surprising events (yo, Trin! Over here!)

Trin's nerves were shot. Period. After sleeping on the sudden turn her life had taken, she was simply flat out, without a doubt ,confused. What had seemed perfectly reasonable last night now seemed... well, not very well thought out. At all. She sighed and rested her head on the steering wheel, wondering if she should just skip this whole thing. One bite wasn't going to hurt the man - two more would change his life for the duration. And to top it all off, she'd made him a promise.

When the hell had she gotten so... well, caring? At least for those outside the Clan. She usually just went about her life, happy as a clam, doing whatever assignment had been sent her way with a minimum of fuss. But, no, this time, she had to make a promise to a human. And that, more than anything else, was why she was here. She remembered her own sisters, though they had been dead for generations. And knew, given the chance, she would have done anything to protect them in similar circumstances. Damn.

Another heavy sigh and she started up the Jeep, heading back into the city to find Steve's home. With any luck, he'd had second thoughts as well.

The house was easier to find than she'd thought and, out of habit, she started to circle the block. Shaking her head, she chuckled ruefully. If she was going to do this, she had to extend a degree of trust. Trin wanted an ally, not a slave. Which meant going in with the proper attitude.

She slipped out of the car, looking quite different from the night before. Rather than the borderline goth getup she'd hunted in, she'd chosen elegant clothing more in keeping to what she would wear around the Manor. A simple silk scoop neck shirt in dark burgundy, lightweight tweed pants and lowheeled boots. Her hair was up in a simple bun, gold combs holding it in place and her only jewelry was a pinkie ring with the Anantya symbol and small gold hoops in he ears. Even her makeup was different - simple and elegant as well. It was all topped with a leather blazer. It occurred to her, a bit too late, that the change might cause Steve to not recognize her. Oh well, as long as he didn't mistake her for a door-to-door religious nut. With the way her luck waas going, he'd shoot first, and ask questions later. The man really was a bit too fond of his gun.

One more deep breath and she made her way to the front door.

As a rookie, Steve had been taught to shoot first and ask questions never. This training kicked in as he sighted in on the figure coming up the driveway. One advantage of living in the boondocks: less noise, and an easier time picking off hostiles. He quickly identified the intruder as Trin, and crept along the roof until he got to the tree near the back porch. He caught a branch and swung down gracefully. Once on the ground, he hurried to the door. In all of this, he had not made a single sound. He opened the door, deer rifle at the ready.

Trin started to reach for the doorbell and hesitated. Pulling her hand back, she concentrated, trying to figure out why she suddenly felt... well, watched. There were no sounds that were out of place - they were no city sounds and only the occasional car passing along a nearby road. No barking dogs or anything. Frowning, she looked up and saw nothing that would explain her sudden uneasiness. For a vampire her senses were average - though well above those of a human - and they caught nothing that wasn't as it should be.

And that, she realized, was what bothered her. For only having met the man once, she had already picked up on his wariness and she seriously doubted he'd welcome her into his home with open arms. A long debate with herself before leaving the Manor had resulted in her coming armed, though not as obviously as part of her would have preffered. There was no reason for Steve to trust her - and his seemingly casual acceptance of becoming a familiar made little sense to her. Thus, the stillettos secreted in her clothes. She was difficult to kill - not impossible. Damn, she thought, she really had managed to land herself in a mess.

Well, no time like to present to see which way the wind blew. With determination, she jabbed the doorbell, stepping automatically to one side, waiting to see just what kind of reception she was in for.

Steve heard the doorbell, and popped open the door. A blowtorch sat behind the door, right where he could reach it in case of an emergency. His rifle, a .30-06 Remington, proceeded him out the door. It's path was cut short, however, as Steve saw Trin on his front porch. "Come on in," he said, standing aside and watching intently out the front. They walked into the living room. "Alright, you're here. Let's get this over with."

A rifle. The man answered his door with a rifle? Can we say, jumpy?

For a moment she thought he really would shoot first and maybe ask questions later. But his attention was not on her - but on the outside. Frowning, she entered the house and turned to face him. The blowtorch she saw behind the door was a bad thing - while she could recover (given time) from rifle, the blow torch was a whole 'nother matter.

"Somehow I expected you'd be full of questions. Or might have changed your mind." She cocked her head and studied him, suddenly concerned. "What's going on?"

