Purezza stepped outside of the alley, holding up her compact to her would-be reflection. She couldn't see herself, of course, but she played like she did, and reapplied a smear of lipgloss to lips freshened with a spot of blood for colour. Ah, well, that had been a nice meal.
Cheeks flushed enough that she looked like she was wearing blush, she headed down the street, ignoring the world around her. Her line was known for having amazing abilities, yes, but with that came horrible consequences. She was deliberately walking the opposite direction of Saint Peter's cathedral, but it was only for good measure - she'd found most humans now to be faithless and wretched. She'd had real faith when she was a girl, and look where it had gotten her.
Purezza wore a black pencil skirt and a cream-coloured blouse, and had a black purse and heels. She looked like the typical office woman, except, of course, she was absolutely stunning in that way that all vampires tended to be. She was fortunate to have had natural beauty in life, though, and it was only a hundred times amplified as she strode down the street blithely, blissfully ignoring everything around her.
It wasn't until she saw a little girl walking with her father that she stopped, and slipped back into predator mode. The girl had a little rosary from mass that she was carrying with her, though Purezza could feel that she had no concept of God nor faith, more or less, she liked the pretty beads enough to carry them.
"Hey, sunshine," she whispered, projecting her voice enough to make the girl stop walking and turn her head. Her father tugged her by the hand gently.
"Come on, Jo-Anne, we're going to be late to see mommy," the man chastised the awkward red-head. Jo-Anna, however, had other ideas. She let go of her father's hand for a moment.
"Hey sunshine," she whispered again. "Won't you come play?" Her voice was so melodic, so soft, such a whisper on the wind, that poor little Jo-Anna was just a sitting duck.
The child ran directly into the crosswalk towards Purezza's form, which, of course was only a figment of the girl's imagination. Purezza was standing about twenty feet to their left next to a drink vendor.
"JO-ANNA!" the man screamed, taking off after her into the street. Cars slammed on their brakes and swerved, and the rosary was discarded as the man grabbed the girl before she was struck.
Crying, of course, and a crowd erupted from the mess, as well as several fender benders.
Purezza fucking loved New York.
It wasn't terribly surprising for Darren to pass a particularly attractive woman on his way to work, so he really didn't pay her all that much attention until he'd already taken a few steps past her and caught a whiff of her. She smelled of...blood. Strongly. He hesitated to glance back at her, trying to be sure that it really was her that positively reeked of blood. It smelled fresh, something which made the feline predator in him stir, but that was something he fairly easily squashed down. Unless it was much more blood, he wouldn't have a problem, having been dealing with this his entire life. It was her, though. He just knew it, even without staring in absolute horror as he watched her.
At first, he didn't realize what she was up to, not until he followed her gaze to see who she was talking to, only to find a little girl rushing into the street. He saw her father race right after her and hoped the man would catch her, and instead focused his horrified emerald eyes on the woman. "She's just a little girl, why would you do that?" he demanded. The smell of blood and her ethereal beauty were enough to make him suspicious, but once he really paid attention, he couldn't hear a heartbeat and vampires have a specific scent to them. Vampire. But why try to harm a little girl? And for no reason like that?
Fortunately, the girl's father grabbed her before she could be hurt in the crosswalk.
Purezza's smile froze on her face, and faded abruptly as she lifted her nose a little, scenting the man that was squawking at her. A cat. She sighed, tossing her long brown hair over her shoulder, and the smile that spread across her full lips was slightly different now, slightly more sinister than before.
"Mmh. And why should I tell you, cat?" she asked, narrowing her dark eyes at him. "My business is my own; I think I've earned the right after so long." No need to explain the entire history of the Akka line to this stupid animal; he wouldn't understand it anyways. Cats were truly created in the image of uselessness and decadence. They did nothing, were worth nothing. What fools the EGYPTIANS had been.
Oblivious to the exhange between the two Nyeusi thanks to Purezza's very minimal crowd control, she spoke as freely as she felt, and the people seemed to just swirl around them, as though they weren't even there at all, but rather a spot on the sidewalk to be avoided.
