The Fire Dancer

by Kristen Strassel

  Rainey crumpled beside me, pulling me into her body. I envied her for being able to cry. I curled into to a ball, trying to make myself as small as I felt.

  Noah was under the delusion he’d given my fire to me. Now he could be satisfied that he’d taken it away, along with everything else.

  “I was hoping to see you dance, Holly,” a female voice spoke above us. “I’ve heard such good things about your show.”

  Rachel crouched down, moving my hair away from my face. Rainey popped up, pushing Rachel away. Rachel caught her hand, and slammed her up against the wall so hard she knocked the air of her lungs. Rainey slid down the ground, coughing and grabbing for Rachel.

  “You fucking bitch, you set me up!” The shaking returned, but I shivered. Not only did Rachel steal my fire, but she took all the heat with her. And Noah still had what was left of my dress. The bastard would probably keep it as a souvenir. “You knew I didn’t have any fire.”

  “What are you doing here?” She stood in front of me, tapping her foot. I didn’t answer her fast enough, and she pulled me to my feet by my hair. “I asked you a question.”

  “You’re a vicious bitch.” I jerked my head away from her, and she let go of my hair. Thankfully it was all still attached to my head. “I wanted to talk to you.”

  “Holly,” Rainey rasped. She was still down on the floor. If this bitch hurt Rainey, well, I had no recourse. And that pissed me off more than anything.

  “This doesn’t concern you.” Rachel looked down at her, tapping Rainey’s leg with her foot. She turned her attention back to me and smiled. She would have been pretty if she wasn’t completely psychotic. “Good, because I wanted to talk to you, too.”

  “Can we at least be civil about this?” I didn’t take my eyes off Rachel as I sunk down to help Rainey back to her feet. “You’ve already succeeded in humiliating me.”

  “I can’t take total credit for that. It was Noah’s idea, but I didn’t do anything to stop him.” Rachel shrugged. I wasn’t surprised, but it didn’t make any of my rage for her subside. “I wanted to talk to you about Cash.”

  “I’ll answer any question you want, if you give me my fire back.” If all I had left was information, I certainly wasn’t going to give it to her. Not one of these vampires could be trusted.

  “Hmm. I don’t know if I can do that.” At first, I thought Rachel was mocking me, but her face fell, realizing she may have created an enemy for no reason. Even though she shouldn’t trust anyone in this city, alliances were too important to shatter like that. “My power is that I can neutralize it. I’m not even sure how I do it.”

  Another clueless vampire. Great. The cockiness was totally gone because now she needed me. “Did you take Blade’s fire away, too?”

  “No. He’s stronger than you, he’s a vampire. Cash thought he was the strongest vampire ever,” she mocked his voice and rolled her eyes. “He loved telling me that when he reminded me how he made me weak. But now that he’s gone, his spell’s worn off.”

  Before Rachel took my fire, I was able to neutralize Cash’s spell over Callie. But now she absorbed all my power and his. I need to find another way to make this stop.

  I pulled Rainey in closer to me. What if my fire had been one of Cash’s spells? I collapsed on stage about the same time Callie set him on fire.

  Ugh. I hated that everything went back to the Mistress. I couldn’t show Rachel any more weakness, but I realized that everything here was more connected that any of us wanted it to be.

  “So what does that mean for you?” I asked.

  “It means that I’m the new leader of his clan,” Rachel answered. “And I’m still figuring out the rest.”

  “I hope you weren’t planning on bringing Cirque Macabre back, because Noah just fucked that up by bringing me on stage.” I’d be the laughing stock of the city by morning. The same people who took pictures of me before I went up on stage would have certainly have recorded that performance. Or lack of performance. It would be on all the gossip sites, and in the papers. I’d never work in Las Vegas again.

  “I have some things in the works, Holly. I don’t need you.” Rachel smiled.

