The day had been.. utterly uneventful. That was what Katya could sum it up as, and as she walked through her parking garage and to the elevator, she could only imagine how wonderful her couch would feel. She had been to see her publisher, and she had finally finished the last book she'd be writing for a while. It took a lot out of her, the writing did, but Katya was over-sensitive and it seemed like even the regular world could wear her down.
It was pretty sad, actually, that for a vampire she had such human traits. She passed rows of cars, unwrapping the scarf around her neck slowly as she walked. Her pace was in no hurry, though she was a little excited about being able to rest for a while. Her apartment was completely empty, and Sasha was off... doing whatever the Hell it was she did. Katya prayed silently that the vampire was finding no trouble, or at least, manageable trouble.
She stepped into the elevator after a man that she did not recognize, and continued to mull in a fog through her day. She had errands that she'd done, but things she'd skipped. She pulled out her Blackberry and began quickly adding and subtracting off of the list of things that she'd need to take care of later in the week as the elevator doors shut. She was so lost in her own though that she almost hadn't realized how heated the man's aura had gotten, until she slowly put her phone in her purse and glanced behind her.
Katya still had those big, warm brown eyes - being old got you that privilege. She was actually beautiful by most standards, despite her more plain appearance against her sultry sibling, Sasha. She managed only a faint smile, one that she would give to any stranger on the street, but she instantly realized that the man was a feline shifter. Her smile turned almost into a worried frown; clearly, he could feel her pull. You'd have to be a moron, blind, and a zombie not to feel it; but his reaction was quite odd.
"Are you okay?" she asked him, her tone carefully concerned. Katya wasn't doing much of anything except existing in that small space with him for the moment, but she was getting the impression he was very emotional about something. She figured she could help, if nothing else. She was always able to calm other felines down, so why should this be any different?
He had the smallest errand to run in this building that it wasn't even funny in retrospect. He was always aware of his surroundings, so it wasn't like he didn't see the petite brunette approaching the elevator, and he even held the door for her without even thinking about it until she was inside and the door had shut.
That's when he noticed. Really noticed.
GOD, how had he MISSED it?! It was like her very presence was trying to draw him in and suffocate him! He found his eyes flicking back to her no matter how many times he looked away, and it was taking a severe effort not to inch towards her, which was NOT something he did. He didn't 'inch'. He either did something, or he didn't, and he HATED that he felt like trying to appeal to her. That wasn't how he worked, especially not with strange little women. What the fuck WAS this shit?!
Then, she made the mistake of talking to him. As if her LOOKING at him with those big brown eyes hadn't forced him to tense into his own side of the elevator more than he already was, she had to actually utter words. "Yes. I'm FINE," he growled out, harsher than he would ever have offered some random lady on the street, but he wanted her GONE. He wanted this little woman who made him want to rub his face against hers to be AWAY from him IMMEDIATELY. YESTERDAY.
How long could this elevator take? It felt like years already. Damn it! Was this Victoria's doing? It must be. She'd found a way to get back at him for rearranging her insides, and he didn't understand it, but he was going to kill both of them for it!
Or, maybe he wasn't going to kill the little brunette. He made the smallest attempt, thinking that all he had to do was get a handful of hair to wrench her head around and break her neck, but the barest touch, the tiniest brush, was soft and nearly broke his resolve right there. He wrenched his hand back, and he was done. He was getting OUT of that elevator, and he was getting AWAY from this bitch. Period.
Elke could have guessed about a million things that could determine which way this scenario was going to go - like it always did, usually, where she'd have to shake a cat off at her door or else they'd come in and want to live with her forever. His reaction, though, was definitely not what she'd anticipated, and she was stunned - literally, speechless - as she watched him heat himself up further with whatever he was thinking.
She wasn't going to invade his thoughts, but she really, really wanted to - he smelled unfamiliar to her, and she couldn't help that she was dying to know why he had suddenly reacted so angrily. He seemed to make his mind up about whatever he was thinking, though, and barked at her through clenched teeth that his well-being was just dandy, which told Elke obviously that it was the furthest from.
"Are... you sure?" she asked, her brows raising.
And then he moved - his hand moved, anyways - and he - he touched her hair. She jerked back, feeling the curiosity and genuine gentleness of his touch suddenly change into... absolute boiling and smoldering rage. She actually gasped, and the shock sent a wave of her power out - not the kitty kind, but the vampire kind. The "Hi, I'm a well-aged Kendra" kind. The bolt of energy was enough to do more damage than she had, though.
The elevator jarred to a stop and the emergency lights came on.
"Ohhhh god," she said, her voice betraying her nerves. Really, Elke should have just stayed human. "Oh, oh, oh, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," she said, holding up her hands. The more anxious she became, the higher her own aura rose, until - well, if Darren had been there, he'd have been positively chewing on her hair by now.
Yeah, that thing about being fine? Sooooo not true, holy crap. He'd thought he might be fine, since it was only an elevator and couldn't possibly take THAT long to get him where he needed to be, but she wasn't making it easy on him. Besides just existing, she had to question his answer, asking if he was sure at about the point that he reached out to grab at her hair and failed to do more than brush his fingers over it. He never failed. This was a fucking retarded situation.
Even worse? She proved herself to be a vampire by sending out a wave of power that tore itself over him and grated over nerves that already felt raw with anger. She was a vampire, and she was strong, and this whole situation was confusing the shit out of him. Then, the elevator coughed and shook them around, which wasn't an issue for a guy with cat balance and reflexes, but those weren't going to save him from her.
"Fucking FUCK!" he hissed, his eyes widening as he took advantage of the chance to slam at the control board and put the slightest bit more distance between himself and the little woman. She was talking again, apologizing and nerving out, which...oh god. God. It was like suffocating on something as soft as a breath, feeling her power rise around him, and he gasped through it, unable to draw a breath that didn't feel like it was poisoning him with whatever this madness was. He couldn't escape it, not in here, but he would NOT succumb, no matter how hard she tried. He wouldn't!
God, but that was hard. His hand curled in against the metal before him, fingernails more like claws than any human had a right to have and his eyes taking on a golden hue that wouldn't quite betray his breed, but certainly were far too bright for what he'd been sporting when he first got in the elevator. All he wanted to do was just let go so that he could love her like he was supposed to, just because she was herself, so why was that so hard for him? How stupid of him, to suffer like this when he didn't have to, when---
FUCK that shit! He really did adore Verity, and she didn't get this kind of reaction. No strange fucking vampire got to trap him in an elevator and think she was going to overwhelm him.
"STOP IT," he growled out, and even that was a fight. Part of him didn't want her to stop, just wanting to give in and let her do whatever she wanted. She wouldn't hurt him, not her, because she loved him like he loved her, right? Right.
