Strangers in a Strange Land || Alejandro ||

[Evelyn van Buren]

Seated in the backseat of a cab in almost-stationary traffic two blocks from her destination, Evelyn examined the bullet in her hands as best she could without alarming the cab driver.

She glanced up as the cabbie peeked at her in the rear-view mirror, and she hastily lowered the bullet into the folds of her blood-red wool coat. She sat up, peering out the window. Whenever she was out in the city, she was always reminded of how utterly useless her decision to splash on a car had been.

Of course, in those few times she snuck away from her busy life to drive with reckless abandon down a highway headed to nowhere, the Porsche made a lot of sense. To her, there was nothing as exhilarating as speed. She disapproved of a lot of human inventions, but cars weren't one of them.

Guns, now, those were a whole other thing.

As the cab slowed in traffic, Evelyn turned the bullet over and over in her hands. 5.56 mm Silverite, engraved with the initials L.L. She glanced up at the cabbie, saw him throwing a rude hand gesture at next-door's passenger window and lifted the bullet to her nose.

At once, her world closed in around her. The bright colours and honks of cars and chatter of voices dimmed like someone had flipped a switch. Her visual and auditory perception was now only a vague humming in her mind. A new kind of tunnel vision overtook her, vision fueled by smells, smells that mapped out he world around her.

She didn't need to see the cabbie to know he was picking at something in his teeth. She could smell his foul breath change slightly. She could smell saltwater nearby - someone in a nearby car was crying. And then her olfactory sense faded into a hazy blur, leaving behind the only scent she cared about. The scent of a Vampire on the bullet.

He was here, nearby. She could tell that more clearly as the cab slowed and stopped in front of Asia de Cuba, a charming little restaurant on Madison Avenue. She got out after paying and tried to not feel overwhelmed by the noise of traffic. The bullet slipped into her coat pocket. She didn't need it any longer.

It was as if there was a trail of bright red dripping from the sidewalk into the restaurant, and right up to where he was probably seated. Now that she had his scent, she'd be noticing it wherever he'd been.

She wondered if that would unsettle him, and hoped it did.

Amused at the thought, Evelyn allowed her other senses to function fully again, stepping calmly into the restaurant and sailing gracefully right past the chipper waiter who turned to greet her. He gawked at her for a moment and she flashed him a cursory smile. "I'm just meeting someone."

She turned and walked on, taking the stairs up to the second level. At once she realized why this would be a great place to meet. The tables here were spaced out, affording some privacy in a public space. And at ten p.m., it was fairly deserted.

It had been about three days since her last meeting with Alejandro. He'd told her he'd be here for the next three nights, and so, in typical Evelyn-fashion, she'd decided to drag it out until the last possible moment just to keep him wondering.

She did not like being bargained with. She didn't like the idea of being in a price war with Vampires either.

She caught his scent before she saw him. The bullet he'd held had imprinted the Vampire's distinct smell in her memory. Evelyn glided between the tables toward him, one hand in a pocket of her coat, the other clutching a small purse looped over one shoulder.

"Evening, Mr. Cepero," she greeted him, taking off her coat and sinking into a seat across the small table he occupied. Because of the chilly weather, she wore a dark green sweater and matching scarf, paired with black trousers.

She reached into her pocket and pulled out the bullet, placing it calmly on the table between them where the silver gleamed under the pot lights. "You know, you should really be more cautious when you leave things."

Her eyes flashed somewhat devilishly at him. "It makes you surprisingly easy to track."

[Alejandro Cepero]

Alejandro sat, for the third night in a row, in the corner of the restaurant sipping a glass of wine, wearing a red button down shirt, a white tie and black vest, and black slacks, his jacket on the chair behind him. He had a bottle of fine Spanish red wine sitting in a bucket of ice, which by now had melted slightly. Not that it mattered really as the wine still remained cold, and Alejandro wasn't in any particular hurry. Though events around him were quickly heading for war, he knew there was little he could do about it these past few nights. Besides, being nocturnal, he had made the time for the meeting early in the evening. Gave him the rest of the night to hunt down his own, and feral lycans with increasing regularity. Even he, a man used to killing, used to the sights and sound of death, was beginning to become concerned with the increasing regularity of supernatural violence. With the internet and all manner of communication these people had these days, it was only a matter of time before the truth of their nature would be revealed to the general public. Then things would get... Alejandro took a heavier swig of his wine. He did not want to think about it.

