Six

2 The Crowded Stage

2

The Crowded StageJonah was antsy.

He stood a few feet away from the theatre, which was located in the center of an ostentatiously artsy district in Seattle. A light rainstorm had ended just a few minutes prior, and on this mid-November evening, it made the air clean, fresh, and gave the night an overall pleasant feel.

As he surveyed his surroundings, he took the time to adhere to all of the precautions given to him and his friends by Jonathan. He had seen the list so many times, he could recreate it, practically verbatim. His other friends had been mandated to do these things as well, but he himself had to be doubly vigilant, being as he was the Blue Aura and all.

No. He was the other Blue Aura. The Light Blue Aura. As such, he had to watch his back more than anyone else.

First, he had to make sure he hadn't been followed. He hadn't.

Second, he had to make sure there were no portals near him, and if there were any twigs within walking distance, then he had to break them. Twigs functioned as portals, used specifically by Creyton and his Deadfallen disciples. It was their transportation of choice because twigs couldn't be regulated or supervised. That was one of the reasons why the Curaie had forbidden usage of them. They were powerful tools when stealthy travel was needed. But they were utterly useless after they'd been broken.

Jonah looked around and spotted three twigs near him. They were innocent enough at the moment, but he knew what could happen if they were left unchecked. A forceful stomp cracked two of them, but the last of them, which was slightly thicker, required Jonah to pin it down with one foot, while breaking it with the other. There. Now they were gone.

The third and final task was his own, personal thing. He focused on the area around the theatre, inhaled deeply, and activated Spectral Sight. When he opened his eyes, he found himself deeply relieved.

The spirit count around this place was pretty high. Spirits and spiritesses of all ages were around the physically alive beings. Some looked focused and determined; they were probably the ones who guided children. The rest looked happy, serene, and content. All good things.

All of the tasks Jonah had just performed were simple, but they did very little to assuage his nerves.

But Jonah wasn't nervous or tense because of threats concerning Creyton and the Deadfallen disciples. It was because he was going to see Vera. He hadn't seen her since late February, the night they'd had s*x, and she'd left him in the middle of the night. That had been over nine months ago if anyone was counting.

And unfortunately, Jonah had been counting.

A great deal had changed since then. For Jonah and Vera both.

Vera had experienced a true blessing. It turned out that her theatre friends had been dead-on with their hypothesis. The minute Vera re-established ties with them, and Snow and Fire got rolling, things took off. Jonah began his own research, because getting second-hand information from Liz got old very quickly. Jonah hadn't ever seen Vera act, but, by all accounts and reviews he'd read online, she was a natural. He'd seen rave reviews about Snow and Fire, and he was on the website regularly for a while, but he had since stopped.

Because it had stopped being enough.

They toured all over, but finding tickets was a nightmare, because they were almost always sold out in every city. Then Spader came out of nowhere, having scored a ticket—coincidentally—to a showing in Seattle. After having toured all across the United States, they were doing a two week-long production in Seattle, where they'd gotten their start. As usual, Jonah didn't know how Spader did it, but he'd learned a while back simply to not ask behind Spader's practices. Then it was a simple matter of using the Astralimes under Jonathan's supervision. Because of the ethereal travel, a trip from Rome, N.C. to Seattle barely took thirty seconds.

It was times like these when Jonah loved being an Eleventh Percenter. But with the perks and bonuses that came with ethereality, there was also a flip side.

While Vera had been flying high all this time, Jonah had spent the past months helping to keep fires at bay. He and his friends had been at work helping Jonathan with improving defensive measures for the ethereal and non-ethereal humans around Rome and the surrounding areas. Jonathan and the Phasmastis Curaie had come to an understanding in the early spring of that year, but beyond that, not much had happened. The Curaie had ceased in clamping down on Jonathan and the estate residents, but, in many ways, they still didn't take Jonathan seriously. In the time that had passed, things had been, to the untrained eye, relatively quiet. The Curaie knew better, but denial and fear colored most of their actions. Jonathan, however, had no such inhibitions.

