My fingers drifted along the ivory keys and I imagined music in my mind, spilling out in a symphony of notes and color.

The pianist had left her notes on the stand as usual and I knew she would be shouted at for it when she returned. Mrs. Murphn was a strict theatre director and she had to be. This slice of heaven was an architectural masterpiece that had been built in the times of kings and queens - in the age where Lycans were no more than savages, roaming untamed throughout the vast countryside.

I wished that I could have caught a glimpse of the performances they had played here through the centuries, but this slice of beauty was enough to content me now.

I pressed down on a note, listening to it ring up through the great theatre. Up to the marble stone balconies where only the richest could afford to sit and watch the theatre. It faded as it reached the grand domed ceiling where the paint had peeled in years of neglect and disarray. When the theatre had been bought, extensive renovations had been done but nothing could replace the ceiling's artistry; painted by a man long dead and yet, everyone still wanted a piece of him in this world.

"Meg!"

I jolted at the pitched voice. "Yes?"

Lux Armstine planted her hands on her hips, coming to a stop on one of the many stairs leading down to the grand stage. "We're paid to clean, Meg. Not stand around and dream."

"Sorry, Lux." I stepped away from the grand piano and hitched my supply bag over my shoulder. "It's just so pretty."

Lux smiled at me, rolling her eyes. "You think everything is beautiful, Meg."

"Because most things are."

"And yet you say that with no emotion. No passion." Lux waited until I joined her so that we could walk together back up to the foyer. "As if it's a fact."

"It is."

"Maybe I am a little jaded then," Lux shrugged her shoulders.

"I don't believe that," I told her lightly. If there was anyone who I could at least stand to be around, it was Lux. Maybe it was because she didn't ask questions or judge or watch me. She just rattled off about her day and always shared her pack of peppermints with me. It was enough to make me bear the scent of her blond-dyed hair. This month, the ends were dyed a bright and brilliant pink.

"You'd be the first." We stepped out into the empty foyer. A night of music, food and wine had already passed and the last stragglers were now stepping out into the night, safe under the lamp-light. A cold wind passed them, sweeping into the grand foyer and tossing the tickets that the patrons had so carelessly dropped.

"It's going to be a late one tonight," Lux popped a peppermint in her mouth.

I cursed. She was always right about those kinds of things. Despite the prestige of the theatre, people still treated it like a dumping ground. There would be popcorn on the floors and wrapped jammed between seats.

"Ugh," the doors to the bathroom was thrown open and I tensed at the sudden noise, whipping around to face another one of the cleaners. Rachel marched out, slinging a black bag into her trolley. "Why do people insist on bringing their children? They don't appreciate the music or the acting and just moan and cry and leave nappies the size of my head in the bathroom."

"You know you aren't supposed to clean the bathrooms before everyone is gone, Rachel." Lux sighed. "If Miss Murphn finds out about this..."

"And whose going to tell her, huh?" Rachel demanded. "You? Or you?"

Rachel's lip curled into a sneer, but she couldn't meet my eye. I imagined it was because I was so stunningly beautiful that it choked her but she had made it clear enough times that I looked funny. In the past seven months of freedom, my hair had grown just long enough to pull into a very tiny pony-tail. I felt like a child in a too long body but it was better than the shaved head.

"Why would I concern myself with what you're doing?" I said blandly. "Does a woman concern herself with a worm – no. She just lets the worm continue to turn its dirt."

Lux winced, so used to our bickering. "Guys..."

"You're such a bitch, Meg." Rachel snarled. "Why do you act like your so much better than us!"

"I'm not better than Lux, but I'm certainly better than you." I crossed my arms and stared her down.

"Meg..." Lux groaned. "Why do you always have to antagonise her?"

"I'm just stating facts, Lux." I glanced over Rachel, my lip curling. A girl like that would have been killed in minutes in the mad-maze. Gutted. Skinned. Saliva coated my tongue and my stomach snarled. Lordie – a minimum wage didn't support a hybrid beast's appetite.

"Ladies! I hear fighting!" I recognised the drag of John's left foot. He claimed he had been injured in an epic fight to protect a woman against a thief, but I didn't believe him. He sauntered from one of the side corridors, picking at the remnants of a small popcorn. "Are you fighting over me?"

