I can not believe you followed me.
I was not staying at 'ome again.
Well you can't come inside! No cats allowed.
Zat's fine! I am sure I could find some action in zeh alley.
You do zat. Just do not bring any fleas 'ome!
Sometimes that man could be nothing but infuriating! Still, Evalyn couldn't quite blame him – it was tough being stuck in only one form, but it was easier to acquire general items of pleasure when you were in human form.
Such as alcohol.
Evalyn entered the Graveyard and decided to discard her jacket at the cloak room herself this time, but almost immediately regretted it. The girl standing in front of her, who's dress sense could be better described as that of a strippers, was blatantly flirting with the cloak girl. On any other day, Evalyn might enjoy watching such a show, but tonight she just wanted to get her drink and check out this event Jasmin had been telling her about. Fantasy novels about vampires!
Evalyn looked at the copy she was holding in her free hand while she waited and shook her head. Clearly the author didn't know vampires really existed, but that's just what made this party all the more amusing. This woman would be here, meeting and greeting, not realising that a good many of those around her were actual vampires! She'd half wanted to be there when Jasmin first greeted her – that alone would be entertainment enough for Evalyn to be satisfied tonight – but she loathed to appear some ditsy fangirl, and watching that exchange, she just knew she'd have a stupid grin on her face.
After two minutes of waiting, she'd had enough and squeezed herself in beside the stripper lesbian, earning her a rather hostile glare. Evalyn smiled at her sweetly, “Pardon me, I do 'ate to interrupt, but...” she turned to the coat girl who was looking a touch indignant herself, but the red flooding her cheeks ruined the effect “I 'ave a jacket I would like to drop off.” Evalyn spared a glance for the stripper girl who was smiling vengefully. Evalyn scrunched her own eyes in mock joviality and turned back to the coat girl. “And make sure nossing 'appens to my jacket, Julie! I would 'ate for Jasmin to find out.”
Without a backward glance for Julie's wide eyed horror, Evalyn left the cloak room and made a bee line for the stairs. She needed her drink, and now! If she'd had her tail, it'd be lashing, but obviously it wasn't needed much for the surrounding people to know she was pissed off and to be avoided at all costs. A good thing, since she was too busy fuming to really notice the people around her. All that mattered was the bar and her drink. Perhaps another white spider? Yes, that'd be nice. A white spider and an attentive bartender by the name of Seba-
“G'AH!”
“What the fuck?” Meredith whipped around as the woman slammed into her back, nearly knocking her through the goddamn bar. In fact the impact quite knocked the breath from her lungs. She eyed the other woman frostily. “You wanna look where you’re going!”
Fuck! Evalyn collected herself and glared at the new girl blocking her way. It was embarrassing enough to have blindly walked into something while not paying attention, but all the more to have her foolishness witness by this.... Evalyn frowned. Something was off. The girl in front of her was dressed as scantily as the girl below, but that wasn't it.
“It would 'elp if you did not get in ze way!” Evalyn jutted her chin up with an indignant sniff and immediately wished she hadn't for the scent that flooded her nostrils in that one breath.
“Oh, well… excuse me your Highness!” Meredith was already pissed off, now she was down right furious. Who did this woman think she was talking to her like that? Her goddamn doormat? She gave her a quick appraisal, skinny, clad in a delicate black lace dress, with a face like she could freeze the North Atlantic if she wanted to. She immediately felt her shoulders tighten, the muscles bunching like hackles rising.
“Maybe if you got rid of that bug up your ass people would be more inclined to give way.”
What IS zat scent?
You do not recognise it? Yves broke into her thoughts.
Evalyn frowned, it did seem familiar, if repulsive. She didn't much fancy standing around this creature, and not just for the inconvenience of her existence blocking her path. Something else told her to keep her distance, but damned curiosity made her want to puzzle everything out! Why did she seem so familiar? She tried casting her mind back through the week when the girls last comment hit home.
“'Bug up my ass'?” How dare she! “I am sorry, but I s'ink you just you should check up your own arse. You might be surprised at what resides zere!”
Meredith rolled her eyes. “Uh, God… you’re French aren’t you?”
