Venger watched his soldiers approach the girl, completely losing track of Rose's story. His left hand glowed slightly as he summoned the fire to it- if she so much as smiled at them, after teasing him so, if she so much as even winked...Even Venger was taken aback by the viciousness of her attack, as she downed the two men in a matter of seconds. With a jolt that was almost painful, he found that the sudden violence of her movements and the confident strength behind them had only increased his desire. Would she fight him? He imagined her attacking him, struggling against his strength, surrendering to his will...
It was the cold satisfaction on her face that decided the matter, the hint of a sultry, contemptuous smile as she calmly finished the matter with a callous kick to the soldier's nose. She didn't wind her hair about her finger, now....he imagined doing it himself, winding a strand around his finger and pulling her toward him...
He considered it a gift to her, when fire abrutly shot from his fingers and consumed the two unconscious men, who awoke to a split second of agony before falling silent forever. Shocked silence was left in its wake, as even Rose faltered in her storytelling. Bewildered men scrambled behind pillars to hide from their master's wrath, the women staring in sudden apprehension and indecision as Rose's smoke disappated.
Venger stood. "This performance is over," he announced coldly, though it was unclear whether he meant Rose's performance or the loutish behaviour of his guards....or perhaps it referred to Bubbles, for his gaze was fixed on her as if he would spike her to the pillar she stood before. The tension fairly crackled as he crossed the room in several swift strides and seized a strand of that long raven-black hair, twisting it around his finger. Her violet eyes widened at the pain, for he was not gentle, but there was no fear in them.
She wanted him. The thought was heady and astonishing and intoxicating all at once. Her eyes flashed with excitement, her lips parted as she waited to see what he would do.
"You are dismissed," he said, not moving his eyes from her, but obviously speaking to everyone else in the room. He cared little what happened to the Storyteller or her troupe at the hands of his soldiers- he doubted they were as defenseless as they seemed, given this one's performance. "See to it the performers are rewarded," he added as an afterthought, "then begone with you, and bar the great doors. Let NONE disturb me this night, on pain of the most imaginative death I can think up."
Those of his guards that could still think rationally hastened to do his bidding, paying Rose with their own gold rather than risk distracting Venger further.
Venger wasn't giving the temptress a choice. In a burst of light, they vanished from the great hall.
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