The Fire Dancer

by Kristen Strassel

  “What is it?”

  “Cash dug inside of you and found your worst nightmare to project to you. He’s trying to throw you off the trail.”

  My body temperature shot up. What if he’d done the same thing to me? He led me to the place that I could find my mother, and she rejected me. He figured out a way to separate me from everything I knew, leaving me with only him and Blade.

  But why? He confirmed everything I saw at Bethlem after I told him. He drew Lennon to him, and the visions of my mother replayed like a horror movie every time I saw her. Was any of this real, or just what Cash wanted me to see?

  “Are you working with Cash, or against him?” Callie’s voice startled me. It was a question I had no idea how to answer.

  “I can’t get away from him, but I don’t like what he’s doing.” The only person who knew he was my father was Blade. Callie couldn’t handle any more surprises tonight. “Everything was fine before he showed up.”

  Callie bowed her head, shaking it. “How do I shut it off?”

  “Stop giving him power over you.” I answered my own question as well as hers. Suddenly, I felt free. “You’d think you’d know your own kind.”

  I’d been kept in the dark my whole life, an anomaly that no one knew what to do with. Callie had it easy in comparison. She was a vampire surrounded by vampires. If she was going to lead, she needed to get her shit together. I’d been thrown in the middle of a world I didn’t belong in and somehow became entangled in its survival. Initially I thought she was incredibly strong, but if this made her crumble, there was no way she was prepared to lead a clan.

  Callie looked tiny, kneeling on the floor, her head in her hands. She stayed like that for a long time. “They’re gone,” she finally murmured.

  “That’s good.” Of course they were. They were never here in the first place. “Can I go home now?”

  I had no idea what I’d find when I got there. None of the vampires had much more time tonight, wherever they were; the sky had begun to brighten outside the window. Hopefully Cash would succumb to his sunrise coma before he had a chance to do anything that couldn’t be fixed.

  Callie sat next to me on the bed, still wide-eyed and trembling. “Stay with me, and I’ll figure out a way to free you from Cash.”

  I tried not to laugh. In theory, I figured out how to do it already—stop letting him have power over me. But the reality wasn’t that easy. “This I’ve got to see.”

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  That night, I slept better than I had in a long time. I dreamt of Rainey, walking hand in hand with her in the sunshine in Santa Fe. Native women sitting on blankets. My fingers dripping with turquoise. Love everywhere.

  “Wear it always,” Rainey said in the dream. Or had I traveled? No. I wasn’t relaxed enough for that. But I could smell her jasmine perfume. I’d do anything to have Rainey back. “It will protect you from harm.”

  When I woke up, I was still in Vegas, in bed with two vampires. One I didn’t even know. At first I thought it might be Tristan, with his long dark hair, but then this man was older. The stranger held onto Callie, trying to comfort her, his hands on her back.

  I brushed my fingers against the turquoise ring that wasn’t on my hand when I went to sleep.

  “Tell me what happened to Tristan,” she cried, slamming her hands against his chest.

  “Like I said, he’s going to be all right. Immortal Dilemma went to Embrace last night after the show. Tristan got pretty out of control, and confronted Blade.” Oh, Jesus. That couldn’t have ended well. “It got ugly fast, as you’d expect. When Tristan came close to kicking Blade’s ass, Blade did the fire thing. Tristan got burned pretty badly—”

  Callie dissolved into hysterics before he had a chance to say any more. I clutched the sheets around my body, knowing that Blade would do anything he could to destroy Callie. If he had Tristan, he may just do it.

  “Shhhh.” The vampire tried to calm her down. “He’ll heal fast. He already looks much better than he did last night.”

  “Where is he?” she asked.

  “We brought him back to my house. You weren’t answering your phone. We ran out of time to do anything else.” No mention yet of Lennon or Cash. I should’ve never stayed here last night. I should’ve gone back to Cash’s apartment to help Lennon. Regret burned bitter on my tongue. If I went back, I would have known if Blade and Cash had been working together last night, or if the universe had just aligned for some supernatural shitstorm.