Grabbing the bottle, he popped open the cork and poured it into the glass again. It appeared as though Miss van Buren was making it a point to make him wait to the very last moment. Two nights already, she had not shown up. It really didn't surprise him truth be told. She had struck him as a woman who likes to be in control. Since she had not been in control of the initial meeting (it had been a complete surprise, he caught her off guard, and even showed her one of his cards to show her what was at stake) it was understandable for her to take control of this. That suited him just fine to be honest. He had taken a pen and notebook, and had taken the time now afforded to him to simply enjoy his wine and write poetry. He had taken up writing again. He was nearly done with his next poem too, writing.

There is a field in the isle of Brehat,
That should I see it again, my only thought,
Would be of the girl with the silken black hair,
And my earnest desire that she were still there...

Cosette... After all these years, he still missed her. He looked into the restaurant, his eyes growing misty and distant. For a while, he was no longer in the present. He was in late 18th century France. In the distance he swore he could see Cosette walking towards him, but something was off. Her hair... It was brown. Blinking, he saw the red coat and the face of the acting Alpha of the Lycans, Evelyn van Buren. He sighed, took a sip of his wine, set the glass down on the table, and closed his notebook. He was back in the year 2012. Come now Alejandro, now is not the time for old sentimentality

"Good evening Miss. van Buren. It is a pleasure to see you again." He replied, a light smirk forming, but returning neutral as she took a seat before he could stand and pull her chair out for her. Pity, it appeared from the start this meeting would be mainly business. Too bad, he wouldn't mind pleasant conversation for a change. Well... Perhaps they would still converse politely together.

As she delivered her somewhat lightly veiled threat, he couldn't help but notice how her eyes lit up. In truth, if it weren't for that she basically stated he could no longer hide from her, it would be rather cute. But Alejandro was anything but threatened. In fact, he was lightly amused. Grabbing the bullet, looking at it for a moment then back at her, he grinned slightly as he put it into the pocket of his black vest. "Ah, thank you very much. I'll keep that in mind." He'd definitely have to put that into consideration the next time he returns home. However, the thought of this particular lycan being able to find him did not seem entirely awful.

Leaning back into his chair he picked up the overturned empty glass on his right and set it upright, grabbing the bottle of wine and uncorking it, and filled the glass with the sweet, dark red liquid. When full he corked the bottle once more, put it into the bucket, and slid the glass across the table, motioning fer her to have some. He then took a sip of his own wine, to show her that he had not poisoned it. "I have a question. Are you sure you're not Spanish? The way you continued to put this meeting off for mañana reminded me far too much of my countrymen to be a coincidence." It was a light joke, lighten the mood of the threat she had given. Always best to start these kinds of things with a bit of levity. It had been far too long since Alejandro had allowed himself to do so, but a meeting in which a good impression could aid the hunters seemed like just as good a time as any.

[Evelyn van Buren]

If she'd thought he would find her very indiscreet hint of a threat at all alarming, she was disappointed.

At least, he didn't appear to be too taken aback. Maybe he was just good at hiding his expressions. Or maybe the idea of her being able to track him all over the city didn't seem too foreboding. Evelyn frowned just slightly at this. It was somewhat insulting, truth be told, if that were the case. She was a little too used to terrifying most people she worked with.

She watched that infuriating smile cross his face as he put the bullet away and tried not to wonder how she must seem to him, because her frosty demeanor was clearly malfunctioning. He sounded perfectly cavalier as he acknowledged her snarky threat and poured them both glasses of wine the deep crimson of blood. For a second, as he held the bottle suspended over their glasses, the overhead lights gleamed off its surface and reflected almost demonically in his dark eyes. With a start, she remembered that he was, after all, a Vampire. One of them. Her eyes flicked to the blood-red wine and she felt her stomach clench even though she knew and could smell that it really was just wine.

