Excerpt: A Hunter's Fire

“Do you think everything is going to stay this way?” Penny said abruptly. The men glanced at her, at each other, and then away at other things. Brandon looked up at the pinkish sky where stars strained through, too faraway to make proper contact through Los Angeles’ smoky atmosphere. Too many stars there as it was. Fisher’s gaze bounced away across the rooftop to the railing that kept them fenced in up here.

He grabbed one of the bottles of champagne they’d brought with them and swigged heavily from it before clambering to his feet and striding a bit unevenly to the railing. Penny giggled and grabbed her bottle as she got up to join up. But Brandon remained where he was, trying to see the stars, trying to ignore that Fisher had his arm around Penny’s shoulders, his other pointing and directing her gaze down to the streets below.

“See them?” he was saying. “Nothing can ever stay this way because life is not this magical and full of joy thing that it is when we play rock ‘n’ roll. You know that, Pen. When you ask questions like that it makes me wanna…” His hand gripped the top section of her arm very tightly. “Makes me wanna do something,” he said vaguely, his eyes unfocused, one foot on the railing. Penny raised her eyebrows at him and even in her muzzy state of drunkenness she knew he was still being sort of serious. She tried to see if Brandon was there and watching to make sure they were all right but everything kept sliding out of focus so after a few moments she gave up.

“Don’t talk like that, Fish,” she muttered. “The music is everything. That’s why we feel so alive out there.”

“Yeah, and the rest of the time we feel like fucking shit,” he retorted and took another long drag of champagne. “Some life.”