First Date (Tag M-)

[daywalkingblade]

The black muscle car rumbled into the gravel parking lot of what looked to be a bar/saloon in the middle of nowhere, upstate New York. The place was south of Rochester by about forty miles. Above the entrance, a tacky red neon sign read "The Roadhouse". There was no one hanging around outside, but thee were several cars and motorcycles. It was pretty quiet for what one might expect of a bar, at least from the outside. As the car pulled to a stop, Blade glanced at his passenger. This was going to be...interesting. She was too pretty and far to classy for a place like this. Hell, she was probably too stunningly beautiful to be in this car with someone as rough around the edges as Blade. But here they were. People would notice as they went into the bar, but nobody would say anything. Of that fact at least, Blade was certain.

"We're here. Stay close, and order whatever you want. The food's actually pretty good, and the drinks are better. Once I get some information on where to find some suckheads, we'll be out." He flashed a little bit of a toothy grin. "Guess you could say this is the closest to a "date" portion of this outing as we'll get."

They both pushed their doors open and stood up out of the car. The parking lot remained silent. Hunters and mercenaries were probably inside drinking quietly, enjoying a bit of peace. There were the occasional loud, rowdy drinkers - usually the mercs - but most just wanted a place to rest and get information before the next big job. Also, most didn't trust the night enough to be drunk out in it. Blade knew the bartender inside. A good woman by the name of Ellen who really knew her shit. It was why he liked coming here. Of course, he knew the bartenders in most of the Roadhouses around the country. It was a bit of a chain, but not in the corporate sense. When a place was named "The Roadhouse" in some back country nowhere, it was a kind of secret sign to all hunters and some mercenaries that this was a safe haven and a good place to exchange information and get jobs. They were also neutral zones. Any who dared cause any trouble in these kinds of places was blacklisted, and that was as good as being fired in this line of work. In some cases, it was a death sentence because it also meant no assistance in any job ever again.

"You ready?"

Comments

[cold_as_snow]

"You are too kind," responds M-, with another winning smile in exchange for the glass of whiskey. Blade can be pissy all he wants, she still has a standard of behavior to maintain at the moment, especially with a woman who pours that well.

She watches the exchange between them and her amusement shines like a light in the dark. He really doesn't seem to get it, and it's not like Ellen is even attempting anything like subtlety with her blackmail. The second the bartender gives them a little space, she leans in to speak to Blade.

"It seems the lady thinks you need a social life, and is prepared to blackmail you into it. Do try to soothe my ego and their envy by looking less tortured by my nearness if you would."

[daywalkingblade]

"Kind my ass," she snorts with a smirk. "If I know there's a good Irishwoman to appreciate the whiskey, then I pour her the good stuff." She jerked her head over to Blade. "This one I'd give whatever too, but I made a few promises to his handler several years back. One was to make sure he learned to appreciate good liquor. Still working on it. He's a tough one to crack, if you haven't noticed yet."

Then she was gone, and Blade glanced at M-, startled by her words. It'd be a lie to claim that he even knew the first part of what she said, let alone the last. Blackmail him into a social life? Well, he'd wondered just why the hell Ellen was playing hard to get with what had to be a simple location to find some suckheads. Now it made sense. And here he'd been joking about the date in the car.

What really got to him, though, was the idea that he'd look tortured by her nearness. He floundered for what to say to that, but most of it was inward. Blade didn't ever flail. She might have seen the surprise on his face, but that was about it. And of course she couldn't see through the ever-present sunglasses.

"I'm not tortured by you being here. Just trying to get to the hunt I promised you." He wasn't even fully comprehending yet that Ellen probably thought this was the most important part of their evening. He was still just focused on the hunt as the important element, because whether or not she could handle herself would make a huge deal in how he regarded what they could have together.

"I...want you here." The words were kind, but he glowered as he said them, unsure of why he even had to say them at all.

[cold_as_snow]

She winks freely at Ellen. "You'd have to ask prettier than that, dear. As for the whiskey? I can't say I'm shocked. Set him at anything but the fight, and he's more than half distracted."

M- is calm as she sips and watches Blade process the new information. Not exactly a dull boy, but definitely one who'd been all work for too long. There was clearly some kind of fight or something going on behind the glasses, and she really couldn't wait to see what it was.

"Consider this part of the hunt, then." Her tone is as soft and amused as she is. Poor man has probably never been on a reasonable date in his life, yet here he is.

