Mircea didn't do that whole border patrol thing, not because he thought he was above it, but frankly he was fairly useless against anything that might come to harm them most of the time. He had always been a better tactician than a soldier. Not that he hadn't at some point or another (several times over actually) been a soldier, but that was neither here nor there.
In any case, patroling the border and going out for a middle-of-the-night stroll (because strolling during the daylight hours was mostly out of the question) were not mutually exclusive. After a few centuries, you got used to the sights, sounds and smells of the night, letting those of the daylight hours slip into something that resembled a dream more than a memory. But there was one smell that was neither night nor day, but turned him around before he even realized it like he was the arrow on a compass.
Damn it.
There were bits and pieces of being one of those "creatures of the night" he could acquiesce to. But the blood thing. He still wasn't used to it, five hundred odd years on. Unfortunately his rational brain did not see eye to eye with his stomach, which had its own agenda, and apparently controlled his feet. He was halfway to the source of the scent before he realized what was going on, but at that point, he was more curious (and frankly, a little concerned) than he was annoyed that the slightest whiff of blood a mile away had put his walk on a detour.
What he expected was a wounded animal. What he got was a woman with a nosebleed and a black eye. He was vaguely familiar with said woman sitting at the base of a tree, bleeding from the nostrils, as he was with nearly everyone who passed through Summerview after thirty years there. As in, he'd seen her, but they hadn't really spoken (fine with him, he was old enough he didn't need to be friends with everyone). None of this information made a lick of difference when he decided to open his mouth.
"Ugh, you know I could smell blood for a mile? And I don't even like blood. You're tempting fate, you know," he said, words vomiting out of him before he could contain them, "Also, what the hell are you doing out here?" Yes, this was how you made friends.