Faline

Leaving my eyes closed, I use my ears and nose. I don't hear Lady at first, I smell her. She steps so softly on the carpet, that she could be ghosting.

She's not alone, however, as I hear and smell two others. Males. Heavy walkers, so probably human. Wait, one's an undead, his scent is vaguely familiar. He smells of healing wounds.

I open slowly, Lady's standing to the left of me at the desk, her fingers descend into my fur as soon as my eyes open. Pretty sure she knows I was already awake. Looking over, I have to smile internally.

His pace slows as he spots me, then his eyes fill with resentment and distaste. I give him a kitty grin and a small meow. Granted my meows aren't small at all, but it works.

Max stands there with a human male, who's also eyeballing me. Soon as I start my zombie purr, they both jump. I can't laugh, but it shows in my eyes. Turning my head, I headbutt Lady's side.

She still has a hand in my neck scruff, probably making sure I don't lunge at either of her guests. Keeping up my purring, I look over Max, not having seen him since I tried taking his face off. Heard he was missing an ear and his nose was all messed up, and indeed they are.

Not sure how long it's been, but most of it's all healed. He'll always carry scars from me though, maybe not physically, but definitely mentally and for sure to his pride. Right now his nose still has some filling out to do, looks like he'd gotten into too many boxing matches and it got busted up real bad. His weird hair covers the sides of his face, so I can't see his ears.

The dirty blond strands curl under at his shoulders, looking like one of those old hairstyles that went out a couple of centuries ago, and there's no way he's that old. He looks to be in his late teens, and even in Vampire years, he can't be much older. Seems both he and I will always be denied at bars.

His dark eyes glitter at me in warning, so I cock my head and lick my nose. Max's lips are all pierced up again, faded white lines trickling around them. Another few hours and I'm sure those will be gone. Shark bite piercing in his lip with a labret, there's nothing in his nose right now though.

I can remedy that.

At least three barbells are in each eyebrow, one also sports a ring. The whole left side of his face is spider-webbed with white lines, and a silk shirt covers all the damage I did to his body and shoulder. Pretty sure the stripes to his skull have also healed.

To heal that much already, he's had to have taken in a lot of blood. Think I've seen a few of the submissives that he'd probably fed from, the women were bruised, bitten several times, and roughly used. Just thinking about it irks me, causing my purring to stop and my back feet to fidget. Why are they here anyway?

No one's talking, just staring. Ignoring Max's looks, I inspect the human. Older black man, judging by the gray at his sideburns and mustache. Caramel eyes look at me nervously as he stands a few feet from the desk, dressed in a black pinstripe suit and shiny black shoes. Either someone important, or he's costuming.

His short black and gray hair is trimmed smartly, neatly. I don't know him, and as far as I know, he's done me no wrong, so I have no beef with him. Max, on the other hand, is just as bad as Madaline; wanting to cause drama.

"Why is she here?"

My ear flicks, clearly my very presence is irking him, so I keep my eyes directed, giving him the unblinking stare all cats are good at. Every once in a while licking my nose to mock the man-child. Should start up a box of pieces I seem to keep tearing off of people. Is that weird? May be a bit morbid, but it's not like they'd come from innocents. Gonna have to bring it up to the Mistress when we're alone, I think she'll get a kick out of it.

She doesn't sound amused when she replies, doesn't sound like anything really, as if she wipes herself when in front of people, needing to stay stone-faced. Guess when you have to stay the boogeyman of a place, you can't very well wear your emotions on your sleeve.

"She is here on my orders, just as you are. She, however, has been useful."

Always good to be useful. Acting like the child I can never be again, I have my tongue sticking out of my mouth. Just enough to be obvious, not hanging out like some kind of dog.

He notices, as does the human and Lady. His reaction I enjoy, even the other guys'. The Mistress's however, leaves something to be desired. I don't care to get pinched.

Max's reaction of frowning harder is getting comical, let's see how red I can get his face. The black guy had smirked, keeping his face turned away from the Vampire, acting as if he's looking around. He seems to be finding the walls very interesting.

Still want to know why he's here, so I fidget some more, catching his eye once again while Lady's fingers dig through my fur, running nails against my skin. Rude. Pulling my tongue back in, I yawn and look at the human, he obviously knows what we are. If he's like the last human I saw here, we're gonna have issues.

Think I've found my preferred prey, and I'm just helping all those who are innocently involved. The only drawback here is seeing what's in their heads. Would probably drive me to drink.

Alcohol.

If I could anyway. Actually, depending on how the damn taste buds work, I might be able to gargle it for taste. Maybe.

"You were given a job Max, yet someone else has done what I told you to do. I have let you stay here on my dime because you have proven yourself useful in the past. Your association with another has caused your priorities to come in to question."

Madaline. His screwing with the crazy woman has messed up his view on what's important. Wonder what he was supposed to be doing that he hasn't been.

"I have provided you time to heal from your own folly, yet you still insist on making a fool of yourself. I will give you one more chance, after that you shall see the insides of my playrooms."

