Ronnie shrugged. “She deserves a night off. Just be careful and watch out for her. Concerts like that can be weird.”
“Yeah.” I glanced at the randy devil on the card.
“You don’t think this sudden resurgence in belief and revelry will…” Ronnie’s voice trailed off, and we both looked at the card before looking at each other.
“I don’t even want to think about it,” I said, the cookie suddenly tasteless.
“Right, don’t add to it.”
“Right.”
I took the brownies out of the oven and turned it off. “Guess I better go get ready.”
***
Joey was a good sport about not getting her own glamour. At least, she was a good sport when I told her it would take me at least an hour to lay the charms into a bracelet that she would have to go buy from Ronnie because I was out. So she settled for putting together an outfit she was sure would impress the crowds.
When I opened my door, we both started at the sight of each other. I’d gone with the basic concert uniform: dark washed skinny jeans, knee-high black boots with flat soles, a black T-shirt touting a band that wouldn’t be there, and a navy blue leather jacket. My eyes were darkened with sparkly grey shadow, and my lashes had a few extra coats of black-black mascara. I’d finished with red lipstick that would rival Santa’s suit. From the look Joey gave me, one would think I’d tried to go out in baggy pajama bottoms, a stained sweatshirt, and house slippers.
“What?” I demanded as I slipped the strap of my cross-body purse over my head.
“No, it’s fine,” Joey said. “I guess.”
“It’s no worse than what you’re wearing,” I said as I gestured at her.
Joey was wearing a clash of red and white and gold. Candy-cane-striped tights twisted up her legs, disappearing under a red dress with a mini-skirt. Her long sleeves ended at white furry cuffs, and she’d finished the ensemble with a white scarf and fuzzy Santa hat. She’d even affixed little silver bells to the backs of her white boots. She was clutching her smartphone, the cover making it look twice as big with its plastic cartoon details.
“What’s wrong with how I look?” she asked as she twirled in place, jingling as she did so.
“You look like you fell out of a Christmas Claymation movie.”
“Awesome!”
“You understand Krampus isn’t Santa, right?” I moved us out of the apartment, turning to lock the door behind me. “He’s not, like, one of his personalities or anything. He’s a different entity entirely.”
“I know,” Joey said. “But I don’t really have anything Bavarian, so I went Christmas-y.”
“How would one dress Bavarian exactly? With lederhosen and overalls?”
I had been totally joking, but as we approached the club after parking, I saw that was exactly how people thought you dressed Bavarian.
The crowd going in and out of the club was an eclectic bunch. Some were dressed like me, like any other night in West Hollywood, careful to wear trendy but safe shoes in case they accidentally stepped in anything in the club. Others were dressed much like Joey, like Santa’s little rejects, while others looked like the girls I’d made glamours for. Joey had her phone out, snapping pictures and taking quick videos. I had to keep grabbing her arm to steer her around people and fire hydrants and trash cans.
Horns and sparkles and bells were everywhere, and men and women were sporting every type of lederhosen, overalls, shorts, skirts, dresses, whatever. It was almost too much for my eyes to take in. But more than anything I felt was the overwhelming sense of humanness. I could feel the mixed signatures, like Joey, but the majority of people around us were mostly human. I felt out of place.
I spied three familiar faces among the throng. Both Whelan and Bu lifted their chins in greeting, but Laney actually gave me an enthusiastic wave. That was enough to make me smile. I waved back before being pushed forward by the crowd.
“At least you aren’t going to embarrass me with your clothes,” Joey said as we joined the queue for the front door.
“Jeeze, you make me feel like I’m about a hundred,” I grumbled. “You know I’m only twenty-four, right?”
Joey glanced over her shoulder at me, her lips parted as though she was going to say something. Then she thought better of it and closed her mouth. I glared at the back of her pink head, feeling tiny sparks of power snapping at my fingertips, and seriously considered giving her a little jolt.
