Chapter 14

Fury and Fired

Athena had fallen asleep against him. It seemed unusually domestic for him. And yet he was content to let her sleep, until he worried she'd wake up stiff. He slid her fully onto the sofa and went to make up whatever bed had been left when the previous tenants left. Luckily, it was relatively new and all he needed to do was change the bedding.

He undressed her, trying to keep his thoughts in order as her pale skin was revealed. He'd seen her undressed numerous times now, but it never failed to get a rise out of him. He was intending to simply let her sleep, but that strong scent had him sliding under the sheet with her, barely stopping to kick off his shoes as he buried his nose into her neck, pulling her back against his chest. As eager as his body was, he simply lay with her listening to the slow sound of her breathing and the steady rhythm of her heart.

Several more hours passed by, and though he hadn't been tired, he couldn't be sure that he hadn't actually fallen asleep. Stillness was a by product of being a vampire. Time was a constant, but immortality changed the perception of such time, and it was possible for a vampire to be still for longer than they intended to, feeling as though only minutes had passed when it could in fact be hours, or even days. It was a perfect irony that vampires had no real need to track time, but would often be forced to if only to avoid atrophying from inactivity.

He let her sleep whilst he busied himself with work, spending most of his time on the phone. He had arranged several meetings in London, and one in Berlin before he would need to return to New York. In truth, he was putting it off. Whilst Athena was still in danger, he wasn't altogether comfortable leaving her alone, even though he knew she could probably take care of herself. The fact that she had insisted coming back to London had bugged him, but he was also rather impressed by her strength. Standing up to her mother the way she had, there hadn't been a flicker of fear at all. She had been right though. Her mother wasn't powerful at all. He found it remarkable that Athena had the power she did, given that her mother was so weak and her father had been human. She really was an anomaly.

She awoke in a strange bed, and it took her a few moments to fully realise where she was. Everything was new and clean, white and sterile. Nothing like Sept Tours. And nothing like her old home. So much had changed in the last few months. So much to process. And still so much to do.

She was dressed in several minutes, waiting for her phone to charge and wincing at the sheer number of messages that had been left from the dance company she was hopefully still employed by. She hadn't had the stomach to tackle them just yet, but now that she was more settled, she knew she couldn't put it off. She'd been gone almost two months, and she feared that her position had been given to another dancer waiting to join the company. What made things worse, was that she was signed up to play a part in The Sugar Plum Fairy for the Christmas season. She had no doubt that rehearsals would have started weeks ago, and had likely lost her place in the show.

Baldwin was still tapping on his laptop when she appeared. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah, I think so. Did you put me in bed?"

"I didn't think the sofa was the best place for you to sleep."

"Or in my clothes," she said, smirking.

He smirked back, then frowned as she grabbed her jacket. "Where are you going?"

"I need to show my face at work. They've left over a dozen messages since I was taken, and I was supposed to be rehearsing for the Christmas shows. I need to know if I've been cut."

"I'll come with you. We still don't know if someone will come after you, and given that you were taken near to your studio, they might count on you going back there," he said, slipping on his jacket and coat, and pocketing his phone.

Athena inwardly grumbled. She didn't so much have a problem with the company, but his insistence that she never be alone was starting to grate on her. She didn't feel happy having a personal bodyguard for however long it would take to figure out who was after her and why.

Baldwin locked up behind them, but then caught the look of annoyance on Athena's face, and handed her the key. She was glad when he didn't attempt to open doors for her, including the car. It might have once been the height of gallantry, but for Athena, it was a testament to a time that men believed women were far too delicate and fragile to do anything for themselves. Matthew often did it for Diana, and she knew it sometimes bugged her too.

It didn't take long to arrive at her studio, once she told him where it was. She was nervous, clenching her hands together, hoping that she wouldn't be thrown out on her ear. She couldn't exactly blame them if they did. But this was her only income, and it was what she loved.

She got out and Baldwin made to follow her. "No, stay here," she commanded.

"I thought we discussed that," he replied.

"I'm unlikely to be attacked inside, besides, I need to do this alone."

She headed inside before he could protest more, leaving him standing beside his car. Despite his superior hearing, he couldn't hear anything that might be going on inside, which only made him restless to know how she was doing. It also occurred to him that he hadn't actually seen her perform anything on stage. He'd never been much of a theatre goer, but his fascination with her dancing had made him curious to see her in action in an official production.

