' ' breathing S P A C E __ open

[arilyn]

Arilyn sat on the leather chair in her room, she watched the sunlight go in and out of some clouds as time passed. She’d been reading most of the night since she had nothing else to do, it was kind of lonely at her home but she’d gotten completely used to it after the first 50 years, her friends helped her alot. Though she’d began having company about 3 years back by a young Oliver, when he found out what she was he was estatic. He didn’t ask her to change him he was just happy that he had an amazing friend, Arilyn was also happy that a human accepted her. She was also happy that the others didn’t hear about her spouting information to her best buddy friend, lately however she couldn’t help but think why she couldn’t get into contact with Oliver. Had he been taken by this family? Had he been changed into a vampire? …Did he…die? Arilyn sighed, “Why did we have to lose contact? Why did I leave?” She mumbled to herself as she finished the thoughts of her best friend.

No one could replace Oliver, … But…Actually, Anna, a new friend might be able to. Arilyn just loved the way that her and Anna clicked right away, she wasn’t afraid of her and she didn’t seem terrified when Arilyn flashed her teeth, but she’d found that out days before after she had an incident in the city, Anna, love…what have you gotten yourself into?. Why did I get involved? Arilyn thought, she couldn’t stop thinking all night about how Anna now has herself in an extremely complicated story, she wove her impending doom. Arilyn would never hurt Anna but another might especially because Anna was a human with Vampiric friends. Most of all, what was Anna doing in here?.. The air was terrible and the girl had cancer. The girl sighed and brushed a hand through her damp hair, she had taken a warm shower that made her skin feel amazing.

She looked over at the clock and sighed, 10:20. She still had another fourty minutes before she had to be at the square, she might just have to leave a little bit early and pick up a newspaper. Arilyn stood gracefully and she put down the book she’d had her fingers clutched to, she might as well go get herself ready for what was about to unfold, even though it wasn’t anything big. She glided to the bathroom that was connected to her room, it was a simple pink room with nothing but a large tub and room. Arilyn went to the counter and picked up a beautiful vintage brush and she dragged it through her thick blonde hair, the hair that was slightly waved was straight once the bristles ran through it. Arilyn had always had this effect with her hair even when she was a human girl, her hair would be curly then when she’d brush it, it’d come out pin straight. Her hair was extremely long but it seemed to always be nice and untangled.

When Arilyn finished brushing the long locks she picked up a silvery band and pulled her hair into a ponytail only leaving a few straw pieces to frame her face and neck. Arilyn hadn’t worn her hair in a ponytail for a long time but Arilyn thought it looked nice and fit for what would happen today. She entered her room again and opened several drawers in her dresser pulling out black jeans, a white top and her heels. She wasnt going to glam it up today she was just going to wear things that would make her look even more amazing then her face was already going to do. She mumbled to herself as she slid into the clothing she chose for herself. She was hoping that this would be a peaceful night for her, a night on the town, hopefully meeting up with some others she knew.

When Arilyn finished dressing she looked at the clock, 10:45, she could definitely go now and be right on time. With that Arilyn shut off the lights to her room and she slid down the corridor and stairs without a look back into the darkened room, the blinds weren’t open . She grabbed the keys that sat untouched on a little table near the front door and she picked up a long girly trench coat fitting it onto her in just seconds. She loved the color black, it was simply the most amazing color she’d ever found when she was younger. She likes to wear the color black because it toned down the beauty that seemed to come with being a vampire. She didn’t always liked being beautiful, she just wanted to be normal sometimes and fit in with the rest of the world.

Arilyn slipped out the door and she walked down the carpeted floors and then down the stairs of her home which brought her to her garage. When she stepped out she eyed the silver Ferrari that sat cool against the dark grey concrete background. When she reached the car she opened the door and she slipped inside not caring that she didn’t put her seatbelt on, she just placed her glasses on and stuck the keys in the ignition. She was going to speed her way until she found the main road and then she’d slow down. That’s just what she did, when she hit the main road she slowed to an even speed and continued her way all the way into the heart of where she needed to be, The streets.. She was going to roam around for awhile looking at the city that she loved. Though there would be humans about Arilyn thought she could handle it.

