WHEN Amadeo woke up the next evening the house was full. Joy came into his room. He had stayed up all the night before and most of the day. It was well after dark when he woke up. "Our guests are beginning to arrive," she said, "You found clothes, yes? They're from Julien's Caution store; some might be samples. You shall wear the black. Julien made me a dress to wear, he promised a long time ago he would."

Amadeo went about dressing pairing the white shirt with the black shorts and coat. "Who will be there? Vampyres?"

"Everyone who's anyone in L.A. now, plus all our visitors from the other Havens and some Angels maybe if they can make it."

"Steven says you have a lot of parties here. Ganymede says Athen owns the city."

"Yeah, we got a lot of parties here, it's really fun for us and all our friends and stuff because we don't kill people we know very well or that we really like. I think Athen has learned to insure his security wherever he goes. I mean he was really involved in the Arabian-Chinese war, in all their politics and stuff. He has met all sorts of famous people."

Amadeo quickly painted his face with eyes of Egyptian black and blue. He laughed then glossed his lips. Joy took him into her rooms. The first did look like a Vampyre's room, all black. Her bedroom was all white. She showed him her dress lying on the bed. It was like something out of an oil painting or a costume movie.

"You see I have to put all these skirts on," she said. Dolores came in wearing a black party dress, the tight bodice accentuated the fact she had just budding breasts and the full skirt made her look tinier than she really was, yet she looked adorable. She was exactly a teenager from 1950's America, only she wasn't at all. Amadeo just sat on the bed surrounded by sheer curtains while Dolores helped Joy into her wicked looking undergarments. Joy yelled because Dolores was behind her lacing her into a corset, tightly. Finally Dolores took the dress which was all in one piece and stood on a bench to drop it over Joy's head. Then she laced it up as well.

Joy picked up an emerald necklace on a gold chain and put it on her neck. She looked absolutely dazzling shining eyes and jewelry and beads and sequins in her hair and on her dress. Joy bent to look in her dressing table mirror and put her blackberry lipstick on. Dolores told Joy she looked gorgeous. "But you always look better than I do. It doesn't take work for you to look good even if you do work and looking like a girl is just to devilish for words." Dolores kissed Joy on the lips. Then she left the room.

Joy held out her hand for Amadeo. He hopped off the bed and noticed her fingernails were painted black and all about an inch long. The nail of her left ring finger was pierced and a small gold ring was through it. He took her hand though. It was cold. He kissed her lips and they were cold but very hungry. "Yes hungry," she said.

"Take it from me."

She took him by the arms and forced him to his knees. He pressed his face to her skirts for a moment before in bending they were drawn away from him. She bent to his neck and immediately he felt her teeth in his flesh, her hands opening his shirt a bit and pushing it down. She was really doing it. She was sucking his blood. And then she was standing up pulling him with her. "It wasn't too much was it?"

"I- I don't feel so bad."

"I want you to be like this. I want to give you what you want, to live forever. I want to be the one who will give that to you. But do you want it, really want it?"

"Yes."

"I promise I'll do it. You just have to live a little longer and do everything you want. If you ever need me I'll come."

She fixed her lipstick again and then took him down to the party. They walked through the dining room to the ballroom. It was full already. To Amadeo it looked like a meeting of Fay. So many freakish creatures. He recognized that some, mainly those visiting Vampyres he had not met wore, identical Vampyre robes of clingy black fabric with hoods up or down as they chose. Joy pulled him behind a partition. There was a strange cat-like woman there. "Hello Crystal," said Joy, "This is my Jewel, Amadeo."

"Would you care to spike the punch?" Crystal asked and held the handle of a sharp blade out to Joy. Joy took the knife and pulled it up across her wrist. There was blood flowing out of it immediately and she let it pour down into the large punch bowl. Amadeo realized that it was full of blood with bits of gore floating in it, and it looked just like fruit punch. It made him cringe.

Where just a moment ago there had been a gash, Joy's skin had already healed over. She took his hand. "We all share what we can, Am," she said. And they moved into the crowd of the room. Everyone was wearing black, you had to look at faces and the room around you for color. It looked like any moment the mysterious Princess would be announced. Shade was the Prince, or like a Queen among the Fay.

Shade sat in a chair with his sister to his side. Steven and Amber hovered quite near him. He didn't wear the Vampyre robe like Zulekha did. He was wearing black clothes and looked a lot less formal than the rest of his family. Joy led Amadeo over to a small group gathered at the opposite side of the ballroom. Athen was there with Julien, Dolores and some others.

Joy kissed a black haired girl on the mouth. Amadeo had already seen her kiss Dolores and he wondered if Joy was bisexual or just androgynous as so many Vampyres he read about were. She told Amadeo then that the girl was her best friend, Opium. Amadeo made a bow to her as he confessed to having heard so much about her. Opium didn't look old enough to have a child. But Amadeo supposed the Angelic half of her genes kept her from aging.

It was Opium who introduced the others. She had a lovely voice, it wasn't one of those sweet seraphic voices that Athen or Shade had, wasn't quite as giddy as Joy's always was, or so soft as Julien's. Her voice was rather deep for a woman's voice but very smooth. Maya, she said was Morpheus' sister, a twin as they had been created at the same instant. Amadeo bowed his head to her. Maya was blue of skin as he had been told and had a second pair of arms and second pair of shoulders rooted in her body somewhat behind and fractionally higher than the first which seemed pressed closer inward toward her chest than a Human's arms.

Other of Opium's party were about. On the dance floor Joy introduced Absinthe, who was Opium's half-sister of same Angelic Father. She was amber-skinned and willowy, had her hair in a golden teardrop teased up at the top and long locks of hair that nearly reached her feet that grew from under the rest at her neck. She had the greenest eyes. Later Absinthe introduced her half-brother of the same mortal mother who was really quite alike in looks to Morpheus but that his hair was a brown like cinnamon and his eyes the same color. Laudanum was his name, the boyish Halfangel that giggled and wore a black garment like a dress with silver moons embroidered into the hem. "I'm one of Morpheus' half-brothers too, having the same father," Laudanum said.

And people had been shocked that Amadeo's parents were some degree cousins?

Amadeo was laughing and kissing and dancing until almost midnight. They would celebrate it like it was New Year's Eve. They were waiting for the witching hour. Amadeo danced with Joy.

When it got close to Midnight Joy even let Amadeo drink half a glass of blood at their toast. It was not at all sweet but almost magic. But then Amadeo wasn't sure if he liked it. It did something to him. He thought he was hearing voices and no one spoke.

Amadeo felt he might be drunk when Joy took him away from the party, but he was not sure, never having cause to be drunk before. He lay on the backless black sofa with his head resting on one of the purple pillows there and stared at the ceiling, which was also black, and the glowing purple black-lights that hurt his head. She came back and lay against him. She'd taken the big dress of and put on a velvet catsuit.

"You know I have not had sex since I was mortal? I don't mean to. I'm sorry."

"One may always no if they wish."

"It is nice to feel wanted," Joy said through a smile. "When you are a Vampyre you will be drawn to flesh and you will want nothing more than to taste and feel their blood inside you. And you will want to have it all and you will kill them."

"2 trillion lives, mine."