The Fire Dancer

by Kristen Strassel

  She touched my cheek, and I turned to her, our lips so close I leaned forward, but she fell back with the same fluid ease, like it was part of a dance.

  “No,” she said softly. “That’s not it at all.”

  I HAD THE ADVANTAGE. The vampire powers that be had no idea that I didn’t have my fire anymore. The most lethal threat to a vampire besides a stake to the heart was fire, so a surprise personal visit to a crowded, non-fireproofed area had to be the most effective way to get the answers I needed.

  “I wish I could just See vampires,” Rainey grumbled as she reluctantly drove toward the Strip. “Then we wouldn’t have to do this.”

  Our first stop was Circus Circus. My things were still in Cash’s apartment. I had no idea what to expect, if I’d even be able get in. Rainey still had a key to the employee entrance. Only the security lights illuminated the hallway, and my fingers shook as I punched in the code that would open the door to Cash’s apartment.

  Rainey clasped my shoulder as we descended the stairs into the black abyss. “It smells like rotten meat in here.”

  My heart pounded. What if Lennon had been left down here to rot all this time? Would anyone even know where to look for her? Once I turned on the lights, I squeezed my eyes shut. Not only was I not ready to face what we could find, but the smell was making me dizzy.

  “Are we alone?” I asked Rainey, then called out, “Lennon?”

  The stench alone would have killed her.

  “I don’t think there’s anyone here.” Rainey surveyed the living room, circling around to the front of the couch. “Whatever happened, happened here.”

  Joining her in the middle of the room, I gasped when I saw the once red velvet couch caked with brown blood stains. A sticky puddle of residue still puddled in front of it. I looked at Rainey. “She’s dead, isn’t she?”

  “Yes,” Rainey answered quietly. “I don’t know what happened, but she’s dead.”

  “Nothing at all?” I desperately needed closure.

  She shook her head. “Too much vampire activity around it. But when I try to picture what happened here, there’s a stillness. No life energy.”

  Hot tears slipped down my face as we shoved my crap into bags as quickly as possible. We had to stop in my old dressing room so I could get ready for battle. All I wanted was to get the hell out of there. Not only the apartment, but the theater. This show could never go on as it had before. I’d never be able to come back here again.

  I was as good as I was going to get. I healed, but I felt hollow without my fire. I might have had real clothes on for the first time since the accident, and pretty hair and makeup, but I felt incomplete. The only way I was going to be able to put myself back together was if I talked to Blade, or that thieving bitch Rachel.

  Butterflies vibrated in my stomach as we walked into Sin City Vampire Club. No one recognized me as I pushed through the swarm of people. This audience was under the spell of a different vampire—Tristan Trevosier. Cash and Blade had laughed at him many times, calling him a drugged-out male bimbo, but as hysteria swarmed around us, it was obvious whatever he was doing was working.

  “The guard near the backstage door will help you.” Rainey pointed to the left with her free hand. “I need to get out of this crowd. The visions are going to blind me.”

  “Are you picking up anything that would help us?” There was a chance someone in this crowd knew more than they were letting on.

  “No. They’re a bunch of soccer moms and groupies. All I think I learned is a few new sex tricks.”

  “So it’s not a total loss.” I bumped against her and smiled. Rainey pulled me through the crowd, concentrating on the people in front of her. Rejection bounced through my empty body, and it hurt so much. My defenses had burned away, and I had to build the scar tissue back up.

  The security guard’s mouth dropped when he saw me approach. “You work with Tony, right?” I asked. I’d seen this guy so many times at Cirque Macabre talking to Cash, with the one who was working for Callie the night that Lennon was captured. That’s why I was so surprised they worked for Callie. He nodded, and I turned on the charm. “What’s your name?”

  “Mario.” He didn’t back up when I stood too close to him. I didn’t know this guy, but I was determined to get my way.

  “Good. You’re just the person I want to see.”

  “The employment office is open from nine to five.” His smirk was far too confident. “You can come back and drop off an application tomorrow.”