[daywalkingblade]

"This?" Now he looked perplexed. "But there ain't any suckheads here, and I'm not hunting you..."

That he had to stop and consider. He'd liked her from the start, true. And he had always managed to show up where she was and have a good conversation. Dating hadn't even been on his mind; he'd just wanted to be near the beautiful, enigmatic woman with no memory. But if it was dating...was it much different from hunting?

Yeah, it had to be, he decided. When you hunted, you hunted lesser things and made sure they died. Dating involved finding an equal. Hunting got you a prize. Dating got you a partner.

"Already found you, though."

"Steaks're up." Two plates appear in front of them, each with a loaded potato on the side. Ellen didn't just talk a big game when it came to pleasing the Irish. "Enjoy, and let me know if you need anything else." She cut Blade off before he could start. "Aside from your intel. It's coming, I promise. But if you're smart, you'll take this to one of those booths. Little more private there."

Ah. Yes. Private. The intel had to be passed on in private. That made sense. Blade stood, taking both plates as he nodded. Then he started for an empty booth.

[cold_as_snow]

It's all M- can do not to laugh. He's surprisingly innocent in his way. Not looking at dating or relationships as a hunt. Not getting that he was being nudged into a more intimate location. She's tempted to flirt with him overtly and see if he picks up any of the signs. Alas, but he is waiting for that hunt.

She follows him over to the empty booth where she takes a seat across from him. He gets the fully glimmering light of her amusement that lights up her face.

"She expects me to flirt with you, you know, and for you to flirt back. It's understandable, really. You are a handsome man that I've followed into a den of hunters. Poor woman, thinking you could so easily be persuaded when vampires on your mind."

[daywalkingblade]

"She..what?" Blade shook his head. "I don't know how to flirt."

That much was true. Any romance that had ever happened in his life had come to him without any effort on his part. Of course, that romance included one vampire woman in Europe that had died in his arms before any actual romance could be engaged in. That was probably for the best. While she was one of the very few vampires he'd ever encountered that had been anything other than a monster, if he had actually been involved with her the suckheads would have thrown that in his face for the rest of forever. While it wasn't something that would bother him, it would be really fucking annoying.

Not knowing what to say, he began to cut into his steak and take bites of it. It was good. Really good. But it wasn't good enough to take his mind off, well, everything.

"If anything could persuade me, it's the beautiful woman that followed me in here. But part of the issues is seeing how you handle yourself around vampires. Any other context, and I'd just say fuck the vampires. Part of the point of you is...trying to find something else in my life to give a damn about other than killing suckheads."

He sighs. "I made some promises to the old man too, but this is one I haven't had any idea how to follow through on. Still don't. You just kinda fell into my lap."

[cold_as_snow]

M- really can't blame him. Nothing about him said the man who paused what he was doing for long enough to learn a skill most people had to stumble through at some point in adolescence. Blade clearly had other more literal demons to face down at the time.

"A man never gets too old to learn."

She produces a small set of her own silverware, which is literally silver from a pocket, and starts on her own food. Of course it might tip a few hunters off, but dying or scorching her own lips on the provided silverware really wasn't work the risk. Especially not when his words were distracting her with his words. Hmm. The point of her is very interesting on it's own.

"I think you will find yourself surprised."

She says it about both her way with the fight and about the promise she can only guess at. Which comes clear, when she pulls off one of the leather gloves to allow herself to reach over and run her finger lightly over the bottom of his lip to catch a hint of juice that spilled over his lip.

[daywalkingblade]

At that, he couldn't really help but smirk a little. Was she right? Was it never too late to learn? Most people liked to think so. Blade wasn't so sure. Couldn't train someone his age to be as good of a hunter as he was. Poor bastard would probably get killed.

"Dunno. They say past a certain age, you can never be fluent in a language. Way I figure it, flirting is another language. If I'm right, then I'm just fucked."

His eyes followed her very neat, delicate way of eating with her own silverware. Literally silver, at that. Huh. He glanced around, but no other hunters were looking this way. The booths were private, and most respected that. Probably a good thing, although he was pretty sure not many here would recognize the significance of her choice of metals. Most knew that silver was bad for supernatural creatures. Hell, she had weapons that could help fuck up a vampire or werewolf in her choice of dining utensils.

But Blade had a pretty good idea of what it meant. He'd hunted a wider range of the supernatural than most. Without a word at first, he reached over and moved the steel silverware away from her.