Evalyn glared, then grinned as she spoke, “Mais bien sûr! Je suis française. Et toi? Tu es une chienne americaine?” The pitiful girl thinks to insult her by calling her French? Evalyn could have laughed! She-
Evalyn froze as her own words echoed in her ears.
Ze jogger! Ze dogless dog woman!
No more smoking for you after six.
Oh shut up, I was referring to where I recognise the scent from.
Yes, I know. Zat is why I say no more smoking. I worked zat out before you even bumped into 'er! And zat was borrowing your senses!
Evalyn glared inwardly, cursing Yves under her breath.
Meredith scrunched up her nose, she knew a little French from high school so she could just about follow some of what she’d rattled off. Something like ‘of course I’m French and you?’ She wasn’t sure about the rest, apart from ‘American’, but her tone had been enough to suggest that it wasn’t exactly complementary. She took a threatening step towards the woman, she could probably skewer this skinny bitch on her six-inch heel and still be able to walk.
“What did you just call me?”
Evalyn straightened, pulling her head back and trying her best to keep from breathing in without losing any ground, but unfortunately she knew that was near impossible to do that without losing some dignity. Common “common sense” would say she should sacrifice one of the two, but Evalyn's common sense told her to suck it up. She'd already looked the fool once tonight because of this... girl?
She help up a finger, warning the girl to stay back, forced a smile to her face and instructed herself to breath normally. “I called you nossing to concern yourself wiz,” Her smile slipped a bit as she observed her compromised personal space and wrinkled her nose. “What you should concern yourself wiz is buying more perfume.” She must own a whole pack of dogs to smell so bad, but there was nothing on her to suggest she even owned a pet, excepting the purse clutched in her fist, and that was cat fur!
Funny thing... she didn't smell so strong here now as she had when she was jogging the other day.
*What?* Meredith took a discreet sniff at her shoulder but she smelled fine to her, in fact she was wearing perfume - the good stuff, that Gail had bought for her birthday last year.
“Oh I’m not concerned, wiz anyting you have to say,” she said mockingly, “and at least I don’t smell like… a Parisian bordello!”
When she was jogging, she would 'ave been perspiring. Ze smell of perspiration is generally stronger. came Yves.
What are you suggesting? Zat she is ze dog scent?
Only silence answered her, but she knew what Yves meant. Werewolf. He used to know a werewolf before they met – perhaps this was a similar scent? Oddly enough, Yves had also been friends with that werewolf, though Evalyn couldn't imagine how he'd managed to put up with the smell!
Do you sink she knows?
You could always ask her! Yves replied, amusement tinging the edge of his thought. Evalyn looked at the woman before her and decided, without the sarcasm of Yves suggestion to assist her, that she would do no such thing.
Ignoring the woman's poor attempt at a French accent and insult, Evalyn quirked her head and asked bluntly. “Do you own a dog?” It was as good as any other question she could think of to confirm things for herself.
Meredith was confused. Maybe it was the French thing, but this woman was Odd. “A dog… what? What has that got to do with you? Conducting a survey of all the people you’re rude to? Are you a cat or a dog person? No, I do not own a dog. Yes I am a smoker. Twenty-one, and I was born in the state of Mind-Your-Own-Fucking-Business!”
Evalyn nodded to herself once in confirmation, then couldn't help but smirk at the irony. She kind of liked the girl. Werewolf. Whatever you call them! One thing she had to wonder - did the personality of a werewolf affect the human, or was this one just naturally a bitch? She chuckled a little at that musing, then composed herself when she saw the look of the other woman. If she was pissed before, she was surely about to rip Evalyn's throat out now!
“I'm sorry,” Evalyn apologized – an odd thing - tasted strange in her mouth – then let her eyes drift to the girl's purse again when she felt another rare feeling. Sympathy?
“Do you still 'ave a cat?”
“Christ Almighty!” Meredith was ready for walking away, this woman was weird. Bitchy and then suddenly Little Miss Animal Lover? She should walk away, but this was her spot goddamn it! She’d been here first and she’d be damned if she was gonna be shooed away by this oddball.
