The Good, The Bad and The Fanged

Luckily for Sam he had not had any bad luck with Amber being around, well except for one thing, but he tended not to dwell on that. There was more to this cat than she knew, so maybe on this one occasion, she might have been wrong about the bad luck. Zoe stood up and hobbled into the kitchen to clean herself off once more, she picked up her previous clothing that was practically ripped to shreds and stated the she thought she should leave, by the way she was casually acting around the apartment, you would have thought that Sam was the guest between the two of them. Sam felt bad about letting her go out again in the state she was in, he was perfectly willing to let her stay the night and then leave the next morning instead of risking more injury.

"You can stay for the night if you want, rest up and head out tommorrow morning, unless you have somewhere you need to be now" Sam then felt a sharp pain in the back of his right leg, he turned to see Amber sitting behind him and yawning, as if she had not done anything, however after closer inspection, she had actually scratched him in the back of his leg. Sam would have given her a talking to if Zoe was not still in the room, but Sam felt she was trying to tell him something, he just didn't know what it was.

“Ohh,” Zoe stated, airily, “Where is the fun in that?”

Then she was out the door, chuckling to herself. That had been an interesting run in and Zoe was pretty sure that cat was not actually a cat. She limped down the stairs and down to the street. Her eyes flickered colors before landing back on their regular blue. The Arae tossed her jacket and shirt in the closest trash bin after fishing out her wallet and stuffing it in her pocket. After a few minutes her limp had all together vanished and Zoe stopped into a store, buying a set of clothes; A pair of jeans, converse, a graphic-T, and a dark red hoodie.

First opportunity she dumped the ones she was wearing and put on the new clothing. Zoe only turned around once to check around her, one… no two males; humans judging from the stench. Well then… guess the fight for tonight wasn’t over yet. Zoe ducked into a side alley and waited.

And then she was gone... She simply stepped out even after hearing his offer and declined it, but else could Sam do? He did everything he could to help her and at the end of the day, it was her decision and if she wanted to go back outside with her injury, then Sam had to respect that choice, he could not exactly strap her to his couch and demand that she stayed the night.

The door slammed closed and Sam took a step forward as the door slammed shut, a little bit surprised that she did not accept his offer to help her, when he turned back around, he was met by some sharp pokes by Amber in her human form, she did not seem very pleased about something. "Why did you bring this stranger into our home!? You didn't even know each other's name!!" she said with a scrunched up look on her face. Sam was surprised that she was being this aggressive towards him, she does not usually have a bad bone in her body.

Sam backed away with his arms up, "Look, I was standing on the roof and she approached me with that big gash in her leg, I couldn't just run away"

"But you put both of our lives at risk! And there is something about her that I really don't like, she was talking about how "unique" I am? There is something she is not telling us" Amber replied.

"I put both of our lives at risk?! Every night I am out on those streets, putting my life on the line for people I have never even met before, and now that I bring one stranger into this apartment, you a scared for your life? Judging by her attitude, we will never see her again anyway, what are the odds that she will remember where we live anyway? You need to learn to trust me more, and I didn't appreciate that scratch either" As he said that, he leaned down and began to rub the scratch, trying his best to rub away the sharp pain that still resided in his leg. When he looked back up to Amber, she was looking down to the ground and looked upset, Sam could see the beginning of tears resting on her eyes. "Come on Amber, don't do this..." she dashed forward and trapped Sam in a hug, holding him tightly, when Sam realized there was not much he could do, he could only hug her slightly back.

"I just get worried about you that's all" she said into his suit.

"I can handle myself just fine"

The two humans had nothing but trouble on their minds as they cornered Zoe. The Arae was not amused however and gave them the chance to run. The stupid humans however just laughed and tried to grab her around the wrists.
“Not so fast,” One of them said.
“Oh,” Zoe said. “Okay then. I will go easy.”