He wasn't the sort of shifter to take offense to being called 'cat' because he'd been born a shifter, so if she'd thought that was going to damage his calm, she was sadly mistaken. That switch in her smile was a bit creepy, though he wasn't letting that on.
"Your business may be your own, until it involves making children rush out into traffic," he snarled right back, his own eyes narrowing. The little girl and her father were out of harm's way, so he really should have just walked away. It wasn't like he'd be able to stop this vampire from doing such a thing again, not without killing it, which he didn't think was terribly possible, either. It just felt...wrong to just walk away after that, though.
"Oh, I'm so concerned what your useless little brain thinks," she said jovially. Just for that, she leaned back and wrapped in her arms a thuggish looking man. She leaned on him casually, holding him with her mind enough so that he was aware, yet not. He stared at Darren with blank eyes.
"Dear, this is Paolo. Paolo came from Puerto Rico to the US seventeen years ago when his father died, in order to start a new life with his mother. Paolo's mother, as it turns out, is much like every other mortal - utterly worthless. She's a crack whore," she said solemnly, nodding. "She'll fuck anything that walks for a spot of change to fix her habit. Nevermind her poor son."
Paolo continued his uneasy, unblinking stare at Darren as Purezza gave a brief overview of the boy's history. As it turns out, he'd just been inducted into a gang. He was a big boy now, all grown up. He even had a gun.
"Show him your gun, Paolo," she suggested, smiling at him brightly.
Paolo pulled out the gun, an awkward looking thing. It was far too large and heavy, the calibur too much for someone who couldn't even hold it properly.
"Cat, Paolo's had a bad life. He's got an even worse one ahead of him. Tonight they're going to go out and gang rape the sister of someone who's offended their little group. Isn't that right, Paolo?" she purred.
He nodded, still holding the gun, unsure of what to do.
"Don't you think that this world would just be better off without scum like that? The little girl got away, true, but I didn't really want to kill her. Didn't you see how people didn't even brake? Now, how about Paolo here? What if that sister was your girlfriend?" she asked innocently. "I think the world would be better without you, Paolo," she said sadly, looking from the cat back to the man.
Paolo put the gun in his mouth and looked at Purezza.
"Go ahead", she said with a smile. "It won't hurt. I promise." She walked away from him, moving to stand next to Darren.
He pulled the trigger, and the crowd carried on around them.
"I wasn't even trying that time," she said softly in the cat's ear, now standing directly to his right. He would have been able to feel her breath, but sadly, Purezza just didn't have any.
Now, Darren may have been related to the Leader of the Crimson Hunter's Guild, but that didn't mean that he had any familiarity with death. He'd never seen anyone killed, despite his rather dangerous animal form. To watch this vampire not only roll that human's mind so easily, but pull all of that information out of his head was something both spectacular and insane, but all she did was suggest to him that he kill himself, and he did. Darren had cried out and reached for the man at the last second, realizing what he was going to do, but he was of course too late. His feline green eyes were wide and horrified and his mouth was still open in a shocked gasp when he realized something.
That gunshot was loud, and nobody, NOBODY had even made any indication that they'd heard it. They all just walked around and OVER the body. Like it wasn't there, like it hadn't just been a living, breathing human being just a moment earlier. Like that man hadn't just given that cannon in his hand a blowjob, right there on the street.
"Oh, fucking hell..." he murmured, staring at the human like he couldn't tear his eyes away, and he knew that image would be burned into his head. "You just killed that man..."
And nobody had cared, save Darren. Nobody had even noticed. That was the worst part of all.
"Cat," she said softly, nuzzling into his neck lightly. "Darren," again, plucking the information effortlessly from his mind. Purezza wasn't afraid to use her power. She'd lived long enough with the Akka curse to walk in the shadow and fear every sound and every movement. She'd die, fine, but she'd do it with a bang.
"Darren, do you think any will mourn his passing? Honestly?" She reached out and put a comforting hand on his shoulder, as though she cared. And she did - or at least, she sounded like it.
She was toying with him, using her vocal hypnosis on and off again, plus deftly taking whatever information she found of use to her from his little brain. Well, he was a noble creature, or so he thought himself to be, she noticed.
This was going to be fun.
