A Night at the Theater
“You should've eaten more, mon coeur."
"I don't know how much more you expected to fit in that dress, Gus," Jonathon said, flashing me a smirk from across the carriage. We passed a street light, and the shadows harshened the angles of his face, making me think of Mr. Tanner.
Auguste hmph'ed and leaned toward the carriage window as we turned a corner. "Ah. Here we are. If she grows faint…"
"If she grows faint, Tanner will rip her out of the whole ensemble and you'll have to let her wear your cape for the rest of the night," Jonathon tossed back.
The two men bickered most of the way through dinner and almost the entire quick trip to the theater—which was not at all located in or near Covent Garden, but in one of the dingier areas of the city. I would've wondered about their friendship if it weren't for the frequent bouts of sudden laughter and massive grins that interrupted their petty arguing. It was a little like walking in on the footmen in the middle of one of their private inside jokes, but my gentleman did their best to include and engage me when they weren't busy teasing one another.
"Would you consider it a rescue mission if he did?" Auguste asked me. "I feel like I haven't seen you relax once tonight."
"That's just because this corset has me pinned in one position," I said.
"It's all right, Esther. You can just say you liked the dress I bought you better," Jonathon said, lips twitching.
"Come to think of it, I might've liked that dress better," Auguste said before I had to make an awkward answer.
The carriage pulled to a stop and I leaned forward, craning to look around Auguste out the window, but all I saw was a very dark and somewhat intimidating alleyway.
"This view is nice though," Jonathon murmured, and I frowned until I realized he was staring at the neckline of my dress and how I was almost spilling out of it.
"Careful, your eyes are going green," I warned him.
Auguste chuckled as Jonathon blushed, and my vampire opened the door of the carriage, stepping out before offering me his hand.
I ducked out onto the cool, empty street and stepped gratefully into Auguste's side. I had a little cape for my shoulders, but it did little to keep me warm and even less to offer protection.
"I take it this isn't the kind of theater with balconies and candelabras," I said, keeping my voice bright. This area seemed more like the kind of place you would come for some sort of boxing match, full of warehouses and buildings with cracked windows.
"You might be surprised," Jonathon answered, following us out and offering me his arm too.
We stepped forward as a trio, but it wasn't the sidewalk we headed for. Auguste and Jonathon led me directly into the alley, wet, dark brick rising high on either side, the faint safety of the lamps fading behind us as we walked deeper in.
"It had to be somewhere a human wouldn't accidentally happen upon," Auguste murmured to me. "There are wards protecting it too."
"Some of those wards make the entrance a little more intimidating. And since you mentioned it, Auguste and I share a private box," Jonathon added.
For all their reassurance, there was nothing that made our dark walk look any less foreboding until the moment Auguste made a sudden right turn, stepping forward and leading us into an even darker and more narrow alley.
All at once, like a curtain lifting on a lit stage, the world illuminated with lamps burning high and bright. Rowdy voices garbled together in greeting from a dense sea of figures directly ahead of us pressed together under an archway that read The Company of Fiends Presents. Beneath that, a small painted sign advertised 'Tantalizing Nightmares.'
I caught my breath at it all, feeling Jonathon's smile on the side of my face as he watched me drink it in. For the most part, the crowd in front of us looked human, as we did. There were some men and women who were a little paler that might've been vampires too. A group of enormous men stood at the top of the steps, reminding me of Mr. Tanner. There were women dressed as finely as I was, on the arms of slightly unusual-looking men, but also couples together who looked rough and cheerful as if they'd just come from a small tavern rather than an elegant hotel restaurant.
Auguste really was trying to show me off to them. Next time, I would convince him to let me wear something simple.
"What's a tantalizing nightmare, do you think?" I whispered in Auguste's ear.
He grinned but didn't meet my eye. "I imagine we'll find out when the curtain comes up."
There was no ticket booth and no usher at the door, just the great mess of the crowd milling together in a crowded but stylish lobby, heading for a series of doors. The finer dressed couples drifted over to a set of stairs on either end of the room, and Auguste led us to the right.
Aside from some of the more confusing faces we passed, the clearest indication that the men and women around me weren't human was the way so many of them sniffed the air before finding me in the crowd, eyes flashing with hunger. A week ago, it might've thrilled me, and I was a little surprised to find a chill running up my spine, my eyes searching the crowd and expecting to find the shadow of the wraith just at the corner of my eye.
"Are you all right? Is it your ankle?" Jonathon asked in my ear.
Auguste frowned with worry, glancing back over his shoulder. "I can carry you up."
I shook my head and let out a breath of laughter. "I'm fine, really."
I hurried after his gentle, leading tug, Jonathon's arm wrapped protectively around my waist. In spite of my claim, my doctor practically lifted me at every step, and it was easier to breathe on the stairs as the crowd thinned around us. A few of the groups around us nodded their greetings, but no one stepped closer.
"Do you know them?" I whispered to Jonathon.
He ducked his head to answer. "We do. And they know you are our guest. There's…an etiquette when it comes to human guests. No one will come closer without our invitation."
So all the hungry staring was only that. It was a curious relief, but it made me a little braver and more blatant about looking back. There was an ebony man with high sharp ears like Cork's and acid yellow eyes who shot me a fangy grin when I looked in his direction, and another who'd just removed his hat to reveal three more eyes on his forehead. They were both dressed richly, the one with five eyes draped in something almost like a cape that undulated with movement from beneath.
"This way," Auguste said, interrupting my gawking.
There was a second flight of steps leading up, but we ducked beneath, onto a lower landing, with two red-curtained doorways.
Auguste pushed the second of the two open, and I gasped.