Two people were waiting for me when I entered the Ashdown Properties building the next day. One was the vampire receptionist from yesterday. The other was another woman, maybe in her twenties despite the pure white hair that was held in a bun with many braids woven through it. Her ears were pointed, revealing her elven heritage, as did her light green eyes which sparkled under the white lights.

And here I thought everyone in this company was a vampire.

"Good morning, Alessandria," said the receptionist with a smile that showed off her fangs. "This is Viveca—the two of you will be working together. She's going to show you around and help you get your sea legs." She winked one red eye at me.

"Hello," said the other woman with a welcoming grin. "I'm so excited to have an assistant, I'm sure we'll be good friends." Usually, when someone said that, I felt trepidation—people didn't say that unless there was a reason we wouldn't be friends. But with Viveca, whose name I had apparently gotten wrong last night, I sensed only goodwill extended towards me like an olive branch.

I did my best to smile back. "Hi. It's nice to meet you." Maybe I should have mentioned how nice it will be to work with her. Too late now.

"Well, let's show you our office first. Bye, Addison," said Viveca, making sure I was going to follow her before turning walk to the elevator. "We're sharing one since we'll be working so closely. I hope you don't mind. I'm sure I could request for a separate one for you if you would like, but mine is big enough for the both of us. Managers have their own floor—like, all of us are on one floor. It's floor twenty-four, just so you know. It should be easy to remember since it rhymes." She pressed the button, and the elevator began its ascent.

I stared at the elevator doors, not sure how to start a conversation with an elf. She filled in the silence for me. "Where are you from, Alessandria?"

"I've always lived in Atlanta. You?"

She laughed brightly. "That comes with a long answer of all the places I've been, but I am originally from France."

I had forgotten that elves lived basically forever as well. She must have seen so many things throughout her life. I wonder if she's travelled the world? How old is she exactly? Seems like it would be rude to ask. Why doesn't she have an accent?

"Do you have any siblings?" she asked.

"Four. Two brothers and two sisters, all older than me." Did she not do any research on me before she came? I assumed they had given her my resumé. Then again, maybe she's just trying to make conversation. Do elves have a lot of siblings since they live so long? "Do you?"

"I'm the third of ten. Seven brothers and two sisters, all massive pains in the rear." She rolled her eyes as the elevator doors opened.

"What did you just call Aldous?" A male vampire said, turning around with a grin as we stepped out of the elevator. It looked like he had been headed down the hallway that was in front of us with the man beside him but stopped when he heard Viveca's remark.

The other man hit the vampire with his folder. "Rude. I don't call you names."

"I don't call you names either," said the vampire with wide, innocent red eyes. "I let Viveca do the work for me."

"Hey," my guide scoffed. "I don't want to do your dirty work." She glanced at me. "This is Alessandria, guys. Alessandria, this is Xiyang and Aldous. They're in charge of buying new properties." I noticed that Aldous also had dark red eyes, so he was a vampire as well. This place seemed to be swarming with them.

The Asian-looking vampire folded his arms. "It's Xiyang," he said snottily. Nothing in his pronunciation sounded any differently than when Viveca had said. But after a moment, he grinned again, so I assumed it was just a joke.

Aldous huffed at Xiyang, then extended a hand towards me. "Ignore him. He just wants more attention. It's nice to meet you, Alessandria."

"Nice to meet you," I echoed, shaking his cold hand.

"Alessandria is a long one," said Xiyang, tipping his head and tapping a finger against his cheek. "What else can we call you?" It didn't sound like he was asking me—more like he was thinking out loud.

Viveca groaned, grabbing my wrist. "Let's get out of here before he can think of anything. Believe me, you don't want to be stuck with one of his nicknames."

"Everyone needs a nickname, right, Vivi?" He grinned as we passed him. "Al...? Alice? Sandra? Sandy? Alessandria... Andria? It'll come to me."

"Anyway." Viveca dropped my wrist as we walked. "Our office is this one. Number twelve." She tapped the small sign outside the door. It read, 12—Viveca Laurent. "We'll have your name added soon. I didn't have time to get the order in yesterday."

