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Lamara and Henevi have some ridiculous acreage on their estate, so when Atalo gets in touch to ask if Lamara would like to go on a walk and suggests it as a safe place to do so, she happily agrees, and then awaits his arrival in the courtyard. She's wearing a loose blouse and skirt, much like she usually is when Atalo sees her, but in a nod to practicality, also a pair of athletic shoes, rather than sandals, and she's sitting on the front step of the main house with her cell phone, probably texting.
Atalo, meanwhile, for better or worse, is once again dressed in his leather armour, axe and shield slung on his back. His initial inclination had been to suggest a walk in a local park, but given recent news, he'd decided to err on the side of caution. He lets his Obfuscate fade once he's on the grounds and approaches Lamara quietly but in full view, Cerberus trotting along at his side. "Good evening." He greets her with a light smile, dipping his head politely. "How are you tonight?"
Lamara looks up at the signs of motion across the way, smiles at the sight of Atalo, and stands up as she slides her phone into a pocket on her skirt. (It has pockets!). She laughs softly as she comes down the last couple of steps and approaches him, arms rising for a hug. "Good evening, Atalo," she greets warmly. "I'm doing quite well. Yourself? I do hope you don't expect to need your armor and your axe for this walk."
He pauses, holds up a hand in a gesture for her to wait and then does remove the axe and shield from his back, followed by the armour which reveals a plain shirt and jeans underneath. For whatever reason, usual padding isn't a concern for him. At that point he does return the hug, carefully keeping his grip light. "I trust Henevi to keep her estate safe. Have you heard the recent news about the attacks?" His head cants as he registers her question. "And I am quite well, thank you for asking."
Lamara waits, patient in the way that old ghouls so often learn to be, but that doesn't stop her from watching with an amused smirk the whole time either. It's an expression that lightly pokes fun, but there's a fondness in the softness around her eyes and the slight tilt of her head to offset it. When he's done, and ready for the hug, she steps into it and pulls herself briefly but firmly against him. "It should be safe to leave your things here," she agrees. "A racoon is probably the most mischief they might expect. She gestures in one direction urging that they walk. "I've heard, but I think you don't have to worry about me, at least."
"I will worry. Just because so far only young and isolated vampires have been targetted, doesn't mean that'll remain the case." He considers Cerberus, then gestures for the dog to stay with his items. Atalo may miss a lot of subtleties, but a possibility Lamara wants just him for this walk has occurred to him. Lightly patting her shoulder, he starts onwards with the ghoul. "I am aware leather armour may seem old fashioned." He acknowledges, chuckling quietly.
"If someone is attacking young vampires, the most likely thing is that they're doing so out of a need to feed specifically on other vampires, right?" Lamara says with a small sort of shrug. As they reach the edge of the courtyard and step onto a path made of an intricate pattern of pavers, she slips a hand around his elbow and continues walking beside him. "If someone needs mortal blood, there's easier prey than a ghoul. If someone needs vampire blood, I'm not use to them. The leather armor is rather striking on you, though. I'm not complaining about how you look in it."
"Entirely possible." He acknowledges. "Or this is being done as part of a message, and Henevi is respected by many. Please stay as safe as you can, Lamara?" He glances at the hand on his elbow, then rests his own on it. A slightly amused smile gleams. "I wasn't aware it had taken your eye. I've no complaints however."
"I will be," Lamara says as her other hand comes up to briefly pat the one over her own. "I didn't come to be nearly two hundred by taking unnecessary risks. I'm just pointing out that the odds are probably low, in this case." She moves in silence for a few strides before glancing aside at Atalo and saying very casually, "did you ever consider it's not the armor that's taken my eye?"
Atalo nods to her at that. "Of course. I respect yours and Henevi's judgement. And this city is safer then most." The Gangrel's content to move along in silence until she speaks again and he pauses, canting his head to study her. "You are speaking about me?" He asks after a moment, tone curious and a tad thoughtful.
"Yes," Lamara says with a laugh. "I'm talking about you. I'll admit that as much as I was rooting for you with your friend Rosalyn, after you came to talk to me about it, there was a small part of me that was... hmmm..." she drifts off just briefly, searching for the right way to say it. "Not relieved, precisely. Hopeful?"