No. No, not right. Wrong. She was a vampire, he didn't know her, and this was some trick. How was she even doing it? He turned around, wanting to snap at her, threaten her, do something and anything to get her to stop it, even if it meant killing her, but just looking at her made it that much worse. He pressed himself backwards, which had to be rather comical if there had been an outsider that wasn't losing their shit in close quarters with THOSE two, but he couldn't be near her. Looking at her had made him want to go to her, and going to her would completely undo him. As it was, he was only barely maintaining his human form. This shouldn't have been so easy for her, but it was, and that was frightening.
He hadn't been frightened in a VERY long time.
Elke backed away from him as he hit the control panel, no doubt making things worse. She kept moving until she was pressed against the back of the steel box that caged them, her things abandoned on the ground. She wrapped the cream silk scarf she'd had around her neck around her hands, wrapping and unwrapping, trying to calm herself down. When he began spitting hatred at her and demanding she stop, she held a hand up to him.
"I can't if you keep freaking out," she protested, her voice full of concern. Why won't you let me help you? That's what it sounded like she was saying, but that wasn't what she had said. He was a cat, so he inferred differently, whether he wanted to or not - although his brain knew that he did not, and so it fought, which was causing an... adverse reaction. It suddenly dawned on Elke why this was happening quite like it was.
"Listen, listen," she said, trying to talk fast, but softly. "If you can calm down, I can just fix this, and we can both get out of here, okay Does that sound good?" she asked, her eyebrows raised in anticipation. She hated to reach out with her power when she was trying to clamp down as hard as ever and he was reacting so horribly, but - he was going to end up hurting himself. Right?
Please, just calm down, just calm down, I'm not going to hurt you, I promise, I promise... she thought, squeezing the scarf in her hands like a nervous housewife watching a child take its first steps.
"Just let me fix this, okay?" she offered, voice still shaky. She put a hand out again, dangerously attempting to touch his arm. If she could just... touch him... she should be able to end this.
When she told him she couldn't stop if he kept freaking out, he couldn't even put her words together immediately, having heard her but also heard her asking why he wouldn't let her help him. It didn't make sense, her saying both at once, so why had he heard it? Why did he want to let her help him? She was going to drive him mad, and all he could think was that it would be easier, and so much more pleasant, to just let go. Stop fighting. That's all he had to do, and he couldn't do it?
No. He didn't want to. He embraced being a tiger, loved it, and that was working against him whole-heartedly. He was a cat, so as much as the man didn't want to be controlled and submissive to this little woman, the cat already loved and trusted her. In a way, it confused him further because the tiger had never led him astray, but he knew better this time, didn't he? The tiger was being duped, and his human rationale was all that was keeping himself safe. He knew that, but she was talking again, and everything he knew was up for questioning all over again.
Her voice was sweet and lyrical, her nervousness only adding the saddest tinge of bitter to the honey and making him want to remedy it. She shouldn't sound like that, not her, never sad or nervous or upset. He wouldn't allow it! It was his fault, all his fault, he could feel that in the back of his mind, telling him he needed to calm down, that she wasn't going to hurt him, that she could be trusted, and he was almost as though it were in her voice, sweet and warming. He just had to calm down.
It would all be okay.
His last ounce of ability to fight with himself and her influence tried to rise up screaming and fighting in the instant before she touched him, the claws that he'd been fighting to hold back pressing into his palms in an attempt to ground him against her obviously evil influence, but he'd done limited damage and not endured enough pain to bring him back to himself once she touched him. It was the victory blow for her, and that showed in his entire body. He just couldn't fight with her anymore.
The breaths that he'd been pulling in so harshly seemed to escape him in a long, almost relieved sigh, and everything in his body language relaxed with it. It was as though all of his troubles were released in that sigh. "Okay," he murmured, to what he didn't know, but he did know that it all really was okay. Everything was okay, because she was here and she was going to fix everything. It was okay.
It was so okay, in fact, that he reached to touch her hair again, this time just because it looked soft and nice. The violence of before was stomped down beneath the feline's love for her, and when he brushed his rough fingers against her soft hair, it wasn't enough. He had to brush them, carefully and almost as though he were afraid she would break beneath his touch, over her cheek. Her skin was nearly as soft as her hair, and that extra little bit of skin contact initiated by him this time was just the last straw. The tension in him relaxed so completely that it not only affected his body language, but what remained of his hold on the cat. As that last shred of control slipped away from him, so did his human form, and all the blue tiger wanted to do was love her. It now had the chance to rub its face against her like it had wanted to all this time, and it didn't care that it was just her hands and arm that it butt its head against, as long as it was her.
My, how things had gone downhill.
Thank god. Once she'd calmed him down into his tiger form, she could do what needed to be done and not have to worry - obviously, this man wanted to rip her face off, and at the moment, given the circumstance, she couldn't say she entirely blamed him. She felt incredibly guilty about the entire situation, and she kept a hand scratching at Xavier's head 'til she could exhale a shaky breath and steady herself more.
With a measured thought and a moment of clarity, she was able to pulse out another bolt of energy, enough to kick the elevator back into gear. It shuddered and groaned and lurched down before slowly beginning its originally scheduled ascent to the destinations they'd chosen. She had no idea what floor he'd selected, or if he'd even gotten around to doing it before she got there - but it stopped at her own floor, and the doors opened, revealing Elke and the tiger.
She slowly moved around him, trying to get to the door. If she could... leave him in the elevator, he'd clear up on the way back down. That was a big if - he was already following her out the door. She had to debate as to whether or not she really wanted to indulge this situation any further. If he suddenly broke out of animal form, she knew her life was going to be in danger for certain - the feline mind was something she understood better than his human one, and she, even without being invasive, got glimpses of his capabilities. She didn't want to test his patience, or charity.
"I'm really sorry about all of this," she said, kneeling down to put her forehead against his muzzle. As long as she kept that power flowing, he wouldn't scratch her eyes out. "You have to believe I didn't mean for it to happen. You do, don't you?"
Fortunately (for her, anyway), all he needed was for her to keep up the aura of power she'd been putting out and keep scratching at his head. That's all that was necessary, and in that exact moment, he was okay with it. All cats loved Elke, it was just a fact of life, so why should he be any different? Exactly, he wasn't. He could feel a lot of the nervousness and tension leaving her as she rubbed his face, as well, which was a small source of pride for him. See? He could do good for her, too. Obviously, he was doing something right.