The line jostled us back and forth. People were anxious to get inside and not miss a single second. I, on the other hand, wanted nothing more than to go back home, change into my baggy pajamas, put on a cheesy Christmas movie, and finish baking my goodies. Oh frogs, maybe I was a hundred already. I shook my head, making the sharp ends of my black hair swirl around my chin, and squared my shoulders. I was young, damn it. I could act like it for one lousy night.
Joey turned to face me when the line paused again. “Let’s take a selfie!”
Before I could say anything, Joey had one arm around my neck, pressing her cheek to mine, and her phone held out above us. I saw our faces on the screen, my lips parted and eyes wide in surprise. Joey’s smile and eyes were so bright, they rivaled the flash as the phone took our picture.
I blinked the spots out of my vision. “Lemme see it.”
“Cute!” Joey said in approval and shoved the phone in my face.
I actually didn’t look so bad, so I shrugged and gave her back the phone.
When we got to the front of the line, one of the girls I’d made a glamour bracelet for asked for our invitation and IDs. She was wearing a name tag that said her name was Courtney. I was surprised her name was so mundane.
It took her a second to recognize me, but when she did, she squealed and darted around the podium to give me a hug as though we were old friends. “Ohmigosh! It’s you! What do you think?” She twirled on her toes to show off her satyr costume. Her blue horns twisted out of platinum hair that was caught up into two ponytails. She was wearing blue fuzzy boots that came up to her knees and a brown mini dress that I assumed was supposed to give her an animal-like quality. But the doe nose and eyes and horns really set the look over the top.
“You made that?” Joey asked, her big lavender eyes blinking as she took in the girl.
“Yep,” I said, feeling a little bit of pride.
“Can I take a picture?” Joey asked.
Courtney obliged immediately, posing like an anime cartoon. After Joey got me to take a picture of her and Courtney together, she took one of me and Courtney together. The crowd behind us was getting angry, so I made Joey put the phone down.
“Here you go,” Courtney said, handing us both silver armbands. After we had them on, she gave me a few more and whispered, “These will get you into the rest of the events after tonight, so you don’t need the invitation anymore.”
I felt the strained smile on my face because Joey was practically vibrating with anticipation next to me. “Thanks.”
Joey’s smile was as bright as the North Star as she held open the curtain for us. Stepping through was like walking through a portal into another realm. We left West Hollywood and stepped into an Alpine winter wonderland. Joey squealed in delight, twisting around to grab my wrist and bounce on her toes. She was already pulling her phone out with the other hand.
The club spread out in front of us, the crowd of people packed in close to an empty U-shaped stage at the far end. The walls were formed into a 3-D mountain range, the tops painted with sparkling white paint to emulate snow. A massive chandelier made out of dozens and dozens of antlers that I really hoped were fake hung from the middle of the ceiling. The curtains hiding the backstage area were green felt. The lights strobed red, green, and white, changing the fake snow to different colors. Music filled the space, forcing people to yell to be heard. I quickly recognized it as the soundtrack from The Nightmare Before Christmas.
I snickered, shaking my head. “Appropriate.”
“Let’s get som
ething to drink,” Joey yelled before leading the way to the bar in one corner.
She easily dodged through the crowd, but I had to squeeze, shove, and sneak through. Joey ordered us two hot buttered rums. I assumed she thought that was an appropriate drink for the milieu. It was sweet and thick and made me make a cat face that I quickly hid for fear of Joey’s camera.
Soon the lights went dark, and the crowd around us erupted into screams and cheers, making my ears ring. A spotlight burst to life on the center of the stage where a man dressed like a cheesy version of Hansel from Grimm’s Fairytales stood. Again, the crowd cheered.
He held the mic too close to his mouth, so I had a hard time understanding him, but the rest of the crowd clapped and hollered as if they knew exactly what was going on. I had no idea how they could understand him. I was pretending for Joey’s sake—maybe everyone else was pretending too. Maybe none of us were as young and hip as we wanted everyone to believe. The curtains lifted behind him, and a line of chorus girls dressed like Gretel took the stage. The music swelled again, and the show was on.