Normally, the sort of nuzzling against his face and neck would have been welcome, especially from Mars or his mother, both of which used it in an affectionate manner, though obviously for differing reasons. Having this vampire, this murderer do it had almost been acceptable with her hypnosis turning on and off and the horror still keeping him rooted in place, but he snapped out of it. He jerked away from her, nearly bumping into some random person passing by in the process, and stared at her incredulously. She'd just called him by name, and he knew he hadn't given it to her.
"Don't touch me," he told her firmly, trying to decide just how quickly he could take off down the street in the direction of the Hollow. It wasn't that far away, was it?
Would anyone mourn that man, Paolo? Had the vampire been telling the truth about his mother and what the man had been planning that evening? Would anyone miss him, or even notice that he was gone, other than Darren? The leopard shifter knew he had no right to judge that man on what he'd done in his life, and he couldn't tell himself that the man had deserved to die. Nobody really deserved death.
She was enjoying watching his facial expressions switch from agreement to horror as he tried to sort out what she was doing to his head. Purezza was careful not to have too much fun, though, and so she kept a measured calm attitude around herself, despite how much she wanted to just jump up and down like a schoolgirl and giggle.
"Darren," she said slowly. "You'd never get to the Hollow in time. In fact, you won't take three steps before you change your mind and come back. So go ahead, cat. Run."
She folded her arms and rested her weight on one leg, lips pursed as she waited for the shifter to no doubt run exactly three steps, turn around, and look at her helplessly.* She held out her hand.
"Come here," she said.
~~
*Sry for powerplay, lmk if you need to has an edit.
A chill ran down his spine when she mentioned the Hollow, and even though he knew she was right somewhere in his mind, he still had to try to make it there. Of course, he hadn't taken into account the fact that she'd done that hypnosis thing on him, just as she'd done it to Paolo. He got three steps, prepared to take off into an all-out run, and he came to a sudden stop, only to turn around without really thinking about it. He was suddenly right back where he started, a helpless sort of panic striking him rather suddenly. He'd never encountered a vampire who could keep a crowd from noticing something going on AND control a person's thoughts and actions at the same time.
He wasn't truly worried until she told him to come closer to her, though. When he felt his legs carrying him along, right to her, that was when he knew he was in a world of trouble. He should have known better, shouldn't have run his mouth like an idiot, but he hadn't really been able to help himself. Now, he really couldn't. "What are you doing?" he asked her, his eyes flicking about as he looked for some potential way of getting out of this. He wasn't going to find anything, though.
She took his hand in her own, as he had eventually given it to her with a medium amount of coersian. This one had a natural dislike, and a natural aversion, and it irritated her. She could see from thumbing through his surface thoughts that he was scared, somewhat regretful, but bothered by the fact he'd just seen someone die for the first time. It wasn't every day she got to do that.
"Darren," she said. "Cat, what should I do with you?" she asked sweetly. She made a tsk'ing noise, shaking her head as people continued to step over the body. Ants were attacking it now. She stepped back a few feet, dragging Darren with her.
"You don't really want to go, do you? You want to stay with me for a while," she said. She smiled at him. How could he not? Purezza was so beautiful, and so gentle and sweet. Like Elke. Yeah, like Elke.
Well, he certainly had a few ideas as to what she could do with him, the top of that list being to let him go, so he could try to forget about all of this. He knew she wasn't going to though, and in a few moments, that didn't matter. He remembered Elke and how she'd made him feel, and with Purezza's influence suddenly pushing him in that direction, he relaxed. Why would he want to get away from her, when she was being so understanding? She just wanted him to stay with her for a little while, and she'd done such a good thing by talking to that evil man. It couldn't have been her fault that he'd killed himself.
"No, I don't want to go," he answered, though his voice wasn't really quite right. He went with her when she tugged him away from the evil, dead man, though. "I'll stay."
And why wouldn't he, when she'd made it so clear that he should?
She smiled. "Good!"
With that, she began to walk, and it was up to him whether or not she dragged him or he stayed in step with her - Darren's shapeshifter blood gave him a good amount of strength, but Purezza was just stronger, physically and mentally, in this match. She thought of things in all manners to do to him, but none of them really struck a cord - playing with all those people's heads -had- made her weary. She needed a freshen up.
