I paused at the doorway. The room was almost bare, with little more than a bank of security monitors and a large desk—complete with a light-screen monitor and keyboard—in the room. Behind the desk, in a chair that was larger than she was, sat a diminutive, dark-haired woman. She didn't bother looking up from whatever it was she was reading, merely waved a hand in a "come in" motion.
Given there were no seats on our side of the desk, I stopped in front of it and waited.
And waited.
She tests you, Azriel commented.
I gather that. My reply was grouchy. Why is it that female vampires seem to be such bitches?
Perhaps they feel the need to prove themselves more.
I snorted softly. Or they just like being bitches.
That is also possible. Perhaps you should flex a little muscle. Or would you prefer me to?
She's hardly likely to respect me more if I ask you to beat her up. By the same token, I doubted I'd actually have what it took to do that. I might be part were, but she was vampire. But then, I did have other talents I could call on—talents she wouldn't have seen before.
"You know," I said, keeping my voice conversational, "I came in here to ask a few polite questions about Wolfgang Schmidt, but if you'd rather do things the hard way, I'm more than happy to oblige."
She finally looked up, her expression mocking. "Am I supposed to cower in fear? Because, let's be honest here, a werewolf provides little threat to one such as I; nor does a man who wears the mask of death."
She sees you as a reaper?
Yes. To her, he added, "Then you are a fool."
"And certainly not a good judge of character." I raised a hand and called to the Aedh, then siphoned the surge of power into my raised fingertips. They went translucent in an instant, neither flesh nor Aedh, but somewhere in between. Her gaze went wide. I added, my voice still even, "Because, you see, I'm not just a werewolf. I'm someone who can reach into your chest, wrap my fingers around your heart, and rip it beating and bloody from your flesh."
She blinked, staring at my hand in awe and perhaps the tiniest touch of fear. And I have to admit, I liked seeing that, if only because I was getting a little sick of being on the wrong end of fear all the time.