  Callie jumped up, running her hands over her hair to smooth it, and looked for clothes. “I want to see him.”

  “There’s more.” The vampire took a deep breath. “Blade is there, too.”

  I didn’t think Callie or this other vamp knew anything about my relationship with Blade, but they knew about the fire. I couldn’t believe they’d risk bringing him to a place he could destroy so easily. Anything I said could be used against me, and I wasn’t sure what my plan was yet.

  “What?” Callie shrieked. “Why would you do that?”

  “We didn’t want him to come here and do anything to you. He thinks he’s invincible now, and he’s probably right.” Interesting, it sounded like a concession. “But there was no way we were going to let him come here and attack you when we knew you were alone.”

  Callie’s mouth dropped. “I thought you were working with Blade.”

  “We were, and it was a mistake. You’re our Mistress, and we need to protect you.”

  Blade was losing what control he had over the clan. They were banding together to destroy him.

  Maybe they had Lennon and Cash there, too. It was killing me that no one had mentioned either of them. These vampires’ short-term memories were shittier than mine.

  “Thank you.” Callie’s words were barely a breath, like she could hardly believe she won. Or so she thought. Blade would not take this lightly. I was pretty sure the two of them had forgotten I was in the room. One track minds. With that, she looked over to me. “We need to bring Holly with us.”

  “No!” With both Callie and Blade trying to draw from my powers, I’d simply explode. I’d be no help to anyone. Someone needed to go to back to Circus Circus. I was the only one who could slip in without causing an uproar.

  I was the only one who could save Lennon.

  “You’re our only real weapon against Blade,” she said.

  I was so sick of being used to get to Blade. “It doesn’t work like that.”

  “You can tell us what to do,” the male vampire said. Right, like they’d listen. “Let’s go.”

  “DROP ME OFF AT CIRCUS Circus.” I gave it one more try before we drove away from the Strip into parts unknown.

  “We need you to come with us, Holly,” the male vampire repeated looking back at me in the rear-view mirror as he drove, heading west on Sahara and away from Lennon.

  “I don’t know even know who you are.” I really should’ve blown up his SUV. Callie shot a look at me, urging me to shut up, and the guy visibly deflated.

  “I’m Ryder Maddox,” he answered quietly. “I play guitar in Soul Divider.”

  Holy shit. I was going to set this car on fire. “You’re working with Noah.”

  “Yeah, he’s our singer.” Ryder had no idea why that was upsetting to me. He didn’t sound thrilled about Noah, either. I wasn’t sure if that made things better or worse.

  Callie turned around, the disgust still on her face. “I hate that asshole too, but this isn’t about him. It’s about stopping Blade.”

  “What about Cash?” I asked her. “He’s got Lennon. Some best friend you are, you haven’t said one word about her. All you care about is your feud with Blade.”

  Anger flashed across Callie’s face. “Bullshit. She was the first thing I asked Ryder about. You were still sleeping.” I wasn’t going to apologize. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Keep talking.” I met her glare. “Because I can work with Blade just as easily as I can work with you.
”

  Right now, the odds were looking pretty good for that happening.

  Callie scoffed. “Listen, I get it. He’s charming, he’s good looking, but he’s lost his mind. And he will rip your heart out of your chest if you cross him.”

  “Maybe you shouldn’t have crossed him.”

  Callie hissed at me. I summoned a tiny flame to the tip of my finger and blew it at her, like a kiss.

  “Ladies!” Ryder interrupted us before this erupted into a full-blown cat fight. “This is exactly what Blade and Cash want. The more you fight, the less you focus on what’s important. Let’s get back to my house, regroup, and we’ll find Lennon.”

  We spent the rest of the ride in thick silence. Callie ran off to find Tristan as soon as we got to Ryder’s house, leaving me in a room full of vampires I didn’t know.

  Well, that wasn’t exactly true.

  Noah was there.

  “Whoa,” one of them said as I backed toward the front door, sparks dripping from my body. “She’s on fire.”