"Well, good news is you've got your own makeshift weapons if a suckhead gets too close." He picked up the fork and looked it, twirling it around in the low light. "Other news is that if you're avoiding this, you're fae if you haven't figured it out yet. And apparently a former fae queen, if your Redman is right. And you do cold and dark. Unseelie. A former queen of the Unseelie fae. Strange would eat this shit up."

Blade regarded her for several moments, his expression, as usual, unreadable behind his sunglasses. Then he quirked a bit of a smile. "Nicest Unseelie I've ever met. Prettiest, too. Just don't advertise it around here. Better safe than sorry, but I'm betting not many people here have too much experience with fae. I'm also betting that if they have, it hasn't been good."

He tilted his head to the side after taking another thoughtful bite of his steak. "But you aren't that person now. You're just an M, finding out if she can hunt vampires. And if you can do that, you're good in my books."

[cold_as_snow]

Blade regarded her for several moments, his expression, as usual, unreadable behind his sunglasses. Then he quirked a bit of a smile. "Nicest Unseelie I've ever met. Prettiest, too. Just don't advertise it around here. Better safe than sorry, but I'm betting not many people here have too much experience with fae. I'm also betting that if they have, it hasn't been good."

He tilted his head to the side after taking another thoughtful bite of his steak. "But you aren't that person now. You're just an M, finding out if she can hunt vampires. And if you can do that, you're good in my books."


"Old people learn new languages when they most, of this I'm certain. And you've never had a solid reason to flirt before." She grins at him with a hint of lascivious light in her eyes. She really should resist temptation, but it's just not her nature. "And then, maybe you really will be fucked."

It's just enough to let him have the time to move her stainless silverware away. Protective, which was about as surprising as nothing at all. He spent his whole life keeping people he probably didn't have enough time to connect with safe. She was probably one of the few people he'd talk to regularly, and he knew she was interested in him. Protective only made sense. It also meant that he was paying close enough attention to the quirks in her eating habits.

"I have a feeling those words, fae and unseelie, are loaded. They don't mean very much to me. The others, though. Those are good, and so I am M- and you will see what that means with what I still am."

[daywalkingblade]

"Well in that case, guess I have a damn good reason now."

Although, truth be told, Blade wasn't a virgin, but he was relatively close to one. He'd had one night stands fucking women who didn't matter a very few times in the past. Most said he was good, but he knew that was probably only because he was naturally gifted in the stamina department. If he'd never had the time to learn to flirt, then he sure as hell hadn't had the time to learn how to really please a woman. That didn't mean the man in him didn't want to, though, especially now as he turned his gaze ever so slightly away from the distraction of his work. It took a stunning woman like M- here to actually make him shift his gaze. Well, better late than never.

"That's the kind of fucked I think I'd like. But I guess we'd both be lacking in experience in our own ways..."

He shook his head. "Yeah, they're loaded. Seelie are the Tinkerbells. Usually better regarded because they're usually prettier. Least in the conventional sense. But they can be some nasty fucks sometimes. Unseelie, on the other hand, can actually be nastier when they want to be, but least they don't try to hide it. They are what they are. They fulfill the balance, or some shit like that. Cold, dark, and death are necessary, or so they say." He grunts. "Doesn't mean I condone them spreading any of the above on my turf."

Blade shrugged, looking up at her as he finished his steak. "They usually aren't as pretty as you. I'll admit, I've killed more of them than the Seelie, but not a one didn't deserve it. You go on and be M-. I'll help you do it. But now we know what might be coming after you eventually if they think you're still their queen. Shit might get real, but I won't let anything happen to you."

[cold_as_snow]

She counted his reaction as a victory. The complicated, man looking at her from across the table wanted to try something besides his work for long enough to get somewhere. Not that she didn't assume part of him thought like a man. There were the diehards that literally lost all that was sexual in them and the ones who pretended and fought. The fact she was here at all was plenty telling.

"All the more reason to get a little practice."

The familiarity of what he says should be vaguely upsetting. 'Seelie' manages to bring something close to a sneer. Some things are too deeply ingrained to be forgotten. Besides, she's entirely certain that light, heat, and life can be just as or more cruel than the things he's mentioned. A vague instinct of the things that can be done to someone who is not allowed to die makes death seem like a kindness. But she doesn't feel the need to explain that at the moment. Instead her expression becomes calm and thoughtful.

"It seems quite fortunate that you and I are going to see exactly what I'm capable of, then."

