Kitty started the arduous process of unbraiding all her hair, including her beard. Then she jumped into the shower. The rest of the RV was intensely compact because she didn’t need much when she mostly lived somewhere else. But Bell had been considerate with the bathroom. There was enough room in the shower to wash all her hair without knocking her knees and elbows into the walls—it was also useful for one of Caroline’s men, Riley, who couldn’t fit his bulk into most of the smaller shower stalls in Arcanium.
Blow-drying her hair was not an option if she ever wanted to leave the bathroom again—washing it was a task by itself without adding more maintenance. Besides, air drying was better for hair as well as clothes. She wrapped her robe around her, tied the waist then stepped out.
“Late start?” Caroline asked with a grin, her legs crossed on the bed. Kitty wasn’t surprised. She’d had a hunch that Caroline would be waiting for her turn, since Kitty was usually out of the RV by this time.
Caroline was wearing her pajamas, which basically amounted to clothing that wouldn’t be out of place by a pool. Kitty envied her petite delicacy and her youth—and sometimes, the thin, pretty legs that Caroline kept shaven and had never thought of hiding from the world.
“Heard through the grapevine we have a new addition and that this new addition was the one caught with you a week or so ago.”
“The grapevine will tell you the rest, then,” Kitty said primly, although she indulged Caroline with a secretive smile. “Go take your shower.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Caroline said, swinging her plastic bag of clothes and whistling as though she was the one with the secret to tell.
Kitty spanked her with one of her brushes. Caroline giggled madly before closing the bathroom door behind her.
“Caroline’s in the shower, so don’t walk in on her,” Kitty said when Victor came in with two plates of sausage and eggs. The strong smell contained within the small RV made Kitty’s stomach rumble.
“Caroline’s the one from the carousel, right?” Victor said.
“Exactly. Caroline from the carousel.”
“She uses your shower?” he asked.
“She doesn’t have one of her own. In fact, heads-up, she and her boys use my RV a lot for bathroom privileges. We’re either going to have to get you your own trailer soon, or Bell’s going to have to find Caroline a better bathroom to use.”
“Why does she use yours?”
“Because I’m so rarely in it,” she said. “I don’t sleep here.”
“You just sleep in other people’s cars or on blankets outside of their cars?” Victor asked, settling next to her and kissing her wet neck. “You smell good.”
“My plate you’re holding smells better.”
“I get it. I’m just your servant. You only like me because I bring you food.”
“Exactly,” she said.
When Caroline came out, she was more clothed than when she’d come in, which she was probably thankful for when she jumped at seeing Victor on Kitty’s bed.
“Oh!” Caroline held her chest until her heart calmed down. Then she stuck her hand out to shake like the good Southern girl she was. “Hi. You must be the new guy. You look a little different than the last time I saw you.”
“You don’t say,” Victor replied, shaking her hand warmly and amused by her youthful charm. “Victor Lazlo.”
“Caroline.”
“I remember,” Victor said.
“A girl likes to be remembered,” she replied. “Since Kitty was the one who took you on that tour and everything, I’m guessing she told you Arcanium’s dirty little secret before you went and wished yourself in.”
“Yes. I’m aware of the dark underbelly,” Victor said. “I decided to take that risk. Can’t get ahead with risk, right?”
“In theory,” Caroline said. “At least you knew about it before you joined.”
“You didn’t?”
“Bell didn’t tell me for a few days, and because I wasn’t looking for demons, I didn’t see demons, just odd people. That’s what Arcanium’s about, so I thought that was all it was,” Caroline said. “Kitty was pretty pissed when she realized that Bell hadn’t said anything about it.”
“Well, Kitty made sure that didn’t happen with me,” Victor replied. He took the brush from Kitty’s hand just before she started moving it through her hair, a task that would take roughly fifteen to twenty minutes to do it right, especially since she had her body hair and her beard to contend with as well. “I’m not sure that’s the better way to go in the long run,” he added as he gestured for Kitty to turn around so that he could brush it for her.