Damn right he was full of questions. But he had a hostile vamp on his ass like white on rice. He thought that he was safe here, but he could never be too careful. He turned around and saw Trin looking at him. Well, not entirely. She seemed to be keeping one eye on his torch. Smart girl, watching a loaded weapon. It appeared that his suspicions were correct, and vamps hated flames. Well, he now knew one item he would be carrying everywhere. It was a good thing his buddy had put a few flamethrowers in his basement, along with the rest of the weapons and munitions. She wanted to know what was going on. Had the events of the previous night slipped her tiny little mind? He scowled, looking for weapons on Trin. He couldn't see anything, but that didn't mean anything. He knew that she preferred knives to guns anyway. He took a deep breath. "As you know, I am being targeted by unknown hostiles. Thus the torch, and thus I'm kinda spooked." He paused, waiting for her to make a move. First sign of hostility, and he would fry her sorry ass.

"Not entirely unknown. Which is part of the reason I'm here." Ignoring both gun and blowtorch, she glanced around, impressed at how tidy things were. A place for everything... Generally speaking, Trin didn't consider other vampires a threat, so to speak. For the most part, she could hold her own, and at least within Anantya and Evenhet, fighting to the death was unheard of. Ruthless they may be, but it was just not good form to kill a fellow vamp. A quick re-evaluation of the situation reminded her that as a human, Steve didn't share that view point.

"There's something missing here. If a vampire wanted you dead, you'd be dead. They weren't shooting to kill with those crossbow bolts. You said something about an informant last night." She thought for a moment, trying to put the bits and pieces together into what she hoped was a reasonable fascimile of truth. This was so not her strong suit. "Whatever information the informant had, whether he gave it to you or not, they'd be after you. But they'd want to know if you'd done anything with it first, right? Do I even want to know what kind of information you were after?"

She met his eyes squarely. "Look, part of the deal was for me to protect you just as much as you would protect me. Which means we've got to make at least some attempt at trusting each other. While the vampires are outside the human's law, they still have to answer to authority, though it isn't one you'd recognize as such. And they don't usually bother with trials and the like. If the... leaders decide you're guilty, they deal with it. Rather effectively I might add."

Though if it was a rogue, they had a problem. Rogues could be anywhere. They were, however, fair game. That was a plus. If she was put in a position to kill a vampire, she hoped to hell they were rogue.

These truths came as no surprise to Steve. Of course they were in organized groups, how else would they have stayed a secret? These leaders sounded like trouble, but, as Trin had said, they had to trust each other. That didn't mean that he needed to trust the "leaders", but they could be dealt with if they became hostile. "My information from Tommy was limited. No mention of you guys at all." He sighed. "Well, look. You are always welcome here. Just never go downstairs. The basement is not a place for you to be." Steve laid his rifle on the table. "By the way, I know you bit me. I noticed the fang holes in my wound. I'm not mad, but you should have told me. Keeping me in the dark is not a great way to win my trust. And one more thing: while you are in my company, I will defend you, but should you become hostile, I will kill you. Understood? Good. Lets get rocking. How does this work?"

Well, it was both good and bad he hadn't gotten his information. Good, in that there was nothing to hide. Bad, as in they weren't sure what they were up against. Trin figured as a police officer he had other evidence - that was a bit of a worry if it could be traced back to vampires but she also knew that in the past, if solid evidence did show up through official channels, it tended to disappear rather quickly.

At least he was willing to put the damn gun down. If nothing else, she wasn't fond of the smell of the things.

She had the grace to actually blush a little at the reminder she had bitten him already. Shrugging uncomfortably she forced her self to maintain eye contact. "I wasn't actually trying to hide it from you - though at the time I did it my intentions were good." Even to herself that sounded corny. "I needed the extra bit of strength in case I had to drag you out of there." She wasn't sure that sounded better. "Things got a bit jumbled after that."

Trin leaned against the wall, arms crossed over her chest, thinking. It was a bit surprising that he was giving her an open invitation, but she had no intention of abusing that honor. Thoguh she had to admit to a bit of curiosity about the basement. She doubted that in 24 hours he could have vampire proofed it - if there even were such a thing. Hiding a smile she wondered if his security measures took into consideration someone who could essentially turn into mist...

"Darling, if I become hostile, it will be because you provoked it. Where I come from, an oath is given and not broken, except under the most dire of circumstances. You'd have to deserve my breaking it." And that would take quite a bit. Loyalty was the cornerstone of Trin's existence. Shrugging, she thought for a moment about his last question. "Bonding requires 3 bites on consecutive nights. Since I did bite you last night, I'm betting it will count as the first, so we'll only need to do this tonight and tomorrow for the bonding to actually take place. After that, to keep the bond in place, I would need to bite you again about every 2 weeks. If for some reason, either of us chose to terminate the relationship, we just don't do it again." She shrugged again. "There is a difference between my simply biting you and feeding from you. I won't need to take much each time." She cocked an eyebrow at him. "You may actually find you enjoy it - most humans do."

