Rocking Hard, Volume 2 Read online

  'Cause I love you, but you devastate me.

  And when I'm ruined, damaged, shattered … you'll leave me.

  You'll leave me!

  Cole slowly closed his mouth, letting the last note of the ballad reverberate through the room. The acoustics in the studio were brilliantly constructed, making his voice almost echo, and the backing of the instruments gave his tone the depth singing in the shower had never produced. The song was slow, with breaks for solo action from Solomon and Kingsley, and there were a number of impressive vocal runs. Despite the fact that there were very few actual lyrics, the song managed to convey its painful message clearly and showcase their talent.

  The audience sat in stunned silence for half a second before breaking into thunderous applause. Belinda trotted back onto the stage clapping loudly as well. It took her three tries until she could yell over the ongoing cheers. "And that is The Four Kings and their single, Love's Devastation. Their first album, Lover's Lament, will be available for sale in just three hours. Go check it out!"

  Misty met them backstage in the green room with a wide smile on her face. She held up a data pad and pointed at a number.

  "One million," Solomon said, leaning over to read the number above Misty's finger.

  "That's right—one million pre-sales of your record across the galaxy in the last five minutes and growing. You guys are going to be supernova superstars!"

  "So what's next?" Queenie asked as she cracked open the seal on a bottle of water. She passed the bottle over to Cole, who eagerly downed the contents. He hadn't realized just how thirsty singing one song had made him.

  "Well," Misty said as she scrolled down her data pad. "We have filming time for two music videos today and tomorrow. We've just posted your concert arrangements on your website, so we'll have to start putting a set list together."

  Kingsley was grinning over on the couch he had commandeered. This was old news to him; The Four Kings was his third band, and his first had gone supernova. For Cole, however, all of these busy preparations were mystifying and slightly frightening. There really wasn't any preparation for this sort of situation.

  They were hustled out of the back door and into a waiting car, which shot upwards onto the sky-highway towards the spaceport.

  "We're leaving Lacustrine for Helios," Misty continued. "They've got the best setup in their desert."

  They reached the spaceport before Cole could even begin to imagine what filming on a desert planet would be like. The whirlwind of his life continued to spin as they were hustled through a side door. People who had seen their broadcast that morning recognized them and started screaming and pointing in excitement.

  The company supplied their ship, so it had enough beds for all the band members and Misty without looking too ostentatious. They all settled into the lounge for the three-hour space flight to Helios, the neighboring planet.

  "Which songs are we putting to video?" Kingsley asked from where he was sprawled in one of the chairs across from the couch Cole was perched on.

  "We have to do Love's Devastation after that performance," Misty said. "But we haven't decided on the second one yet."

  "We should do Queen Me," Queenie grumbled, which made both Sol and Kingsley shake their heads. Queen Me was a good song, but it was more of a filler ballad on their record than a headliner piece.

  Cole bit his lip. There was one song that he particularly enjoyed, but he wasn't sure if the others agreed with him. Still, if he didn't ask, no one would know what he was thinking. Cole took a deep breath and plucked up his courage.

  "Willow Tree," Cole breathed out. Misty's eyes lit up at the suggestion, and Kingsley sank back into his seat in contemplation.

  Sol shook his head, though. "It's too rock for a music video. Lots of bass and drums."

  "There's plenty of guitar lines in that song for you," Queenie laughed. "I like it."

  "It'll show our range. One ballad with Love's Devastation and one rocker hit with Willow Tree. It works for me," Kingsley agreed with a nod.

  "Then it's set," Misty said with a smile at Cole.

  The spaceship landed at the Helios spaceport right on time, and Misty was quick to hustle them off the vehicle and outside into the crushing heat and sun. The air felt like the inside of a furnace, and every breath Cole inhaled burned in his lungs. The sunlight was blisteringly strong too, which was why Cole didn't notice the man who suddenly appeared directly in front of him.

  "This is the shy singer?" the man asked in a heavy accent. He studied Cole as Cole gasped and stumbled backwards in surprise. "I can work with this. Such blue eyes … yes, I can work with this."

