17. Azriel
“Tell me again,” I demanded, playing the video of Harlowe in the subway for the twentieth time.
Orion rolled his eyes and flipped me off as Misha stretched his leg over his head. We were getting ready to leave for Nutcracker rehearsals.
There wasn’t much for art students to do for this performance.
The sets had been designed ages ago since this was an annual performance.
The theatre students had to spend so many hours backstage putting sets together a semester.
They wouldn’t let me help out, even though I was rather famous for that.
Wankers. I managed to get myself on stage with my lovers, anyway.
“Play it again,” Misha said, doing that sexy thing with his leg that always got me going.
“Not you too,” Orion groaned.
I walked over and flicked his nose. Orion growled at me and kicked me in the shin. Fucker. He’d never punch me just like I’d never punch him. Our hands were our money makers. Kicking each other was totally fine though. Our feet weren’t insured like our hands. Misha’s legs were another story.
“She’s good. This girl’s music makes Misha want to dance, I got an idea for a painting, and we saw you drumming your fingers every time I played the video. She makes you want to play. What the fuck is your problem?”
“I’m not a musician, but I can hear the two of you playing something you wrote together with me dancing and Azriel painting.”
Exactly. I didn’t know a damned thing about making music or dancing, but I had some understanding of both because I’d known Orion and Misha for so long. We didn’t care about all this bullshit. We just wanted to make art and perform. Caring about it ages ago was what got us into this mess.
Orion kicked me again because he’d never kick Misha, even when Misha was in a mood. Arsehole.
“Did you complete muppets miss who found her in the subway and brought her here? Or that fucking Gadreel was there too? Yeah, I’ve heard her music, and I’d like to make it with her. She’s off limits because he’s claimed her. Have you forgotten what would happen if we really misbehaved?”
Oh, yeah. Just another reason to hate him. He gave, sure, but he took a lot more than that. He preyed on insecurities and a lot of artists had those in spades. We didn’t speak for a minute because we were thinking about the past.
“I wish we could warn her,” Misha said. “She spilled her drink on herself on purpose.”
She did. Misha had been about two seconds away from having a panic attack in front of everyone.
She distracted him and everyone else by dumping her coffee down her shirt.
If it had been anyone else on their first day who didn’t know Orion and me would bring the fires of Hell down on anyone who made Misha feel bad and he’d just knocked their friend over, they would have made a different kind of scene.
It endeared me to her, even if we’d never spoken. This was a cutthroat world. We were all in competition with each other and everything was an audition. Even random interactions in the dining hall.
I wanted to warn her too, but it would seal our fate.
“I had her pegged for being totally down with all of this, but she’s not,” Topher said, appearing in our room. “She demanded Johann get in touch with her patron to get a wellness check on his brother. It was sexy, really.”
That creepy fucker was everywhere and Topher wasn’t even his real name. He was constantly lurking, and I was betting Harlowe thought she was alone when she had that conversation with Johann. I used to like that about him. We all did at one point. It was sexy in a dangerous way.
But then he betrayed us and now we had to see him here every day. We made it clear we blamed him for everything and didn’t want him around. He still popped up every now and then like herpes.
He seemed to want to commiserate about the new girl.
Yes, it was hilarious she demanded Johann call Lucifer and get a wellness check on Gadreel.
It was also a good sign she wouldn’t go down the same road so many people had.
Not because she was worried about the consequences, but because she didn’t believe in any of this.
Harlowe Lopez would probably just laugh and walk out and I’d love to see that. I’d also really love for Topher to get the fuck out of our room. I hated him and I also hated the fact that I was still attracted to him.
“Why are you here?” Misha demanded.
Misha could be fragile, but he was also a fighter. He just didn’t do well with crowds. When it was just us? Misha was fierce. And Topher fucked Misha over too. Misha wasn’t a big man. He was short and compact. He came at about five foot four, but he was also insanely strong.
Misha was gearing up to physically throw Topher out of our dorm room and I didn’t blame him. Topher just held up his hands.
“I’m here on business. I was also listening in. You’re all curious about the new girl and you want to make art with her. So do it. You have permission however you’d like to make that happen.”
Oh, fuck no. Orion was glowering and Misha was two seconds away from throwing a punch.
“You want us to manipulate her like you did to us?”
Because that was exactly what Topher did to all of us. He was a friend, then a lover. When he had our trust, he offered us the world. And then he betrayed us twice. Once when he disappeared and again when we realized the strings that came with his help.
“Hey, you got over it. You met, bonded over it, and made beautiful art together. If it makes you feel better, I cared about the three of you as much as I’m able to, but commitment isn’t exactly in my nature.
And no manipulation needed. Get Immortal Nightmare back together and add a violin player.
You’ll put on one show here at the end of every year and if it’s impressive enough, all the string you hate disappear and you’re free. ”
That was exactly what we wanted. We didn’t know we wanted a violin player in Immortal Nightmare until we heard her play her composition, but being free from all this? That was all we wanted for years. To do that, we’d have to fuck over an innocent girl the same way Topher did to us.
We were raging arseholes, but we had limits and we only hurt people who deserved it.
“It’s an order or your strings are going to get yanked in a way you hate. You don’t have to do anything except make art with her. Why are you making it dirty like you’re being asked to fuck her? Perverts.”
Because that was exactly what Topher did to us. He seemed to have a crisis of conscious after he came to Blackvale and swore off relationships. That didn’t change our history.
The problem is that the three of us were slaves to our passions and it was a beautiful thing to mesh with another artist. Shit happened when everyone got together and started creating. Feelings started brewing and eventually bodies smashed together. It was how it started with the three of us.
I didn’t think we could bring her into Immortal Nightmare without eventually hurting her and the three of us in the process.
We also weren’t being given the choice.