“Told you, Griffen. This was something not to miss,” she said.
“You were right, though I would never have known what I was missing.”
“Oh, you would have, eventually. You aren’t dumb, lover.
Just a little slow sometimes.”
Griffen would have objected to that more if she hadn’t chosen that moment to pinch him. She moved away before he could retaliate.
“I’m going for punch, and if it isn’t already spiked, it will be shortly. You, go, mingle.” She paused, glancing around. “Knowing you, I suggest you follow the bouncing ball.”
Griffen followed her glance. Sure enough, one of the lights was hovering a few feet away, bouncing up and down like an eager puppy. He looked back at Mai, only to see her retreating back, and watched that for a bit before turning back to the relatively less distracting magic ball.
As he approached, the orb slowed down its movement, hanging listless and still when he was right next to it. Out of the corner of his eye, he caught the movement of another starting to dance. Again, as he moved toward it, it slowed. Griffen shook his head, not quite believing it, but as the next ball started to dance, he gave up doubt and simply followed.
It wasn’t long before he saw the source. Four lights hovered around a group consisting of a zombie and three characters from
It was only when he was right next to the group that he realized who Alice was.
“Tink!?” Griffen said.
Tink turned, petticoats ruffling. His face was perfectly straight.
“What, you thought you’d have this many fairies in New Orleans without at least one ending up in drag?” Tink said.
His straight face lasted for another few seconds, before he burst out laughing. The others in the group broke out with him, and Griffen joined them. It felt good to laugh.
On closer inspection, Hobb was playing the March Hare and Robin made a very fetching Mad Hatter. Griffen almost did a double take with the zombie, though. It was Estella, right out of a Romero movie except for a small bag and voodoo doll hanging from her neck.
“You are supposed to dress as something you are not, yes? It was either this, or dress up as a witch,” Estella said.
Griffen hadn’t put her down for that much of a sense of humor.
She smiled, showing yellowed and blackened teeth, and waved her hand at the ballroom.
“I told you you didn’t have to worry. But are you all right? We almost sent someone for you when you were late,” she said.
“No need. Someone beat you to the punch,” Griffen said.
“No kidding. That was quite an entrance,” Tink said.
“She’d beat anyone to the punch. Did you see that dress!” Hobb said.
Robin elbowed him in the ribs, in a playful sort of way.
“What do you think of the party, Griffen?” Robin said.
Griffen took time for one last look around, gathering his thoughts.
“Amazing,” he said finally. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Estella beamed.
“I told you not to underestimate those other than dragons. Still, you have not shown much of a dragon’s attitude during this meeting, even counting various… incidents. You have been a fair moderator,” Estella said.
Griffen didn’t think so but wasn’t going to spoil the mood.
“The lights are your doing, Tink?” Griffen asked.
“Yes, we call them will-o’-the-wisps. Very handy little buggers, and not just for mood lighting,” Tink said.
“Sure beats pagers and cell phones,” Griffen agreed. “But what if someone… not with the conclave sees them? What if some average person blunders in?”
Estella laughed.
“Mr. McCandles, who do you think is serving the food and drinks?”
Startled, Griffen realized he had been seeing people in service industry black-and-whites all along but had been too distracted by the fantastic to notice. Now he looked around and saw a few waitstaff walking around with trays of drinks or food, and one behind the buffet table. They each wore a slim black mask around their eyes.
“Relax,” Estella said. “They, or anyone else who ‘blunders in,’ are unlikely to notice anything too unusual. Not only is this New Orleans, but the wiccan and I have worked up a little something together that will fog up their perceptions a bit. Anyone without something magic in their blood will remember nothing more than an elaborate party in the morning.”
“Most people who are drawn to this town seem to have some magic in their blood,” Tink said.
“Not enough, and so what? Even if they noticed or remembered more, what trouble could it cause?” Estella said.
“On the large scale… or the personal scale?” Griffen said.
His tone was a bit strangled, distracted, and the others looked where he was looking. At one of the waitresses, a tray of champagne in her hand, walking toward them. The black mask didn’t hide the fire in her eyes, or in her hair.
“Hello, Griffen,” Fox Lisa said.
Griffen knew, or at least had been told, that Fox Lisa had a little bit of dragon blood. He didn’t know what that meant but had assumed that little to no actual abilities came with such a small amount. He now suspected he was totally wrong.
At the tone of her voice, his four companions all realized they had other places to be and left the two alone. Robin even took Lisa’s tray for her, earning her a slight smile and freeing up Fox Lisa’s hands.
“So this is what you have been busy with lately,” Fox Lisa said, not asked.
Griffen realized at that moment how little he had seen of his occasional lover recently and how much of that had been his own fault. He hadn’t given much thought to it until he heard the dry ice that was her tone.
“It’s more complicated than it looks,” Griffen said.
“I’ll say.”
She glared, but not at him. Out of the corner of his eyes he saw that one of Tink’s will-o’-the-wisps was hovering nearby. Under her scrutiny, the white light was tinged pink and, with an embarrassed-sounding pop, disappeared. Fox Lisa stared at where it had been, and for a moment Griffen thought it would be too much for her. She shrugged it off with a visible effort and turned her attention back to him.
“Moving on, you have a hell of a lot of explaining to do. That just got added to the list.”
“And what else is on the list?”
Griffen hadn’t seen Mai coming, but she was suddenly behind Fox Lisa, an arm sliding around her waist and long fingernails tapping against her hip. She had slipped back into full Dragon Lady mode.
Fox Lisa actually had to swallow before she spoke.
“Mai, why am I not surprised to find you here?” she said.
“Because you know I turn up at the most… interesting… places,” Mai purred.
Griffen was going to have to look into voice control. Fox Lisa actually shivered, and Griffen now knew she wasn’t wearing a bra.
She rallied, though, and stepped away from Mai, turning so she could face them both. She stared at Mai’s dress, almost exactly as she had at the will-o’-the-wisp’s disappearance, and again her mind almost—but didn’t— froze up and snapped.
“Explanations, owed by both of you,” Fox Lisa said, then shivered again and moistened her lips. “But… later. I… I’m working.”
“Later, then,” Mai said.
She stepped up to Griffen, arm around his waist now but eyes on Fox Lisa. There was a moment of tension,
