Arlo James

See what it's like to be a vulture's lunch

That query as to whether or not he had ever been pepper sprayed momentarily saw the vampire pause, his features shifting slightly into an incredulous look. Pepper-sprayed? Him? Not likely. Well, he'd been hit with tear gas and one of those giant hoses police resorted to for crowd control before but as far as pepper spray went that was one life experience he was yet to have. Really he was mostly sure he could go without it. The vampire allowing his head to shake slightly as Mi attempted to recount exactly what it was like to be sprayed with the stuff. The young woman seeming so sure it would work. Arlo hardly willing to put as much faith in it. Sure it would hurt but....what would it do to someone like him? Someone who healed so quickly that pepper would barely have a chance to take effect before his eyes expelled it? Even if it did stop him she'd never be fast enough to call the police before he got to her, even without his teleportation powers. As for running away, hell, the thought was almost ridiculous. Vampires were faster then any other species. He'd outrun her within seconds. Milliseconds even. Yet here she was, convinced she was going to be saved by pepper spray. God she was going to get herself killed and it was going to be his fault because he didn't tell her. Yet just how to go about that was a conversation he hadn't exactly been prepared for. The only time he'd ever had to have the 'im a vampire' discussion had been with his parents. That was a few years ago now and yet he could still.....remember the looks on their faces. That pain had been so raw. Even now, after all this time some part of him ached for that family he'd lost. He remembered his mother's tears, his little sisters terrified look and more then that he remembered his father throwing him out. Dead to him. That's exactly what his father had said. Arlo was dead to him. The irony of it hardly lost on him after all this time. Arlo never having spoken to anyone from his family again after that night. Eventually he'd stopped trying. Now here he was again. Facing that conversation once more.


God where to start. How to start. Maybe he should just be direct about it. He was going to freak her out otherwise. The man almost unable to believe Mi really didn't know what he was. He'd never met anyone so simply unaware before. That disbelief tainting his words as Mi suddenly seemed to jump to a completely different conclusion. Gay?! Oh great! Now he was gay. There was a vibe or something coming from. There had to be. Mi the third person to assume his sexuality. How long had this been going on for? Did he have a quality? Sebastian would have a field day with this. Arlo's head shook then, the man hurriedly attempting to refute that claim in the least. That was not the sort of rumour he needed getting around. Arlo attempting to explain that vampirism now, the man choosing for that direct route only to be met with a blank look from the pretty young woman. A look that evaporated the moment that laughter bubbled from her lips. Arlo the one to stare blankly now. The man taken aback by that rich sound. She thought that was.....funny?! Arlo mostly sure this was just about the last reaction he'd anticipated. He'd even expected, well, violence before this. Mi finally managing to calm herself enough to assure him that she was alright with his quirks. As if vampirism was a passing phase or a game he played on the weekends or he was some kind of freak on one of those 'my strange addiction' programs they showed late at night where people ate paper or were convinced they were horses. God, she thought he was a freaking fruit loop. Maybe that was worse then a vampire.


That idea to actually show her his fangs, he was sure, might yet prove his point. Not that he'd ever had to prove he was a vampire before. The man offering her that toothy grin, exposing those sizeable canines , Arlo in possession of four of those canine teeth, more then the usual two most vampires had yet even this it seemed hardly had her convinced. Arlo felt himself still as her fingers reached forward to trace that singular, deathly sharp tooth. Arlo hardly daring to breath for fear she might prick herself and yet by some miracle she withdrew her finger unharmed. That amusement, at least, seeming to have left her now. The woman looking mildly...concerned. Arlo oblivious to the notion she was considering a potential list of specialists to refer him to. Her medical mind firmly having placed him in the category of delusional. The woman's hand resting on her hip then as his lips fell back over his fangs, his gaze resting back on her own as she declared his fangs the work of a highly skilled dentist. Arlo left blinking at her once more. Her voice taking on that almost patronising tone a parent took with a child in a game of make believe.


"You think I'm bloody insane don't you?"


That 'bloody insane' was likely not the diagnosis Mi's medical mind might have used to describe him exactly hardly mattered.. Arlo sure it meant the same. The man almost unable to believe that she was refusing to believe him in turn. This had never happened before. She thought this was a damn life style choice he was making. The woman calmly returning to her cooking before asking for the salt and pepper! Arlo reaching for them almost automatically, handing them to her now before his gaze lingered in that knife beside her. Well....it would be awfully dramatic of him to use that and rather painful to and yet, well, she had a medical mind didn't she? Maybe she just needed to understand this in medical terms. Arlo reaching to grasp that knife then before abruptly holding the blade to the palm of his left hand.


"Mi."


He knew he had her attention the moment she turned. Arlo slicing that knife across his palm before she could stop him, that blood gushing to the surface of a wound deep enough to need several stitches. That cuss already on his lips as he hurriedly tossed that knife out of both their reach. Alright self-wounding might not have been his best idea yet but at least he had her attention. God that hurt.


"Mi...Mi! For heavens sake calm down and look. Look."


His uninsured hand reached out, grasping her wrist then, refusing to let her run for a towel or a medical kit or the police to have him looked in a psyche ward. The vampire bear forcing her to look at that bloodied hand that had already stopped bleeding. That skin, before her eyes, beginning to stitch itself rapidly back together in that accelerated vampiric healing. That wound no more then a thin pink line in a matter of minutes. Arlo flexing his hand just to prove it. That grin back on his features.


"See? Good as new, eh? You can even try and find a pulse on me if you want, but you won't. I'm not trying to freak you out or anything here babe but you weren't listening. Unless your medical books or whatever they are have an explanation for that I really think you need to consider accepting my vampire one, I mean, seriously I'm holding your wrist right now. I literally have no body heat. I mean I.....er.......Mi? Babe? You ok?"