Page 30 of Encore
Electra stuck her lower lip out and sulked.
“Fine. But promise you’ll both circle back and keep me company. Maybe this new dancer of Marsden’s has the right idea of having more than one of you at her beck and call.”
Arden let out a little growl, and now it was my turn to save his ass. I got us both out of there before Arden ate Electra in front of all these rich people. I looked around. Merlin was holding his own. There was this dragon widow that absolutely adored him.
She never did or said anything inappropriate to him. She just loved watching him dance. As far as ballet patrons went, she was beautiful. Merlin genuinely liked her, and if she needed things done around her apartment, he happily volunteered. So, Merlin was good right now.
I knew everyone surrounding Bevan. They were generally good people who would be curious about him in this role. Bevan could handle himself.
Beyla and Marsden had finished their dance. Beyladefinitelyneeded an assist. That reporter asking her questions was a piece of work. Harmony Grail was a succubus and one reason Bellatrix had a career revival when she came to the States.
Bellatrix was born in California, but she got accepted into a residential ballet school in Russia. She started her career in Europe, and bad press followed her every time she got fired. Some of the articles made their way over here when Bellatrix started rising in the company, but her friendship with Harmony put it all over the news that it was all slander from her rivals.
Harmony was also cozied up with Ivory, but not to the extent she had been with Bellatrix. She would have been looking for Ivory for the scoop on what happened with Bellatrix and expecting her to be dancing the lead role. Since Ivory was missing, she would be out for blood and zero in on Beyla.
Harmony Grail was a ‘burn the world down, couldn’t see the bigger picture’ type of person. She would have preferredThe Pgo out of business rather than give another dancer a shot at the lead. She would be looking for any kind of quote from Beyla to destroy her.
The fucked-up part was, if we told her the truth about how Ivory manipulated Bellatrix into bringing a gun to rehearsal and it led to her death, she’d back off of Beyla in an instant.
Harmony would use that information to destroy this ballet company.The Phad weathered plenty of scandals before and still survived. This might be enough to kill this company for good.
Chapter28
Beyla
Ididn’t know who most of these people were, but I could read their auras perfectly. For instance, this succubus was smiling and pretending to be friendly, but she was out for blood. I wasn’t sure what I did to her to get this level of hatred I was feeling, but I could handle her. I know the guys were worried about the sharks, and I had zero experience with this, but I watched Kaine do it all the time.
“So, Beyla. It’s interesting Marsden cut in on your dance. He generally only dances with patrons and his two girlfriends when he's at these galas. Bellatrix is dead, and Ivory has just mysteriously disappeared. It’s funny how you just show up out of nowhere, and I can’t find anything online about you, but you’re being presented as the new star. Did you conscript Marsden into your little coven and conspire to get rid of Bellatrix and Ivory?”
She aimed her cellphone at me like I was having a meltdown at a fast-food place, and she was recording to make an example of me. This woman was looking at me expectantly and tapping her foot like she had figured this all out and was just waiting for me to admit it on her video.
I really wanted to laugh because what else was I supposed to do in this situation? It was utterly ridiculous, but laughing in her face would just make this worse.
“Look, you don’t know me, but it’s flattering you think I have that kind of power here.”
I felt a hand on my back. I could tell that cologne and auras anywhere. Arden and Nicolai were here.
“Do you think I would share my mate with just anyone, Harmony?” Arden growled. “My gryphon has accepted Bevan, Nicolai, and Merlin, and that’s honestly a lot. I’m not sure why Marsden felt the need to crash my tango, but if you had been paying attention at all, you would have seen I didn’t like it.”
“Did your gryphon get all pissy and throw my friend out of a window so your mate could steal her part?”
Ah. So that was what this was. I got that Bellatrix had a shitty support system when she left home to go to residential ballet school. She never really grew the fuck up when she left, either. Marsden tried to give that to her, and she pretty much weaponized it.
Dating the artistic director so he would look the other way when she acted up? Check. Befriending a press member to smooth things over if her antics got out. I was looking at her now. Julian was for the cocaine. I’m sure Bellatrix thought Ivory was under her control and an acceptable substitute when she didn’t like specific roles. That hadn’t exactly ended well for her.
“I wouldn’t have pissed on Bellatrix if she was on fire, much less bothered ending my career to get rid of her. As you can see, all of us are currently at this gala instead of a cell at the Paranormal Investigation Bureau. Marsden wouldn’t have paid anyone’s bail for a role if they had thrown Bellatrix through a window. He would have recast or brought in a guest artist. Use your brain, Harmony.”
Harmony sniffed and turned the camera off on her phone.
“I’ve been texting Ivory since I found out. She hasn’t replied, and now she’s not here tonight.”
“And none of us have any say in the staffing of this company,” Nicolai said. “None of us are dating her either. So, if you want answers, I suggest you go bug Marsden instead of our girlfriend.”
Harmony squared her shoulders.
“You’re right. Marsdenisgoing to tell me what happened to my friends.”
Harmony stomped off towards Marsden. Arden held up his fist for Nicolai to bump.
