by Steph Post
Though the doorman had been somewhat discreet, the head concierge made no secret of his appraisal of Hayden. His watery eyes traveled from Hayden’s scuffed shoes, up the length of his trousers, hemmed only hours before, along the shiny seams of his worn tuxedo jacket and across his tanned face, all the way to the ragged haircut he had given himself in the hotel mirror. Hayden gritted his teeth and tightened his hold on Ruby’s waist. When the concierge finally found Hayden’s eyes, the contempt and disdain between them both was obvious and mutual. The man sniffed.
“This is a private party of Senator Hoke Smith’s.”
Hayden let go of Ruby and stepped forward slightly.
“I was invited. Check the guest list.”
The concierge raised his eyebrows and his chin, looking down his narrow nose at Hayden.
“Oh really?”
“Yes. I am a guest of Mrs. Anita Bosch. My name is Hayden Morrow. She should have left word of me.”
The concierge glanced over at Ruby and frowned. He languidly looked down at the list in front of him. His eyes slowly scanned the names and his frown grew even more pronounced when he came to Hayden’s.
“It appears she has. A guest of Mrs. Bosch. Well, she does seem like the sort to require unusual amusement and diversion.”
“Can we go in now?”
“You are late, you know.”
Hayden only glared at the man.
“And this is a masquerade ball. Per Senator Smith’s instructions, all guests must enter wearing an appropriate mask. As I’m sure you are aware, the senator is always very particular about his guests’ appearance at these soirees.”
The concierge’s eyes flickered back to Ruby.
“She will do. But you?”
Hayden held up his simple black mask and dangled it before the man. The concierge’s tone and expression did not change.
“Well. Put it on, then.”
Hayden tied the strings of the mask around the back of his head and then gave the man a smile that let him know what he was going to do to him if he gave them any more trouble. The concierge sniffed at Hayden again, but pointed toward the lobby.
“Through there. The Grand Ballroom is on the left, by the Grand Staircase. I do hope you have a pleasant evening.”
Ruby looped her arm through his and pulled him along. The concierge nodded curtly and Hayden let himself be led away. His anger soon subsided and he felt relieved as they stepped into the cool, silent lobby.
Ruby was a flame, but against the pale shimmer of the marble floor she burned even brighter. The dress he had procured for her was a viper shade of red and would have appeared almost scandalous on anyone else but her. Between the length and cut of the gown and the satin opera gloves, her tattoos were mostly covered and the red was such a distraction that the visible tattoos on her chest and throat almost seemed to fade away. And then there was the mask, the same shade of red, covering half of her face and surrounding it with a halo of brilliantly dyed feathers. She had pinned her hair so it fell along her jawline in soft waves and he was struck by how she was carrying herself. Certainly not like the girl he knew from the carnival, slouching with her hands in her self-sewn trousers or standing Amazon-like with her swinging braids and snakes. She was a far cry, too, from the ostentatious women he had seen at the radio broadcast ceremony, pert and preening in their gaudy finery. No, Ruby was empyreal, gliding across the reflective lobby floor like a creature from another world. A being wholly possessed of itself and its power. For a moment, watching her, he believed in what she was about to do. He believed she was a match for Daniel.
Ruby turned suddenly and caught him looking at her. A strange smile spread across her lips, and she came and took his arm again.
“This is the most beautiful place I’ve ever seen.”
Hayden nodded in agreement, but was looking only at her. They walked across the lobby, past the stately columns and cream chaise lounges, past the potted palms and bronze statues, held up on slender alabaster pedestals. He glanced upwards to the arched glass ceiling, glowing down on them with the warmth of Atlanta’s dazzling night sky. Hayden saw the entrance to the ballroom, guarded by two more stiff doormen, and stopped in front of the wide, curving staircase before they approached it. He turned to Ruby.
“You ready?”
The smile was gone and her jaw was tight and firm. They looked at one another through their masks.
