James Bellefleur founded Bellefleur Pharmaceuticals after WWI. James and Caroline Bellefleur had three children. The eldest and only living son is Richard Bellefleur, who took the reins after his father's retirement and grew the company into the giant corporation it is today.

Chapter 1: Stained Glass

Trigger warning: suicide themes

Kate knew exactly how many seconds it took for the elevator to descend to her floor. It was longer than seemed reasonable, but the basement of the Glass Tower was buried deeper down than most people even knew possible. But Kate liked it that way, she didn't mind the trip, and it only gave her extra time to prepare her mental list of tasks to be completed. She didn't have a lot of moments of solitude like this.

The elevator chimed and then softened to a stop, the doors waiting for Kate to complete her retinal scan before it would give her access to the classified floor. This was also part of her usual routine as was the secret little smile she gave herself as she completed the requirements. After all, who wouldn't appreciate the state-of-the-art safety measures developed by the company, especially as the person who upgraded the coding herself on her first week working here?

Once the heavy doors patent, she walked down the pristine and bright white halls of the lab, her own shoes tapping against the white tile flooring were the only noise there. Once she sat down at her desk in her private office, dead silence - just as Kate preferred it. In less than an hour, the rest of her research team would arrive, filling the lab with the steady buzzing of computers, the whirring of centrifuges, and the rhythmic tapping of keyboards, but for now, it was just Kate.

Kate started her coffee and began the boring tasks that she forced herself to complete before she could truly begin her work. Replying to emails, usually by forwarding them to someone else, as she wasn't the one that dealt with the 'people' side of things. Occasionally she would have to write a technical email that would be heavily edited and prettied up by the folks upstairs, explaining what they were working on down here, but they hadn't asked her to write those in a while. They knew better than to expect a layman's answer from her by now.

The gurgle of the coffee maker broke Kate away from her computer and she filled her large mug to the brim and started to open the files on current projects. Blowing the coffee slightly before she took a sip of the scalding liquid, she then began to read the latest report on the improvements being made to their patented UV filtering glass. She nearly sprayed her drink across the screen when she saw the newest specs. What were they doing to her baby? Didn't they know that breaking the polyvinyl carbon bonds would degrade the effectiveness of UV filtering?!

UV-proof glass was Kate's first major project she had delivered for the company three years ago. She had created the first complete UVA and UVB ray-proof compound. She was quite proud of it, and to see that they were trying to change it, especially after she had consulted with them so thoroughly about how it was developed… It was frustrating beyond belief.

Flagging the error, Kate requested a meeting with the team currently reworking the UV glass. Apparently, they were trying to make it bulletproof. Why, she had no idea. Kate sighed and moved on to the next project. Before she could even start to read it there was a soft knock on her door. Checking the time, Kate was surprised to see that it was already nine am, the normal starting time for the research team. Pouring another cup of coffee, Kate opened the door.

"Have you been here all night or did you just get in?" Dr. Odenbach asked as he accepted the cup of coffee.

Holding multiple PHDs and having worked in research for over forty years, Arnie Odenbach was one of the biggest research and development assets to the company. The fact that he treated Kate with grandfatherly respect was what made him an asset to Kate.

"Wouldn't you like to know," Kate replied with a small smile. But he didn't entirely buy it, as it was something her sister would say. And she wasn't her sister, that was certain.

"Take a look at this," she handed him her tablet displaying the file on the UV glass, completely aware that he would understand the implications immediately.

"Oh, those idiots. Must be Kyle's team," Arnie groused, slurping his coffee. "I'll go with you to that meeting. Is it at three?"

"Yeah, it's his team. Why do they want the glass to be bulletproof?" Kate asked, and Arnie gave her a sympathetic look.

"Why don't you ask the next batch of test subjects tonight, and see what they say," he replied, topping off his coffee before he moved to the doorway. Arnie was always trying to get her to interact with the test subjects more. Maybe it was because she was the only one comfortable enough to do it.