For a brief second they looked confused and then Zoe lifted them each with one hand and snarled, low and deep in her chest. The humans scrabbled uselessly against the back of her hand and she dropped them, her eyes dilating.

“Run,” She said, baring fangs and they took off. Zoe looking satisfied with herself stuffed her hands in her pockets and started down the street. Keeping an eye out for mortal cops, she drew the hood up and let her limp become more pronounced, her bright red hair spilling out from her hood opening, and she retracted her fangs.

Amber had calmed herself down now and was brewing herself a cup of tea. Sam had been standing by the window, looking out onto the street for some time now, out of the blue, two men could be see running past his apartment complex, screaming and shouting. Sam teleported onto his roof and peeked down, they were shouting about some kind of vampire that had attacked them, they both did not look like valuable source of information, but he had nothing else to do.

Sam travelled across several buildings down the street, he could only see one person wearing a dark red hoodie, but he could also notice strands of ginger hair escaping it. "Please don't tell me..." he said to himself quietly, he hopped down onto the street and stared at the back of the possible criminal as they was walking away, he yelled to them "Some guys were screaming about a vampire attacking them in an alleyway, you wouldn't know anything about that, would you?" he was fairly certain it was Zoe, but he did not want to make any assumptions.

Zoe stopped and turned around looking amused, “Hello again.” She stated brightly. “And no I am not a vampire; it’s rather insulting that they would compare me at the level of those leaches.”
Zoe had indeed been called a vampire too many times to count, she was pretty sure it was because of the fangs.

“I am pretty sure I have a heart beat and that I produce body heat. So I am not of the undead either. So what does that make me? Hmm?” She asked, drawing closer to him. Zoe’s attention was captured when a pair of cops rounded the building. They pointed at her and shouted for her to stop.

“Apparently throwing humans is frowned upon,” She stated dryly, grabbing Sam’s wrist. “Run!”
She pulled him around for a few block, running very quickly without tiring before hauling Sam around a corner and into an alley. She laid a hand on his chest to keep him from bolting before peeping around the corner. They were still following, shoot. Zoe snagged Sam and hauled him a little deeper back into the alley.

“Kiss me,” She hissed and when the poor guy looked confused by what she said. Zoe rolled her eyes and snagged him around the shirt collar and kissed him. She didn’t let him pull away however. The cops paused for a fraction of a second, made a noise of disgust before hurrying on their way. The people they were chasing obviously didn’t have time to mack on each other in an alley as they were too busy running away.
After a few moments after the cops had vanished Zoe let him go and sat there, leaning against the wall, straining her ears.
“I think they are gone.”

Sam's instincts were right, it was Zoe, she had barely been out of his apartment for 10 minutes and she was already stirring up trouble. She was beginning to explain the differences between what people called her and what she actually is, before she could explain it fully however, she grabbed Sam by thee wrist and told him to run, he barely had time to run though as Zoe was literally dragging him to where she needed him to be. She swung him round into an alley and pushed him against the wall, before he could get a word in edgeways, he dragged him further down the alley, again pushing him against the wall. Again, before Sam could get a word in, she had a strange request, kiss her? Why should he kiss her when he barely knows her? Before he could decline politely, she grabbed him by the collar and kissed him anyway, Sam was too shocked to do anything, he noticed policemen looking down the alleyway at them and and then turning to run by them, Sam did not know where to put his hands or anything, he just stood still and received the strange kiss.

Zoe pulled away and looked down the alley after the policeman had searched further on, now the kiss was starting to make some sense, she simply did it to escape the police, a side that Sam was dedicated to help. Sam tried his best to lower his heart rate which was beating pretty quickly, a kiss from this woman was the last thing he expected. "You realize I should have turned you in to those guys right?" he said, he hoped that Sam's decision to do nothing would mean something to her, although she did not seem to care about anyone, anything, or any consequence that could happen to her, Sam expected her to just say "Thanks" and walk off into the distance as if nothing happened.