“Yes, I have a cat!” Actually that wasn’t exactly accurate. For a start Thomas J had never actually been her cat, he was a stray, but she and Gail had fed him and let him into their home whenever he dropped by. Mind you, they hadn’t seen him in over two weeks… “H-how? How did you know? I had a cat, I mean…” *Shit, don’t ASK her!* Too late.
Evalyn took a deep breath to compose herself, suppressing the horrid images that conjured up in her mind of a poor cat being torn limb from limb, and almost gagged. Unless this girl planned on moving soon, she was going to spoil the taste of any drink she got!
With a sigh, Evalyn nodded to the girls purse. “I noticed the fur on your purse.” She sniffed wryly, “I 'ave a cat of my own. Fur gets everywhere.”
She raised her eyes back up to level with the girls. Evalyn didn't really want to ask the next question, but she couldn't help herself. At the very least she had to know when it happened. “So when did you first turn?”
“When did I… turn what?” Meredith frowned. This chick was seriously messed in the head, but then she was French, the strain of looking down her nose at everyone probably caused some permanent brain damage or something. “Are you, you know?” she tapped a finger against her temple, “a little bit slow? Do you have a care worker I can contact?”
Evalyn frowned. Maybe she'd pinned this girl wrong? That or she hadn't turned yet, in which case she must sound stupid to the ignorant girl's ears. Now didn't that rankle!
The discomfort of this girl's presence was finally beginning to overpower her curiosity. Time to just get her drink, then get away.
“Forget eet!” She said brusquely, turning from the girl and laying a hand gently on a guy's shoulder who was also at the bar on the girls left. He turned to peak over his shoulder at the hand then peered up into Evalyn's purring eyes.
“Pardon moi, mais....” She glanced briefly at the bar to finish the sentence. He smiled, casting an appreciative glance over her as he stepped aside, saying something appropriate about her being a beautiful woman and how he'd loath to get in her way. He even offered to pay for her drink! Evalyn heard the girl scoff beside her and slipped up to the bar, purposely bumping her a little in the process.
Meredith’s frown darkened, aside from the general rudeness she didn’t understand why this woman’s presence irritated her so, nor why she just had to bump her back - tit for tat. But the mere thought of backing down, of ceding any kind of ground - even half an inch of booty space at the bar, stuck in her craw.
A low, threatening growl reverberated in the back of her throat. Some women couldn’t help it, they turned the feminine charm on and off like a goddamn faucet. Stroking the male ego like a fur coat, without a single thought as to the possible consequences of such behaviour. That their agreeable smiles might be interpreted as compliance or that something might be demanded in exchange for their so-called acts of gallantry. Meredith liked to leave them with no doubt and if they thought she was a bitch, all the better. They’d leave her the fuck alone then.
“Why don’t you just go the whole hog?” she muttered under her breath. “Flash him your tits, maybe he’ll buy you dinner too?"
Evalyn rolled her eyes, but turned her charming smile to the girl. “My dear, if I wanted dinner too, I would not need to flash my tits. I control zis situation, not 'im,” she glanced briefly at the man who'd made way for her and saw him chatting with a friend who was now openly watching her. Evalyn smirked, “quite contrary to what you might think.
“Now you...” Evalyn gave the girl an appraising look that mingled with pity. She looked ready to explode in a fury, but Evalyn wasn't concerned that she couldn't handle her. There was no full moon tonight. “You send an 'orribly mixed message. What do you want?” She paused briefly to accept her drink, two fingers of Ardbeg Uigeadail, from the female bartender, and sighed. “You are utterly clueless in so many ways, but you 'ave my pity.”
“Your pity?” Meredith snorted, this woman was damaged, especially if she really believed she was in control of anything. And if anyone was giving mixed signals here it was her. But that was typical of French women, wasn’t it? Saying yes when they meant no, and no when they meant yes? Pouting and sulking like little girls and expecting the whole world to pander to their whims. “Thanks, that means so very much!”
“Bonne nuit!” Evalyn ignored her dripping sarcasm, gesturing vaguely with her glass in salut, “You 'ave some interesting ones to come. Try to 'ave fun when you can.” She threw the girl a sly wink and slipped away from the bar before she thought she might suffocate. The single malt scotch helped only a little to kill the surrounding air, but she meant to scour her throat good, far, far away. Which bar was Sebastian attending tonight?
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