The day before, Zoe Baxter vanished the book in front of Eva. She claimed it was ‘between’ and would be safe until the Day of the Dead festival ended on November third. Then she wanted Eva to try, but only while she was watching.
Even after assuring Eva that Zoe would do nothing no matter the kind of magic she used, Eva had her reservations about that. Under no circumstances did she want to stand around summoning a demon in front of Zoe Baxter.
There was nothing to be done about it now, however. Her master hadn’t even returned yet.
That led to her current situation of picking out a costume. If she’d known there was absolutely no selection, she would have made her own. Arachne could have helped her make an amazing outfit. She’d done so in the past. Eva still had the dress Arachne had made when she was nine.
It was a crime that it remained hidden away in a closet in Florida.
Eva shoved more costumes aside. Nothing would match that dress. Nothing would come even close. She’d have to settle for something else.
Something else caught her eye.
Juliana seemed to notice the pause in Eva’s shuffling of costumes. “Find something?” she asked.
“Maybe. It will need touching up, that’s for sure.”
“Good luck with that. I’m going back to the girl’s section.”
Eva held her future costume up and looked it over. She could feel Shalise leaning over her shoulder.
“That’s it?” she asked.
“It is a start. Needs a bit of flair though.”
“Better hurry, there’s only a few hours until the party starts.”
“Who shows up to parties on time anyway,” Eva said. She actually wasn’t sure. Shalise admitted in front of everyone that she had never been to a party before. Eva hadn’t admitted it.
When your friends consisted only of demons and people several decades older than yourself, you didn’t get invited to parties very often. At least not the kind that didn’t involve danger, blood, and possible death.
“Well, I’m not showing up late to my first party. Need help?”
“Just need a black necktie and a white button up shirt. I think I can get everything else at our dorm.”
“Those shouldn’t be hard to find. I’ll go help Juliana then.”
Eva nodded as the chipper woman left. She dug through a prop bin, trying to find a syringe. Not a real one. A prop comical one. She could get real ones if she took the time to run to the prison. Eva didn’t think she wanted to put that much effort into a costume.
Still, this one seemed decent.
—
“You’ve been giggling the whole way here. My costume is fine.”
That only made Shalise giggle harder.
Eva carefully kept her own smile polite and controlled as they walked down the street.
Juliana wore a large one piece suit covered in fur. She had a dog nose covering her nose and long floppy ears coming off of a head band.
“It was the only costume that showed less skin than Eva when she walks around wearing nothing but Rach.”
“Eva’s covered up now and without wearing a dog costume.”
Eva glanced down at her own costume. A knee-length lab coat hung loose over slacks and a button up shirt. She had slicked back her hair into a loose ponytail and added a pair of fake glasses. The look was topped off with a fake syringe full of glowing green liquid and several real potions shoved into her pockets.
The real potions were just in case, as were the vials of blood and her dagger hidden against her back.
Overall, Eva thought she looked like a perfect stereotypical mad scientist.
“You’re the one who pointed this out to me. I’ll have no more laughter from you.”
“And I was right. It is very cute on you.”
Juliana crossed her arms and sulked. “Yours looks nice. You should have found me something like that.”
Shalise twisted slightly, letting her black coat flair out. It wasn’t a real coat, almost more like a knee-length dress that was missing its front. She wore a red minidress underneath. Fake fangs on her teeth poked out of her mouth.
“Like I said, you got the costumes everyone else didn’t want.”
Eva just smiled at their byplay as they arrived at The Vertex. They were quickly let into the building by bouncers? Maybe ushers. The Vertex didn’t seem like the kind of club that would need bouncers.
“Wow,” Shalise said, “it is almost like a real party in here.”
Eva had to agree. Almost being the key word.
The club had a large dance floor with a stage just in front of it. A DJ stood behind a large table with headphones on, nodding his head with the pounding beat. Neon lights and lasers strobed through a cool mist on the dance floor. A second floor curled around, offering a high altitude view of the dance floor.
The only thing missing were the people.
There were a couple of groups here and there. A cat girl and a rather poor skeleton chatted off to one side. A group of three hung out in a corner, they had a girl with impressive voodoo inspired makeup and several fake bones hung around her neck, a much more impressive skeleton, and a man who seemed to be into bondage with knives taped to his fingers.
No one danced on the dance floor and none of the groups appeared very animated.
There was a bar to the side of the entryway with a Frankenstein’s monster handing out a plate of nachos to the only patron. The portly man turned around to reveal a solid green suit and dyed red hair. Golden clover pins were attached all over his suit.
“Hello Max,” Shalise said warmly.
“You guys made it. I’m glad.” He grabbed both plates of nachos and seemed to struggle with his soda until Shalise took pity and grabbed it. “Thanks. Everyone else is upstairs, come on.”
They followed him up to the neon lit second floor. Another three groups of people hung about up here. Two of the groups consisted of a pair of superheroes with red and blue outfits, a pirate, a spooky bedsheet ghost, and a princess.
The third group was seated around one of the large tables that occupied much of the second floor. A winged fairy stood and started waving them over with a clear bottle. She was also entirely green except for the brown hair and red lipstick.
“Irene, nice makeup,” Juliana said.
Irene grinned. “Thanks. It took Shelby all afternoon to paint me green.”
“And don’t ask for it again,” a black and white woman said. She had painted her face completely white save for black lipstick. Her dress matched the white paint on her face and arms with black floral patterns. Even her green eyes had been covered by silver contacts.
“Oh, like your makeup took any less time.”
“Your wearing a lot less actual clothes than I am. You didn’t have to paint my stomach or my back or most of my legs. Most of it I did on my own.”
“Now now, you all look great. Don’t bicker.”
Eva almost missed the dark figure sitting next to Shelby. Where she looked like something out of an old black and white film, Jordan could have been her shadow. He had a full black body stocking on, even over his face. Something magical had been done to it; Eva’s eyes didn’t want to focus on it.
“You’re going to have to teach me that one,” Eva said. It seemed very useful for more than just party tricks.
Jordan chuckled. It sounded a bit forced, though that may be because if he had merely smiled, Eva wouldn’t be able to notice.
“He can’t,” Irene said. She had a large frown on her face and a glare leveled at Jordan. “The enchantment came with the suit.”
“Ah, that’s a shame.” Eva might have to spend some time tracking down the makers of the suit and learning the technique. Or at least buy one for herself.
“So,” Shalise said after a minute, “what do we do now?”
Maximilian spoke up, thankfully without his mouth full. “Grab some food unless you already ate. Then we just hang out, I suppose.” He looked around to the others as if for confirmation.
“That sounds good,” Juliana said. “I skipped lunch for costume hunting.”