Alice
Alice watched as Oliver quickly hurried out of the room, narrowly avoiding a scantily-clad girl with what appeared to be a bat perched on her shoulder, and her eyes narrowed slightly in suspicion. That wasn’t like him at all... she’d never seen him blindly follow orders like that, and she’d certainly never seen him abandon her with a complete stranger. Her eyes flicked to Oliver’s companion, he was tall, he’d towered over Oliver, and by default that made Alice feel like a hobbit. She twisted her fingers together anxiously as the stranger began to talk.
Alice resisted the temptation to roll her eyes when she heard about the deal; trust Oliver to run around swearing himself into the service of his terrifying draconic roommate the second she turned her back, it was probably the most reckless thing he’d done to date. Although to be honest, it wasn’t the service part that worried her, it was the ‘something more valuable’… what did he mean when he said it was something that wasn’t actually Oliver’s? How could somebody give something that wasn’t theirs to begin with? Unless… perhaps it was something he had to take? She frowned; her mind running round in circles, whatever it was, she doubted that Oliver really knew what he was getting himself into. This man exuded danger, and however nice he seemed, there was no hiding the serrated edge to his smile. He could hurt them, easily, and Oliver was so eager to grab onto whatever help they could get, he’d just walk right into it.
And then he was in front of her, mere centimetres away, close enough to touch. She flinched unintentionally, although to be fair, anyone would be at least a touch intimidated by this situation, especially seeing as that seemed to be the point of this display. Her heart shuddered at the proximity, his essence, the power and heat that radiated from every pore in his body, was overwhelming, flooding her senses so that they refused to accept anything else.
Suleykaar Sahqon Diiv of the Diiv family was there, and he wanted her to know it.
At the mention of other vampires, she bristled, teeth clenched and avoiding eye contact. She’d known his name all of half a second, and already he was judging her. Too nervous to actually say anything, she internally seethed. So what if she kept her tail tucked between her legs? Better that than having it bitten off. Of course, she couldn’t concentrate on seething for very long, because he appeared to be… smelling her? That was a new one… although certainly not the strangest thing she’d ever experienced (that prize went to cousin Charlie’s polite request that she please help him get the homeless man out of his car), it was a close run thing.
He broke away, his light smile doing little to assuage the cloying unease that still clung to her skin. He mentioned something about getting a table as he began to move away, but the words only got through partially, her mind elsewhere. It took her a moment to begin to follow him towards a cluster of empty seats at the end of the cafeteria, her previously paralyzed tongue making its way around a quiet, mumbled sentence, “ I’d rather not act like what I’m ‘supposed to be’,” she looked up, attempting to meet his eye, “y’know , considering the last fully grown vampire I met locked me in his cellar, drank my blood, and threatened to kill me, it really doesn’t seem like such a great way to make new friends.” Her lips quirked briefly, before she hurriedly began to move towards the seats, hiding her face and the awkward flush of crimson that spread through her cheeks, hoping she hadn't come across as
too ungrateful.
