“So, your proper name is Larry, not Lawrence?”
“Right.” Larry dropped Jennifer’s hand.
“Larry, this is Jennifer Cooper,” Aiden broke in. “And Jennifer, this guy over here is Steve Lickerman.”
“Steve?” Jennifer asked. “Or Stephen?”
“Ste…phen,” Steve said, pausing halfway through his name as Jennifer’s attention was called elsewhere and finishing as she turned to give a half-hearted hug to another new arrival. It wasn’t uncommon for him to get lost in the shuffle. His height (well over six feet) and hair (bright red) should have made him more noticeable, but his quiet demeanor and mismatched, rumpled clothes tended to push him into the background. Aiden considered him, in so many ways, the anti-Larry.
Having lost interest in Jennifer, Larry wandered away in search of other females to chat up.
“She’s got something about proper names,” Aiden said to Steve, answering his puzzled look. He gave a shrug that said he didn’t really get it either and led Steve through the archway into the dining room.
“What a spread!” Steve gazed at the laden table.
“Help yourself.” Aiden gestured to the stack of square white plates.
Steve did so, filling his plate with hors d’oeuvres until it resembled the Leaning Tower of Pisa. He looked around for a place to sit and eat. The dining room chairs had been placed around the edge of the room, making the buffet more accessible. The chairs were filled with guests who chatted and munched. “Where should I…?” Steve trailed off.
“Let’s try the great room.”
This room was, if possible, even more crowded than the last. Small groups of people stood around talking and laughing, most with glasses in their hands. With several “pardons” as he nudged his way through the crowd, Aiden led Steve to the seating area. This, of course, was full of gabbing, glittering party guests. With just one glance around the room, Aiden saw several faces that he recognized from television. Judging by the awed look on his face, so did Steve. The place was so packed, Aiden couldn’t even see a spot for Steve to set his plate and eat standing up. “Let’s try the terrace.” Through the large windows, it looked like the balcony was deserted. It was unseasonably chilly out, and everyone was dressed in their summer finest, meaning lots of exposed arms and legs. Plus, the celebrities and entertainment moguls were all holding court inside, which meant everyone congregated there.
Making their way through the crowd and out the French doors, Aiden was surprised to see that Larry had beat them out there. Naturally, he wasn’t alone.
“So, you work in television?” Larry asked the attractive redhead as they sat at one of the patio tables.
“Yeah, I’m Mrs. Cooper’s assistant,” she answered. “Well, one of her assistants.”
They both looked up as footsteps approached. “Oh, hey there, Aiden, Steve.” Larry didn’t sound all that happy to see his friends.
“Hey.” Steve deposited his plate on the table, causing a Swedish meatball to roll off it, across the table, and onto Mrs. Cooper’s assistant’s lap.
“Oh!” she cried.
“Sorry,” Steve said. “Here, let me get you a napkin.”
“I need more than a napkin. I’d better go rinse this off before the stain sets.” She stood and held her skirt so that the saucy section wouldn’t touch any other part of the fabric. “It was nice meeting you, Larry.” She went through the doorway and disappeared into the crowd.
“Nice, Steve.” Larry was irritated. “Real smooth.”
“Chill out, Larry,” Steve said.
“It was an accident,” said Aiden, trying to keep the peace.
“I know, I know.” Larry got up and wandered to the railing. “Nice view.” His tone already sounded friendly again.
“Yup,” Aiden agreed.
Steve failed to comment on the view. He was busy stuffing food into his mouth as fast as inhumanly possible.
Larry leaned against the railing, hanging recklessly far backward. “Aiden, my man, this is quite a setup you’ve got here.”
Steve nodded his agreement, his mouth filled with an entire stuffed mushroom.
Aiden chuckled. “Yeah, it’s okay. The best part is the cook. She’s a food oracle.”
“Wow!” Larry had a look of genuine shock on his face. “I had one of those once. You are one lucky son of a—”
Whatever colorful term he had in mind was cut short when Josh wandered onto the terrace carrying a large plate full of food. “Mom said to bring this out to you guys.” He threw appraising looks at Larry and Steve.