  "Good to know, Gorge," Misty replied flatly, "but it would be helpful if you didn't give my band members any heart attacks. Now where's the AC?"

  Gorge laughed again and led the way to a waiting car. Cole gratefully slid into the backseat where it was cool and dark. He pressed himself against the door to give the rest of the band room to find seats. Gorge sat across from Cole and continued to study him intently as the car lifted from the ground and set off into the endless desert.

  "Love's Devastation," Gorge murmured aloud. "I'll need an actor and a close-up of your eyes. Do you have a lover back home?" he asked suddenly.

  Cole shut his eyes, hurt by the reminder that Dayton was already a planet away and it would most likely be months before Cole could see him again, but he managed to nod.

  "Perfect," Gorge said with a small smile. "Your expression when you think about your lover is perfect. The actor will be walking away, and you'll be on your knees, staring after him with total loss and devastation on your face. A close-up of your anguished eyes while you sing and the band plays …" Gorge broke off with a happy sigh at his own genius.

  Cole swallowed hard. The idea of close-ups and filming was a daunting one, particularly with Gorge at the helm. Misty seemed excited, though, and was happily explaining the process to Queenie and Sol on the other side of the car.

  Cole could already feel just how difficult the next two days would be, and they had only been on the planet an hour.

  Cole wasn't wrong in his assumption; by the second day he was sun burnt, slathered in heavy makeup to conceal his reddened skin, and starting to feel hoarse from all the singing he had been doing. According to Gorge, most singers lip-synced their music videos, but that didn't feel right to Cole. Since Sol, who had been playing guitar for a decade, had blisters on his fingers, Cole didn't feel he could complain too much.

  "Two more minutes!" Misty called into the break room where Cole and the rest of the band were passed out on flimsy couches, enjoying their half hour away from the camera. "Time to start heading back outside."

  Cole groaned as he sat up and was echoed by a much louder Sol a moment later. Kingsley had filmed on Helios before, so he knew what to expect, but even he looked tired and ready to stay right where he was lying.

  "I need the chorus," Gorge explained as he thrust the band back onto the filming stage.

  Cole stepped up onto his heli-pad and tried to hold back his yelp as the pad immediately lifted him into position a few feet in the air. There wasn't a microphone to sing into, but there hadn't been for any of the filming yet. Gorge apparently didn't want to obscure any of Cole's face, so the microphone had vanished.

  "Right," Kingsley said with a sharp nod. "I'll count out the beat. On four!" Cole waited for the beat before taking a deep breath and turning his head with the proper glare that Gorge had almost beaten into Cole until he had it perfected. Then Cole sang, and the chorus for Willow Tree was blasted into the middle of the deserted desert.

  I am a willow tree:

  I bend, I don't break.

  Frail and weeping?

  Ha!

  I'm stronger than I look.

  I am a willow tree:

  I bend, I don't break.

  Push me around,

  Hell,

  I'll smack you in the face.

  I am a willow tree, I am a willow tree …

 
The chorus trailed off, and after a prolonged moment Gorge nodded. The band put down their instruments for a momentary reprieve before Gorge turned back to them and ordered them to do something else.

  Only Misty was reasonably coherent on the ride back to the spaceship late at night on the second day. She was happily tapping on her data pad, checking sales and making sure their website was up to date.

  "You'll have a full night of sleep tonight," Misty said after she finished her task and set aside her data pad for the time being. "Tomorrow afternoon you have an interview with HoloPress and Planets & Stars at two and four o'clock. You'll have a photo shoot for both and an interview where you have to remember to plug the music videos." Misty looked around at her almost totally unresponsive band and gave a sigh that caused Cole to make the effort to raise his head and look at her. "Which I will remind you of tomorrow," she added with a small smile at the exhausted band. "We'll be traveling off-planet while you're asleep."

  Ten minutes later, Cole gratefully stumbled into his room on board the spaceship. The room was small, but had enough space for a full sized bed, along with ample closet space and decent floor space. There was a small door leading to the bathroom he shared with Kingsley.

