Dance in the Dark (29 page)

"Perhaps," Ontoniel agreed. "I of course did a thorough background check, but I am not as rigorous as some. Every family, after several centuries, has things it does not like to discuss. I try to respect that. If we are to look into this further, I ask only that we keep it as discreet as possible."

"Of course," Johnnie said. "We do not want further curses cast, after all. I should go speak with Rostiya, he will have the best advice regarding the curses."

Ontoniel nodded. "Very well. I fervently hope that Ekaterina and her family are not behind this, but I do not see who else could be."

Johnnie shrugged. "The ball is tomorrow; we can observe everything then, yes? Especially if we bring Rita along. If the forgetting curse is tied to the love spell, then it should degrade and fray as he sees her more and more. But, I will verify that with Rostiya."

"I will leave it to you, then," Ontoniel said. "But, please, John, have a care. I apparently have one cursed son; I do not need to hear that the other has been attacked and nearly kidnapped a fourth time."

"Yes, Father," Johnnie replied. "What are you going to do?"

"Nothing, for the moment. I do not want to alert anyone and scare them into doing something worse. I want them nice and dozy until I choose to kill them." He stood up and held his hand out to Rita, kissing hers as she gave it to him. "My dear, I am very sorry for all of this. I look forward to properly meeting you when the trouble is over. Tomorrow night we will hopefully set all of this to rights. Johnnie, use my funds for her, however you see fit."

"Yes, father."

Ontoniel nodded and rose, then looked briefly to Bergrin, still casually slouched at his own table. They seemed to share some silent communication, which annoyed Johnnie to no end. Then, Ontoniel was gone.

Around the room, everyone seemed to release a pent-up breath all at once. "I cannot believe the Dracula himself has been here
twice
," Nelson said.

"No shit," Walsh agreed.

"That man is scary as hell," Chuck added.

Johnnie glared at all of them. "My father is not scary."

Micah laughed. "So says Dracula, Jr. The Alucard might
look
like his father, but everything else about that man went to you."

"What—" Johnnie cut off as, of all things, his face flushed hot. The men all laughed, and beside him even Rita burst into giggles.

"It's true," she said with a gentle, pretty little smile. "I had heard before that Dracula Desrosiers had adopted a human, but I never believed it. If not for the fact you are definitely human, I would have sworn the two of you were related. You're very close, aren't you?"

"Uh—" Johnnie did not know what to say to that. He and Ontoniel close? That made no sense. Elam and Ontoniel were closer by far.

A hand dropped on Johnnie's shoulder, then Bergrin's mocking voice chimed in, "Very close; the Dracula spoils him rotten."

Johnnie rolled his eyes at the absurdity of that statement, then stood, dislodging Bergrin's hand. He said, "I am going to get ready. We are going to the Last Star."

"Yes, Highness," Bergrin replied.

Johnnie cast him a withering look, then stopped. "Oh, yes. My lady," he said, turning back to Rita, "the formal ball tomorrow night—have you anything suitable?"

Rita shook her head, looking embarrassed. "Nothing fit for the Dracula's home, and I brought none of my formal clothes with me, anyway."

"I will have a friend of mine take you around," Johnnie said, and pulled out his phone to call Phil.

An hour later, he and Bergrin arrived at the Last Star, after sending Phil off with Rita to put a dent in his father's checking account.

Johnnie stepped back, away from Bergrin, wishing quietly that he had just one small excuse to remain close. "I admit, babysitter, you are vastly more useful now I know you can do that."

"I live to serve," Bergrin said dryly, tugging at the brim of his cap. He looked up at the impressive monolith that was Jesse's casino. "So this is the Last Star, huh?"

Johnnie looked at him in surprise. "Have you never been here?"

"Only once," Bergrin replied, something in his tone oddly tense. "I was working, so I didn't really see much, you know?"

"Mm," Johnnie agreed.

"Plus, it's not exactly my kind of place. I don't make enough money to gamble it all blithely away, and I'm not exactly crème de la crème."