"Always," Lux latched onto the distraction desperately. "We were all deciding who deserved you more."

"Oh, I'm flattered." His ruddy cheeks darkened. John was the fourth cleaner and a jolly soul. Like Lux, I enjoyed being around him but he was nosy. Very nosy. "We have a lot of work to get done, ladies. We have a very important guest tomorrow and if Mrs. Murphn isn't happy with what we've done..."

"So, whose coming?" Rachel asked, nabbing a piece of popcorn. "Some stupid mayor ?"

John flushed as we all looked to him curiously, but I knew he loved it. He might have survived in the Mad-Maze. He was deceptively non-threatening but he took in more than people knew they were letting out.

"Well..." He trailed. "...Mrs Murphn was going to keep this from us because his coming is usually kept on the down-low. We all know how he hides from the spotlight..."

"Who!" Rachel demanded. "Stop dangling information in front of us like we're damn rabid dogs!"

Speak for yourself Rachel.

John puffed his chest out, his voice tumultuous and layered with importance. "The Morley and Young families have booked out a private booth for the closing show tomorrow. It was confirmed only an hour ago."

Lux gasped, clasping her mouth. "The Young family? As in...him?"

Him. Oh how mysterious. Lux had tried and failed to get me caught up on today's celebrities and happenings, but while I loved binging on reality-shows on her tiny t.v. , keeping up with the papers and magazines were too strange to me. Instead, I had begged her to teach me to sow and to crochet and often times, Lux had gifted me with her own home-crafts.

John nodded with a beaming grin. I tried not to roll my eyes, wondering who was important enough to make three human cleaners so excited. Rachel just blinked, pressing her fingers to her lips. "Oh my..."

"Whose him?" I asked. "I don't think I remember the name Young."

"Oh, for the moon's sake, Meg." Rachel sniffed. "How long were you homeless? Do you not read the paper either?"

"Rachel!" Lux whirled on her furiously. "Don't be so rude."

"Don't mind her, Lux." I brushed her arm, even though the beast bristled at the insult. 'A moment of satisfaction is not worth the peace you have found', I reminded myself. "I've met a lot worse than Rachel Morgen."

"Okay...can I rant about him now." John cried. "I literally follow everything there is to do with him. Which isn't a lot – for the Supreme Alpha that is."

"I prefer to call him the Commander." Our little spat forgotten, Rachel's tone turned wistful. "From his soldier days. Though, I heard that he's a brute of a wolf. All wildness trapped in that beautiful body."

"How long has he been Supreme Alpha or Alpha Commander. Or whatever he's called?" I asked. Ugh – Lycans were frequent visitors to the theatre and I had been afraid that they would sniff me out, but Doc-Mai had done her work well. No one could sniff me out. No one could smell the taint in my blood.

"Only three years now, but he is famous amongst humans and Lycans for how quickly he climbed the ranks." John gushed. "Or some would say – for how ruthlessly he climbed the ranks."

I rubbed my temples. "I thought the Lycans were ruled by a continuous family line? The Arcelia family...who could trace their roots back for centuries."

"Pfft," John's face soured. "Good riddance to them. No, Alpha Young was just a normal Lycan and then just rocketed up through the ranks with all sorts of mad ideas. People thought he was mad. Crazy even for challenging the strongest Lycans in the entire country but moons be damned, he won. Barely- but he won."

"And why should we care about this?" I just wanted to clean this theatre, say goodbye to the other workers and curl up in my bed.

"Because..." Lux reached for my arm, stilling when I tensed. She kept her lips tight – a defence mechanism ingrained into humans when facing a volatile Lycan. The human could recognise the smile, but a Lycan on the verge of wolfing out might not. Even amongst humans, I noticed Lux using it. "Alpha Young dismantled the mate laws."

"I remember learning the Mate laws in school," I said absently. "But I forgot them a long time ago." A lie. A damned lie. I had never figured out what they were, even though it had given him reason enough to try and tear out my throat.

"Oh my..." Rachel began but Lux quickly shushed her.