  “She’s the Fire Dancer.” The reflection of my flames danced in Noah’s eyes. At first, I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me. I thought I’d never see him again. He was dressed in stage clothes, his skinny legs in leather pants and cowboy boots, and his long caramel colored hair pushed back from his face with a bandana. “Isn’t she the most beautiful woman you’ve ever seen?”

  “You fucking set me up!” I reined back my scream to Ryder through clenched teeth. “Where’s Blade?”

  What if he wasn’t even here, and this was some awful set-up to hand me over to Noah?

  Regardless, it could still be a set up. Blade had hired Noah. It looked like the whole reason Noah was here was because he was in Soul Divider. The room was running out of air.

  All this time I’d been so worried about Lennon, and I never realized I was in danger, too.

  “Holly.” Ryder took a step toward me, confused, and I shrank back from him. “Blade is locked up. We have to be smart about this.”

  “He’s bound, in chains.” Noah raised an eyebrow, one side of his mouth sliding up in a smile. “Just how I’d like to see you.”

  “Shut up!” Fire curled from my lips as I yelled at him. The vamps in the room ducked for cover, except for that cocky bastard Noah. He survived my wrath once.

  A woman rushed toward me, and my flames disappeared as she met up with them, like she absorbed them into her own body. Once the air cooled, her shoulders slumped, exhausted.

  “How the hell did you do that?” I asked.

  “I can’t explain it.” She smiled weakly. “No one here is going to hurt you.”

  “It’s too late for that.” I glared at Noah over her shoulder. She took away the only power I had. “What did you do to Blade?”

  “He’s not going to hurt anyone, either,” the woman said, her face lighting up. “How do you do that? Maybe if you tell us what makes you—”

  “No.” I cut her off. “Enough using me to conquer Blade. You seem to have the antidote, anyway.”

  I turned to Ryder. “I need to get out of here.”

  The girl rolled her eyes and walked away from me, disappearing into another room.

  “Not yet.” He held his arms protectively around some other woman who I scared the shit out of. Good, at least there was still one person. “We need to figure out what our plan is.”

  “You’re wasting time.” If there was ever a group that needed a leader, it was the one in this room. “We need to find Lennon!” I almost said my mother in my rage. Seeing Noah turned my world upside down, but then they’d really think I was crazy.

  “What’s wrong with Lennon?” the woman in Ryder’s arms asked, her mouth falling open in shock, oblivious to the real danger.

  “Cash took her.”

  “Oh.” She relaxed. “Aren’t they dating? They’re all over each other at Embrace.”

  “They were, until Cash singled her out as his next on-stage kill.” That got everyone’s attention. “So I’m not sure how she’s going to want to update her relationship status on Facebook over that one, but she’s in trouble. That’s why I’m here. Because he used me as a decoy to get her out of his apartment last night.”

  We were in the middle of nowhere, way out in Summerlin. Since no one was going anywhere, I sunk down on a bar stool. I didn’t think for a minute that I could trust any of these bloodsuckers, but they needed to know what was actually at stake. If they didn’t care about me, maybe they cared about Lennon.

  “Holy shit.” One of them whistled low.

  Callie rushed back into the living room. “Is Rachel here?”

  “What’s up?” The woman who extinguished my flames came back from the kitchen, handing a glass to one of the vamps and then made a bee line to Callie. “Are you okay? You started screaming last night on the phone—”

  “I’m fine. But Lennon, I’m scared for her.” Finally, the attention was shifting to where it should be. Tristan must have been okay. “Did Ryder tell you what I told him, that Cash and Blade are working together?”

  “Yeah,” Rachel said. No mention of what I added, but whatever.

  “Rachel, Tristan thinks you can get Lennon away from Cash.” Callie hugged herself. I didn’t get the reasoning, but I was intrigued.

  “It was a fluke. I don’t know how I did it.” Rachel held her hands up. “I wish I did, but I don’t.”

  “What happened?” Callie looked confused.

  “She made the fire stop.” I cringed at the sound of Noah’s voice.