  “I’m not looking for a job. Like I said, I want to talk to you.” I let go of Rainey’s hand, and folded my arms in front of my chest. I was going to have to cut to the chase. “Do you know what happened to Lennon?”

  Mario swallowed hard. “She’s okay.”

  My knees buckled. “How did she survive that? All I know is there was blood all over Cash’s apartment.”

  The smirk was back, but Mario stepped aside, and motioned for me to follow him.

  “There was a little supernatural intervention.” He raised his eyebrow as his words sunk in. “She’s going to be with us for a very long time.”

  Lennon was a vampire. “Who created her?”

  “The one with the blonde streak in her hair.”

  Rachel. It didn’t upset me that Lennon was a vampire now. In fact, it made more sense than her being human, from what I could see. She’d been a part of their world for years. But Rachel, the one who stole my fire, turning the woman who might have been my mother in another life to a vamp? That I had a huge problem with. That chick had gone from not even on my radar to having too much control of my life in hours.

  Cash told me that creating Rachel had been a mistake. She was starting to look like a big fucking mistake.

  I looked back at Rainey, who was squirming in her own skin. I had to get her away from all these people. Even if she couldn’t See any of the major players but Mario, she was suffering from sensory overload. “What about Blade?”

  “He’s in jail,” Mario said, mirroring my stance.

  “Jail? How is that even possible?” Did someone figure out what he and Cash had been up to, now that the spell was gone? All I could picture was Cash with the burned flesh hanging off his face at Bethlem. Once I realized how much danger Blade was in, I shuddered. He’d be destroyed.

  “The Mistress put him in an underground jail until she figures out what to do with him.” Mario shook his head. “Things are back to business as usual around here.”

  That was the last thing I expected him to say. “Whose side are you on?”

  I wondered where Tony was. He and Callie had been dangerously close to a falling out the last I saw him. Now he was nowhere to be found and this guy who was in the background seemed to be calling the shots.

  Mario raised an eyebrow. “The one who signs my paychecks.” He stepped back to his post and brought his walkie to his ear. If I wasn’t paying, he wasn’t talking anymore. Since I was unemployed and not exactly sure where I lived, he was trying to hustle the wrong girl.

  My body shook with anger. I’d been dismissed. But no heat rose from my sin.

  I turned away from him, pretending that went exactly how I wanted it to, and led Rainey back to the lobby. It had to be close to show time because things had quieted way down, just a few stragglers hurried through. Rainey collapsed on one of the red velvet couches. I cringed before I sat down, reminded too much of the similar couch in Cash’s apartment, ruined from Lennon’s blood.

  “I know it’s hard for you here, but try to concentrate.” I squeezed her hand, terrified she’d shrink away from me. She didn’t. “There’s got to be someone else here after the same thing we are.”

  Rainey laughed. “It would help if I knew what that was.”

  I had a feeling things weren’t going to go smoothly, nothing about dealing with vampires was straightforward. I’d purposely been vague with her, so she couldn’t I told you so me out of my mission when plan A fell through.

  “Ultimately, we
need to get backstage.” A roar rose from the crowd, and the music began. We had seats to the show, and at this point we were going to find out way more in there than we were out here. “But Mario isn’t going to help us if there’s nothing in it for him. We need another girl like Lennon. A human with vampire connections and a big mouth.”

  “These guys aren’t picky about who they party with.” Rainey nodded. “We have to figure out which one has actually been paying attention.”

  I stood and pulled our tickets out of my purse. “What is there, two thousand people in there? Piece of cake.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  We scored pretty good seats to the show, one of the tables close to the front of the stage and our own waitress with fake blood running down her neck. But where we really needed to be was in the pit with the fan girls who’d do anything to get closer to the band.

  There were times that being a (former) professional seductress came in handy. Being on stage had done more than just feed my ego, it taught me how to flirt. Bette had helped me a lot with that, too. And since I was just as comfortable coming on to women as I was to men, I didn’t see the barrier or the security guards as much of an obstacle.