Her fingers caught the rim of the glass he slid toward her, and circled it aimlessly for a moment. As if he seemed to notice her inner turmoil, he sipped from his own glass, and she followed suit, mentally berating herself for letting her paranoia get the best of her. He had no reason to harm her. Yet.

But this was how she'd always lived, this was how she'd survived, by catering to her gut reaction, listening to the instincts that now told her to end her business and escape the Vampire's presence. She'd been training herself to obey these callings for so long, it was with difficulty that she remained in her seat and defied them. She would stay to sort out this deal, and then she would get out, she decided, biting the inside of her cheek and taking a less tentative second sip of her drink.

She glanced up as he spoke, and though she smiled at the jest, she really wanted to frown instead. What exactly was he doing, socializing? It was not something she'd ever encountered with a Vampire before.

It wasn't like Evelyn had never had acquaintances outside of the Lycan pack. She had several human associates she was somewhat fond of, and she'd often go out on the weekends with them. They helped in more than her PR work for EAI. Most of her Lycan colleagues – even those she'd once considered friends – were wary of overstepping their boundaries with her out of respect for the natural deference required to a Beta, and especially now that she had overtaken Alpha duties, they'd become even more distant.

It was lonely at the top. Small wonder she'd never wanted to be there. But she’d had no choice. A pack without a leader was just asking to be attacked.

She realized suddenly that she'd zoned out, staring absently at the tabletop between them. She shook her head, the steel in her golden-brown eyes that had misted away returning slowly, as she moved back to the professional manner in which she'd entered. She doubted he'd missed her mental vacancy, however, and she'd rather he not know why she felt suddenly disquieted. "My apologies, you just reminded me of something."

She tucked a wandering curl of brown hair behind one ear and finally said, "I'm part French. We're infamous for being overly sensitive...or passionate, depending on whether you see it as a weakness or not. For my part," she flashed him a brief, somewhat taunting, smile, "I was merely trying to prove a point."

[Alejandro Cepero]

Sipping his wine, he took the quiet moment between the two of them to study his lycan company. Her hazel eyes had gone foggy for a moment and she was glancing down at the table. Calmly, he sipped his wine, and scanned the restaurant for a moment. She came at the perfect time really, when most of the dinner crowd had long since departed, and all that really remained were the bar goers downstairs and a few scattered leftovers upstairs. They were, for all intensive purposes, alone. And she was off balance. Most likely she was used to being the one entirely in control (or he at least gathered as much with the way she put the meeting off to the last possible moment) and didn't enjoy being in the dark on something. Or, at the very least, not used to someone who doesn't fear her in the slightest.

Alejandro was, undoubtedly, different than anyone this woman had likely dealt with before. For one he was a vampire, something she undoubtedly was much more used to fighting than conversing with. On top of that, he was a vampire who allied with humans, and hunted his own kind. He rarely knew anyone he didn't set off balance.

When she replied that he reminded her of something, he took another sip of his wine and thought about that for a moment. What did he remind her of? He'd have to ask about that later... Because as she tucked a lose curl behind her ear and mentioned she was part french he couldn't help but give a light smirk. In truth, it was a bit of both. In his experience they were both passionate and hyper sensitive, but on very specific things.

With a light smirk and a spark in his grey-blue eyes, Alejandro replied. "Aye, I won't argue with that assessment. And let me guess, the point you were trying to make was... Hmm, let me see if I can guess it properly..."

He put both of his elbows on the table, and his hands under his chin, squinting his eyes as though studying her for a moment. After a few seconds, he leaned back and crossed his arms, smiling, "You are the one firmly in control, the fact that I got the meeting with you at all was a fluke, and you are here only because you are interested in seeing this business deal through no?". Then, in near perfect French, he continued. "Am I correct Madame? Or did I miss the point?"

