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“It’ll be okay, y-you’ll see. They’ll come out any minute now and tell us she’s fine.”

They didn’t. It wasn’t until eight in the morning that the Doctor came to tell us anything. The leggy and beautiful Dr. Sophia Mendez revealed to me the nature of Leslie’s injuries. The bullet missed her spine, which was good, but because it passed through Tristan first it slowed down and did a lot of internal damage. They had her in a chemically induced coma so that her body had a better chance of healing, but they weren’t sure yet about the possible brain damage from the fall combined with the blood loss.

I stood in the hallway alone for a long time listening to the buzz around me of hospital staff and muffled speaker announcements. I could lose my best friend, leaving me with only Colette, who I was honestly on the fence about. I didn’t want to be the one to relay the information that after almost twelve hours in surgery they still weren’t sure if she’d make it. But we could see her now at least, I could probably start with that.

Turning the corner, I found Aleksi walking down the opposite hall, clad from head to toe in black with his hood pulled over his head and his sunglasses on. Glancing around the room I noticed that all of the vampires with the exception of Elizabeta and Colette were dressed similarly. The thick sunblock on their faces made them all seem ghastly, like vampires in a 1940’s horror film.

“Leslie’s out of s-surgery…s-she’s…” I swallowed. “The head injury from the f-fall… and… and the…blood loss might have caused brain d-damage… but…they don’t know how much or if…if there is any”—
I thought you were going to start with the good news?
—“B-but w-we can see her now, s-she’s in… she’s in room 1178.” The moment I finished talking Tristan got up and started hobbling down the hall towards her room without a single word. The others followed except for Aleksi, who pulled me into his arms.

“She’ll be okay,” he whispered to me, placing a quick kiss on my cheek. And then, it was like those three words from his lips gave me the permission to fall apart that I had been waiting for, and I wailed. He stroked my back and soothed me as I cried on him in the middle of the hall. “C’mon lets go see Leslie.” He bent a little and lifted my legs, holding me in a bridal carry as we walked down the sterile white halls of the hospital.

It might have been the ICU, but somehow Leslie had a private room. But there was really no guessing how it happened. Elizabeta had enough money to buy off half of the world if she wanted, but three hundred years of smart investments would do that. So it shouldn’t have surprised me in the slightest that the room was large and already filled with get well bouquets. Tristan was sobbing loudly as he leaned over the bed, his fingers reaching to touch her face stilled when they brushed against the tubes. My own tears grew silent and I pressed myself to Aleksi,
who stood staring horror struck at the scene. I didn’t need to have an insight into his mind to know what he was thinking. The look on his face said words. He could easily see himself in Tristan’s shoes, my mortality was suddenly laid bare to him by looking at the broken body of someone else.

Amongst the sighing hisses of the machines, and the mournful sobs I found myself suddenly alone, even though I was in the protective coverture of Aleksi’s arms. Leslie, my amazing decisive friend, who knew what she wanted and set out to get it, ended up looking like an afterschool special. Beware of the Vampire, even when you think you’re safe, you never are. I glanced up at Aleksi and he tightened his arms around me.

“I… I don’t want her here,
” Tristan managed to sob after a few minutes. “She needs to be at home.” He wiped his eyes and glanced back at Elizabeta, who pursed her lips and glanced down at little Margot. Oh, it was clear, every vampire in the room saw what happened to Leslie as a possibility if they had a mortal in their life. Margot was probably the only one truly safe.

“Tristan, you know you can’t even mark the girl until she’s conscious. Go home, take a shower, feed and come back after the show tonight. You’ll feel worlds better for it and she may even be awake… Aleksi, help
Tristan, I’ll stay with Autumn,” Elizabeta commanded effortlessly as I fidgeted against Aleksi, I didn’t want him to go.

“He can go on his own. Autumn needs me, and I’m not leaving her.” The strength of his voice made his words read like a threat.
Why does this seem like a bad idea?

“Y-you… you can go.
I’ll be f-fine.” My nervous ticks switched to full force even as I pressed myself to Aleksi; my fingers smoothed over the skirt of my dress feeling the soft fabric and that errant roughness where Evan’s blood was drying.

