Alicia flicked the webcam on top of her monitor with her nail and grimaced as the image on her screen remained grainy and low-res - well, grainier and lower-res than usual. “The modem’s fucked,” she shouted. Artificial light illuminated her pallid features, arranged deliberately to emphasize her most fetching attributes. Her room's curtains were ridiculously thick and almost always drawn. When no response came, she twisted her lips and turned back to her monitor, waiting. There was a flute of blood at her shoulder, and she sipped greedily from it as she kicked her feet up onto her desk, twirling a strand of hair around her finger.

Finally, there was a soft bloop as a pseudonymous viewer connected, and Alicia smiled at her webcam, baring her fangs. "Hi, nightcrawler1899," she crooned. "Nice to see you." She paused, eyes flicking from left to right. "Oh, wow, did you really fight in World War 1? That's so cool." (It really wasn't. She'd e-chatted with dozens of vampires, and whenever they ran out of things to say, they'd always fall back on their war experience, without fail.) She made small talk for a few minutes, then sculpted her face into an exaggeratedly surprised expression, eyes wide, lips parted, as money poured into her account. "Oh, is that for me? Thank you so much." She adjusted her (black, leather, and very gothic) corset and winked, then started to unlace it.

Outside, Caroline exited her room and sidestepped Alicia's door, taking care to remain out of frame. Cherie was sitting at the bar in an oversized T-shirt, her vestigial wings protruding from the slits in the fabric. She'd cut the slits herself to 'let them breathe'. Caroline acknowledged her presence with a grunt and stomped to the fridge.

"How was your nap?"

"Great, thanks," Caroline mumbled, extending her claws to slice off a strip of meat from the still-bleeding package. "Did Rick give you any trouble?" Rick was her deliveryman. They had regular deliveries of blood and fresh meat - the former for Alicia, the latter for her - while Natalie's friends in the horde dropped by once or twice a week to drop off some human flesh for her. He'd never been very vocal about his disapproval, but his first unsupervised interaction with her friends had been explosive.

"Nah." Cherie flipped her hair. "I don't think we've ever had any trouble with Rick, actually. He's always liked me."

"Fuck off."

"No, but, like, the main issue is totally your Alpha. Even so I think he's mostly started to come around. Like, don't you think Rick's gotten a lot less hostile?"

"He literally grabbed you by the throat first time he met you."

"Yeah, and it was sexy as hell. Your point?" Cherie raised an eyebrow. "Anyways, all is forgiven."

Caroline squinted at her, putting two and two together. Then: "Oh no. You didn't."

Cherie nodded, grinning. "I totally did."

"You bitch! How was he?"

"Smaller than I thought."

Caroline cackled. "That's what I thought too."

"What are you guys talking about?" Natalie yawned. She shambled to the sofa and toppled onto it, one hand covering her eyes. "Hey, we're going out tonight, right?"

"We go out, like, three times a week." Caroline sat down beside Natalie and flicked her forehead. It made a dull, hollow sound. "And to the same place. Don't you keep a calendar?"

"Lost it."

Caroline met Cherie's gaze and rolled her eyes. Natalie had never been the brightest bulb in the box, but since she'd been turned, she'd gotten even dumber. Still, though, there were always guys who liked that. "Just go and change. We all know how long you take."

"Do not!"

"Do too."

"Do not!"

"Do t- oh, just go, fuck."

Alicia eventually emerged from her room. She'd shed her corset, and was now dressed in what passed for normal attire for her. "Where's Natalie?"

"Changing."

"Great." Alicia headed to the fridge and topped up her flute, then glanced over her shoulder at Cherie uneasily. "Hey, uh, if the treaty negotiation thing doesn't work out... we're cool, right?"

"What treaty negotiation?"

"They didn't tell you? Marcus told me when he dropped off my O+."

"No one ever tells me anything. I'm small-fry." Cherie stretched lazily. "And that's just how I like it."

"It's probably nothing," Alicia agreed, turning to lean against the sink. "You know how it is. If the treaty or whatever falls through, there'll always be vampires and demons who want to fight each other. They'll fuck each other up while the rest of us carry on as normal. When they've had enough, they'll hammer out another agreement. Life goes on."

"Isn't it unlife for you?" Caroline joked.

"It's a figure of speech." Alicia narrowed her eyes at Caroline. "Anyway, shouldn't you get a new costume? Your old one is looking patchy."

"I'll worry about that the next time we dress up." Caroline shrugged. "Next fancy-dress party is in a month, I think."