Arilyn found a parking spot not far from where she was hoping to spend some time and she hopped out, locking her door. She knew that if she bumped into someone she knew it’d be a little better then roaming around aimlessly thinking of past friendships. Her coven had done well to keep her occupied since she found them but they didn’t exactly keep her mind off the humans that she befriended. She wasn’t great friends with the new female as she was just a simple worker at the hotel she was staying at, but Oliver was one of her best friends and at one point her human lover though they amazingly lost touch and Arilyn forgot about him the first few years of being in the city, now she just wanted to love someone from there but at the moment that was nothing to be sure of.

Tonight she was thinking of her past but she was also getting more in need of a body right now, not for blood but for other things. Usually she'd talk to her male vampire friends but tonight she wanted people to come to her, it was HER night. The petite woman looked up and watched the darkened sky with a smirk on her lips, she only looked down when she smelled the scent of alcohol which made her bite her lip. "Alcohol..." She mumbled softly and closed her eyes, it was her favorite scent. She let out a breath and she turned away from the scent and began to slowly walk down the street, her hands in her trench coats pockets. She was a small girl but she was beautiful and strong, that was something that men usually liked.

Most of her other vampire females were taller then her but that didnt stop her from being fiesty and tough like them.

[feathers2]

Speaking of reeking of alcohol-- just as the vampiress passed by the club she'd decided against visiting, another little woman tumbled very unceremoniously out the door, tripping over the stairs as she was pushed out of the building. The faerie reached a railing and gripped it, her legs steadying themselves. It was more than a little obvious that she was intoxicated-- despite her having just been forcefully expelled from a club, she was chuckling merrily, her face turned to the sky, leaning backwards for a moment.

The deep bassline of a well-known club hit was still quite easy to hear outside the doors of the popular dancing joint. Rusalka lowered her head after a moment, still giggling. The fairy was dressed adorably in a silky yellow halter top that tied in a large bow at the back of her neck, and a pair of tight black skinny jeans. Gladiator sandals adorned her tiny feet, and bracelets glittered on her wrists-- well, on one wrist. The other was wrapped in a gleaming silver slave bracelet, made of twining vines and flashing flowers, beautiful but entrapping. There was a twisted braid of silver around her neck, too, in the style of a torque, which gave her away as a slave even if the bracelet was taken only as a fashion item. The fae's glamourspell had her Dodger-blue woad tattoos climbing hidden up her back and coiling around a shoulder, her eyes a strange liquid mercury and her hair shoulder-length and wavy. It was a nice, neutral light brown-- she had been debating between that and cornflower blonde before, and the brown had won out when paired with her yellow shirt. The curious thing, though, were the pointed ears nonchalantly uncovered by her hair; one would think a fae, once bitten, would be twice shy about revealing what she was. Humans usually just stared and gave her weird looks for them, but the supernaturals she met generally looked at them with cruel smiles and hungry eyes. Well, not all of them-- shapeshifters she liked. They were nice to her, generally.

But none of this was on Rusalka's little rum-sodden mind that evening. As usual, she had gotten blackballed at the bar for not having the money to back up her drinking problem, and she'd gotten rather snarky and, she supposed, annoying when it became obvious that no more alcohol was forthcoming. Perhaps trying to hypnotize the dark-angel bartender had been a bad move, but she really hadn't known what he was. It wasn't like he had it tattooed on his forehead.

Sometimes, Ruse really wished she knew what the hell was going on. And that was how she found herself, clinging to a railing outside the club, still feeling the beats of the speakers through the soles of her shoes and feeling her buzz quickly fading.

Which left her...pissed. No, not pissed-- perhaps a bit miffed, but mostly bored and tragically unwanted. Ruse didn't really mind being a slave-- in her mind, humans had a very odd conception of freedom being of the highest worth. Perhaps it would've pissed her off to be indentured as she was if she got everything she wanted when she was 'free,' but as that was not the case, it didn't make a difference to her. She didn't get everything she wanted whether she wore a collar or not. At least with the collar on, she didn't really have to hold a job, she just had to put up with not pissing off the one person who owned her.