As they got about a block down the road, she heard screams as she relinquished her control of the area. Another situation where someone got shot and nobody saw anything. Did I mention how much Purezza adores New York? The city that never sleeps, the city that never cares.
She stopped suddenly, deciding that she was going to have to replenish her energy or she wouldn't really feel like toting around her new toy. "Darren, come. Give me a hug, won't you? She'd debated on telling the leopard flat out that she was going to feed on him, but she refrained for the moment.
He went with her without question due to the influence she'd taken in his mind, but the real kicker was when he didn't even react to the screams behind them where the body was. She didn't react, so he didn't. If she'd wanted to do anything about it all, she would have, simple as that. She was obviously more interested in doing something else. Fine with him, as the body had creeped him out, anyway.
He'd kept up fairly easily after initially being dragged along for a moment, and she stopped suddenly enough that he nearly ran into her. He didn't though, since that would be rude. He didn't want to be rude to the nice lady, especially since she just wanted a hug. How could he refuse her that?
He had no idea she was planning on feeding or any such thing, but had she said she was going to with that crazy voice thing she was doing, he wouldn't have even thought to object, just as he wrapped his arms around her as though he'd known her forever.
Purezza took a few steps back as they hugged, so that she was standing directly in front of a wall. She was strong, but she didn't feel like trying to support the weight of a full grown man once his knees buckled, which they eventually would, whether she rolled his mind with her bite or not. Something she did take into account for was the fact that she was above all, an Akka, and this bite would be the beginning of this shifter's ultimate undoing, especially if she made him a habit.
It didn't matter. A few of these and he'd be begging to see her.
She nuzzled lightly into his neck, before taking the liberty of sinking her teeth into him. She put both hands on the wall, thankful that his arms were above hers. He'd have something to grab if he fell straight down, though she was betting he'd fall back and just hang there if he fell at all. There was a certain madness in the bite, a certain sort of rush, some potency that would hit him, but Purezza was going to keep that under a fine amount of control at the moment. He'd feel it later, after she'd come and gone.
She entered his mind, giving him the idea of floating in warm clouds. He seemed like the type that would like it. So yeah, he got some floating and some warm clouds, and she jerked back suddenly before she drained him dry, and the clouds went away.
She dropped her control for a moment, so that he could come to and realize what had happened. As his eyes focused and then widened, she held up a hand and wiggled her fingers in a little wave, blood still on her mouth.
And now, he got to react for real.
He hadn't found a problem with her maneuvering him against a wall, nor had it occurred to him what she was about to do. If he'd have had a moment to think straight, he would have freaked out and tried to escape, but she had his mind under rather strict control right then. He was glad for it as her teeth broke the skin of his throat, plunging him into a warm, comfortable place where it felt kind of like he was floating. It felt wonderful, very relaxing, and that's exactly what he did as she fed. He relaxed against the wall, having completely forgotten whatever it was he'd been doing before he ran into her for what was going on currently. It felt nice to just let everything go, but the floaty, warm feeling was starting to make him feel somewhat sleepy. His limbs felt tired, and so did his mind.
That was when she released him, and he slid down the wall without the support she'd been giving him. He still felt sleepy, though the sounds and smells of the normal world came rushing back to him, keeping him awake. He was suddenly very aware, as well.
He picked his head up to look at her and he just stared as she waved at him, blood still marking her lips and the edges of her mouth. It took him a moment for it to process that it was his blood, though. His. She'd bitten him. His hand shot up to his throat to feel the wound (even though 'shot' wasn't really the right word, since he was still moving a bit slow for it), and the fear and horror that had been poking at his brain since he'd seen the man shoot himself came rushing back full strength. She'd made prey, food, out of him, and the cat inside of him hated that even more than the human did. Neither humans nor leopards are used to being prey, and his instinctual reaction to that was to get away from any predator that could pull that off. The problem was pulling himself to his feet, though.
