Page 89 of The Paranormal Investigation Bureau
“They probably were. I imagine they were once like Bellatrix and Ivory. Eventually, those two are going to turn on each other, and it’s not going to be pretty.”
“Ivory doesn’t seem to be able to think for herself,” I said.
“She wants you to think that,” Madame Lucinda said. “Ivory is playing the long game. She managed to get herself into Bellatrix’s trusted circle. She’s inflicting all kinds of nastiness on other dancers, but she’s benefitting from that alliance greatly. She’s the only dancer in this company Marsden can give a lead to when Bellatrix isn’t suitable for a part that won’t get run off or pushed down the stairs… and Ivory knows that damn well!
“She’s sitting back, waiting for Bellatrix to retire. Ivory thinks she’ll get all the leads, and when that happens, you’ll find she has plenty of opinions. She’ll find herself some minions of her own then, and do the same things Bellatrix does to stay in power.”
I can’t believe I didn’t see that before. It was probably the same with Julian. All this time, I thought it was just Marsden and Santiago whispering in Bellatrix’s ear. Ivory had to want her gone. By all accounts, Damita was the type of role that usually went to Ivory, not Bellatrix. She had to be pissed about that, enough to want her gone.
I knew why Bellatrix was coming at me. She viewed me as a threat. But, I didn’t get why she was so intent on attacking Madame Lucinda. Her method of teaching probably hadn’t changed. She’d probably done and said the exact same things to Bellatrix before and not gotten attacked.
“I really think Ivory is the reason she’s so unhinged when it comes to you,” I said. “I’m fairly certain that, even if he needs me for this curse, Marsden will look the other way if she hurt me. He’d probably have me try to break it in a wheelchair. It’s different with you. You’ve been with this company a long time, and I’m sure many artistic directors have cherished you. The only reason she’s still here is that he needs her for this curse, and she got her ass kicked both times.”
“You probably aren’t wrong. I never told you this, but he begged me through the entire lunch break to allow them back in my classroom if she apologized. I let him grovel. The only reason I said yes was that my name is attached to her training now. If it declines because she’s not taking classes anywhere, it looks bad on me.”
“I had a death omen,” Nyx said. “It’s someone in the company, but I don’t know who. All I saw was a broken window. Be careful around windows, and Bellatrix.”
“I’m going out on my own terms,” Madame Lucinda said. “Preferably in my sleep, after I’ve shagged amuchyounger vampire. I’m absolutely not going to die at the clammy hands of a petty ballerina.”
“Well, someone is,” Bevan said. “We knew it was a matter of time before this ballet got lethal.”
“This isn’t my first rodeo with this ballet,” Madame Lucinda said. “I was hired as ballet mistress after I retired, and I’ve been here a long time. While I don’t have the exact moment pinpointed, people rarely start dying this early. Windows don’t get broken either. There might be a curse involved that causes murder, but property never gets damaged.”
“Is that supposed to make it better?” Arden growled. “Santiago could be off doing fairy things in paradise, but he chose to stay here and keep attempting this damn ballet, knowing full well he was going to murder people. Santiago and Marsden turned Bellatrix into a monster, and they are pitting her against Beyla, but Marsden refuses to give Beyla any information to help.”
“No, it doesn’t make it better, Arden. But eternity is a long time. Young people do foolish things trying to live forever. Old people do, too, if they fear death. Sane people don’t want that. Santiago is older than I am. Eventually the people you care about die, and all you’re left with is photos and fading memories.
“The world is constantly changing, and that’s scary. I’ve seen more war than I care to. I’ve seen society getting dumber, and rejecting science and logic. I don’twantto die, but I take comfort in the notion that my journey will be over and I can rest one day. But, unfortunately, Santiago doesn’t have that, and even paradise can get boring.”
I hadn’t thought about it that way, but there had to be a way to do this that didn’t involve what was happening now. Someone was going to die soon, and there wasn’t a damn thing I could do about it.
“Enough about that,” Madame Lucinda said. “The broken window could very well be an accident, and nothing to do with this curse. Accidents happen every day, and so does death. There’s no way to know for sure. It’s terrible, but it might not be the curse you know.”
It was a tiny spark, but I had a little hope. We still had time. What Madame Lucinda said made sense. Santiago had been getting away with murder for a very long time. I was sure he had roped another artistic director in, like Marsden, to help cover things up, but there was only so much that could be done if there were witnesses.
Santiago wasn’t going around throwing people out of windows in a building like ours. It wasn’t just that the building was all glass, but also because anyone on the floor could look inside and see everything. I was sure Marsden invited people to watch his dancers take class if they were going to donate money to the company.
However Santiago was killing people, I didn’t think it was happening in any of the studios. That meant we’d be safe at rehearsal, at least. We just needed to get there safely and watch our backs on the street.
“Here is another one of Selena,” Madame Lucinda said, sliding the album to the center. “Tabitha isn’t in this one. I remember when this was taken. The feud would have been raging in full force then. They took this at the back of the theatre, before one of her famous cast parties. I was never invited to those because she didn’t know I existed. They were supposed to be all the rage. All kinds of famous people were there, not just dancers.The Pdoesn’t have cast parties like that anymore. It was a different time.”
Nyx snorted.
“They didn’t have Bevan’s moonshine back then.”
“Bellatrix and Ivory don’t come to our cast parties. They think we are beneath them. Shit, I’m pretty sure they sneak off and have a threesome with Marsden because he doesn’t go either!” Merlin said.
I started relaxing as everyone got to talking about cast parties. I decided right then that even though I’d only just met these people, I was closer to all of them than anyone back home… except for Kaine, Ripley, and Ravyn. They justgotme in ways my non-dancer friends didn’t.
Everyone I danced with was either off dancing with a company, or had long since hung up their pointe shoes to start a family. I had little in common with them anymore. I adored Ripley, Ravyn, and their families. They came to all my shows and encouraged my dancing, but they’d never really understand what I put my body through every day.
After meeting them and living this life, I didn’t think I could go back home and only squeeze in a few hours of dance a day. This was in my blood. It always had been, and fate sent me here for a reason.
IfI managed to break this curse, I intended to ask Marsden for an audition to become a full-time member ofThe P.
Chapter30
Beyla