"Hm." He studies her more, face calm. "Hopeful for my attentions? You have my friendship, you're aware?" There is a slight crease of his cheeks though, mouth turning up in a slow smile. "Only a small part?" His tone is steady enough he may or may not be gently teasing.
"Yes, for your attention," Lamara says with a playful laugh. "I know that I have your friendship." She turns her head to look at him. "I have views on relationships, sex, and monogamy that tend to differ quite a bit from social norms. Only a small part, because most of me would have been happy for you. Compersion, we call it. When someone else's happiness makes you happy, even when it doesn't involve you."
He raises his free hand to her face, pausing in consideration before carefully rubbing the back of his fingers over her cheek. "You have it at the moment." He notes. "And putting others before yourself is something I agree with." The vampire works over the word carefully, tasting it. "Compersion. I will try to remember it." A moment's silence. "I am glad you told me." He adds, smiling again, even though he seem a touch unsure of himself.
Lamara's cheek turns into the touch by a few degrees. "I've had trouble telling how you feel about the situation," she admits. "It's a part of why I didn't say something earlier. Sometimes you're a closed book, Atalo."
"I am still learning how not to be. Would it help if I told you you're part of that learning? And I wasn't aware of how you felt until now. Oh. Is that why you kept bringing boxes of items to the shop?" He blinks. "You matter a great deal to me. Is that good to know?"
"We're all always learning, or should be," Lamara tells Atalo as she moves a step closer to him. "I'll admit that a part of why I keep coming by is looking for an excuse to see you. The boxes of things made a convenient excuse, but I did also have far too much stuff to get rid of, regardless of my feelings." She takes a breath, and the vampire's hearing can probably tell that her heart is beating a little faster in her chest. "I'll be direct, if that will help you? I adore you, Atalo. I want you, even. But you also need to understand that I'd never be happy being yours alone, either."
"You do not need excuses." He tells her simply. "Or reasons other then your own choice. You are quite welcome to my time. In fact, I hope you seek it out." His eyes study her, blinking slowly as he runs fingers over her neck, feeling her pulse. "Then I'll be direct too. I will kill anyone who harms you, if Henevi doesn't first. I will not hold back with you, if I'm who you want. I understand your words, yes." He watches her slowly, a faint growl sound in his throat as he strokes over her pulse again.
"If you think you'd be unable to accept me taking other lovers, beyond the obvious case of Henevi, then this would be a bad idea, Atalo," Lamara tells him in a gentle tone, even as she looks at him with a steady gaze, not shying away from eye contact. "That's a hard boundary for me. Think hard about whether you can accept it, because it won't change. And think, too, about what boundaries would be important to you, given that fact."
His lips slowly pull back, exposing a wide, pleased smile. If anything, her setting of that hard boundary is welcomed. "You will stand your ground against me then, Lamara? You'll face me as a full equal and speak if you wish to say something to me? My boundary? It's that you match me, that you stay true to who you are. I would want you entirely as you are, without ever acting against that to please me. I suspect that's not anything I'd ever need to worry about."
Lamara hears Atalo out, while all the while her smile grows. Eventually she takes another step closer to him. "As I'm standing my ground to you now, and telling you what you must accept if you want me?" she challenges him. "I'll do as you say, though you'll need to understand that often enough being who I am will mean pleasing you. Nearly two centuries of life serving the desires of others has made it a part of who I am."
"Exactly that, yes. And I accept it." He nods, turning to face her fully and moving a step closer himself. "And what about your own desires? I lack your experience Lamara. What can I offer you that you want?"
"You're a hunter, aren't you?" Lamara asks as a smile spreads and she moves closer still, stopping when she's just shy of their bodies coming into contact. "I want to know what it's like to be pursued by you. To be the focus of your centuries of drive and instinct, turned from destruction to affection. I want you to hunt for my desire, stalk it like your prey, and take it down beneath your fangs."
Fingers cup her cheek, drawing over her throat as his head cants, eyes a little bright and increasingly intent. "This isn't a hunt I've had for a long time. I'll relish the challenge." Fangs scrape her lips as he leans in.
Lamara's heartbeat is no doubt a rapid pounding in Atalo's ears, in time with the pulse in her throat, and she sucks in a breath as his lips and teeth touch hers. "Wait," she breathes out, barely managing it, before she puts her hands against his chest and pushes herself gently back, away from him. "I want this, too, but it's not a hunt." If he lets her, she takes another step back and gives him a devilish smile. "Will you give me a couple of minutes head start?"