He managed it, but it took an effort so soon after such blood loss. He wasn't feeling so great, honestly. He'd recover quickly enough, though. Fortunately, shifters were quicker to recover than humans by a long shot. He just had to get away from her, which was his top priority.
"You stay the fuck away from me," he gasped, finally making it to his feet and glaring at her. He was almost afraid to take his eyes off of her, lest she attack in that moment that he looked away. He was already starting to make his way along the building, but he wasn't getting far just yet. He needed more time to recompose himself and gain some color again, but he didn't want to take that time.
She laughed. She tossed her hair back and licked the blood off of her lips, visibly shaking as she tried to wrap her mind around the shifter blood. She'd totally forgotten how potent it was. Purezza was high on power, and she leaned back against the wall looking almost like she'd just had a good roll in the hay and not a meal.
"Oh, why don't you go play in traffic," she laughed, waving her hand at him towards the busy street. Even twined with her laughter, the extra power she'd picked up from his blood is ultimately what propelled the command so heavily straight to his ears.
Purezza blew a strand of hair in her face as she watched the shifter.
He really hadn't needed any encouragement to get himself the hell out of there, but that COMMAND was completely impossible to ignore. He'd slowed down in his movements, trying to pull himself together right up until she'd laughed like that. It had stopped him dead in his tracks to stare at her, and that command had gotten another horrified look out of him. He understood on some level what she was doing, and he tried to bolt down the sidewalk away from her. It just...wasn't what happened.
When he took off, he shot right into the road, stumbling a bit but still moving faster than any normal human could have. There was still a chance that he could avoid a car, since she hadn't specifically told him to get hit, but his chances were pretty low after she'd nearly drained him. He got as far as the second lane of traffic before he saw a car flying down the street at him out of the corner of his eye.
This was going to hurt. What did Connor say about it? Ah, right, 'street pizza'.
Heather brought it up at the least convenient time. At least, it was the least convenient time for Valerie. She had HIM right where she wanted. They were in his car, returning from the ballet. In a confined space there was nowhere to hide, nowhere to run, especially not when he was driving. And when she asked it, he couldn?t just stop and insist she get out and walk herself home. Home was nearly twenty miles away, and there was no way Val would leave her alone on the city streets.
If only he had done? well, something different, that was for sure. Gone away for a month until he either learned to block it solid or it just went away, rather than trying to convince her he was alright when he was anything BUT. He kept getting these- these ridiculous urges at the most god-awful random times. Just now, halfway through the ballet, he?d felt the explosive need to urinate. Which was bad enough, but he?d wanted to urinate ON THE BALCONY RAILING. Like a DOG.
It was Adrian?s influence, no doubt, and Valerie had held in a multitude of growls and undignified faces while waiting for the need to pass. It was instances like these that Heather was seeing in him more and more often. No matter how well he covered it up, she somehow managed to see things. She noticed the abnormality. And then she worried, which put Valerie in a place to feel guilty for any number of things, least of which the fact that he had yet to tell her of his true nature.
So now here he was, in a car, with nowhere to run for at least another thirty minutes before they got to her home. And she was asking the question.
"Are you okay?"
Valerie kept his eyes on the road. "Perfectly fine."
"... Okay." Heather sat back in her seat and stared out the window. Val took the moment to grit his teeth and silently sigh. He didn't like hiding things from her, he wished she could understand that There were just some things he HAD to hide, things he couldn't let her know. Especially not now when everything was so off kilter, what with the bond and his mood swings and fully dysfunctional personality. Heather didn't need to hear about what his diet consisted of or what his night habits were, much less the chaos that was currently his life. He just had to keep her ignorant until he sorted things out.
"No, seriously. Val. What is going on with you?"
Then again, he was dating Heather White. Heather didn't leave things alone ever. "Because, I mean, I could ignore it when it was just the first few days, and even after a week or so... But you keep brushing me off and saying it's nothing, when it's clearly SOMETHING. If you're going mental, I'd really appreciate it if you'd tell me."
Heather White also had a way with words.
"I am not going mental."
"Then why are you acting strange?"
"It's complicated."
Silence. Not all silences cut, but this one did. "I see."