Johnnie batted the words aside. "As if that matters." He hesitated, then spoke before he could change his mind. "We can always come again, sometime, when we are not working."

"You lead and I shall follow," Bergrin replied.

Johnnie nodded and turned away, stifling his disappointment. What had he expected, really? For Bergrin to say yes?

He was spared from thinking further on the matter as Jesse appeared from a conference room. Pleased surprise filled his face, and he handed over the portfolio he was carrying to one of his assistants. He shook Johnnie's hand as he reached them. "Johnnie, hello. We did not expect to see you today; what a pleasant surprise."

"I wish I was here for pleasure," Johnnie replied. "Unfortunately, I need Rostiya's help with something."

Jesse's levity faded into concern. "Of course. We can speak upstairs in our apartments." He led the way to the elevator bay, and they rode up in silence. In Jesse's apartments, Rostislav was stretched out on a leather sofa, dressed only in a faded blue pair of lounge pants. He was pouring over books and papers, scattered around and on him.

He looked up at the sound of the door opening, smiling warmly. "Jesse, I didn't think—Johnnie?" Papers tumbled and spilled everywhere as he hastily stood up. Rostislav grinned. "I guess I'd better get dressed."

Johnnie smirked. "You are not offending me, Cinderella."

Rostislav rolled his eyes, then went to get dressed.

Jesse bent to retrieve and tidy up the fallen books and papers, asking over his shoulder, "Can I get either of you some refreshment?" He stacked everything neatly on the coffee table, then stood and looked at Bergrin. "So you are the Enforcer bodyguard I have heard so much about."

Bergrin nodded, but said nothing.

"So, refreshment?" Jesse asked. "You can set your coats and all there."

"I am fine, thank you," Johnnie said, and removed his hat and coat, giving them and his cane over to Bergrin.

Rostislav reemerged from the bedroom, dressed in dark denim jeans and a cream sweater. "So what brings you here, Johnnie?"

"It is Elam," Johnnie said, sitting down in a leather chair opposite the couch, Bergrin taking the seat next to him. "He has been cursed."  Settling more comfortably in the chair, he explained everything.

Rostislav looked furious as he finished. "Someone should lose his head for that. It is one thing for me to 'cast' a love spell on myself—but to ruin so many lives like that—it is sheer dumb luck that Elam had a lover, because otherwise …"

Johnnie nodded, not bothering to speak. If not for Rita, his brother would likely have lived the rest of his life under the love spell. Hopefully, because he loved Rita, it could be broken.

"I think you are correct," Rostislav continued, "in thinking that it is two spells. Though, normally the love spell is more than enough. The forgetting curse almost seems like overkill, unless they had reason to put such an extreme safety measure in place. Do you think they knew about Rita?"

At that, Johnnie laughed. "No, I do not. If my father did not know about her, I sincerely doubt anyone else did. No, I think whoever did it, wanted to drag Ellie away from the only thing that he would have obsessed over, love spell or not."

Jesse laughed. "I do admit I am impressed there is anything that could drag Elam away from his precious piano. But, his obsession has always paid off—he is masterful. I miss his performances here." He looked briefly sad, but in the next moment, it was gone. "So what do you plan to do?"

"We need to confirm the curses and determine why they have gone unnoticed."

Rostiya folded his arms across his chest and leaned back against the couch, legs stretched out in front of him, just barely pressed shoulder to shoulder with Jesse. "That's probably an easy one. Did anyone give him a betrothal gift, say, a piece of jewelry? I would hazard it has a very strong, very obvious, completely harmless spell on it, which covers up the two curses also set in it. The moment he put that on, it was over."

"I do not know," Johnnie said, "but I will definitely look into it."

Jesse spoke up, "I know we were not invited, for obvious reasons, but would it help if Rostiya went anyway?"

