It's irritating but no big deal; if he was hell bent on literally never ever running into territory any other vampires had ever occupied he'd probably just starve and that would be such a hassle.

He follows the scent; not by walking, but by jumping. It's coming from that direction, so now he disappears and reappears fifty feet over that way. And again. And again. Making sure no one's watching, which is way enough, and he jumps.

Hmmmm well it's really localized to this one little cul-de-sac—

—but the pretty young woman who's repotting some plants might take precedence. She's humming a little to herself, soil almost up to her elbows and hair pulled back in a careless bundle of red.

—he freezes.

And then very definitely does not freeze, because that woman is the most important person in the universe and the universe contained zero important people prior to this which means she must be his mate which means she must be protected at ALL COSTS and she is HUMAN which means she will DIE. Especially because there is ANOTHER VAMPIRE AROUND.

Not if he has any say in it.

He—looks around, if the Volturi kill both of them because he revealed too much then she would be DEAD and that would be the worst thing int he world—no one's looking, good—he teleports right behind her, sweeps her into a bridal carry, then leaps onto a rooftop and starts leaping away—can't teleport, can't bring others with him when he does, has to do it the long way.

"I'm sorry I'm sorry please don't hate me I'm sorry," he starts repeating under his breath, not looking at her, only at his destination (which is AS FAR AWAY FROM THERE AS POSSIBLE).

The most important woman in the world makes an affronted squeaking sound, then realizes the situation and shrinks in on herself, eyes wide. Fortunately for them both, she does not scream or struggle at all.

What she does do is speak, all at once in a rush.

“Mybrotherisplanningtoturnmehe’satrackerpleaseputmeback!”

At that he freezes again, on a rooftop, and, "You know about vampires," he breathes.

“YesbutIhavetoldnooneandhavenoplansto! I’mcooperatingwithbeingturnedandhelpingmakemyfuturedisappearancebelievable!”

Oh god, if she’s going to be eaten she hopes she’s not getting Blair killed too, she just doesn’t want to die.

He—humans don't look up, vampires do, leaping is normal, but humans don't, he can set her down—carefully, so careful, so so careful, she is so fragile and breakable—he jumps a couple of feet away from her and starts—vibrating—teleporting in place, a milimiter-or-less to the left, to the right, it happens often enough and fast enough that it looks like he's actually blurred.

She stays right where he puts her and quivers with fear.

“ThankyouIwillnotholdanyofthisagainstyouI’mverysorryfortheinconvenience.”

Why is he flickering? Is he mad? Is this how strange vampires express anger?? She’s so confused and terrified.

"Please don't hate me," he says in a small voice that is definitely within human hearing range. "What—has your brother told you—about vampires—?"

Asking her not to hate him throws her for a complete loop. This is a very strange request to make of a meal? That doesn’t make sense.

“Most… things? Everything that he knew, so I could be ready? … why are you worried that I’ll hate you.”

"...has he told you about—mating—"

“Oh,” she breathes, and it all makes perfect sense now. He was not whisking her away in a bridal carry without impinging her ability to scream when she was already alone to eat her. That would be dumb. He was going to turn her, because…

“I’m your mate.”

Most of her tension bleeds away near immediately, and she brings a hand to her lips.

He nods too fast for the eye to track and then slows down to a nod a human can see.

And if he was blurring before now he's teleporting fast enough to go all the way back to almost looking solid.

“Oh,” she repeats, a little inanely. “… well. Hi. I’m Yvette.”

The vampire looks up at her again and says, "I'm Alexei." And yeah now that he says it he does have a very faint accent that could be Russian? "You're... you don't hate me?"

"... no? I was terrified that I was about to die, but you were, um. Doing the exact opposite of killing me. So."

"Okay."

...what now.

"... Are you safe to hug, because if you're just already in love with me I'd appreciate getting to fling myself at you to finish freaking out."

"Yes," he says immediately and then flinches at his own reaction what if he scares her what if he sounds too eager what if what if what if—

"Great," she says anyway, and then he has a human mate clinging to him, burying her face in his shoulder and trembling a little.

oh

He stops vibrating the moment she touches him and he slowly, carefully, she's human so fragile so breakable, wraps his arms around her to return the hug, so carefully.

She leans on him and steadies her breathing and tries not to be distracted by how nice he smells and how he's actually very pretty and attractive. Adrenaline does weird things to her libido, apparently.

"So for the record I feel very dumb for sending my brother away on an errand for what in retrospect is really inconsequential in comparison to my very valuable life," she mumbles.

He nods very quickly again but now he remembers that she's human so it is only very quickly for a human and also it is not so close to her that he would accidentally hit her with his chin and break her because she is SO breakable.

"I need to figure out how to disappear to almost everyone I know and love very very quickly and get to becoming a vampire as soon as possible because I think we are both very terrified for my mortality right now!"