[daywalkingblade]

"How'm I doing now?" Because he wasn't quite dense enough to be ignorant of the fact that he was flirting in his own way, even if that way was somewhat bumbling about in the dark. Ha. Kinda made a certain kind of poetic sense, since he was flirting with an unseelie woman.

He caught the sneer at the mention of seelie, but he didn't remark on it. Yeah, he knew from what he'd researched under Strange's guidance that the two had a kind of eternal civil war going on. The sneer proved that, memory or no, she was what she was. It'd be like a vampire that didn't remember it was a vampire smelling blood and lunging for it. Fact was, he knew that she could be a monster under the lack of memory, but she wasn't now, and he intended to protect her from herself, if it came down to it. Somebody might come along and try to restore her memory, but that would kill the woman sitting across from him now and he'd be damned if he saw that happen without a fight.

Still..."Hey M-. What's the risk that somebody will try to come and kill you by bringing out what you used to be, do you think? Because..." He had to look away now. Emotions were HARD. "I don't want to lose you. And if you think you're going to become somebody else...I dunno if I can take that after coming to like you now."

[cold_as_snow]

She leans in slightly towards him, her voice dropping to just above a whisper. "You figured out a way for me to go with you to a dive bar filled with people who'd probably want to kill me if they knew the full truth and given proper opportunity. You must be doing something right."

The thing about the woman in front of him is that she isn't human. That's enough for some people and some places to label her a monster, regardless of what she does. She'll never think exactly like a human, never react exactly like one. Courting him, and she doesn't exactly doubt she's the one doing the courting, is courting a risk. He can't make peace with the part of him that is inhuman, and that draws her.

"I don't know who I will come to be. A person checked my head, and apparently it's devastation in there. Which means I've only begun to be who I am. There are no promises about the final product. If that's too much for you? I understand."

[daywalkingblade]

When she whispered, he leaned in closer too. He told himself it was to hear her better, but his enhanced senses could pick her up just fine sitting back. There was just something irresistible about her that drew him ever closer. They were inevitably spiraling towards one another, regardless of how this hunt went,and some part of him knew that even if the rest was too dense to catch on quite yet. Their lips were so close though that it sent a shiver down his spine akin to the one that went down it when she brushed the fluid from his lips earlier.

"It ain't too much for me. Because I think that means I get a say in it. Not that I'd tell you what to do or who to be, but...just being around me might shape that final product. Maybe I can help you like the old man helped me once. Good Karma, if I believed in it. Mostly I just want to help make a woman that I still want to be around. Is that...okay?"

[cold_as_snow]

She's tempted to kiss him in answer. The smell of his skin, the subtle shiver, the flush of heat that she actually wants to feel against her skin. It's too early. He wants her, but he won't accept the want until he sees a person who can keep up with him hit for hit. Who can hunt with him. She can wait, but not before leaning just a little bit closer before relaxing back.

"I think that it's just fine. Whoever stays around has to be in for the ride, which means someone who can survive it. I think you can survive it just fine."

[daywalkingblade]

As she leans back, he feels the invisible tension that he hadn't even noticed fade. It didn't break, but he felt the distance of her presence as a kind of loss. Hell, maybe he wasn't so terrible at the flirting thing after all. How was it that he could be falling so for an unseelie fae? The question had to occur to him at least once, considering how he'd hunted some of them in the past. The answer? He wasn't falling for the species. He was falling for the woman.

"Survival is what I do." He grins a little. "But I need to stop saying that to you. Otherwise I become a broken record, and the point is to become something new, right?"

"All right. Here's the bill, and here's your tip." Ellen was suddenly there, as if she'd been waiting for the right moment to not interrupt something important. She actually looked just the tiniest bit disappointed, but there was a gleam to her eye too. "There's a nest about twenty miles east of here. Word is, they're playing hitchhiker only to lure people back to their place. I'd like to think they're just draining their victims, but I've heard it's worse. They're trying to boost their numbers by turning as many as they can. You'll have your work cut out for you if you can find the nest."

Blade nodded, and put down cash without even looking at the bill. It was more than enough for the meal and a generous tip. Ellen looked at it and raised her eyebrows, but smiled at him. "Thanks, hon. Guess you liked the intel?"

"And everything else." His eyes didn't lift from M- to see her smile widen.

"Good. Now you both get out of here. I'll make sure the silverware looks used." She was sharp, but Blade had known that. She was one of the best in her own right.

