “I made enough to justify the trip to the festival,” Allie said with a shrug. “It’ll pay the bills for a month.”

  “I should put you in touch with my girlfriend,” Nick said.

  “So how did you decide to take a picture of Mark?” I looked at Alex; I’d heard t
hat tone in his voice before, and it set off warning bells in my head.

  “I recognized him,” Allie admitted. “And he just looked...it was the perfect picture. Just the way he was standing, the way he was walking. You’ll see it in the magazine next month.” She grinned.

  “She actually suggested that it might be a good idea for her to come into the studio, take a few pictures of us at work,” I said. “I thought it might be a cool idea, once we’re all comfortable and all that.” Alex knocked back a shot.

  “So, you knew who he was?” Allie nodded.

  “I mean, I live in South Florida and I mostly do photography in the music industry. So, I mean, of course I knew who he was.”

  “And you took a bunch more pictures of him and Bent Bridges and hooked up?” Allie nodded.

  “Seemed like a good idea, since I was sure that Mark covering Neely would be a decent story.”

  “One of those things,” I said, giving Alex a look of my own. “And now that we’ve been seeing each other for a while and things haven’t imploded, I figured that I’d introduce her to you guys.”

  “How long have you been working?” Jules looked almost as irritated at Alex’s questions as I felt.

  “Couple of years,” Allie said. Dan ordered another round and I tried to think of a way to change the subject.

  “It’s interesting, the way you two met,” Dan said. He looked at me and grinned; I rolled my eyes at him, remembering the pep talk he’d given me months before.

  “It’s good,” Jules said. “You look happy together.”

  “So far we are,” I said. “It’s not serious yet but we’re getting more serious.”

  We ordered some food for the table, and I started to relax a bit. Maybe Alex wouldn’t be a shit. Maybe everything would be okay, and this wouldn’t turn into new drama--new drama that I would be the cause of. “What have you guys been doing together?”

  “Other than having tons of sex?” I grinned at Allie, who rolled her eyes. “The usual stuff: movies, we went to a show the other night.”

  “Were you working?” I glanced at Alex.

  “Nah, it was just fun,” Allie said. “Just a night out.”

  We kept talking, and I started to relax again. Alex was a bit quiet, which was weird for him, but I told myself that it was better for him to be silent than to be asking suspicious, probing questions. Allie’s phone buzzed and she checked it, and made a face. “What’s up?” Allie shook her head.

  “Client,” she said. “They want to talk about a shoot next week. Right now.” I shrugged.

  “You’ve met my best friends,” I pointed out. “Go take the call.” Allie smiled wryly.

  “Freelance life--never not on call,” she said, gathering up her purse and phone. “I’ll be back.” I watched her leave the table and step out of the bar.

  “So, thoughts?” I looked at each of my bandmates.

  “I like her,” Dan said. “You’ve always had a thing for blondes.”

  “I have not,” I said, rolling my eyes. “She’s cool.”

  “She wants to come into the studio and take pictures of us?” I shrugged.

  “She thought it might be cool,” I said. “It’s not set in stone or anything. But it might make for some cool album artwork, give us something to distribute on the site, something like that.” Alex looked at me for a long moment.

  “She recognized you immediately. Before she even introduced herself to you.”

  “And that’s a problem because…?” I shook my head. “In case you haven’t noticed, we’re a big band. She works the local scene. It’s not crazy for her to have recognized me.”

  “I just think it’s weird that she just happened to take a picture of you, and just happened to end up hooking up with you, and now she wants to do pictures of the band in the studio. Who all does she have as clients?”

  “She’s got a couple of magazines that buy from her, some smaller clothing labels that hire her, the usual stuff that freelancers do,” I said. “Nick’s dating an actual journalist--you never had a problem with that.”

  “I’m not saying I have a problem with it,” Alex said. “I’m just saying, it’s a little weird that she just met you randomly at the festival and wanted to date you and now conveniently thinks it’d be a good idea to do promo photography for us.”

  “She had no way of knowing I’d be at the festival,” I pointed out. “I wasn’t planning on being there until Nate called to ask me to fill in for Neely.”

  “Whatever,” Alex said, shrugging. “She seems nice enough. Just don’t buy in too much too soon.” I glared at him.

  “You dated your rehab counselor before you were even out of rehab,” I told him. “How the fuck are you going to give me life advice?”

  “Let’s just let Mark run his own love life,” Nick suggested. “If Allie’s using him, it’ll become obvious and we can take him out to the strip club if and when he has to dump her. If she’s not using him, then we can just be happy he found someone.”