"No," Rostiya and Johnnie said together, then Johnnie continued, "Rostiya has a well-known reputation as a curse-breaker. If he were to suddenly show at the ball, despite his exiled status, it would immediately tip off whoever cast the curses. It will be safer if we continue to play ignorant. Hopefully seeing Rita throughout the night will do the breaking."

"Who knew Ellie had a secret lover?" Rostislav said. "Or enough spine to carry on a secret affair." He tilted his head and looked at Johnnie hesitantly. "I—I'm surprised you're not more upset."

Johnnie shrugged irritably, not wanting to discuss why he was suddenly uninterested in someone he had claimed to love for almost twenty years. Not when that reason had just politely turned down the offer to spend a carefree day with him. "I want whoever is doing this to stop hurting my family. But he will suffer for it plenty when my father learns his identify." He sighed. "I just wonder at the motive—there is no good reason to go to such extremes."

"Who knows," Rostislav said. "I have learned never to underestimate why people do anything."

"It could simply be precaution," Jesse suggested. "If it is not Ekaterina who did it, then it could be her parents. It is not at all unusual for vampires to take lovers, and she could have been reluctant to give hers up. Perhaps she is the true target of all of this. I have never heard much about her, which could be a good thing or a bad thing."

Bergrin stirred in his seat, speaking for the first time in a while. "So why not make her the victim of the spells? It wouldn't make sense to place the curses on Elam, if she is the true target."

"More believable that way," Johnnie said slowly, thinking it through. "She could have been against the marriage the entire time, for one reason or another. Hers is a good family, but not as prestigious as my father's, or several others around.  So she may have had a lover, or simply no interest in marriage. Unusual, but not unheard of.  But what person would not immediately soften and change her mind when she finds herself the object of complete focus from someone like Elam—to the point he gives up even his precious piano. Yes, I rather like it for a working theory. Thank you, Jesse."

"Always a pleasure to help our local PI," Jesse said teasingly, though he looked distinctly pleased.

Rostislav smiled. "So what are you going to do until the ball?"

"Pick up my new tuxedo and a betrothal gift," Johnnie said.

Bergrin groaned. "I hope by 'pick up' you mean we go in, get it, and leave. If we spend more than ten minutes in that place, I'm going to kill you myself, Highness."

Johnnie glared, and just to needle him, gave a dismissive shrug and said, "I do not know. I would be more comfortable with one last fitting."

"I swear to god you spend more time and money on clothes than every woman I've ever met, combined."

Johnnie sneered at him, goading, "Because your method of spending ten minutes a week on clothes works so well." The damned thing was that it
did
work well for Bergrin, the silly baseball cap aside. But Johnnie would never admit it, especially now, after being so firmly, if gently, turned down flat.

"Your threads only work for you because I scare off all the lowlifes that contemplate mugging you every time you walk down the street, Prince."

Scoffing at that, Johnnie retorted, "They probably feel sorry for you in your silly hat."

"Stop making fun of the hat my mom gave me," Bergrin said hotly.

Johnnie pretended to think about it, then said, "No."

Bergrin just looked at him in disgust.

Rostislav burst out laughing. "So do the two of you always bicker like children?"

"No," Johnnie said, affronted. "We most certainly do not bicker like children, and we do not always bicker."

"You can't tell because you're always childish," Bergrin said to Johnnie, smirking.

Johnnie rolled his eyes and did not deign to reply to that.

Rostislav laughed again, Jesse chuckling next to him. "I see."

"You see what?" Johnnie asked.

"Nothing," Rostislav said with a smirk. "If I can be of further use to you, Johnnie, by all means give me a call."

"I will," Johnnie said, eying him, wondering what he was missing that made Rostislav smirk like that. "Thank you for the help you have provided, both of you."

"Our pleasure," Jesse replied. "It is nice to see friends, whatever the reason."

Johnnie stood. "Once this mystery is solved, and my idiot brother is set to marry his true bride, he will owe me a favor—a big one. I will see to it that you are invited to
that
betrothal ball, as well as the wedding."