Her musings were interrupted by a knock on the door. Azura and Shakra greeted them as they came in. Azura already had her glamour on, and appeared in a black corseted gown that swept the ground, and a large brimmed yellow hat with a green feather.

            “Lovely,” Alice said. “What are you really wearing?”

            “Jeans and a sweater.”

            “Secretly comfortable.”

            “Absolutely.”

            They were followed minutes later by Lacy and Tricia. Both girls had on long gowns and corsets. Lacy was in red and Tricia wore pink.

            “Like my glamour?” Tricia postured for them, swishing her long skirts back and forth. She allowed the illusion to drop, showing them her flannel top and pants in bright pink rabbit print and fuzzy slippers on her feet.
            “You’re wearing pajamas underneath?” Alice squeaked in disbelief.

            “Don’t worry.” Tricia giggled. “I won’t drop it the entire night, and I wanted to be comfortable.”

            “Goodness.” Alice looked down at her own jeans and sweatshirt.  There was no way she would be brave enough to wear anything like that under her glamour. She was confident that she could go the entire night without dropping it, but not that confident.

            “Do people ever go to dress parties wearing glamours and accidently drop them?” She asked. “That would be embarrassing.”

            “It’s happened before,” Tricia said, smirking. “A couple years ago there was this big birthday party for some actor, and a Witch got distracted and dropped her glamour. She was in her underwear.”  The blonde girl sounded scandalized.

            “Serves her right for wearing nothing but underwear and a spell.” Azura grinned.

            “We’ve got magical outfits,” Gabriel said from the doorway, “Are we arriving there in a pumpkin pulled by mice as well?”  He was dressed in a black suit and white silk tie and top hat.  He wore a red rose in at his collar and looked very distinguished.

            “Nice hat.” Tricia produced a fan from pyjama top and hid her face behind it, clearly flirting.

            “It hasn’t got the same effect in pyjamas,” Lacy told her crossly.

            “Oops!” Tricia twitched the thread back down onto her waist, and quite suddenly appeared to be dressed in sweeping skirts again.

            “Have you thought about what color your dress will be, Alice?” Azura asked.

            “I thought I’d do green.”

            “Make it emerald though,” Tricia instructed, “Not puke green.”

            “I don’t intend to make it puke anything,” Alice scoffed.

            Fifteen minutes later Alice was admiring the effects of the glamour in the full length mirror on her bedroom wall.

            “Marvellous” Tricia told her. “That color suites you. Try a hat too.”

            “Er...” Alice concentrated, and managed a small black hat perched to one side with several emerald green feathers.

            “Lovely…and some black beading on the dress.”

            “Okay. I think I can hold that alright. We’d better get downstairs. I don’t want them to be waiting on us.”

The limo was outside; Alice could see it was the same one they had taken to Ambrose’s last party.

“You called in another favour I see.”

            Altair grinned. “You know the drill, people. Alice and Shakra in last.”

            Alice climbed in after Shakra and settled onto the leather interior. “You would think I’d be less nervous this time.”

            “You were poisoned last time, so it’s hard to blame you,” Lacy said.

            “I think I need some champagne.”

Altair handed her a glass and Alice sipped it, trying to tell herself she was calm.  They didn’t talk much, save for a quiet murmur between Lacy and Tricia. By the time she finished her champagne they were rolling up the long driveway, and Alice braced herself as they came to a stop. Here we go. Lights, camera, action….

            “Ready?” Altair put his hand on the small of her back as he leaned over to push the door handle.

            “Ready.” Alice climbed out of the limousine and into the shining lights of the front steps of Alexie Ambrose’s mansion.  She had to remind herself to hold onto the glamour as she was assaulted by flashing cameras and shouts of, “Look this way, Ms. Cunningham!”

            Shakra followed closely on her heels as she mounted the steps and waited for the butlers to open the giant double doors.  They swung inwards, letting the light and noise stream out all around her.  The foyer was decorated beautifully, done up to look like a park with lamp posts and fake trees. It was complete with an old fashioned wooden carriage, minus the horses.

            “Wow,” Alice whispered.

            “This way,” a flat voice beside Alice’s ear intoned. She jumped, turning to see the butler walking away. They were lead up the same long stair case to the ballroom entrance and the butler rapped the door with his knuckles loudly.  Soundlessly the doors swung open, giving them the full view of the ballroom. 

            It was filled with noise and laughter. Candles burnt on giant oak candelabras around the room and nearly every available space was draped with climbing ivy.  The ladies were all in sweeping gowns and corsets, cooing to one another and casting coy gazes over their lacy fans. The men had top hats and canes. She spotted one fellow trying to impress a group of ladies,   twirling his ivory-tipped walking stick.

            Alice paused for as long as was proper, and then she and Shakra descended the stair case. This time there was no Ambrose sweeping through the crowds towards them, and Alice heaved a sigh of relief.  It was clear that Altair and Gabriel were thinking the same thing, as they both moved quickly to meet the girls in the middle.

            “Should we just walk around and look like we’re having fun?” Alice wondered.

            “Yes. Best case scenario, we just make our presence known and he’s happy with that,” Azura said.

            “Worst case?” Alice looked around nervously, noticing that a good deal of the guests had pale skin and glossy hair.  No doubt many of the ladies’ red lips masked sharp canines, and beneath the gentlemen’s eloquent speech lay a thirst for more than stimulating conversation.