Contrary to how he'd been feeling a moment before, he didn't mind so much when the elevator lurched again, finding himself mildly interested by it, but unconcerned. Elke wasn't concerned, so there was no reason for him to be. When the door opened and she moved to leave, naturally, he followed, completely oblivious as to how bad it could have gone if there had been someone outside the doors when they opened. A tiger in an elevator was wrong on so many levels, starting with the fact that elevators generally weren't made to carry that kind of weight out of a single creature and how BIG a tiger was in a small space, but since it was only Elke, it was all okay. She was far more comfortable with that massive tiger than with the smaller, more volatile man.
She was talking again, and though tigers didn't purr like some of the smaller 'big cats', he growled softly to let her know that he didn't mind. Well, that part of him didn't mind. The part that DID mind didn't have a say in this, so that didn't matter. Of course he believed her. She wouldn't do anything bad for him, and he didn't mind, anyway. He hadn't shifted recently, so it felt good, and he liked her. A lot. It was all okay with him. It seemed strange that she thought it wouldn't be.
"I wish you could stay this sweet forever," she murmured. She stood up and pointed at him. "Stay right there, okay?" she said, her voice still as sweet as possible. If the tiger had any idea what was about to happen, he sure didn't look it. She backed the few feet down the hall that it took to get fully away from the elevator, and then hurried to her apartment door. She turned back around and looked at him.
"Stay," she said again.
She went inside of the apartment, shut and locked the door, and then backed away from it. In a breath, she released the hold she had on him, and the magic just dissipated like dry ice fog as it rolled out of a tub during Halloween. She had her hands to her mouth, waiting in fear as she would no doubt hear the angry man that the tiger would leave behind.
She supposed she could just teleport out of her apartment if she needed to - but why hadn't she thought of that earlier? She was so dense! She literally face-palmed herself as she backed away from the door and then entered the comfort of her living room. She would have to be ready, but somehow she doubted he'd be quick to run after her.
He had absolutely no clue what was about to happen when she told him to stay right where he was, and there was an instant of distress when she parted with him, but it was eased by the fact that she still looked at him, and asked him to stay again. He sat down on his haunches, tilting his head at her as though he were wondering what kind of game this was (because it was totally reasonable to him that they'd be playing some kind of game), and then she was inside her apartment. He could hear the elevator door close behind him and glanced back that way for a second before returning his gaze to her door. Where was she? Wasn't she comi---
Oh. OH!
That happy, foggy feeling of general well-being rose up and away from him in a matter of about 45 seconds, and it was like the rug being pulled out from underneath him. Painfully. What that fog had kept from him before was an internal pain like razors running along his insides that shocked him right back into his human form, which was probably for the better. It meant that when he doubled over, there were human fingers instead of tiger claws, and when he screamed in pain and rage, it was a man's voice instead of a tiger's roar. It didn't carry as far, and this was an apartment building. He leaned on the closest wall, just riding out that agony of a forced shift with thoughts of what he was going to do to Victoria to tide him over.
It did pass, and though it felt like it took hours to him, it was really only a few minutes before he was breathing hard and sweating, but relatively okay. He pushed away from the wall, wincing at a lingering ache, and glared down the hallway at her door. He remembered it, remembered it all, and he wasn't going to forget it anytime soon. The problem was just that it didn't make sense. She hadn't felt evil, or like she meant him harm. She'd said she didn't mean to do what happened. He'd thought he believed her.
He didn't fucking like this, but he had to understand it.
Fuck if he was going to try to talk to her about it face to face, but he had to talk to her. He thought about just leaving and trying to kill her from afar, which should have worked, but there was a small ache that formed somewhere in his gut at the thought of putting a bullet between her eyes. "God fucking damn it," he hissed, hoping THAT was something that would pass. He wanted to talk to her again, but he wanted to be able to think this time.
He shook himself, trying to push away the incident, and moved to return to the elevator, but hesitated after pressing the button. He halted a moment, cursed himself for being a moron, and then reached into his pocket. A short walk down the hall, and he'd slammed something into her door before returning to the elevator and his errands in a dangerously dark mood.
There was a note pinned to her door, with the pen he'd used to write the note sticking nearly an inch into the wood, that read: Call me. X and a number. He hadn't even had the foresight to give her a disposable number, and did it matter? If she asked, he'd have given her his real one, anyway. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he preferred giving her the real one. He didn't know why, and he didn't think about it, but he had.
She didn't actually go to see what was on her door for quite a while - it was nearly thirty minutes, actually, before she managed to get up off of the couch and out of her fuzzy and warm chenille through. She crept toward the door, glancing over to her rumpled brown leather purse on the coffee table. She could see her Blackberry peeking through, and she picked it up instinctively and held her finger over the send button with Sasha's number highlighted.
She opened her door slowly, peering her head around the corner. Her apartment was the only one on this floor, and the hallway was quite long. He didn't seem to be anywhere in sight, and actually, she couldn't feel his presence in the building anymore - she'd chosen the Penthouse with empty floors below it. The benefit of being wealthy was that if she wanted to, she could have bought the damned building - but she just paid the money to maintain the floor below hers. It was a sound buffer, mostly - for the large cats she sometimes had in her company.
She twisted her fingers around the pen and tugged it out of the door, looking incredulously at the number he'd left. Really? He'd left his number? She furrowed her brow, and lifted her finger on her phone to dial the number he'd provided. She didn't even know if this was serious, really -
"Hel - hello?" she said into the silence. Someone had picked up, the other line had stopped ringing, but there was no sound.
He'd done his work quickly and quietly, with a level of viciousness that he hadn't really been planning on. Nobody had cared if this one lived or died, but Xavier had been intending to leave him alive, just in case he was needed later. By the time he'd gotten some distance between him and that woman, all he'd wanted to do was make someone else's insides feel the way his had when she'd left him.
Poor fool didn't even know what was coming.
Xavier had been in and out within five minutes, but he'd been thorough. In fact, he was nearly at Kimber's place by the time his phone rang, and though he didn't recognize the number, what wasn't terribly uncommon. When he picked up and her honeyed voice slipped into his ear, it was a different story.
He didn't even respond immediately, pulling the car into a spot that he was quite frankly lucky to have found, wondering the entire time why he liked her voice the way he did. She wasn't there to force her influence on him, so it wasn't that. What was it? "What did you do to me?" he demanded bluntly, his voice surprisingly controlled for as angry and confused he was over the whole situation.
"I'm around vampires constantly and a lot of them would like to do that, but they can't. What makes you so special?"
She stood in the hallway, listening to the background noise on his phone. He'd been driving, so he wasn't near her anymore. That was good. She walked back inside and shut the door, locking it behind her. For a moment she leaned against it, as though she were contemplating what precisely she was going to say to him. This was always incredibly difficult to explain, for some reason.
