tangled web. But only one had wrapped itself around her and tried to pull her to it. Impossible to unravel that single thread tugging at her from among so many others. And equally impossible to escape it.
She would have to wait until after the show. Maybe then she could walk among the members of the audience while they were more spread out and easier for her senses to separate and identify.
Then again, considering the impact even from this far away…was it really safe for anyone if she managed to track down that smell?
Chapter 2
Conor
“H ere she comes! Isn’t she wonderful, Dad?” Chrissy whispered, her bright gaze locked upon a graceful figure prancing into view on the stage.
With a sigh, Conor Blake sat up straighter. Damn, he’d really been hoping to sneak in a nap.
“Which one are you talking about?” A single pinpoint pricked the back of his neck, as if a mosquito had stung him beneath the collar of his dress shirt. Damn East Texas insects. He reached up to rub his neck.
Too enraptured with the ballet, Chrissy didn’t even look his way as she swatted his forearm. “Oh Dad, you know who I’m talking about. Lorena Childs, the dancer who just came on stage. She’s the best dancer I’ve ever seen.” Her whisper dropped lower. “And someday I’m going to be just like her.”
“Aren’t twelve year olds supposed to want to be pop stars or actresses or something?” he whispered.
“That was last year,” she whispered back with a grin, though her gaze never wavered from the action on the stage.
I wonder how much this dream’s going to cost me, he wondered as he settled into his chair and stared up at the ceiling’s ornate molding. Oh well. Chrissy had stuck with ballet longer than any of the other hundred and one activities she’d tried. Just the smile on her face right now was worth the cost of the dance lessons. And having to sit through another boring ballet. Since her mother had died four years ago, those smiles had grown increasingly rarer and all the more precious.
“Dad, you’re missing it!” Chrissy hissed, tugging at his sleeve.
With a long sigh, he lowered his chin to his chest, flicking his bored gaze up to the stage. And felt the air in his lungs go still.
The woman gliding through the air over the stage was beautiful. But more than that, she was…unreal. Otherworldly. Definitely like nothing he’d ever seen before, that was for sure. After a solid week of hearing nothing but “Miss Childs this…and Miss Childs that…”, he hadn’t known what to expect from the professional ballerina who had so enamored his daughter after guest teaching at Miss Catherine’s Academy of Dance.
But he hadn’t expected this…
She wasn’t as skinny as he’d assumed all ballerinas were. Lorena seemed more like sculpted marble, with an actual hint of strength in the lean muscling of her arms and legs. He couldn’t make out much of her face from here and hadn’t seen a need to bring binoculars for eighth row seating. But there was something in the line that curved from her ear to her shoulder…something in the way she held her head as she pretended to stare with adoration at her Romeo.
Intriguing.
She performed a series of turns, aided by her dance partner’s hands at her waist, then stopped and faced the audience. Her costume was more like a filmy white nightgown, tight at the chest, then falling in loose folds to swirl around her calves. Heat shot through him, followed closely by something else. Another pricking pain at the back of his neck. Then another, and another, until the stings rippled outward over his shoulders and down his arms like a swarm of bees on the attack.
What the hell? Was someone using power here tonight?
They had to be. The only time he’d ever felt this prickling sensation was when a fellow descendant of The Clann used power within a few hundred yards of him. Except this feeling couldn’t be coming from a fellow descendant. He’d already scanned the
She would have to wait until after the show. Maybe then she could walk among the members of the audience while they were more spread out and easier for her senses to separate and identify.
Then again, considering the impact even from this far away…was it really safe for anyone if she managed to track down that smell?
Chapter 2
Conor
“H ere she comes! Isn’t she wonderful, Dad?” Chrissy whispered, her bright gaze locked upon a graceful figure prancing into view on the stage.
With a sigh, Conor Blake sat up straighter. Damn, he’d really been hoping to sneak in a nap.
“Which one are you talking about?” A single pinpoint pricked the back of his neck, as if a mosquito had stung him beneath the collar of his dress shirt. Damn East Texas insects. He reached up to rub his neck.
Too enraptured with the ballet, Chrissy didn’t even look his way as she swatted his forearm. “Oh Dad, you know who I’m talking about. Lorena Childs, the dancer who just came on stage. She’s the best dancer I’ve ever seen.” Her whisper dropped lower. “And someday I’m going to be just like her.”
“Aren’t twelve year olds supposed to want to be pop stars or actresses or something?” he whispered.
“That was last year,” she whispered back with a grin, though her gaze never wavered from the action on the stage.
I wonder how much this dream’s going to cost me, he wondered as he settled into his chair and stared up at the ceiling’s ornate molding. Oh well. Chrissy had stuck with ballet longer than any of the other hundred and one activities she’d tried. Just the smile on her face right now was worth the cost of the dance lessons. And having to sit through another boring ballet. Since her mother had died four years ago, those smiles had grown increasingly rarer and all the more precious.
“Dad, you’re missing it!” Chrissy hissed, tugging at his sleeve.
With a long sigh, he lowered his chin to his chest, flicking his bored gaze up to the stage. And felt the air in his lungs go still.
The woman gliding through the air over the stage was beautiful. But more than that, she was…unreal. Otherworldly. Definitely like nothing he’d ever seen before, that was for sure. After a solid week of hearing nothing but “Miss Childs this…and Miss Childs that…”, he hadn’t known what to expect from the professional ballerina who had so enamored his daughter after guest teaching at Miss Catherine’s Academy of Dance.
But he hadn’t expected this…
She wasn’t as skinny as he’d assumed all ballerinas were. Lorena seemed more like sculpted marble, with an actual hint of strength in the lean muscling of her arms and legs. He couldn’t make out much of her face from here and hadn’t seen a need to bring binoculars for eighth row seating. But there was something in the line that curved from her ear to her shoulder…something in the way she held her head as she pretended to stare with adoration at her Romeo.
Intriguing.
She performed a series of turns, aided by her dance partner’s hands at her waist, then stopped and faced the audience. Her costume was more like a filmy white nightgown, tight at the chest, then falling in loose folds to swirl around her calves. Heat shot through him, followed closely by something else. Another pricking pain at the back of his neck. Then another, and another, until the stings rippled outward over his shoulders and down his arms like a swarm of bees on the attack.
What the hell? Was someone using power here tonight?
They had to be. The only time he’d ever felt this prickling sensation was when a fellow descendant of The Clann used power within a few hundred yards of him. Except this feeling couldn’t be coming from a fellow descendant. He’d already scanned the
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