Bernard frowned when Maxine backed away from him, taking a moment to glance at his hands. Due to the burst of action, he had failed to notice the sticky blood staining his fingers. It was hard to see in the low light, but it stood out to him like red rubies on pure white silk. A disgusted look crosses his face as he considers just how many vampires the feral he had killed may have drained, and he wipes his fingers on the back of his coat until they are relatively clean. The leather was waterproofed, so the blood would wash away easily when he got around to cleaning it or standing in a rainstorm. When he finally returned his attention to Max, her barrage of questions left him stunned and reeling.

"Ah, well... Yes, she was feral. That seems reason enough for her to come after you, you're fairly young and compared to her, weak. And I doubt any trouble will come from her final death. Unless she has some major powers behind her, nobody's going to call me to heel for taking out the trash. If any of them even remember that I exist. As for the rest of your questions..." Bernard sighed heavily again, mentally preparing himself. What he was about to tell her probably looked bad, really bad, and certainly wouldn't help her adjust any. While he didn't want to look like some creep, Max deserved the truth.

"I've been following you and watching since I turned you. Had to know the kind of person you would become, and protect you from those who would end you before you got the chance to adapt. I've been... away from things, for a long time now. I didn't want to draw attention to you by suddenly reappearing in town, so I stayed in the shadows. Speaking of which," he says, the last being an aside as he reaches under his coat to produce an older model phone from an inner pocket. Sliding it open, he rapidly tapped out and fired off a message to an old acquaintance before replacing the device. Octavius would want to know he was back, and with the dead feral in the room it was only a matter of time anyway.

[quote=Message to Octavius][b][i]Back in town. Made a bit of a mess. Will explain later. Let me know if you need something. 
~Bernard[/i][/b][/quote]

"Why I turned you..." Bernard had been avoiding the question, saving it for last. The answer was complex, and even he didn't really understand it all. "I guess when you get to the bottom of it... I was lonely, and tired of it. I've spent more than a century away from my own kind." The explanation was severely lacking, but he couldn't come up with anything better. He looked away from Maxine now, gazing out the broken window as he awaited her response.