Incident 5 Welcome to My Lair
Ross gave a knock at the door. “Everyone decent?”
“Not morally!” someone in the room called back. “But we’re wearing pants, if that’s what you’re asking.”
Fair enough. Ross hip-checked the door open, using his elbow to turn the door knob, and shuffled through, his arms full of yet more body glitter.
One of the reasons why Ross had been so exhausted the past several weeks was because of the haunted house, and he was relieved to be finished with the prep-work. Today was opening day, and it would run for a week, ending on Halloween night.
The clan was beyond excited about this. Halloween presented the one time of the year where they could unabashedly be themselves and people would just roll with it, assuming they were playing some character.
They weren’t on clan territory. They’d rented out a warehouse on the outskirts of Salem to create their spooky vision.
Ross was running around behind the scenes, picking up last minute supplies and making sure they were all ready to start on time.
The haunted house was apparently famous in Salem as being THE place to go.
They already had a line out the door that wrapped halfway around the building.
Inside the changing room, it was chaos. Productions on Broadway probably looked like this—people running willy-nilly around the room, half in costume, others calling out for black eye liner, and was that a chorus line in the back corner? Someone was singing Monster Mash, and really? Really?
Ross rolled his eyes and let them be. Instead he headed toward the group of vampires. “Delivery of body glitter for my favorite bloodsuckers!”
All of them turned and the nearest, Bryn, immediately turned to make gimme gimme hands.
She was the ‘youngest’ of the vampires, appearing to be ten-years-old, but in fact she was the oldest of the lot.
That he knew of. Ross had been reliably informed she was three hundred and twenty-two this very Halloween.
“Perfect, we needed more,” she told him happily. “You got the white sparkly kind only?”
“Of course. But someone needs to explain to me why you’re slathering on glitter?” It made no sense to Ross whatsoever.
They all gave him a blank look, but it was Argus who spoke in his accented English.
He’d embraced his Greek heritage by wearing a loose-fitting chiton and the cloak that draped over it.
He really did look as if he’d stepped out of ancient Greece in that outfit.
(For all Ross knew, he had. He had no idea how old Argus was.) “Didn’t you read them? ”
“Read what?”
“The Twilight books,” Bryn answered. “I thought everyone read those.”
“I think my sister did?” Ross didn’t really read anything with het romance in it. And really, if he were going to read, it was either fantasy or science fiction most of the time. “I didn’t, though. So how do the books and glitter connect?”
“The vampires sparkle in those books,” Argus explained, already reaching into the box and opening the first bottle.
“Right.” The logic of why they were imitating those vampires when they knew it didn’t match reality cramped his brain. But okay, whatever. He just handed out glitter and let them do their thing.
“Ross, can you hook my collar?” Eldora turned to indicate the high, lacey collar giving her trouble. She too had gone crazy with the costume and wore some Victorian getup with strategic rips in both bodice and skirt.
“Sure.” Ross maneuvered sideways around the stools people sat on and hooked the collar carefully together. “There. You need glitter, too?”
“If you don’t mind.”
Since everyone was hogging the mirrors, she likely would be late if he didn’t help her.
Ross set about glittering up her face, ears, and hands, as that was about all the skin you could see on her.
Then he saw someone else with half-done makeup and went to help them, and ended up sucked into being wardrobe assistant without meaning to.
Fyffe stuck his head into the room to call loudly over the din of conversation, “Ross, we’re about to open the doors! Stop hiding back here!”
“I’m not procrastinating!” Ross called back, finishing attaching a very scary looking headdress onto a normally shy elf. “I’m doing side quests!”
“Well, stop, we need you out front.”
Ross was not in charge of ticket sales or admitting people—he’d trained people on that—so this didn’t sound promising. “Why?”
“We can’t get the doohickey to connect to the thing—y’know.”
Ross finished and gave Fyffe a deadpan look. “You can’t get the square reader to connect to the Wi-Fi?”
“Yeah, that.”
Shaking his head, he quickly finished up before going out and through the narrow hallway to the front.
They hadn’t opened the front doors yet, but he could see people through the glass.
Annabella stood behind their register, stabbing at the square reader with a fingernail and scowling at it.
She looked like a voluptuous and blond Morticia, so the scowl was actually rather terrifying on a visual level.
