<div style="text-align: center;">Kai couldn't help but grin as he left the coffee shop. He was rather pleased at having tricked Cherry. Then again, when did tricking her not please him? His grin quickly wore away, however, when he remembered the little upstart, Mira. He hadn't intended to mess with her until he needed her for another job, but after the reception he recieved as Merlot, she needed to know who owned her.<br/>Getting in Merlot's car, Kai shifted back to his normal face. Rather, to the one he thought was his normal face. It had been years since Kai had even gone a day without shifting into another person. Of course his line of work required it, but it was a strange revelation that he couldn't remember whether the face he currently wore was even his. Part of him said it wasn't, but another part said it didn't matter. Kai began to recite the mantra he always recited at times like this.<br/><span style="color: #ff0000">"We wear red because blood doesn't show up on red. We change our face to avoid getting caught. We do not go out in public wearing our true face. We must be invisible, unnoticable, inconsequential. No one can spare us a second glance."</span> He sighed. The mantra was helping less and less these days. Perhaps he'd been spending too much time around humans and their idealism. A dark chuckle escaped him, and he berated himself. <span style="color: #ff0000">"You know their idealism appeals to you."</span><br/>Kai was shaking his head as he pulled into Chuck's driveway. The fool human's car was gone. He'd left Mirabel alone. It brought a sadistic grin to the wetboy's face. As he usually did when approaching a mark, he simply strode through the front door. However, in the time it took to walk back to their bedroom, he wore Chuck's face. Mira was asleep on the bed. Good. That gave him time to change into some of Chuck's clothes. He sat on the bed next to the sleeping girl and began to stroke her face lovingly, trying not to laugh. He would break her this way, first, by destroying her relationships through mistrust. Eventually, she would begin to believe he was everyone she knew. Of course, then he'd have to convince her that he wasn't, but that was easy enough. <span style="color: #ff0000">"Mira..."</span> he called softly in Chuck's voice. <span style="color: #ff0000">"Mira, wake up."</span><br/>Her eyes fluttered open, and Kai quickly adopted a concerned face. <span style="color: #ff0000">"You okay, babe? You really freaked out on Merlot earlier."</span><br/><span style="color: #ff0000"><span style="font-style: italic">Ah, shit.</span></span> He'd forgotten to hid his green eye with a contact, so he quickly turned away from her, acting asthough he was looking for something at the foot of the bed, and fixed the problem. <span style="color: #ff0000">"Your friend down at the video store called. Said she saw some guy in a red coat getting in your car last night when she came to check on you. She said you peeled out after that, and wanted to make sure you're okay."</span> He stood, and paced the room a bit. <span style="color: #ff0000">"We need to get you away from here 'til you can calm down. You up for it?"</span> He knew his sentences were kind of rambling, but that was the point. He sounded just like a concerned boyfriend.<br/>It reminded him of when Plum had broken him for the first time. Of course, she couldn't shapeshift, but the night nymph was very...persuasive, when she wanted to be. She had entered Kai's life when he was only a teenager, and proceeded to destroy every aspect of it. A rumor here, a 'secret' there, and a few well-placed lies had cost Kai his job, his girlfriend, and his relationship with his family. After that, it had been simple for her to convince him she was all he had left. He'd gone with her willingly into the den of wolves that was the PM, and emerged a killer. When he found out she had been the cause of all his hardships, he was furious. Since that day, he hadn't spoken to her. It had been a long time since he'd even seen her.</div>