Kate rolled her eyes at him and returned to her screen, and Arnie took that as his opportunity to leave. Cracking her neck, Kate immersed herself in her latest project for the company. Kate held degrees in bioengineering, biology and computer science and she was drawing on all her expertise to get this to work.

Completely immersed in her process, she continued to research and calculate variants for the next several hours. It was the type of work that was most soothing for her, the kind where she didn't realize that time was passing. Ignoring a call from her sister, she continued to plow through her work, not breaking for lunch. She was so close to a breakthrough, she could feel it. It was right there, right in front of her, she just had to put the pieces together to see it.

When she was a child she would sit on the floor of her mother's lab, listening to her mom work through her thought process aloud. Sometimes, in moments like this, she could still hear her mother's voice as if it was her thinking through the problem, not Kate. Kate had inherited her mother's genius, but even as a little girl, she didn't know what her mother was saying. Complex chemistry equations, all with the soothing cadence of a lullaby. If only she could remember any of it, maybe they would help her now.

Opening and closing her mother's gold locket around her neck, just as her mother had, helped her think. The clicking kept the time like a metronome on the symphony of her thoughts. This project, project Gamma as the title on the header read, had simply too much data to sift through for a pattern… in a moment of annoyed epiphany, Kate realized that she didn't have to run all the variables to calculate what would be most effective… She could create a program that would run the calculations for her. She should have done this weeks ago.

Spinning in her chair Kate was already building the data analytic algorithm in her head. Suddenly dizzy at the prospect of finally cracking this puzzle, Kate halted the chair. Project Gamma would be the biggest breakthrough for the company to date. If…If she could make it work.

"Katherine, time for a very uncomfortable meeting," Arnie had opened her door and interrupted.

"Oh." Kate checked the clock. Three pm already? "I'll be right out." Checking her bangs and her lab-safe bun in the mirror, Kate exhaled slowly and steeled herself for the upcoming meeting.

The meeting room in the research lab was always chaotic. Multiple whiteboards graffitied with unfinished equations filled all four walls, and the U-shaped arrangement of tables were scattered with old notes, snack wrappers, and energy drink cans. No one had access to this level of the building except those with the highest clearance, this policy included housekeeping. They only brought in a cleaning crew once a month under very close supervision. Maybe she should make that happen more often.

"Why the fuck did you flag my project?" Kyle asked furiously the moment Kate and Arnie entered. "You know that they need this done immediately, the clients–"

"Will be dead if you don't fix this," Kate replied as kindly as she could.

But Kyle Wilson, although brilliant, was not kind. His lanky frame hunched, and his freckled face turned from a frustrated red to pale so quickly that Kate thought he might be sick.

"Dead? Or do you mean more dead?" Kyle covered his inadequacy with more anger. Her sister taught her that men often do that. Kate could see the wheels in his brain spinning, thinking of a possible flaw in his design.

"That's inching close to hate speech Dr. Wilson, and I won't hear of it," Arnie replied.

"I thought you understood when I briefed you on this project that the coating cannot be changed. It's bioengineered, it can't be–"

"Well, we can't make it bulletproof without changing the coating. It's frying under the laminating process."

Kate exhaled slowly, trying to make sure she explained, again, what Kyle's team needed to do in the nicest way possible. She didn't agree with Kyle's philosophy of bulldozing your way through life. Which was a bit ironic, considering her family.

"That's why I advised you to consider a different material for the base. I thought you were more familiar with the volatility of the compounds - if you break the polyvinyl carbon bonds it will alter the aluminum oxide reaction –"

"Don't patronize me!" Kyle burst."We all know the only reason you're in this lab at all is because you're a nepo baby, so don't go acting like you're better than me!" Kyle erupted in anger.

The room was suddenly deathly quiet. Kate could feel everyone in the room staring right at her, watching her next move intently. If she could dig any deeper into the basement and bury herself, she would.