“Yes, Aleksi,
listen to your servant.”

“Even in our world, with all of your money and privilege, that child is mine. It’s my mortal progeny which means it’s mine to raise. Your threats have been nullified by distance and that vile bundle of bones, blood and sinew wrapped in pink cloth.” As his little statement went on I had to let go of him. There was something profoundly wrong about someone talking about a baby like it was a sack of meat.

“Perhaps I’ll call her Vivienne after all, like her grandmother. They are very similar, green eyes, blonde hair. And destined not to be in your life.” Her full lips curled into a wide smirk. “Yes, that’s it exactly, Margot-Vivienne. I’ll even teach her that little French song you used to murmur in your sleep when you were mortal.” The laugh that followed was bitter and teasing.

“Do whatever you want, it’s yours now.” Aleksi shrugged and kissed my hair.

“I’ll go on my own,
” Tristan murmured peeling himself from Leslie’s side. “If anything changes, Autumn, please call me first.” He didn’t even look at me as he spoke, his eyes were fixed on the lifeless form on the bed covered in tubes. Was Leslie even still in there?

Tristan left and silence ensued, Aleksi refused to let me go, even after Elizabeta left. Every time his eyes fell on Leslie, his arms around me tightened. He didn’t let me sit or move from his arms until four in the afternoon.

“C’mon, I’m taking you home. They have your number and you need to sleep and change, at least.”

“F-fine,
” I consented as Aleksi took my hand and started to pull me out of the room.

Leslie was in a coma for a week, and just when they were talking about taking her off of life support, her condition started improving. In two weeks, she was in physical therapy and the week after she was out, and Tristan was doting on her like there was no creature more precious to him in the world. He didn’t dance the rest of the performances of Alice, he didn’t even dance the night after. One minute he was in makeup and the next he was changing back into his street clothes and leaving for the hospital. Aleksi danced though and it was his turn to start to pull away from me.

I considered myself a fairly intelligent person and the signs were all there. Every time he came with me to the hospital to visit Leslie he saw me laid out on the hospital bed, the tubes, the stink of death. My mortality that drew him in was frightening him away. So I saw the end coming, I cried myself to sleep alone but I still tried to brace myself for the impending impact.

The second week of Sleeping Beauty, Leslie and I were sitting in my apartment before the show. She looked amazingly well for someone who had been out of the hospital only a week. She could already dance, and her scar was slowly healing. I knew what had happened. She felt different or rather being around her felt different.

“Tristan told me last night that he thinks Aleksi is going through something, and he’s worried about you.” The words left her lips with such banality that I almost didn’t catch the gravity of what it was she had actually said. She knew, and Tristan knew.
Of course, they knew.
“It could be nothing, Aleksi is… volatile after all. But he thinks you should prepare for the worst.”

“And you?”

“I think he’s too smitten with you to leave you. He clearly loves you, you guys are also having amazing sex so I don’t see it happening.”

“We were having
,” I corrected quickly before sipping my coffee.

“Were?” An
d so it begins, the Inquisition; I almost missed it—almost.

“Not since the shooting.”

“Has he been spending the night?”

“No.”

“Visiting?”

“Not… often.” With every answer I felt like I was shrinking. Each syllable that fell from my lips rendered me tinier and tinier.

“Calling?”

“Nope.”

“Texting?”

“Mm-mm.” I sniffled a
bit and closed my eyes, now feeling a grand total of two inches tall.

“Oh, Sweetie, are you sure you want to go tonight? We can stay in instead, watch Netflix and eat stuff from the diner. It could be like old times.” She offered me a genuine warm smile.

“I’m sure. Thank you for the
offer, though. I know you want to see it, even if you’re not the Lilac Fairy.”

“I’m dancing it next year, and I still have my place in Project O. I’ve been going to rehearsal, and Tristan is helping me at home.”

“What is
Project O?”

“Picture, the Phantom of the Opera, as a Ballet. I know another choreographer did one a few years back, but this is Tristan’s baby. It’s his last performance and he’s dancing the Phantom, Aleksi is dancing Raoul and I’m Christine. It’s his farewell piece, people are buying tickets and they don’t even know what it is yet.”

