It was still maybe twenty miles until the city limits but when a Greyhound bus driver needs a piss, the bus stops. Not that Ajax minded much, 6'3 205 pound Gangrel were not meant to be confined in the lock boxes that the bus company considered a seat, but at least nobody wanted to sit next to him for some reason so only his legs were really bitching at him when the bus pulled into the gas station. He got out to after the bus driver and was amazed at two things, just how deserted the place was and that you could actually see the stars in the sky out here in Northern California. Sure that would probably change once he got into the into the city itself but after decades in places like New York, Newark, Philly and Hartford, it was kinda cool to see the real night without all those fucked up city lights ruining it.

It was about that time he heard the gasp around the back of the building. Ajax walked around to check it out, old habits of being a bodyguard were hard to kill, and saw a young woman being pulled into a storage shed. He moved closer, wondering if another predator was this far out of the city hunting for prey but soon saw that it was just a normal human, a weaselly looking shitkicking dirtbag trying to force the woman into the shed at knife point. Well now the big guy thought what do we have here?

He moved to the shed and grabbed the knife hand of the guy. The asshole turned to face Ajax with a look of pain and shock on his face as his grip on his cheap little knife weakened and it fell to the ground. Ajax looked at the girl and spoke "Your car out front?" She nodded "Go and get outta here, forget about this whole thing, okay?" She nodded and spat in the shitkicker's face before turning around and running off. Girl's got spirit, good for her. Asshole's got blood and I can use a meal before I get into the city. Good for me. The kiss is too good for this fucker though. The head that had those thoughts is thrust forward and impacts against shitkicker's nose, breaking it and knocking the son of a bitch out. He closes the door of the shed and sharp vampire teeth met weak flesh.

Ajax left the guy alive. He'd wake up with a really bad headache, a broken nose, weak as hell and hopefully a burning desire not to try and be a predator again. There were predators in this world and there were prey and that fucker belonged to the latter, sooner he learned that the better. The Gangrel got back to the bus about the same time as the driver, got back into his seat and wondered what Sacramento would be like.