Steve actually laughed, as a memory of the sewer rose to his mind. "I was wondering what the hell that had been. I was awake when you were using me as a candy bar." He resisted the urge to ask how he had tasted. "Ok, chow down." He cocked his head, inviting her to take a bite out of his own flesh. How was that for weird?

Trin really did blush this time. He had been awake? Oh damn. And here he was, just inviting her to have at. She wondered if she'd ever be able to anticipate him. It was becoming rather clear that, for the most part, whatever she thought he'd do, expect the opposite.

"Ummm... While I'm glad you seemed to have enjoyed it enough to tender such an invitation, I think you may have overlooked one tiny little detail." She looked him up and down and then pointedly looked at the couch in the living room. "Unless you plan on my climbing you like a tree, you might want to sit down." Trin grinned suddenly and flashed fang at him. "Or there are other places I could nibble on that are in much easier reach for me."

It was Steve's turn to blush. Damn, this was weird. His hand got the urge to jump to his pistol, but he resisted, and gave no indication that he was uncomfortable other than the extra color in his face. He sat down on the couch, his cold eyes on Trin. He hoped that his chronic lack of body heat didn't freak Trin out. As if she wouldn't be freaked by his eyes. Damn, he even scared himself sometimes. But being a freaky bastard had advantages, especially if you were dealing with people who considered themselves predators. Yeah, right. Steve knew that he put the "dominant" in dominant species. He just didn't know if Trin has realized that.

If she didn't think it would piss him off, she might have teased him more to see if he'd keep blushing. Oh well, with a bit of luck, they'd learn to be easy in each other's company, given time. It wasn't until he sat on the couch and she found herself debating whether to bite the side that wasn't wounded, that Trin realized she wanted that easiness. Frowning to herself she decided to use the covering of the wound again. The less questions he was subjected to the better.

Settling on her knees facing him she studied his face, idly wondering how he got the scar. Later, she could, maybe, ask later. Steve was an odd one, no doubt about that, though consdering some of the characters she had dealt with over the years... she was about to ask him if he was sure he really wanted to do this but the look in his eyes stopped her. Whatever his reasons, he was going to see this through. Respect for him rose a notch. Brave son-of-a-bitch.

Resting one hand on his arm, she kept eye contact, moving slowly, hoping to project that she truly did not want to harm him. Carefully bringing her face closer to his neck, she relaxed a little, ready to move quickly if need be. There was a vast difference between biting someone who was unaware what was happening and doing so when they were 100% sure what was happening. She resisted the urge to taste the wound or to smell him - she doubted either would go over well. Instead, she rather matter-of-factly allowed her teeth to slide easily into the area just next to the wound, sucking gently as the blood began to flow.

(ooc - permission to bite granted!)

Steven felt her fangs slide into his skin. The familiar unnamed feeling spread throughout his body from the wound, but there was a problem: Steve's body was naturally resistant to foriegn chemicals, which was quite useful for resisting torture. Now it had made him immune to the vampire chemicals, so the pain hit him like a freight train. In one fluid motion, he drew his sidearm and rammed it to Trinitys head, roaring with fury. He wrestled control of the caveman in his system, and tossed the pistol onto the chair. He wondered why the pain had affected him so. He had taken machine gun fire to the chest without so much as a flinch. Damn vampire. He just hoped he haden't spooked Trin. That was all he needed, to have his throat torn ot by a 19-year-old girl. He took a deep breath. Hopefully she wouldn't decide to get jiggy. That could end up being a serious disaster.

(ooc: Sorry Trin! Steve is an animal, though.)

Trin moved quickly when Steve roared and the gun brushed her forehead, hard enough she knew it would bruise if she were human. Hell, as pale as she was, it just might bruise anyway. What the hell was that about?

She sat back on her heels, refusing to move out of harm's way and watched him toss the gun away. The guy was seriously spooked. This was not good. Hell, nothing about this was good. Glaring at him, she crossed her arms over her chest. In 200 years she'd never had anyone react that way to being bitten. And he sure as hell hadn't reacted that way last night. thinking back, she realized he had reached for a weapon before sinking back into oblivion. Damn, she should have seen this coming. Echoing his sigh, she relaxed a bit wondering what to do now. She had no idea if she had taken enough blood for the next phase of the bond to set in. As jumpy as he was, she wasn't sure she wanted to try again right now.