  Bullshit. Cash didn’t give anyone any more information than he thought they deserved, and he considered her a throwaway. Rachel pushed away Lennon, someone who would have followed her blindly, which meant she lost Callie, too. She needed me, whether she wanted to admit it or not. We all relied on each other in the most dysfunctional way possible.

  “I think you do.” I clutched Rainey to my body so Rachel couldn’t see me trembling. “But you’re not getting shit from me until I have my fire back.”

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  “Holly, it’s not worth it.” Rainey was practically hysterical as she drove us back to her apartment. She was more upset about this than I was. I was pissed off, and wearing a Soul Divider shirt as a dress. I couldn’t leave the theater with nothing, and that’s all Rachel would give me. “How many more times are you going to let these vampires kick you in the teeth before you realize you can’t beat them?”

  “One less time than I get up from it.” The shock and fear had faded to absolute rage. “Go to The Flamingo.”

  Rainey looked at me like I lost my mind. “Why would you want to go there?” Out of the blue, it made no sense. It was in the middle of the Strip and crawling with tourists. No local would go there unless they had a really good reason. And I thought I did.

  “Blade is there. That’s where the jail is. Under the parking garage.”

  “Oh, hell no. You can pout and whine and try to act cute all you want, but I’m out. I don’t know what came over me tonight, deciding to help you, but it was the biggest mistake I’ve ever made. It almost killed me not being able to get you away from Noah. I was clawing at those guards like an animal, trying to get them to budge. I drew blood! And when those bitches started booing and throwing things at you, I lost my mind.” Rainey didn’t look at me during her rant.

  If she had, she would have seen me smiling. Just an hour ago, I didn’t think I’d ever be able to again. She did still love me.

  “Wait a minute,” she added. “How do you know where that place is?”

  “I’ve already been there.”

  “Holly.” She sighed.

  “I promised Blade I’d get him out. If I don’t, I’m no better than the rest of them.”

  Rainey shook her head. “You’re better than all of them.”

  “I’m half vampire. Whether we like it or not, I have a tie to every single one of them. Cash created Rachel. We need a true leader. Not someone who’s training on the job, but someone who understands what it means to be a vampire. Someone who can show us how to live peacefully and get stronger, instead of tearing each other apart.”

  “It’s not your job to bring everyone together.” Rainey refused to bend on this.

  “Someone has to do it.” I wasn’t going to bend either. “They all had some tie to Cash, and now I’m all that’s left of that. If someone doesn’t step up and try to fix things, they’re going to destroy the entire legacy.”

  “They aren’t going to give you want.” Rainey sighed. “They’re always going to make you feel second best.”

  As long as Rainey loved me, that was all I needed. But I wouldn’t let the vampires beat me. “I might not be able to overpower them, but I can get them to respect me.”

  “I can’t tell if it’s noble or crazy.” Rainey sighed as she pulled into her apartment complex. “But you’re right about one thing—someone’s got to take the lead. Every new vampire thinks they can take control of the city and it’s ridiculous.”

  I wished I could call the apartment my home. Rainey sunk down on the couch, biting her lip as she thought of other solutions. I couldn’t tear my gaze away. It was pretty hot, especially after she said she drew blood for me. I was more vamp than I was willing to admit. “Someone had to create the former clan leaders. Vampires are supposed to live forever. One of them still has to be kicking
around.”

  “That’s a great idea.” Cash never told me anything about the vampire who created him. He must not have thought I needed to know. The lady vampires were all too new, and they wouldn’t have any information. “I wonder if Blade knows anything about Talis’ history.”

  “Tristan probably would, he’s been immortal the longest out of everyone.” Rainey shrugged when I snarled. “I know you don’t want to deal with him or Callie, but it makes the most sense.”

  I shook my head. “If we’re going to do this, we need to keep things small.”

  “We need to stay smart.”

  “You can’t See my future,” I said her before she tried to discourage me again. “That means vampires. Or that I’m dead.”

  I sat next to her on the couch, so close we could have been touching, but we didn’t. I had to let her take the lead. I’d given her too many things to question to add any more to the mix.

