Julie walked the long narrow road meant for two cars with no sidewalk on either side, nor were there any streetlights. To the untrained eye, she looked like a helpless victim that had taken a wrong turn that brought her onto Lacards Street. Waste littered the road, the rot of feces-covered some buildings, and cracks and holes littered the street. The constant screams of fairies filled the air. This was no man's land, where death and pain wouldn't have to be suffered by everyone else.

How many fairies would die today? They were forced into a life they did not want to power a crumbling society like a battery of those who moved them into service. This was the only thing this place served as additional power for the rest of the city.

How quite similar we all are.

She chuckled loudly to herself, catching the stray eye of one or two others out on the street. Whoever had found the secret to steam power had to be a mad genius. The hundreds or thousands he or she had to kill just to figure out how everything would work. Julie heard a thumping sound coming from above and, from a glance, saw her pets looking down at her.

Julie looked up at the half-fallen sign, Burolea Alley. This was a place anyone in Black Water that wanted to live would stay away from. Yet Julie continued strolling along casually, coming to a stop by an approaching group of a minotaur, goblins, pixies, and werewolves that blocked her path. All painted across their body in a red dye marking their faces.

"Can I help you?"

A towering beast of a minotaur stepped forward. "I don't remember allowing you to enter here and I have never seen your face before." The others circled Julie, their eyes gauging her. Fleas danced on the werewolves covered deep in matted fur. Goblins were snuffling about in jeer, and the pixies were cautiously zipping around and watching.

"That's because I decided to take a walk. Inhale the morning breeze and listen to the sounds of despair."

"You are sly or foolish." The minotaur chuckled. "What are you, a witch, a doppelganger, or maybe a puny vampire? I have killed all of your kind before."

"Vampire, I feel boss," a goblin said beside him.

"Should we kill her for not paying?" a pixie asked.

"We can eat her afterwards," one of the werewolves responded.

"Vampires taste foul."

"Might be a witch using magic."

"Witches are dangerous," said a pixie. "We should leave her alone." The pixies backed up.

"I killed witches before. We won't have anything to eat if we let it go."

Julie shrugged. Her eyes shifted from one decrypted building to the next. "You seem to be blocking my path. It would be nice if you would remove yourself from my path."

"We haven't decided what to do with you yet. You broke the rules."

"A shame, I had no intention of killing any of you."

Julie's words were met with chuckles as she subtly read their minds. It revealed to her the sheep trying to be a lion and with one knock on the domino the rest would crumble. The Minatour was that rock. As the minotaur was about to form his next words her pets fell upon him from the sky with such speed the others fell back and watched in horror. Surrounded now and realizing their fate.

Julie smiled revealing her fangs. "You wanted to determine who I am, I am a vampire."

In the form of a darkened mist, Julie entered the tower. Faintly detected as a mild fragrance on the wind but not known by foolish wolves who had long grown accustomed to not using their nose. They ignored her, spooked like pups by the elevator opening and closing on its own. She entered from beneath the door of Lorenzo's apartment, grabbed bags of blood from the fridge, and sprawled herself out on the couch.

She poured herself a drink into the empty wine glass on the coffee table. "So many traitors," Julie muttered, bringing the thick intoxicating vermillion iron to her lips.

She drank glutinously, and when one was done, she went to the next. Some were awful, and others less than palpable. Julie equated it to the feeling of lesser men broke and drunk with the cheapest grade of alcohol. She chuckled at the piss-poor effort Lorenzo had made. It wasn't like a wolf would understand the quality of blood.

Julie exhaled and wiped her mouth as her thoughts ran wild on more pressing matters. Even though she had removed a few traitors from the list, that was no guarantee that more would not take their place. Who was to say that more, in the end, would not join to overthrow her? Was the performance enough for them to fear her more than the dragons? Avriel's words manifested in her head.

Blood was not a thing she could replicate in numbers to feed or keep in line those that were there. The human numbers were just too low, and if the dragons were breeding them, how would she be able to compete?

And then there was Lionel. Hard to read, only doing things that amused him. Should she send him the finest humans from off the farm? If he turned against her, the others would get bold. Well, at least she had the advantage there.

Julie had spent more than five hundred years planning and formulating ways to kill him. But plans and executions were two different things. Her support would rise if she could rather steer him in fighting with her against the dragons.

"Ahhh," Julie grumbled.

Julie took a look at the time. It was four in the morning. Where was Lorenzo? Shouldn't he be back before her? She sat up and scratched the top of her head. Was he dead? She giggled to herself. Well, I didn't see that coming. His father probably didn't want any loose ends.

The sun would be out soon, not giving her much time to work with. Julie gazed around the room, thinking about what she should take with her as the elevator outside opened and footsteps pounded down the hall stopping at the door.

The door creaked slowly open, and Lorenzo was peeping his head into the dark. He was still alive. His face brought a level of curiosity to her mind. Julie wanted to pluck the depths of his mind to find out what had happened, but she couldn't. He would feel her presence. So instead, she placed a smile on her face.

"Welcome home," Julie said.

Lorenzo's face didn't share the same smile. "Where did you go?"

"I went out."

"You smell as if you were in a sewer and how much blood did you have? It reeks in here."

"Just a taste." She smiled. "I got wet."

"It wasn't raining."

"It was at the party."

"Hmmm okay, I am going to bed."

"Did everything go okay?"

"Well, time will tell," Lorenzo said, passing her and heading towards the bed. He stopped. "I will need your help with something in the morning."

The bedroom door closed, and Julie was back alone in her thoughts.

What does Lorenzo want from me?