Natural Consequences (19 page)

“Apparently ah’m ruinin’ sci-fi, f’r everyone,” Wade answered as he turned. Then he paused. “Drew,” he asked, “izzat a phone number on your cup?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Drew nodded. “I guess it is.”

A lithe “alien” in a black bikini and green body paint sauntered by Drew, reaching out her arm to trace around his shoulders and then throwing him a sultry look as she passed. Wade’s amused but accusing glare remained.

“You wanna pick up girls?” Drew asked smugly. “Wear a suit to a nerd party.”

Wade shook his head once more as the two set to weaving their way through the crowd. The Emerald City Halloween Ball had become a big event over its few short years, now to the point of renting out the convention space of a downtown hotel. Tickets were no longer cheap, nor were other little details like parking or coat checks. Yet for all the opportunistic price hikes, attendees to the event still felt like they got what they paid for.

The event sold out months in advance. Scalped tickets went for three figures. At those prices, Wade and Drew gave up on attending this year—until one of their newest friends learned of her lover’s interest. Gaining tickets for the event had impressed all of Lorelei’s friends; getting them put on the guest list to speed them through check-in and security went above and beyond their expectations.

They walked past store-bought ensembles, homemade costumes and serious cosplayers that put everyone around them to shame. Many times, they found themselves surrounded by space explorers, by sci-fi heroes and a great many aliens, all in keeping with the year’s “Not of This Earth” theme. There were also plenty of people outside the theme: hookers and pimps, doctors, nurses, ninjas and cops.

A great many of the women at the ball fully embraced the racy freedoms of Halloween. Neither Drew nor Wade found anything wrong with that at all.

*   *   *

Lorelei observed the main entrance from a rooftop across the street. She listened and inhaled deeply as her eyes scanned the crowd. She planned in advance, taking numerous precautions before this point, but last minute assurances were still worthwhile. It was one thing to take chances. It was another to take them stupidly.

Had any demon claimed the venue as its own, the succubus would surely have suffered the pain of violating their territory. Anyone less powerful than Lorelei would have a hard time escaping her notice
. Anyone more powerful would not likely bother to hide.

Seattle’s supernatural population was simply not what it had been.
Rachel’s first order of business upon achieving Dominion over the city was to begin actively hunting any demon that dared show its face. The vampires and the most belligerent sorcerers—those who survived the recent conflicts, at least—had all either fled the city or gone to ground to evade fellow survivors. Werewolves detested crowds like this. Ghosts had similar problems with large numbers of the living. And if nothing else, so many mortals meant for a fair number of guardian angels on hand at any time—and Lorelei had a good connection there, too.

The night brightened around her as Rachel faded up through the rooftop. She seemed distracted. The tremor in her lips was quite obvious. For a brief moment, Lorelei grew concerned. Then Rachel stepped closer, and Lorelei
recognized the look in the angel’s eyes.

“Yes, love?” she asked.

“He’s checking in now. He
reeks
, Lorelei,” Rachel explained breathlessly. “He reeks of selflessness and friendship. HolyfuckingshitIwannafuckhim,” the angel laughed, grabbing her lover by the arms and pulling her close. “If I had panties, they’d be on the floor already.”

“
He gave Jason his costume?”

“Yeah. On his birthday, too. I mean how sweet is that? Seriously, we need to drag him into a broom closet or something. He’s just in a bathrobe and pajamas. I
t’s not like getting him undressed is gonna be complicated.”

Lorelei’s lips spread with mild amusement. “I can see how this would arouse you madly,” she mused.

“Pff. You don’t.”

“I do,” Lorelei assured her.

Rachel made a face, but it faded quickly. “Lorelei,” she said, “you know I’m not… it’s not like I play favorites or—“

“Shh, love,
I do not doubt us,” Lorelei shook her head, stepping in to caress Rachel’s cheek. “What better time would there be for us to both dote on him than his birthday?”

Rachel let out another aroused breath past Lorelei’s ear as the succubus lightly embraced her. “By dote you mean fuck
him out of his mind, right?”

“
We may drive him mad well before it gets to that, but he’ll be grateful, I’m sure. Do you believe this place is safe?”

The angel flashed a naughty smile and nodded. “Coast looks clear to me,” she confirmed. “Swung through the place twice. Plenty of everyday dirtbags around, but nothing we need to worry about.”

“Then you feel you can go through with our plan?”

Rachel nodded again. “
Yeah. I think I can hang around for most of the party. Never know if I might have to leave unexpectedly, but…” she shrugged. “I’m game.”

Lorelei lifted the broad paper shopping bag. A set of fake white angel’s wings peeked out from within. “Then let’s get changed.”

*   *   *

“How’s he even know which one he’s dancing with?”

“What?” Alex shouted over the music and the ambient noise of the crowd. It was hard enough to talk at the edge of the dance floor; conversation further in was even tougher.

“I said
, how’s he even know which girl he’s dancing with?” Amber asked. She had to lean in a little closer. She didn’t mind.

Alex peered through the crowd on the dance floor—one of several
at the ball, but surely the largest—and made out the form of Drew, along with several women in various costumes. “Pretty sure he just doesn’t care,” Alex chuckled. “They’re probably just happy to find a guy who can dance.”

“I know the feeling,” smirked Jason. He had to stand close to the pair to hear and be heard. He also didn’t want his date forgetting h
im. Jason had thought nothing of it while they were in the car on the way over. Amber seemed to have many questions for and about Alex during the drive, but he was the last of Jason’s closest friends she had to meet. Unfortunately, once at the party she still stuck to Alex like glue.

Twenty minutes into their night at the Ball, Jason
felt ready to face great, longstanding fears to keep his date’s attention. “C’mon, Amber, I promise nobody’s watching you,” he said encouragingly, taking her hand. “I don’t care how you dance. It’s not like I’m wonderstud, either.”

