Julia looked up at a sea of cerulean not a speck of white blemished the sky. She once again floated in the air. Although the dreams were still disturbing, she had started to get used to them. She turned over and looked across the vast, perfectly manicured lawns of the Griffemort summer castle, knowing it was 1820 and this was the day everything changed.

Her eyes lock onto Beatrix and she lurched forward. Nothing she could do would've stopped the inevitable so she let go and drifted toward Beatrix.

Julia's eyes enviously racked over the beautiful dress her copy was in. The style had evolved, the waist of the dress was lower and it covered more of her chest. The dress's skirt was no longer free flowing; it was now more silhouette forming and made of a heaver fabric. The sleeves were huge and poofy and the whole thing was a dark golden colour.

As Julia melted into Beatrix, she couldn't help but notice how dashing Alex looked. His midnight blue waistcoat had a high collar that framed the long planes of his oval face beautifully. His black hair was shoulder length and his long bangs covered his eyes, bucking the trend of short hair with huge sideburns. His breeches were light brown and figure hugging, which accentuated his muscular legs. Julia took one last admiring look at him before she slipped away.

Beatrix and Alex had been arguing like cats and dogs outside in the gardens when she stormed off. Alex shook his head and ran after her.

When he caught up to her, he seized her arm. "Hey wait. Do not run off."

She snapped back, hot with anger, "If you do not want me to rip that arm of yours off let me go."

He smiled at her holding back a laugh. "Only if you stay and hear me out."

Beatrix stopped walking, whipped around, yanking her arm out of his grip. "Why should I? It is antiquated views like yours and Thorsen's that disgusts me."

"There you go 'Miss high and mighty', with that righteous superiority, thinking you know best. It sickens me," Alex said annoyed.

She looked triumphant. "Good," she said and turned to leave.

He grabbed her shoulders yanking her hard and forcing her around. "I would love to see how your naïve views change when the humans hunt someone you love down and kill him in front of your eyes. Humans are not fluffy and cuddly. They fear and hate easily and are quick to kill anything different without a second thought. The sooner you see that the better you will be."

She softened, looking up at him with her big silver eyes. "I am sorry that they killed someone you loved. But not all humans are like that. They may not be ready to learn about us yet; but I believe wholeheartedly that one day they will be."

He let go of her and softened his tone, "I truly hope you are still alive to see that day. However, I think even if you live to be a hundred thousand years old that day will never come. Humans hate us and we hate humans it is just a fact of life."

She continued looking up at him with sad eyes. There was something about him. He had never let her in before and now something had changed. It felt as if the cold hard armour he had encased himself in was finally coming off. She saw that he had a heart, and it was shattered. Everything inside of her yearned to help heal it.

Without thinking, she took his hand linking her fingers in his. "The situation will never change if either side does nothing to break the vicious cycle. Seeing how the humans know nothing about us it is down to supernaturals to be the better side and make the first move. You can never achieve peaceful coexistence without someone extending the olive branch first."

He looked down at their hands and didn't try to free himself from her grip. "Please do not go martyring yourself for a hopeless cause. If you got yourself killed..." he let the sentence drop without finishing it.

Beatrix tilted her head to the side a smile played at the edges of her lips. "What? You would do a merry jig?" her voice was light and playful.

Alex squeezed her hand and delicately traced the soft lines of her face with his other hand. "You are an infuriating woman you know that?"

The look they exchanged sparked something inside of her. A small fire started to burn, a longing coiled around her heart taking root and grew. In that moment Beatrix knew everything between them had changed. The surrounding air grew lighter, and the world drifted away as they gazed into each other's eyes. She stopped fighting the pull she knew they both felt toward one other's souls and embraced it with open arms.

**************************************************

The sun had already set when Damien crawled through Julia's bedroom window. He walked over to her bed, greeting her with a huge grin. "I heard you missed me," he said gently stroking her hair out of her face.

Julia rubbed her eyes and yawned lying in bed all day was nice but it made her feel sluggish. "I'm afraid you've been misled," she teased. "I was too busy partying to even notice you were gone."

Damien gave her a look of mock heartbreak, stood up and reached out his hand for her to grab it. "Come on, sleeping beauty, you don't want to be late for the ball."