"I didn't do anything," she said. "Well, not at first. But then you - you started freaking out and I had to calm you down so... I asked you to calm down, and you did." She paused. She was so utterly neurotic that to be having this conversation seemed almost impossible to her. As she pushed away from the door, she wandered to the back half of her living room where the scene overlooked the New York skyline. It was just after dusk and it was utterly beautiful outside, if not a little cold. She stood by the window, her arms folded mostly as she held the phone to her ear while still keeping the blanket around her shoulders. It was fashioned almost like a cape.
"I'm not like those other vampires you've been around, it seems," she said, punctuating her words with a wistful sigh. Elke still did human things like that - sigh, or hold her breath, or exhale angrily. It was something that set her apart from many of the others. "I have this... thing. Animals - well, cats. They like me. They're like.. my totem animal? I don't really know how to describe it. My sister does it, too, except it's with snakes. It's really bizarre, we didn't - we didn't ask for it, it just is."
He didn't believe her when she said that she hadn't done anything at first, because he certainly remembered feeling it, but he heard her out before he argued. He could give her that much, especially since he didn't really think she'd finish explaining if he cut her off too quickly and he needed this information. If he didn't have it, it might waylay him in the future. What if Raphael got to her? What if Victoria did?
When had he decided that Victoria hadn't?
Besides the fact that he was still alive and didn't think he would have been if Victoria or Raphael were behind this, he believed Elke. Mostly. He knew that there had been something happening before he started freaking out, but the rest rang true. It was stupid, because just blindly believing her could get him into some serious trouble, but he didn't think she was lying to him.
"You did something, or I wouldn't have started freaking out as soon as you walked into the elevator," he pointed out, but even thinking over everything that had happened, that was all he could dispute of what she'd said. She hadn't exactly told him to shift, he'd just reached a point that he couldn't endure anymore without it. He sure as hell knew that he didn't like being someone's 'totem animal', though. "They like you because they don't have a choice. You know that, yeah? You know how bad that shift felt after?"
It was cruel to point out, because she really did sound sorry when she'd apologized before, and she felt like a good person, but he was still angry that for whatever reason, he wanted to spare her that guilt. Since when did he care? Really, he needed to forget about her poor little feelings and find a way to kill her before Raphael or Victoria learned what she could do. He didn't like how easy that could make killing him, if they got hold of her. She was a threat, even if she didn't intend to be.
Elke had opened her mouth to say something, but his remark about how awful changing back had been was a jawbreaker. She just stood there, looking at her reflection in the glass against the black and twinkling backdrop. "I didn't actively do anything," she said finally. "It's just my energy. It's how it works, that's how it's always been. I didn't intend for you to experience any pain; I have no idea why you do. I've never seen it happen before, and I don't mean for it to happen again."
She wanted to tell him to stay the hell away from her, because Elke didn't like trying to fix people who didn't want to be fixed. "Why are - why are you so pissed off? I mean, you were the moment I stepped into the elevator. I was just standing there, going through my phone. It isn't like I even glanced at you, or gave you a second thought, not until you started raging out. God, you make it sound like I wanted to hurt you - I've never hurt anyone. You can check with Therrayans, I'm not that kind of a vampire," she insisted.
Well, that was a half-truth. Elke had hurt before, but it was always in defense. She never had actively attacked anyone except Raphael, and he always deserved it.
She got defensive, which wasn't exactly a huge surprise, but it was actually helpful. It meant she was offering more information about how her power worked, which was important for him. He needed that, because if something happened ever again, he needed to know what he was doing about it all. Knowledge was power. He didn't want to argue with her about it, however, so the defensive streak was just a little irritating. "So you mean to tell me that every cat that ends up anywhere near you reacts to you? They all just instantly love you?"
God, he could actually see that getting annoying, once he got past the idea that he'd hated losing himself like he had. Personally, he wanted to tell her to stay the fuck away from him because he hated not being in control, but there was just that something about her that made him like hearing her talk. He was betting it was some kind of residual feel of her magic, but he was hoping it wouldn't last. What if she'd done some kind of imprinting on him? She said that she'd never had it happen that way before, which really didn't sound all that good. He'd just have to be the exception, that was just his luck. He was even okay just listening to her explain, until she turned it on him.
"What kind of question is that? Why wouldn't I be pissed that I just got mindfucked by a vampire?" he asked, but it struck him that if she wasn't 'that kind of vampire', then maybe she really just sucked at survival issues. "Control is survival, and you took it away. How was I supposed to know that you weren't going to put a bullet in my brain? I have enemies that could make a lot of people suffer if they had a power like yours on their hands, especially me."
He could just see one of them trying it. Even he had to admit that it'd be perfect. All they had to do was make sure that nobody knew they were involved, and the people who liked him in Midnight need never know they they'd been the ones to kill him. If they got someone like this woman, they might even kill HER before she could rat them out. It's what he'd do if he had to be sneaky about it.
"I understand your concern, but I'm over six-hundred years old, and the only vampires I know that have ever had a problem with me are too busy tending to their obsessions to ever look me up," she said. "I'm in knee-deep with Bruja by association. If you want a troublemaker, that's my sister. I'm about as normal as it gets." She paused, and then added, "I promise."
"And you didn't get... mindfucked, or however you said it. I didn't roll you, I just happen to have a... pheromone, I guess, that yes, cats tend to like. Some of them can wade through it, most of them just get a pleasant disposition and that's about it, unless I turn on the charm, but really, you were ripping out of your own skin. I know this is about me and my issues, and I'm overstepping my boundaries here, but you must repress a hell of a lot to react like that."
She sat down on her couch and leaned back against a rose-coloured pillow, tucking the blanket around her. "Listen, I'm honestly sorry about how things happened like they did, but you put yourself more at risk on your own than I ever could have, and it's not fair for you to blame me. I'm a nice girl, but I'm not going to be told about the world when I've been in it about five-hundred and seventy years longer than you have."
"I would never put you in danger. I don't even know you. I'm not sure I want to, given the small bit of information I've got. Maybe you should just stay away from me; forget I exist."
Concern? Had he said he was concerned about her? He didn't think he had, and that was for good reason, since he wasn't. At least, he didn't think he was. If there was some small part of him that gave a shit what happened to her, he wasn't listening to it. It was what had gotten him into trouble already. Knee-deep in Bruja, though? By association? That was intriguing on its own.
He DID get mind-fucked, though. That he wasn't budging on, and because he knew that what she'd done was the most completely he'd lost control since Rajz, and there was no denying what Rajz did. It was a mindfuck, and he didn't like it coming from a woman who had absolutely no right to him. She wasn't Rajz.