“Oh.” I sighed and checked my phone. “
Well, it’s time.”

The theater was full, the show bordered on sold out. The tickets that we were able to get weren’t the best, and if I was honest they were almost the worst. The lights dimmed and I let my mind float away as I watched the stage as the dancers practically soared around with that boneless, magical grace that all vampires seemed to naturally have. Colette’s Aurora was every bit as youthful and effervescent as could be imagined. I couldn’t stop myself from smiling as I watched them. I grinned from ear to ear as I fell into the story that was being danced before me.

Then Aleksi walked on stage and I lost it. I felt my face grow hot as he danced about in a mock hunt and got lost in the forest.
Don’t cry you’ll ruin your makeup.
I started fanning my eyes to try and keep the tears at bay. It almost worked until the end, when he started his big act three solo and memory and emotion overwhelmed me. The moment he finished, the auditorium erupted in a massive wave of sound as everyone stood and started cheering.
Stand up
.
I stood and clapped wiping my eyes, his face scanned the audience when he raised. Was he looking for me?
No
.

The production ended with another standing ovation, and as everyone took their bows, I couldn’t help but to notice how loud the crowd got the moment Aleksi and Colette were standing together. With the stage makeup they looked different enough to look less like siblings and more like lovers. It only seemed natural that they would be together.

Sluggishly, I followed the crowd into the lobby. Once the mob had thinned, I shadowed Leslie back into that hallway, with its black and white color scheme. Tristan burst out of the stage doors and swept her up into his arms. He kissed her deeply as he clung to her and spun her around a bit. Their transparent love made me feel all the more cold and alone.
Because you are alone.
I slipped past Tristan and opened the stage door gliding into the dimly lit, black painted existence beyond. The only color and light came from the dressing room down the hall and the bright red curtain to my left. Walking back towards the dressing rooms was almost a chore.
Do it, you need to politely inquire about his recent abandonment of you.

“You are… I don’t even know what to think of you.” Evan’s exasperated voice drifted down the hall. “Seriously? Are you fucking
serious? This is the time to pull someone you love closer not push them away… and it’s Autumn!”

“Yes, I know its Autumn,
” Aleksi’s muttered his voice almost didn’t make the echo down the hall it was so quiet. “Autumn whom you’ve wanted to fuck since you laid eyes on her. Autumn who’s driven a wedge between you and Colette. Autumn who’s made me lose my fucking mind. She is part of our world, but she shouldn’t be in the capacity she is. And if I fucking smell her on you once or vice versa, I’ll rip out your fucking heart barehanded.”

“You’re heartless.”

“
Oh, I can assure you it’s very much the opposite.”

“If that’s the case why leave her at all?”

“Because my servant has a walking target on her back if she’s also my lover. If I weren’t a vampire, I’d marry her. But I am a vampire, and I have been for one hundred and
thirty something years. I’ve seen what happens to mortal servants, and when I just physically wanted her, it didn’t bother me, but now… No. I don’t want her shot or worse because I pissed someone off, or someone decides they want to try for another little Vlad and they decide she needs to be out of the way. Because Tristan sure as fuck can’t stall them half as long as Elizabeta could. And I’m not Tristan, I’m not a romantic all I see waiting for Leslie is tragedy. I know that you and everyone else coo over how romantic it was that he saved her from death by giving her those two marks in succession at the eleventh hour. But to me all I see is selfishness, he has delayed her death noth—”

“What?”

“She’s in the hall. Aren’t you, Autumn?”

Again I was two inches tall, and moments from tears as I walked down the hall with hesitant footsteps. Evan was leaning against the door frame to Aleksi’s dressing room with that long, graceful dancer’s neck craned around so that those stormy eyes could take me in. Aleksi was seated at his mirror, shirtless and still half in costume. He didn’t look at me, he was inspecting his face in the mirror as he wiped his makeup off. I didn’t know what to do, I didn’t know what to feel or think.
You should have seen this coming.
My fingers passed through my hair before I smoothed my skirt and blouse. That nervous preening was in full force as I checked my pearls a handful of times, I still wasn’t used to those spaces between them yet.