(Sorry it took so long lol.)

Melissa looked around thinking she heard someone, but no one was there. Sighing she looked back at the painting she was at and frowned. This pictures looked familiar. Did she have it at home? But certainly if this painting was here she couldn't have it at home, unless this was a replica or hers was a replica.... Deciding she was thinking too much into it she touched the painting lightly. That's when she heard voices instead of looking at pictures.

'Come here my little sweet. Come out to play...'
'Clunk!'
'Hiding from me are we?'

Unable to take the voices and noises anymor she took a step back and drew in a deep breath. Sighing, she turned away and returned to the ballroom. She needed a drink, or something to eat. Then she'd go back.... or maybe she'd go outside to the garden. Gardens always looked beautiful in moonlight.

She opened the door and slipped in. No one seemed to notice good. Melissa reached up and adjusted her mask. It'd be a miracle if by the end of the night she didn't have lines on her face from the mask. The thought make her smile and scrunch up her nose in distaste. She looked around. Unfortunately she saw the girl in the purple dress by the drinks. But she was talking to a male. Perhaps she wouldn't notice?

Melissa walked towards the table, which was right behind the girl and the male she was talking to. She managed to slip in, maybe undetected. She asked the bartender for a ginger ale. She'd rather not get drunk especially since she wasn't even age appropriate for that.. Not to mention alcohol did it's effects on her. She'd take one sip and she was buzzed. Three sips and she was drunk. She thanked the bartender, descreetly reached down the front and took out a dollar from her emergency cash she kept in her bra. She hated purses and the dress didn't have pockets. It was embarrassing but whatever. She decided to play it up and winked at the man before beginning to walk away, taking a sip of her drink.

Even though she was all the way up on the second floor, Nicole could still hear what was being said down below. The bar wasn't that far away from where she was anyway. At first she was thankful that the vampiress had found someone else to bother. She didn't pay much attention to what they were saying at first, preferring instead to finish her stolen beer. But after hearing the name 'Strenowa', Nicole almost choked on her beverage. Quickly she turned around to look for a purple dress and whoever that leech was talking to. Even in the werewolf world, the name Strenowa was renown, basically representing the vampire council in their eyes.

She expected to see a stuffy, middle-aged man in a suit. But instead, there was a young looking male. Because of his costume, Nicole couldn't tell what he looked like exactly but stayed interested in their conversation nonetheless. She scoffed when she heard herself being referred to as a dog yet again and growled quietly when the vampiress wished for her messy demise.
Then the male started talking about how he wasn't that close to his family. Apparently he wasn't the only one who didn't like the council either as the female expressed her similar dislike of the Strenowa clan.
'Pfff, how emo.' Nicole thought, taking another sip of her drink. But she secretly found it interesting how even a member of their own clan found them unpopular.

It was then that she noticed another girl in a purple dress and for a moment believed she was seeing double. But she wasn't. This girl had a different mask and long brown hair. She looked...familiar.

'Nathalie?' The girl looked uncannily like her. One of the two friends she knew since pre-school. But Nathalie had already left the clan twenty-two years ago. She and Luke were dissatisfied with how the boss ran their pack. They never were ones to follow rules, even more so than Nicole was.
No. It wasn't her, she just looked like her. Plus Nathalie wouldn't wear those colors. Still it was amusing to watch her pull out a crumpled dollar bill from her bra and hand it to the bartender. Nikki watched the girl for a while before she shifted her gaze elsewhere. She still had to find her two pack members and she was already getting hungry. But still no luck. Natalie sighed before heading over to the buffet table. After grabbing a plateful of barbecue she headed out into the garden to see if maybe any of the people out by the pond were a red-head and her lover.

"Man, this is good!", she exclaimed, taking a bite out of the tender ribs as she went.

"Uhuh. So you don't like your family?” Sindora was really getting annoyed at her advances on him, but it she was a good way to waste time. “Not in particularly,” replied Sindora. “They just have some very odd ways of running things. My father and I,” Sindora paused before he continued,” My father and I don’t quite see eye to eye on a lot of things, and neither do me and my great grandfather. So I have decided to live on my own, away from the main branch. I don’t want to go back to the main house, but my father is reaching his prime. We might be immortal, but there are some things that can cause us not to rule as the head of the family." “I know how you feel about family and politics. Personally, I kind of don't like your family, not you in particular but your family in general." Sindora smiled at her when she said this. Her last comment had really caught his interest. Sindora turned to her and said,” Oh? I don’t mean to pry, but riddle me this, why don’t you like my family?” He was pretty sure that he knew the answer. Like his family, and a few others, he was born into privilege. His family and those other select few practically ran the vampire community. So he could understand someone not liking his family for that reason. Sindora grabbed another glass of wine as someone with a tray came by. He sipped at it, not really liking the taste, but it staved off his hunger.