She gathered her hair into a tail and indicated that he should start from the bottom and work his way up. He’d brushed her hair before, but never wet.
“Why do you say that?” Caroline asked. She looked between Kitty and Victor, holding back her excitement as well as a twenty-one-year-old woman could. There went the grapevine.
“Just something that I had to think about while I was deciding. I don’t know what kind of beliefs you have. I’m not even sure what kind of beliefs I have. But I’m guessing that if demons are real, some of the other stuff they talk about is real too,” Victor said. “And if they are, a demonic circus probably isn’t a good thing on principle. So if you choose to join it, knowing what it is, is that a bad thing? I don’t know. At least when you join it by accident or someone forces you to join, you have…what’s the phrase? Plausible deniability?”
“True,” Caroline said. “Then, if you don’t mind my asking, why’d you join if you don’t have plausible deniability?” She leaned against the kitchenette, her intrigue at the potential affair between Victor and Kitty taking a backseat. She’d only been here a few months, and she’d been swept up in the spin of the carousel and her men. Kitty wasn’t surprised that the more cosmic questions had eluded her thus far, if just to save her sanity.
“Because no one who’s met Kitty would think anyone could condemn her to hell just because of the company she keeps. It’s still about what you do, not who you sell an unsellable soul to.”
Kitty closed her eyes, and not just because it felt really good for someone else to brush her hair—like a massage on her back. He was gentler than she was too, and more patient.
“At least I hope that’s the case,” he added. “Otherwise I made a helluva deal with the devil, didn’t I?”
“Mine was only for a year, until sometime next summer,” Caroline said. “That’s what the contract says, and that’s what my wish was. With an option to renew.”
“I didn’t mean to scare you,” Victor said, looking up.
“Believe me, it’s something that crosses all of our minds after we’ve been around long enough,” Kitty said. “Especially when we start being okay with some of the jinn, accepting them for what they are instead of challenging them. Caroline can speak to that.” Kitty nodded to her.
“I hope we’re not damned because of our company. ‘Not here for the healthy but for the sick’ and all that,” Caroline said. She lowered her eyes. “Even if it’s sometimes me that’s sick.”
Kitty reached for her hand.
“You’re not sick just because you love well and often,” Kitty said. “However, if you ever want to talk about the deep moral questions, Maya could probably keep you occupied until the next century.”
Caroline laughed a little, but the humor had gone out of her sweet face. “Why does that not surprise me?”
“Hey, I really didn’t mean to scare you,” Victor said. “If I actually thought I was going to hell for joining Arcanium, I would have welcomed unpleasant death instead, believe me.”
“No, you didn’t scare me,” Caroline said, waving his concern away. “I guess I hadn’t let myself think about it too closely. Anyway, it feels weird to welcome you into Arcanium after that, but…”
“I’m already glad I came,” Victor insisted.
“I’ll bet. I’ll see you later then. I don’t want to impose more than I�
� I’ll let you have your RV back, Kitty,” Caroline said, making a polite escape, but not before she looked back with another giddy grin.
“Cute girl,” Victor said. “Not very subtle.”
Kitty covered her face with her hands to hold in her laughter and to not shake too hard. Hair-brushing a bearded lady was serious business—nothing to laugh about or during.
“It’s a better place about gossip than most,” Kitty said. “We’re kinder, mostly because we’d be surrounded by painful shattered glass from all the stones thrown if we were unkind about it. But people are people are people.”
“And people like to know what other people are doing,” Victor finished for her.
“Yes. They’re just not going to judge you for it,” Kitty said.
“Well, thank God for that.”
After what they’d just talked about, it was all Kitty could do not to lose herself in laughter again.
* * * *
Kitty led Victor back to the big top after they’d finished brushing her hair. She brought a bag of beads and rubber bands with her so she could work on beautifying her beard while Victor found out what the hell he was supposed to be doing other than looking like a stone idol. Bell couldn’t have made him look like that just to look like that. Making Joanne and Jane conjoined twins limited them in the ring—same went for Christina and Arnie. But Victor looked made for some kind of performance.