  “Am I the only one who remembers how much nicer things have been since Mark started getting laid regularly?” Jules raised a shot and we all did the same. “I mean, fuck--if that’s what it took to make the band work again, she can use him all she wants.”

  “That’s not what this is about,” Alex said. “I’m just saying: I’m worried about it. It all seems too fucking convenient.”

  “You’re worried that I’m actually happy for once?” I rolled my eyes. “You wanted to meet her. You and everyone else in this band has been dropping hints left and right about how I must have met someone to be this happy, and now I finally show you who it is and you want to fuck it up by suggesting that she’s just using me?”

  “He has a point, you know,” Nick said, giving Alex a quick, sideways look. “Come on, ‘Lex. Don’t fuck up the evening. It’s been months since we’ve all been out at the same time. Just fucking enjoy it with the rest of us and give your crusade for the band’s purity a rest for the night.” Alex glared at Nick but there wasn’t really anything he could say.

  “Fine,” Alex said finally. “Let’s just get drunk and celebrate the fact that we’re halfway through recording the album, and Mark is finally getting laid regularly.” I raised my beer to that and we started talking about something else; I kept an eye out for Allie, waiting for her to get back from talking on the phone to her client. I was pretty sure that when she did come back to the table, she was going to have to deal with awkwardness from Alex, and the whole vibe going off because nobody else but him really had an issue with her.

  Instead, a few minutes later my phone buzzed, and I slipped it out of my pocket. Nobody was really paying attention to me anymore, so I could check it without anyone commenting. Hey--client said she needed to see the proofs I came up with again, and of course she deleted them yesterday. I grabbed a Lyft back to your place. The key’s still under the blue frog, right? I replied to tell her that it was and told the guys that Allie had had to run back to my place to get some stuff together for the client that had messaged her earlier. I didn’t want to think anything of it, but a look flashed across Alex’s face when I told the rest of the guys the news, and I knew that the subject of whether Allie was dating me because she liked me or for some ulterior motive reared its ugly head once again.

  CHAPTER TEN

  “What do you think of these?” Allie slid a binder into my lap, open to reveal a photo proof of one of the up-and-coming local bands, Georgie Pendleton. I’d seen them live with Allie about two weeks before, and she’d chatted them up after the show at Culture Room, suggesting that since they were getting ready to put out an EP--and since they had some financial backing in the form of a small-time label--she could give them a good rate on promo material.

  I flipped through the proofs, looking at them for a few seconds each. Georgie Pendleton was a hardcore band--not generally my cup of tea, but pretty good for what they were--and Allie had taken an unusual route with the photo shoot, with warm lighting instead of co
ld, and bright colors contrasting with the band’s uniform of darks. “Yeah Yeah Yeahs inspired?” I glanced at Allie. She shrugged.

  “Just wanted to play a bit with stereotypes,” she told me. I nodded.

  “I’m going to ask the guys again if they think it might be a good idea for you to come into the studio for a day or so,” I said. Allie raised an eyebrow.

  “I thought you said Alex was against the idea?” I shrugged. It had been about two weeks since Allie had met the guys, and while Alex hadn’t brought up the weird suspicions he’d had about Allie again, I’d caught him more than once scowling when I texted Allie during breaks in the studio.

  “Jules and Nick are into it,” I told her. It was true; Jules and Nick had both mentioned that they thought it was a good idea. They’d mentioned it away from Alex, but they’d mentioned it. Dan hadn’t said anything about it specifically, but he’d said more than once in the past two weeks that he was glad for me, that he wanted Sophie to get to know Allie better. “Oh--and Olivia wants to talk about maybe borrowing you for a story she’s working on,” I added.

  “She does?” Allie had met Olivia about a week before, on some bizarre kind of double date Nick had cooked up. Allie seemed pleased--more pleased than I expected, although of course it was probably always on the top of her mind to keep work in the funnel.

  “She liked the stuff you showed her from the festival and all that,” I said. “I think she’s doing some kind of special report, wants high quality photos.”

  “I’ll shoot her an email,” Allie said, smiling to herself. “That actually works out pretty well--one of my clients canceled their project, and I could use something to fill in.”

  “I don’t know when she’s going to need you,” I pointed out.

  “It’s all good,” Allie said. She reached over me to pick up her half-empty beer from the coffee table. “So, you think I should take pictures of the band?” I glanced at her. I’d tried not to let Alex’s petty, bullshit suspicions get to me, but I hadn’t quite been able to shake the sneaky little accusation he’d made: that Allie had engineered everything, our meeting and all, to try and pick up high caliber work.