Kate had known that there would be whispers about how she, only being 26, managed to secure a lead research position. Kyle was true. Her father owned this company, and her own last name was plastered everywhere. On the side of the building, in the lobby, and on the letterhead of every official document.

Bellefleur Tech

But she thought she had proved herself, hadn't she? Hadn't she time and time again shown that she was just as brilliant as anyone else here? She clocked in more hours than anyone. She made this lab her entire life. Her projects won more awards and profits than anyone else's, despite rarely even putting her name on them. But it didn't matter, did it? It would never be enough.

Tears welled in her eyes, and Kate tried to repress them, trying to fight the emotion threatening to spill over. As if being called out this way wasn't bad enough, now she was going to cry in front of everyone.

Dr. Odenbach sat down slowly, so slowly that it was casual, but it only made the room more tense.

"How long have you worked here, Dr. Wilson? A year?" Arnie asked.

"Two this April," Kyle replied. "But I've worked in this industry–" he tried to continue, but Arnie interrupted him again.

"Katherine Bellefleur has practically grown up inside these walls. She has worked here for three full years and has delivered more projects than everyone in this room combined. Even if multiple degrees from Stanford and MIT don't mean anything to you, her work and dedication speak for itself. She is here before you every day, and she'll be here long after you leave. You may think that belittling her is going to make you look better by comparison, but it only makes it clear that you, dear boy, are a fool. Now, if you want to make sure that you don't kill our clients, I suggest you take what Katherine has to say seriously," Arnie said in his smooth deep Louisiana drawl. The rest of the research team now looked at Kyle, with curiosity and disdain. Their eyes darted across the room as if they were watching a tennis match.

Kyle's face turned a deep ruddy red and for a moment Kate was worried he was going to hit Arnie.

"We'll be going now. Kate has a world to revolutionize. I suggest you try to keep up," Arnie said and he steered Kate out of the meeting room.

Kate thought she was going to pass out. Numbly walking back toward their offices, she couldn't quite look Arnie in the eye.

"Thank you, for saying all that," Kate told him in a whisper.

"I did nothing but tell that little shit the truth," Arnie replied. "I wished you would have done it."

Kate blanched. She couldn't imagine trying to tell people those things about herself, even if they were true. That was something her sister excelled at, and maybe a little too much.

"You need to grow a backbone, kid," Arnie told her and Kate shrugged helplessly.

"I don't think the lab is set up for that big of a project," Kate managed to joke weakly.

Barking out a laugh, Arnie reminded her, "Product testers will be here tonight, don't forget to put your drops in."

Kate nodded and closed the door, collapsing to the floor, she couldn't help but actually cry now that she was alone. These walls had witnessed many of tears through her years.

Why did it bother her so much what fucking Kyle Wilson thought? Why couldn't she just do as Arnie said and stand up for herself? She knew she was right. If they broke the polyvinyl bonds, the aluminum oxide would nullify the silica compound, bringing the UV proofing down from 100 to 92% and that just wasn't acceptable. There was no room for a margin of error. Nothing below absolute perfection would be good enough. Couldn't they understand what was at stake?

Exhausting her tears, Kate hiccuped and then pulled herself together. She couldn't be such a mess when the product testers arrived.

Washing her tears away and fixing her hair, Kate practiced smiling in the mirror. Lastly, she carefully put an eye drop in each eye, blinking until her version cleared. Good enough.

Exiting her office, she went up to the testing facility one floor above and stood with the rest of the research team, waiting for the product testers to arrive.

Niko was already waiting for her. She was a new addition to the team, but Kate had known from her internship at the Yakonomo Corporation years ago, stood nervously by her side.

"What's got you so worked up?" Kate asked her kindly.

"It just…the product testers," Niko stuttered.

"Yes?"

"Well…They're…You know."

Kate thought it was silly that people still felt that way about them. "What? Vampires?"

