Cute was such a strange thing to be called when you have been called so many other things, some crude and others far less adorable. Within her is a cunning trickster, whose heart is tainted black. She was most certainly not cute, this much she was fully positive. She fully glared at the man, shaking her head softly to and fro. Scoffing silently to herself at the very word.

The man had a sense of humour. This much she was entirely sure. He told her his reasons why he didn't bother skating that day, admitting it was because of a girl and the fear of falling on his ass. It seemed so very human of him and yet she finds herself amused by it. It had been so long since she had taken part in mortal pursuits. She was just about to make a jab at making falling look natural when he abruptly shoved his phone in her face. Her eyes widened from surprise, it wasn't too easy to surprise the illusionist who was usually the one to catch others off guard. She reached out to steady that phone, blinking not once but at least twice to fully see that picture that glared at her. For a moment she thought they were going to be photos of well an actual woman, which of course would make far more sense than a goddamn panda! She could not contain the laughter that escaped her; it falls out easily laced with that clearly evident amusement. Well, that was a first.

"Perhaps you need to work on your word association. This is cute... " She shook her head, that odd smile upon her crimson lips. "You do know that is a panda? Come on, I don't think she would judge all that much if you did fall on your face. I don't think pandas could ever be in a bad mood. I highly doubt they would be more graceful than you out on that ice." This girl he was trying to impress was not a woman but a cute little cuddly reddish blob with the largest innocent eyes. But overall, pandas were the least graceful even though they could melt you with their adorable aptitude. Even this murderous woman had to admit that she was rather cute. Petra was not that blind even in that particular monochrome way she viewed things. She could see that look of a proud parent, blatant across his features while his lips pulled back into a smile so wide that it exposed those sharpened teeth. He looked like a smitten boy when he spoke of his pet. Perhaps she would even consider that to be cute.

For a moment they are lost in their convincing charade as though their very well played out guise was, in fact, innocent, any onlooker would have been fooled. For but a moment, maybe it was all just innocent banter. But it didn't take long for it to become shattered like a hammer to glass, it shatters the moment he dared to look at her with that hunger in his eyes. A hunter would know that impulsive look anywhere. So that innocent resolve is no more as they took off their masks. In these elaborate games, she is her most honest self, a trickster of many faces. The kind of woman that could drive a man into madness with her convincing illusions, she had, and yet with him, she merely tests those waters with a harmless game. As though biding her time. He wasn't a meal and he wasn't quite an enemy. He had everything to lose and she could use that desperation, and yet she doesn't.

He replied to her sarcastic remark with one of his own about dinner. She wasn't just some fast food window he could just drive by and pick up a meal to go. If he thought he could just simply bite her and drink her in, he had another thing coming. She was a 5-star restaurant quality grade at the very least, but then again no one had tried to simply take a bite out of her. The man was ballsy, she had to give him that. "What would make this worth my while?" That dark nightingale hymn escapes her parted lips. They went about their deadly ballet, two skilled hunters facing off, one fighting for his own survival to provide sustenance and the other hunting just for fun, craving that challenge she often desired.

It was almost cute that he thought he could set the ground rules, when in fact this was her little game. Even despite the impressive ways that he had thwarted her, he had no clue of the lengths she would go. She was never one to negotiate and yet she finds herself willing to allow the stakes to be made. Maybe part of her desire to be bested at her own game. "I agree to your terms, but if I win. I get more than just being able to walk away." She is cryptic in her wording, the devil is in the details. After all, a trickster never reveals their whole hand all at once and she is certainly hard to get.

Even if by any means she did fail, she would find a way to win somehow. Everything had a price. If only he knew just what he was getting himself into. She nearly scoffs at his words. "They are more than just illusions.." There is a twinge of that impish smile in her voice as she remains enigmatic as always.

Those illusions she wielded were far more complex than mere figments. They were practically alive as anything real truly was only they were hers, they could bring pain, they could bring pleasure, they could make you see things beyond your wildest of dreams and they could destroy.

His sticky webs reminded her of that of a spider if he were a spider she was a cunning snake. One by one her illusions were thwarted by his tangled electric webs, disintegrating them into nothing. It was obvious he was no Romeo at all but a spider, a hunter trying to catch his next meal. "Impressive, little spider." She hummed. She was capable of so much more than these figments of herself and they haven't yet done a thing to strike against him. But they do serve a purpose, as it shows her just what the man can do.

Petra was a cruel creature, mirroring only the brutalities of the world that have been shown to her. She was not always this way, she was made, like most misunderstood creatures. Yet she is not exactly at her best, no, the tug of that pesky little humanity seed seemed to hold her back. She could have used his little pet against him and yet she cannot bring herself use that kind of ammunition, at least not yet.

After all, she could have placed him in a place no longer familiar to him, hell she could have even summoned a dragon to eat a man alive if that is what she desired. She had, and she killed a hunter with it once before. It was that fateful night when the rebirth of that once lost humanity seemed to unlatch a whole new level to her abilities. Yet it might have made her more powerful it had also made her weaker in ways. She finds herself questioning if she wanted to actually kill this fellow vampire. Did all things have to wind up in death and gore? Or was there some other way? She didn't know.

Perhaps, for now she would simply play this twisted little game and test his worthiness. After all, it wasn't every day she bumped into such a rare creature that thought he could outmatch a master of their craft. Yet something felt terribly different, something unspoken and out of place. She watched from her point off the paved path, still swallowed in an illusion of darkness, as though there was a massive tear in reality as though those shadows lead into oblivion and not her. He used his abilities to teleport, watching down on the abandoned streets below like a hawk scanning for his prey. She could feel his roving eyes and she grins. There was one more illusion standing not too far away, but far enough from her.

With that other decoy simply standing there, she decides to change tactics. She needed to lure him down from the building's peak somehow. She could not keep him at such a vantage point and have him where she wanted. She calls to her illusions so that the world seemed to be encased in a dense mystical fog, expanding it as far as her illusions would reach and up that building so all he would see was a lustrous mist that moved in a curling mass toward him as if reaching out. It was in time too, just as he sent out his sticky web to devour her last standing decoy. He couldn't dissolve everything all at once, could he? Surely not when it was all encompassing. After all, she could just summon more. She remains almost passive, patiently waiting for a better opportunity. That ghostly fog seemed to glow in an ethereal way that hardly made logical sense, but it was not logic it was simply her.

She would feel him, his exact location when he delves down below into her fog, which would feel cool even against his cold flesh, that fog like all of her illusions were an extension of her. He gave off an electrical imprint and it could lead her right to him. Little did he know that there was a monster besides she within that dense fog. An extraordinary unearthly large obsidian snake slithered, concealed in her playground. It was unknown who was more predator than prey at this given moment. Regardless, she was enjoying herself far too much to care. She even made noises as if she were suddenly trapped within his webs that he tossed down at the decoy of her. "Would you come into my parlour?" She uttered darkly, wondering if the reference would be lost to him but she waits like all skilful predators, waiting to catch him within her reptilian clutches. It would not be long now.