“You should.” He places the mask over his face and kisses me softly. “It’s a good look onyou.”
“The laugh or the mask?” I ask as we pick up the boys and the over bloated diaperbag.
“Both.” He bounces Barron over his hip. “You ready to rock this party, boys? I hear there are some hot chicks just waiting to check youout.”
Nathan gurgles out one of his signature husky laughs and claps up a storm, but Barron looks perturbed by the idea. Gage and I share a laugh of our own as we head onin.
Demetri’s monstrosity of a home is grand in nature all on its own, but on a night like tonight, where all the stops have been pulled, there’s something regal about it the likes of which Paragon have never seen before. I can hear the music pouring out from every orifice the overgrown house has to offer, and it’s merry and light, and my God, is that a full orchestra Ihear?
A man in a white curly wig and odd revolutionary sort of garb nods as he opens the door and lets us inside. Something about him gives off that old-world appeal, and he looks straight out of the seventeenth century, and well, he just might be. The foyer opens up, cavernous and breathtaking, with its crystal chandelier the size of a mid-sized sedan glittering far more than usual. The lights are dimmed just enough to display the bodies milling in the distance, rife with laughter, but that’s not all that has my eyes set wide withsurprise.
“Oh God, they’re here,” I hiss to Gage as an entire herd of vellum creatures—translucent once-upon-a-people—swirl about, laughing and chatting away a mile a minute in their full petticoats, the gentlemen in their rag tag suits, with their bow ties as thin as spaghetti. None of them seem to mind too much that we can see the walls right through their bodies as they float around like a slippery film, more of an idea than a humanconcept.
“Cool,” Gage says it flat. “Looks like Gramps pulled a few ghosts out of hiscloset.”
“Skeletons tofollow.”
Gage leads us to the grand room, and a body blocks our path before we canenter.
“Ingram!” I can’t help but brighten at the sight of my favorite curator of Tenebrous—the only curator, but still. “Nice to see you out and about!” I offer an impromptu hug. He looks dapper himself with his hair slicked back, a neat tuxedo, and his face looks a touch less pasty out in this cobalt light. The entire grand room is bathed inblue.
“Excellent to see you, my love. And you”—he nods to Gage. “And, of course, the guests of honor.” He smiles at both boys in turn. “If you don’t mind, I’ll introduce you now.” Ingram turns to the sea of people, all in glittering gowns and black tuxes. You’d think this were prom and not the culmination of a year’s worth of easy living for the boys. He motions to someone near the back as the crowd parts down the never-ending room, and the volume on the music turns down a notch. “Introducing Mr. and Mrs. Gage Oliver. Master Nathan and MasterBarron.”
The room erupts in cheers as a multitude of voices cry out atonce.
Ingram lifts a hand. “Let the masquerade ball begin!” He leans in and motions to the diaper bag. “If Imay.”
“Be my guest.” I’m quick to discard the twenty pounds of designerluggage.
The orchestra picks up again as Gage leads the boys and me through the neatly parted sea. About halfway through, the crowd collapses around us with my mother and Demetri quick to pluck the boys from our hands. My mother in her red dress with matching face garb and Demetri in a tux, his mask made of black scales—because he’s a snake likethat.
My mother lowers her feathered mask a moment, and I can’t help but note she’s donned that Dominique Winters’ inspired mole once again over her left cheek. “Isn’t thisfabulous?”
“It’s something, allright.”
Demetri widens his grin and nods in my direction. “This splendid celebration would have been impossible without the two of you, ofcourse.”
Mom chortles herself straight into a Demetri-gasm over the quasi-inappropriateinnuendo.
Mom holds out Nathan’s hand and begins dancing with him as her cleavage ripples out of her low-cut gown. “It’s beautiful, Demetri! How can we ever,everrepayyou?”
Dear Lord, flaunt your boobs at him one more time and I’m sure he’ll think of away.
You can practically hear his dark laughter over the music. “Try as you might, you’ve done so much for me already.” He gives a slywink.
Yeah, like gifting him an illegitimate child. My mother’s gratitude knows no vaginalbounds.
Mom sneers into him with a rather flirtatious toothy grin, her red-hot mask only adding fuel to the lusty fire. “You do know me, don’t you? Rest assured, I will try myhardest!”
Rest assured I will be puking on Demetri’s limestone flooring if this drags on one more two-timingminute.
Tad waddles up with a blue glowing cocktail in his hand, his mask slung over his forehead as if he’s given up on both the party and on life—and oddly his mask bears a striking resemblance to donkey ears. Gofigure.
“Jumping Jehoshaphat!” Tad whoops, and Gage slips his arm around my waist as if readying to protect me in the event he malfunctions. And, knowing how badly Demetri wants to bed my mother, Tad should very much be on the lookout for something far more nefarious than a simple malfunction. “Demeet—we’re five minutes of eleven, you andI.”
Gage and I grimace at the exact same time. I lean in and whisper, “Demeet?”
“Five minutes of eleven?” Gage shakes his head. “They’re not friends. They’re not evenclose.”