  All it took was a little lip chewing, an over enthusiastic laugh, and my hand on the security guard’s arm to convince him to let me in the pit. Too bad it couldn’t have been this easy with Mario. The guard hadn’t been so sure about Rainey, who rolled her eyes at my performance. I made quick work of my fake pouty face to get her in before she said something that blew the whole thing.

  “You looked ridiculous,” Rainey muttered as we pushed through the crowd.

  Many of the fans weren’t excited about letting anyone between themselves and Immortal Dilemma. That two feet of real estate could change the entire course of their lives, after all. I binge watched the show in preparation for tonight, and I was curious about how girls were picked to go backstage. On TV, they showed just enough to tease, and let people know it was possible. It was a pretty genius marketing strategy.

  “So what? We’re in.” Most of the girls in the pit were aggressive, pushing toward the stage, doing anything to catch the gaze of the guys in the band. Those were the ones who were just as clueless as I was. “

  We need to find the most confident girl here,” I said. “One who looks like this isn’t her first rodeo.”

  We pretended to be interested in the show for the next song or two while we looked for our prize. I liked the band so it wasn’t that hard. Rainey squinted like she was about to spill government secrets to make it stop. She preferred to listen to sad girls singing with acoustic guitars. Watching Tristan Trevosier wasn’t torture, either. He’d been poured into latex pants, his long dark hair swaying free around his red fuzzy jacket. And the way his fingers moved along his guitar, his head falling back with his eyes closed while the music moaned and cried from the touch of his fingers, I could see why these girls were so hot to get backstage and into his bed.

  The other thing I learned from those sex tapes everyone had been watching—Tristan was not faithful to the Mistress. Kind of undermined her authority, if you asked me. But again, from a marketing standpoint, it was brilliant. I felt bad for Callie, thinking that, and for her sake, hoped that’s all it was—marketing. I wouldn’t want to know that nonsense was going on. I didn’t know why someone with her kind of power put up with it.

  “That one.” Rainey grabbed my arm. “Over there. All she can think about is the last time she slept with Tristan.”

  Rainey pointed at a redhead, her gothic makeup perfect, and her black lacy outfit tight and tiny. She stood alone, leaning against the back barrier of the pit, gaze glued on Tristan with a satisfied smile on her face. Almost like she was basking in an afterglow.

  Unlike everyone else, this woman smiled and waved at me when I took the empty spot next to her, leaning over to give the same greeting to Rainey. I hadn’t expected that. This chick was going to make my life easy.

  “Isn’t he hot?” She leaned over and fanned herself.

  “Have you ever met Tristan before?” I cut right to the chase, I didn’t need Rainey’s gift of Sight to know this woman was willing to dish. Following her gaze back up to the stage, I could have sworn Tristan winked at one of us. It gave me butterflies.

  If Blade only knew I was here. He’d lose his mind. He hated this guy.

  She finger-waved to him in response to the wink, then bit her lip and turned back to me. “I’ve done more than just meet him.” She licked her lips and looked back up at the stage.

  “So you know how to get backstage?” I raised my eyebrows. “Can you give me some tips?”

  “I’ll do more than that.” A flirtatious smile meant just for me spread across her face. I mirrored her expression. “I’ll bring you with me.”

  “I’M AMANDA, BY THE way. It’s so hard to talk during the show.” She looked back at me as she easily weaved through the crowd after the show. Some of the less determined fans had given up and were headed for the lobby. The rest pressed against the stage barrier, trying to get the roadies’ attention as they put everything back together for the next night’s show.

  “I’m Holly, and this is Rainey.” I locked hands with Rainey to make sure she didn’t get lost in the crowd. She hated this type of thing so much. I owed her big time. “Thanks so much for helping us out.”

  “No problem.” She turned around to look at me as she waited for the security guard to finish talking to another fan. Squinting as she looked between me and Rainey, she added, “You look familiar.”