"Yes, vampires."

The Great Revelation happened when Kate was about 10 years old, and it seems she had inherited her mother's fascination with their physiology. Or maybe it was nurture - Kate had spent a good chunk of her childhood watching her mother work on the first UV-proofing vinyl film to cover windows, making houses safer and more accessible to vampires. It was how Bonne Nuit, a division of Bellefleur Tech, was founded almost 20 years ago.

To her, vampires weren't all that different from humans. But to every generation that preceded her, vampires were a thing of movies and fiction. Kate almost laughed at the thought humanity actually believed them to be mythical creatures for so long.

But even to this day, Bonne Nuit had very few researchers volunteering to run user experience trials. Hiring a UX specialist in the vampire field was damn near impossible, no matter the compensation package. So Kate ran most of it by herself, now with the help of Niko. It was just another task in her docket of routine activities. Plus dealing with the test subjects had given Kate an inside perspective most people didn't get to have. She had seen vampires cry tears of blood, and scream in pain when a product failed and light reached their skin. Kate had watched as an MRI recorded no brain activity all while a vampire talked, laughed, and drank New Blood but yet - they lived. If she was the type of person that believed in higher powers, she would have thought it was magic. But in Kate's world of science and numbers, there was no such thing as magic. There were just phenomena, some that science had yet to explain, and many, many more that science already had.

The world was a puzzle, just waiting to be solved.

Kate exhaled slowly and looked over at Niko, who was also trying to calm her nerves. She was a brilliant chemist, but being with vampires made her nervous. It was disappointing, considering she hired Niko due to her experience at the Yakonomo Corporation, the developers of synthetic blood. Kate assumed her friend had experience with the undead too. Working with a subject that wasn't a machine or a chemical was always more challenging. But Kate didn't blame her, Niko wasn't all that good with the living either.

Then, their test subject entered the room.

Subject JNS3247 was a male vampire turned in his late forties. His hair was dark and he had silver coming in at the temples. The vampire surveyed the sterile white room with a practiced nonchalance as if he owned it. Checking her notes on the subject, she realized that he was over four hundred years old. No wonder this didn't seem to phase him.

"Would you like to brief the subject or shall I?" Kate asked.

"I'll watch if that's okay," Niko replied, surveying the vampire through the one-way mirror. "I'm all set to take notes."

Kate entered the testing room with her head held high. In her experience, it was best to be formal and direct. Despite having all eternity, vampires didn't like to waste time.

"The study you will be participating in today is the first in a series of trials to test the user-friendliness of our new light-tight shutters," Kate began, not bothering with any kind of formalities.

"I've seen the shutters before," the vampire said. "Almost seems common now."

Kate nodded. Light-tight shutters were one of the first vampire-friendly products on the market and one of Bonne Nuit's earliest launches. They could be installed in most pre-existing windows of residential homes. The original UV-proof vinyl film could be tricky and deadly if installed incorrectly, and the shutters were a success due to being more reliable. But now with the new upgrades, current shutters would be automatic, with high-accuracy sensors that continually detect UV ray levels outside.

"There are several new components to our system. In order to find out the user-friendliness and the effectiveness of the product, I won't be giving you explicit instructions on how to operate the new technology. It's important to note that if you would like the study to stop at any time, please say so. Additionally, the light that we are using to simulate the sun is a full spectrum source of light specifically designed to mimic exactly what one would experience if exposed to true sunlight. That is to say – it will burn you if you are exposed to it, but I can turn off the light systems completely at any sign of discomfort."

"I understand the risks involved, I was told when I signed the liability waiver," the vampire replied unconcerned.

"Very well. In a few moments, you will be given a simulated countdown of a sunrise. Please make a mental note as to features you do and don't like about the product as we will need your full account after the trial."

"Sure," then glancing at her name tag, the vampire stopped. "Katherine Bellfleur, as in… Richard Bellefleur?"