Val sighed. No, Heather, you really don't see. I wish you could, but you can't, that's just the way this has to-
"VAL! LOOK OUT!"
Valerie saw the man stumble directly in his path at the same time he heard Heather scream, but it was her voice that put his foot on the brake. Too late. Even for Valerie, the ensuing THUMP! of flesh and bone hitting steel and paint was sickening.
Heather immediately unbuckled her seatbelt the moment the car had stopped and dashed out the door. Valerie followed quickly behind her, keeping an eye on the surrounding traffic that might not stop even for pretty teenage girls in skirts, heels and pantyhose.
"Oh god, oh god, is he breathing?" Heather knelt beside the victim's crumpled form and felt for his pulse, carefully brushing his bloodied hair aside. The scent of the blood told Val what he needed to know - shifter, some kind of cat - and he breathed a sigh of relief. If the man wasn't hurt TOO badly, he could still walk away from this unscarred.
"Heather, please call an ambulance. I will stay with him." Heather nodded, biting her lip in her intense worry and went back to her purse in the car. Valerie kept a bit of distance from the body, examining it with his eyes before he dared use his hands. Odd, he smelled no alcohol, but the man had stumbled in front of the car as though profoundly drunk. Val wished his mental abilities were stronger. Just because he could sense nothing didn't mean there wasn't anything to find.
He waited, then, while Heather dialed frantically, and the city traffic honked its anger at being delayed. Even without the questions from Heather, this was shaping into a very bad day.
Damn Ferraris! Damn idiot drivers, damn vampires!
Darren saw the car in the instant before it struck him, even with the driver hitting the brakes at the last second. That had perhaps kept him from flying over the windshield or getting squished by the car tires. He'd ended up getting tossed forward a few feet from the sheer force of the car, and he just laid there at first, stunned. The vampire had nearly drained him, so his head had already been spinning, but this just had him completely gone. He might have even blacked out for a moment there, but he regained consciousness only a moment later.
To find a man staring down at him.
He attempted to jump up and bolt again, but his body wasn't having any of that. He couldn't even tell what was broken and what wasn't at that moment, considering he hurt everywhere. He tried to peel himself off of the pavement, though he wasn't having much luck with that.
"N...no hos...hospital," he managed, well aware of the sort of trouble he could be in if some ambulance took him in and found that he wasn't just healing, but there was something wrong with his blood type.
"Heather, cancel that." He sent it to her telepathically, so she would think she had heard him yell over the noise. She returned to him, phone to her ear and expression a mask of disbelief. "Are you crazy?! He needs a doctor!"
"No, he doesn't."
"Val, what the hell-"
"Heather, please."
She glared at him. Glared at him until he was sure the ends of his hair and clothes would catch fire.
"Val, there is so some shit you are not telling me, and if you do not explain to me what it is right now so help me God I will-"
"He's a shifter. He'll heal on his own." Something about this boy was famliar, desperately so. Val looked at his face and felt intense concern wash over him, though he couldn't understand why. The bond? Why would Connor or Ade feel concern for this man? Unless they knew him...
Oh, please don't let that be it. Val stirred up enough trouble with them on his own, without the help of his shifter-dented Ferarri.
"He's a what?"
"Werecat. Of a sort. Please, Heather, I don't have time to explain." Valerie turned back to the victim, wiping some of the blood off the man's face with his expensive shirt sleeve. He had no idea why it mattered to him that there not be blood on that face. "Is there someplace where you want to go? SingleEarth?"
Yeah, he'd heal on his own. Eventually. For the moment, about all he could manage was trying to push just his upper body up, and he was failing at that. Really, all he wanted to do was just lay down and pretend everything was okay until he stopped hurting. In the middle of traffic that wasn't such a good idea, though at least the man standing nearby had started talking to the girl about him not getting to a doctor, though. It might have struck him as odd that the man had listened so easily, but he wasn't thinking about that currently.
He was thinking about the vampire, and where she was. Would she come after him now that he was unable to get away? Oh, God no. He needed to get up, and he started trying to get off the ground again with a whole new sense of panic and urgency. He wasn't healing almost at all, it seemed. With the massive injuries and insane blood loss from her feeding from him, it was like his body didn't know what to take care of first. He was feel pretty lightheaded already, probably from lack of blood and some sort of head wound or five.