The Protector Guide had informed them all that after failing to manipulate Jonah into succumbing to the darker aspects of his nature, Creyton was going to make absolutely certain Omega would happen without a hitch. While the Curaie handled matters in their own way, Jonathan was proactive in many other ways. He had every resident of the estate invite their families there to be briefed. He made sure people were on their Ps and Qs, with regular destruction of twigs, understanding Eighth Chapter crimes, and knowing what they could do to keep their families safe. He spent time Off-plane, but never for long stretches. Jonah understood—now—that there was a point to all of Jonathan's absences the previous year. There had been good reasons for it. Great reasons, even. But even the Protector Guide himself had been the first to admit he wasn't perfect. And now, he probably wanted to make it up to them.

All of it was all great, but it did come with one snag. As the Light Blue Aura, Jonah's well-being was given more attention than ever before. Even Terrence and Reena were involved in it.

Terrence was never bold enough to invite himself to functions Jonah attended, but he didn't hesitate to invite Jonah to all of his. Family dinners. Fishing. Football games. Reena did her damnedest to make sure Jonah stayed in shape and vigilant, ethereal and otherwise. The private training he did with his informal brother and sister had increased tenfold. Reena was even watching Jonah's food intake again. That had a silver lining: Jonah was practically being forced to eat right during the day, but it motivated him to go to every Decessio family dinner he was invited to. So, a day of garden burgers on gluten and wheat-free bread would end in meatloaf, mashed potatoes, and French bread. Everyone was happy, Jonah included. Especially after Terrence and Mrs. Decessio's savory meals.

The crazy things going on in the ethereal world were compounded by the fact Jonah, Terrence, and Reena had gotten themselves in trouble out west several times in the past nine months, too. Eva McRayne, their dear friend (and another person they referred to as family), was a celebrity with an open secret. The secret got her into one Hell after another, and sometimes Jonah, Terrence, and Reena assisted in putting those fires out. Those encounters were stories all by themselves.

Suffice it to say, there were some truly wild things happening across the board.

But tonight wasn't about any of those things.

Tonight was about Jonah finally having the chance to see what he had been reading about for all of these months.

* * *

The ticket Spader got for Jonah was third row, center. Jonah had a perfect vantage point of the entire stage. There wasn't an empty place he could see, and there was such a buzz of excitement from everyone in the audience. Plays weren't really Jonah's thing, but in this particular situation, it was next to impossible to be in this environment and not have the excitement rub off on him.

But there was one bit of anticipation he didn't share with the rest of these people.

The play began.

And there she was.

Jonah blinked. Vera wasn't even dressed to impress. It was a scene where her character had just assassinated someone, and she stood over her target, with equal amounts of satisfaction and doubt. Jonah took in the lines and curves the confusion made on her face. The slight pout at her lips when she had to struggle with her thoughts. She had a facial profile which said I am in complete control of this situation, while, at the same time, said What the hell am I doing here?

Even dressed in black and wielding garroting wire, she was unequivocally the most beautiful woman Jonah had ever seen.

There was one difference. Well, two.

The first was they had covered up Vera's facial scar with make-up. To Jonah, this seemed to do her a disservice. Vera was a beautiful woman, inside and out. Her scar was insignificant. It's like how a tire mark on a driveway didn't take away from the beauty of the whole house, or how an apple pie didn't suddenly stop tasting delicious because part of the crust cracked and fell away when you pulled it out of the oven. Some things simply didn't need glossing over.

The second thing was, with a face absent of the scar, Jonah could definitely see the family resemblance between Vera and her older sister, Jessica Hale.

Who happened to be Jonah's mortal enemy.

Jonah had known Jessica from his first job out of graduate school. They'd run afoul of each other the first day they met and had hated each other from that day on. A couple of years later, though, that hatred had taken on a new dimension: After a protracted ruse, Jessica revealed herself to be one of Creyton's Deadfallen disciples. One of his most loyal—Inimicus. She'd aided Creyton in achieving Praeterletum. And then later on, she murdered Bernard Steverson, Jonah's boss and one of his mentors. The action nearly sent Jonah over the edge, and Jessica had attempted to save her physical life by revealing she and Vera were sisters. Vera had attempted to detach herself from her family ties, but Jessica undid that with her revelation. It made Jonah and Vera's relationship, which wasn't the clearest to start with, more complicated than ever. It also played a part in Vera's leaving the estate.

