Katherine hissed back at them, backing up slightly. It was going to be hard to take all five of them on and protect Leila at the same time, but she would have to manage it somehow. She tensed when she saw them all start to change form.

The first one to finish changing was the leader, and he shifted into a large gray and brown wolf, advancing slowly. He knew that one-on-one he couldn't defeat the vampire, but with his pack he was confident.

Katherine took half a step back, intent on taking out the leader. She knew enough about pack dynamics that if she took him out, the rest of the pack would likely flee. What she didn't plan on was being beaten to the almost-literal punch.

Another person came flying out of a nearby alley and plowed into the alpha, taking him down with a heavy thud and a cloud of dust. The dust quickly settled, and Katherine caught a familiar scent.

"Alright, Kitty?" Carlos asked.

"Carlos!" Katherine said. "If I wasn't so glad to see you right now, I'd twist your arms off."

The rest of the pack hesitated at that. Their alpha wasn't dead, just injured, but now there were two vamps. Much worse odds. One of them backed away with a low whine, ignoring the snarl from the alpha as the alpha got up again, favoring one leg.

"Reunion later, driving them off now," Leila prompted, still eyeing the wolves warily.

"Working on it, darling," Carlos said, moving so he was just ahead of Katherine and to her right. Katherine would have said something cutting and angry to him, but there were more pressing matters at hand. She bared her fangs at the alpha, and Carlos did the same. He wasn't so tough now.

The alpha snarled at both of them before he backed off, herding his wolves back away from the vamps. He knew when he couldn't win a battle. He'd just have to get a larger force next time.

Katherine relaxed only marginally when the wolves retreated. Once she couldn't smell them anymore, she sighed.

"That was too close," she murmured. She dusted off her clothes a little and turned to Leila, but Carlos beat her to it.

"Are you alright?" he asked her.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Leila said after a moment. "A little startled but..." She trailed off, looking at Carlos. "Um. Why are you here?"

"Should I not be?" Carlos asked, looking at her. He looked her over quickly, just to make sure she wasn't hurt.

"I realize I'm no expert but from what I've seen, there's no love lost between you and Katherine." Leila eyed the two of them.

Carlos shrugged.

"Kitty needs to lighten up," he said. "She's uptight. I figure it's 'cause of her age." He grinned and leaned in to whisper, "She's an old lady."

Leila had to bite her lower lip. She was well aware of how old Katherine was, but that didn't make it any less funny.

"Okay, so that's a reason you shouldn't not be here. Now why are you here?"

"Do I need a reason to see a pretty girl?" Carlos asked, grinning a bit. Yup, he was totally having fun flirting.

Leila was taken aback by that and blushed, looking off to the side. Nope, she wasn't at all used to being flirted with, and this was not the first impression she'd gotten from Carlos anyway.

Katherine noticed and rolled her eyes.

"Honestly," she muttered. Carlos just made a face at her.

"No need to be such a hard-ass Kitty," he said. "We all know you're frigid, no need to prove it."

Katherine just hissed a bit at him, but didn't do more than that.

Leila shook herself briefly and moved over to stand next to Katherine.

"Okay, so you two drove off the wolves. What now? Sticking around probably isn't a genius idea."

"Probably not," Katherine said. She sighed. "I hadn't realized the loup-garou had saturated Bucharest so thoroughly. It isn't a good idea to stay anymore."

"Damn. I was enjoying Bucharest." Leila sighed but glanced at Katherine. "I guess we should head back to get our stuff and figure out where we're going next?"

"We can tell Uncle," Carlos piped up. He shrugged. "Bucharest is still technically part of Wallachia, or what used to be Wallachia. It's all Uncle's turf, maybe if we tell him, he'll send someone to clear the city."

"Unless he gave the city to them in the first place," Katherine mused. "Uncle has a soft spot for wolves, and no loup-garou in their right mind would challenge Uncle for any reason." She sighed. "For now, let's go get our things, Lei. We'll figure something out."

Leila nodded and started back towards the hotel.

"Well, we could always go find somewhere else to visit, too. It's not like there's a lack of places to go here." Since she was determined to look on the bright side of being essentially kicked out of Bucharest.

Carlos snorted.

"I'd just go back to the States, at this point," he said. "Seems safer in the long run, don'tcha think?"

Leila shrugged. Just going home after this seemed almost like a letdown. Besides, she still had two full weeks of vacation time left.

"We can figure it out in a bit."

"For now, we can head back to Uncle's," Katherine said. "I'll tell him about Bucharest, let him deal with it. And you shut up, Carlos," she added when she heard him snicker under his breath. "Shouldn't you be making the most of your waking hours? Starlight's burning."

"Shut up, Kitty," Carlos retorted. "I've got plenty of time."

Leila nodded. That sounded like a fair enough plan to her.

"So how come you can be up and about during the day but he can't?" She flicked a glance at Carlos.

Carlos snorted.

"Because she's second-generation," he said. "I'm third, I wasn't so lucky."

"What Carlos means to say," Katherine said, sending him a Look, "is that every generation after Uncle inherits a little less than the one before. My sire is first-generation, one of Uncle's direct fledgelings. The first generation inherited most of Uncle's abilities. Then comes the second, which is when I was made, and the third, and so on."