<div class="floatright">(https://elliquiy.com/elluiki/images/f/f1/23blonde3_zps656a14ef.jpg)</div><br/>As Grace moved her way through the city, the frigid air caressed her from not unlike the shoulders and elbows of the crowds as she worked her way through.<br/><br/>Mardi Gras was quite the different experience when sober.  The friendly, jovial experience when everything seemed like fun was gone.  Instead, people moved through the motions in a sea of writing bodies and animal instincts, not unlike the herd mentality seen on old animal shows.<br/><br/>In many ways, it was supposed to be her job to protect the sheep from the predators, except that that job was much too big.  She was, after all, only human.  It had to be enough that she could make a dent, that the creatures of the night could be stopped one by one if she could manage to be at the right place at the right time.<br/><br/>Thankfully, the right place at the right time was something she was good at.  She wasn't even entirely certain where she was at the moment, but then, being lost was never exactly a problem for her.<br/><br/>Apart from the jeans and the white sweater she was currently wearing, she had her purse set up in her bag.  This turned out to be a bad idea, as she didn't realize the phone had been ringing in the crowd until she got some distance away, and it wasn't easy to feel the vibration through her purse.  Quickly she snatched up the device, putting it to her ear after checking the caller ID.  "Morgayne?"  Her eyes jumped about, searching for road signs.  "I'm at the...Rue de..."  A few quick steps got her close enough to read the intersection signs.  "How do I get to where you are?"<br/><br/>Grace was...used to not getting calls if it wasn't an emergency.  It wasn't entirely true, and certainly she had her share of friends, but socializing was getting harder and harder the more she fought to get away from her old life as a....well, there were no good words for it.  Grace just had a lot of making up to do.  Hopefully she would last long enough to do it.