Dance in the Dark Read Online Free Page B

his lips again, tasting fruit candy and a hint of dark beer.
    Annoyed with himself, he resisted an urge to lick his lips a third time and picked up his vodka. Draining the glass, he set it down again and went to retrieve his jacket and tie.  He restored his clothing quickly, and checked his appearance in the bathroom mirror.  Johnnie scowled at his reflection, and smoothed his mussed hair. Unfortunately, he could do nothing about the fact that it was clear he had just been well and thoroughly kissed. A rush of sudden, unexpected heat washed through him.
    Johnnie turned sharply away from the mirror, furious with himself. He was angry, and only that. Whatever else he was or was not, he was a Desrosiers, the youngest son of a Dracula. He would not tolerate such insults upon his person.
    Leaving the suite, he made his way to the elevators and back downstairs. He thought of the strange encounter, the kiss, the possessive grip in his hair, around his waist. He thought of Elam, tried to imagine Elam holding him in such a way, kissing him that thoroughly. His gut twisted with an old, familiar ache. It was so impossible a situation, he could not imagine it. All he could see was Elam's perfect, beautiful face, the cold eyes that dismissed him as carelessly as a servant. Elam, who would not lower himself even to Jesse's level and use him in a dark corner.
    Johnnie frowned, mind pulled back at last to the real problem at hand. What did he really know about this situation? had called him to help find a pair of Cinderella slippers. The spell cage to contain the slippers had been purposely broken, rigged to fail. He supposed it was possible that someone else had done it, but the chances were slim. That razor thin cut had been as meticulously placed as every rune. That aside, Jesse was no fool. He must have had some suspicion as to the true nature of the slippers. Until they were completely safe, he would not have had anyone not strictly necessary anywhere near them.
    So which of them had sabotaged the shoes and why?
    Johnnie worried his bottom lip in thought, but immediately stopped when he tasted hints of fruit candy and dark beer. Rostislav, he reminded himself, he needed to focus on Rostislav. He would solve his own sudden personal mystery later. What if Rostislav had broken the spell cage? He could have done it before the cage was activated, or after.
    So, going with the idea that Rostislav had been the one to sabotage the spell … Rostiya would know that wearing the shoes would mean that he had cast a love spell on Jesse, the ‘prince' of the ball. Given only he and Jesse had been around the shoes, there was no one else who would have wound up wearing the slippers.
    In breaking the ward and wearing the shoes, he would have gotten Jesse to love him, after a fashion. Jesse would love him, and likely for a very long time, because breaking a love spell was no easy task. 
    Love spells were one of the few things universally frowned upon by abnormals. Though not forbidden, except as individual territories dictated, when those casting them were caught they were most often heavily punished. It was complicated, dangerous magic, because it manipulated a person completely—mind, emotion, and body. Forcing the breaking of a love spell almost always broke the victim.
    If Rostislav had chosen to wear the shoes …
    But that did not fit Rostislav. He loved Jesse, but resorting to such a spell would be dishonorable in Rostiya's eyes.  Neither would he ever view it as real love, and that he would find unbearable. He would also be punished severely for casting such a spell on so powerful and influential a vampire.
    So that theory could be discarded.
    That left Jesse. So what if Jesse was behind it?  That made even less sense. Jesse stood to gain nothing by arranging for his own succumbing to the love spell.  He would likely be afflicted the rest of his life—well, the rest of Rostislav's life, which was still too long by vampire standards, and