Page 57 of The Paranormal Investigation Bureau
Beyla
Marsden was totally relaxed and chatting with the accompanist as we walked into the studio. I really wanted to punch him in his Unseelie face. Bellatrix wasn’t there yet, but that wasn’t out of character, she liked to walk in at the last minute to make sure all eyes were on her.
We took our place in the center of the floor and started stretching. The door slammed when Bellatrix made her entrance. Marsden snapped to attention.
“Bella, we talked about this.”
“No! You aren’t doing this to me. Youare notgiving that witch my role. I’ll be damned if I’m being sidelined now!”
What the fuck? Marsden had said nothing to me about taking over Damita. I didn’t want it, because I really didn’t want a target on my back.
“I’m not giving her your role, Bella. You’re still upset from this morning, and you hurt your knee in class. Beyla will learn the choreography today, and teach it to you tomorrow. I asked you to stay home and keep your knee elevated. I don’t want you making it any worse and end up not being able to perform. She’s going to be teaching you what she learned this morning, too. I was just taking advantage of Beyla and Nicolai being in the studio early.”
I needed to get ahead of this. Marsden sounded perfectly logical, taking care of his star like that, but I knew better. I’d believe anything he said if he hadn’t pulled that stunt with Julian and not offered to pay Nicolai for the rehearsal. Outsmarting an Unseelie was usually hard. I hadn’t managed it yet. If I let Marsden go unchecked, Bellatrix was going to come completely unhinged. Not only was it dangerous, it also wasn’t fair to her, even if I didn’t like her.
“Maybe she could watch and rest her knee here? I’m sure Bellatrix is perfectly capable of picking up choreography by seeing it, then she would just need to practice once her knee is better.”
My friends were looking at me like I was insane. Bellatrix was eyeing me like she thought I was doing this to sabotage her somehow. Marsden glanced at me like I’d kicked his puppy, then regrouped. He couldn’t shut down my suggestion without looking bad in front of everyone. My solution fixed both problems.
Bellatrix probably did hurt her knee in class—Arden had already told me she had bad knees—the class had been brutal, and it wasn’t a soft landing when she fell out of that turn. She should probably be taking it easy in rehearsal and let the understudy take over.
But that didn’t mean she should be at home. I’d been in a similar predicament before. Not exactly this one, but I was once dancing a lead with a sore ankle that would have gotten worse if I had gone full out. I attended rehearsal anyway. My understudy learned the choreography, and I learned what I could by watching and getting all the original notes when it was taught.
Marsden knew that damn well, too.
“Excellent idea. I just wanted you to stay home and pamper yourself, Bella. You could have soaked in my hot tub, with the bubble bath from Spain, and the red wine you like so much. You’ve always been way too dedicated to miss rehearsal. I get it. Elevate your knee and watch. You’ll pick it up no problem, like you always do.”
That seemed to placate her a little, but she was still clearly angry. Her eyes narrowed at Bevan, and she pointed one of her red claws at him.
“I demand he pays for what happened to Julian. I want him fired and another dancer in his role. I refuse to dance with him.”
“Absolutely not. You aren’t going to mess with my vision. Julian got nothing that he didn’t bring on himself. You know how I feel about drugs. I asked the Paranormal Investigation Bureau to look into the accusation that Julian was dealing. If he hadn’t been guilty, he wouldn’t have been arrested.”
Bevan was calm and easygoing. His aura was so soothing, but even the most even-keeled people could be pushed too far, and Bevan was at his limits. He wasn’t sorry for what’d happened to Julian, and he shouldn’t be. But he would not let Bellatrix bully him either.
“Maybe Julian shouldn’t have exposed how much cocaine he had in his possession by putting it in Beyla’s dance bag, so you could try to get her fired!” Bevan snapped.
“Nyx, Beyla, and I all saw the cocaine in Beyla’s bag after Julian tried to invite himself to lunch with her,” Arden said. “We can corroborate that story.”
“I get he was your friend, Bella, but this company is better off without him.You’rebetter off without him. There are plenty of other dancers in this company you can bring into your inner circle that’d make better friends.”
Every single person in the room knew that wouldnothappen. Bellatrix probably knew it, too. She’d alienated everyone, and it took a particular brand of psycho to do the kinds of things they did together. Marsden had to be stupid if he didn’t know that. He clapped his hands to indicate the conversation was over.
“Good. Now that’s settled, we need to get started. We are behind on learning choreography. You are all professional dancers, and I gave you these roles for a reason. I expect you to bring your A-game from now on. This ballet doesn’t just need to be technically proficient, I also expect it to be well acted, with a passionate performance from every last one of you. To get to that level, you must master the dance so you can start perfecting the nuances. To the center!”
All four male leads were grumbling as we took our places. Theywerebringing their A-game. They were here to work. They were all invested in this ballet based on what they had seen of it so far. It wasn’t a group effort that we hadn’t gotten past the first meeting between Damita and her warriors.
Bevan hadn’t given up on trying to get through his lifts with Bellatrix, even though she had given him every reason to. If I had heard about a male dancer dropping a ballerina on purpose, like Merlin had, I would have tried everything to avoid partnering with them… and called them a dick! But then, I saw what Bellatrix was doing to Bevan and could agree she’d probably had it coming.
“Bella, I want you to watch Beyla with Bevan to see how he partners. I want you to see how easy it is between the two of them and bring that to the next rehearsal when your knee is better.”
“It would be easy with another dancer and me. You should recast the role.”
Arden let out a growl, and his eyes turned gold. He turned to Bellatrix and snarled.
“It’s not easy foranyof us partnering you. If we asked you to compensate us for massages, pain balm, Aleve, and the pain and suffering of having to lift your ass for the entire run of a show when you don’t contribute at all, you’d probably have to file for bankruptcy! I swear, if you don’t shut your fucking mouth and stop trying to take Bevan out… well, what do you think the three of us will do to you?
“Bevan is amazing, and friends with all three male leads. You like to do your dirty work in the shadows, but I have zero issues ruining your public image. Do you know how many people like to follow sexy male dancers on social media? Between the three of us, we could ruin your life by dumping a little dirt with a shirtless selfie. I don’t even have to ask Nicolai and Merlin. They’d do anything to protect Bevan. So, either suck it up and stop trying to hurt him, or be prepared for our wrath.”
