Though he was paying attention to what Veronica was saying and every so often eyeing her dog-dog, Zuko was also keeping a close eye on their surroundings. And it was thanks to that that he picked up on the shuffling of feet coming from an alley they were approaching. Halting, he held a hand out to signal to Veronica to stop. He fisted his other hand as if to bend flames around his knuckles, but remembered that he couldn't bend at the moment and instead brought both hands up in a defensive position.
Fight like you're wearing the Blue Spirit's mask, he reminded himself.
Sure enough, he spotted a small group of vampires hovering over the obviously drained body of a young boy. It was always vampires...then again, vampires he could handle. It was demons that he didn't recognize that were difficult, for there was no telling what killed them. Demons were frustrating like that sometimes...not that they weren't already frustrating.
"Perfect," he breathed silently to himself, turning back to Veronica and mouthing 'vampires' to her.