Jonah had no trouble seeing the resemblance. They had the same fire in their eyes when they were focused. They had the same side profile. The same hardening of features when they were pissed off.

But Jonah could see a difference between them, too, apart from the obvious, of course. Having not known the two women were family had allowed him to see Vera as her own woman. She was intelligent, funny, brave, and had a sassy, sarcastic streak. And she had come a long, long way from the woman she was when Creyton was hunting her for being the Time Item. Jonah was sure of it. And she had definitely come a long, long way since the fight with Jessica which scarred her face. Vera was naturally everything her older sister could only be through evil, deception, and manipulation.

It was evident on the stage. Jonah couldn't tell where Juliette Nightingale, her character, ended and where Vera began. She looked to be in complete control of the entire stage, and her counterparts fed off of that. As he watched, he saw, beyond a shadow of a doubt, this was where Vera needed to be. She was completely in her element: comfort, conviction, and poise radiated from her.

It was a bittersweet realization.

If life were fair, there would have been no complications. No Creyton. No blood ties to a crazy b***h whose head Jonah very nearly sawed off. And Vera wouldn't have left him in bed while he was asleep, with a note in her place that declared the two of them had gotten what they felt for each other out of their systems with a very intense, passionate night of s*x. He wouldn't have had to struggle with himself to find some place of understanding concerning Vera's actions…find some way to file away the hurt, confusion, and stress she'd caused him by leaving Rome. But life wasn't fair. It had to always have its strings, complexities, and—in a word—s**t. It seemed to be so for Jonah, anyway. If his life was a stage, it'd be crowded from wall to wall.

He gave his head two harmless raps. “Task at hand,” he murmured. “Enjoy the show.”

He didn't even have to work hard to do so. The play was outstanding, and at the end of it, there was a standing ovation. Vera had been pushed to the forefront, and Jonah could tell she was reluctant, but her smile was sincere and radiant. He'd hoped she noticed him, but she didn't. He saw her look up higher, and her smile widened somewhat when she did. He felt a smile on his own face as he applauded. She must have been looking skyward, thinking of her mother.

Jonah had no doubts that Mrs. Haliday would be proud of her youngest daughter.

No. Mrs. Hale.

After the raucous applause, people began the slow, arduous dispersal. Jonah had no plans to go with them.

He was going backstage to speak to Vera.

Unfortunately, that required getting past a rather large guy, who regarded him suspiciously. Jonah wasn't bothered, though. With the things he'd seen, a burly Tenth Percenter wasn't likely to intimidate him.

“And where do you think you're going?” the guy mumbled.

“I would like to speak to the star of the show for a bit,” replied Jonah.

The guy's expression didn't change. “Fanboy, huh?”

“I am a fan, but I haven't been a boy since I became a man,” said Jonah calmly.

The guy's eyes, already low, narrowed further. “Alright, smartass,” he grumbled, “are you trying to say you're a close, personal friend?”

“Yes.”

“Then you would know her given name, then.”

Jonah frowned. Surely, Rent-a-Guard wasn't privy to such information? “Her given name is Altivera Irene—” he paused for just a second, “Hale.”

The man looked stunned, then sheepish. He stood aside.

“Sorry, man,” he mumbled. “Fans can be crazy sometimes.”

The hold-up was annoying, but Jonah got it. The man was doing his job.

But now, his only job was to move.

Jonah walked past him, his mind already on what he could say to Vera. He'd already made up his mind to not mention their last night together. Thinking about that would make him stammer like an i***t. He'd just improvise. According to all of his friends, he had a way with words, after all.

He wondered which dressing room was hers, but he didn't have to go far. Hearing bits of a conversation led him straight to it.

“—they love you, V!” gushed an ecstatic voice Jonah remembered. Eden Bristow.