She didn't take his hand. Her warm bed was too comfortable, and all she wanted to do was go back to sleep. She snuggled down into it. "As much as I want to go I'm still feeling sick."

He pulled out a tiny bottle of the red berry juice. "I have something that'll cure all ailments," he handed the bottle to Julia, "drink it and you will feel better trust me."

She shot up in bed and ripped the bottle out of his hand as if she was an addict in desperate need of a fix. Her hands trembled ripping off the lid; she couldn't get to the intoxicating contents inside quick enough. Knocking it back, she swallowed it in one gulp.

A bitter undertone was mixed in with the sweet taste. Julia wrinkled her face and stuck out her tongue. "Yuck! What was in that?"

"Mugwart," Damien replied.

"Gross! I'd rather drink swamp water. It'd probably taste ten times better. Now I will have Mugwart taste in my mouth for the rest of the evening. Thanks a lot you evil pixie." Wiping the back of her hand on her mouth she considered wiping her tongue on her blanket to rid herself of the foul taste.

Damien chuckled. "Whine all you want but I bet you feel better already." He looked at her with such sweet kindness it warmed her heart and made it beat a little faster.

Julia did a mental check. Damien was right her headache and stomach-ache were a distant memory replaced by an energizing warmth that filled her body. "Wow, you're right I feel better than I have in days."

"Good, now come on up you go." He yanked her out of bed and walked over to the window seat, picked up a garment bag and laid it on the bed. "Jump in the shower and when you get out Véronique has agreed to help you put your costume on."

Her face dropped right along with her good mood. "Hold on a minute. There is no way I will let her into my room alone. She's likely to rip my eyes out and I very much doubt she willingly agreed to help me out considering she hates me."

Damien looked her up and down laughing. "Don't worry about her. She hates you marginally less now that she thinks you're with me."

He gave her a huge sexy grin as both of her eyebrows shot up. "Oh, come on don't be like that. It was the only way I could get her to agree to help you. And seeing how she's the only one of us that knows how to put all this stuff on, and we can't go asking your mother. I had to mislead her a little." Damien pushed Julia to the door, "Come on we don't have all night. Hurry up and the rest of us will be downstairs waiting for you."

Julia pouted a little. "Fine. But if she tries anything I'm screaming bloody murder." She still didn't buy for one second that Véronique had any good intentions when it came to her. Julia wouldn't put it past Véronique to knock her out and tell everyone that she was too sick to go to the party.

"I'll come to your rescue my lady," he said with a bow. "If you will excuse me I have to get ready myself."

She muttered under her breath, "I wish I had one of Ren's byzantium daggers," and headed to the bathroom.

When Julia walked back into her room wrapped in nothing but a towel, she was met with Véronique's cold eyes and a look of contempt that could've made the strongest of men quake in their boots.

Véronique was dazzling, dressed as dark Alice. She wore black and white stockings with a short light blue dress and a white apron covered in fake blood and a huge crimson bow. Véronique looked her up and down and gave her a humph.

This made Julia feel like she'd just fallen out of the ugly tree and not only hit every branch, but leaf and twig on the way down. Skirting the edges of her room Julia grabbed her underwear and hurried to her closet, shutting the door to put them on.

A minute later Véronique banged on the door causing Julia to jump. She shoved her arm in holding a long white and burnt caramel striped silk undershirt with short puff sleeves, and a long white silk underskirt. "Hurry and put these on." When Julia took the garments Véronique slammed the door shut.

Julia walked out of the closet wearing the beautiful undershirt and long sheer silk skirt and couldn't stop running her fingers on the silky fabric.

"Oh, hurry up; we don't have all night," Véronique snapped.

Julia looked up at her and scowled resisting the urge to slap her beautiful face. "You know I've been dressing myself for years now. I'm sure I can manage just fine without you."

Véronique huffed impatiently yanking the striped white and burnt caramel Victorian bustled skirt and bustled pad off the bed and walked over to Julia. She gave Julia a look that told her: Véronique was at the end of her tolerance for her. Julia could see Véronique was inches away from tear her into tiny pieces and decided not to push it and just shut up.

"The only reason I'm doing this is because Damien asked me to; and Alex told me I had to play nice. So let's get this over with already. Now step into the skirt."