  On the bed, Cole's phone flashed, indicating it held a message. Cole kicked off his shoes and took the time to unbutton his pants before eagerly reaching for his phone and calling up the message.

  Dayton's beautiful face appeared in the holograph recording. He had black hair, kept short to tame his curls, and loving brown eyes against a slightly large nose that was his face's only flaw.

  "Hey, Cole," Dayton said with a wide smile. "I know you said you'd call when you had time, and I know you haven't had any time lately," he added quickly, "because I've been stalking you online. I just wanted to hear your voice, even if it was only the message recording on your phone. But hey, there's no need for melancholy! I saw you on the Morning Mumble. God, you were so adorable when you blushed like that. And then that song. Ohhh, such chills. Cole, you were brilliant!

  "I bought one of your records," Dayton added with an impish smile that made Cole smile back at the holographic recording. "I know you said you'd get me one for free, but I couldn't help myself. Then I went and checked out your concert schedule. You're heading out to Planet Gaia first, which should ease you into the concert thing."

  Since Gaia was a planet known for happiness and the legal use of quite a lot of hallucinogenic drugs, the first concert would give the band a chance to get used to the stage and the audience without any repercussions if they made a mistake. The Gaians probably wouldn't notice if Cole fell off of the stage.

  "Second stop is Kamura, which sucks," Dayton continued. "But hey, you've got to stop by a moon habitation at some point. Lacustrine Stadium is your last stop, and I expect to get tickets," Dayton said with his usual mischievous grin.

  "God, I miss you," Dayton said as his smile faded away. "I love you, and I'm happy you're working hard. Have fun, keep singing, and I'll see you in a few short months." Dayton blew Cole a kiss before the recording ended.

  Cole saved the message on his phone and got ready for bed. He curled up under the covers, his phone clutched in his hand, wishing that Dayton's warmth was beside him in bed. His lover's arms should have held Cole close, reassuring him that everything was going to be all right even if it wasn't. But Dayton had to work. He had to stay home to help coordinate things from the base. Misty assured Cole that he would make enough money that he and Dayton could live comfortably without working another day in their lives, and that Dayton could join them by their second tour. But they were just on the cusp of making it big, not quite there yet, so Cole couldn't ensure Dayton's happiness on this tour. Misty had no idea what their real jobs entailed, but the cover story she had inadvertently come up with was a good one.

  It was better for Dayton to stay at home. Safer, too. Cole wasn't sure he would make it off Kamura alive and he didn't want Dayton to suffer the same fate. He would save their planet so Dayton could live a long and happy life, which was a good enough reason for Cole to be doing what he was doing in the first place.

  He desperately wished he could call Dayton back and hear his voice, but he knew he couldn't. Cole's phone wasn't secure. If he called Dayton and an enemy got hold of the phone, they could see what numbers Cole had used to trace him back home. Even if it wouldn't be considered strange for Cole to call his husband, neither he nor his handlers had thought it wise to leave a direct line to Dayton available to the enemy should the worst happen. Dayton's phone had the security protocols in place to keep his calls totally hidden from even the most invasive search, but that limited him to only leaving messages. They couldn't speak to each other in a live conversation or those protocols might fail. Cole was glad just having some contact with Dayton, even if it wasn't nearly enough for his heart to be happy.

  As he drifted off to sleep, Cole set the message on sound-only replay. Dayton's soothing tones pushed away the negative thoughts well enough that Cole could fall asleep.

  *~*~*

  "And Cole … " The interviewer, Steel Daily, flashed a too-white smile. He turned to where Cole was pressed into the corner of the couch, squished next to his band mates. Cole had quickly come to realize that interviewers and interview questions were all cut from the same cloth. Too shiny and too invasive, all with a smile so wide that Cole was always surprised that the sharks' teeth didn't show.

  "Yes?" Cole asked with a blush. After two weeks of enduring interview after interview, he was slowly getting more used to the process, but that didn't mean he was ever going to be comfortable with any of it.