He actually almost laughed when she accused him of repressing, wondering if she was the only person in the world who would actually think that. He didn't know why he'd reacted the way he did, and he couldn't compare because he'd never seen another cat react to her, but he knew that it wasn't his fault for repressing. Frankly, he was sticking to his story about control. He didn't like it, and he'd fought to keep her off of him. What could he possibly be repressing there?
"This isn't about your issues, sweetheart, it's about me wanting to know how some random vampire that I've never even heard of could turn me into a giant blue house cat," he pointed out, and he should have just ended the conversation. He knew that it would just go into circles, and under normal situations, he'd have ended the conversation a few minutes prior, when she'd started arguing. They weren't a couple, they weren't friends, so why did he feel obligated to sit on the side of the road and argue with her over what had happened and why? Because he liked the sound of her voice, dammit, and if he hung up the phone, he'd be giving up his reason to talk to her. He almost wanted to ask how THAT worked, since it wasn't like he was in her presence and breathing in pheromones or whatever she'd said it was. He wasn't being soaked in her power. He was miles away, on the phone, and he wanted to turn around. He just wasn't so sure he wanted to admit that to her.
He should forget she existed, so that he didn't have to listen to her tell him how he put himself at risk, or deal with the idea that some part of him might actually like being around her, and get on with his life. He should. "Honestly, I think you just existing puts me in danger, and I wish we both knew less about each other than we already do. I don't think I can forget about you, though," he finally admitted, and he didn't actually sound angry, but more disappointed, maybe in himself. He couldn't describe it. He didn't WANT any of this, but he didn't really have a choice.
Just hang up the phone.
He didn't. God, he was so confused. It'd be so much easier if he just didn't care or outright hated her. Then, he could ignore her or tear her to pieces. This was just a headache.
Elke narrowed her eyes a little when he told her that her happening to be alive put him in danger. "You're welcomed to try and remedy the problem, but I've got a funny feeling it'll be harder than you think," she warned him. She genuinely did not want him to try, but the way he spoke made her want to antagonize the living shit out of him. Elke had never rubbed someone the wrong way before, and in turn she'd never really been irritated - was this what it felt like to meet someone who just made you want to punch things? She felt like how Sasha must feel all the time.
"I'm going to hang up the phone, right now. If you want to find out more information about me, I have a feeling you know where you can ask around. I can assure you that I absolutely don't intend to ever hurt you, and I'm not easily bent to the will of someone else who might," she added, trying to squash the notion he had that she could be used as a tool for someone else's designs. No, Elke was a little too old for that, and she wasn't nearly temperamental enough. Sasha could easily be manipulated if you knew what to say, but Elke was a little harder to coax - or so she believed.
"Hopefully, we never see eachother again. I could do without this conversation in repetition," she said. She hung up the phone and tossed it off of the couch and onto the love seat where it hit the pillow with a muffled thud. That was intense. She sat very quietly for a few minutes, mulling over what had been said. She was interested greatly to know who that man had been, and since he'd been a Maltese tiger - the only one of which, by the way, she'd ever seen (since they didn't technically exist, or so people believed), she wasn't so sure she'd have as hard a time finding information on him as he would on her. She got up and glided into her bedroom, intent on taking a shower and sleeping on the idea, giving herself ample time to cool down before she started digging. The more she'd dig, inevitably, the more she'd want to talk to him, and that just wasn't what he wanted - whether he said it or not. Elke could handle a request to go away.
"Thomas, slow down," Kimber said, sitting up in her seat. She reached over and slapped him in his chest with her forearm like people do when they see something that alerts or surprises them. Her legs uncrossed as she took off her seatbelt. Thomas slowed just enough for her to make out Xavier's car in a gravel lot not but two miles from her house, where he'd been meeting her like, thirty minutes ago. She'd tried to call to say she was running late, and it had gone straight to voicemail.
"Dude, slow down more," she said. She knew he'd recognize the car and she knew he would do everything in his power to make this worse than it had to be, so when he dropped from forty-five to forty, Kimber looked at him square in the eye.
"You know? Just stop," she said.
She was met with a clearly defiant smile that faded as quickly as it had come up, and nearly smashed into the dash as Thomas mashed down on his brakes. Some instructions he could follow, that one.
"Yeah, 'priece," she snapped, opening the door. She turned and looked at the car, and then back in to where Grimm sat. "I'll see you in a few hours. Thanks for the ride home," she said. She turned and walked at an interested pace to Xavier's car, where she could make a shape out inside of it. Hm, so he was there after all. She rapped on the window with her knuckles. Hard.
"Oh, so you're on the phone? What are you, a woman? I've been calling for the last thirty minutes, or did you forget?" she asked, neglecting to incriminate herself by admitting that she was hellishly late. Kimber wasn't on time for anything ever. When he held a finger up to her, her jaw dropped open, and she went for the door handle, flinging it open. She didn't really care if he was on an important phonecall, because... Kimber was Kimber, and there was a reason she didn't play well with others.
When she saw his facial expression, she stopped short of all of the shit she was about to say, and held on to the door with one hand while her other rested atop the car. She just stood there, weight supported by the two steel objects, and watched in amazement as he seemed to have a serious internal conflict with putting his phone down.
"Uh... I'm gonna go ahead and say that you're canceling on me again," she ventured. There was something in her voice that was harsh, but it was mostly because she didn't sound surprised. Having Kimber disappointed in you, to most people, wasn't anything new - but to people who knew her, who liked her and who found themselves friends with her, it was a dirty and bad feeling. Of course Xavier was already feeling pretty bad, so this just added to it. Kimber was all about forward progress.
He was still torn on the issue, and even more pissed than he'd told her anything at all by the end, when she hung up, but it wasn't like she'd given him a real chance to react before she hung up. She'd also taken what he'd said the wrong way. See? This was why he generally didn't give a shit, because people were stupid and they irritated him. What was even more irritated was that there was part of him that wished she hadn't hung up on him, which made zero sense and would have only meant that he was on the phone longer.
Really, he didn't expect her to go digging for information on him, but it wouldn't have surprised him if she did. It would have been interesting to think about, had he cared enough to consider that she'd do it, how she'd react to knowing who and what he was. What he was known for and what he'd done. He thought he might have liked to see the look on her face, personally.
Having Kimber show up at the tail end of the conversation really didn't help. Yeah, he'd been planning on meeting up with her at her house, and with a quick flick of his eyes towards the clock in his car, he knew he was about half an hour late, but Kimber was always late. She had no room to bitch.