The three men all reached for the plate but stopped short as Josh asked, “So are you two werewolves too?”
There was a moment’s silence before Aiden replied, “No, they’re not.”
Josh looked disappointed.
“He knows?” asked Steve.
Aiden nodded and said, “Yup. I sort of…had to change in front of him this week.”
After checking to make sure nobody was close enough to overhear, Larry extended his hand to Josh. “Well, then there’s no sense in holding anything back. Larry Fancypants, vampire.”
Josh’s eyes went wide, causing everyone to laugh.
“He’s okay, Josh,” said Aiden. “I wouldn’t bring him here if he wasn’t.”
Josh relaxed, but only a little. He balanced the plate in his left hand and tentatively shook Larry’s.
“And Steve Lickerman, leprechaun,” added Steve.
Josh’s eyes went from Steve’s feet, which sported orange high-top canvas sneakers, up six feet or more to the top of his flaming red hair. “No, really. What are you?”
Larry and Aiden chuckled. Steve just looked somewhat embarrassed. “No, really. I am.”
“You see, Josh,” said Aiden as he took the plate and set it on the patio table, “most of what you know about the Imaginary World is wrong.”
“Imaginary World?”
The others sat around the table, picking from the plate. Josh remained standing.
Since Aiden had just popped a cheese-topped cracker into his mouth, Larry took over. “It’s sort of joke, but that’s what we call our society. Vampires, werewolves, zombies, goblins, all that sort of thing.”
“Leprechauns too,” added Steve.
“Right. Leprechauns too.” Larry rolled his eyes. “Just because I didn’t specifically mention you by species doesn’t degrade you as a person, Steve. It’s the fact that you can’t do something relatively simple like making a double rainbow that lowers your personal worth.”
Having finished his snack, Aiden took control of the conversation before it devolved into the usual good-natured bickering. “Josh, why don’t you close the door and have a seat?”
When Josh rejoined them at the table, Aiden continued where Larry left off. “We call it the Imaginary World because we want regular people—the ‘Real World’ to us—to think that we’re not real. In the past, people have been scared of us and overreacted. In a rather violent way. So people like the Brothers Grimm and Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley, they did a major public relations campaign and made everyone think we’re made up.”
“There is an amount of truth in the stories, though,” Larry contributed. “Vampires live an awful long time and do need blood to survive, but we never kill for it. A large, raw steak a day does it for me.”
“Gross,” muttered Aiden.
“And werewolves don’t have to change at the full moon,” added Josh.
“Right,” Aiden said.
“And leprechauns aren’t really small?” Josh ventured.
“That’s right, little buddy,” Steve said, ruffling Josh’s hair with his hand.
“But I don’t get it.” Josh had a puzzled look. “You guys seem okay. What’s there to be scared about?”
Aiden exchanged a look with Larry and Steve. “Well, Josh,” said Larry, “it’s like the Real World. Not everybody is so nice. There are some things—like goblins and pukwudgies—that aren’t so nice. In the past, we’ve all bee
n lumped in together and, like Aiden said, we’ve all suffered for it. So we try to stay hidden.”
“Yeah, and Mr. Midnight,” said Steve in a near-whisper.
“Mr. Midnight? Who’s that?” asked Josh.
“Nobody,” said Aiden quickly.
“He’s a wraith,” continued Steve, overriding Aiden. “He’s darkness. He strikes from nowhere—”
“And steals your soul and cleans out your bank account and uses your toothbrush to scrub his toilet,” finished Larry in a bored tone. “And he’s also a story made up to scare little monsters into behaving. Oh, the number of times I heard, ‘Brush your fangs or Mr. Midnight will get you.’”
Steve stood and said, sounding almost angry, “He’s real. I saw him.”
“What you saw wasn’t a shadow man. It was a shadow,” said Larry, still reclining in his chair.
“So, he’s not real?” asked Josh, looking unsure.
“You got it, Josh,” said Aiden with a finality that suggested no more debate on the subject.
“What does he got?” came a voice from across the patio.
The four guys all turned to see Rosemary coming through the French doors. She had put a lot of effort into her party outfit, which consisted of a blue princess dress, a wreath of white silk lilies in her hair (Aiden wondered if this was a Christmas decoration) and sparkly purple sneakers.