Zoe smirked slightly. She could feel the rapid thumping of his heart beneath her fingertips as she was still holding the front of his shirt, typical male reactions. Zoe did arch an eyebrow at his, “Should have turned you in,” statement. The Arae the go of his shirt and put her hands on hips.
“Aw, that’s cute. You think that you could get me to the nearest cop.” She said in a slightly mocking tone before going back to her normal voice. “You should actually be turning those men in, I am pretty sure they had other things in mind before I threw them across the alley.”

Indeed those mortals had a much darker intent when they cornered her, now not so much. Zoe sighed before moving out of the alley to look around for the cops. When she saw none she lowered her hood and then looked back at Sam.
“You coming?” She asked, “Or are you waiting for vampires to come out of the sewers?”

Zoe mocked him for saying he should have turned her in, she obviously thought a lot of herself if she was so confident that Sam would not be able to turn her in to the cops. She walked to the end of the alleyway as Sam rubbed the strawberry lip gloss off of his lips, at least the flavour made the kills a little bit more bearable. Zoe lowered her hood down and turned back to Sam and asked him if he was coming. Sam looked around at the dirty alleyway, anywhere was better than here. He jogged up to join her and they both walked out of the alleyway together, "Are we going anywhere specific?" he asked, it was late at night and he did not have anything going on, it was a slow day on the crime front and he would otherwise be sitting at home with Amber, it was time for Sam to inject a little bit of excitement into his life and Zoe was probably the person who could do it.

Sam thought back to Zoe's vampire comment, Sam had seen movies with vampires before and with all of the crazy things Sam had seen over the past few months, seeing vampires would not be very shocking, still he liked blood running through his veins, so he would try to avoid them as much as possible.

Zoe started walking down the street, her hands sliding into her pockets; the fabric soft against the back of her hands. “No idea, it’s an adventure.”

The longer Zoe walked the less pronounced her limp became, “I wouldn’t be too worried about the vamps anyway.” She tossed a grin, “They don’t attack humans randomly unless they are really hungry. If anything you should be scared of me… but I’m not in the mood to bite anyone.”

She said the last bit in a way were a person couldn’t tell if she was joking or not, it was rather terrifying. Silently they walked past many closed stores; Zoe’s head was constantly moving. She stopped a few times and watched a few people intently before moving on again. LA was filled with many different types of creatures, she wasn’t surprised to see a few, Zoe wasn’t quite sure if Sam saw them though.

Sam had just found this woman and treated her for her injury and now he was just following her around the streets of LA with nothing to do. It was getting pretty cold and he had wished that he had wrapped up a bit warmer, he rubbed his arms for more warmth as he noticed Zoe stopping and looking around her as if she could see something, but after looking himself, Sam could not see anything out of the ordinary. Sam gulped after hearing that he should be more scared of her than anything else, it almost made Sam not want to leave because she would probably dislike him for it, and he did not want to get onto her bad side.

Sam was not used to travelling around the streets of LA with someone else, he would usually have a destination in mind and he would go there and then come back, but he was just wandering around with someone else and was not sure what to do. "We can stop off by a bar for a drink if you want, could get your mind off of your leg." it didn't sound very exciting, but it was better than doing nothing.

Zoe perked up at the thought of stopping at a bar, were there was a bar there was alcohol… were there was alcohol there were drinking games to win which equals easy money.

She nodded, “Sounds like it shall be interesting to say the least.” Zoe stopped in at a bar with him. Her nose twitched as she picked up the scent of French fries and other goodies. It was dimly lit, but comfortably so. Zoe wordlessly slid into a booth and opened a menu, leaning on her forearms. There were mostly drinks… not that many food items besides the French fries and hamburger.

Zoe ordered a drink and sat down, waiting for the food to be brought.
“So what about you?” She asked. “Job? Girlfriend? Demon living in the basement?”