She'd been standing there just long enough to see him mentally weighing whether or not he wanted to hang up, which didn't require much speaking out of him after he'd given her the 'hold up a second' finger, and then Elke had hung up on him, which didn't draw an immediate response other than him staring at his phone for a second while he steamed, then saving the number under the contact name 'vampire bitch'. He didn't actually HAVE her name.
Only after the number was saved did he turn his eyes up at Kimber, completely unaware that Elke had managed to keep them gold just through the phone call. He didn't understand it, so why should he expect it? "Actually, no, I'm not," he snapped, his accent more clipped than usual due to irritation as he gestured for her to hop in. "I feel more like shooting shit up than usual."
Since they'd been planning on going to the firing range, he was cool with it. Besides, what else was he going to do? Go home and dwell on the evening? Fuck that shit, that was for bitches.
Kimber frowned for a second, and then reached out and put a hand on his jaw, tilting his face up. It wasn't an aggressive movement, but it could be seen as invasive, though Kimber... was just an invasive kind of person. That and she'd never had a problem putting her hands on Xavier before - he wasn't a wolf, which was a big point in his favour, which means he didn't have that stupid hierarchy thing to get over, and two, he was every bit as much of a bad-ass as his resume suggested. Not that Kimber was attached, or anything, but she did make time for him, and she didn't for others.
"What's going on?" she asked, and it was clear from her cautious but curious tone that she saw his eyes - even more so because obviously she'd taken the liberty of getting a closer look. She let go of his face before he could shift away, which he might have done anyways.
"We can still go shooting, but only if you give me info," she said, folding her arms.
He frowned and narrowed his eyes when she tilted his head up, but it didn't take a rocket surgeon to know what she was looking at. She'd looked very directly at his eyes, and though he made eye contact, he knew it wasn't just the eye contact she was looking for. It bothered him, not that she'd touched him (because he really didn't mind, and actually liked that she was ballsy enough to invade his space, even knowing what his resume looked like) or that she'd wanted eye contact, but that he knew there was a reason for it. He could assume that something was wrong with them, and that it was that vampire's fault. The question about what was going on only made it more obvious, but he wasn't going to spill right there on the side of the road.
"Fine, get in," he told her, giving her a moment to move before shutting his door, and then pulling the visor down to see what she'd been looking at. Finding his eyes that brilliant gold color, when they normally ranged between brown and green like any good set of hazel eyes, was less than pleasant. No wonder Kimber was asking questions. He just hoped it didn't last long, because wearing sunglasses around normal people would really piss him off.
He waited until she was in her seat and he'd had a second to turn around towards the firing range, taking that time to decide exactly what he was telling her. He wasn't in the mood for a drawn-out story. "I had an errand to run before I dropped by here, held the elevator door open for a woman in the building, and found out she was a vampire after I was stuck in it with her," he told Kimber, and really, that could have been the whole story. Nobody liked being stuck in an elevator with a strange vampire, and hell, Xavier didn't really like being stuck in elevators with most of the vampires that weren't strangers.
Fucking vampires. There were so few of them that he really liked.
Very nearly any other opportunity Kimber would have had to dig her proverbial heels into something making Xavier this uncomfortable, she would have done it without a second thought. She, luckily, was feeling less mean today than normal, and so instead of giving him a quip and not moving out of the way of the door, she wordlessly walked around to the side of the car and got in, tossing the bag she'd been carrying into the back seat. It landed with a thud and slid down into the floorboard where she would ignore it for the rest of the drive.
When he started talking, she stared straight ahead, the only indication that she was listening the constant motion of her eyes, something she did when people were talking. It was an odd trait, and it constantly made her look like she wasn't paying attention, but in truth if Kimber had stared directly at him, she wouldn't have been able to not say something. She was keen on interjecting her two cents into everything, and this wasn't the time.
"So..." she said, tracing her fingers over her palm as she finally looked over at him. "You got into the elevator and realized your ride-mate was a vampire. And this has your eyes all feline-i-fied because..." She was unable to hide the confusion in her voice. Had she missed something? Xavier was around vampires every day, why should a random one in an elevator be different? He didn't look hurt, and even with his skill, a tussle in an elevator would have gotten him at least a little bloodied. He was fine.
She raised her eyebrows at his silence, now looking directly at him. Kimber had that sort of expectant stare a dog would have, which always made it hard for people not to tell her things. She just compelled them to.
Apparently, he was no different than everyone else in being compelled to tell Kimber what had happened, though it made him feel better that he DID have a choice. It wasn't like before, with Elke, where there hadn't really been any choice involved in what was happening. Kimber was way more awesome, just for that.
What made Kimber less than awesome was that it was Elke she was asking about, and if it was anyone else, he probably would have refused outright. There weren't many people he would admit a weakness to, especially one like this, but he figured that he spent enough time with her already. If she wanted him dead, she could have laid a trap any one of the times they'd been planning on meeting up. His paranoia level had dropped considerably with her over time. Her wolf friend, the Brit, was another story.
Even so, his jaw clenched as she called him on the information he was leaving out, his gold eyes still on the road for a few breaths before flicking over to take in her expectant look and returning to the road. "She rolled me. On 'accident'."
He even released the wheel for half of a second to make air quotes, even though that wasn't QUITE an accurate quote. She'd said she hadn't rolled him, which he disagreed with, but she'd essentially called it an accident. She'd apologized and told him that she hadn't meant to. Thus, accident. Figuring she was only going to pump him for more information, he continued, answering what seemed to be the obvious questions. "Bad enough that she force-changed me, and at the time, I didn't mind. Hurt like hell after."
He'd sure as hell minded then.
"Whoa," Kimber said, waving her hands as he was speaking. She made the 't' motion. "Time the fuck out. There's only one vampire I know that can force-change and he's in Midnight. You said she, did you not?" she asked, sitting in her seat so that she contorted her body to face him more fully. Wouldn't be like she'd die if they got into a wreck.
"Now, as far as I know, and as a member of Bruja I have access to a wicked smart council of people who go to school to keep me up to date on vampires... And I don't know of anyone else besides that one homie that can do it. So either someone lied to me, or this is a new thing," she said, wrenching around in the seatbelt until she finally flung it off of her.
"I'm not sure what you mean accident. How do you "accidentally" do that? Is that like accidentally the whole thing?" she asked, her facial expression mirroring her lack of grasp on the information he'd told her. It also bothered her that it had happened, because Kimber wasn't interested in being kibble any more than Xavier was.
The irony was that she knew Elke; Elke watched Connor's daughter from time to time. She just didn't put the malevolent vampire that Xavier was rabid about next to the vampire that she knew.