[cold_as_snow]

There would be the question of whether or not she were glamouring him, if she knew she had the ability or how to use it. She doesn't know how, and the truth is beyond the native attractiveness she radiates, there's a damned good chance M- doesn't need it. The woman is a femme fatal, even when she doesn't intend to be. Especially when she feels drawn to someone like Blade. The affection, attention, and more runs through her and feeds instincts and to satisfy an ache. Certain things don't change.

"The point is to explore something new, too. Being a little bit of your old self is hardly a sin."

M- didn't let her eyes drift over to Ellen. Not with the way Blade kept his look on her even as the information goes on. His eyes are hypnotic in their own way, and she wonders if she isn't a little caught by him. Definitely more than a little caught when he gives the generous tip and comments about what else he's thanking her for.

"Clever and kind."

[daywalkingblade]

"That's good, because one thing about me that you'll learn; I don't change much."

His gaze finally broke from hers to stand. It was probably a little amazing that he could hold her eyes through sunglasses, but it was pretty much a habit by this point. Blade was okay without the sunglasses, but he preferred them because most light was just intense enough to bother him, especially during the day. Ironically, most vampires dealt with it better than he chose to, but most of them were trying to fake being human. He wasn't. At least, he wasn't any more than necessary to pass through human society.

"She is." He answered M-'s comment, although she could have been talking about either him or Ellen. Either way, he preferred that the complement go to Ellen than himself. "Let's roll."

[cold_as_snow]

M- scoops up her silverware effortlessly tucking them away so they're hidden in her pocket. No sense leaving things that expensive behind, even if she does have the money. Not to mention the evidence as she stands and follows him.

"Good meal, Ellen."

And then she's working on her way out the door after Blade.

[daywalkingblade]

Blade wasn't the type to hold the door open for a lady. In all actuality, he'd likely never even learned that it was appropriate in certain situations in order to feel a lingering sense of guilt for not doing it. As such, when they went out to the car, he opened his door and sat down inside it without a second thought, expecting her to do the same. Ellen's frown in the doorway as she crossed her arms made absolutely no sense to him.

Once they were in and buckled, he flipped on some techno hip-hop that he was fond of, threw the car into reverse, and rocketed off down the lesser used highway. Twenty miles east put the site in a secluded area that was still a necessary artery for going back and forth from Rochester to other parts of the state. Given time, the vampires could really build up their numbers. Given more time, they might decide to move into the city. But they wouldn't be given that time. Blade and M- were going to nip this nest in the bud.

"Alright, here's the plan. Probably going to run across one of these hitchhikers she mentioned. In about five miles, I'm gonna pull the car over and put you in the driver's seat. I'll be crouched in the back. Suckheads like the pretty ones. You'll be a motherfucking honeypot for the little shits. Gorgeous, alone, clearly not from around the area, and ripe for the turning. You lure whichever one is on hitchhiker duty in, I incapacitate it, and we find a way to torture the information about where the nest is out of the bloodsucker. Maybe your freezing thing'll come in useful for that. Most of 'em are weak little pussies and don't take much pain to talk, but you never know."

He flashed a grin at her, his own sharper incisors making it very predatory. "Somehow I doubt even the most stubborn of them will want a slow death by freezing." His gaze returned to the road. "Think you can handle it? You're the star of this first stage of the extermination."

[cold_as_snow]

Just as well, really. M- would accept him holding a door open for her out of respect, but chivalry would have only gotten him a subtle kind of disdain. Women might be treated with a certain ingrained sexism among human cultures, but it was only a weakness to be exploited in her eyes. So Ellen was frowning at Blade for no real reason at all.

The music is interesting. Nothing that M- is aware of, but interesting enough to fill the silence until Blade talks. The plan is one of those classic things that lasts because it works. Let the predator think they're hunting until they're too distracted for anything else. Wrapped in compliments that aren't quite compliments, but details in a plan.

Her smile is a subtle thing. A slight quirk of her lips and shift of her brow. "I have no doubt that I can. The only thing that surprises me is that you'd let me drive your car."

Apologies for the delay...it's the first week of the semester at a new university!

[daywalkingblade]

"Good."

He shakes his head with a small smirk. "Normally, you're right. I wouldn't let anybody drive my baby. Me and this car, we go back a ways. But it's about priorities. You'll learn that about me. Killing these bastards is number one. Always and forever. My car is a close number two. Your safety is a close number 3. Give it a while, and you might make number two. No offense, but I've known my car longer." The smirk became a grin as he patted the dashboard.

