Fighting fire with fire

[paganchick]

Sapphira popped her back, and even though in was still kind of attention grabbing it was much less attention grabbing than the night before. she sat at her table, her back to the majority of the tavern and her features softened by the shadow that surrounded her. She leaned back in her chair beginning to eat the bit of fruit she had brought to her table. Nothing like fruit and wine in the morning.

She sighed softly, flipping her hair over her shoulders before closing her eyes for a moment, beginning to think to herself and pan her next line of action.

[DarkAssassin]

Just as he was deciding on whether or not he wanted a certaint type of wine, he heard the familiar popping sound that had echoed in this place the night before. His eyes slowly turned towards where the woman sat. He was sitting at an angle from her, but he could still tell it was her from the shimmer of her hair.

She's back, was all he could think.

[paganchick]

Sapphira stopped. She could feel eyes on her. His eyes on her. She set the bottle she was just about to take a drink out of back onto the table before she turned her head. After a moment her green eyes rested on his form. Yet again he was in the shadows. Sitting in the same spot her had been the night before. She didn't find it odd, if anything he seemed like a creature of routine.

Was he still stalking her, she thought he had decided not to the night before. She didn't know what to thing. Her face didn't depict that though. Her face remained calm and serene.

[DarkAssassin]

James made sure he was looking away, face hidden in shadow as she looked his way. He wondered why she was still here. What exactly was the purpose of returning to the tavern so early? Especially this one in particular?

He let his eyes fall shut again and tried to focus.

Just find another woman, he thought. Take your focus off of her.

[paganchick]

Sapphira tried her hardest to keep her attention away from the man. She knew he was no good for her and she would need to keep an objective out look on him. She couldn't have any personal ties, no feelings. She was to figure out what was so different about him and move along. Nothing more. He already thought he had the charm to get into her pants, she differently couldn't prove him right, that would be a blow to her own ego.

She bit her lip lightly, locking her vision ahead of her, she wouldn't let him think that she was interested in him, she couldn't let him think she was interested.

[DarkAssassin]

James gazed in the opposite direction of the young woman, looking for others intently, trying to keep his focus off of her. He had to make sure she did not notice him. And if she did, what then? Another approach? Another signal to get him to move over to her? This time he would not oblige. He couldn't. Not with all of those strange feelings gurgling inside of him, making him feel odd.

Reaching up, James rubbing his temples and closed his eyes, inhaling deeply. Who is this woman?

[paganchick]

It didn't take long before Sapphira had quickly downed her first bottle and with the way the day had been going already she knew she would need another.

She stood from her spot in the shows and her her way to the bar when a man made the mistake of touching Sapphira. After the hard quick grab of her bottom Sapphira stopped dead in her tracks. In a motion that few eyes could follow she had turned, puled the man from his chair and had him thrown down onto the table, a small blade pressed dangerously against his throbbing vein in his neck. She looked calm on the surface, but one look into her eyes would reveal the fire of rage burning right below the surface.

"Clearly your mother and father didn't teach you that that isn't very polite," She spoke, her words  pleasant enough on there outward sound but it was clear that underneath they were warnings as she decided what she wanted to do to the man.

[DarkAssassin]

James' eyes snapped open as he watched the woman slam the man down onto the table. He gazed at her from the shadows, emerald eyes glowing brighter at the sudden change in activity level. He felt the nervousness around the tavern increase, the eyes of all others moving to the woman and her assaulter.

James folded his arms slowly and leaned back a bit, his head clearing somewhat for the first time as interest replaced that gurgling feeling. He was finally able to see her in action. See her do something. She had certainly moved fast enough. That man had been a fool to touch her at all.

In the back of his mind, James could still feel her body melding against his the night before. He wondered why she hadn't tried to harm him then. His eyes narrowed as he thought, and watched.

[paganchick]

A small droplet of blood fell down the mans neck from her blade, she clearly didn't care if she hurt the man at all. She took a deep breath as she looked down at him.
"Now to teach you a lesson, what shall I take. Hmmm, how about the offending member, the whole hand," Sapphira spoke a smirk crossing her face dangerously as the man began to plead and beg.

"Shh dolly," She whispered, aware of all the eyes on her. It was time to make enough of an impression that no one would touch me.