Illiana shook her head, "No offence but I'd rather not say." She held up the hand not holding a drink in surrender, "It's not you I just don't trust the ears around here." She could smell the Lycan behind her but chose to ignore her. More out of annoyance than anything else. Not that she really cared if the girl heard her or not, she just didn't really fel all that confortable spelling out the reason why Ranier's name filled her with such hatred. Her eyes flicked up to Rainer's face, "In short your Grandfather is the reason why I hold such a grudge against your name." Well that and the fact that his family are all so snooty to her whenever she goes to the main house.

“No offence but I'd rather not say. It's not you I just don't trust the ears around here.” Sindora looked at her and knew exactly what she was talking about. The smell of Lycan was still heavy in the air, which was beginning to give him a fierce headache. “Fair enough,” replied Sindora as he downed the rest of the wine. Thankfully, alcohol didn’t affect his kind. Sindora didn’t think that she was going to continue talking until she said," In short your Grandfather is the reason why I hold such a grudge against your name." This again raised Sindora’s interest. So he said,” He does have that effect on some people. My grandfather lives in ‘old days’ still. That is one of the main reasons we don’t see each other’s points of view very often. Regardless, it is getting rather stuffy here due to certain individuals. I am heading out to the gardens. Besides, I still need to feed.” He opened his mouth to show a toothy, fang filled smile. Happy hunting, if you do decide to.”

Illiana smiled at his comment about his feeding, "I have already feasted but I shall enjoy another one soon. I think I should be saying to you happy hunting." Putting the now empty wine glass on the bar she held out a hand, "A pleasure to meet you Rainer. Please don't take my hatred towards your name to seriously, I'm sure you are a nice person but yeah." She smiled again and almost giggled slightly, now a little embarressed at her flirting. "Maybe I'll see you around tonight." Hopefully.

"Finally! There you are! I've been looking all over fo-" Nicole didn't need to finish her sentence after grabbing hold of the woman's shoulder. Sure she had fiery red hair, but her mask was up and it was obvious it wasn't the werewolf the green clad girl was looking for. "Sorry. Thought you were someone else.", she quickly apologized before adding, "Have you seen a girl with red hair like yours? 'Cept she's with a guy with brown hair like his only a little longer?" She pointed to another masquerade goer nearby who was talking to his group of friends. Truthfully, Nicole expected a 'no' but was surprised when the girl said yes and pointed over to a group of people hanging around some benches near the pond. Quickly saying her thanks, Nicole walked over to them, savoring her food as she went. Too bad for her, the couple she was directed to were not her friends, just look-alikes with their masks on. It seemed that, for now, the she-wolf would have to content herself with actually waiting until her friends found her. Not wanting to be by herself for the whole event, Nicole decided to join the group sitting on the benches.

"Hey, is this seat taken?", she asked, before sitting down anyway without waiting for the person's reply. The boy didn't seem to mind much and eventually engaged Nicole in small talk. The girl didn't mind at all and enjoyed his company as she finished her bloodless meal. She was introduced to the rest of the group. Some were his friends and others were people like her who they just met. They all just wanted to hang out by the pond and watch the moon. If it had been a full moon, Nikki wouldn't even be here. Werewolves couldn't stay in their human forms as long as the full moon was out. But tonight's was just a half moon, very lucky for her friend and her hobby.

Nicole glanced at the celestial reflection in the water. Had she been in wolf form, she would have heard the voices clearly. But as she was now, all that reached her ears were strange whispers. Whispers coming from the large mansion. She quickly turned in the direction of the lit building, the party within it still in full swing. The werewolf felt like she was being watched. Like they were all being watched. But since she couldn't find anything strange at first, she decided to ignore it.
"What's wrong?", the boy beside her asked.
"Oh, nothing.", she replied in a flirty tone, leaning into her new toy's shoulder.

Sindora smiled at the other vampire as he made his way into the gardens where hopefully he would find his next meal. He had seen the young human, or what he would assume was human for now, enter. While he knew that she would quite the tasty treat he didn’t want to drink from her. As he walked around he spied two people making out on the ground, and another pair making out on one of the white, stone benches near one of the many fountains. There was a hedge maze in the back. He heard some giggling as he came closer to it, and saw a young woman in a black dress looking at him flirtatiously. “This might be fun,” he thought as he gave chase to her. He decided that he would have this one, as soon as they came to a dead end. He licked his lips as he thought of the fresh tasting blood on his lips. As he entered the hedge maze he called out,” I’m going to find you. Where are you?” After he knew that he was a good distance away from the house, so no one would hear the girl scream if she did he cornered her. He stalked his prey like any other, ignored her pleas for him to stop, and then drove his fangs deep into her neck. As he drank his fill he felt the energy flowing back into his body. He let out a sigh as he licked the wound closed on the girls’ unconscious body before letting it fall to the ground. She would wake up in the morning not remembering what had transpired. Licking the last blood off of his lips he walked back out through the hedge maze and rejoined the party.