The Waterbury Walnut Parlor Clock chimed six times. Vladimir yawned, stretched, and wriggled his toes, in anticipation of the coming night.   He cuddled up to his Batty. Batty was a woollen, stuffed animal made in the form of a bat and given to him as a small child by his beloved grandmother, Draconia.

Vladimir had ditched the Steak and Kidney for a much more salubrious establishment - The Stafford hotel, St James'Place, just up the road from White's. He was staying in his favourite room, decorated in shades of scarlet and vermilian...

Vlad tossed on his kimino, a black silk robe embroidered with dragon bats and princesses, interlocked with each other in an intricate pattern of winding scales, billowing hair and delicately stitched sprays of blood.. He wandered across to the window and inched aside the curtain, gazing with satisfaction at the indigo drenched sky.