He let her lose her shit, his jaw tightening again when she mentioned Kiyoshi. That vampire and Xavier didn't have much history together, mostly because Xavier avoided him and Kiyoshi didn't go out of his way to fuck with the tiger, either. Xavier happened to be a hothead sometimes, especially around people that creeped him out, and the vampire was creepy, so he didn't bother with him, and Xavier was a little too friendly with Verity for vampires to want to fuck with him if they didn't have a damn good explanation. He and Victoria had fucked each other up, and he'd definitely struck first, but there hadn't really been many consequences. He still thought he'd won that round.
"It wasn't him, and she wasn't Midnight, that I know for sure," he told her, and it was one thing he wasn't budging on. This woman wasn't Midnight material, not a single ounce of her. If he'd met her sister instead, he might have had some doubts, but not Elke. Of course, he could have just been biased because of whatever she'd done, but he didn't think so. Just because he didn't like what she could do didn't make her a liar or a con-artist.
He hesitated a moment, trying to decide how to possibly describe something that wasn't verbal or physical. He'd never had it happen like that before. "She said it was an accident at first, and I might believe her just because of how freaked out she got. If I didn't know she was a vampire, she'd have fooled me with her body language," he explained, but that still didn't explain HOW. "It was...something in her aura, or whatever you want to call it. It bothered me as soon as she got close, like she was my best friend in the world. The more upset she got, the stronger whatever it was got, the more I resisted, and it all stopped when I shifted. She said it has something to do with cats."
He certainly remembered her saying she was involved in Bruja 'by association', but it never occurred to him that Kimber might know the woman. Why would it? He didn't really know what the comment out of Elke had meant, or what her name was, either.
Kimber slapped her hand down on the dash so hard it might have broken if Xavier had a cheaper taste in automobiles. "Jesus, she was telling the truth!" she exclaimed. Her hands flew up to ruffle her thick, dark hair, mostly in disbelief at how this was turning out. Her eyes were absolutely wide as she looked at Xavier, a mixture of shock and seriousness playing out.
"Do you know who that was? That was Elke von Jungingen - or just Elke, as we all know her. She's around Crimson pretty frequently, and she's harmless," she said. She held up her hand in an "I don't know" motion, and then began listing what she knew before he could interrupt her.
"She's fifteenth century old, direct from Theron, and has a fucking nightmare bitch of a sister who could be Midnight if she, like, tried. She isn't into the whole group thing, though, but yeah, Elke, I've met her. She's nice as shit - which begs the question, what the hell did you do to get her to hurt you?" she asked incredulously, still shocked. She knew Xavier, knew his mouth, and knew he instigated shit without admitting it.
"She's got this proximity thing with cats. I've seen it work, Xavier. She's been sitting down playing with Connor's kid and they'll just... come over and want to stand around her. As far as I know, she can't just turn it off. I know for a fact her sister can't, and doesn't, because that bitch tried to roll a guild leader and succeeded for quite a while. And they say humans aren't fit for the job," she said with a small quiver of her lips. Christian and Connor were way, way above Lucien by her standard.
"Look, I don't mean to jump to her defense, so don't give me that fucked up look like I'm trying to campaign for her, I'm just saying that I think you've been really misinformed."
His golden eyes flicked to her hand smashing down on his dashboard for an instant, but he didn't say anything about it because he didn't have cheap taste in cars. He was more interested in the reason for her outburst than the manner in which it had happened. She hadn't really explained much when she said someone was telling the truth, especially if she was talking about the vampire. He wasn't believing her until he knew why she was jumping into Elke's corner.
"Harmless?" he repeated with a snort, but she mostly ignored him to continue explaining, so he let her finish. He used watching the road as his excuse to sit and absorb her facts, though it wasn't like he was in great need of such an explanation. He was a good listener when it suited his purposes. She went on to ask what he'd done to get her to hurt him, which should have gotten an immediate indignant response, but he opened his mouth ever so slightly, and she continued explaining Elke and her power. Important information.
She also mentioned Connor, and his kid, which was also valuable information. One never knew when they might need to know the particulars about important people, and Xavier was smart. He stored it all away and puzzled it out later, after he'd collected a few pieces.
"It would be really hard to be misinformed when I hadn't really been informed," he pointed out dryly, glancing her way with a pissy look. He didn't like that Kimber didn't seem bothered by this. He could bet that if a vampire showed up that could roll wolves with no effort like that, she'd be shitting herself. "I didn't do anything, why's it always my fault? I held the fucking door open for her. As soon as she was in the elevator, it started rubbing at me."
He didn't know how to explain it, and not knowing how it usually felt for OTHER cats, he didn't know the difference. He didn't like it, and didn't like that it made him feel warm and fuzzy. He didn't like fuzzy. He also thought she was delusional about preferring humans to shifters as her guild leaders, but he didn't personally know the three she was thinking about. Being who he was, he wouldn't have appreciated Cobriana, either. He probably wouldn't have cared much for Connor or Christian either, though. Humans just didn't impress him, and part of that was truly just the fact that they were fragile. They broke easily, if not mentally, then physically.
Kimber took his tone of voice into consideration and sighed. "It's not supposed to hurt!" was all she could reply, her tone one of genuine confusion. "The cat-people love this bitch. She's like their fucking personal Jesus or something, Xavier," she said, brows furrowed. "I don't know why you don't feel it. Look, I'm not complaining - I love that you don't turn into one of her fanboys - but it's just such a weird... such a fucking weird situation."
She twisted in the seat more to face him, drawing a knee up on the seat and resting her arm on it. "If this was different and I ran into some wolfman who ripped my animal right out of me I'd probably be just as pissed off as you are, too," she said finally. "It's just weird because you're right, I don't know how it feels. I do know that she's not Midnight and she didn't do it on purpose, so at least you know someone didn't like, send her after you or something. You're fine now, anyways. Nothing a little Kimber can't fix, I think," she said, reaching out to rub his shoulder lightly. Kimber added that last part almost supportively, lightly, and her touch wasn't the usual demanding or rough that she was so known for, so Xavier could take that to the bank - or be an asshole about it, in which case Kimber'd cut his ass off for a few weeks and see how his attitude was the next time she was genuine about anything that was a big deal to him.
She tried to smile, but she knew that the more she thought about it, the more mad she'd be. "I'll corner her and try to find out what the fuck happened. I'll just... tell her to stay away from you," she offered. "I'm sure she will, and if she doesn't, I'll fucking light her face on fire. 'kay?"
This was where he was stuck. He could either grunt and accept what she was saying without any further explanation, which would have been his general reaction with anyone else. He didn't owe anyone anything, let alone a description of whatever he was feeling at a given time, but Kimber did happen to be different. He liked her, whether he actually loved her or not, and liking someone when you really just didn't give a shit about other people made it matter. He was tempted to tell her, to explain, but he didn't like opening up like that. That would be showing off what he saw as a weakness, and he didn't know if there was anyone he'd offer that to. Maybe not even Verity, and he liked her. A lot. Verity had probably the closest he ever gave to the reaction that Katya should have received. Verity had earned it since he was a very small child, though. She was different, he was damaged goods, and it just worked.
