"Oh, just fine. You?"

"Well a vampire appeared on my balcony, but this morning I decided to indulge myself and bought some chocolate, so it probably evens out."

He laughs.

She... attempts to smile at this, notices she isn't making it all the way there, and promptly stops.

Right, let's attempt a thing she can definitely do, then.

"Speaking of - uh, am I likely to get attacked by another vampire that doesn't care about whether I live or not?"

"Hmm?"

"You mentioned fighting over - people that were tasty. I'd really not rather be in the middle of two vampires fighting over what to do with me."

"Oh. I'd win. But as far as I know there's nobody else in town to begin with, and you were pretty hard to find."

"Okay. Just please win before I get eaten. What thing did me in? The doctor with the high success rate?"

"That was the big clue, yes."

"Ah. Thought so." She sighs a little, sadly. Yeah, she's probably going to need to knock that off. The thought makes her a bit sick. "Did you notice the magic on the pumps and wells in the city?"

"Yes, but it didn't help me find you, I was already looking into the magic doctor by the time I noticed."

"I guess my wards gave me away after that? Or you caught me healing someone."

"The wards were a clue, yeah."

"All that and they didn't even work."

"Oh, I would've had a much harder time if I hadn't been specifically carrying you home after you passed out."

She raises her eyebrows.

"... I'm not seeing how that would have helped?"

"A vampire who is very good at shapeshifting can turn into mist. Turning back is much harder. But getting stuck isn't completely hopeless, because although clouds of mist don't have fangs, we can drink from someone who breathes us. I've done it often enough to notice that when someone breathes me I can move their body like it was mine. Got me past your wards and saved you awkward questions about being carried home and put to bed by a tall handsome stranger."

She opens her mouth, then when no sound comes out, she closes it. She stares at him.

He did what???

"If you need to go throw up some more, I can leave you to it," he offers cheerfully.

Avethana leans forward in her chair and buries her face in her hands. She's shaking.

"Could. Could you not throw how you've been stalking me in my face as I freak out about how you moved me around like a puppet," she requests, in a surprisingly even tone. "Let's. Let's keep the meltdowns divided."

"Well, too late now," he says, and he turns into a large grey owl and flies away.

She turns out to not need to go throw up some more, in favor of drawing herself a bath and scrubbing herself raw. She does not feel clean she does not feel clean he was in her and walked her around like he was her and he could just do it again whenever he liked and aaaaaa.

Luckily it's been a while since he bit her, so she has access to her magic again. She can heal the marks she'd scrubbed into her skin and magic away the redness around her eyes from all of the crying. In fact, she can add a sound dampener to her wards so she's allowed to cry without stifling herself. Yes, that seems like a good investment. Especially if he ever does end up biting her again. She - she doesn't want to be heard if he bites her again.

She has trouble making herself go out onto the balcony at the designated time, the night after. She stands frozen at the threshold to her balcony, fighting back the urge to run to get her bucket or break down into awful messy sobs on the floor again. He's - probably not going to actually show up tonight, right? Right? He hasn't once shown up two nights in a row - but she hardly has enough information to prove any sort of pattern, and damned if he's not hard to read, she still doesn't know what he wants. He hasn't bitten her again, but he offered to, and he hasn't said he won't, just that he'd like to keep her alive.

But she doesn't want to be ambushed on her way home from work. She doesn't want him to, to - possess a neighbor and walk in through her wards to get to her. She doesn't want to run and then find out that he got curious about her parents because she was so fun to talk to.

She forces herself out onto the balcony like she's forcing her hand onto a hot stove, with gritted teeth and tears half-shed and a blanket wrapped around herself, for good measure.

He does not show up that night.

The nights after that are easier. Not easy, but easier. She still brings the blanket, because it helps against the wind's chill and also it helps with everything else.

She decides that she should maybe just - ask him what he wants. And what he wants to do with her, so the lack of knowledge can stop wearing at her. At least if she knows he's going to bite her she can figure out coping mechanisms. Not knowing is worse.

It's another couple of days before he shows up again, swooping down as an owl to land on her balcony railing and then shifting to human form.