  "Tell us a little about yourself!" Daily twittered. "No one really knows all that much of your past."

  Cole tilted his head slightly to the side to study Steel Daily and his too-white teeth. He had been asked that question before, but never with quite the same inflection as this particular interview. Daily was asking as if he were an interrogator instead of simply an interviewer. Cole had been expecting something similar to happen fairly soon, but not during an interview.

  They were due at Kamura, or 501b, in three days, where they would be playing two concerts during their weeklong stay, one on each of the two big continents. Both concerts were totally sold out. They had a couple of days for travel and tourism added in to fill the time.

  Cole blinked once, as if thinking, and tapped his middle finger on his knee twice before leaning forward.

  "What do you want to know?" Cole asked.

  "I've done my research and I simply cannot find any record on what planet you're from!" Steel Daily gasped as if this were a great travesty. Since Cole's record was confidential, the news didn't surprise him. That someone had the resources and took the time to dig deep enough to realize that there wasn't a record available to read was the only clue Cole needed. He rubbed his chin and bit his lip, knowing that he was blushing, and this time he used his shyness as an excuse to stall.

  "Um, well I was born on Roma. That's Colony Two," Cole explained. "I ran away when I was seventeen and found work as a janitor on Lacustrine." After which he and Dayton had been recruited and trained by their current organization, but there was no need to tell Daily that little detail.

  "Ran away from Roma?" Daily exclaimed, gently touching his fingertips to his lips in feigned shock. "How horrible. What happened?"

  Cole could feel his blush growing. He glanced towards his band mates for help, but they were clearly just as curious as Daily was, so no rescue would come from them.

  "I fell in love," Cole finally said with a shrug that did nothing to hide just how red his face was. The audience almost cooed at his admission. "But on Roma you can't chose who you fall in love with."

  "Boy? Girl?" Daily asked. "Your audience is dying to know!" he added with a meaningful glance to the enthralled live studio audience.

  "Boy, which was the main problem. Roma isn't exactly progressive when it comes to free love. Being gay is illegal there. He's also Jewish, and inter-r
eligious fraternization with the small Jewish community was also a big no. My family turned me out, my church wanted to have us stoned, and the police were about to arrest us. We snuck onto a cross-galaxy shipping vessel and sued for political asylum when we stepped off at Lacustrine." Cole knew his voice was strong and his face, though still red, echoed that sentiment. It hadn't been a great time in his or Dayton's life, but it had been many long, happy years since, and Cole was at peace with it all.

  "Can you tell us a little about the boy?" Daily asked when it became clear that Cole wasn't going to say any more about his past.

  Cole shook his head. "No, I don't want my fame causing him any harassment back home. We've been happily married for four years, and that's all I'll say on the subject."

  That wasn't the most Cole had ever said in an interview, but it was the most time spent focused solely on him to the exclusion of the rest of his band mates. Cole was just glad he had gotten so much practice interviewing over the past weeks so he wouldn't stutter or stare stupidly and make himself look suspicious. Still, he had been advised to tell as much of the truth as possible; it was actually one of the earliest lessons they taught in basic training. First, so anyone doing a real background check wouldn't get alarmed, and second, so he wouldn't get his stories mixed up.

  "I'm sure the ladies and quite a few men are sorry to hear you're taken. And how were you recruited into The Four Kings?" Daily asked, finally moving into familiar territory again. He had asked the other three the same question earlier too.

  "Well, I was working as a janitor, and I was cleaning up a late night coffee spill out on the front steps of the building. I guess I was singing and a bigwig walked by and heard me. Handed me his card and told me to come to auditions the next day. Now here I am."

  "Fascinating!" Steel Daily said with another too-white flash of shark's teeth. "Well, that's all the time we have tonight, folks. The Four Kings! Their next concert is in three days on 501b, Kamura. Check out our website for a contest to win tickets."

  Music played over the sound system, signaling the credits. The Four Kings all stood and smiled, waving happily at the audience for one last camera pan over the couch until the stage lights suddenly flipped on and the show was over.