"We like to keep it in the family," Kate replied, not wanting to discuss her father.

"I see that you do, and your name, Katherine…" he drew out the length of her name pleasingly. "I knew a few Katherine's from my time. It's a beautiful name, for a beautiful woman."

Kate couldn't help but blush. She knew that vampires all had a natural sort of charm about them, maybe it was just that many had been around for so long, they knew just what to say.

"Uhhh, yeah…Thank you," Kate stammered. "I'm going to exit and start the trial shortly."

Walking as quickly as she could without appearing to run, Kate exited the room, shutting the door tightly behind her.

Niko looked at Kate with an alarmed expression. "Do they all do that?"

"Do what?"

"Flirt with you!"

Kate rolled her eyes. "He wasn't flirting, he was just being nice. All vampires are like that."

Niko cocked an eyebrow, giving her a disapproving look. "Better you than me. He looked like he wanted to make you his next meal," Niko said as she began adjusting the dials to ready the simulation of sunlight.

"No, he wasn't. He was just extra nice because he realized that I'm a 'Bellefleur'. It's also on my name tag, see?" Kate pointed at the metal tag, clipped on her blouse.

"Either way, I'm staying on this side of the glass," Niko said stoutly as Kate made the final adjustments.

"Systems are a go, start the clock," Kate announced and Niko flipped the switch.

Watching Subject JNS3247 access the panel and control the light-blocking shades was not as interesting to Kate as was to Niko. Possibly because Kate had seen so many trials before it wasn't all surprising to her when he located the remote immediately. The whole new system was smart and could be easily programmed from a phone or tablet. In this case, it was just a small screen attached to the wall. To most people, this kind of technology was incredibly simple and intuitive. But a large number of vampires greatly predated even the telephone, so the interface had to be completely foolproof and easy to use. You can't have them fumbling with the shutters at sunrise and accidentally press the wrong button.

"He found it so fast, that's really good," Niko said delightedly.

Kate smirked goodnaturedly behind her.

The vampire flipped the switch and the light-tight shades immediately flicked in place, so quickly in fact, that Subject JNS3247 was startled by it. He flicked the shades open and shut several times and still had over three minutes before the simulated sunrise would come up. He seemed intrigued by the automatic rolling mechanism. The previous model required users to close the shutters manually. But this one had a timer, UV sensors, and security systems that prevented it to be opened or tempered during the day.

Toggling through the other controls, Subject JNS3247 found that he could adjust the colour and design of the inside of the shutters as they were all mounted with smart screens, instead of just plain wooden paneling. Choosing an artificial beach scene, the final seconds counted down and the simulated sun rose behind the shutters.

Not a single ray shone through.

Clapping her hands with excitement, Niko proceeded to record her notes and was thrilled with the success of the trial.

Starting the countdown to let Subject JNS3247 know that the trial was ending, Kate began to gather her recording device and her post-trial questionnaire. This was her favourite part of any trial. Kate didn't much care for anything that went right. To her, there were very few things in life that were actually perfect. What could she do to make it better? Where was there room for improvement? How could the product be more effective, user-friendly, or efficient?

Re-entering the room at the sound of the bell, Kate sat across from the subject and asked him a series of questions. Overall, Subject JNS3247 was most impressed with the product. This model of light-tight shutters would be the upgrade that most vampires would be able to afford and access.

While BonneNuit's patented UV-proof glass windows were completely custom-made, retrofitting them in preexisting homes was so expensive it was generally not an option for most vampires. Their original UV-proof vinyl film was the next best option, but it was prone to scratches and useless if not installed by a professional. Plus, it was prone to scratches by regular wear and tear. These new bedroom shutters at least gave them the peace of mind of sleeping in regular bedrooms instead of basements or coffins.

And that was Bonne Nuit core mission: to allow vampires to live among us with dignity and safety.