I nodded slowly as we entered the office. "Okay." She was right, it was big enough for the both of us. There were already two desks inside that took up most of the space, one covered in papers that were almost in neat piles, with a closed laptop in the middle, the other was completely empty aside from a small potted plant on the corner. There were two more potted plants on the messy desk, one stationed by the door and two in front of the window. Both desks had comfortable-looking rolling chairs and were facing each other from the sides of the room. We must have been on the side of the building, because the far wall was made of glass, overlooking Atlanta.

"I arranged the room, but we can change it around if you want," said Viveca. "I put it this way because I don't like sitting with my back to the window, it puts a glare on my computer screen, and it makes my back hot from the sun. You know—when the sun is out." She glanced pointedly at the grey sky that didn't speak of rain, but simply a dreary day.

"It looks nice," I replied, drifting over to the empty desk. "This is mine?"

She walked over to the other desk and sat down in her chair. "Yep. It'll be just as messy as mine soon. The plant is for you too. You brought your laptop, yeah?"

I held up my satchel that held my laptop, a water bottle, lunch, and my wallet. "Yep. Thank you. Do I need to download anything right off the bat?" I eyed the little plant. I didn't even know what kind it was. I'd have to ask Viveca about it's upkeep.

She shook her head. "No. I'll let you know if you do though. We just have to make an account for you on Buildium. It's a website we use for a lot of things, but we'll use it to keep track of tasks, who goes where, and who's gotten paid. Why don't we get that set up first?"

I pulled my laptop out of the bag and placed it on the desk, sitting in the comfortable swivel chair. After I signed in, Viveca showed me where to find the website and helped me create an account, then showed me different sections I would be using.

A rap on the closed door interrupted us. "Come in," said Viveca, glancing up from my laptop.

The door opened, revealing Damon Ashdown to be on the other side. "Good morning, ladies. How are we today?"

"I'm fine. We just got started on Buildium," Viveca said.

Damon flashed a fanged grin at me. "Excellent. And how are you, Alessandria? I trust Viveca has been taking good care of you?" The indirect sunlight from the window shone on his face, making his red irises gleam. Sunlight didn't hurt vampires, not much anyway. They were prone to quick and vicious sunburns and it drained energy from them, so they were often hungry after outdoor excursions. Or so I was told. I never had a vampire friend, so I knew only what circled around the media.

"I'm good, thank you," I said with a quick smile, a little nervous to be in his presence again. Since Ashdown Properties was one of the largest property rental companies in Atlanta, perhaps even the States, Damon was a man of no little influence and wealth. "How are you, sir?"

"I am well except for one trivial thing." He took a few steps into the room, shoving his hands into his suit pockets. "No one calls me 'sir.' Except for Elaine when she's trying to annoy me." He winked at me. "It's just Damon around here."

I leaned back in my chair, trying to feel more confident. No one in here is my enemy. There is no reason to be nervous. "Got it."

"Well, I just wanted to check in on the two of you. Make sure everyone was getting along." He glanced around the office. "Could use a few more potted plants, Viveca." He grinned at the elf. His teeth were perhaps slightly yellowed, but straight, and perfectly shaped, with his fangs capturing my attention every time he smiled. It was a nice smile though, handsome, and full of welcome.

Viveca scoffed. "I know you're joking, but I'm thinking about buying another one for the other side of the door."

Damon chuckled, shaking his head. "Just leave Alessandria out of it. I can see you're already trying to rope her in." He glanced at the small plant on my practically empty desk. His eyes jumped to me. "Whatever you do, do not broch the subject of plants with an elf. You'll never get out alive." He laughed at Viveca's indignant face.

"You know what, why don't you just go. We're trying to work here," she said, turning up her nose.

"Oh, I know, I'm just a big, handsome distraction." Damon smirked. "I'll let you ladies get back to your work. Maybe I can distract you with my looks later."

Viveca laughed as he left and closed the door. "What an idiot. You'll never find a better boss than Damon Ashdown."

"Is he always like that?" I asked.

