Talk Catty to Me [Erik, Purezza, Xavier]

[Kimber Smith]

Kimber was looking forward to having a night off, and she'd talked Erik into a night out. It wasn't really that she'd even had to talk them into it so much as she'd happened to swing by in clothing suggesting she could promise a fun evening and his objections were useless as she dragged him out his door. It hadn't ever really been any different, though - they'd split, return to separate homes, and then hours later find themselves together again in less bloody attire at a more social venue. This time it had been a no name bar where they met Shannon and Lilyana. It was a strange crew to be sure, a human, fox, tiger and wolf, but as the night progressed on they became more relaxed. It was Shannon and Lily who had to part first, having some crisis at Onyx they needed to attend to. Shannon was Crimson first and foremost, but as a trainer and an alternate she often had to address other issues.

They left late, walking arm in arm down the long row of parked cars to the five blocks where they'd actually parked. Since neither of them could get intoxicated, and since the both of them were probably too overpowered for their own good, there was never any reason to worry. Kimber was engrossed in the conversation at hand, currently trying to direct Erik's attention at a certain blonde tiger that he babysat for whether she was married or not.

"Someone, please!" came the voice from down the alley. It was faint, but definitely female.

Kimber stopped, her head tilting in a way not unlike a dog. "Did you hear that?" she asked, glancing back up to her partner. She smelled blood, and lots of it, and she was pretty sure it was human.

[Erik Lucio]

Let this much be known: Erik had put up a good fight.  Kimber had showed up at his house looking incredible, then proceeded to inform him that they were going out, that he had better change into something other than sweats double-time if he didn't want her to drag him out to her car as he was.  If he'd been that determined not to go, he could have fought it and kept her from budging him (being a big dude AND a big tiger helped in that department), but there really wasn't any reason for it.  Besides, Kimber would have found some other way to get back at him for refusing for no good reason.  Thus, he'd argued, changed into a pair of jeans that didn't have blood or too many rips in them (he'd found that SOME rips were fashionable, and even a LOT of rips were, but not all) and a halfway decent shirt that was also lacking in bloodstains, grabbed his leather jacket and followed on her heels as she practically dragged him out the door.  Changing clothes took about two minutes, but she acted like he'd been primping for an hour (judging from the way she looked, she'd taken longer than he had, but he wasn't pointing it out).  Off they went.

If it hadn't happened before, it would have been a shocker to find Shannon and Lily meeting them there.  Actually, it rather sucked for Erik, since he wasn't dating any of the three women, but was certainly enjoying their company.  As long as it didn't make him look gay, hanging in a group of women without dating any of them, he was fine with it.  They were funny, attractive ladies, and if he was going to be able to chill out enough to have an entertaining night, they'd probably be the ones to pull it off.  He had to give that to Kimber; she was good about pushing him into the things that he needed, however much he resisted.  Tough love, right? 

It also helped that, even if he didn't think that Kimber could take him if he lost control, he trusted her to handle the situation however was necessary.  If shooting him was required, she'd do it.  He believed it, and though he hoped it never had to happen, he was confident in her.  He also found himself hoping that she'd shoot him somewhere non-lethal if it ever happened, too.  He wouldn't have blamed her, not when he knew that having a massive tiger rushing him would have put him into kill mode.  He still didn't know how Connor had resisted putting a bullet in his brain after he'd put the guild leader through a rather solid table.  Actually, he wasn't so sure how Connor hadn't been rushed to the hospital, or at least his uncle, afterwards.  He'd just been happy that the man hadn't lost his shit over it, so he didn't ask.  It would suck if Kimber had to bring him down, though that was currently the furthest thing from his mind.

If you didn't know the situation, it would have been easy to see the two of them walking to the car arm in arm and just assume that they were an item.  Then, you might hear Kimber trying to talk Erik into trying to bang another tiger, one who happened to be married.  That might throw the image off a little.  "You're insane.  Straight ins--"

He paused, hearing the call and some movement down the alley just as she did, the stink of blood hitting his senses like a blast of hot air.  His eyes instantly drained into gold, but he didn't lose immediately.  Instead, he slipped his arm out of hers, gesturing her back a step as he moved forward.  "Yeah," he answered simply, trusting her to hang back in case something tried to eat his face.  All machismo aside, they were professionals, and he'd have been pissed if they made amateur mistakes such as her getting pissed that he was taking the lead, or her trying to take the lead.  She was smaller than he was, and easier to bounce, so it didn't make sense for him to watch her back right then.  Him taking point and any initial abuse that an unexpected threat could dish was logical, plain and simple.  The blood stench drawing him along as an added incentive didn't hurt his decision, either.

[Purezza]

 Purezza was good at playing the victim; she studied her own well enough to know. It didn't help that she was one of the few vampires who actually used and abused all of the abilities she had, but then again, how else would an Akka survive for that long? She'd flown after the duo for a few minutes before deciding that she wanted to engage in conflict with them, and had looped over the nearest alley. The blood they'd smell was human, because she'd splattered a hobo only seconds before their arrival and stuffed his body in a trash can. Using illusion, she did her own injuries, and allowed the blood from them to be real. It was convincing enough.

The scene as they'd come to find it was that a woman, dressed in pants and a light cream-coloured sweater with an empire waist, had obviously been attacked. She had hunkered down against the wall, nursing a badly bleeding arm that had defensive wounds all over it. She had tied a scarf around her neck, where blood shown but wasn't dripping as her arm had been. If one had to guess, the neck had been bitten, but the arm had been slashed. Vampire wounds tended to heal when delivered by mouth thanks to the coagulants in the saliva; Purezza knew that detail better than so many who had failed to trick hunters in the past. It was why it was her specialty.

"Oh, god, my baby, my baby," she moaned, pulling her knees up to her chest. Oh, did she forget to mention - the form she'd taken also gave the illusion of being a few months pregnant. Not enough to be utterly massive, but enough to be obvious without restrictive. Illusion was a fun thing, wasn't it?