“Ready.”
The doors to the ballroom billowed open and they entered the masquerade. A few heads turned when Hayden and Ruby stepped into the room, but for the most part they slipped in unnoticed. Hayden immediately snapped up two glasses of champagne from a tray held out to them and followed Ruby off to the side so they could get their bearings. He raised his glass.
“I guess they haven’t heard of prohibition here.”
Ruby raised her glass to his, but the chime of their toast was lost in the cacophony of sound churning around them. The room was enormous, with high, vaulted ceilings reflecting back every echo. A ten-piece band was set up against one wall and half of the room had been turned into a dance floor. Men in tuxedos and women wearing every color under the sun clung together as they bounced through tipsy foxtrot steps. The other half of the room was crammed with rows of tables above which hung hazy clouds of cigar smoke. The guests not sitting or dancing had bunched up into raucous clusters, all laughing and shouting to be heard over the music and each other. Everyone had a glass in their hand and though waiters stalked through the crowd, whisking trays of champagne and gin martinis in front of anyone who was idle, two bars had also been constructed at the back of the ballroom. Spidery chandeliers on long golden chains hung down over everything, creating bizarre shadows. The room was at once arcane and bustling. Everyone was wearing a mask.
Hayden drained his glass of champagne and handed it off to a waiter gliding by. He immediately picked up another. The room was so full of people that he could barely see through the snarl of chaos. He and Ruby slowly drifted around the fringes of the party and did their best to blend in. The women all wore different dresses in a rainbow of colors and each had a mask of lavish, singular design. Hayden recognized Mrs. Bosch reigning over a crowd in the middle of the room. There were so many layers to her aquamarine dress that she did indeed seem to be enveloped in sea foam and her mask was a starburst of turquoise sequins. She was easy to identify. The men, however, all merged together in one uniform swath of black and white. A few had been caught up in the spirit and wore true carnival masks, with long beaks and curving horns, but they were the exception. For once, Daniel’s signature black suit would not be giving him away.
The band transitioned into a slower song and dancers began to shuffle on and off the floor for a waltz. Ruby grabbed Hayden’s arm and whispered.
“The bar at the far end. The man in black, do you see him?”
Hayden cautiously glanced toward the back of the room.
“All of the men are in black.”
She brought her head in close to his, trying to steer him with her eyes.
“Near the end. Right under the chandelier there. It’s a different sort of black. I know it’s him.”
People were milling around at the edge of the dance floor, blocking his view, but then his line of sight opened up again and Hayden saw him. Ruby was right; his tuxedo jacket was different from the other men’s. Darker somehow, and brighter, as if jeweled. He was standing at the end of the bar with his back to the room and a definite space on either side of him. He was alone, untouchable. His black hair shone in the chandelier glow and when he turned his head slightly, Hayden could see he was wearing a simple black mask like his own. Ruby handed him her glass.
“Stay here and stay out of sight. If he knows you’re here, he could try to use you against me.”
“Ruby, wait.”
He tried to reach for her, but she had already stepped away, blazing across the ballroom in her scarlet dress. The crowd opened up for her and then swallowed her whole. Hayden l
ooked down at the two empty glasses in his hands. He wanted to smash them at his feet and run after her. Instead, he handed them off to a nearby waiter and picked up another. He had done his part, delivering Ruby to Daniel. Now, he could only hope that Ruby knew what she was doing. He could only trust her.
When Ruby was halfway across the room, the crowd peeling back around her in murmurs, Daniel turned at the bar and saw her. Ruby locked eyes with him, trying to judge the expression on his face. She knew she’d caught a glimpse of shock, if only for a moment, and she was pleased that, if anything, at least she had managed to surprise him. His look quickly morphed into one of intrigue, followed by a disconcerting carnality. He didn’t move as she kept toward him and soon his face was restored to the smug smile he so often wore. His black eyes seemed to sparkle even more than usual and there was something about him that was at once vibrant and at ease. Ruby realized she was seeing Daniel in his more natural element. She had never considered the fact that she would now be facing him in his territory, not hers, but it suddenly occurred to her that this would be an advantage. Her lips curled up in a smile.
