Danse Macabre 3: Deadly Deception

The Way We Used To

One

Pale white hands slid over my stomach right before I was lofted high into the air. Everything from the chaos of the last few months bled away to nothing as we danced. All of the weight of circumstance didn't exist as my focus was on those precise graceful movements I had been practicing every morning since the Westley and the Sala building explosions. Sweat beaded on the back of my neck in spite of the October chill that still somehow seeped into the building. I was set down and after a few quick fouettes I raised into a shaky arabesque while en pointe.

His hand curled around mine as he slowly walked around me, turning me like that ballerina in every little girl's jewelry box—only I wasn't really a ballerina. I looked at myself in the mirror and my partner. Evan never knew how to move with me and there was always a certain tightness that seemed so utterly opposite of the malleable nature of everything else about him. Perhaps it was that I was the reason for the tension that had settled between he and Garrett. Their relationship persisted, but they fought a lot—as in every time I seemed to see them they were screaming at each other.

"Better," Garrett assessed with a little nod. "You still look like you're afraid to touch her before the lift."

Tristan had choreographed a ballet for the Amateur company before the vampires withdrew from society for all intents and purposes. Those explosions heralded a tense capitulation. The Westley ballet was no more, they took up their old mantle of Florence Ballet Theatre and pruned the preternatural from their rosters. You'd think Danse Du Nuit would be no more too, but that wasn't the case. They performed at Crimson Hill's Petite Trianon, but the shows were no longer public and Leslie was forced out, but once she finished maternity leave she had an assured place as a Principal with FBT. That capitulation however had only lead to further demands, which they also gave in to. Co-habitation was now not only frowned upon, but punishable. Families were ripped apart more or less and I was left painfully alone. Oh, Nikolai and Aleksi didn't leave me and I was still engaged but I couldn't help but to wonder how much longer that would last.

Werewolves, however, didn't give in like the Vampires. On the contrary they declared open season on all known associates of the Sun Cross and because of it, Florence, Oregon turned into something akin to a warzone, and it had torn my life to bits.

"Autumn?" Evan breathed my name with those pale brows furrowed. My lips turned to a frown.

"I'm sorry." I shook my head and Evan wrapped his arms around me. Instead of pressing my face to his chest I stared at us in the mirror. He looked so young with that dusting of orangey freckles speckling his nose. I still hadn't told him about the bound the we shared, but I was starting to think he suspected.

"Don't be," he whispered rocking me, savoring the closeness he was so afraid of while dancing. Garrett didn't clear his throat, and he didn't make some smart Alec comment.

"Oh, Angel Face!" Garrett sighed his nickname for me as he joined the embrace wrapping his warm around both me and his ginger lover.

They held me like they thought I was crying—I wasn't. No, I was out of tears for my situation. The fear and loneliness had passed the point of tears long ago. It was a cocoon of numbness that I wrapped myself in now. Because I knew that if I allowed myself to feel everything I'd fall apart. My phone beeped in the corner and I groaned, but I didn't wriggle out from between the vampire and werewolf.

The governor had declared a state of emergency and there was a strict curfew in effect of nine o' clock. I had to catch the eight twenty D-line to get home on time, which meant I had to leave essentially at that exact moment.