  Callie’s gaze fell to me, her fingers tapping against the arm still wrapped around her middle.

  “So she can start fire.” She pointed at me, and then her finger slid over toward Rachel. “And she can make it stop. They’re both tied to Cash...”

  What? How was this other girl tied to Cash? I never laid eyes on her before tonight. More secrets and deception. I’d officially had it with vampires.

  “What are you thinking, Callie?” Ryder asked. The entire room hung on their leader’s word.

  “Together, they might be able to neutralize his powers. If Rachel could make Blade’s powers stop, maybe it would work on Cash.”

  Callie had no idea what she was talking about. I rolled my eyes, but no one noticed. Cash would pick the meat off her bones.

  Ryder nodded. Ugh. What an idiot.

  “None of us have ever been in this situation before,” he said. I was getting so frustrated. Instead of listening to me, they’d rather go on Callie’s hunch. “Cash is a powerful vampire. He poisoned Josiah, and we didn’t think that could happen. Who knows what else he’s got up his sleeve?”

  “Why can’t we all just do the same things?” Callie collapsed into a chair. If she had so little faith her in plan, I didn’t know how she ever expected anyone to follow her.

  “Because you’re all freaks!” Now they were paying attention to me. “I don’t want to be involved in this.”

  Callie couldn’t believe I defied her. She wasn’t my leader. “You won’t help Lennon? Someone who’s done nothing wrong, and has absolutely no defense against this guy?”

  I was tired of explaining myself, I’d been doing nothing but begging to help Lennon since we left the Alta Vista, but she heard what she wanted to hear.

  I was sick of looking at her.

  “I won’t go against Cash.” He was the only one who’d shown any loyalty to me, and I still wasn’t convinced I hadn’t walked into some sort of trap. As crazy as he was acting right now, Cash would pick me over any of them. “And I won’t help him.” I pointed at Noah.

  That bastard smirked at me. No fire fell from my skin. Weird. I wasn’t trying to control it.

  “Get her out of here!” Callie jumped out of her chair. “I don’t want to look at her.”

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Business as usual at Theater Macabre. Walking through the backstage hallway, past the models in their clown makeup and ripped tights, and Sally and Estelle in their silk kimonos, ma
de everything that happened since last night’s show seem like nothing more than the nightmare it was.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Cash barked at me like I missed curfew when he came out of his dressing room. Even he looked normal. Almost human, his cheeks were so rosy. My stomach turned, knowing where that blood probably came from. He placed his hands firmly on my shoulders, steering me toward my dressing room. “You almost missed the show.”

  He had to be kidding. I pushed back against him, trying to resist, but it was no use. “Where’s Lennon?” I struggled to get away from him. His fingernails pierced my skin. He’d leave marks. “What did you do with her?”

  “I’m done with her,” he said, way too calm for that to be good. “I have something for you.”

  “What?” I turned to face him in the doorway. Cash didn’t expect me to stop, and he was just an inch away from me. One of the acrobats who walked by us totally got the wrong idea, and muttered something about fucking the favorites under her breath. “Who’s Rachel? What’s your tie to her?”

  Cash moved back in surprise. Hands on my shoulders, he turned me around. “She’s a throwaway. Don’t worry about Rachel. I have her under control.”

  “She’s coming here with Callie for Lennon,” I said and then gasped. A beautiful headdress in shades of red, orange, and yellow waited for me on a stand next to my costume rack.

  “It’s made so it will ignite when you do.” When I looked back at Cash, he beamed, so proud of his gift. Or maybe it was just all that extra blood flowing through his veins. Whatever it was, the distraction worked. Just for a minute, I promised myself as I walked over to the headdress, running my finger along its metal and synthetic feathers. I frowned, sad that it wasn’t made from real feathers or flowers like some of the headdresses I’d seen in Bette’s show. “You’ll be able to wear it every show.”

  “It’s beautiful.” I looked back at Cash. “Please tell me Lennon’s not going on stage with you tonight.”

  “She’s not.” It didn’t make me feel better. “I told you, I’m done with her.”