That didn't halt his pathetic, but determined attempts at getting up, though. It was impossible to determine whether Val reaching down to wipe some of the blood from his face made him feel any better or worse, but he looked up at the man with wide green eyes. Where did he want to go? Well, he wanted to go home, for one. He didn't know if Mars would be around, but he wanted to go there. Or maybe to the Hollow. Dave would take care of him. He didn't know much about Single Earth, though he definitely didn't want to go to some strange clinic.
He opened his mouth to answer, but his thoughts were starting to swim again, probably from exerting himself when he really didn't have the strength or health right then to do so. He promptly lowered himself back to the ground to ride out the dizzy spell, and forgot what he'd been about to say. Val was on his own.
Valerie had been skimming the shifter's thoughts for some kind of clue when the mention of a vampire came up. He immediately raised his head and looked carefully around, doubting he would see anyone but being careful nonetheless. Whoever she had been, she'd done a number on him, and Val couldn't count on her being done with him just because she'd sent him to an almost certain death. Val needed to get himself, the shifter and his girlfriend out of here. Now.
"What are you doing?" Heather demanded when Valerie began pulling off his coat. He placed it over the young man and mopped more blood away, fear clogging his throat as he watched its endless flow. This was definitely some kind of aquaintance of his bondmates, although whose, he couldn't say. Ade was a wolf, this man was a cat. There was some resemblance to Connor (dammit), but Connor was human. But who was to say this wasn't an infected elavie? He couldn't be sure.
Whatever. There was no time. People had begun to stop their cars and gather from the sidewalks, and Valerie was sure that someone must have called the police by now. Hellcat's Hollow had been extremely prominant in the shifter's - or Darren, as Val had learned, and thinking the name brought fresh pain to his chest - mind. Val would take him there. And hope that doing so didn't end up being a fatal mistake.
"Val, what are you-"
"Open the back door. Quickly."
Heather stood there, staring as he lifted the body with unnatural ease and faced her. There was blood all over his coat and his clothes, and he knew just by her expression that the picture he made wasn't the slightest bit familiar, trustworthy, or safe. He didn't have to read her thoughts to know she was scared.
"Heather... please. I promise I will explain."
Hesitation. Then she went to the car and opened the rear seat door, allowing Valerie to slip Darren in and put a seatbelt around him to keep him from sliding around. He wouldn't look at Heather as he retrieved a bottle of water and handkerchief from the glove compartment, took them to the spot on the pavement where Darren had lain, and mopped up what blood he could.
"Hey, hey, buddy!" A man from the crowd grabbed his shoulder. "Where do you think you're taking that kid? The ambulance-"
"The boy is in good hands." It was a strain, but he managed to at least partially muddle the minds of half the people there. With enough confused stories and descriptions, hopefully the police would never trace Darren or Valerie's car. Grudgingly, he had the bond to thank for this leap in mental ability; he never could have managed that kind of power on his own.
Heather was waiting for him in the car, silent but with renewed courage. She was a strong girl, very brave. Valerie might not be the best boyfriend, but Heather was about as good as a girlfriend could get.
"I will explain. I promise."
"You'd better."
Valerie glanced back at Darren, silent* and bleeding, and sighed. He wouldn't call Ade or Connor yet. First, the Hollow.
((*Unless Darren says something.))
Right then, he actually just couldn't say he cared enough to worry about what Val was doing more than to notice it hurt. Everything hurt though, so could he really complain? No, not with the amount of blood he'd lost. He didn't have much to spare after Purezza drank most of it, and what little he had left was spilling out onto the pavement and this guy's coat. At least he wasn't on the ground anymore, though. That was a definite improvement, no matter where he ended up.
Once he was in the car, he started fading out for real. He was more comfortable, his head was swimming around and he finally just...let it all go for a little while. Maybe when he woke up, he wouldn't hurt so badly.
((Continued [a href=\'http://midnightmayhem.ourdarkarts.net/index.php?showtopic=718&st=0&#entry19208\' target=\'_top\']here[/a].))