Night's Omen

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.