"Under the rule of the old Lycans, every human mate had to be marked on site. There were Lycans who protested it, but the almighty powers threatened their poor, weak human mates with incarceration and physical punishment if they weren't marked. A Lycan would willingly bare pain for their mate but would not let their own mates be harmed. " Lux explained gently. "It was the Arcelia's way of making sure the numbers of Lycans and Lycan supporters were bolstered but..." Lux shrugged a shoulder, "The new Alpha scrapped that rule."

"And was challenged for that too," John pointed out. "Some Lycans hate the fact that they just can't stamp their claims like rabid beasts."

"Is that what happened to you?" Rachel asked me sweetly. "Is that why you ended up homeless, Meg? Because you were marked?"

At my sides, my hands began to shake. The urge to kill rose with a surge and I felt my lip lifting into a snarl, my eyes fixing on her furiously. "Do not mention that!"

The eight year old mark burned. Burned at the mere mention of that event. The teeth in my throat – the helplessness. How I had simply fallen into the Ravi's hands after in my desperation to escape him. He had been the lesser of two evils, but Lordie he had ruined my life.

I tried to calm myself down. Lux always meditated in the morning and since her shoddy little apartment was down the hall from mine, she invited me to join her. I sucked in a low breath to try and stem the thundering inside my skull.

"That's low Rachel," John admonished her, his voice surprisingly sharp.

"Ah come on!" Rachel threw her hands up, incredulous. "Lycans are better off than the rest of us. They would never let their mates scrub toilets and mop floors for a pittance!"

"There's nothing wrong with our job," Lux said quietly.

"But there's nothing wrong with wanting better for ourselves," Rachel sniffed. "You might be happy scrubbing toilets and getting shit off Mrs. Murphn for the rest of your life, but I'm certainly not."

And that was that. I backed down from the fight, thinking of my tiny little apartment. My cubby-hole of freedom. I had this job for the past five months. Killing Rachel would calm the beast under my skin but it would ruin my crafted life. It would draw the Ravi and the Lycans down on me and even I couldn't fight the both of them off.

I kept my mouth shut for the rest of the evening. I cleaned and scrubbed silently listening as the others babbled on. Lux was hurt, but she never let others see it. The other workers came in for the late shift; for big events, Mrs. Murphn left nothing to chance. Tomorrow, the final show would run and then we'd all go for drinks as a celebration.

I loved it.

The thought kept me smiling as Lux and I walked home in the growing darkness. The wind was cold, but usually the summer's air was sweet and warm enough to walk without a coat.

"It's going to rain tonight." I commented absently, slowing down to let Lux keep pace with me.

"No way Meg!" She glanced at the sky, her hands shoved into her pockets. "The weatherwoman said it wouldn't rain at all this week. I was going to go down to the pontoon and work on my tan!"

"Make sure your ceiling doesn't leak," I hummed.

"You're wrong."

"No, I'm not."

Lux huffed. "And insufferable."

She glanced at me, searching for a smile. There was none. "You'd be brilliant at poker, Meg."

"I can't play poker."

"And you say that so convincingly." Lux laughed as we passed the open mouth of an alleyway. My head shot up, lips pressing tight to resist a snarl. Sweat. Alcohol. Through the gloom, my eyes picked up the silhouette of several men.

"I'm not convinced," I said, mildly amused.

Lux just continued to talk, oblivious to the growing darkness and the watching eyes. Two young women walking alone in the dark night. I had been conditioned to see predators everywhere – lurking in corners, waiting to bite. Lux just skipped along the path, chattering about her day and her plans. I knew she had spray in her pocket, but she hadn't even noticed the shadowy figure who had chosen to follow us a couple of steps behind.

He didn't smell human.

But not like the moon and forest either.

Stale. Almost. A stale man.

Then Lux squeaked. "That man was following me yesterday."

My gums throbbed, saliva flooding my tongue. Subtly, I picked up the pace and the man behind us quickened, but his steps matched ours.

"Really?"

Lux pressed tighter to me, threading a hand to cup the inside of my elbow. "I'm almost sure. Come on – I want to go home."

I kept silent, humming whenever Lux paused for a reply. We reached our apartment building and I waited until we were in the embrace of light before pausing. "I need to check my post."

