Page 2 of The Dancer and the Dark
“Do you need to see a physician? Would a steroid shot help?” Prior to meeting Chloe, Gavin had little knowledge of the dancing world. After meeting her, he had the utmost admiration. Chloe, in addition to being a phenomenal artist, was also an athlete in constantly peak condition. She had no downtime and no off-season. The wear on her joints was brutal.
“I promise I’m fine.” She yawned again. “As soon as this show is over, we should go to Paris.”
“Now that we have the plane, it’s a matter of a few hours.” As a wind vampire, Gavin’s nature had rebelled against a private plane for years until Veronica, his longtime assistant, mentioned that it was far more secure for her and his other human staff and security to fly privately.
And sadly, not even Gavin’s immortal speed could match the five to six hundred miles an hour that the converted cargo jet could fly.
Eventually he gave in and started a shared charter company with other immortal clients. Within a year, it was turning a handsome profit.
Owning anything in partnership felt like being tied down—something he’d resisted for over 150 years—but times changed, people changed, and the world turned.
He looked around the near-empty passenger cabin. “It feels strange flying with only Veronica and Semis with me.”
“Oh, how did Semis like Paris?”
“He liked it, but he had to duck under a lot of doors.”
“Oh yeah. I can see that being a problem for him in Asia too.”
“He’s accustomed to it there.”
Gavin’s new day man was a massive Samoan footballer he’d met when he renovated his club in Hong Kong. Semis had been working his way up through the security arm of Gavin’s organization and had requested a move to New York the year before to be closer to his sister at NYU.
Chloe was the one who picked him to guard Gavin personally. He trusted her read on the quiet man, and he hadn’t been disappointed.
Gavin felt dawn beginning to tug at him, so he secured himself into a small chamber at the rear of the plane.
It wasn’t unheard of for vampires to own modern aircraft, though because of their amnis—the electrical current that ran beneath their skin and connected them to their elements—the planes had to be specially fitted with nonconductive insulation.
Modern electronics and vampires didn’t get along. Most of his peers were attracted to classic technology and transportation for more than aesthetic reasons.
He was currently using an old traditionally wired phone with a speaker attachment that ran through the pilot’s cabin. It was like something fitted into planes in the 1980s, but Gavin didn’t care. Most of the vampire world had converted to Nocht, a vampire-friendly software owned by Patrick Murphy, the vampire lord of Dublin, but Gavin had issues with Nocht.
As in privacy issues.
He was paranoid and he wasn’t shy about it. This current trip to see his mentor in New Orleans, long overdue, was partly for personal reasons but mostly about business. There was an opening for a Nocht competitor, and he was going to get his mentor to back him in the project.
Marie-Hélène did love upsetting the apple cart.
He heard Chloe yawn again. “You should go to sleep. I’ll call you when I land.”
“When will you get to New Orleans?”
“At four in the afternoon local time,” Gavin said, “so Semis and I will be waiting in the hangar until after nightfall. Veronica will start briefing Marie-Hélène’s people as soon as we land.”
“Okay.” She sighed. “I miss you.”
“I miss you too.” He missed her like mad, but she had a life, and it wasn’t following him around to business meetings. She had friends and work in New York. She danced in the space between the vibrant theater community and the dark vampire collective. For now it was a balancing act she gracefully walked.
For now.
Gavin knew that eventually Chloe would have to make a decision. And for him, the thought of her following a human life grew more and more fraught with dread.
He loved her. He hadn’t loved a being more than her in over 150 years. To him, shewaseternity.
And Gavin had no idea what he’d do if she didn’t choose him.
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