“Uh, he’s got a lot of food here,” Steve answered.
Rosemary walked to Steve and did a curtsy. “Rosemary Cooper,” she introduced herself.
“Uh, Steve Lickerman.”
Rosemary giggled. “You have a silly name!”
“Rosemary, that’s not very nice,” Josh reprimanded his sister.
“But it’s true!” she protested. Spotting the other new face, Rosemary circled the table to give Larry a curtsy, as well.
“You must be the famous Rosemary Cooper,” Larry said, his voice holding a touch of awe.
“Yes, I am!”
“And I’m Larry Fancypants!” Rosemary giggled again. “I know, it’s a silly name,” he said in a mock-rueful tone, shaking his head.
“But I like it!” Rosemary said.
“Why, thank you, milady!”
“Uh, Rosemary, did you, like, need something?” Josh asked, impatient to get back to the conversation.
“Oh, yeah, I wanted to tell Aiden that Seedy is finally here!”
“Seedy?” Aiden asked.
“Yes, Seedy,” Rosemary confirmed. “She’s finally here!”
“She’s always late to everything,” Josh grumbled.
“Fashionably late,” Rosemary corrected.
“Well, then she’s really, really fashionable,” Josh said.
“Wait, who is Seedy?” Aiden asked.
“She means the initials ‘C.D.,’” Josh explained. “It’s what my parents call Carlie Diane sometimes.”
“Right, Seedy,” Rosemary agreed. “That’s what I said!”
“Carlie Diane, eh?” Larry asked. “Now that’s a lady I’d like to meet.” He went into the apartment in search of the famous late night talk show host.
Rosemary trailed after him, calling, “I can introduce you!”
“This ought to be interesting,” said Aiden as he left his seat, taking one last guacamole-covered chip.
Josh and Steve looked at each other.
“We kind of have to keep Larry in check every so often,” explained Steve. “Sometimes he forgets he’s supposed to be a secret.”
By the time Aiden, Josh, and Steve found Larry, he had already progressed past the debonair hand kiss and was name-dropping, one of his regular ploys to impress women.
“Yeah,” he said, “this reminds me a lot of Bobby DeLoggia’s place. I hang out there whenever he’s in town.”
Aiden stifled a little laugh. Larry had never mentioned that he knew the famous actor and, if he truly did, it was something that he would have bragged about long ago. Carlie Diane, however, looked impressed. Her big, blue, smoky-shadowed eyes were wide as she patted a stray blonde curl back into place in her casual up-do.
“Really?” said Carlie Diane. Aiden remembered hearing somewhere that she was a former Miss Tennessee and wondered where her accent had gone. “Maybe we’ll meet up at one of his dinner parties. I usually get invited to his Greenwich Grill gatherings.”
“Uh, yeah.” Larry’s smile faltered one tiny bit. “I’m surprised we haven’t met before now.”
As much fun as this was to watch, Aiden couldn’t risk Larry becoming too friendly with Carlie Diane. He had something planned just in case a situation like this came up. Stepping forward, he held out a piece of paper and said, “Oh, Larry. Cleo wanted me to give you her new number. She misses you terribly.”
“Cleo?” asked Carlie Diane, her smile faltering not one bit. She was a real pro.
“Yeah, Cleo,” said a flustered Larry. “She’s this girl I know. She, uh…”
“I’ll go see if Jennifer needs some help in the kitchen. It was nice to meet you, Larry.” Carlie Diane turned and headed away from the kitchen.
“What was that about?” asked Larry, a disbelieving look on his face.
Laughing, Aiden forced the paper into his hand. “You’re supposed to keep a low profile, remember? Do you really want to end up in the tabloids as Carlie Diane’s new boyfriend?”
“YES!” exclaimed Larry, causing several people nearby to look at him.
“No,” Aiden corrected.
“I guess it wouldn’t be the best idea.” Larry sighed.
