Page 5 of The Paranormal Investigation Bureau
I was gossiping about all of this with my banshee bestie, Nyx. There wasnothingin the company records aboutThe Sugar Skull Girl, nothing about why it was pulled to give me a hint about why Marsden was bringing it out now.
Nyx seemed distracted. I loved her to death, she was the only professional ballerina I knew that was totally drama-free. Nyx also shot Marsden down when she first joined the company and caught his eye. She wouldn’t still be living in her shitty one bedroom apartment, and instead would be doing solos and living it up if she had done what plenty of the women in this company did for parts.
“Nyx, focus!” I said, snapping my fingers in front of her face. “That NDA is shady as fuck, especially now that I know there’s nothing in the records about that ballet.”
“Marsden is a shady dude. As soon as I turned eighteen and made it into the company, he tried to get me into his bed. Why the fuck am I getting a new roommate now? The company is full. No one has retired or gotten injured. Academy graduation isn’t for months. Who is this new corps member? If he screws anyone outside the company, he rarely adopts them and gives them a spot.”
“Well, maybe we need an extra cast member. We’d be able to know that if there was anything about this in the library. You just don’t want to give up your second bedroom.”
“Hello? You’re over here all the time. You’ve seen the size of the bedrooms, my closet is pitiful!”
“When does she arrive? Please tell me you aren’t going to be a bitch to her because of your micro closet.”
Just then, there was a knock on the door. Nyx looked put out.
“That should be her now.”
“Be nice!” I hissed, swatting at her ass as she stomped off to answer the door.
I kept telling her that, but Nyx and I were pretty mean. Though there were company members that were much pettier than we were and went out of their way to destroy careers. Nyx was off their radar because they didn’t consider her a threat. She refused to go there with Marsden, and she made that clear.
I was safe from most petty ballerinas because I had a dick and didn’t drop them. I also didn’t do a damn thing to stop the rumors I was gay, despite the fact I totally wasn’t. Truth be told, I had a pretty kinky sex life, just not with other dancers… and definitely not dancers from the same company I danced in.
I didn’t do relationships, I did hookups. I didn’t need some ballerina thinking I’d developed feelings and that we were going to be the next Fonteyn and Nureyev! They were human dancers in a human ballet company. We rarely paid attention to any of that, but, sometimes, human dancers caught our attention. Fonteyn and Nureyev were two, and they were given as examples as soon as they put you in your firstpas de deuxclass.
So yeah, that's why I didn’t bed ballerinas. I danced with whoever they assigned me with, but definitely had my favorites. Some of Marsden’s little toys were a big pain in the ass to lift because they thought I was supposed to do all the work.
Nyx came stomping back in with her new roommate, and Ialmostreconsidered my no ballerinas rule. Nyx’s new roommate was a little hottie. My gryphon scented her, and he liked it… she was quite the exotic little witch with long, raven black hair and olive skin. She had no makeup on except a bit of eyeliner and lip gloss. And look at that turnout! Color me interested! Focus, Arden. We don’t do ballerinas. Why did she have to smell so good and look like that?
“Beyla, meet Arden. He’s in the company, too. Keep your girl crushes to yourself. He won’t fuck you.Oh, and if you fuck Marsden for a solo, then you’re dead to both of us.”
Beyla. What a pretty name. Nyx was giving her a hard time. I might think she was pretty, but I wasn’t going to be nice to her until she earned it. I learned my lesson about that shit way before I ever got accepted into this company.
Beyla wrinkled her nose and dropped her suitcase.
“I know he’s famous, but he kind of gave me the creeps. Right after he retired, but before he became artistic director, he taught my class when I was auditioning to get into the academy. The studio was packed that day, and my parents drove me for two hours, with some people coming in from other states. When I met with him, he said he remembered me because I have nice legs. That shattered any illusions I might have had about him.”
Nyx and I exchanged looks. If Marsden liked her legs when she was a teenager, they’d accepted her into the academy. If she were any good, she would have been here this entire time, even if she didn’t go there with Marsden. He was many things, but healwayswaited until they were eighteen before he tried to get them in his bed.
I wasn’t going to ask. Maybe she auditioned for other schools and studied internationally. Perhaps she could have gotten homesick and came home to the states. At any rate, she could tell us that later. Nyx wanted to know now.
“If you didn’t get into the academy… then what the fuck are you doing here now?”
Beyla tossed her hair over her shoulder. Nyx was kind of being a bitch, but Beyla looked like she had experience dealing with that. She would have to, or she would have quit ballet by now.
“I got in. My parents opted to keep the fact that I was a witch from me. I was dating a human boy who didn’t want me to go to New York. He—”
“You gave up a spot at the academy for ahumanboy?!” Nyx snorted.
She didn’t look like she had ever quit dancing to appease anyone. She was trim and looked every inch a ballerina. Still, if she sacrificed her training for a boy, then she wasn’t going to make it here. Our classes were brutal, and so were the performances.
Beyla held up her hand and glared at Nyx. She’d finally lost some of that calm exterior and was getting visibly angry.
“I didn’t give up shit for him! Two days before I was supposed to leave, he broke both my fucking feet to keep me from coming to New York.”
Oh, shit. Dancer’s feet weresacred.Sure, we abused them constantly, we bled on the dance floor and through our shoes when callouses and blisters ripped open, and toenails frequently got ripped off… but we expected that, and we knew how to take care of it. What kind of psycho was she dating?
At least that was something Nyx could understand. She visibly softened towards Beyla.
