Danse Macabre 3: Deadly Deception

Prologue: Every End Has A Beginning

Prologue

Every End Has A Beginning

Panicked, was a good way to describe the city after the explosion that leveled the Sala Tower. Cutting my therapy appointment short I burst out of the building and rushed into the frenzied chaos of the streets. Sirens wailed as Police vehicles, Fire trucks and ambulances rushed by and I felt like my heart had been carved out of my chest. I wrestled my phone out of my purse and found the no signal sign mocking me as the worst of the worst case scenarios went through my head. There was the slimmest of slim possibilities that both of my lovers had been in the building when the bomb went off. The Sala Corporation controlled all things Vampire in the United States. It was headed by Elizabeta Sala, the cut throat Titian haired goddess who had been Mistress in our region until she was promoted to council.

Her promotion had, unfortunately, been the clarion call for a very old organization called The Sun Cross to come out of hiding. Since last year they had been terrorizing the Vampire community while working in tandem with a handful of old vampires who wanted to go back to the old days. Frankly, as a human I was quite content with vampires not being things that we brushed off as myth. I didn't understand how they expected to get that anonymity back, it's kind of hard to put spilled milk back into a bottle. Vampires were out and with social media coupled with the celebrity status most of the older ones had it would be extremely hard to walk things back to the way they were. Regardless the Sun Cross fought it, kidnapping people and preparing for hall out war between humans and vampires—which so far had only been them picking on the more public vampires.

I was caught in the middle of it all. Not vampire and not quite human I lurked in between as something more or less unknown. I was the Seer, which meant I had visions of the future, which was why the explosion was so troubling to me. I hadn't seen it coming at all.

As I sat on the edge of the planter with my ankles cross I fought through my panic attack as I clutched my purse to my lap. Ms.Manners, as punctual as always in times of crisis reared her ugly head. You should have seen this coming. If they're dead it's all your fault.

Knitting my brows, I nervously twisted my engagement ring in a moment of utter helplessness. Drawing a quick deep breath to center myself I peeked at my cellphone again. I was supposed to meet my best friend Leslie at a wholesale club, she wanted to price diapers. At almost five months pregnant she was getting ready to dance Aurora in Sleeping Beauty this weekend. Apparently ballerinas did it all the time, but I still got a little nervous when I saw her en pointe these days. I was sure it was killing her husband more but Tristan wouldn't say anything. Even though he was the beautiful blonde haired charming Master of the Region who also happened to be the director of The Westley Ballet which was the first fulling preternaturally integrated ballet in the world. Vampires, Werewolves and Humans all danced side by side benefitting from the popularity of Danse du Nuit, the original all vampire Ballet Company. They now took a few werewolves with them and a couple of humans, but they continued to do a handful of all vampire shows every few months. Since the big merger there had been three, and each time the Sun Cross had come out to protest and call for a boycott.

My Fiancé was the headliner for all of those shows. People still paid thousands of dollars to see Aleksi dance. Tristan had actually increased the price of the most expensive tickets after Aleksi gave us a scare by appearing to have died. Seeing him dance up close and personal was considered a status symbol now. Little did they know that they were paying all that money to watch a skilled murderer clear his head. I could have minced words and said predator but no, Aleksi was a murderer. He didn't hunt for food now he hunted and killed to keep me and the region safe.