Aiden turned around to make a comment to Steve only to find that Steve was no longer behind him. Neither were Rosemary and Josh. It didn’t take long to find them. Rosemary had decided that the area in front of the television would make an excellent dance floor. She moved jerkily in time with the Irish Pipers music coming through the room’s speakers. Steve, an embarrassed look on his face, just sort of swayed back and forth randomly. Josh sat on the couch, looking like this was the funniest thing he had ever seen.
* * * *
The best part of his parents’ parties, Josh thought, was the food. Mrs. F-G went all out, making all kinds of stuff they never had on a normal day. He didn’t like the mingling his mother insisted he do. They were all strangers—with the exception of a few distant relatives—so they ignored him, and he ignored them. The worst part, without a doubt, was cleaning up. His mother had decided a while ago that he was old enough to begin what she called “character building.” To him, this meant “work.”
The morning after the party, he spent over an hour walking around gathering discarded glasses, dumping out any leftover liquid they held, and then helping Mrs. F-G wash them by hand. His mother didn’t trust their dishwasher to do a proper job with the stemware. At least she had gotten him his own pair of rubber gloves that reached up past his elbows, keeping his fingers from ending up looking like raisins. And, of course, there was an unspoken arrangement between him and Mrs. F-G that she would wash pretty much everything. He just had to stand next to her, keep her company, and look busy whenever his mother walked through the room.
At last, everything was clean and put away. Josh sat at the island with a plate of leftovers, which tasted even better than they did the night before. Maybe he had just built up an appetite standing in front of the sink for so long.
Aiden strolled into the kitchen and took a seat next to Josh, reaching to take something from his plate.
“Hey, get your own stinking food,” Josh joked.
Aiden laughed. He held his hands in front of him in surrender. “Okay.”
Soon the two of them were sitting next to each other, munching away, as Mrs. F-G gave the open pantry an appraising look.
“Oh, that reminds me,” said Aiden, “my friend Larry was pretty jealous when he found out you were a—”
He threw a look toward the great room, where Jennifer and Robert were busy reviewing the Carlie Diane episodes from the previous week and taking notes.
“—a food orac
le,” he continued. “He kept dropping hints that I needed to invite him over for dinner some night. Any chance we could swing that sometime soon?”
“Larry,” said Mrs. F-G, her eyes looking unfocused. “He’d want something rare. Something very rare. Something very, very, very rare.” She snapped back to normal and said, “Vampire? A draugen, maybe?” She gave Josh a quick look.
“Vampire,” confirmed Aiden. “Josh met him.”
“Yeah, him and Steve the leprechaun,” said Josh through a mouth full of Mediterranean potato salad.
“Manners,” said Mrs. F-G with a disapproving look at Josh as she examined a tin of saffron. Sometimes she could be a little too much like his mother.
After swallowing his food, Josh said, “And they told me all about Mr. Midnight.”
The saffron fell to the floor and popped open, sending red threads all over.
“Oh, dear.” Mrs. F-G surveyed the mess. “I guess we won’t be having that tonight. Josh, could you please get me the dustpan?”
Josh left his plate and went to the large closet that held all the cleaning supplies for the apartment. Between the cyclone vacuum cleaner and the steam mop, he found the dustpan.
The sound of Aiden’s voice caused him to stop short before reentering the kitchen.
“Don’t worry,” he said in a hushed tone, sounding defensive. “Larry made it all out to be a fairy tale. I don’t think Josh believes in Mr. Midnight any more than he believes his parents are cool.”
Mrs. F-G sounded concerned. “I just don’t want him worrying about some psycho stalker running around the city.”
“Listen, it’s not like he’s in any danger. We’re the ones that should be worried. I’m supposed to go in for some wraith training sometime soon.”
“Just the same, I’d appreciate it if your friends didn’t talk about him in front of Josh.”
“For what it’s worth, I agree with you. I’ll tell Larry and Steve not to talk about him.”
“Thank you. I’d feel much better about that.”
She began to hum, making Josh think that the conversation was over just as he was getting curious about this mysterious Mr. Midnight.
But the curious events were far from over. He heard his mother walk into the kitchen, her high heels clacking on the tiled floor. The refrigerator door opened and a bottle hissed.
Shadows of New York Page 5