[Evelyn van Buren]

Evelyn matched his studying look with uplifted eyebrows as she waited for him to speak. When she'd been younger, having people stare at her had unnerved her, but she was used to it now. Humans in the know, especially, liked to stare at her as if they would see a wolf coiled inside her eyes, peering back, if they stared hard enough.

When he gave his assessment of her, she simply blinked. Inside, she was rather amused, despite her constant vigilance around him. She had, after doing her homework on him, learned he was at least trilingual, but she wasn't expecting him to use it.

The fact that he had threw her somewhat. It showed a level of amicability he had no obligation to display. Speaking to someone in their own language was a very subtle way of telling them you were trying to keep them at ease.

Keeping her discomfort off her face, she replied in English, just to nudge him back to a professional level because she wasn't entirely okay with getting friendly with a member of the opposing faction quite as easily as he seemed to be.

"You forgot one thing," she remarked, taking a sip and finishing off her glass of wine. "I'm also here to try and understand your intent. Make no mistake, what side you help is your business, but I would still like to know I'm not about to walk on cracking ice, should you turn out to be a flake." Truth be told, some tiny part of her that held on to her deeply embedded dislike of Vampires expected this to be a huge con, an elaborate game played by the Vampire side. Get her to trust a Vampire and then disadvantage her. She could see them doing something like that.

She reached over for the bottle of wine, pouring herself another glass, and then tipped some into his nearly-empty one as well. Leaning back in her seat and tilting her head slightly to the left, she surveyed him with open curiosity in her eyes. “Why do you make all this effort for the humans?” She hesitated a second and then added, “What did the Vampires do to you?”

[Alejandro Cepero]

So she wanted to understand his intent? That was fair. Alejandro reasoned that she was understandably paranoid, as his brethren were well known for their tricks and she was a very high ranking lycan. It was a shame that the two races had strayed so far from the peace treaty.... Oh how hard they had worked on it only to see it fall apart in less than a generation... But regardless, her animosity towards what he was wasn't taken personally by him. He'd be the same way too in her shoes, trying to make sure the entity in front of him who was supposed to be an enemy, yet claimed otherwise, was what they said they were.

Taking another sip of his wine, his eyebrows arched when she asked him why it was he had turned against his own kind. To him, that was a very, very personal question. Only four people alive knew why he did what he did, and one of them only because she had more right to know than the others. He looked directly at Evelyn for a second, remaining silent, his face stoic and emotionless. Should he tell her? Not all of it... She had to earn the darker part of the story... He didn't want to even give her the simpler answer but in order to gain her trust he had to do it. He also wasn't much of a liar... She would catch him immediately if he said anything false.

Taking a deep breath, Alejandro nodded at her in thanks for filling his glass and took a sip. Placing it down on the table, he looked back up at the beautiful lycan and began his story. "Merci beaucoup. Now, normally I do not like to tell the story, and whether you believe it or not is entirely up to you, but what I tell you is the truth. As you know, I am not a pure blood vampire. I was turned many years ago, during the French Revolution. I must have been... Thirty-Five or so at the time... There was a riot mid-october when I was in Paris with my wife, and I did not know that among them was a pure blood and her little... Coven doesn't do it justice, it was more of a cult she had around herself. She was... Insane to say the least. Anyway, they attacked us as I attempted to take my wife Cosette back to Aragon with me, where she'd have been safer. Next thing I knew we were surrounded, and I was hit on the head."

He grabbed his glass and took a heavy swig, then leaned forward a bit on the table, looking Evelyn dead in the eye. "For nearly ten years, I served as that bitch's pet, having suffered amnesia from the attack. But when I found out about my past and asked her what became of my Cosette, she simply laughed and informed me of how she had allowed her men to rape and devour her whilst she turned me into one of her own. Shots were fired, and needless to say on that day I swore that I'd spend the rest of my days defending my country, the country of which I had served as an officer, from monsters such as her. I returned to Spain, and offered my service to the crown..."

He sighed and leaned back into his chair, grabbing his glass of wine but stopping himself just before he took a sip. Looking into the blood red liquid, he saw within it a ghost from the past. Several ghosts actually. For a moment, he was gone, his eyes glazed over and biting his lower lip, his mind and heart elseware. Snapping himself out of it however, he looked back up at Miss Van Buren.