“No, wonderstud’s out there with the Working Women of Aurora Boulevard,” Alex chuckled, gesturing towards Drew.
Several women in fishnets and big wigs competed to rope Drew in with their feather boas.

“I dunno, Jason,” Amber replied. Her feet felt rooted to the floor. “I just don’t go out dancing a lot.”
Or at all
, she corrected silently.
Ever
. “I’m happy to just hang out. Besides, we’ll lose Alex.”

“Oh, I’m good,” Alex smiled. “Don’t worry about me.”

In a quieter setting, everyone would’ve heard the rumble of Jason’s frustrated breath. Here it was thankfully masked by booming music. At least Alex didn’t say or do anything to encourage her. “Amber,” Jason said, stepping in closer, “you’re not worried about what
I’m
gonna think, are you?”

“There’s a correct answer to that and an honest answer.”

“Listen. I don’t care how you dance,” he smiled. “I bet I’ll look sillier out there than you will, anyway. I don’t care if you’ve only got one move and you do it over and over again and I don’t care if you lose the beat or just sway back and forth. I’d just like to dance with my date.”

Amber bit her lip. She had more than one reason to stand her ground on this, but more than one reason to give as well. In her brain, a little girl left standing against the cafeteria wall at a middle school dance told Amber to quit being such a chicken. “You really don’t care?”

“Not if you don’t care how bad a dancer I am,” Jason shrugged. “It’s not like I do this a lot. But if you don’t care and I don’t care, what’s to worry about?”

“Everybody else?” Amber asked.

Jason shook his head. “You’re at a costume party,” he said, and reached up to pull down the black visor on her helmet. “Nobody here knows who you are.”

He couldn’t hear her
choke. The music was too loud.
Oh God, if you only knew
, she thought.

He took her hand. “Got anything else stopping you?”

“What if everyone points and laughs at me?”

“You’ve got a gun,” Jason reminded her. “Just shoot everyone.”

He saw the smile under the black-tinted visor. “Okay,” she said, slinging her prop machinegun over her back.

Jason kept hold of her other hand, pulling her along as he stepped backward into the crowd. Naturally, he soon bumped into someone. He apologized, bumped into someone else, and laughed it off as he and his date got the hang of weaving through the crowd to
create a little space for themselves.

Amber looked over her shoulder only once to find that Alex had already disappeared from view. It was bound to happen, but it frustrated her to lose her chance to talk more with him. Too many of the core questions of the investigation seemed to revolve around him and his older girlfriend to pass up
any opportunity.

As she turned back, though, finding herself alone
with her date amid a crowd of strangers, Amber set those troubles aside. The FBI had taught her focus. It had taught her to block out distractions and to manage different sources of stress. The investigation would have to wait. Her team wasn’t there. Hauser wasn’t there.

There was just Jason, and those smiling eyes, and her two left feet.

She swayed with him. Tried to find the beat. Felt silly. “I have no idea what I’m doing,” she confessed.

“Me, neither,” he said. Jason at least had his arms out a bit, and seemed to be picking his feet up off the floor as he moved. She’d have to try that.

Like he said, she could always just shoot anyone who laughed at her. For the first time in her life, she conceded that maybe the inflated self-esteem brought on by being armed wasn’t entirely a bad thing.

Alone in the crowd, Alex moved off to make sure Jason had Amber to himself for a while. He could see why Jason liked her so much. She was smart, friendly, pretty… and the geek in him couldn’t get over her sharp costume. That had to have been a real investment, unless she’d had a real job at some point and not just the small-time stuff most college students swung. He knew she was older, but not by how much.

She wasn’t too much older to be into Jason, apparently. He wished his friend luck with that. He roamed around the outskirts of the dance floor
, checking out the crowd and their costumes. Lorelei and Alex went dancing—or, more to the point, went to dancing classes for his benefit—several times, but the ballroom styles she preferred were a far cry from this sort of thing. None of the confidence and enjoyment Alex derived from those nights applied to this dance floor. He had complete sympathy with Amber. For that matter, he knew Jason wasn’t much into it, either, but he was trying.

He contented himself with a few minutes of people-watching. The costumes were great. More than a few of the women would have been quite eye-catching in any situation, let alone Halloween.

Spotting Drew wasn’t difficult at all, given the spectacle made of him. Drew caught sight of his friend, flashed a hand and a grin and then was roped back to the attention of his new ladyfriends. Wade was in there somewhere, but Alex caught only glimpses.

“So are you supposed to be Hugh Hefner in that?” someone asked.

“Yeah,” added another voice, “where are your bitches? Or ain’t you got none?”

Alex turned around. He found four guys in fake fur coats, huge hats and oversized sunglasses. Their bling stood proud. Their canes, clearly cheap costume pieces, all matched.

“No, it’s from a book,” Alex shook his head. He tugged on the towel over his shoulder. “I’m Arthur D—“

“Is that Will Smith wannabe a friend of yours?” one of the pimps asked, pointing out at the dance floor.

“Oh, he’s not trying to be Will Smith,” replied Alex. “The whole myth of the ‘men in black’ is older than those movies. That’s where the original idea came fr—“

“He’s looking to get his little metro ass kicked,” another pimp warned.

Alex blinked. He looked out onto the dance floor again, and specifically at Drew’s dance partners. They all seemed to be of the same general college age as the pimps in front of him. Then he took another look at the collection of pimps. “Wait, really?” he asked.

“
Really what?”

He looked back and forth one more time. Very pretty women having a good time. Skinny, ratty-looking guys with peachfuzz facial hair looking put out over it.
“I’ve seen this before,” Alex said, and then it clicked. “Hey, do you guys go to U of O?”