In the fickle, strange viewpoint of a fairy, it wasn't a bad life. Others of her kind had criticized her, naturally. Most of them weren't urban fae, as she was, living and breathing the city flow, a highrise addict, wise to the streets, hooked on whatever they were selling, watching the busy world spin by from a daze of hallucinogens. The only drawback was the sneakiness of iron placement in these parts, especially in winter. The city became something of a minefield for a creature rendered totally useless by cold iron when winter struck. Thankfully, it was late spring, and the weather was pleasant.

Her little hands pushed off the rail she'd been clinging to, staggering forward a bit as she found her feet again. She turned back momentarily to the bouncer who'd 'escorted' the little woman to the door, already long gone, and shouted something perfectly obscene in her native tongue, some dialect or other of fairy which she didn't really care if he understood or not. She stalked off after a weird glance from some posh woman walking towards the door, thankfully sober enough now to do so in some grace and without stumbling and making a fool of herself. "Goddamn good for him I can't put a curse on anyone...what's the world coming to, when a pretty girl can't get a drink? I miss the 70's, blegh..."

[arilyn]

The night had progressed into something that Arilyn was very used to, loud, musical filled streets. Wherever the small vampire went the sounds and vibrations of music filled the air around her. Arilyn always had the little urge to hit the next club she came upon but usually she bypassed that idea. The vampire tended to inhale a large excess of alcohol when she went to clubs and before long the bartender would notice she wasn’t getting drunk, and if it was a human bartender things usually didn’t end up great. However most of the time the small vampire could fake being drunk / intoxicated, sometimes she pulled it off amazingly sometimes she didn’t. Arilyn loved the feeling of blood and alcohol through her veins, it was something that got her going, something that filled her mind with lust. Sometimes the girl couldn’t stand the smell of blood through a human’s veins and she attacked them, it usually happened in the typical ‘walking home alone’ scene with an extremely drunk couple.

As she walked the lights of the sky dimmed and clouded together into a mirage of colors. The best time of day was when the sun was setting and the purple hues in the sky become prominent. Of course one couldn’t see the stars with all the lights of the city but the colors were still amazing to look at. Arilyn had gotten used to the city after a good two hundred or so years and it no longer hurt to not see the beautiful sky open in front of her. The closeness of people and buildings began to comfort her about a hundred years ago and Arilyn couldn’t think of living somewhere other then her apartment complex. Of course Arilyn lived in one of the largest apartment complex’s in the whole city but it still felt like a city building. The girl looked up at the so called unseeing sky and smiled slightly, her pink lips curving into a sickly sweet smile that could make any human cringe, “Beautiful” She murmured and closed her eyes allowing her head to fall back into place.

She was one to talk to herself when she walked, especially when she had no where to be and no one to see. Tonight she was hoping to find someone to take with her, whether it be a human or creature of the fantasy world. Arilyn had long become accustom to the once fantasy creatures she lived among and became, she loved it more or less. Her platinum blonde hair had begun to frizz again and curl up as she walked in the brisk weather, it seemed that no matter what she did to it, it always came back to curls. Arilyn loved her curls but sometimes she wanted a simple change, the girl brushed a thin hand through the white blonde curls and pulled some to her eyes. She studied the small wisps of hair she had pulled and chuckled, ”The color of family” She spoke softly and allowed the wisps to fall away. She knew where her hair color came from and she wasn’t extremely proud of it but she was somewhat proud, it wasn’t exactly her favorite feature.

Before being a vampire her hair was an unnatural blonde for her time but it wasn’t as white or curly when she was a human. It was a lot less vibrant and more yellowish but once she became a creature of the night the colors became much more prominent. Besides that her abnormally bright blue eyes never changed, ever since she was a baby her eyes have been a bright blue that scared people. Now, the last thing people saw were menacing blue eyes before they died. Her eyes were usually played up by the clothing she wore but tonight she had gone plain, a white t-shirt and black skinny jeans adorned her thin petite body. She had always been quite the looker and one that could wear the simplest of clothing to look good and now the looks she held were just amplified. Arilyn always flaunted her looks now that she was a high class vampire, something that she never did as a human. The girl looked up as she passed a club and contemplated entering to see if there were any humans she could take home.

