Gently rolling the sleeves of his own shirt up, above his elbows, revealing the pale skin underneath, Kai's fingers gripped the champagne bottle firmly, uncorking it with his bare hands. The cork was softly placed onto the table, and he held the bottle up, lavishly pouring both himself and Asmodei full glasses of the sparkling white liquid. It was gleaming in the light of the crystal chandelier, hanging from the ceiling, even as smoke-like mist descended from the tops of the glasses, like a veil coating the glass and pearling up in little beads of water on their surface. "I've been here and there, far, near, everywhere and nowhere," he quipped back to Erlind's remark, a smirk stretching across his lips as he sunk the side of a dessert fork into the Sacher torte, picking the small piece up and admiring it for a moment.<br/>"The usual, you know. Wreaking havoc, causing chaos among the human population, finding new and curious ways to suck the essence of their joy, hope and dreams from the depths of their souls..." he shrugged it off as the most casual of matters, opening his mouth to feast on the dessert. The teeth inside was almost like a wolf's - sharp canines that sank into the dark creme took the bite apart in a rather inhuman way. It wouldn't be that difficult to imagine that teeth ripping through something far less... Mundane than a high-class dessert.<br/><br/>After sighting the photo, Kai arched a brow, investigating the figure that appeared on it. A man, neither old nor too youthful-looking, a black hat set on his cleanly shaven head. He didn't recognize his features... Seemed just like an ordinary person, for whom it would be more than easy to blend into the crowd. He picked it up, carefully holding it between his slim fingers. "The visage is unfamiliar." he concluded then, carefully listening to Erlind's words.<br/><br/>For a moment, there was silence, deep and resting on the room like a thick cover.<br/><br/>"Would I not be forced to limit my forces in this human guise, I'm quite confident in my abilities to say I'd be able to track him down. But this is taking way too much force to uphold." he sighed, admiring the strings of muscles, running under his pale skin and tying to his wrist. A heavy black mist seemed to descend from him, even at the lightest of movements leaving marks of shimmering shadows in the air. It was becoming increasingly difficult to keep his human appearance consistent without a good meal.<br/>Good luck Annika was coming for dinner!<br/>At the sheer thought, he licked his lips, the crimson of his gaze drifting somewhere into the indistinct distance.<br/>"I knew a witch once very well," he begun speaking then, raising the glass to his lips and taking a small sip from the still-pearling champagne. "She was the finest of women even in the dark ages. Perfect alabaster skin, hair like strings of gold, eyes as blue as the sky, waist to clench one's fist around and curves to die for, a diamond in the dirt that reflected even the faintest of light flawlessly into alluring beauty. But her heart was as black as my own, and I was young and foolish enough to get caught, unaware of her treachery. And when I refused to serve her, she thought she can curse me... Silly little fool." he shook his head with a hearty, yet silent laugh.<br/><br/><span style="font-style: italic">Who are you calling a fool?</span>a faint echo of the voice cried inside his mind, after a full month pushing itself onto the surface.<br/>Kai's face paled, the hellfire in his eyes swirling and his smile disappearing. He slowly placed the glass down, all color now utterly lost from his face.<br/>He thought he has subdued her for good, erased her presence in his mind, but all that time, she was just playing a game of cat and mouse, she was always there, just waiting for a moment to return. He didn't like this in the slightest... He was the puppeteer, the chessmaster, he was the one that pulled the strings and played games! Not her...<br/><br/>"And one day I'm going to kill her till she dies for good, that little b***h." he whispered through his clenched teeth. He felt an intense urge to see her scorched remains hanging from the chandelier in his bedroom. His expression, showing all his teeth in an unnaturally wide smile, eyes opened to a nearly inhuman standard, was horribly maddened, nowhere near the usual look of smug tranquility that he always donned as a mask. He bent his head down, letting the long strands of his black hair slide over his shoulders and shadow his face. A silent laughter made its way from his throat, but it wasn't sophisticated like the sound like just moments ago; instead, it was beastly and inhuman.<br/>"I greed... For her gutted body on a silver platter! For her blood in a crystal goblet!" he whispered, hiding his eyes with his hand as he straightened his back once more.