The werebear saw her true face now, the one he had so stupidly dared to think could be buried for a night just like how he had buried his name (and so failed at the moment he met her). She was not pretty the same way she had been before, no longer reminding him of staring at the village from the edge of the forest and seeing the unattainable bounty; something soft and delicious after dust and ash in his mouth. It was the pain of his scar all over again, of being lured in and realizing it was something he could never and would never have. A surprise he knew was too good to be true, yet had dared to hope would be different in his stupidity.

Still, whether he knew it was coming or not, it was a surprise. The demon bear had shredded pretty young women before to survive, he knew their taste and their smell and would have shredded the face of Calamity just the same for pressing him. But the face of a vampire was new to him, the sting of her fangs a pain distinct from that of torches and bullets. Thus did the terrified, agitated beast's razor-sharp claws stay themselves for just a fraction of a second, needing to sharpen his will to go forth and tear her apart to escape.

It was enough time for her to speak to him, to hold out her killer hand that had seconds ago been trying to hold him in a deathly embrace he had enjoyed too much. The words she spoke slid in slowly through his ears, the gesture she made shocking him even more. To beg for her life would have hardly availed her anything, as others had learned in the past. But an offer to help? An offer of kinship? To remain near her? It was ridiculous, she was mocking him! The werebear's snout twitched in the air with its huge, dripping canines, beady eyes locking with hers as his tongue hung out, warring between escape and killing her THEN escaping. *She tries to kill me, and when she realizes she can't, then she wants to work with me. She just wants to save herself, then betray me later!*

And yet...

Even after she had tried to kill him, had revealed her true, monstrous face...a part of him still wanted to pick the money up and give it to her; his insides still screamed with a hunger he had not felt since Japan, a hunger beyond the flesh. He knew she was dangerous, the same as it had been dangerous to forage inside the village, to hunt those people. But he had been hungry then, and he was hungry now; what was the use in trying to deny it when he'd just fail again? When her sentence trailed off, a sentimental part of him hoped it would end with her offering to honor their original deal.

She didn't but...his choice was sealed in that moment; why turn down the chance to make his life easier?

His shoulders sagged and he crashed down on all fours, losing his aggressive posture and looking at her, peeling the skin from his head to reveal the man beneath, that he might speak.