Kitty didn’t have the illusion or delusion that Bell was all good now just because he had a soft spot for some of his women and he’d done right by Victor. After all, he handed down his punishments with as much severity as ever, and only Maya knew how many wishes granted he’d sent out into the world to make it a more complicated place. Maya was a stronger woman than Kitty in that respect. Kitty would rather just not know. But even though she didn’t have to, Maya stayed in the fortune teller tent and listened to every single wish without saying a word—that Kitty ever heard, anyway.
She settled on one of the benches in the audience and rested her bag next to her like a woman about to do her knitting on the subway.
Victor looked tentatively from her to the ring. Lars and Seth were practicing their aerial routine on circular trapezes. Bell was speaking with Misha at a table covered with swords and knives—which was such a big step for Misha, although Victor wouldn’t know that. Maya was up on her high wire, and Valorie and Lennon were doing handsprings in unison below.
Technically, every performer at Arcanium was given the skill, muscle memory and physique that they needed for whatever they brought to the circus plate. Rehearsals, especially for routines that the performers already knew, weren’t strictly necessary. However, since variety was the spice of a mostly unvaried life, a lot of the performers enjoyed expanding their repertoires, which did benefit from rehearsal. It was something for everyone to do, especially if they couldn’t leave Arcanium.
“Go on,” Kitty said, nodding to the ring. “Unless you need me to hold your hand on your first day of school.”
Victor gently punched her upper arm. She smirked after him as he leaped over the small partition into the ring.
Bell turned around before Victor could reach him and pointed to Valorie and Lennon. “Oh, believe me, dear boy, I wouldn’t dream of making you just another pretty face,” he said. “If you want to be here, you’re going to work. Talk to Valorie. She’s the creative director for the acrobatic acts. And don’t worry, she’s quite flexible for your needs. Once you have a moment to breathe, Misha will have a few things to speak with you about as well.”
“I just wanted to thank you,” Victor said, “for doing what you said you’d do instead of going a completely different direction. It was painful and not fun in the least to change, and it’s going to take me a while to get used to seeing this in the mirror”—he gestured to his face—“but you kept your word. I’ve never been stronger or healthier.”
“Don’t thank me yet,” Bell said, patting Victor’s cheek and leaving him to Valorie.
“You can say that again,” Valorie agreed, coming up behind him. She looked Victor up and down. “Go ahead and lose the shirt, Rocky. You’re not going to be wearing many of those for the rest of your time here.”
“It’s Victor.” But he did as she’d said, peeling the shirt off.
“Bell hasn’t given you anything to work out in yet, has he? Lady Sasha wouldn’t have given you your leathers yet, and I guess Kitty’s been spending too much time banging you to make you a proper pair of pants,” Valorie said, raising her voice for Kitty’s benefit.
Kitty paused from the work of braiding beads into her beard to give Valorie a rude salute with a completely straight face.
“I hadn’t given a thought to costumes and uniforms. That was a bit stupid of me,” Victor said.
“Yes, it was,” Valorie said. “I don’t know whether you can tumble well in jeans, dude, but we can try. You’re going to get dirty here. Is that going to be a problem?”
“If that were going to be a problem, Arcanium would be one of the last places I’d join. It’s as dirty as it can get without indecency citations,” Victor responded, not missing a beat.
Valorie kept her stern expression for about a minute before finally cracking a grin. “All right, come on. I’ll teach you the routine. There are things I’m going to ask you to do that will feel ridiculous and embarrassing, but you need to let all that go. I know what looks good. Do you trust me?”
“If you do all the choreography for the circus, then yes, I trust you absolutely,” Victor replied.
“You’re going to do fine, kid,” Valorie said. “Let’s give your girlfriend something to look at.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Victor said. “Not really.”
