Page 13 of The Paranormal Investigation Bureau
Madame Lucinda loved me. Just because Marsden thought I was all gay and mostly stuck me in drag roles didn’t mean Madame Lucinda wasn’t always telling me I was capable of more. I knew what the company thought, and I let it slide, but honestly I’m more pansexual than totally gay. I just happened to have a boyfriend when I joined the company, and people seem to want to label male dancers as either gay or straight.
“Bevan, my love. Excellent class!” Madame Lucinda said, kissing both of my cheeks. “You earned that role, and you’re ready to take things to the next level.”
She could be a real hardass in class, and I knew some people in the company feared her. She was stuck in her ways when it came to a lot of things, but she was also one of the most encouraging mentors I’d ever had.
I still didn’t know why the new girl was there.
Madame Lucinda’s eyes narrowed, and she started walking in circles around the new girl, like a vulture. She rarely did this on the first day of class, she’d done it to me on my third day before she took me under her wing.
It was agonizing because she would ask you to stay and not say a damned thing, then she’d feel your muscles and tap you with her cane, but you didn’t know what she was doing. It was made worse when you didn’t know she didn’t do this with everyone in the company. She had her favorites, for sure, but she didn’t mentor just anyone.
I guess she’d decided to take the new girl under her wing, but why was I here? I had to admire her. The new girl kept her chin high, as Madame Lucinda circled her like a panther and smacked the back of her knees with her cane.
I tried to be nice to people in the company, especially the new ones. God knows, there were some nasty people in this company. Even if she hadn’t been named understudy, Julian would pretend to be her best friend to gather juicy gossip for Bellatrix and Ivory in case they needed it for later. Nicolai and Merlin were my friends, but even I could admit they weren’t the nicest when it came to women.
I wanted to give the new girl a heads up. This was a good thing, but she didn’t look like she needed it. Man, she had a solid resting bitch face. I liked this girl. I rarely got involved with company politics, but we were in this together now. The company nasties would come for us both, and I’d have her back.
“You went across the floor ingrand allegrowith Bevan,” Madame Lucinda said.
She seemed to be friends with Nyx and Arden. They formed a barricade around her atthe barreandadagio.She was all alone ingrand allegro,and everyone always shunned new company members on their first day, that is unless they’d studied or danced together somewhere else. Everyone did this, everyone except me. I always tried to make newbies feel welcome, so I went across the floor with her.
“This is Bevan? We weren’t introduced.”
“Tell me. What got in the way so badly that you gave up a spot at this academy and are only making your way back now? Every student and company member here dealt with life and gave up a lot to be here… so, what about your life was so damn complicated that you gave up your spot?”
I think we were all dying to know the answer, but I watched her in class and she still had good form. She easily kept up with what Madame Lucinda threw out, and since Marsden was watching to cast a show, she went all out.
The new girl’s chin raised a little higher, but she was looking at Madame Lucinda like she should have known the answer. Vampires weren’t mind readers, even if they drank your blood. She’d do well not to challenge the ballet mistress here, because Madame Lucinda had called her in for a reason.
“My parents let me think I was human. I still foundThe Pand tried my hardest to get in. My very human boyfriend didn’t want me leaving the state to study ballet and so broke both of my feet. Two days later, my parents died in a car accident, and I took a bottle of Vicodin, which awakened my magic early. The two casts on my feet and the funeral prevented me from going that year. I still took class once I completed physical therapy and had the all clear to dance again, just this time at a supernatural studio.”
“That was a lot of life to deal with at your age. You clearly had good training. You need a proper introduction. Bevan, meet Beyla. Beyla, meet Bevan. You both caught my eye when you danced together. She’s the perfect height to partner with you, and, provided she understands her part in apas de deux,I think the two of you could catapult each other’s careers. Bellatrix is going to have to realize it’s time for retirement, eventually, and someone will push Ivory down the stairs and end her career because Marsden lets her get away with anything. Now, how about you two do a few lifts and prove me right?”
I eyed Beyla, and she was glaring at me pretty hard. I was willing to try it, because Madame Lucinda was rarely wrong about ballet. What was her problem? She looked like she didn’t even want to try. What was with this girl, anyway? Did she not realize the chance she was getting here?
“What variation would you like us to try?” I asked.
“Do you both knowSekhmet and Ra?”
I did. Madame Lucinda wasn’t pulling any punches. That wasn’t one of those love storypas de deux,where we’d make goo-goo eyes at each other and fall into a kiss. This was one of the most challenging dances to get right. It was meant to depict a fight between two gods, which meant the dancers had to make the fight look real while doing complicated lifts where someone could get dropped if both people weren’t giving 100%.
I wasn’t sure about doing that variation as a first dance of new partners… since we’d never partnered before we had zero trust between us. Shit, we had only just been introduced! One of us could get seriously hurt.
Beyla had to be a little crazy.Nowshe looked like she wanted to do this. She shrugged casually and went to the center of the room to strike the opening pose. I walked to the other side of the studio and adjusted my body into a pose.
“I’m trusting you, Bevan. You’d better trust me back,” Beyla called.
Madame Lucinda played the music, and I started to dance. I’d never been this stressed dancing before. Beyla was clearly an up-and-coming dancer if she got understudy and Madame Lucinda’s attention like that, which only made my nerves worse. If I dropped her in this particular variation, I could seriously injure her.
I wasn’t worried about what Madame Lucinda thought about her making me an international star if we partnered up. I didn’t want to ruin her career. It sounded like she went through a lot of shit the first time she tried to make her way here. She’d finally made it, but I could end that in a matter of seconds.
My worry soon slipped away, and I lost myself in the variation. Beyla was probably the easiest ballerina I’d ever partnered with, and that said a lot considering how hard this variation was. The lifts were effortless, and she totally embodied the Goddess of Revenge. I fed off her energy and became the god that created her and needed to put her down.
Madame Lucinda was right, she usually was. Beyla and I weremagic.I lifted her above my head with one hand, and she just balanced perfectly in my palm. I carried her to the side of the studio, like I was carrying her offstage, and gently set her down.
Madame Lucinda started clapping.
“Iknewit. That was perfection! How did it feel?”