"Oh..." Lux slowed. "I'll wait for you."

"No..." I glance back out into the dimness, catching the shape of the loitering man. Stale man. "I'll be a while, I think. I want to talk to Ms. Carol about my rent."

Lux hesitated, "If you're struggling..."

"I'm not." Shaking my head, I stepped back. Lying felt too easy. The Ravi had stripped me of my humanity but they had also taken a lot of my old personality too. I had been a terrible liar when I was a teenager. I stuttered and stammered and blushed even when no one suspected me. Survival had scrapped that from my mind and now it was truth that I found so difficult.

"Don't go out again," Lux glanced around me nervously. "It's not safe."

"I won't." I assured her. "I'll be up in a few minutes."

Satisfied, Lux gave me a wave and smile and headed up the long and narrow stairs. I focused my attention on her as the sound of her footsteps faded and then, a final click. A bolt sliding.

I shook my head, bringing my attention back to the foyer. Focusing so intently on one thing gave me a better range to hear them, but it left me blind to my immediate surroundings. I left my post box – it was only bills and weird fliers. As an undocumented, I was nearly invisible. Ms. Carol had taken me on even though I didn't have the paperwork and, in the beginning, when my wages were not enough to cover my measly rent, I did odd-jobs around the building from building to exterminating to evicting tenants.

When I made enough to cover my rent and buy food aswell, I paid in cash and strapped a ragged flower to the envelope. A strange thank you, but Ms. Carol had simply laughed and brought me in for tea, waving away my attempts to thank her.

In the months that I had been free, the realization that people would help me was still hard to accept.

I stepped back into the dark, pivoting away from the flickering street-lamps. Two streets away was a small convenience store that sold my favourite packet of crisps. Once I left the safety of the apartment building, the stale man was back.

The stale man tracked me through the winding streets, always three steps behind me. The further I walked into the darkness, the quicker his steps fell. I cut into an alleyway, skirting around a fallen bin.

A large stone wall greeted me. It was just bare, ugly concrete. Too high for a human to climb without a good, running start.

His footsteps whispered against the ground behind me. I grinned savagely, but I shoved it down and turned.

"Hello."

The stale man startled. Even in the darkness, his eyes glowed. Definitely not a human.

"Why were you following us?" I asked pressingly.

The stale man cocked his head, his own savage smile rising. I ran my tongue along my sharpening teeth. "Two girls walking alone is good luck. One walking alone is a sign."

"A sign?" My fingers curled into my palms, hiding the emerging claws. They cut my skin and as that blood welled, I saw the stale man raise his nose to the air.

"I'm thirsty." He crooned. "And you are a puddle after a dessert of wandering."

"A puddle of salt and muck." A vampire then. "Go ahead then."

His luminous eyes flashed and he moved quickly – faster than anyone in the Mad-Maze had moved, cutting across the alleyway in a blink. Laughter bubbled in my throat and I turned, dodging the veined hand grabbing for my throat.

A hiss cut from his mouth and up close, I could see his face. A beautiful and haughty face, but the stale smell of his blood only grew stronger. "You're a vampire! I don't think I've met one of your kind before."

He bared his teeth.

"Your fangs are smaller than I thought they would be." I mused.

He swiped at me and I was slower this time, his nails catching on my shoulder. Blood rose along those ragged cuts and the scent swelled in the air. At the smell, I catch his pupils blowing wide.

"You have no idea what my fangs could do to you," the vampire snapped.

"I have an idea, but I wonder what kind of damage my fangs could do to you." And I smiled widely, blood coating my tongue as my fangs descended. Huh. Doc-Mai had tried to stamp out the bleeding before. Clearly it hadn't worked.

"What the fuc—" the vampire wheeled back, but I was already on him. He put up a fight, raining down blows on my body but when talons broke out of my fingers, his tough skin was not enough to keep me out. The vampire's blood – stale and wrong, spilled out in the alleyway.

The beast that had been fused with my mind was satisfied.

The anxiety that had plagued me for days subsided. With my hands drenched in blood, I began to set up the scene. 'Vampire killed in horrific, animalistic attack.' Throat torn out. 'Revenge from a past victim' 'Clan war?'