The people around us danced and stomped and clapped, pulling Joey and me deeper into the center of the club. I shook off the feeling of being a chaperone at a kid’s dance and let the energy of the crowd fill me. I moved with the music and reflected Joey’s smile, and eventually I wasn’t forcing it. I didn’t even mind Joey’s incessant picture and video taking.
My skin tingled with power, my muscles were warm, and a fine sheen of sweat formed at my hairline. But this was nothing like being trapped in the mall and the never-ending line to Hell. This was exciting and fun and full of happy energy. I cheered with the crowd as the different acts took the stage, whistling whenever the Hansel-look-alike came back out.
Before long, Joey glowed with her pixie energy, glitter falling from her in pinks and silvers. The crowd loved her. People circled her to watch her dance and touched the pixie dust and wiped it on their faces or in their hair to make themselves glitter.
Someone touched my shoulder. I turned to see a man smiling at me. He looked as though he was within a year of my age, making him a bit older than the average person in the crowd. That immediately made me feel a little better.
He had wavy brown hair that was pushed back and looked as though he might’ve rolled out of bed with its perfect carelessness, but I had a feeling it took some time in the mirror to get it that way. He had a narrow chin and fine cheekbones that led to his warm, honey-brown eyes. When he smiled at me, one dimple formed in his right cheek.
He said something, but a swing band had taken the stage and started up their rendition of Boogie Woogie Santa. I couldn’t hear him. Leaning in, I tilted my head so he could speak into my ear. In doing so, I felt his aura. He felt human, but there was a little something more there, something vaguely familiar. Something magical.
“Hi,” he said, smiling again.
I laughed and gave him a small wave.
“Would you like to dance?”
The crowd around us had shifted, half the people slinking to the sides of the dance floor while the rest partnered up. I’d never learned how to swing dance. I turned my head, and he obliged, giving me his ear.
“I don’t know how,” I admitted.
“Just follow my lead.” He held out his hands and lifted his brows expectantly.
I felt Joey’s sparkling energy at my side and turned as she pulled my purse over my head and gave me a small push toward the handsome stranger. She waggled her pink brows, and I had to repress a snort. Half reluctantly, half excitedly, I gave him my hands.
He leaned in with one arm around my waist and said, “Just rock step on every third step.”
“What?” I managed to ask before we were off and spinning.
My feet took a moment to catch up with the rest of my body as he led me through twirls and spins, but I managed to force myself to count. One, two, rock step. One, two, rock step. In no time, I felt like a natural.
He flashed me that dimpled smile as I swung under his arm, rock stepping before he pulled me back through. The room swirled around me in a myriad of colors and sparkles, making my head spin. By the time the music came to an end, I was a little dizzy and out of breath, but I was laughing too. That was the most fun I’d had in a club in my entire life.
“Thank you for the dance,” he said, bending slightly at the waist.
A flush crept up my cheeks, and if my smile got any bigger, it would split my face. “Thank you.”
“Can I buy you a drink?”
I glanced at the bar, many of the seats open as the crowd rushed back onto the floor. The idea of sitting was pretty alluring, so I nodded. Joey passed me my purse as she went deeper into the dancing mob. At the bar, I ordered a water, feeling a little too warm in my jacket, and he ordered a simple beer. We sat on the high stools with one side toward the bar and the other toward the crowd so we were facing each other.
“Cole,” he said.
“Matilda,” I said. “But my friends call me Mattie.”
“So which should I call you?”
“Well, that was a pretty fun dance, so I think you can call me Mattie.”
Cole smiled and lifted his pint glass in a toast, and I tapped it with my bottle of water.
We fell into an easy silence as we sipped our drinks and watched the people around us. Slowly, Cole asked me a few questions, easing us into the getting-to-know-you conversation. It turned out my sense of something magical about him was right—he was a kitchen witch. His mother had been a full-fledged witch, like Ronnie and me, but his dad was human. Cole didn’t have his mother’s talents, but he could do some special things with medicinal herbs and food. As soon as I told him my last name was Kavanagh, he recognized me by my reputation and almost gushed over meeting me.