"But even as a servant to the Spanish crown I ended up fighting their enemies instead of my own. Devotion to all of humanity came... Much later..." He then took a smaller sip of his wine and set the glass back down on the table. "It is a story I rarely part with..."

Remaining silent for a few moments, he thought of something else he had noticed about his current drink partner. Looking back up at Evelyn, he began. "And what of you, Miss Van Buren. You are the current leader of the lycans no? That would make you alpha by all accounts. And yet... You call yourself the beta, as if you do not want the full command of the pack even though you already have it. Why? You are, for all intensive purposes, already the alpha, and according to my sources you are doing very well. Why haven't you taken the title?"

[Evelyn van Buren]

Evelyn had listened with her head slightly tilted, like he was telling a mildly entertaining story instead of one that made her cringe inside.

She'd guessed the only thing that would push someone to turn on their own kind would have to be a severe loss. The loss of whim, she hadn't known, till now. Some part of her wished she hadn't asked, because knowing the fate that had befallen this man's wife had made Evelyn, for possibly the first time in her life, feel sorry for a Vampire.

No human deserved that, no Lycan or Vampire deserved that kind of death. She was aware her face had probably paled, though her features were as even as ever. Evelyn had long since stopped showing her alarm for most things.

This type of thing didn't shock her enough to break that. She had expected something so foul from most Vampires she'd ever met. They were all cunning, deceitful, immoral demons. Although, she thought somewhat contritely, maybe not all of them were that way.

She peeled her gaze off her glass and looked up at the Vampire across from her. He'd fallen silent, staring into his own glass. If what he'd said was truly real, then it explained perfectly why he'd wish to aid the humans in their doomed fight. Evelyn herself had taken steps to keep her own Lycans in line to make the Hunters' lives easier, but she was aware it was still too little.

So did this mean she should trust him? Her trust would have to be based on the validity of his tale. She stared at him curiously, but could detect nothing more than a foggy sadness in his eyes. Could such a look be faked? She doubted even he was that good an actor, Vampire or not.

She shifted in her seat, mulling over his story again. Idly, she wondered if perhaps his wife wasn't as dead as he'd imagined. Who was to say that the words of a devious female Vampire were always true?

Then she wondered about his last few remarks. The devotion to humanity coming later. What did that mean? What turned his anger from revenge to charity? She didn't know if he'd want to elaborate, so perhaps that was a story best left for later.

It was somewhat discomfiting to even be sitting here and listening to a Vampire's life story in the first place. Yet he had shown her what was clearly a very personal aspect of himself.

Her musing was cut short. He asked her a question in return. That was only fair, she supposed. She shifted in her seat again, tapped a nail on the side of her wine glass, and thought about her answer for a moment, staring down at the gleaming tabletop.

"It's, well, to answer that, you should know that generally when a new alpha needs to be found, or if the people are discontent, or the current Alpha isn't doing the job well, all eyes turn to the Beta and those near him or her. It's almost a guarantee that the Beta will, at this time, want to step in, challenge the old Alpha if need be. In this case, I was supposed to take charge, since we had no Alpha since the death of the last." She bit the inside of her cheek, recollected her thoughts and went on, lifting one hand to scratch the back of the other.

"I stepped in, but, really, the only reason I rose to Beta was because I'd helped the last Alpha get to where he was. It wasn't because I fought tooth and nail to get there. I was favoured," she said, and her voice came out unintentionally low. She looked up at him, and a hint of a smirk came to her face again. "I'm very good at pulling the strings backstage. Nobody would ever bother to watch me back when I was a nobody Lycan. I could do things, get people on the Alpha's side, so he had supporters when he rose against the previous Alpha.. Call me persuasive," she added, one shoulder rising in a shrug. "But now, when I was shoved into the foreground, all those skills went to nothing. An Alpha is very closely watched. There is always someone else wanting your spot, always someone to criticize everything you do or say. So many people wanting you to do this one thing or that other thing for them. Nobody will believe the position isn't making you happy. Being Alpha is..." She paused, trying to find the right word. "It's a crowning glory, i think that's what it's called in English? You've hit the top, so therefore you must obviously be happy. An Alpha isn't allowed to complain. And once you're Alpha, you can't quit without losing your reputation. For a Lycan in a pack, reputation means a lot. We're very close-knit. Only very old Alphas have any dignity left when they step down. Someone my age...I'd hate to hear the stories they'd spin about me."