“They love all of us, Eden,” corrected Vera.

“Stop being modest,” Eden chided. “You were the missing link, V. You truly have a knack for this. Everyone says—”

“That's because they see the end product, Eden,” said Vera. “They didn't see how much time it took to get this right. They didn't see all those plays where you and I got paid in roses. They didn't see all the effort you put in to bring me back here with you all—back where I belonged.”

Jonah closed his eyes for several moments. Yeah, he knew Vera belonged here. He understood; he had even admitted it to himself. But to hear her co-sign it was a different matter.

He decided the head games were unnecessary. So, standing tall, he walked in the door.

Eden was working a shirt over the one she was already wearing. Vera was seated in front of a mirror, with her fingers over her eyes. She was slowly massaging them in a clockwise manner. This just might be fun for Jonah.

“Hey, Vera.”

Her fingers froze. Eden forced her head through the top of the shirt and stared at him, wide-eyed.

“Is this…are you—?”

“Yeah, I'm Jonah,” said Jonah, whose eyes narrowed slightly. “It's nice to meet you, Eden.”

Jonah wasn't high on this woman. He'd overheard her telling Vera she ought to leave him and the estate behind because he was a distraction. She didn't know he knew that. Or perhaps Vera had told her. There had to be some reason why she looked so terrified as she made eye contact with Vera, who looked beyond surprised herself.

“Vera—” Eden began, but Vera shook her head.

“It's cool, Eden,” she said hastily. “Give us some privacy.”

Eden didn't move. “But Vera—”

“It's fine, Eden—”

“But you know—”

“Did you hear Vera, Eden?” asked Jonah, who wasn't too interested in kindness. Which one of them was a distraction now? “She can talk to me.”

Eden's eyes narrowed, but only slightly. She must not be used to being owned. But, thankfully, she walked out of the dressing room and closed the door.

Finally, Jonah and Vera were alone.

“It's good to see you, Jonah!” Vera rose and gave Jonah a hug but backed away before he could really hug her back. Odd. Then again, given how they'd parted, he couldn't be surprised this was a bit awkward. All things considered, maybe it wasn't odd after all.

“It's great to see you, too, Vera,” he said. “Or should I call you V?”

Vera waved that aside. “You shaved off your beard! When did that happen?”

“For a red-carpet event,” murmured Jonah, “but never mind—”

“Oh, right.” Some of the nerves left Vera's face. “You have been rubbing elbows with the world-famous Sybil! What's she like?”

“Eva is something else,” was all Jonah could say. “But you were incredible in the play!”

At Jonah's praise, Vera blushed slightly. “Jonah, we're all good. When the unit is on all cylinders, the projects are stellar—”

“Bullshit.” Jonah's response was instant. “You are the chain on this whole bike, Vera. You keep things in motion. You are an amazing actress.”

Vera still looked slightly uneasy but pleased at the same time. Maybe she was pleased because Jonah's opinion of her mattered. That had always been the case for him.

“I did tell you that when I am on the stage, I lose myself, Jonah,” she said.

“That you did,” said Jonah, determined to not let this conversation travel into tricky waters. “I've kept up with things on the website, and everyone raves about you. I know you've been touring all over the U.S., and you're only gonna be here for two weeks. Any idea if the play might make its way to N.C.? Charlotte or Raleigh, maybe? Everybody else needs to see this play!”

“I couldn't tell you, Jonah,” said Vera, “but from what Liz has been telling me, you guys already have full plates. Did Jonathan really invite the families of every resident to the estate five months ago?”

“He did and more,” said Jonah, “but trust me, I'd be doing you no favors talking about that stuff. On my way here, I saw a nice little Chinese restaurant, only a few minutes walking distance. Want to catch up over chow mein?”

“Uh—,” Vera began indecisively, but then there was a knock at the dressing room door, slightly less than casual. Jonah turned, assuming Eden had returned.

She hadn't. It was some guy. He was taller than Jonah, bearded, with every hair in place. Truth be told, he looked like a critic.