"My dear Lamara." His eyes gleam by now, the predator she's managed to bring to the surface staring at her, fangs glinting. His voice, rather then being his usual calm, is hungry and with a hint of a pleased growl lurking beneath the surface. "You would very much need them. Make good use of them."
Lamara doesn't hesitate before she turns and heads off into the woods. She has no training at all when it comes to stealth, and she's not going to make the most challenging of prey, but that's not the point. It doesn't take long before she's out of sight.
He starts forward a single step when she runs off, the desire to chase straight away strong. But he stills the motion, waiting and giving the ghoul chance to flee. The promised moments pass and then the vampire starts heading for the treeline. He's not running. He's patient and savouring the chase and walks in a quick, but steady motion, seeing out signs of her passage.
She's not hard to track, having not made any real attempt to cover up her trail. If she had been trying, she wouldn't really have had the first idea where to start, so the trail is an obvious one, leading on a winding course through the woods, sticking mostly to where the underbrush seems thinnest.
It also isn't long before he starts picking up a scent of blood, where she snagged on brambles in the darkness. There's not much, and there was never a sound from her to protest the pain, but the scent is definitely there.
He stops, then sniffs the air, feeling a pang of hunger now blood is in the air. He moves to follow the trail but then stops. The woods are considered, as is the route through thin undergrowth the Ghoul has taken. Lips slowly curve into a grin and a sign of amusement. She's trying to lure him in now, spike his appetite. And he's quite happy to play that game, but if she wants a hunter...
Turning, he breaks into a faster motion, no longer following Lamara's trail, but aiming to predict where it'll lead and get ahead of her. And should he find that destination, he simply needs to wait, invisible and unheard against the forest backdrop.
Lamara slowed down after the brambles, taking more care with her course once it seemed like she had some distance. She's also not truly trying to evade Atalo, just to make the exercise an enjoyable one for them both. It makes her easy to predict, and soon enough she comes along exactly the trail that he was expecting, creeping along as quietly as she can in the dark, where her own senses aren't equipped to deal with the lack of light.
He waits, crouched and patient, even as his fingers twitch slightly in the desire to pounce. But he's had a few hundred years of experience, enough to learn self control here. And it's not until Lamara passes right by that he lunges, taking the Ghoul down to the ground and cushioning her impact with an arm, eyes gleaming in the dark as he regards her once again.
Lamara lets out a shriek as she gets pounced, but the realization that it is actually Atalo and not a bear or something means that it's joined with a restrained laughter, even as she struggles against him, doing her honest best to put up a fight. It's not one that she has any hope of winning, and she's smiling the whole time, but she resists. In case there's any question, though, she hisses out, "do it"
He softly growls at her, no malice in the sound, only satisfaction. Letting her efforts continue he ducks his head forward, hands resting on her shoulders and fangs sinking into her neck for the Kiss.
Lamara's struggling stops as the teeth find her throat, and instead of a scream she lets out a moan and goes limp. It's around this time that Atalo gets to discover one of the things that has made her a prized ghoul for most of two centuries: her blood. It's thick and potent, in a way rarely found in ordinary mortals. Rich and invigorating enough that even a small drink fills him more quickly than he would expect.
His eyes widen and nostrils flare as he discovers that fact. The taste is savoured, the small amount of Vitae he takes filling him all he needs. Licking the wound closed he sits back on his haunches, regarding Lamara with a faintly sated expression and giving her chance to regain herself.
When he finishes, Lamara lays breathing heavy on the ground. It takes a few moments for her to gather enough sense to speak again. When she does she says, "there's a stick jabbing me in the back, and I don't think I even care."
He laughs quietly, prowling over again and picking her up with apparent ease, rolling onto his own back to allow her to rest over him if she desires. "Did you find what you were looking for?" He asks, still savouring the taste of rich vitae.
She doesn't resist when he picks her up, or when he rolls over onto his own back, with her atop him. What she does is lean down to press her own lips firmly against his, as if that's the answer he might need to his question.
Fingers rest on the back of her head and the curve of her spine, carefully exploring. His return kiss is hungry, but clearly inexperienced. Or at least, he hasn't done this for a while.
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