She smirked again, taking a sip of her wine, though she really found nothing funny about the situation. "So I'm not the Alpha, but since we can't survive without some sort of figurehead, I'm just a Beta with extended authority. I've every right to exercise the Alpha's powers, but the one thing I can't do is choose another Alpha. That, only the people can do."

She stopped there, trying to deduce if she'd given away anything she ought not to have. She doubted it though. Most of it had just been her personal grievance with her current predicament.

[Alejandro Cepero]

Alejandro listened closely to Miss Van Buren's explanation, genuinely interested in why it was this woman did not simply take the position of Alpha she had clearly worked very hard to be near getting, and was highly qualified for the job. Rarely had Alejandro met a lycan who could actually control her urges to not kill him on sight, much less actually sit through his own story and have an attempt at pleasant conversation. It was a pleasant surprise that she had even responded honestly to his question, or at least he assumed she was honest. However, Evelyn was a very old lycan from what he had heard (arguably about 100 years older than he was), so it shouldn't surprise him as much as it did that she had learned to be civil even when she was so obviously hiding her discomfort. She did a good job of it, but the color of her face was a dead giveaway.

Taking a sip of his wine, he had to think of a response for what she had said for a moment. There was a nagging feeling he had that he just couldn't shake off about the whole situation, one thing that just didn't click for him. "Pardon, but let me see if I get this straight. The very woman who wanted to prove how much in control she was by making me look like a lonely fool for three nights doesn't want the most powerful lycan position in New York because she's afraid of what others will think of her? Well, I guess the french really are sensitive about some odd things no?" He shook his head with a light grin on his face, waving his hand as if to show that it was meant entirely in jest. Placing the wine glass back on the table, he looked back up at her with a mild lightheartedness in his blue-grey eyes.

"Well, I can understand not wanting to be in the limelight like that. Being at the top, or working behind the scenes all the time, gets lonely. I've had more than my fair share of that..." More than Evelyn would ever know actually. As the king's enforcer in a highly catholic country, his very existence was degraded to little more than rumor, he wasn't allowed to have much of a social existence for fear of being killed by the church. Also, it is difficult to be friendly with people when most would never know how hard you worked for them...

Thinking back on what she had said earlier, Alejandro put a small grin back on his face and looked at her hazel eyes once more. They were pretty, full of life if a bit cold, but they were still alive. Because she was truly alive. Him... He wished there was a way he could be again... But those thoughts were far from his head at that moment.

" So, you mentioned earlier I reminded you of something. May I ask what? Or do I have to guess again? Humor me a bit, allow me to guess...". He leaned forward and again placed his elbows on the table, his thumb on his chin and his clenched hands partially covering his smirk. " I want to say... An annoying neighbor you may have? Or perhaps that one man in the office who gets under your skin... Maybe a former lover long gone?" He winked at that, and then laughed as he leaned back. He wondered what kind of response that would elicit. Should be humorous, undoubtedly.

[Evelyn van Buren]

She felt her cheeks warm as he began speaking. He was right; her actions did indeed contradict what she had shown him of herself over the last week.

She didn't interrupt to correct him, however. She wasn't sure how she would. And she didn't think she should either. Explaining her own motivations and personal fears was not something she wanted to go into with him. There were things that weighed heavily on her conscience that held her back from making a leap into the very open position of the most powerful Lycan in New York City. It wasn't entirely that she did not want to. Yes, she was happier working behind the scenes, but there was more to her hesitation over becoming Alpha than that.