"But," he was sober again, "Number three is really fucking important, no matter which number it is. Part of the reason you're lower than the car is also that you can take care of yourself. I've seen the...potential." The freezing. "Much as I love her, my car can't. So I'm putting number two in number three's hands. Don't let me down."

Of course, that show of trust was a huge point in her favor. Saying that he knew she could take care of both herself and the car showed that he actually had faith that she'd make it through the night just fine. That in turn said that he had faith that she'd pass this test, and that implied that this was almost just a formality for him to get to what he really wanted. If he didn't really want to explore something with her and he didn't have faith that she could survive and thrive out here, then she wouldn't be here. It was as simple as that.

Not a problem. I was kind of wonderign if that was the case.

[cold_as_snow]

"Truthfully, your priorities are right. Anything that tries to hurt me is going to find out exactly why that's a very bad idea. Your car is simply subject to whatever whims the driver and passengers subject to it to. Besides, the car has nothing to prove at this point."

Not that M- is really acting like a woman with a lot to prove. If anything, she's calm, waiting with a gently curled energy, like a big cat napping before a hunt. She stays that way until they reach the stopping point, and the shift is from relaxed to readiness that is still surprisingly steady.

It's been crazy! Fun, but crazy. New jobs always are, I guess!

[daywalkingblade]

"I hope so, M-. I really do."

They reached a spot on the road where there was enough of a spot to the side to pull over and change seats. It actually took about six miles to get to that kind of point because even though the road was supposed to be a highway, it was still more of a two lane affair with old, twisting trees hunched up to either side. The night sky was clear and starry, but it was hard to tell through all of the branches. If there was going to be a creepy place for vampires to ambush people, this was it. They had miles and miles of country to hide in - miles and miles not to be found by Blade. Unfortunately, they'd fucked up and gotten noticed by somebody, and Ellen had gotten wind of it and passed the intel along to him. Tonight was not to be their lucky night.

Was Blade tense as M- drove his baby? Of course he was. His teeth were clenched tight in the back seat, but he held the same impassive demeanor as ever. No need for her to know just how tense he was entrusting her with his car. There was a time when he would have called himself stupid for trusting a woman he'd only known for a little while, but...he had not 'but'. He couldn't argue with his former self. He trusted her, though, for better or for worse.

They didn't have long to travel. About ten miles later, the headlights picked up a guy in black jeans and a hooded jean jacket trudging along the side of the road, his thumb out. This one was really playing it up, too. He was dragging a foot behind him in a limp, as if he'd been in an accident somewhere along the way and just needed a little help. When his eyes glinted in the headlights, his features looked so incredibly sad and pleading. It was a good act, if you were stupid. How many people had fallen for it without ever thinking? Thinking that they hadn't passed any accident for this kid to be limping from? He looked scrawny and mostly harmless, but the situation was all wrong. Hell, where was his cell phone? He looked too young not to have one. But humans were...soft. They saw this picture of a poor kid and felt the need to help out.

Blade hunched further down behind the seat. "That's our suckhead." But odds were, she didn't need to be told.

((P.S. I think your tiand*** AIM account got hacked - it logged on and sent me a link to a site that wanted me to click on a your name versus my name a few days ago. Unless that was you? I starred the last three letters in case you want it kept private. :) ))

Especially the beginning of the school year.

[cold_as_snow]

It's always odd to be out of the city where it's too dark for the lights to work. Everything picks up silver lines to make up for the lack of light. Makes it hard for things to sneak up on her from the shadows. Makes it hard for her to pick up that certain places are spooky because she doesn't have the natural aversion. Bright lights are far more likely to blind her and is therefore more dangerous. She tilts her head back and takes a deep breath, letting the smells of the night fill her lungs. Her smile is best described as feral before she slides into the seat.

She doesn't mention that she doesn't know if she can drive or not. The second she slides into the seat, she finds herself familiar with the car. Her hands run lightly over the steering wheel before she rides on the road, forcing herself to drive more slowly than she wants to for Blade's sake. He was trying, but the line of his jaw betrayed him.

There was no reason for Blade to say it. The kid was good, but there was no reason for him to be out on the road. But how many people would actually think of that? Not many. Humans tended not to realize they were prey anymore. So she just nods even as she slows down, rolling the window down as she does.

"You okay?" She asks with clear concern.