When Julia stepped into the skirt, Véronique tied the bustled pad around her waist, the big pad rested above her bum. Véronique then pulled the skirt up making sure the undershirt was tucked in and fastened it at the back. Julia resisted the urge to twirl around; instead she slightly twisted her waist side to side making the skirt swish.

Véronique returned from the bed carrying what Julia could only describe as a gorgeous brown leather and gold fabric torture device. The under-bust corset was decorated with golden clockwork cogs and gears, buckles, chains, and clasps. Véronique undid the front clasps and slipped it on Julia making sure the shoulder straps were in place before fastening them.

The corset was rigid and tight but comfortable. Véronique walked behind her and began tightening the laces at the back making the corset tightly cage Julia inside. Each pull of the laces made it a little harder to breathe.

"Véronique, it's too tight I feel like I will pass out," Julia said, suspicious the She Devil purposefully cinched up the corset up too tight.

Véronique's nimble fingers stopped, and she said, "Oh yeah I forgot girls these days do not understand beauty over comfort." Then loosened the laces and tied them.

She then handed Julia a beautiful burnt caramel bolero. It had a high ruffled collar with a huge clockwork cog on the top of each shoulder and two huge buckles at the wrist of each sleeve. Grabbing a stunning pair of brown leather high-heeled boots with gold clockwork cogs and buckles on them she helped Julia put them on. Lastly Véronique pulled Julia's hair back into a loose ponytail and pinned a petite hat with lots of feathers and lace on the top of her head.

Stepping back Véronique folded her arms and inspected her handy work. She said in disbelief, "That style suits you," then walked out of the room, "come on everyone is waiting for us."

Julia took a moment and looked at herself in the mirror. A giddy rush flowed through her. She had never looked as beautiful as she did just now. Twirling around, she marvelled at the steampunk princess staring back at her. With a huge grin and a giggle she left the room with a spring in her step.

When Julia walked down the stairs, everyone was waiting in the living room, even Ren. As soon as Alex saw her, he stood up, and she felt his eyes on her. He was wearing a gothic version of the Mad Hatter costume minus the red hair. As their eyes locked she blushed, he was looking at her like she was the only person in the room. Completely captivated by his burning desire in his eyes she felt like a fly caught in his web. A voice inside of her was telling her not to try to struggle free.

Before she reached the bottom of the stairs Damien, dressed in steampunk fashion that matched her dress, strode over to her and bowed then stretched out his hand for her to take. "My lady, you look magnificent," he said in a very regal tone. He sounded and looked like he stepped right off the pages of a steampunk version of a Dickens novel.

Julia shoved the voice away and tore her eyes away from Alex. She smiled at Damien, took his hand and said, "Victoriana looks good on you. I bet you had all the girls swooning after you back then."

Ella and Abby walked up to Julia both were beaming and smiling from ear to ear.

Ella touched Julia's silky dress and said in wonderment. "Wow, that costume is awesome."

Julia looked at Ella's costume: she was dressed up as Sally from Nightmare before Christmas. "Yours is cool."

Abby was wearing a red and black Gothic Lolita dress and said, "All you need is a gun belt and gun to finish that look off, Jules."

Julia laughed. "No thanks, this dress is heavy enough. I'll be lucky not to trip and rip it. I certainly don't need to add more weight to it. Abs, I love that dress, it's absolutely adorable."

Abby grinned and gave her a wink that matched the wicked look on her face. "Yeah it's cool right? Maybe I'll catch the eye of a hot faerie tonight."

Julia looked at Kuro who was dressed as Jack from Nightmare before Christmas and smiled at his white hair. "Love the hair." Then she looked over at Ren who was dressed in black leather from head to toe. She scrunched her forehead at him not sure if he would even acknowledge her or not. She quietly said, "Where's your costume, Ren? You always dress up."

He shrugged and turned so Julia could see two swords in a cross holster on his back as he said in a dry tone, "I'm a dark fae hunter this year."

Julia raised her eyebrows and looked from Damien to Alex to Véronique.

Damien broke the tension. "Yeah, Tinkerbelle has quiet the sense of humour," and shook his head, "let's get going."

When they got outside a huge Suburban was parked out front. Damien opened the front car door and helped Julia in. After everyone got in and buckled up, he looked at Julia. "Ready to have the time of your life?"

Julia grinned; she couldn't wait to get to the party and let loose. "You bet."