  Her face paled. “Don’t say that.”

  “Immortal just means it’s harder to die, but it’s not impossible.” We’d seen it too many times since we come to Las Vegas. “We have to be prepared for every scenario.”

  “You didn’t let me finish what I was going to say.” Rainey laced her fingers in between mine and took a deep breath. “I can’t see my future anymore, either. I’ve tried to walk away from you ever since Cash came into your life. I knew you didn’t need me. Your life was going to change, and I didn’t fit in it. But without you in my life, I think I’d die, too.”

  “Rainey.” I could hardly see her through the blur of unshed tears. “I’ll always need you. There will always be a place for you in my life, as long as you want one. I don’t know what it’s going to be, but I want you here with me.”

  “I can’t help you just to watch you run to Blade,” she whispered. “And I understand why you’d want him. He’s gorgeous, he’s powerful, and you both have the fire thing. You were made for each other. I’ve known it all along, and that’s why I gave you your space. It’s a fight I can’t win.”

  “It’s never been a fight.” I wanted to laugh, because we should have had this conversation months ago. “If I thought for a minute you would’ve taken me back, I wouldn’t have done any of it. Not Blade, not Amanda, nothing.”

  “Amanda was pretty hot. So I get that.” Rainey giggled. “You had to do it. Your life is meant to be bigger than mine. At first, I resented you for that. But I realized I’d never be happy, doing what you do. We’re meant for different things. We complement each other. At least I think so.”

  “I know so.” I squeezed her hand. “Can I please kiss you now? I keep trying and you keep pulling away from me. You’re driving me insane, woman.”

  “It’s been the hardest thing I’ve ever done.” Rainey’s smile was beautiful. “Kiss me already.”

  I leaned forward, my heart racing. I stopped before I pressed my lips against hers, tracing her heart-shaped mouth with my finger. Rainey shuddered under my touch. When her lips parted, I caught the bottom one softly with my teeth. I’d never forget how sweet she tasted. Like fresh rain and honey. I wanted to drink it all. Drop by drop, it healed everything that had been wounded in her absence. Everything in my body sprang back to life.

  Everything except for the fire. At that moment, I didn’t miss it.

  Rainey moaned against my lips, tangling her fingers in my hair and pulling me closer to deepen the kiss.

  “I missed this.” Her eyelashes fluttered against my cheeks. “So much.”

  “Thank you,” I whispered. “For loving me when I didn’t make it easy for you.”

  Rainey smiled. “It was always easy.”

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  Rainey had gone to work trying to figure out how to lift her block on vampires. She poured over her favorite Tarot deck, the Goddess, looking for a supernatural loophole. The apartment smelled heavenly. She burned oils and brought home flowers, casting intentions into the universe the same way someone else might try a new recipe for dinner.

  “Here’s the problem.” She held up the Sarasvati card, The High Priestess of the deck. She sat between darkness and light, a true transitional card. It expressed my entire history with vampires so well. “I could cast a simple spell over the warden, and in normal circumstances, the same one would work for Blade. But there are two obstacles—they would need to be touched by sunlight, and they’d have to promise to do no harm. We both know that neither of those things are going to happen. I’ve racked my brain, and I can only think of one solution.”

  “Better than what I’ve come up with.” I rubbed her shoulders as I looked at the spread she had on the table. It wasn’t a set up for a reading. The cards were laid in a row on her velvet scarf, and she had an ancient text held open with two heavy quartz pieces. She filled a vase with white roses and lavender, lit a white candle, and other bowls were filled with herbs. All that psychic energy was giving me a headache. “I’m willing to try anything.”

  “You’re going to have to go back in time and try to alter when Blade met Callie.” Rainey tipped her head back to gauge my reaction. I leaned down and kissed her. I had a lot of lost time to make up for. “What do you think?”

