“Did you want to see my dungeon?” He countered slyly, his own head cocking as he winked over Chen’s dark head. For an instant, there were dark musings that curved his mouth in a salacious way, that is, until he ducked his head again and led them the rest of the way through the crowded streets of Hong Kong with a possessed man dangling at his side.<br/><br/><br/>The strain of the line that wrapped itself down to his core became less so by the time they reached the dingy door. Pace ducked through the entryway first, toting Chen along for the ride. With the bar still suspended, the quiet was almost eerie, though the low ambience of light and the drift of piano music from nowhere crackled to life as soon as the door closed, leaving them with the smell of wood and whiskey.<br/><br/><br/>“Thank you, Nora,” he rumbled softly, the creature in man-skin showing his gratitude with a bob of his head before sliding his arm underneath the Chinaman’s knees and cradling him like a baby or a princess against his chest. It worked, in a way, with Pace being as tall as he was. Especially with the way the lighting caused his shadow to stretch and broaden, so that it seemed a much larger beast than the fellow could be seen disappearing inside a door that appeared from nowhere in the back.<br/><br/><br/>With the door shutting itself behind him, Pace dumped his charge in the corner of this new room, which didn’t much resemble any dungeon of old, but rather a damp cellar, complete with a wine rack and crates of imported beer. Conveniently, there was a chair situated against the wall, and this was where Chen went into.<br/><br/><br/>Confident that the walls were soundproofed, Pace shrugged his way out of the crisp jacket he wore. Taking his time, he folded it and placed it neatly across the wine rack, then rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, loosened his tie around his neck. Smiling in an almost pleasant way, he came to lean over Chen’s chair, hands gripping either side of it next to his lulled head.<br/><br/><br/>“<i><b>WAKE UP!</b></i>” The voice was booming, wall shaking, and reverberated right through the walls. More importantly, it screeched inside Chen’s skull until his temples were pounding and every hair on his body was sticking straight up. The dark eyes popped open like a child being jerked from a bad nightmare.<br/><br/><br/>Only to be faced with the nightmare itself.<br/><br/><br/>The novelty of having a single, swinging, dim light fixture overhead twisted into the world that Pace himself created around them. Claws dug into the wood of the chair as the lumbering something dragged it and the man whose eyes rolled wildly, mouth open, tongue flapping as drool rolled down his chin. A low hissing noise came from between Chen’s teeth as he was dragged out to the center of the room.<br/><br/><br/>“<i>You can either tell me where you put the Stone, Gilles, or we can find out the hard way</i>,” the voice rumbled through the room, vocalized only clearly inside Chen’s head that had bobbed back, a crazed smile twisting his mouth as he looked up at the monster’s faced that now loomed above him. Pace already knew, though. Chen wasn’t going to talk to him willingly and that was OK with him. The claws that had dragged the man away from the wall now left the chair to curl around Chen’s face. Only instead of scratching and clawing, they probed beyond skin, beyond blood and tissue and muscle, and poked at the man’s conscious instead.<br/><br/><br/>Only to stop suddenly.<br/><br/><br/><i>Nora.</i><br/><br/><br/>The presence was gone in a heartbeat, shrunken back into a tall manshape, who straightened and turned around just in time for her to find him standing over the wokened man. The smile he presented, though, was stressed.<br/><br/><br/>“Drinks, of course. Don’t get near him. He’s a deranged serial killer, rapist, and fuck knows what else. Used to sacrifice all sorts of shit so that he could commune with demons in his time,” he remarked casually, disappearing back out the cellar door and to the bar.<br/><br/><br/>He didn’t know her preference of drinks, but figured Nora was the sort to enjoy a good whiskey. He poured two, knocking back the first one himself, then pouring another shot to carry back into the cellar. He passed one on to her before kicking his second back, then offered her his hand. “Mmm..”