“You take your job seriously, don't you?” Jonah asked with a frown. “Don't you people usually put reviews online, or something?”

“I beg your pardon?” said the man, who frowned himself.

“Jonah,” said Vera, who shook her head, “this isn't a critic. It's East.”

Jonah raised an eyebrow. “East?”

The man named East looked Jonah over, looking much more intrigued when he heard Jonah's name. With a sly smile, he walked past him to Vera and kissed her.

Jonah felt his entire face sag. He wondered if he'd ever be able to make another facial expression again. Now he understood why Eden had looked so worried. It wasn't because she was leery of Jonah's opinion of her, it was because she knew East was on his way to the dressing room.

Vera's boyfriend.

In that moment, Jonah realized Vera hadn't been looking upward, smiling at thoughts of her mother at the end of the play. This guy East had been who she'd turned her eyes up to, grinning so hugely.

Well, that was just swell.

East backed away from Vera, who looked discomfited, caught off guard, and a little aggravated by what he'd just done. To Jonah, it hadn't looked like a sincere kiss so much as a dog on two hind legs, marking territory.

“You were wonderful tonight, baby,” he said to her.

“Thanks, East,” murmured Vera.

East turned his attention to Jonah, trying not to look triumphant as he extended his hand. With reluctance, Jonah took it.

“East isn't actually my name.” East continued his Alpha Male shtick by clamping Jonah's hand more tightly than necessary. “Full name is Marlon Eastmoreland, Jr., son of Marlon Eastmoreland, Sr.”

“Obviously,” mumbled Jonah under his breath.

“Sorry?” asked East.

“Nothing,” said Jonah.

Jonah was trying to keep his temper under control, but this punk guy was purposely crushing his hand. It would be only too easy to conjure ethereal strength and snap this man's bones like a pencil.

Vera grabbed East by the arm and pulled him away from Jonah. She'd likely figured out the thing Jonah was contemplating in his mind. She wasn't stupid. “I think that's enough handshaking,” she said, sternness in her voice. “Wouldn't you two agree?”

East shrugged. Jonah was mildly annoyed, regretful he missed his chance to hurt the bastard.

“It's nice to meet you, East,” he managed. The name was imbecilic, no matter how many times he turned it over in his mind. He turned to Vera. “So, um, how long have you guys been together?”

Some of the annoyance left Vera's face, and she licked her lips. “Six months,” she answered.

“Six months tonight, actually,” added East. “This is our anniversary.”

“Really, now?” asked Jonah, trying to hide his surprise. Or maybe surprise wasn't the word.

The word was shock.

Six months? That meant they started dating three months or so after Vera left the estate. It also meant they'd obviously met before that time, because reaching the dating stage took time to reach.

Or maybe that was only true for some people.

It didn't seem to have taken Vera long to figure things out for herself and move on. She was the Time Item, after all; perhaps she didn't have to do things as long as lesser mortals.

Suddenly, this dressing room was as crowded as the stage Jonah had conjured in his mind during the play.

East turned to Vera and took both of her hands. “Darling, since Chinese food is your absolute favorite, I got reservations at P.F. Chang's China Bistro for tonight.”

All the tension left Vera's face, and she looked at him. “The one in the Westlake Center?” she breathed.

East nodded eagerly. “The very same.”

Jonah looked on, feeling more and more like excess baggage with each passing second. He swallowed. “Congrats on you guys' anniversary,” he murmured, “and I wish you a safe and great night.” It actually sounded sincere when he said it. Nice. “And Vera, once again, you were great tonight. Kudos.”

“Thank you, Jonah.” Vera sounded apologetic about the awkwardness of the situation, but it was a hard thing to file away when Jonah saw her hands in East's. “I'm so honored you came to see my play. And it was great seeing you again.”

“Likewise,” said Jonah quietly, and he left the dressing room.

Before he left the door, he glimpsed East's face. When Vera looked away, he had the audacity to wink at Jonah, with a smug smirk.

Jonah barely acknowledged it. He had plans as well.

The fact they were the next morning and didn't involve a date was immaterial.