Hell, think that would make me try a little harder to stay out of trouble. So far I haven't been threatened with them, but I'm sure I'm getting close. Would be a lot closer if she hadn't taken a liking to me, if not already in one.

I don't mock him anymore right now. If it weren't for Madaline, he would never have come at me. Maybe. Hopefully he's learned something from it, but by the way he's been acting so far, think it'd be safe to assume he hasn't.

He inclines his head and leaves, so I avoid looking at him. Embarrassed Vampires are very dangerous Vampires. I've proven that at least a couple of times now.

The human stays, looking like he'd really like to be anywhere else right now as well. Lady rubs at my fur some more before going behind her desk to take a seat. With eyes following her, I see her nose flair from my odors being on everything. If I'd known she would have others with her, I wouldn't have done it, but oh well.

The desk is big enough that even with me on it, she has plenty of space. Never curled my tail up to my body, so it's laying straight out behind me. Apparently, that's in her way, so it gets pulled on. I yowl, showing my annoyance, but stay where I am. The dark man a couple of feet in front of me starts to look nervous again. Can't say I blame him.

Cats end up overcompensating when keeping from getting pulled backward. If let go suddenly, I'll go flying towards him. Luckily, that's not what happens, since I'm not digging in for purchase. She just has to pull harder to move me, to which she does.

It isn't the best feeling in the world, someone pulling on your ass, but not overly horrible either. Just have to fight the instinct that wants me to pull away and dig in to keep from being dragged. Don't think she'd care for carved in grooves on her shiny wooden desk. If for nothing else, that I'm sure, I'd be punished for.

Pulling me back towards her, I stubbornly stay in position, hiding what she's probably after. Once pulled far enough to where she can grip the base of my tail, she does so. Less strain on the spine, although I doubt that's why she moved her grip.

Tugged all the way till I'm situated next to her again, my ears have gone back as I zombie talk. Not quite the 'no no no' schpeel, but still effective in relaying my dislike of the backward retrieval. I'm ignored of course, but now with me away from where I was, the human can feel more comfortable coming up closer to the chair situated near the front of the desk.

Lady's hand buries itself in my side fur, going up to my ear and tugging on it then slips under me. Feel like I'm getting groped as she fishes out her remote. Now I start up the 'no no no' chatter as I hunker down lower.

If I could, I'd be smiling at the guy to let him know everything's okay, that I'm basically picking on the Mistress. Sure that would get a just as confused and horrified look though as it seems I'm the only one who dares to do so. Turning my head to look at her, my eyes dance with laughter and I catch the amusement in hers.

The slight forming smirk makes it worth it, even if I end up paying for it later. This woman seriously needs to smile more. While not inflicting pain, that is. The bad pain, not the good. I've gotten her to smirk several times, now I need to figure out something to get her to smile.

I make her work for it, but she does eventually get her remote pulled out. As soon as the guy sees it, he starts chuckling, voice sounds pretty deep judging by its tone. Once it's retrieved, there's no point in staying in this pose, so I flop over onto my side.

Letting out a small mew before purring again, I rub the side of my face on the surface till she reaches over and starts petting. Content, I settle down and let her do her meeting thing.

"Do you have the information I requested?"

I see the man nod through half-closed eyes. I try to quiet my loud-ass purr to something of a whisper, but that doesn't work, so I just stop altogether. Vampires may have good hearing and can hear over me, doesn't mean the human can. Plus it's rude. He pulls out some folded papers from inside his coat.

Reminds me of how you see search warrants on those police shows. I'm curious, but I'm not going to stick my nose in things that have nothing to do with me. I have enough problems without adding more.

Don't care what they say about curiosity and cats.

Papers get slid across the table, my eyes open a little more to watch them. After Lady reaches out for the bundle, I go back to ignoring it. A feeling starting to form in my gut takes my attention away from everything else.

Not so much pain as much as a feeling of urgency makes my whole body itch in need to do something. To move. The Mistress had pulled her hand away to look through whatever she was given, so I sit back up and turn away from them. My stomach flips and brain goes from feeling hot to cold.

Something is seriously wrong, and in the not knowing what's causing it, I get off the desk. Although I think 'falling' would be a better description of what happens. I've been drunk a few times before, this almost feels like that. The morning after feeling while getting the buzz from the night before at the same time.

Stumbling, I don't even see where I'm going. Can feel myself shaking, limbs unsteady as I splay them wide in an attempt to keep balance. Was I connecting with my sister again? It's never felt like this before.

The urgency feeling in me is so prominent it feels like an anxiety attack. Eyes clench shut as feline visuals cause my head to pound. I thought I was walking away, that's what I'd been trying to do, but someone has a hold of me.

You know how you hold a dog over water and they start paddling before even touching it? That's what I'm doing. My breathing is heavy and I feel hot. So hot that I shift back to human right there.

My skin is sweating, my breathing making it look like I've just gone through a marathon. Unable to deal with anymore, I reach for the black that edges my vision and pull it around me like the softest blanket, not able to even comprehend what's being talked about by those around me.