However, finding one on the street would probably be a better idea as she’d be less tempted by a non drunken couple. As soon as the girl passed the club she heard a slamming and footsteps, she turned just in time to see a bright figure be thrown from the club. Her eyes widened and she turned around to say something but her breath caught as she looked at the beauty of the figure in front of her, she couldn’t help but notice the perfectness she seemed to hold and the silver around her neck… That was something Arilyn couldn’t not look at, the beautiful creature in front of her was a slave. How intriguing it was to find a beautiful slave seemingly to be thrown at her feet. Arilyn smirked and began to slowly, gracefully glide her way to the female. She listened to her speak in the darkness and then stepped up, ”A curse? That sounds terrible.” Arilyn spoke softly and tilted her head to the side, ”A yes, the seventies, the best time to drink..”.

She allowed her eyes to study the obviously intoxicated female, she seemed to have no tags on her to show who she belonged to and that just excited Arilyn more. She had needed a slave for quite sometime and this one seemed perfect, ”I.. Am Arilyn Epith.. and you dear are a beautiful thing” She spoke softly and held out her hand to the creature.

[feathers2]

The faerie damn-near jumped out of her skin as the vampire seemed to materialize from the darkness of the streets. She twitched a bit in shock, but not fright-- after a moment, her heart rate calmed and Rusalka was able to respond to this sudden stranger. Her eyes, though, in her shock, had turned an iridescent green; they were a sight to see next to the pale skin that shone opalescent in the moonlight and her delicately curved ears, her every tiny feature as tenuously, tenaciously fine as a spider's web. Her eyes were still wide in the dark, the alcohol she'd imbibed-- to which she was quite susceptible-- making them seem more liquid and responsive. The fae's mouth had fallen into a peachy little 'o,' which she replaced with a more normal expression as soon as her momentary shock at the woman's appearance had worn off.

"Sorry, you shocked me just a whit." The damnedest things could be counted on to come out of that little one's mouth; things like a drunkenly slurred 'whit.' Obviously, she'd learned English in younger times than these. She was old, compared to a human, but young for her kind, and for many of the immortals that stalked the streets. This person who'd approached her might've been one-- but she couldn't tell. Even after all this time around the unnatural, and being one herself, Ruse could rarely tell what sort of creature a person was. To shock her like that, though, the faerie assumed maybe a vamp or a demon or-- Mab forbid-- another damned dark angel. Well, she was short, and looked pretty sweet. And Rusalka was tipsy. Why not indulge the woman's invitation to chat? Another time the fae would've blown her off, but the fickle creature was in a talking mood tonight.

That was sortof rare in itself, she was usually a detached, unpersonable type girl. Ah, well. "Hum. My grandmother had a wicked hexing talent-- there'd be many poxy bartenders around here if she'd a'passed it on." She glanced sidelong at this other person, the fae's eyes now fading back to silvery gray when her alarm had subsided. "You must not be as little as you look, to remember that. Though-- Arilyn-- my complimentary sudden acquaintance, I was referring to the hallucinogens and less the drinks. Though...when wasn't a good time, then, hmmmm?"

Tipsy as she was, she was still talking half in riddles, half in a weird lilting pattern that only a faerie would impose on a language. Quite the curious specimen, was she. Most would naturally offer their names after having someone introduce themselves as Arilyn had, but Rusalka's name was important to her. It wouldn't be just thrown about, willy nilly, to whomever inquired. Perhaps it was easier if one had several names, but Ruse had just the one. It was a nice one, too-- and she wasn't quite sure she wanted this little enigma that'd found her to know it yet.

[arilyn]

Arilyn knew that she’d basically slipped from the depths of the dark, though her very light and billowy figure was probably easy to notice. Her thin, petite frame being taken over by her white blonde hair and pale skin always tended to be something that made her stand out. The girl had noticed that when she slid up next to the creature she’d practically jumped out of her skin and her heart showed that as it pounded away at her small chest. Arilyn could probably crush the girl if she was human, however Arilyn knew by smell that the creature was in no shape or form a human. Even though Arilyn never held anything against the creatures she also never fully liked them. Arilyn’s eyes tended to grow brighter when she was intrigued or happy about something and in this light her eyes were like bright blue orbs floating in the semi darkness of the street.