Daniel turned slightly, still following her every movement with his eyes as she came up to the bar and stood next to him. The bartender was poised to a pour a martini in the glass in front of Daniel, but stopped and looked questioningly at him. Daniel, with eyes still on Ruby, raised his fingers.
“Two.”
The bartender quickly placed a long-stemmed glass in front of Ruby and began to pour more gin into the shaker. She watched him, aware of Daniel’s intense gaze on the side of her face. She waited until the bartender, with a trembling hand, filled the glasses to the rim. When he retreated, she finally turned to Daniel.
“Got a cigarette?”
He narrowed his eyes at her and Ruby could tell he was trying to figure out what game they were playing. Her only card was that he couldn’t. She knew she was unreadable to him. Daniel reached inside his tuxedo jacket and took out the silver case. He slid a cigarette from it and watched her as she slowly fit it to her lips. Daniel was staring at them as he sparked the lighter in front of her. She had painted her lips blood red to go with the dress. He clicked the arm of the lighter over the flame and Ruby blew a long stream of smoke toward her martini.
“So you recognize me? Even with the mask?”
Daniel picked up his drink and sipped it.
“Even with the mask. Which suits you, by the way. The color.”
He set the glass down and turned to her, resting his elbow on the bar.
“How did you find me?”
“You destroyed my entire life. Did you think I wasn’t going to find you?”
Ruby smiled at him.
“Or did you think you had destroyed me in the fire as well?”
Daniel cocked his head.
“I wasn’t sure, actually. In hindsight, I think it was a sort of test. I was trying to figure you out.”
“And have you?”
Ruby fingered the stem of her glass.
“Figured me out?”
She glanced up at him with a sly smile. Daniel tilted his head and narrowed his eyes.
“I know what you can do. Or, rather, I know what that can do for you.”
His eyes wandered down to the tattoo on her chest. Then he abruptly looked away. The cigarette case was still on the bar in front of him and he tapped it with his long fingers.
“And I presume you think you know what I can do. Or who or what I am.”
She didn’t waver.
“Yes.”
“Ridiculous.”
“I know more than you think I do. I know you’re not human.”
“Good for you. Do you want a prize?”
Daniel laughed. The bartender looked up for a moment and then quickly turned back to the glass he was polishing. Ruby realized that the young man was scared of Daniel. As he should be. She stubbed out the cigarette in a crystal ashtray and picked up her martini glass, holding it just beneath her lips.
“I know you’re ancient. I know you can read people’s minds. I know you can make them do things they wouldn’t otherwise.”
“Yes, yes. How very right you are. How very perceptive.”
Ruby refused to be deterred. She was getting to him, she knew she was, but she had to stay focused. Despite the patronizing, she kept her eyes locked with his.
“But you can’t make me. You can’t get into my head. You know this. And now I know this. Which is why we are able to stand here like friends and have a drink together.”
“Is that what we’re doing?”
“That’s what we’re doing.”
The corners of Daniel’s mouth turned down slightly.
“What are you getting at?”
Ruby smiled over the rim of her glass.
“Let’s go back to the part about you destroying my entire life.”
Daniel opened the silver case again, but only ran his fingers along the smooth, white cigarettes. He was smirking as he gazed at them.
“Oh, that. Do you want me to apologize? Is that what you’re here for? Do you want me to say I’m sorry?”
Ruby finally took a sip of her drink and then carefully set the glass down.
“No.”
“Then perhaps you’re here to exact some sort of revenge?”
His grin grew wider, almost obscene.
“You want to throw yourself against me, try to hit me? Curse me? Maybe pull that little knife of yours?”