“Is it just me, or are there a lot of Vampires here?”

            “He’s on tour with a Vampire rock group right now,” Lacy informed them.

            “Wonderful.”

            “Let’s mingle,” Altair said reluctantly. “Perhaps he won’t notice we’re here.”

            “I doubt we’ll have that luck,” Gabriel muttered.

            They waded into the crowd, sipping wine and sampling cocktails.  It was evident that all the most “fashionable” people were here, and Alice met a great many shiny painted creatures as the night wore on. Megaria and Alecto were there flashed their glittering wings and white smiles at her.

“Alice,” Megaria gushed, “So good to see you...”

“…splendid you’re here,” the other sister finished.

“How are you?” they said together.

            “Well, thank you.” Alice forced out small talk as best as she could knowing her cheery voice sounded fake. “How are you two? Lovely party isn’t it?”

            “Marvellous,” both sisters chorused, and Alice thought it would have been amusing if they weren’t so damn scary looking.

After a short, empty conversation with the Fury sisters, they moved on to weirder company still. She met several ghosts, a Fairy couple, a company of Elves that seemed to think they were far superior, (which Gabriel said gave him a bad reputation), a Goblin that hadn’t been invited but freely admitted to gate crashing, and a Centaur.  The last Alice found slightly alarming as he was nearly ten feet tall. They met him at the tables munching on h’ordurves and remarking upon how tiny everything was.  Alice found it fascinating that one half of him (the man half, of course) was dressed in a suit jacket, tie and top hat, and his horse half had on a fine leather saddle and silver stirrups.  

“Damn tiny cheese and crackers,” he was saying to a small man who resembled a frog in a suit.

            “Yes,” said the Frog man, disinterestedly. “I imagine they are.”

            “Tiny chairs too. Don’t know how I’m supposed to sit on them without breaking them into kindling.”

            “Don’t sit then,” said the Frog man unkindly.

            “It’s alright for you, isn’t it?”

            “I don’t think so, everything is so dry.” The Frog man turned to walk off and Alice saw with astonishment that his leg gave a little twitch every few steps, as if he were suppressing the need to hop.

            There were several giants in the crowd too, standing head and shoulders above everyone else awkwardly, mumbling into their drinks, or looking around a little desperately for someone to talk to. And in one corner of the ballroom an outgoing young woman with black and purple hair and a long, curve-hugging black dress was surrounded by a growing crowd.  She was amusing them by shape shifting into the people that went by and copying their motions.  Alice watched in astonishment as the girl morphed into the stuffy old woman that had just swept by them, casting them all a glare.  She imitated the woman’s huffy mannerisms very accurately, and her audience roared with laughter.

            “Oh! Do me!” Tricia pleaded, and gave an astonished cry as the purple haired girl rapidly changed from the woman, back to herself and then into Tricia.

            “Oh my goodness.” Alice put a hand to her mouth.

            Tricia stood there in her pink dress, hands on her hips, mouth hanging open - across from her stood her identical twin in a black dress. 

                        “Oh no!” the real Tricia cried. “Tell me my nose doesn’t look like that.”

            “Sorry,” said the other girl, and with a blur of subtle movement she changed back into herself, “It does.”

            Alice stifled a laugh as they moved on, noting that Tricia sulked and kept her fan over her face for the next several minutes. They spotted the gate-crashing Goblin running through the crowd, ducking between people’s legs, a silver platter piled high with cream puffs wobbling precariously on one hand.

             “Put that down!” one of the waiters called after him.

            “Now we know why he crashed the party,” Altair laughed. “He’s absconding with the cream puffs.”

            “Hey look,” Lacy said. “Those girls on the far side there, those must be more Sirens.”

            Alice was going to ask how she knew that, but when she turned around she spotted two tall, pale blonde women surrounded by a large crowd of dazed looking men.

            “They’re not even that good looking,” Tricia said grumpily.

            “They don’t have to be,” Gabriel replied. “They talk to you and you’re hooked. It’s the timbre of their voices. They say two words and you have no idea what hit you.”

            “You speak from experience.” Altair smirked at him. “You go googly-eyed every time Allira talks to you, not to mention spilling wine on people.” 

Gabriel blushed angrily and Alice shot Altair a look of warning.

They watched as the women walking by glared at the Sirens, one Witch stormed over and pulled one of the men away from the crowd of admirers. They could hear her hissing lecture as she dragged him away.

            The group went to get more wine and try some of the desserts at the giant tables.  Alice noticed several extremely hairy men standing around, and guessed they must be Werewolves. She was startled to see one of them eating rolls of sushi from a tiny china plate, lifting them up delicately and nibbling at the rice.  She heard him comment to his companion about how “Delightful” the cucumber sushi was. His companion had a china saucer and tea cup, and he was holding the tea cup up to his lips, taking small, dainty sips. His pinkie was stuck out to the side as he did so, though the gesture was ruined by the large, dirty claw on his finger.

            “Um…” she said quietly, and Gabriel smiled at her baffled expression.

            “They were probably excited to be invited to a fancy party; they’re trying to be civil,” he whispered. “It doesn’t come too naturally.”

            “Do tell,” Alice said faintly. Her amusement tapered off as she spotted Alexie Ambrose, trailed by his usual lackeys. She watched him nervously, feeling her stomach start to churn. He greeted people as the crowd parted in front of him, waving and smiling, laughing at someone’s joke. He was making straight for them.

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