"There are easier ways to commit suicide than to make me rip your throat out. I'd really rather not do that - very messy and this shirt would not be salvageable." She cocked her head at him and worried her lip, thinking hard. "You should not have felt pain at that, at least not enough to react like that. In fact, after the first moment it should have felt pretty good." Lord knows it was doing wonders for her, but then, she was the vampire here.

Steve shook his head. Damn. He stood up, piscking up his pistol and the rifle as he went. He walked to the closet. Opening it, he revealed a safe. This he opened as well, and placed his guns and his knife in the safe. He closed it, then snagged a pair of handcuffs from the table. "I'm gonna put these on, then you've got free reign. I have no clue why I went haywire there, but I do know that whatever toxins or traquilizers you've got in those fangs of yours don't seem to work anymore. At least not on me." He put on the cuffs, then sat back down and nodded. "Procede." He had to admit, this wasn't like him, leaving himself vurnerable like this. This was a bad new habit that he would have to nip in the bud. Fast, too, 'cause he would be takleing some bad stuff soon.

Of all the...

The man had to be nuts. Certifiable. Trinity shook her head, certain she had not just seen - or heard - whst she had just seen. Opening her eyes she found Steve sitting onthe couch again, this time wearing handcuffs. He trusted her at this moment more than himself. Or at least taht was how she was reading the situation.

But why didn't the toxin work on him? That was flat out weird. Unless he wasn't human. But if he was a vampire, he wouldn't be willing to be a familiar. She felt a headache coming on.

"If you're sure..." Well of course the man was sure. He'd just handcuffed himself so that he wouldn't hurt her. Well, they'd clear up that little misunderstanding tomorrow night after the ritual was completed. Focusing her thoughts on her goal (ally, not slave, ally), she approached him again, hoping she didn't find herself thrown halfway across the room this time.

Concern for him translated into being even more gentle than she had the last time and she once again slid her teeth into his neck.

Steve could tell that she was freaked out. Badly, too, by the looks of it. He closed his eyes as the vampire bit him again. She seemed to be treading lightly, because she was much more gentle when she bit. He felt the rage coming on again, mastered himself. Only one small growl escaped him, and then he was silent. He fought to keep still. Damn, he was trained better that this. What was wrong with him? He breathed deeply as she fed. At least she was afraid of him. That was how he liked it. He was, after all, the top dog in here. Or so he thought.

Under normal circumstances, Trin very much enjoyed this aspect of her life. It wasn't that she was bloodthirsty or anything - but there was a definite enjoyment to be had when feeding. This time, though, she was holding back, not leting herself get lost in the rush that threatened. Steve's growl was pretty much expected, though she gave him full credit for not pulling away this time. A dozen heartbeats later, she carefully pulled her teeth away and, out of habit, licked up the bit of blood that followed.

Sitting back once more on her heels, she let the feel of fresh bloodwash thorugh her. Having eaten her fill only the night before, she felt no raving for more, though it wasn't something she would turn down if offered. Glory, she hoped he didn't offer. Somehow, she doubted he would. He was not enjoying this part a bit and she hoped the results were worth what he was putting himself through.

"That shoudl be enough for now." She spoke softly, not wanting to rile him up. A bit of women's intuition went into gear and she realized he was as alpha as they came. Another quick look around the house supported that idea. Control. That was more than likely a major aspect of his personality. Which worked as far as it went. Should make life interesting to say the least.

"Are you okay? I think we can take off the cuffs." Glancing around she didn't see the keys handy. "Do you need help with those?"

Steve walked over to the safe and popped the keys from their hook. In less than a second, the cuffs were back on the table, and Steve was strapping his pistol to his leg again. Trinity's tone as she spoke to him had not gone unnoticed. He felt bad for her. After all, he was a formidable bastard, and she probably had never seen the blow coming. Yet the rush of pure power enthralled him, as he walked to the kitchen. He came back with two beers, handed one to Trin, then drank deeply from his own. What had he become? A brute? This wasn't the way he was trained. He was taught to control his power. To keep it from becoming dangerous. And he was dangerous tonight, that was for sure. Trin's head spoke clearly for that one. He finally spoke. "I'm fine, thanks. How 'bout you?" He nodded at her head. "You want some ice for that?" He watched her, waiting for some indication of her next move.