Call me morbid all you want, but I find elderly people to be very curious. My fascination for the decrepit began fairly recently, when I first noticed that life is much calmer when your old. As neighbors that I watched raise entire generations of families grew old, I noticed their lives seemed to slow down. I found it particularly interesting that they ignored the rush of a big city like Chicago, and just sat outside of their house in perfect tranquility. They could sit on their porch on a midsummer's night alone, with their spouse, or with their entire family, and just watch fireflies imitate stars.

Once I had this epiphany, I, too, began to just sit still and watch nature. I found it comforting to lie on the roof of the old ca' and just watch the stars. In all my years, the stars were one thing that never changed.

Perhaps I appreciated my elderly neighbors so much because I knew I would never be like them. Of all the experiences I lost when I was turned, I most regret never growing old. There are so many beautiful phases to a life, and I was perpetually stuck in a single one. I hated myself for being unable to age, incapable of change, but when I looked at the sky I felt better. At least the stars never changed, they were eternally stuck in a single, beautiful phase. And they couldn't come out during the day either.

By the light of the moon, I saw a shadow flicker in my peripheral vision. The darkened figure darted across the slate shingles behind me. He was quiet, but I could sense Eric from a mile away.

He bowed in respect before approaching me slowly. I had been lying on my back across the roof, but sat up out of politeness in order to speak with him. The blonde, muscular vampire knelt next to me and said in his native tongue, Swedish, "Good evening, Juliana."

"Good evening, Eric." I responded in fluent Swedish, which I had learned many years ago in order to communicate with him, "What brings you to my rooftop tonight?" Seeing Eric almost always resulted in something unexpectedly terrible, but I feigned optimism.

"Godric requests the opportunity to speak with you." I nodded, mostly unsurprised. I had learned to recognize Eric as the metaphorical smoke before the fire. Wherever Eric was, his master was sure to be close to. However, I was concerned as to why Godric should "request" a meeting with me. Never had Godric "requested" anything of me, it was always a direct demand. And I always refused.

In one of my neighbors' backyards, a dog began to yip. Animals were better at sensing danger than humans, and a good guard dog could detect a vampire quickly. I shivered slightly at the noise, and Eric noticed.

"Chihuahua." He stated, as if that would comfort me.

I shrugged and tried to ignore the creature. "I'm more of a cat person."

Eric grinned, and I knew Godric had already informed him of my canine resentment. I wondered when he had last talked about me- or even thought about me. Godric's path and mine hadn't crossed in over 100 years.

"Tell Godric that I accept his request. He can meet me here at his earliest convince." It was the diplomatic answer Eric had been waiting for, and he bowed before disappearing amongst the shadows. When he was gone I muttered to myself, "I never am anywhere else, anyways."

Falling back against the cold grey shingles, I began to count stars. One, two, three, four…

***Centuries Ago***

"Seventy three, seventy four, seventy five." I finished counting, and jumped down from the boulder that overlooked the gated flock of sheep. "We're missing one of them."

"Helena has lost one of the sheep!" Irene shouted, pointing her chubby finger at her twin sister.

"I have not! I counted all of them, Juliana, honestly I did. But when we herded them back to the gate, one of them was gone. It's not my fault Juliana!" Helena aggressively defended herself, her eyes beginning to turn misty.

A sheep had been killed by a wolf yesterday, and father was quite upset. I was blamed, but all of the children were warned that if we didn't tend the flock more attentively, we would be severely punished. And since none of his seven daughters wanted to be smacked across the back with a wooden staff, we agreed to be more responsible.

I was the eldest child, and although farming was never considered a "woman's" task, I had been farming since I could walk. My mother could not conceive sons, so Helena, Irene, and I tended to the farm while our younger sisters did housework with our mother. I never minded working on the field, in fact, I enjoyed the country, but it seemed like I was never anywhere else.

I longed to go to the great cities of the Roman Empire, despite the tales of war with barbarians over the country. I was not afraid of war, barbarians, or anything. If anything, I was nervous about being betrothed to a blacksmith, but he seemed kind enough. Theodosius had arm muscles as big as tree trunks, and I knew he could protect me from any barbarians or wars in Rome. Although my father had already given him the gold and our fattest pig, Theodosius still crafted me a beautiful silver ring which I was twisting anxiously around my middle finger at the moment.

The sky was turning indigo with night, and was almost as dark as some of the grapes in our vineyard. There was still some light left in the horizon, so I turned to my apprehensive sisters and said, "We still have time to find that sheep, yet. If we hurry into the forest, I'm sure we can find it before it gets too dark."

Irene looked terrified, her olive skin turning pale with fear. "But Juliana, what about the wolves?" I patted her on the shoulder comfortingly and picked up my herding staff.

"Any wolf that comes near us will get a nice thump on the head; and that will teach him to never mess with a daughter of Sabbas again, hmm?"