Light-tight shutters were one of BonneNuit's first launched products almost fifteen years ago. Nearly every vampire home had them, but many were close to being over ten years old now, and many had begun to fail. So Kate wanted to launch these in the market by the end of the year.

"There is one thing that I would suggest," the subject said at the end and Kate waited with bated breath.

"The sound of the shutters snapping into place, if there is any way it could be silenced, I would recommend that," the vampire said uncomfortably.

"Is it too loud?" Kate asked, scribbling away. She knew that vampires' hearing could be up to ten times as sensitive as humans, depending upon the age and strength of the vampire.

"Yes, and… It sounds exactly like a late 18th-century French Guillotine," Subject JNs3247 haltingly explained.

Gulping as she continued to write, Kate knew better than to ask how it was that Subject JNS3247 knew what a late 16th-century French Guillotine sounded like. While naturally curious, Kate had learned to never ask a vampire a question that she didn't really want to know the answer to.

"Thank you for your feedback," Kate asked, looking at the final page for extra observations. "Just one more question, if I may?"

The vampire nodded, seeming to be enjoying the trial. Luckily, in her experience, most of them did - vampires enjoyed partaking in new experiences, especially those who have lived so many lifetimes. Technology being developed for their exclusive benefit definitely did not exist before vampires made themselves known to humanity in 2006, so understandably, subjects were often curious. That, and she paid them in blood.

"You can ask me anything Katherine," he smirked, his eyes gleaming.

"Are you aware of our UV-proof glass products?"

He nodded. "Every vampire is."

"Would it be beneficial in any way for it to be also bulletproof?"

A shadow crossed his face and his lips stretched to a thin line for a moment, as if the question was hurtful in some way. "But of course. Unless a vampire can also afford daytime security along with your windows, it is still not entirely safe for us to sleep above ground."

The whole point of creating UV-proof technology, the whole reason why Bonne Nuit was founded, was to help vampires mainstream into human society. If they could live like us, if they did not have to isolate themselves from us, then perhaps humans would not see them as monsters. Humanity's worst flaw was, after all, the fear of the unknown, and the distrust of anyone who was different.

So hearing that despite all their best efforts - cost-effective light-tight shutters, vinyl coatings, UV-proof glass, and countless other products - vampires still could not live like us was disheartening.

"How come?"

Subject JNs3247 gave her a grim smile. "I'm afraid your windows also have to be neighbor-proof, my dear."

Hatred. They had to be hatred-proof.

With a heavy heart, Kate concluded the trial and bid farewell to the vampire. Niko returned to her private office to lock up the reports before heading home. It was well after eight and all of the other researchers were gone for the night. Including stupid Kyle Wilson, who seemed to know a bit more about vampires than she gave him credit for. The open area outside Kate's office was only lit with the dim lights of computer monitors, and the only sound was the gentle hum of the air conditioner.

It was time to put away society's hate crime problem and focus on a much bigger one - her mother's last unfinished project: project 113. With a deserted laboratory, this was the only time that Kate could work on it. She was the only one she trusted with it.

Opening the false bottom of her desk drawer, Kate took out a briefcase-sized safe. She punched in the 18-digit password and unlocked her most treasured work. As she did every night, Kate looked over her mother's incomplete coded notes, hoping that anything might stand out to her this time.

And, as usual, nothing ever did.

Then she opened her own notes, trying once again to find a solution to a problem that seemed insurmountable.

Sometimes, in these dark hours, when there was no one and nothing, Kate could almost understand why her mother had done it. When Kate thought about the entire problem and not just the first steps, it seemed pointless, terrifying, and ultimately futile.

Kate was thirteen years old when she found her mother dead in the lab.

The actual room no longer existed. It was down on the west side of the hall back then, and her father had commandeered an entire upgrade and renovation of the entire floor a few years after her mother's death, to put the rest of the research team at ease.

