The applause was almost an anticlimax. Layla bowed, and smiled, and did the expected things, but it was her satisfaction with their work that made her happy. That, and the anger on Margo’s face, out in the audience. Surely she would leave Sean alone, now—she’d seen how together Sean and Layla were.
Late that night, within the dark safety of their apartment, Sean made love to her with a special tenderness. “Darling, don’t worry, everything will be fine,” Sean murmured. “Let’s forget our problems for tonight. We’re together. That’s everything.”
Layla thought, Everything will be all right, after all. She would find a way to prove herself. Sean would confide in her fully. This temporary rift would be healed.
She snuggled up beside him, feeling blissful at the moment dawn claimed her.
* * *
Layla woke as suddenly as she had died. She and Sean always opened their eyes at the same moment. Every night, her first move was to turn to him and smile. As she did tonight. But he was gone.
“Honey?” Layla said, but her voice hit the silence of the apartment with a thud. How could this be? she thought. She thought hard, running various scenarios in her head, trying to come up with one that could explain his absence in a non-alarming way.
Moving as quietly as she could, Layla sat up to look around the bedroom. There was not a whisper of sound aside from her own tiny noises; the slither of one silk pajama leg against another, the slide of her hair against her shoulders. She saw well in the dark, but now she wanted to see perfectly. Silently, she padded over to the doorway to switch on the light.
Sean’s pillow was on the floor, and the book he’d been reading, the one he’d placed on the bedside table, had been knocked to the floor.
After a quick glance around, Layla thought the rest of the room seemed the same. Sean’s clothes were hung up neatly; he had been a valet in his human life and kept his old habits. His shoes were side by side on the closet floor. She crept into the bathroom. His toothbrush was dry. So was the shower stall.
Still moving silently, Layla entered the living room, veering left to detour to the tiny area that was called a “kitchen.” In the small refrigerator, both six-packs of synthetic blood were intact. But turning to face the far wall, Layla noticed that the flat-screen had been knocked off its stand.
Layla felt that cold swell of anger again. She made no attempt to tamp it down, not this time.
She checked the inner door, the first of two between the apartment and daytime intruders. Both doors, which had different keys, were unlocked—not broken. This had been a planned attack. A duplicate set of keys could have been created, or the guards could have been bribed. Either way, this was treachery.
Her first impulse was to go downstairs and kill the doorman. She had no qualms at all, though she didn’t know quite how she’d accomplish it. But Layla realized that the day guards—who had to be the ones who’d let this happen—were off duty.
Fine. She would track them down.
Acting on instinct, Layla called Abilene. She was the smartest and the hardest vampire Layla knew.
“Uh-huh?” Abilene asked. She had just woken, too.
“It’s Layla,” she said. She paused, overwhelmed with her loss and fear. Telling someone made this situation seem more real.
“You called me to tell me your name?”
“Abilene,” she said. “Sean is gone.”
After a moment of silence, Abilene said, “You mean … he left before you rose?”
“No. I mean someone took him.” That was the only possible interpretation of the evidence.
“Someone came into your apartment. In a vampire-owned building. Took Sean, while he slept.”
“Yes.”
“It would be stupid to ask you if you’re sure,” Abilene said finally. “But what if he decided to go out to San Francisco to take the job offer?”
If anything else falls on my shoulders I will collapse. “Of course,” Layla said. “The job offer.” Layla’s rage grew to encompass Sean, as well as his abductors.
“Maybe you didn’t want to relocate? Maybe Sean could have decided it was … time for him to go, to avoid weepy goodbyes?”
“Only if he decided to leave naked,” Layla said, proud of how calm her voice sounded. At least she had an answer for that.
“Not Sean,” Abilene said. There was a moment of silence. “Okay,” she said abruptly. “Call Christoph. He owns your building, right? He’s liable for anything that happened to Sean during the day. I’ll call some of the others. We’ll be there soon.”