“How do so many humans know who I am?” I asked. “I’ve had a sudden influx of human clientele lately.”
“Because you’ll actually see humans.”
“What?”
“Remember all the attacks from PEACE?”
A shudder went through me. Of course I remembered. I’d had to get a newly remodeled kitchen because an initiate set off a pipe bomb in my apartment. The look on my face must’ve answered his question because Cole chuckled before taking a sip of his beer.
“Yeah,” I said, “I’m familiar.”
“Well, after the Solstice attack, a lot of supernaturals won’t do business with humans. So any witches that were selling spells or potions to humans just stopped. But you didn’t.”
“Oh, I hadn’t realized. None of my friends reacted that way,” I said slowly.
“Mostly it’s the ones who live on the very edge of Havencrest, the ones around a lot of humans,” he said.
I nodded. Ronnie and I lived almost in the dead center of Havencrest. Any humans who ventured that far into our pocket of the city would be incredibly stupid to try anything like PEACE’s attacks.
“So yeah, that and the website.”
“What? What website?” I asked.
“Your website?” he said as if I’d lost my mind.
“I don’t have a website.”
“I guess it’s more of a fan page, but that’s just semantics. You put on there that humans are more than welcome.”
“I don’t have a website,” I said again, stressing each word.
Cole just stared at me for a moment, then realization dawned on me. My eyes traveled over the crowd until I spotted my pink little friend. Before we could continue our conversation, trumpet fanfare cut through the music and voices. Cole and I turned to look in the direction the rest of the club had turned, like a swarm of bees answering the call of their queen.
The doors burst open, and a blur of horns and fur and massive bodies flooded the hall. My body went cold as a dozen or more Krampuses (Krampi?) stomped in, pushing through the crowd and swinging their bundles of birch switches. Their modeled masks were too lifelike, and their onyx eyes glittered menacingly.
“So fucking creepy, ri
ght?” Cole asked, leaning in to be heard.
“You grew up believing?” I asked, a little surprised.
“Yep,” he said, his eyes sliding to the closest Krampus, who was swatting a Hansel look-alike. “Thanks for the nightmares, Mom.”
I laughed, but it was a strangled noise. The closer the costumed revelers got to me, the more I wanted to run out of the club and into the night.
Joey bounded up to me, her energy alive and singing. “This. Is. Awesome!”
I nodded slowly, trying to act cool, but the label of my water bottle was shredded in my hand.
“We should go, though,” she yelled.
“Why?” I asked though I was more than a little relieved to hear it.
“Everyone is going to follow them when the Krampus parade leaves, and we’ll never get home.”
“Great!” I jumped off the stool. “It was so nice to meet you.”
“Yeah, you too,” Cole said as he stood.
I was afraid of some awkward moment where he might lean in for a kiss or press for my number, but instead he held out his hand. I blinked for a second before my smile caught up with my thoughts, and I took his hand.
“Listen, if you ever wanna get a cup of coffee, or exchange spells, give me a call.” He held out a white card with his name, number, email address, and website printed on it.
“Wow,” I said with a small laugh, “guess I get my choice of mode of contact.”
Cole just smiled, nodded slightly, and turned to meld back into the crowd.
Chapter 4
The night air was cold and bracing when we stepped out of the club. When the doors fell closed, I could still hear the noise from inside. The crowd was chanting something, and their feet pounded hard enough that the sidewalk almost vibrated.
I shook out my short hair, letting the cool air lift it away from my face. Behind my eyelids, I saw a bright flash. When I looked, I found Joey lowering her phone and tapping away at the keys. I couldn’t imagine her phone could actually keep up with her fingers.
“Speaking of,” I said, catching her attention.
Yuletide (Matilda Kavanagh Novels Book 3) Page 4