He turned to her. His eyes were as dark as his mask and his smile was wide and mocking. He pointedly looked her up and down.
“I don’t know where you could possibly hide it underneath that dress, but I’m sure you could manage. Are you going to try to slit my throat?”
He drew his finger delicately across his neck. Ruby shook her head and decided it was the right moment to make her move. She had to take the chance and she spoke firmly, her eyes never leaving his, her voice never wavering.
“I want to give you what you want, Daniel. What you want the most. I’m the only one who can, and I’m here before you with the offering of it.”
Daniel dropped his hand.
“What are you talking about?”
She leaned in close to him.
“You know what I’m talking about. Don’t act like you don’t.”
Daniel looked away from her and picked up his martini, draining it completely. He pushed the empty glass away from him.
“I assure you, my dear, I don’t. And I’m getting rather tired of this back and forth with you.”
Daniel was turned away from her, but she could see his face in the mirrored wall behind the bar. His pale cheekbones were brushed slightly with color. She leaned toward him and put her hand on the bar, almost touching his arm.
“I know what happened to you when we were in the geek tent that night. When you put your hands on me.”
“You know nothing.”
Ruby leaned in closer.
“If my mind is a mystery to you, how would you know?”
Daniel wouldn’t look at her, but she could see the tendons in his hands rising as his body grew taut.
“You don’t know what happened. You don’t know what I felt.”
“Yes, I do. Because I felt it, too.”
He turned on her suddenly, his eyes blazing.
“Oh really? You felt human? How very special for you.”
Ruby had only a second to react.
“No. I felt like a god.”
Daniel jerked away from her as if he’d been stung. His brows were knit together, his mouth slicing down in a sharp frown. His eyes were searching hers, searching for the lie in this, but Ruby had known it the moment the words escaped her lips. It was the truth. Now she knew what she had done to him and he had done to her. And everything fell into place. Everything she had felt with Daniel finally made sense. He raised his hand as if to place it over hers, but then he pulled it back, still frowning.
“That’s impossible. You could never
feel as I do.”
“Just as you could never feel as I do? Daniel, we became one another. I don’t know how or why. My tattoos, the symbol. It’s almost like when we came together we reflected one another. I can’t explain it. I only know what I felt.”
She could see his shoulders curving inward slightly with tension. Ruby knew he was fighting himself. Daniel looked down at his hand as it lay on the bar next to hers and his voice came out as only a whisper.
“And you want to give this to me now? Why?”
Ruby felt herself walking on the edge of a knife.
“Giving it to you is giving it to me. I have nothing left. You took it all from me. You killed everyone I ever loved, you destroyed everything I ever knew. It’s all ashes. Don’t you see? You’re the only thing I have left.”
“But what I did to you…”
“Is insignificant compared to what you can give me now.”
She edged her gloved hand closer and put her fingers on his bare wrist. He didn’t move away.
“It is what I have longed for, for centuries. For millennia. To feel as you do. To know what it is to be one of you. But due to my nature, I have always been denied it. Even the gods have limits.”
Daniel moved his hand slightly so that he caught two of her fingers underneath his thumb. He looked down at her hand and then slowly raised his eyes to meet hers.
“As I suppose humans do.”
Ruby didn’t look away. She didn’t falter.
“Until now. For us.”
Daniel nodded.
“For us.”
“There you are, my dear boy! I’m so glad you could make it! What do you think of my outfit? Isn’t it divine?”
Hayden had slowly been making his way through the crowd, walking aimlessly while still trying to keep his eye on Ruby at the bar. The crush of people was overwhelming and several times he lost sight of her as the mass of the party opened and closed like clouds scuttling in a tumultuous sky. He’d finally found himself a good vantage point where, for the most part, he had a direct line of sight to Ruby. Incidentally, Hayden also found himself standing right next to Mrs. Bosch and her circle of cronies. He smiled politely and pretended to look at the different points of her dress as she held them out to him.