Page 3 of The Paranormal Investigation Bureau
Ihad four days before I started my new life, and I didn’t waste them. I partied with Morgan, pigged out with Kaine, and danced my heart out in my studio. I still got my two hours of ballet in when I woke up, then ate breakfast with Kaine, but we took separate cars to work. He was my boss now, and he couldn’t be seen giving me any preferential treatment.
So, I was utterly shocked to get called into his office right after they showed me to my desk. I didn’t even get the chance to log into my computer. I’d only been there ten minutes! I wasn’t late and, as far as I knew, I hadn’t pissed anyone off. A certain decorum was expected in ballet classes, and I knew not to mouth off to coworkers, classmates, teachers, or bosses. Sure, I could be pressed into doing so, but only in extreme situations.
Ballet dancers could be petty and dramatic. If I could deal with Stacey and her bunhead minions after I got the lead inGiselle,and she didn’t even get a solo, then I could definitely handleanythingthrown my way here.
I knocked on Kaine’s door.
“Come in!”
I knew that voice. He’d never used it when speaking to me, but I knew what it meant. Kaine was pissed about something. What the fuck had I done? He left an hour before I did, for a meeting, but that was common. This one shouldn’t have had anything to do with me either.
I opened the door and approached his desk. I couldn’t help it what I did next; I turned my feet out and assembled them into first position, then clasped my hands in front of me and bowed my head. Kaine was a dragon shifter, and his eyes were glowing gold, which meant he was fighting with his beast.
“Oh, sit down and relax. None of this is your fault.”
I made slow movements as I sat down and crossed my legs at the ankle. My spine was ramrod straight, and my shoulders down. I knew Kaine wasn’t mad at me personally, but whatever was going on involved me directly, and he was pissed about it.
I’d been trained on how to disable dragons when they were out of control, but Kaine had also been taught to defend himself against witches. Plus, he was mybossand also like my surrogate father… so I hoped it wouldn’t come to that.
Kaine blew smoke out of his mouth and ran his fingers through his salt and pepper hair.
“I know you witches believe heavily in fate. Personally? I never put much stock in it, but this can only be that. It was what I wanted, but not like this. I’m totally against it, and I’m being overruled.”
“Why don’t you explain whatitis, how it involves me, and why you’re so pissed about it?”
“You’re going undercover. You’re the only one here who can pull this off, and it’s the entire reason they hired you.”
Now, I was the one feeling pissed off. They’d hired me for one job? After four years spent busting my ass at the academy and trying to be the perfect agent, they didn’t even look at all the hard work I’d put into this. What could I possibly do that no one else in the Paranormal Investigation Bureau couldn’t? I’m sure there were plenty of witches with much more seniority who had gone undercover before.
“Why me? And what does fate have to do with any of this?”
“Because it involvesThe P.The artistic director has a bug up his ass and wants to do something he knows is a bad idea. So bad, he wants an agent on the scene for when things go ass up… and they will.The Pwanted to bring someone in as the costumer’s assistant, but it’s the dancers that get targeted.
“The Pinvited you to audition for their school once, and you put in your cover letter that you knew how to dedicate yourself to something, because of your ballet upbringing. They mentioned you to the artistic director, as an in with the dancers. You told your story about missing getting into their school because your boyfriend broke your toes… shit, Beyla, you told them about all the hours you spend dancing at home and the classes you still take.
“They communicated all that to the artistic director. So, your assignment is to go dance in the corps, atThe P,and hopefully stop history from repeating itself. You know I always wanted you atThe P,but not like this.”
Well, fuck me! Both my horoscopeandmy tarot cards had said something major was headed my way, but I thought that meant this job. There had to be a catch, there always was in my life. After my parents took me to seeThe Pon tour, all I ever wanted was to dance with them. When they were recruiting for their academy, at one of my local dance studios, I’d made sure my name was on the list, and I was front and center with my hair pulled tightly back, during auditions.
I thought I was going to faint when I got the call stating that I’d been accepted. No one was happy for me. My parents wanted me to apply for a summer intensive and return home, not leave for an entire year, and Derek hated every minute of it. My parents eventually relented when they saw how much it meant to me, but Derek never could accept it.
Every time I got pulled towardThe P,something dragged me back here. Kaine should have been ecstatic about all this unless there was a major catch. I narrowed my eyes at Kaine.
“Something is fucked up about this assignment, or you would have already packed my bags.”
“Apparently, every few decades,The Pgets a new artistic director who gets this same bug up their ass. They think they are the one who is successfully going to bringThe Sugar Skull Girlto a live audience. It never happens though… dancers end up dying, and the set is riddled with accidents. Some say it’s an angry spirit, and some say the ballet itself has a curse on it. So many people have died trying to pull off this ballet, there are probably so many angry spirits attached to it by now.”
I frowned. I’d never heard of that ballet, but I didn’t know everything in their repertoire. I knew they never did anything likeSwan LakeorGiselle,like I had done when I was studying at a human ballet studio. We never did anything like that when Kaine moved me to a supernatural one, but I didn’t know every single ballet out there.
“Why haven’t I heard of that one, if it’s as infamous as you say it is? Dancers love to gossip, and the patrons eat it up when they get wind of it.”
“It was a scandal, one hundred and fifty years ago when it was commissioned. Anyone who attempts it now doesn’t advertise it because it’s that much of a guaranteed cluster fuck. There’s a file on your desktop that contains everything you need to know. You fly out tomorrow. I was against this, kid, I objected as hard as I could and got overruled. I’ll totally back you if things go south and you have to leave before the artistic director gets his dick out of his hand and cancels.”
I was excited, and that was probably foolish. I hadn’t read the file on my computer, but Kaine was worried for me. This ballet was potentially fatal, I knew that much. If the ballet had been cursed, I certainly didn’t know how to remove it. Curses were generally attached to objects, not ballets.
Still, I was going to get a chance to pretend I was a corps member withThe P!
Chapter4