  “I’ve lived in Vegas for a few years.” I didn’t know where this woman’s loyalties lay, so I was careful to not give too much information. “This is the first time I’ve come to see Immortal Dilemma.”

  Amanda nodded. “I wouldn’t even come to the Strip if it wasn’t for this show. I’ll be sad to see it end in December. You must have a twin.” That unnerved me. Amanda might know about Cirque Macabre but the vampire in me wasn’t ready to come clean with my intentions yet.

  “Nope. I’m an only child.” Who needed help finding her recently created vampire stepsister. I held my breath as Amanda flirted with the security guard, showing him an expired pass. He hesitated, but she pouted and then motioned to me and Rainey, batting her eyelashes. I smiled at him, concentrating hard on him saying yes while he considered us. Rainey even smiled at him. She knew to try to pick up all the information she could.

  Whatever we all did, it worked. He stepped aside with a defeated sigh as we walked past. “What’s Tristan like?” I asked before Amanda’s attention shifted to her conquest.

  We joined a small group of fans in tight black dresses in a holding area. It was much fancier than the press room backstage at Theater Macabre. This one had dark red velvet couches like the ones in the lobby and an open bar liquoring up tonight’s recruits.

  “He’s not really in to talking.” Amanda giggled as she took a sip of her martini. They called them Venomtinis here, and I tried mine. Pure alcohol with a slight hint of vanilla and a sugared rim. It burned my throat on the way down, warming my belly in a way I hadn’t felt since that bitch took my fire away.

  “He can be sweet though, but the important thing is he knows his way around a woman. When he makes me come, I go blind. And the blood, I would literally crawl over broken glass to let him drink from me. I can’t even be with humans any more. He’s ruined me.”

  A little more information than I was expecting. I took a big sip of my Venomtini, I liked the burn too much. I had no place to pass judgment on Amanda. We were both addicts.

  Amanda ran her finger down my arm. I shivered from the unexpected touch. “Sometimes he lets me bring a friend.”

  Rainey downed the rest of her drink. I looked over to her and mouthed trust me.

  “I’m going to go.” Rainey stood, her eyes darting like she was about to run screaming from the room.

  “Are you sure?” Shit. I didn’t want to piss her off. She saved my life. This was getting ou
t of hand fast, but I needed to do this. I knew she wouldn’t understand.

  “Yeah, this isn’t my scene.” She winked, emphasizing scene. Amanda would never know what we were talking about, but we couldn’t be careless. Rainey wasn’t too pissed. “I’ll be in the hotel lobby. Call me if you need me.”

  “Love you.” I kept hold of her hand as she walked away. Equal parts excited and terrified, I already knew I was in way over my head. At least by two Venomtinis.

  “Are you two a couple?” Amanda drew her brows down. “I’m sorry if I overstepped my bounds. I was having a little fun. I thought you were into it.”

  “I am. Um, we were. It’s complicated.” My heart pounded, now I truly had no safety net. “What about his girlfriend?”

  Amanda was pretty hot, and Tristan was pure sex, but I came here with my ex who I was still in love with and the more I drank the more all the lines blurred together. “

  Doesn’t she freak out when he’s with other girls?” I asked.

  “Fuck that bitch.” Amanda leaned forward, her words blending together. She wrapped a tendril of my hair around her finger, then looked over to a guy who looked a lot like Mario standing near the door with a clipboard. She wasn’t trying to seduce me, she was trying to seduce him into picking us to go the next step tonight. I sat straighter. “She’s like twelve. If she could satisfy him, he wouldn’t give the rest of us a second thought.”

  When I said I’d do anything to get my fire back, I meant it. If I didn’t take a chance, I’d never get back into the inner vampire circle. And that’s where all the answers I needed were.

  “So how does it work?” I asked, my face a little too close to Amanda’s. Her eyes lit up when she realized I was game. I licked my lips, and she leaned forward to press hers against mine. The liquor tasted different on her tongue, sweeter. I pulled away quickly, acting coy.