She looked up into his eyes again as he mentioned that he knew well enough what it was like working in the limelight and backstage. That he understood how lonely it was. And for some reason, that unsettled her. She broke eye-contact and took a quick sip of wine instead, not wanting him to see the flicker of acquiescence that must surely have flashed across her features.

Because he was right. It was lonely at the top. When you didn't know if you could trust the people working right beneath you, when you held one too many secrets shut inside your heart, one too many strategies for one too many problems that never seemed to stop brewing in every direction...yes it got overwhelmingly lonesome. Sometimes she wished she had never met Viktor, that she had remained a nobody Lycan in the low ranks of a new pack. But nothing lasted forever. And that little nobody had grown up and fought wits with the best of them until she'd secured herself a spot at the top.

She had been a skewed nobody. A nobody with too much blood on her hands. Too many mistakes due to her sheer inexperience leading a pack. Too many mistakes she didn't want to see repeated again.

She wondered if a Beta had ever stepped down before. Usually they never did. But she'd lost the zeal that had kept her going. She no longer knew why she woke up every day so eager to face whatever new disaster the Vampires or Hunters threw her way. Maybe it was a side-effect of the constant threat of war. Maybe she was being more worn down day by day.

The hairs at the back of her neck prickled and she lifted her chin, catching Alejandro watching her with curious eyes. Evelyn blinked at him, almost nonchalantly, as he spoke, asking her who she'd been reminded of.

He seemed extremely amused by the whole situation, and she couldn't figure out why this wasn't as uncomfortable for him as it was for her. Perhaps because he was Turned, and had not grown up being taught the usual doctrine governing the gulf between the two races. He was lucky that way, she reflected, but also somewhat blinded by optimism.

Her eyebrows rose as he went on. Despite herself, her lips twitched. Did she even remotely look like the sort of woman who would keep a lover around? Her past entanglements had always been very much like her decisions in her professional life - quick and never brought up again.

She smiled dryly, letting him know she was humoring him. He seemed to flit from mood to mood somewhat alarmingly, and she gave up on questioning his reasoning.

"Pray you never remind me of one of them. I'd be long gone were that the case," she remarked somewhat bluntly. She rolled her shoulders, feeling the vestiges of a long day's exhaustion catching up.

Somewhat curious, she fixed him with narrowed eyes. "You have a strange sense of humor for a Vampire, Mr. Cepero. I don't think I've ever had any mention of romance in a conversation with ah, your kind before. They usually seem to think Lycans mate like animals." The thought made her smile widen somewhat disbelievingly.

[Alejandro Cepero]

Alejandro smirked. She was actually humoring him, which truth be told came as a light surprise. Only slightly though, as he had figured that he had gained her attention , and a bit of her curiosity. The fact that she was still sitting there proved that she, at the very least, wanted to try to wrap her head around what kind of person he was. Was it really that hard to believe he was simply being sincere? Well, he was fortunate enough that he did not remind her of any of the above, as Alejandro wasn't sure he would want to be around if he did.

When she mentioned his strange sense of humor, and how most vampires thought her kind mated, he couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and his smirk widened. After a few moments of looking at Evelyn's eyes, he chuckled. THAT he wasn't expecting. "My my, that sounded almost candid." Alejandro's eyes shined with a light mischief he hadn't felt for a long time. This conversation just got interesting.

"Yes, many of my kind tend to think that way. But as you may have already gathered Ms. Van Buren I am not like much of my kind. I, for one, don't make judgements of others based on their... Race." He almost said affliction. Almost. That's what he had always considered vampirism anyway. A curse. He sometimes forgot that there were people born supernatural... That this state of being wasn't forced upon them as it was on him. Evelyn, she was a pureblood lycan. Being supernatural was all she had ever known. Uncorking the bottle of wine, he offered to fill up her glass, then filled up his own and set the bottle, nearly empty now, back into the bucket of ice. "I tend to form my own opinions based on my own experiences, not what others tell me. But if lycans truly did mate like animals, remind me how that would be a bad thing?" He smiled a cheeky grin as he took a sip from his now refilled wine, winking.