She listed off the questions and twisted the silver band around her finger. The ring glinted in the light, it was clearly worn from a lot of use. Zoe was trying to make Sam feel less uncomfortable than he most likely was feeling… sitting in a strange bar, with a strange woman, with strange people.

Zoe had approved of his idea, they traveled to the nearest bar and sat in a booth to order a drink. Zoe ordered a questionable drink, it appeared she planned on getting pretty drunk, for Sam it was just a Coke, which gave him a dirty look from the waitress and a strange look from Zoe. As a way to pass the time it seemed, Zoe was interested in Sam's personal life, why? Sam did not know, deep down she probably didn't even care, but she probably just wanted to make him feel more comfortable.

Sam laughed slightly at the way she asked the question, it almost made his life sound boring when he replied with "Job? No. Girlfriend? No, and no demon in the basement... I'm just a plain old guy, nothing interesting about me..." It made Sam sad that his life was not progressing as fast as he wanted, he was just stuck in one place and was not going anywhere, he needed a crazy night to mix things up a bit and maybe it would put his life in a different perspective.

Zoe crossed her legs under the table, studying Sam intently with her blue eyes.
“Most people are interesting without realizing, I doubt you are boring.”
Besides being extremely blunt and stating her mind, Zoe wasn’t such a mean person. It just took a bit to get her to lower her shields of jabbing remarks, apparently participating in avoid the cop kissing session entitled Sam to that.

The Arae perked up when the food and drinks were brought, snagging a fry and popping it into her mouth. Not the best fries in the world but they were better than most. As far as the drink went she downed it and showed not a sign of being intoxicated. Being venomous helped with that and it took a lot more alcohol to even get her tipsy. Strands of red hair fell into her face as she ate her hamburger, occasionally adjusting the silver band on her left hand. She noticed that Sam did not drink but she didn’t say anything of it. Some mortals did that and Zoe understood. If alcohol made her intoxicated she probably wouldn’t drink it.

“What do you want to do? Considering your jobless and own a cat, how about a menagerie or a petting zoo.” She looked at him over her hamburger .

Sam laughed on his glass at the zoo joke as he took a sip of his Coca Cola, the sound of ice cubes knocking together as he lifted and lowered his glass. He placed the glass back down besides the coaster that was left for him, it was an old habit of his. "My house cat hardly counts as an exotic animal, you can barely hear her meow."

"I suppose that's one of the issues I have been facing lately, I don't really know. Besides what I do throughout the night, I usually don't have much energy to do a lot of things during the day making me pretty lazy around my apartment." he watched as she downed her beverage quickly and began working on her food, which Sam found mildly impressive. "I just need to make sure I understand the situation, you had a severely injured leg and you wouldn't tell me why, when I offered that you could stay the night you turned be down, then when i catch up to you, you kiss me and now we are sitting at a bar... Why should I be telling you about myself when you aren't exactly being very straight with me either?"

Zoe cracked a smile, it was a small smile but one nonetheless. A terrific feat considering she didn’t smile as much as she used to.

“Oh, I bet she is still a wild cat at heart,” She said, swirling her fries around in the sauce. She looked up at his question, the creature looked somewhat amused. “I am not being straight with you because I had no idea who you were. As far as the kiss is concerned it means nothing. It was just away to escape. Throwing around two guys is enough exercise for one night. “ Her voice lowered considerably so no one could hear them over the din of the bar, “I will show you why they called me a vampire however.”
She opened her mouth and the snake fangs dropped, she let Sam look at them for a few seconds before retracting them back into her skull. Zoe ran her tongue around her teeth, checking to make sure they were back properly before talking again.

“I am what people call a predator or a hunter. That is not my people’s exact name but I will tell you this. I am much like a snake, a venomous bite. One bite kills and the second bite is the antidote for our particular brand of venom. But it has to come from the one who bit you.” Zoe ate some more French fries casually as the waitress walked past.