The vampire noticed how the girls eyes were an unrealistic green which just made her presumption about the female being a creature more realistic. Arilyn chuckled at the language the creature used and nodded her head in apology, ”I am sorry dear one.. Being able to blend into darkness comes with the nature of being a nightwalker” and this was partially true. Though some vampires rather stay in the spotlight, most did not. The girl who stood in front of her did not speak a modern version of English which Arilyn caught onto but that could mean a variety of things and wasn’t one thing to identify a creature of another species then human. Arilyn knew that it was common for Humans not native to the US to speak another form of English. Arilyn allowed her blue eyes to study the small creature for a few more seconds before dully deciding on whether she wanted her as a slave.

She’d noticed the creature being a bit tipsy as she was stumbling over her own two feet it seemed. Arilyn knew it was not right to take advantage of a tipsy person but it could also be a good plot to take her. The vampire giggled, ”Really now? So that must mean.. you are not a human?” There was no way around that question, Arilyn had to know. She had noticed the girl not speak her name which dumb founded Arilyn, it wasn’t polite to not introduce yourself. Arilyn simply wrote it off though and continued to listen to the babbling of the small female which made her perk her eyebrows. ”Yes, to undermine a vampire is to engrave your own death wish. Unfortunately I understood close to nothing of what you just said” Arilyn giggled again and winked her bright blue eyes to the girl. She was going to have fun with this one, one way or another no matter how long it took this female would be her slave and friend.

Arilyn brushed a small hand through her white blonde hair and turned to her side, ”Would you like to take a walk love? I’m pretty sure standing here wont get you back in.” She spoke softly and brushed her hand down the girls arm. Arilyn wasn’t exactly an amazing charmer but she could usually get a little charm on a creature. Whether it worked or not however wouldn’t be her problem, her problem would be trying to find out a nice way to say she’d claimed the female creature. Arilyn didn’t exactly know how to claim one, or say allowed that she’d claimed one but she’d have to figure it out. Arilyn wanted her whether she liked it or not and she’d do anything to show the creature she was hers now. However Arilyn wouldn’t be nasty about it, she’d have to be friendly to her first slave, after all, Arilyn was equal and friendly to almost everyone.

[feathers2]

Nightwalker. Oh, how perfectly peachy. She'd jumped out of a fire and into a frying pan; the vampire had been absolutely nothing but saccharine to the tipsy little fairy so far-- and with vampires, that generally meant Barney Rubble. Trouble. It wasn't that she was immediately distrustful of all vampires she came into contact with, but she knew many of them, especially the older ones, had exotic tastes...and Rusalka was certainly exotic. Faerie blood was a very sharp change from human blood, and every bit more rare. The bloodsucker giggled and questioned her humanity. A thread of the beetle-green dripped back into the fae's silver eyes, a color that tended to signal her alarm. She was just wary, now, and that wariness was quickly clearing her head. Damn buzz-killing woman...

"Really now? So that must mean...you are not a human?"

"I thought you vampire-types could smell that sort of thing? No." She giggled. This would be fun-- she had decided to make a game of her complete identity. Without telling Arilyn this, of course. She'd do what she could to avoid personal questions, testing what the vampiress could infer. It would keep her vodka-sodden self in silent stiches for as long as it lasted. This sort of mental teasing was the kind of game the fickle fae lived for.

"Yes, to undermine a vampire is to engrave your own death wish. Unfortunately I understood close to nothing of what you just said." The girl giggled and winked-- which was the point at which Rusalka noticed her vibrant blue eyes! How delightful. The faerie switched her own eyecolor to match Arilyn's as soon as she noticed it. She didn't ever do that sort of thing sober; in fact, when sober she made a point not to mess with her glimmerspells. Unfortunately, with a dash of alcohol, Rusalka played with fairy magic as freely as a child. "Likewise." She snorted, still giggling. Perhaps her mind was changing once again about the vampiress-- she was fun, a very important quality. Though, she really hadn't known what the hell Arilyn was talking about in regards to the undermining of a vampire. Was that a threat? Rusalka was confused, but the feeling passed quickly. "Ah, well. Many people would be much better off misunderstanding eachother as happily as we do." Or maybe that was the alcohol talking.

