Continued from here<a class="internalLink" href="http://forums.darknestfantasy.com/old_content/roleplaying/39485.html">http://forums.darknestfantasy.com/old_content/roleplaying/39485.html</a><br/><br/><span style="font-size: 18px"><b>KATRINA</b></span><br/><br/>"Should a man not admire beauty when given the chance?"<br/><br/>One would have expected the demon's word to be accompanied by a playfully humerous tone and a lascivious leer, but his voice was strangely sombre as he met the paladins eye with an intense stare. His mood seemed even more mercurial than ussual. His eyes darted hither and to during pauses in their conversation, as if taking in the details of the room for the first time, or he would seem to snuggle and stretch his wings against the wood and fabric of the bed, his chest rising and falling as if he was sighing in contentment. Again his mood changed, his eyes closing and his lips curling into a faint smirk as he raised one hand and snapped his finger. Sparks seemed to flicker between his clawtips, as if struck by a tinderbox and flames roared to life in the fireplace in response, burning bright and warm even though no firewood had been placed in the stone depression. When next the paladin turned her attention back to the mirror she would find him looming behind her, his image having moved soundlessly in an instant, his large framed bent forward as his lips howered next to her ear.<br/><br/>"I do remember that. I also remember what happened<i>before</i>you struck me."<br/><br/>His voice was low and whispering, but there was nothing of his old humor in it, as if suddenly he saw no amusement in toying with the paladin as he had before. His left hand brushed lightly over her crimson hair as it fell down her back, his clawed fingers digging into the thick strands, curling one around his fingers as his right hand rested on her shoulder, his thumb starting to gently, but expertly, massage the sensitive nerve bundle where the back met the shoulder, loosening the muscle but not pressing so hard as to be painful. He did not employ the strange magic he had used in the dream-world, nor was his demeanor as insidiously charming as he had been then. Instead there was a quiet intensity to his demeanor that made him seem somehow even more intent on the paladin, his eyes studying her reactions through narrow slits as he nuzzled into the hair above hear ear, his breath hot on the skin of her neck.<br/><br/>"You may try to lie to yourself Katrina, but you cannot lie to me. Beneath your armor, your righteousness and your faith, you are still a woman."<br/><br/>His lips quirked into a faint smirk once more, his yellow eyes glittering.<br/><br/>"Or perhaps you found the violence more to your taste? Did it excite you in that instant, when you felt the flesh of my cheek yield beneath your fist? The slow trickle of red as you drew blood. The knowledge, however slightly, that you had brought me harm... Did it satisfy you?"<div class="messageTextEndMarker"> </div>