“Thank you,” Layla said, but Abilene had already hung up. Layla started to call down to Rubio, but that would be a waste of time. Instead, she called the owner of the building, a vampire named Christoph Simonson, who was about a hundred and fifty years dead, and a real estate magnate.
He answered on the second ring.
“This is Layla LeMay,” she said. “You may not remember, but my husband and I live in your building on Morley.”
“Who could forget you?” Christoph said jovially. “You are the fairest of them all. How are you and Sean?”
“Sean was stolen from your building while he slept.”
“Impossible! You can’t blame me if your man decided to leave you without saying goodbye. Though how any man could walk out on you …”
“I’m going to pretend you didn’t say any of that.” Layla loosed her rage. “I hope you weren’t involved, Christoph.”
“Of course not!” Christoph protested, but Layla overrode him. “If you were, I’ll tell the sheriff, and he’ll descend on you like the wrath of God unless I get to you first. Killing me won’t stop the news spreading; I’ve already shared it.”
“Layla, I know the Christoph Enterprises contract guarantees to keep you safe from day entry,” Christoph said coldly. “And I intend to honor that contract.”
“Great!” she snapped. She paused to gain control of herself. “I expect you to personally interview the people who were supposed to protect us. Someone unlocked the doors to our apartment. You know what that means, Christoph. I want to know who bribed them. I want Sean back. So don’t be gentle.”
Christoph’s voice grew farther away, and Layla recognized that he’d turned from the telephone. She heard him say, “Find the day guards at the Simonson Arms, and bring them to me. And spread some plastic on the floor.” Christoph’s voice grew louder. “I’ll call you after I question them.”
“Good,” Layla said, and ended the call. At least that was in motion.
Although she didn’t want to do anything but pace back and forth, Layla ran into the bedroom to pull on her clothes and wash her face. In less than ten minutes she was ready for action, her hair braided to stay out of her way.
By the time Abilene knocked, Layla hands were shaking with anxiety.
Abilene had brought her partner (in life and in sex performance), a hugely muscular man with a bald head and a dashing mustache. His real name was Mustapha, but Abilene called him Moose.
To Layla’s astonishment, Thompson came in on their heels, followed by Feodor. Layla was glad to see both of them, but was also surprised that they’d cared enough to come. And she was even more surprised when Rick and Phil followed. Rick was Phil’s keeper, lover, and protector. Phil was divinely beautiful, perhaps fifteen in appearance, and he’d always been fond of Layla. Phil was physically as strong as any vampire, but he was very fragile mentally. His life had been hard, and even his death hadn’t freed him from an episode of abuse.
Layla felt a flare of hope. Moose was a human, but he was incredibly strong for a non-vampire, and he would do anything Abilene told him to do; and Abilene herself was a stone killer. Thompson was an asshole, but he was never afraid. Though Layla didn’t know Feodor well, he’d impressed her as an old-school vampire; he wouldn’t hesitate to kill and dispose of a human if it suited his purpose. And she was touched that Rick and Phil had shown up. Rick never let Phil out alone; Phil had no limits when he was angry.
“Thanks for coming so quickly,” Layla said. “If you need blood, there’s synthetic in the refrigerator. Here’s the situation: when I woke up today, Sean was gone. All his clothes are here. His shoes are here. There’s no note.” She took a deep breath, which she didn’t need. “But our doors were unlocked, his pillow was on the floor, a book too, and the television had been knocked over.”
“You called Christoph?” Abilene asked.
“Yes. He’s going to interrogate the day guards.”
“It’ll be his ass if something happens to Sean,” Abilene said with some satisfaction.
“Yes,” said Layla. “It will be.”
“Where are Sean’s keys? Maybe he walked out in a brand new outfit, and took them with him.” Thompson was not sneering, but he wasn’t far from it.
Layla went to the bowl on the bookcase by the door. She lifted Sean’s keyring and dangled it before them. There was a shamrock charm hanging from ring along with his keys; it had been a gag gift from Julie last Christmas. Layla opened her own small purse, and extricated her own set. She put the two side-by-side on the coffee table.