"Would you like to take a walk love? I'm pretty sure standing here wont get you back in."

Rusey looked at her teency new vampiric friend with sudden tipsy surprise. "Get back in?! I was just leaving. They're most indecorously jack-assed at that particular club. I really wouldn't recommend it." She feigned a bit of bruised pride and snottiness-- though her hurt pride was quite true. The fairy race had, as a general rule, an estranged but tenacious sense of pride, and Rusalka was no exception. "A walk would be great, though! Where to?" Her voice was high, but not grating, as fleeting and colorful as a set of windchimes.

[arilyn]

Arilyn never really minded the words she used to anyone, if they figured out she was a nightwalker well then so be it. Arilyn wasn’t in any way or form afraid of anyone finding out about her lineage because then it’d hold her power over whoever found out unless they were the same race as she. The only thing Arilyn had over many other vampires was age, she was one thousand and twenty three and that tended to scare other vampires. It is indeedly amazing that Arilyn had survived so long in the world without being hunted once, though she did have her fair share of enemies over the years, many of them have died of age or by her hand. If Arilyn didn’t see a need for you and she didn’t like you there was no way that you were getting out alive, the girl in front of Arilyn was definitely not going to die though. Arilyn immediately liked her by the looks and speech she had, she was a beautiful creature meant for another beautiful creature. When Arilyn could lure her away from public she’d make her move, she never liked to grab much attention while she was on the cities streets. ”I guess just… walking in the streets, its not a bad thing to do.” and with that Arilyn began walking down the street in a gliding fashion.

Arilyn liked to perform her plans in private and where no one would dare be, Arilyn once again looked the girl up and down. She knew she wasn’t human but she needed to figure out what she was just in case she attempted to do any harm to her which probably wouldn’t end up in the girls favor. ”Generally we can but your scent is something I have never… smelled before. Its very exotic and different then anything I have smelt before. I’d really like to know exactly what you are but I don’t want to pry. As long as you know I have the ability to hurt you if you hurt me is fine” Then it was Arilyn’s turn to giggle, she didn’t threaten her prey often but this girl was going to need the danger she would be in. Though Arilyn was pretty sure that whatever the girl was, was probably going to be dangerous to her too she wouldn’t underestimate the girl. ”I am not meaning to be ultimately threatening… I just hate when people attack me for no reason, I’m not a bad girl..” She spoke softly grinning ear to ear.

The only time she liked to be threatening was when a male decided to hit on her when she didn’t want to be near them. Arilyn knew she needed to get away from the threatening stature of her speech so she crossed that off her list and spoke again, ”So, how old are you? I can tell your not extremely young by the comment you made before and your language… Its different”. Arilyn sometimes could tell by the way a person spoke how old they were, Arilyn had been around for a long, long time. Though even underestimating vampires who were a couple hundred years old wasn’t a good thing, it was nothing to do to a creature that wasn’t human. When the girl spoke again this made Arilyn chuckle but not before she noticed the eye color change that happened silently in the girls eyes, ”Hmm, I saw that… Your eyes, they changed color, and yes people are sometimes better off misunderstanding.” Arilyn spoke this softly as she thought about the races she’d learned about from a friend in the city, the girl wasn’t normal.

”You intrigue me… a surprise that a, slave like you hasn’t been taken yet…” Arilyn spoke softly, almost whispered the word slave as if to show a little emphasis on the word. It was true though, she did intrigue Arilyn very much and it was a sure thing after that comment that the girl would be hers very soon. As the girl went on about the club being bad Arilyn laughed, she knew the club didn’t have a taste for certain people and obviously this girl wasn’t liked. Sometimes it was because they couldn’t afford the expensive tastes of the creatures, Arilyn had an expensive taste and she always ordered many things. ”I suppose I shall listen to you, I don’t fancy the club either. That’s why I wasn’t going in, I’d rather hit the bar Lone Tiger with this..” She spoke and pulled a rectangle shiny card from her pocket, a simple credit card with her lifetimes worth of money. It was easy to say that Arilyn never had to work a day in her life after saving up so much money. ”I often take out parties of my friends to go drinking, its easy when you have so much… green” She spoke again softly.