  It could change everything. Depending on where we intervened, Blade and Callie could still be human, Cash could still be alive, he may have never met Lennon in this lifetime, and I’d still have my fire. The show could still be open, and there was no telling what the ripple effects would be on the other vampires. But there was a really big problem with her theory. “I can’t alter vampire history.”

  “Maybe I can.” She smiled. She had a lot more faith in my abilities than I did. “If you travel back and visit me before everything happens, and give me all the information, maybe I can intercept Blade.”

  My heart pounded. So much on the line. “It’s not always that easy. It’s not an exact science.”

  “You go see Bette all the time.” Rainey raised an eyebrow. “And you know that you’re traveling, because you can apply what you learn to the show and vice versa.”

  “If we do this, it could change everything.” I pulled up a chair beside her and sat down, taking her hands in mine. “I’d have my fire back, and Blade would be free, but if Cash was still alive, I’d still be under his thumb, and he’d still be killing people. We were fighting then, remember. Do you want all of that? Remember, it doesn’t always work the way I want it to.”

  I squeezed my eyes closed to make the vision of my mother swatting my hand away disappear.

  “It’s risky.” Rainey sighed, pulling her hand away from mine to look at the cards one more time. “You must have put some thought into this before I agreed to help you. What would you do if you were working on your own?”

  “Blade needs to use his fire. It’s the only way to get past the warden.” If it went badly, he could burn down a significant portion of the Strip. So many innocent lives would be put in danger. My idea was just as dangerous as Rainey’s.

  “There’s no negotiating with Callie?”

  “No. Especially about that. He’s made her life miserable, and every time she sees me, she hisses like a senile cat.” I rolled my eyes. “They were all working against Blade. I’m the only one who wants him free.”

  “Are you sure you want him free?” She raised an eyebrow.

  “I want my fire back.” I reached over to her book. Dust and herbs radiated from it as I flipped through the pages. “I’m sure you checked in here for a spell that would give it to me.”

  “Many times.” She slid the book closer to her, placing the stones back on it. I knew that everything Rainey did had meaning. She flipped through the pages, her finger landing on the spell she was looking for. “I’ve got it.”

  “What?”

  “We need to cast an illusion that one of us is the Mistress. The warden would let Blade go, and then hopefully, he’d be able to give your fire back.”

  “I think that sounds pretty brilliant.” I leaned over and kissed Rainey. Smiling against her lips,
I thought about what it would take to put the plan into motion. “It would have to be you. Blade would freak out if he saw her with someone he didn’t recognize. And you share more similarities with her.”

  Rainey scoffed. “We both have blonde curly hair. That’s where the similarities end.”

  “The warden won’t remember the specifics.” At least I hoped he wouldn’t. “It’s so crazy it just might work.”

  OUR PLAN WAS IN PLACE, but I had to make one trip to the jail by myself to set everything in motion.

  “We don’t have visiting hours, do you understand that?” the warden growled when I arrived.

  “Let me see him one more time,” I pleaded. “I want to say goodbye.”

  “Hopeless romantics,” he grumbled as I followed him down the tunnel. “You know you’re torturing him. You’re giving him hope.”

  “Everyone needs hope.” I batted my eyelashes, not knowing if this man would respond. “It’s what keeps us going.”

  He shook his head. “Not here, they don’t. Death is their friend.”

  More like their enemy.

  “You already died once,” I reminded him. “It didn’t work.”

  He disappeared into the abyss without another word and returned with Blade. He was in the same clothes I saw him in before, only dirtier. This time, he had an angry gash above his left eye. Streaks of blood stained his cheek and beard.

  “Hey.” Blade’s voice was dry. He took a tiny step toward me, his ankles still bound together.

  “Hey.” I reached into my purse and pulling out a baby wipe. As long as I had my bag with me, I was prepared for anything. Tonight, it was heavier than usual; Rainey had loaded me down with crystals and herbs, setting the stage for what we were about to do. I lifted the wipe to his face, and the dirt and blood disappeared.