Helena and Irene nodded worriedly, and held each other tightly as they fallowed me into the forest that our farm bordered. Each sheep had a bell tied to its neck, so we walked quietly through the outskirts of the forest with our ears peeled for a sound of a bell.

The forest quickly became dark from the tall trees, and although we could hear several owls, squirrels, and deer in the forest, we could not hear any bells.

"Juliana," Helena whispered, "I think we should go back to the ca' now. We're not going to find the sheep in these conditions, and-" Suddenly, a choir of howls erupted from deep with in the woods. Helena covered her mouth in order to muffle a scream and Irene grabbed my arm as if she were preparing to faint.

I nodded my agreement, and we silently took our first steps towards heading back home. We probably would have made it home safely, if not for a gust of wind.

A cold breeze blew past us, and carried with it a very faint chime. I recognized that sound, and so did my sisters.

"Juliana," Helena whined, but I interrupted her plea.

"No. We came out here to find it, and we are going to finish that task. Sisters, we have each other, and we'll be safe. No wolf can stop us."

"But he can surely tear us to pieces." Irene muttered hatefully. I spun around, emerald eyes blazing.

"If you two are so weak as to leave a helpless lamb to the wolves, then go back to the ca', because you're no help to me! I, for one, will not listen to it perish." I stepped deeper into the forest in search of the bell, and soon felt the presences of my sisters behind me.

Ding ling ling. Ding.

"I heard it!" Irene whispered excitedly. "This way!" We hurried after her, and soon she called, "There it is!"

The little white lamb was curled against a tree trunk, shivering. "Poor little soul is cold," Helena sighed, touching her heart. She walked over to it, and was about to scoop up the young animal in her arms when a low growl shook the air. Helena froze, as well as Irene and I, and the face of a snarling wolf emerged from the brush.

He was covered in wiry black hair with a grey underbelly and face. Crouched forward, like he was ready to pounce on my little sister, his long snout was adorned in wrinkles from his bared teeth. Saliva dripped from his lower jaw, and I heard Helena whimper when he took another step towards her.

I blinked, and the creature attacked. He lunged at my sister, barking as he pounced on her chest which knocked her to the ground. Irene screamed for Helena, who had the air knocked out of her. She still managed to protect her neck, which was the creature's target, but the beast bit her arm instead.

"Back!" I cried, as I swung the staff at the wolf's head. It crushed into his skull and he released Helen's arm instantly with a yelp. His dark eyes fixated on me, as blood dripped down into his right eye from the gash I had inflicted. He snarled again, and snapped at me, his jaw still bloody from Helena's wound.

I thrust the end of the staff at him again, but missed. My efforts were not in vain, he still retreated enough for me to lift the lamb out of danger. I tossed the animal behind me to Irene, who was helping Helena off the ground. Roaring like a demon from Hell, the wolf dived at me for the final time. With perfect accuracy I hit him dead on top of the head, and he crumpled to a heap in the dirt.

Assuming he was dead, we all breathed a sigh of relief. "Oh, angles in Heaven!" Irene cried, "Let's get out of here!"

"Look!" Helena gasped, pointing with her bloody arm at the wolf. Or, what had been the wolf. Instead of a dead dog, a naked man was lying in its place. There was a gash in his head that was bleeding profusely, and he had blue markings along his body unlike anything I had ever seen. "It's a demon man-wolf!"

None of us had ever seen a naked man before, let alone an evil naked man-wolf. So we were dumbstruck for several moments. "What are those designs on his back?" Helena asked.

"The Devil himself must have painted them on him. Oh, Juliana, we must go."

I wasn't quite sure if he was a demon or not, for I had never heard of a man who could shift between the form of a wolf and the form of a person. However, Irene and Helena were quite confident in his demonic heritage, so I didn't protest.

"Have I killed him?" I asked, mostly to myself since I knew Helena and Irene were too shocked to answer. Kneeling down to his face, I touched his neck to see if he was still breathing.

Irene grabbed me by the collar of my crème dress and pulled me away from him. "Don't touch it!" She screamed. "Juliana, we must get far away from here. What if there are more?" Helena began to openly sob at the idea of more man-wolves, and Irene touched her hurt arm. "Our sister needs tending to, and it isn't safe here. We need to leave."

"Yes," a sultry voice cooed from the shadows of the trees, "it isn't safe here."

I felt Irene's hand tense on my shoulder and I knew she was frozen behind me in terror. "Who was that?" she whispered to me. I tried to peer into the trees, but I couldn't see anything. Suddenly, Irene's hand lifted off me. "Where is Helena?" I spun around, but Helena was gone.

"Helena!" I screamed into the woods, but no response returned to me besides the call of a crow. "Sister?"

