Page 61 of The Paranormal Investigation Bureau
“I honestly don’t think Marsden has been looking the other way during Bellatrix’s reign of terror because he’s under a succubus’ spell. Instead, I think he’s been grooming the perfect succubus diva, just for this.”
Holy shit.I was going to rip that fucking Unseelie apart! I wasn’t angry that my life was in danger—shit, I was perfectly capable of defending myself—but Beyla and Bevan were in danger. I was beginning to realize they weren’t as bad as I thought they were, but I didn’t want Nicolai and Merlin to die either.
They both looked capable of handling themselves in plain old fistfights, but their supernatural side wouldn’t help them in a fight against a cursed Unseelie. All Merlin had to fight back with was sex magic. Nicolai was a skinwalker, and could turn into anyone he wanted, but they kept their gifts secret. Fuck me, I got why… I mean, if anyone knew they took on the abilities of a person when they wore their skin…
“I know you have files, Beyla, but how the shit did Marsden find out the bureau could produce a witch with enough ballet training to make it believable to play his Tabitha?” Nyx asked.
Nyx was a skeptic who questioned everything. It was one of the reasons I loved her. This was a wild fucking tale, but I believed Beyla.
“His runes,” Merlin said. “He’s huge on using them for everything. He’s used them to figure out his vision for new ballets, remember when he did that weird bathtub thing with them to cast a show? Look, I don’t know that much about them, but they could have told him about Beyla.”
“If he’s working with another Unseelie, Santiago could already know you, Beyla,” Nicolai said. “If they’ve been preparing for this for this long, well, it wouldn’t shock me if they were watching you.”
“Marsden was the one who held my audition for the academy. I remember it because I was excited, and he was famous. It creeped me out when he told me he remembered me from my audition because of my legs when I got here. I should have beenwaymore creeped out. There was no way he remembered me unless, not unless he was looking for me. My parents drove me two hours, and there were people there from all over the state, and he held similar auditions all over the country.”
I tightened my hand on my spoon. These two Unseelie fucks had possibly been stalking my mate since back when she was just a kid, all for this fucking curse.
“I’m going to murder Marsden,” I announced.
“I’ll help,” Nicolai said. “Creeping on kids isn’t cool, and if Marsden is out of the picture, we don’t have to be worried about a cursed Unseelie murdering us all, even if I really do like the ballet so far.”
“None of you are killing Marsden!” Beyla yelled. “Didn’t you hear me? Killing Marsden won’t end this. Santiago will only disappear again and find another director to manipulate! This isn’t the first time this ballet has been attempted again, and people have died. If you stop me from doing what I came here to do, more people will die in the future. Ihaveto believe I’m here for a reason. Otherwise, all the shit I went through when I was a teenager will have been for nothing.”
I needed to kill something to protect her. If they had manipulated her into being the understudy for a deranged witch in the past, then she was probably going to be the first to die. I couldn’t even deal with that thought, let alone that reality.
But I got it. She needed to do this, and if she pulled it off, we’d get to perform a fantastic ballet and save so many lives. I was glad she trusted us with this.
“What’s your plan?” I asked. “We’ll help however you need.”
“First off, don’t blow my cover. Marsden can’t know I told you. It’s definitely going to be expected that you’ll be pissed at the diva prima ballerina and her antics. So, by all means, get angry about it in rehearsal. That might keep her in line, but you absolutelycannotlet on that you know he’s manipulating her, even when it happens right in front of your face, like today.
“I’m going to be turning the tables and manipulating Marsden into getting me in front of Santiago. It’s not going to be easy, and he seems to be a master at it. It’s going to take time. While I’m doing that, I need all of you to scour everything you can for photos of Santiago Suarez. I need to know about any Unseelie on staff, and who frequents the galas. He’ll be close, and keeping a low profile. I doubt he’s been pulling off all these murders without help and easy access to us.”
I could do that, so could Nicolai and Merlin. Marsden whored us out at every gala, and we knew all the regulars. Bevan enjoyed digging deep into research when it came to crazy things he’d overheard. This was right up his alley. He was brilliant when it came to computers. He could find employee lists and dig up photos in his sleep.
That left Nyx, who wasn’t even remotely a team player, even if she danced well with everyone else. I held my breath as I looked across the table at her.
“You’re all cool, and I don’t want you to get murdered. I’m probably safe from that shit in the corps. I’ll start seeing what I can find on Santiago Suarez.”
“Thanks, everyone. Watch your backs, because I don’t know when the murders start and in what order they go. Arden, we need to talk… alone, after dinner.”
I actually enjoyed eating with all of them, even Nicolai and Merlin, but I would definitely take any alone time with her I could get.
Chapter10
Nicolai
We were back home, but way too keyed up to sleep. It was just our fucking luck to meet this amazing girl, who we all like and dance well with her. She was the partner I’d been waiting for. I hadn’t seen Beyla and Bevan after class, but I had in rehearsal. If Marsden didn’t stick Bevan back in stupid drag roles, and gave him leads like he deserved paired with Beyla, his career would take off.
We had a job to do. Arden wasn’t so bad now that he wasn’t strutting being judgmental. We could all unite for this. I got what she said about people dying when this ballet had been performed in the past, but had it ever been attempted by a cast like us?
Beyla had the training to fight off an Unseelie, and I’m a skinwalker. All it would take was one touch, and I’d kill him with his own powers using his face. I’d taken down an Unseelie before when I was a teenager. He wasn’t one of those Fae that had fled them. They didn’t want him, but he was important, so they banished him instead of killing him. They died, just like everyone else.
Bevan didn’t like to brag, but if with enough of his moonshine in him, you could get him to talk about himself. That boy was so good at every form of magic, academies all over the world were offering him anything he wanted to coax him into attending. Even the Academy of the Profane was kissing his ass pretty hard.
Bevan could be getting his entire ass kissed by the magical world if he had gone that route. It wasn’t just academics either, he’d had a slew of job offers thrown at him when he graduated. It was about fucking time Marsden recognized he excelled at ballet and gave him a decent role.
I had zero doubt that Bevan had an arsenal of magic tricks that would rival an Unseelie’s magic.
