Beneath A Casanova {#1}

Part 22

Part 22

The screaming crowd was almost deafening, and Dante’s ears felt terribly abused as he sat in the first row in perfect view of the stage, waiting anxiously. The time for the performance was soon, and he could see the crew getting ready for show time as the cameramen did the last checks.

Dante had tried going to the backstage to find Lexi before her performance, but the mess of rushing crew had pushed him back, and even as he wandered into her dresser room, he wasn’t surprised to find it empty –though he had been disappointed to have missed his lady love to wish her luck physically.

“I’ll shout ‘L’, Louis do ‘E’, Vanda ‘X’ and Dante, you’ll shout ‘I’, alright?” Alvron arranged enthusiastically from where he sat three seats down away from Dante. He thanked goodness that the crazy Casanova descendant of his had taken the seat furthest away from him, and pitied Louis for having to stand Alvron’s surprisingly girly-screams for the next two and a half hours.

Still, something in him nagged. He wasn’t sure if it was the weird, unnamed drug that Jack had thrown in his mouth, or if it was just his instincts, but Dante had a bad feeling that something was about to happen. Dante had a feeling in the deep on his stomach that something was about to happen, and he wouldn’t like it.

“Uh, I can’t stand this waiting.” Vanda complained at his side, checking her watch. “Time’s up! Get on with the show, damnit!”

Just as she spoke, the theme audio of the competition sounded, and the crowd immediately went crazy, knowing that they were going live in a matter of seconds. Dante could hear the flurry of cameramen talking to each other through their walkie talkie in cold, calm professionalism.

“We’re going live in 5, 4…” One of them started counting down, but Dante’s pit in his stomach didn’t fill up as he waited anxiously. Was he feeling the nervous jitters for Lexi’s sake, or was something really going wrong?

“Wait.” He heard the jarring sound of another cameraman say through the walkie talkie. The screams around him continued, and Dante closed his eyes concentrating on the crackling voice through the walkie talkie of the nearest cameraman –who happened to be right beside him.

“The producer said to wait for further orders. There’s some delay.” One of the cameraman reported, and was replied by acknowledging grunts.

Live, on stage, video montages of both contestants of the night had begun to play, and Dante forced his rapidly beating heart to calm down as he watched a snippet of Lexi’s rival’s interview being played on the large screen in the background.

“Lend me your phone, Dante, I’ve got to video this.” Vanda tugged on his sleeve, and while he irritably passed her his phone, he was slightly amused by how Vanda seemed instantly in love with Darren Kelson’s handsome face –looking at the way her eyes glittered with the sign of a locked on target.

“Wait, you’ve got a message from your lady-love.” Vanda teased, and before he could get it back to check Lexi’s reply that he must have missed since he’d kept his phone on silent mode, she opened it.

“’Corridor to backstage. Help. Russian vampire.’ Do you guys have some sort of a code or what?” Vanda read the message aloud, turning to him with a confused gaze at Lexi’s cryptic message.

Except for the fact that it wasn’t cryptic the least.

He jumped to his feet, just as Lexi’s video montage began to play in the background. He was no longer interested.

“Call Jean-Jacques. We have an emergency.” He ordered, and before any of his friends could offer a protest, he was out flying through the stairs and aisle, towards the side door. Even though his guts told him it was too late, Dante had to risk it. Lexi could still be there, trapped by a Russian vampire.