Irene began to bawl. "Where is my sister?" I held her close to me, with the little white lamb separating us, and shouted again. "Helena?"

A moan emerged from the man-wolf, which caused Irene and I to scream and back away from him. "Where is my sister, demon?" Irene screamed at him, and picked up a stone off the ground to chuck at him.

The rock was nearly about to hit the man when another figure appeared in front of him and caught it. Irene gasped and hid behind me. I could feel her and the lamb shaking in terror. The dark figure dropped the stone onto the earth and turned towards the unconscious man-wolf.

"Where is my sister?" I asked him, who didn't respond. "Tell me," I began threateningly, and took a step towards them, my staff poised to strike. Before I had taken a second step closer, a corpse fell from the sky, and I recognized the mangled body of my sister. Tears instantly flooded my eyes, and I heard Irene scream again.

"Helena!" I squeaked, and knelt down to touch her pretty blonde hair and full flushed cheek. She seemed peaceful in death, but I was too overwhelmed by her throat, which appeared to be ripped apart, to notice. One of my tears hit her face, and I forced myself to look away from the grisly sight. When I looked up however, the naked man and the other man were standing, and staring straight at us.

"Irene," I managed to breathe, "Run." There was silence between all of us for a few seconds, and then I heard Irene dart off. Her footsteps and sobs and the lambs jingling bell were audible for a few more moments before I knew she was out of sight.

The men hadn't moved, they were still staring at me, and I tightened my grip on the staff. "You killed my sister!" I screamed at them, resentment boiling up within me. Another dark figure dropped from the sky, and landed just on the other side of Helena.

"No," he said calmly, "That was me."

Blood covered his face and upper body. He wasn't wearing a shirt, and I could see that he had the same blue markings around his neck and arms as the naked man. He had dark eyes and short dark hair, and he seemed to be staring right into my soul. I could hardly look past his mouth, however, which bore a set of long, sharp fangs.

I felt my chest tighten in fear, and I swung at him subconsciously. He stopped the staff with ease- he didn't even use both hands- and pushed it back at me. I tumbled to the ground, the staff falling out of my hand and out of reach. Then, I began to fear for my life.

The fanged stranger, who appeared to be my age, sixteen, crouched above me. He was dangerously close to me, hardly putting a hand's distance between us. I was leaning on my hands, and tried to scoot myself away from him, but he only moved closer to me. The stranger was able to match all of my actions with exact precision until I was pressed against a tree trunk.

I was trapped by the tree, the earth, and his body, and felt helpless. His breath smelled like decay, and I couldn't help but know that it was because he had just murdered my sister. I was breathing heavily beneath him, and I couldn't control the fact that my breasts touched his chest every time I took in air.

A sinister growl caused me to yelp, but it didn't come from the fanged boy, it came from the same black and grey wolf that had attacked Helena. I shrieked when I saw the wolf's head so unexpectedly close to mine. He had a big head, and his toothy snarl looked like it could easily eat me up. The wolf bit my sleeve and tore a long strip of fabric from my dress. The boy on top of me looked annoyed by that, and pointed into the forest, as if dismissing the wolf. He said something quietly, in what I thought might be Latin, and the wolf and the other man left in a flash of black.

It took me a moment to realize what had just happened, but when I did, I couldn't restrain myself from crying out, "No!" My gut sank a little in my stomach with guilt, as I figured out who the wolf and the man were tracking. I turned to stop them, but the boy shoved my shoulders back against the tree, and leaned closer to me.

"She is dead." He spoke, not of Helena who was obviously dead, but of Irene who I assumed they were currently attacking.

"No! Don't kill her, please, don't take another one of my sisters." I begged. He lacked the sympathy that could cause him to care. "Take me, but not them."

He tilted his head slightly as if curious. "You would sacrifice your life for another?"

The weight of the world seemed to be crashing down on me, not to mention the guilt. "I should have had better judgment and turned back. They don't deserve to die for my mistake." I said quietly.

The stranger didn't show any signs of acknowledging what I said.

"Are you going to kill me?" I asked, when he didn't respond.

"Yes."

I shivered a little beneath him. "Are you a demon?"

"Yes."

Biting my lip, I analyzed the young devil. "You are Death." I stated.

"Yes."

He reached down and touched my right hand. I allowed him to hold it and bring it to his face.

"You are betrothed?" He asked me without any specific emotion. I thought that was a strange question for Death to ask, but I nodded anyways. "What do they call you?"

"Juliana, daughter of Sabbas," I paused while he stroked the back of my palm. He seemed to be admiring my ring. "I'm going to wed Theodosius, the blacksmith."

The stopped holding my hand, and I let it rest on my lap. "What is you're name, demon?"

His black eyes interlocked with my green ones. "Godric." Without giving me a chance to respond, or to even scream, he snapped my head to the side, and bit into my neck.