"Pretty much. He likes to mess around, but he also wants work done quickly and efficiently. It's a thin line, but somehow it works out. Now that he's not bugging us, I'm going to show you how we organize our handymen."

We spent all morning on my laptop as she showed me around the websites and programs we would be using. Directly at noon, a chime went off Viveca's phone. She said it was her lunch alarm because sometimes she forgot to keep an eye on the clock. Mandatory lunches were spent on the cafeteria floor. There wasn't food served there, but everyone had to eat together in the huge lunchroom to promote amicability.

I had figured Damon would be the first one down there since he put the system into place and had the cafeteria built when he contracted the building, but I couldn't see him in the small ocean of people.

"Oh, he does rounds to make sure everyone is down here," Viveca said when I asked. "He wants to make sure that everyone spends time together. If he finds someone in their office still, he checks in on them to make sure they're all right. He'll be down later for lunch, unless he's really busy." I followed her to a table where three other people were sitting. Two appeared to be elves, and I guessed the third one to be a vampire. "Hey, guys," she said casually, sitting next to one of the elves. "This is Alessandria, our newest hire. She's helping me out in handyman managing." They all greeted me. "Alessandria, this is Asa, Ethel, and Solomon."

I smiled at all of them. "Hi. Nice to meet you." I glanced around at the busy lunchroom. "How many people are employed here? I'll never be able to meet all of them."

"Like, two hundred sixty?" Viveca shrugged. "It'll just take time to meet everyone. Although, most of us have had a long time to get to know each other."

It hadn't occurred to me that they could have been working here since the business was established. "How long have you all worked here?"

"Going on fifty-four years," said Viveca.

Ethel was a female elf, she had glittery amber eyes that were as soft as honey. "I've been here about twenty years." Her voice was slow and melodic as she absently twisted a strand of white hair around her finger. Not all her hair was white, just the piece she was playing with. The rest was a very light brown.

Solomon was the other side of the coin, despite also being an elf. His leg jiggled up and down as he crunched quickly on some kind of healthy chips. When he answered, his voice was as hasty as his leg as his sparkly crystal blue eyes bounced around. "Thirty-seven years."

"Seventy-two years," said Asa, pushing a hand through his dark hair. He had the largest lunch bag of us all, so I figured it was safe to assume he had a big appetite.

"That's a long time," I said, nodding at Asa. His eyes were disturbingly similar in color to blood, but his face, while unadorned with a smile, was gentle. "Have you been around since the beginning then?"

"Not quite. The company is over a hundred years old. As far as I know, Milly is the only one who has been employed since then."

The name was familiar. "Is that Damon's secretary?" He nodded. "Wow. She's been around for a time."

The group chuckled. "Kind of," said Asa with a small smile.

"Oh, is a hundred years not a lot to you guys?"

Ethel answered. "It's still a long time, but it's not as big of a number for us as it is to humans. Elves live to be thousands of years old; we die more often from accidents than old age. So, a hundred years really doesn't seem like that much. Even vampires can live to be a thousand if they're careful."

"Which we're not," said Viveca with a laugh.

"I would love to speak with you sometime on your mortality," said Asa, blood-red eyes looking curiously at me. "I was born a vampire and it's such an odd concept to me that you only live for sixty or seventy years."

I chuckled a little. "Yeah, it... it, uh, pretty scary honestly."

"Sandrey!" someone called nearby before I could continue. I glanced over my shoulder to see Xiyang coming towards me with Aldous on his tail.

"What did you say?" Viveca laughed as they approached our table.

Xiyang was grinning. "Sandrey. It's my nickname for Alessandria."

The whole group groaned.

"Not another nickname," said Solomon with a grimace.

"Got a problem with it, Salmon?"

"Yes, I do. Specifically because my name is Salmon. I hate fish."

"That's the irony of it, Salmon."

I had to tilt my head to look up at Xiyang since I was sitting and he was standing. "Why Sandrey?"

He corrected me. "Sandrey." He extended the end of the nickname like he was throwing it across the room. "Just cause I like saying it."

"The diabolical nicknamer has struck again," sighed Viveca.