“That’ll make any time I accidentally brush your crotch less awkward then. And I’m pretty sure if she sucks you off and invites you into the circus, she qualifies as girlfriend material. Doesn’t have to be serious, but let’s get real here,” Valorie said.
“You’ll have to talk to her about that,” Victor said, glancing over at Kitty.
It wasn’t as though Kitty had formally discussed their relationship dynamics for inside Arcanium with him. Before, they’d had a relationship of convenience and fun. Death, illness, injury, transformation and circus sawdust had altered that relationship…but neither of them knew what it had turned into yet.
“Later, Romeo,” Valorie said. “We’ve got work to do. You used to working hard?”
“Is that another euphemism?” Victor asked.
Lennon snorted.
“Yes, I’m used to working hard in the non-euphemistic way,” Victor added. “I did work for a living before coming here. It wasn’t the most physical of work, but I ran every day too. I can do this.”
“Good.” Valorie slapped his ass to get him started after Lennon. “Nice,” she said, glancing over her shoulder at Kitty and winking. “You’ll be a hit with all the ladies.”
Kitty tied off one braid with a flourish and sat back to enjoy the rehearsal.
“Hey, Kitty,” Jane said. She and her twin did their peculiar but effective crab-walk to the row below. They straddled the bench to keep from too-awkward angles on their lower back, where they were connected. “I hear you have a new fella.”
“I should do an experiment one of these days to find out how fast news travels around here,” Kitty said. “He’s not technically a new fella. He’s an old fella.”
“Doesn’t look old to me,” Joanne said.
“I mean, I’ve known him for a while,” Kitty said.
“Ah. One of those hundreds of men sleeping with you that we never get to meet?” Jane said. “I always thought you either spurned them all from your Rapunzel tower or were talking about former lovers.”
“Just because you don’t see them doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I just don’t bring them home,” Kitty said.
“Why not?” Joanne asked.
“Do I need to answer that question?” Kitty asked.
; “Nope,” Joanne replied with a grin. “It is a bit hard to swallow. Unlike him, we hear.”
“For heaven’s sake…” Kitty said.
“Sorry. We’ll get over that. Eventually. It’s just…you,” Jane said. “You’ve never done anything like that. All the rest of us have, but you manage to keep your partners to yourself.”
“Seriously, though, what’s the secret to not getting caught in embarrassing clinches at least twice a month?” Jane asked.
“The secret to not getting caught is not doing it in Arcanium,” Kitty replied.
“In other words, we’re screwed on that front,” Joanne said.
“No shame in that,” Kitty said.
“Then why are you ashamed?” Jane asked.
“I’m not, otherwise I wouldn’t have done it,” Kitty said. “I just prefer my privacy.”
“Hello, what’s he doing here?” Joanne said.
“He’s my new boyfriend, according to Valorie,” Kitty replied. “The man of the hour we were just talking about. I know he doesn’t look like he did when I was sucking him off, but…”
“Not him,” Joanne said, “unless the Ringmaster is your boyfriend.”
“What?” One of the beads in Kitty’s hand slipped off her palm and made a small noise as it hit the ground and bounced away.
Joanne nodded as discreetly as she could in the Ringmaster’s direction as he climbed to the top row of the bleachers near the red curtain. Even though it was just rehearsal, he was wearing one of his red jackets and a pair of black leather trousers and boots, his whip wrapped loosely around his elbow—his usual Ringmaster ensemble.
Jane looked over her shoulder as well.
“Has he ever come to rehearsals before?” Jane asked.
“Not in my memory,” Kitty said.
Joanne and Jane were making an effort to be surreptitious, but Kitty didn’t bother hiding her gaze from him. He didn’t look at her.
“The only difference today is Victor,” Joanne said.
“And that’s who he’s looking at,” Jane added.
“Do you think he has a crush on him?” Joanne asked. “I mean, he’s never been with anyone before, right? Even Bell has Maya. The demons dig human chicks. Maybe his problem’s just been that we didn’t have his type.”
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