But that memory lived in the back of Kate's mind like stained glass, shining its abhorrent light over every thought. It haunted her at the worst of times; the startling feeling of her mother's cold skin, the way her mom almost looked like she could have been sleeping, if not for the unnatural stillness to her body. The image of her pale hand tightly gripping her last words was burned into Kate's memory.

The note was written in black ink, in the same space she had kept all the notes that Kate fervently analyzed each night. Her mother's final thoughts couldn't be put through a testing trial. They couldn't be analyzed or cataloged, and no matter how much data she gathered, or how many algorithms she ran, the simple words left by her mother were a hypothesis that Kate would never truly understand.

Please forgive me.

Along with the accompanying formula for the world's most devastating disease:

Hepatitis V.

They never traced patient zero, no one knew where it had come from, and to be frank, there was no funding for research into the matter or the cure. But her mother had spent a vast amount of time dissecting every sequence of the virus genome, titled Project 113. She had studied every surface protein, every antigen of the envelope, every pathway of the major histocompatibility complex and achieved… Nothing.

Kate wasn't sure how or why her mother was working on the cure of Hepatitis V from the Bonne Nuit labs, and not from the behemoth Bellefleur Technologies pharmacology research facility her father owned. Since finding her mother's notes Kate had nothing but more questions, and all of them had gone unanswered so far. But there was one thing that Kate knew with absolute certainty: there had to be a cure.

A true cure, not just what New Blood sold, which was a synthetic formulation that medicated the symptoms and stalled the progression of the virus. But Kate knew better, and she would do better. She would finish what her mother started. Every time she made even the smallest headway on this project she felt she was a little closer to righting the wrong that her mother had paid the ultimate price for.

Kate stayed immersed in her code, connected only to the numbers and equations on the page that hopefully could process the amount of data she had on vampire blood. Interpreting chemical formulas, hypothesizing, and ultimately, failing, again, and again and again.

As she did most nights.

After realizing that she was attempting to read the same page of an article she found in a New Delhi medical journal that looked like it had promising results for a virus that was similar to Hep V, for the third time in a row, Kate decided to call it night. Checking the clock she realized she had been at work for almost twenty straight hours. It was almost three in the morning. Tomorrow she would try to save the world all over again.

Gathering her items and removing her loose and old hair tie that was likely in its final days, Kate texted her cousin to pick her up and dragged herself back to the elevator, all the while imagining the softness of her bed. Closing her eyes and resting her head against the wall, Kate counted down the seconds in her mind, her nighttime ritual. Ending it the same way it started.

Having timed it perfectly in her head, the elevator chimed on cue announcing its arrival on the ground floor. But when the doors opened, they revealed a surprise. A woman was waiting alone in the dark lobby and stepped inside the elevator with her, bringing along the scent of expensive scotch. She was a vision of scarlet red, wearing a red silk mini dress that showed her 8 feet worth of legs, a red blazer with questionable stains, and matching red high-heeled ankle boots covered in golden stars. Her hair was a mess of disheveled brown curls and her sparkling eyes looked at Kate with the familiar hint of defiance. Kate's surprise was replaced by a loving tolerance.

"Really, Becca?" Kate sighed, disappointed her night was not, in fact, over. "Again?"

A.N: Hello again!

This may be a be unexpected to some, but I've decided to not wait anymore. I've been working on this story for literal years, and it's so special to me I can't wait any longer! If you are familiar with my work, you know I write family drama undertones, but I'm diving in head first with this one.

Now can I juggle 2 WIP at the same time? Probably not, haha. I'm releasing the first 3 chapters at once because they work together as the intro to the story. Updates will (hopefully) be monthly after that.

This is a True Blood story 10 years after season 7, surprisingly mostly canon. Godric and Terry live, and the season 6 vamp camp was more horrific.

Big inspirations for this work are Succession and Hemlock Grove. Trigger warning: suicide themes (as listed above), heavy drinking, drug use.

I hope you enjoy the original characters and their lives as much as I do :)

Spice