“So humans came in during the daylight, and they had a copy of your keys,” Abilene said.
“Had to have. They took him from our bed, but they left me.” Layla was bewildered that only Sean had been snatched.
“I guess you should have been kidnapped, since you’re so pretty?” Thompson said.
The next thing she knew, Layla was holding him up by his throat.
Vampires weren’t often taken by surprise, but all those in Layla’s living room were. Even Layla.
No one moved.
Thompson didn’t need air, but clearly the pressure of Layla’s grip was hurting his neck. He glared at Layla, and his hands began clawing at her arms. But she kept him suspended, and she enjoyed every second of it. He could not make her put him down. After she was sure she’d proved her point, Layla let his feet touch the floor. She expected he would counterattack, and she was ready and eager for it; her fangs ran out. But Thompson only stared at her.
“Thompson, I have to know something. Is this some kind of joke? Maybe you decided to goad me into acting like a ‘real’ vampire? Tell me now. If you lie, I’ll kill you.” The rage surged through her, and her head felt like it was whirling.
I have one thing, she thought. Sean. And he’s gone. I will do anything to get him back. Anything.
And she thought, I’m sure going to have to kill a lot of people.
Thompson twisted his head from side to side to stretch his neck. He said, “I had nothing to do with whatever’s happened to Sean.”
Layla believed he was telling the truth. She glanced at Abilene, who nodded. She believed Thompson, too.
The phone rang before she had a chance to calm down. “What?” Layla snarled.
“Christoph here,” the vampire said smoothly. “I have tracked the guards on duty yesterday. One of my other humans heard them talking about leaving the country. My man at the airport caught them. After some quick and dirty questioning, they’ve confessed they were bribed by a woman whose name they cannot say. Literally, they can’t say it. They’re under some kind of compulsion. Their description of the man who paid them matches Don Brewer, Margo DeCordova’s bodyguard, and I remember hearing that Sean was Margo’s designated victim the last time she was in Rhodes.” A scream rose in the background, but Christoph didn’t mention it.
“That bitch,” Layla whispered.
“Please understand that my involvement is at an end. I have honored our contract. You will have new guards tonight, and a year off your HOA fees.”
“All right, Christoph.” Layla didn’t thank him. He had only done what he ought to do. She didn’t know if she’d ever see Sean again, but she was getting a real break on their budget.
She hung up and told the other dancers what the building owner had said, though they’d probably been able to hear it.
“Tell me about Margo,” Layla said to Feodor. “Last night I could see that there was some big knowledge about her that you all knew, something that included Sean.”
“Margo is a sexual sadist,” Feodor said in his precise but accented English. Phil looked directly at Layla, and nodded silently.
Layla sat down abruptly. She’d experienced sexual sadism; and the thought that Sean might be going through the same thing, had probably gone through the same thing on Margo’s previous visit, made her sick.
“And Margo’s at least three-fourths demon.” Abilene was serious. “That gives her the power to control most humans, as well as a few vampires.”
Again, Layla realized that she was lagging behind on learning about her new world, the vampire world. There were demons, they had power, and Sean was in the hands of one who liked to hurt people. “He’d been with her before. The way she looked at him, I could tell she wanted him back.” She rubbed her face with her hands.
Feodor’s face was calm, but his hands were clenching and unclenching. “Many years ago, I was her prey. I can’t say it was all bad. At the beginning, I was having a wonderful adventure. Toward the end I didn’t amuse her any more, however, and she turned to torture to keep things interesting. For her.”
Moose put his huge hand on Feodor’s shoulder.
Abilene explained, “Moose had an episode with Margo, too.”
“So how old is Margo? That’s a lot of sex adventures.” Layla said. She didn’t feel guilt that her own virtues had led to Margo’s interest in Sean. She was not responsible for the woman’s evil.
