Page 85 of The Paranormal Investigation Bureau
I wasn’t doing that. This was Beyla’s first assignment. She didn’t need me swooping in and using my connections to ruin everything. I wasn’t a warlock, but I understood Bevan put a lot of stock in fate and the stars. I didn’t. Not really, but everything Beyla told us about the events that led her here sounded like something mystical was at work. It wasn’t an Unseelie. They weren’t that powerful.
I believed she wasmeantto break this curse, so I did exactly what she wanted me to. It wasn’t just that I wanted her to break it and stay here. I had to believe everything she’d gone through to get here was for a reason. So I was happy to take a back seat and help her however she wanted me to.
I still didn’t trust Bellatrix. Arden wasn’t the only one who could ruin her career with a shirtless selfie. I’d been in the spotlight way longer than he had, because of my dad, so all I had to do was drop the post I had planned, and it would go viral.
For whatever reason, we needed that bitch. As soon as I found out what part Bellatrix played in ending this curse, I was doing it though. Maybe she wasn’t as vital as we all thought.
She was well behaved in rehearsal, and looked pretty smug, like she had won some battle we didn’t know about. Unfortunately, Bellatrix was back to being a sack of rocks when I tried to lift her as we ran through what we had learned so far.
When it was my turn to dance with her, I had to lift her over my head with one arm. She knew better than to go totally limp, but she wasn’t exactly holding her core like she should have. I’d dropped her on her ass once, and I desperately wanted to do it again. Of course, I couldn’t break this lift without hurting both of us, but I wasn’t about to sit here and take it.
“Hold your damn abs in and stop moving, or I’ll throw your ass into that mirror!” I yelled.
She didn’t get a chance to fix it, because the lift was over, but I had warned her for the rest of our duet. I lowered her and set her on her feet, she planted herself in fourth position, and I placed my hands on her waist as she whipped herself in a series ofpirouettes.Beyla did way more of them when she was doing this part.
Bellatrix was supposed to stop her turns facing me, and then lean in for an embrace before dancing away from me to Arden. She wrapped her arms around my shoulder and leaned right into my ear.
“If you drop me, I’ll end you, asshole!” she hissed.
I didn’t get a chance to respond because she fluttered out of my arms and into Arden’s. I never made it a point to raise my hand to a woman, but I drew the line when it came to avoidable things that could end my career. She knew what she was doing, and she knew how to fix it, because at one of the rehearsals, after she felt threatened by Beyla, I wasn’t doing all the work trying to lift her.
Arden was the last one she danced with, before we exited the stage and she started her solo. Before she even got to him, he shot her this epic stink eye.
“Pull that shit with me and watch what happens,” he growled.
Bellatrix went pale. She wasn’t afraid of the rest of us, even though she should be, but shewasterrified of Arden.
Marsden hadn’t said a fucking thing while she was deliberately making this dance difficult for the rest of us, but he got very vocal during her solo about it not being right. It was so fucking stupid! Our dance was just as crucial as this solo. Yeah, the audience needed to fall in love with Damita, but our first dance with her was probably more critical than that solo. Our love was supposed to be what brought her back from the dead, and then be what symbolized the warriors agreeing to share at the end of the ballet.
If we didn’t sell this initial dance, where we met Damita, it didn’t matter if Bellatrix finally got the solo right. The rest of the ballet would fall apart. Arden had the most challenging part in this ballet, not Bellatrix. His character accidentally kills Damita. He would have to redeemEl Gato Blancoto the entire audience so that they were okay with us not killing him and her loving him at the end.
Marsden was so focused on Damita’s solo, he was ignoring everything else that could make this ballet unravel. Finally, Bellatrix finished her solo and put her hands on her knees while she caught her breath.
“It’s still not there, Bella. We’ll work on it. Get some water and take five. The next dances we will learn will be you alone, with each warrior. Beyla has already learned thepas de deuxwith Nicolai. She will demonstrate and teach you the steps.”
I expected a tantrum to erupt. They didn’t need me for the rest of the rehearsal. None of us were needed, except Nicolai and Beyla. We didn’t even need to say anything. I met Arden and Bevan’s eyes. We made our way to the front of the room to sit and watch. I grabbed my popcorn. I fully expected a tantrum from Bellatrix. She wouldn’t go at Beyla, at least not in front of Marsden. He’d make excuses for her all day if they reported something that the entire company witnessed, but she knew damn well he’dhaveto do something if she did it right in front of him.
And she was terrified of Arden.
Bellatrix was scowling as she watched Beyla and Nicolai go through thepas de deux,but I was entranced. I was so happy for him. This was what he had been searching so long for—a ballerina with the skills to match his, someone to partner with him so closely that they oozed chemistry.
Nicolai wasn’t angry he always got typecast as the prince. He owned it. He was talented enough that he also got solos when Marsden was doing abstract ballets, but I knew he adored being the romantic lead. He’d always wanted to dance that role with someone he wasn’t faking it with. Unfortunately, since he loathed Bellatrix and Ivory, he always was.
This duet was effortless. Their technique was flawless, and I watched them slowly fall in love as they continued to dance. He told me the first time Madame Lucinda asked her to dance with him, it ended in a kiss, and he totally blew it and offered her his hand to shake. Apparently, this one did, too, and Nicolai wasn’t about to make that same mistake a second time.
The kiss got pretty fucking graphic, and Marsden had to clear his throat to get them to stop. I hoped my duet ended like that, though kissing Bellatrix was not exactly up there on my bucket list like it was with Beyla. I’d kissed Bellatrix before, and I would have left her a bad review on Yelp if I could.
We all started clapping, even Arden. He might be some big, jealous gryphon, but he knew good ballet when he saw it. He didn’t even get all pissy about the kiss, despite Beyla being very clearly into it. Marsden was clapping, too. Hehadto see Beyla was better at this role than Bellatrix.
“Perfect. That’s exactly what I want, Bella. I want so much passion, you can’t help kissing him like that at the end.”
I snorted and tossed a handful of popcorn in my mouth. Bellatrix was a succubus. She knew passion just fine. So did I. But I didn’t go around giving that to just anyone. Yeah, I slept around, but Idid notkiss women the way Nicolai and Beyla just kissed, not unless there was something deeper there. That kiss couldn’t be faked, even if Bellatrix and Nicolai didn’t loathe each other.
“It looked like she was eating his face. I thought you said you didn’t want Damita played like a slut,” Bellatrix said.
“You’re just jealous no one kisses you like that!” Arden growled.
Bellatrix shut right the fuck up when Arden challenged her. What universe was I in right now? A succubus was slut-shaming a witch, and a gryphon was defending someone who’d just kissed his mate right in front of him. If this were actually planet Earth, Bellatrix would just be sitting back while Arden challenged Nicolai and got this entire ballet canceled. What was happening?!