“Annabella,” Ross called as he moved to her side. “Let me see.”
She gratefully moved to the side. “It lost its mind for some reason. I turned it off and on, like you said to, and it’s working again, but it won’t connect to the internet.”
Ross pulled up the network connections and realized the problem almost instantly. “Well, it’s trying to connect to the house internet, so no wonder.”
“Oh. Why?”
“Because computers are very literal beings that can’t do anything intuitive.
Hang on.” He selected the building Wi-Fi instead, but it disconnected almost immediately.
The signal was too weak to be stable. Ross frowned at it, aggravated.
He’d tested this days ago to see if there was a problem and there hadn’t been, so why tonight?
Technology, you faithless dog. No cookie for you.
It wasn’t just aggravating, it was problematic. They didn’t have any sort of backup plan. Which was why Ross had tested it earlier.
“Can you not fix it?” Annabella asked anxiously.
“I think we’ll need to do a work around.
The Wi-Fi isn’t stable tonight for some reason.
” Ross pulled out his phone and checked.
He had full signal. Perfect. He hotspotted the square to his phone, and the connection instantly stabilized.
“Alright, we’re going to use my phone’s data.
I’m going to set the phone right behind the kiosk. Do NOT move it, okay?”
Annabella snapped out a salute. “Roger. But won’t you need your phone?”
“Naw, I’ve got the walkie-talkie.” Ross moved his suit coat back to show it attached to his belt. “This thing isn’t just for show.”
“Who are you supposed to be?” Annabella asked curiously, looking him over from head to foot. He wore a dark, nondescript suit, dress shoes, white shirt, and a tie. “Men in Black?”
“Phil Coulson,” Ross corrected her. “Although I suppose Men in Black work.”
“Ahhh. But really, why that costume?”
“I had to choose something I could move in.”
Annabella nodded thoughtfully. “Yes, probably wise on your part.”
“Ross.”
Ross turned to see Glenn hailing him from a few feet away.
His boss stood directly next to the hall entrance, which was blocked off by darkness and red velvet curtains.
Because Glenn had a warped sense of humor, he was dressed up as Count Dracula, top hat, sweeping cape, and all.
He should have looked comical, or cute. And he did on some level.
But the tuxedo suited him perfectly, flattering the man’s trim build.
Something about the way he stood, poised and confident in the dim foyer, hearkened back to an earlier time.
Like a lord waiting on a party to begin.
Ross had the oddest urge to walk up and ask if Glenn would suck his blood, please and thank you.
Clearly an indication he’d been buried in Halloween too long.
Crossing to him, Ross asked, “Problem?”
“Only a minor one,” Glenn answered, mouth tucked up in amusement. “Come, my lovely.”
“That was a perfectly dreadful accent.”
“My Transylvanian needs work,” Glenn agreed cheerfully. “Now, hold still for a moment. You’ve glitter on your cheek.”
Ross obediently held still, enjoying the warm sweep of a thumb across his cheekbone.
And he might be standing closer to Glenn than was actually necessary, but Glenn encouraged this by letting a hand rest on Ross’s hip.
Even after that swipe, Glenn’s fingers brushed against his face, a warm smile lingering.
“However did you get glitter on you?”
“Your vampires, for some reason, insist they must sparkle. I helped slather them up.” Ross’s instincts were at war.
He liked Glenn’s hands on him, all too much, and the impulse to capitalize on it was strong.
But another instinct held him in check, reminding him of all the sensible reasons to not do what his libido urged.
Glenn’s smile at him wasn’t helping, because while it looked gently amused on the surface, a hint of hunger lurked there—or maybe it only felt that way because of the heat in Glenn’s golden eyes.
This wasn’t the time or place. Plenty of people watched, and they were literally minutes away from opening the doors.
But a selfish part of him wanted to step in, take the invitation in Glenn’s smile.
Glenn shook his head slightly. “They’re so silly. Ever since those books came out, they’ve been like this. You’re not running yourself hard, I trust?”
“You ask that question as if there’s a threat involved.”
“There is.” Glenn’s voice dropped in tone to a rough burr, his hand tightening on Ross’s hip. “I never want to see you that exhausted again. It alarmed me thoroughly. If I need to put fear back into them to manage that, I’ll quite happily do it.”