She hadn't been gone long when she reappeared, huffing in anger, her eyes sparkling with restrained rage.

"What happened?"

"I got the sack. They hired someone else for my part. I knew it. I just knew it..." she fumed, pacing around him.

"Let me go in and talk to them. Did you explain what happened?"

"Oh yes. First thing I told them was that I had been kidnapped by witches! Don't be ridiculous! I should have called them as soon as I was rescued. I might have saved things."

Baldwin took out his phone and started dialling. Athena stared at him a moment, wondering who he was calling, but then she heard him ask for a list of studios in London and she snapped, extending her hand and summoning his phone to her, which was foolishly risky in public, but she was tired of his interfering.

"Stop doing that!" she yelled, gripping his phone in her hand.

"Athena, I can help. Now, give me that back."

"No! Ben, you can't fix everything that goes wrong in my life! This is my responsibility. It's my life, my career!" She stomped over and slapped his phone back in his hand, then stalked off down the road.

Baldwin huffed and followed after her, not content to let her wander off alone just yet. He had no doubt in her abilities, but she'd been taken by surprise before, and it would only take someone tranquilising her again for her abilities to be rendered as useless. He was determined not to let her come to harm again, her pride be damned.

He followed her all the way back to the apartment, deciding he could pick his car up later. He was impressed that she'd been paying attention on the drive, given how nervous she had been. She hadn't shown it much, but he had been able to smell her adrenaline peaking as they had gotten closer. That was all gone now, replaced by annoyance and fury, and a small amount of regret.

He was right behind her as she entered the apartment, deciding it best to keep quiet whilst she took whatever measure she needed to calm down. As it was, she sat quietly, staring out of the window for a while, but the look on her face told him that her mind was anything but quiet.

He left her for a while, going back for the car and picking up some general food items for her. She'd left without eating, and hadn't picked anything up on her furious walk back. He hadn't fed himself since leaving France, though he could go a few days and subsist on wine for a while, maybe add in some raw meat.

She didn't say anything when he returned, but he brought her some toast anyway. "Thanks," she said quietly.

He let her eat, settling himself at his impromptu desk, having commandeered the table, and read the paper. She soon tired of doing nothing, and pulled out all of her dancing attire, sorting through everything and making sure her numerous dancing shoes and ballet slippers were in good condition. She then pulled out her own laptop and researched other dance studios, sending off emails to ask if they were hiring.

By early evening, she had applied to over a dozen studios and put together several outfits for each dance type. Baldwin had been watching her. All annoyance and regret had disappeared completely. Now, he could only sense determination. It never failed to amaze him just how resilient she was, and how much she refused to get bogged down in terrible situations. He still thought she needed time to grieve, but he wasn't about to force it out of her, and whilst Della was still under investigation, he suspected Athena was waiting until she could bury her sister to fully grieve.

He gave up any pretence of working when she started to stretch, using yoga to keep herself limber and flexible, marvelling at how she used the open archway between the living room and the dining area to perform a standing split, stretching her body back over her back leg, causing Baldwin to gape at the almost unnatural position she had gotten herself into.

"Doesn't that hurt?"

She chuckled as the back of her head touched her calf. "Not anymore. It takes years to get to this stage, but I started dancing at three or four. The younger the better."

She further demonstrated such flexibility by curling up her toes and standing on them as though they were the replacement for ballet shoes.

"That can't possibly be comfortable!" he exclaimed, wincing at how her feet curled.

"It isn't really, but it's necessary."

He'd never really thought about what dancers must go through to achieve their skills, especially in ballet, and he watched her strap up her feet and slip on her ballet shoes, thinking back to when she'd told Ysabeau that she was often considered too tall for a ballet, and watching her totter around, the wooden blocks almost stomping across the wooden floor, he realises just how much taller they made her. She had such long limbs, and strikingly strong muscles in each limb. Slender but far from skinny, as he'd expect a ballet dancer to be. As she moved, her fiery glow spread through her veins.

He was no expert in dancing, but he couldn't imagine how any company could turn her away. She would literally light up the stage, though the humans wouldn't be able to see it as a creature could. Whatever the outcome from her applications, he would make sure she wasn't without money, though he doubted she'd be too happy with his interference.