The problem he was having, exactly what he was considering telling her, was that he was confused. He didn't like admitting confusion, but this was worse because it DID involve him liking Katya. He wasn't the fanboy sort, not ever, but he still wasn't sure if telling her to stay away was what he wanted. He HAD given her his number, hadn't he? He wouldn't have, not if he didn't want to talk to her. It was easier to talk to her when she wasn't putting out that overwhelming LOVE ME vibe, but he couldn't deny that she still had some pull just in her voice. Damn it. He couldn't tell if he only liked her because of that cat power, as much as he HATED that control it threatened over him, and he hated himself for that subconscious desire for contact with her. How could he be so weak?
He could he ADMIT to it?
That was most of the battle right here and now. He wasn't the type of guy to dwell on a solved problem, not any more than Kimber was the kind of woman to do it, but this wasn't solved. Not really, not at all. She could tell Katya to step off, but what if he caved and couldn't keep his distance? He was so torn.
It was easier for her to just think he was pissed, though. He was, so it wasn't a stretch, but confusion just wasn't something he thought he could admit to. That he actually wanted to go see Katya, like he'd gotten a taste of a drug he wanted more of, didn't sit well with him. He'd just ignore it and hope it went away. Right, that was a good idea. Kimber had a point in thinking she could fix it, too. She may not totally eliminate it, but she could help him ignore it. He was all for that.
He didn't think that a grin would look convincing (he didn't feel fun, so he sure as hell didn't think he'd look like he did), but he did nod at her explanations and promise. It would have to do. "Alright, let me know what you hear," he requested, tone surprisingly simple for how he felt, but he actually wasn't going to be an asshole to her. He reached out and settled his hand on her thigh, exactly where he felt it belonged, and he squeezed lightly without actually trying for a grope or anything stupid. He wasn't going to fake a smile or get mushy, he wasn't really any good at accepting comfort, but he made the attempt. He'd show her he appreciated it later, in other ways. Less sentimental, potentially cutesy ways.
Xavier wasn't cute.
"I'll handle it as soon as I get back to the guild. My partner hasn't had the pleasure of meeting her yet, either, but I have a feeling his reaction might be about as pleasant as yours," she mused, looking out the window. She placed her own hand on top of his, and yes, it did belong there. It belonged just about anywhere on her body as far as she was concerned, and if someone wanted to try and fuck with the simple good thing she had going, she was going to take a blowtorch and a bucket of rats to their eyes. Kimber seldom had good things, and when she did, she liked to ensure that they stayed that way.
She wasn't stupid enough to know that the problem wasn't resolved, but they'd both said all they possibly could have for the time being on the matter. She needed to change the subject before she drilled him about it any further, which she was likely to do if she sat in silence and stewed on it. She began tracing her fingertips lightly against his hand, along his wrist and up the portion of his arm that she had on her side of the car, over the sleeves of his jacket. It was amazing with how aggressive that she was that Kimber could do things like that and not still reek of "I want to kill you" vibes.
"So, how has your week been, aside? Erik and I are on a new assignment. Some crazy bitch who lives out in Pyrige. Thinks she's Dr. Doolittle. We have an Arun that agreed to help take her out for a fabulous sum of money. Shit's pretty sweet, I'm interested to see how it goes," she said with a grin. Ah, yes. Kimber could talk about work until the sun set in the east. She could be explicit with Xavier and not feel bad. She didn't overlap his work; he didn't hers. That was the only guideline she followed.
From everything that Xavier had heard of Kimber's partner, he didn't think the guy was going to like Katya anymore than he did, but that was just his gut reaction. Lucio sounded like he had a mean brand of tiger to him, one that Xavier wasn't familiar with, and Kimber had said that the guy didn't trust his own control over it. Xavier took that to mean it was big, it was bad, and it was fucking aggressive, and if he was any other guy, he'd probably have had a problem with Kimber being around the dude all the time. As it was, he wasn't one of those nagging, bitchy dudes, so he figured that if she trusted this other tiger (what was it with her and tigers, anyway?), then it was on her ass if the striped bastard tried to eat her.
Of course, then Xavier would have to go destroy him, but he wasn't worried about that happening.
Actually, if Lucio's tiger was so mean, maybe it would be a good idea for him to go meet Katya. Maybe he would take her out instead of Xavier having to be torn on whether or not he should. That'd be perfect. He was also curious as to how Lucio would react to her, if it'd be the same or if he was the only exception to her rule. For the sake of Lucio's pride, he hoped the dude reacted like he had, instead of turning into goo immediately. "Maybe you should let her partner meet her, and tell me how it goes," he offered mildly, because he was interested. He didn't know Lucio well, but he was starting to think that maybe he should get to know him.
"You mean, Manon? That bitch dabbles in a little bit of everything, but Doolittle, she is not. Last I heard, she thought she was gonna make pets out of shifters by slowly squashing the human in them. Loves animals, hates people. You and Lucio watch yourselves with her, especially him. With the chinks in his armor, she'll have him if he doesn't hold that cat back. I'd let the Arun do all the heavy lifting, then collect the reward," he offered. He didn't know it, but he actually knew the Arun. He just didn't know him as an Arun. The 'fabulous sum' would have rang true, though. Oh, ironing. It didn't even occur to him that he'd evaded her question, since it wasn't intentional.
Kimber nodded a little. "The Arun had pretty much the same spin for the plan. He's got nothing personal invested into the job, but he seems to have a particular dislike for her. Can't fathom why. Something about disliking meddling vampires, which kind of brings us back to our original point of origin." She smiled.
"Your week thus far?" she prompted, eyes back on him after going to the road for a moment. She knew he didn't evade her question intentionally, which made the prompt less bitchy than it could have been. It was so ironic that she had a penchant for cats, being a wolf - usually opposites didn't attract in that sort of regard, but Kimber had seemed to have paired up with two of the rarer Mistari in the area. She wondered how Erik would take the advice Xavier gave her about Manon. She hadn't been planning on rushing in, guns a-blazin', but she knew that Erik was wary of the Arun's battle strategy, and that it would merit further discussion between the two of them before they carried anything out. That Xavier was trying to watch her ass meant he was inadvertently watching Erik's. She would probably just skip the details and tell Erik a "reliable source" told her as much.
Erik tended to go quiet and narrowed-eyes when she talked about Xavier.