“She ages slower than most humans,” Feodor said. “She had me over a hundred years ago. But I still remember it much more clearly than I want to. If I hadn’t believed Margo to be in Europe, I wouldn’t have answered Sylvia’s invitation to come to Rhodes.”
“Moose was five years ago.” Abilene leaned against her partner, her arm around his waist. “She left for Europe because she had damaged him so badly. He was in the hospital. She was scared of the consequences.”
“You didn’t strike back?” Layla was incredulous.
“That was before my time,” Abilene said. “If we had been together then, I would have killed Margo. I still imagine it when I need to cheer myself up.”
“She asked me if she could borrow Phil,” Rick said. Rick has his arm around Phil’s shoulders. “I told her what would happen if she tried.”
“Where does she live?”
“If she’s returned to her home, rather than some hotel, she lives on Hartford Avenue,” Feodor said. “In a house … well, a mansion.”
“Can we do something obvious, like send the police to search her house for Sean?” Layla was grasping at straws.
“Margo can bribe almost anyone,” Thompson said. “She married money and she’s made money. And since she has so much demon blood, she can compel people to do what she wants them to do. Even some of us. That’s why she wasn’t arrested for what she did to Moose.”
“When I saw her backstage, I could tell that she had acquired more power,” Feodor said. “I called a friend of mine in Prague who has connections in demon circles. She told me that Margo had been studying with a renegade witch … and that witch is now shunned by her community.”
“I’ll go break into her house. And I’ll break her fucking neck.” Layla paced, unable to stay still.
“You’ve forgotten something,” Thompson said. “You’re due on stage tonight. She’ll come to you. Margo’s sure to be in her seat. She wouldn’t miss the first performance. And she wouldn’t miss showing her power in front of someone younger and more beautiful.” For once, he didn’t sound resentful.
“How can I dance without Sean?” Layla was incredulous that anyone could expect this of her.
Abilene put her hand on Layla’s arm. “If you aren’t there, she’ll figure you’re too distraught to fight.”
“You mean … I have to do this?”
“Yes,” Abilene said simply. “Not only will it lull Margo into thinking you’re not going to fight for Se
an, but you owe Sylvia. We all do. She has organized us, arranged our appearances, and she has set a series of protections in place for us. If she also borrowed money from Margo, well … that’s the mistake she made.”
“Sean will be shamed if you don’t honor your obligation to Sylvia,” Thompson said.
Layla looked at each of them in turn. They all nodded, even Moose, even Phil. “Well, if Margo’s in the audience, at least she can’t be at home torturing Sean. I can’t leave him there at her mercy.”
“You’re going to try to bargain with her?” Thompson asked. The scorn was back on his face.
“I’m going to kill her,” Layla said, with bone-deep sincerity.
The room fell silent.
“Well, you’ve finally bloomed,” Thompson said. “Took you long enough.”
“If you’re not willing to help me, you can leave now.”
Rick said, “That’s why we’re here.”
“All of us want to kill her,” Abilene told Layla. “We didn’t know if you’d reached that point yet. Sean pampered you.”
Layla started to dispute this, but realized it was true, and at this point it made no difference. “I need two things. I need a witch, one who’s shunning Margo. That shouldn’t be too hard to find. And I need a partner for tonight.”
Not completely to Layla’s surprise, Feodor stepped forward. “I can partner you. I know the routine.”
“It’s very exacting,” Layla said. “The timing has to be perfect, or we’ll both look like fools.”
“You are telling my grandmother how to suck eggs. I danced with the Bolshoi,” Feodor said with dignity.
Layla was unsure how that would qualify him for a sex-drenched modern number, but she could not turn him down. “Great,” she said. “We need to practice right now. At the studio.” Though it was the last thing she felt like doing, both she and Feodor could be injured if they missed a hold.
“Since you’re sure she’ll come to lord it over me, we’ll have to get her then, though it would be helpful if someone would go to the mansion and make sure she actually drives out tonight. When she comes to the theater … .” Layla outlined a sketchy plan.
Dancers in the Dark and Layla Steps Up Page 13