"Dark Dancers" by Debra ´Shadow´ Krause

Octavia sauntered into the midnight ball without a drop of rain on her fur coat. Her silky black hair swayed from side to side against her pale skin. Her piercing blue eyes surveyed the crowd looking for another of her kind, a vampyre.

A man, dressed in a jade suit and a ruffled white shirt, came up behind her. Octavia spun around, her indigo gown swirled around her legs, but no show of fear or surprise was evident on her face.

"Hello Charles," she said. He took her hand and gently kissed it.

"Octavia, darling, we must quit meeting like this." He held out his arm, "Care to dance?" She accepted, knowing it was going to be an interesting night with him around.

The Midnight Ball was popular among the people of the Hill Lands. When the rainbow colored leaves drifted to the ground everyone knew the time of the Crone was at hand. They figured that since the Madien and the Mother got celebrations, why not the Crone? The Mabon festival was the abolute perfect setting for merry wanderers of the night, for vampyres.

"Can you believe that I look foreward to this horrid human celebration every year," spat Octavia.

"Yes, yes I do. I do the exact same thing," he replied with a smile. "Did you bring Ayame? You know she loves these little shin-digs."

"She's around here somewhere." Octavia scaned the room, looking for a flutter of the little sprite's wings. With a shrug she said, "Probably outside eating bugs." Then added, "Or tormenting the drunks, which ever she found first." They laughed and kept on dancing.

Outside by the fire, Ayame was fluttering around the bar. She had collected a vast amount of flies and was now preceding to drown them in ale. The man who's beer she was using took one look at the five inch sprite then passed out. This left Ayame with full run of the table.