She was thinking that the girl would go for her money like most other humans or creatures did, she knew many of them liked to use her for her money. Most of the time she was okay with that as she had enough to spare on thousands of people and for this girl Arilyn would spend it easily. She wanted her and she’d do anything to get her, Arilyn slowly slipped the card back into her pocket and looked at the girl. Well actually she looked, up at the girl, Arilyn was only five foot and that hurt her a lot of the times as people liked to think they could take advantage of her. The girl Arilyn looked at seemed to look just like her when she was young, small and fragile but that was most likely a façade that Arilyn had yet to see through.

[feathers2]

Rusalka was more than fine with a simple walk. She didn't generally protest anything too much besides being denied alcohol. Malleable and childlike, the fae was at her most vulnerable when under the influence, and suspected no real bad intent from the vampiress. Ruse had a delightful innocence about her, at least for now. It wasn't quite naivete, but an unassuming trust in her own indestructability. She'd survived so far, hadn't she? Ruse followed Arilyn with a mind at peace despite the dangers she knew that resulted in consorting with vampires.

And this vampire was incredibly curious as to what, exactly, Rusalka was. The fae kept up her recklessly dangerous game, though, grinning at but otherwise ignoring the vampire's somewhat flattering admission of how very exotic the fairy's scent was. Ruse liked that about this vampire-- her flattery. There was no quicker way to a vain little fae's heart than through praise, (except perhaps through alcohol) and besides being told she was pretty, Ruse reveled in the thought that she was exotic and unique. And then the vampire seemed to hint at some veiled threat. Ruse knew she was dangerous-- she'd flittered away from many a hungry fanged beast in her lifetime. Still, she'd escaped this long. She could keep going. Alcohol was making her feel invincible, as usual. Her now-blue eyes turned to stare at the vampire. "Hmm, me? Attack you? Do you think I would?" She laughed, a tinkling sound like a windchime or belltree. She wondered at that last phrase-- I'm not a bad girl... Rusalka gave her a look from head to toe-- it didn't take long, she was a tiny thing. She really didn't look terribly threatening, like a nice girl, as she said. But then, the faerie also knew of several very handsome, charming men who had been after her blood, so the fact that the woman looked very sweet didn't count for too much. "Hmm...what do you think I am?"

She dodged questions with questions, and others with little riddling non-answers. "Oh, old enough to know better than to follow vampires around in the dark. But...not quite old enough not to be curious enough to follow." She giggled again, enjoying her tete-a-tete with someone who could kill her. The fae figured she was at least safe when she kept the vampire guessing-- her curiosity would trump her desire to drag Rusalka into a dark alley and drink her dry. Hopefully. Well, either way, Rusey liked this person so far, and she hoped the girl was really being honest when she said she wouldn't hurt the fae.

Curious, this vampiress. "Observant! Excellent. An excellent quality. Yes, I'm a slave, blah blah blah, lah dee dah..." She waved her hand at the night air, shooing the whole question away. "I haven't been really owned in awhile. People buy, they sell me back, someone else buys me again...really gets old, you know? I'm in a dry spell lately, so I left for awhile. The pens are no fun." She spoke as though she'd just decided to get up and leave, which, really, hadn't been far from the truth. The entire slavery business was a joke to Rusalka. She wore some pretty jewelry and followed someone around, and suddenly she had protection and never had to get a job. Who wouldn't want that kind of life? And besides, Rusalka the Fae was really quite hard to keep trapped. Escape artist extraordinaire.

"Lone Tiger, huh? Haven't been there..." Rusey eyed her...friend? with some apprehension...until the credit card surfaced, and so did a centuries-old case of alcoholism. A well-plucked brow perked in interest. "So, it's a pretty good place, huh?" Rusalka was baited. Hook, line and sinker. She sauntered along beside the vampire-- or, well, it was less of a saunter and more of a giddy but woozy bounce. The fairy maiden was as entranced by the plastic rectangle as badly as any leprechaun was by a shiny bit of gold just out of his reach.