She grabbed the man's hand and with ease cut off his right middle finger. The man's screams of agony filled the tavern. His face contorted in pain as she released his hand, but kept his finger.

"Let that be a lesson that your parents didn't teach you."

[DarkAssassin]

With a hidden amusement, James watched the woman terrorize the man. Who knew no one else in the tavern would bother to stop it. The other shady figures around knew it was none of their business, and as for the normal people, well ...

Well, she certainly isn't afraid. But quick to anger when it comes to things like foolish men, he thought. His mind returned again to the night before before he shook his head and brushed the thought aside.

He listened to the man's whimpers and cries, inevitably his focus now back on the young lady.

[paganchick]

As if nothing had happened Sapphira walked up to the bar and took a seat on a bar stool. She plopped the finger on the bar as if it hod no more importance than a few coin.

"Bottle of elvish wine," She demanded with a smile, clearly amused at her own actions and her mind temporarily removed from the dark brooding figure in the shadows. 

[DarkAssassin]

The Dark One's eyes watched her move to the bar, and as she dropped the finger, his eyes scanned her from head to toe once more. He found himself somehow more attracted to her after that incident. He didn't know why, nor really care. It was not a good feeling to have. Not with this one. Not with the way she ... was. Different than the rest.

James' eyes flitted to the wounded man for a long moment, then he glanced down at his own hand as, for the first time in a while, tiny spits of blackfire darted among his fingertips.

[paganchick]

Sapphira poked at the finger for a while, amused by it as she started on her second bottle of wine before she felt it. Her eyes went directly to the dark brooding man in the shadows. She knew that was the source of the disturbance in her senses. She knew he was, in some way, usinging magic. Her eyes narrowed on the man. With the bottle in one hand and the finger in the other she made her way to the table. She sat down, leaning back in the chair, legs crossed as she looked at him. Was it possible, it couldn't be.

[DarkAssassin]

James felt her eyes on him immediately. He closed his fist, the flames dispersing into the air. He glanced upward in time to see her reach his table and sit down. He remained silent as she leaned back, his own body in close to the same position, though his feet were on the floor.

He stared back at her, the constantly cold eyes riveting in the musty shadows. Slowly, he unfolded his arms and raised one hand slightly, spreading each of his fingers and raising a brow, as if to show her in a sarcastic way that he was more innocent than the man she had just wounded.

Dropping his hand, he looked back at her and said nothing.

[paganchick]

She looked to his hand then back to his eyes, remaining silent for a long while as she absentmindedly played with the dismembered finger as if some sort of toy. Finally she took a deep breath, sighing.

She learned forward over the table, growing closer to the man.

"I could have took your finger just the same last night," She spoke narrowing her eyes as her eyes moved back to his hands. She could have swore she had saw black flames in his hands, and the energy coming from him. Was he a dragon like her self? One of a similar species? No, He couldn't be, could he.

[DarkAssassin]

A small, cold smile presented itself as she leaned forward and spoke to him. He simply gazed at her in response, his eyes flashing once. He knew she was wrong. But there was no point in telling her. She would simply brush it aside, assuming it a frail shot at her ego as an apparently dangerous woman.

His own eyes narrowed as she looked to his hands. Is that why she had come over? Had she seen? And that same feeling, the gurgling, it was back. He hesitated a moment, then reached out just slightly, his hand hovering in the middle of the table, fingers spread. His eyes never left her own.

[paganchick]

Sapphira didn't even blink.
"I saw the black flames," She spoke simply. She figured she would push her luck, maybe if she pretended to know something she could get more information.
"And I know what you are," She continued to whisper, her voice almost threatening.

[DarkAssassin]

So she had seen. James' face betrayed nothing. He simply looked back at her, his brow raising once more as her voice grew threatening.

He hesitated a moment, then slowly leaned forward towards her, his eyes suddenly much darker, much more threatening than she had previously seen. They were filled with nothing but darkness, a blackness that could consume. He leaned there, piercing eyes boring into her skull.

"You don't know what I am," he said each word slowly, maliciously. Obviously, he meant more than she was talking about. And it was true. Whatever she thought she knew, she had only known him up until now by reputation.

He leaned back and sat once more still in his chair, eyes narrowed to slits. She presumed too much. She was getting closer to danger zone within him.

[paganchick]

Sapphira reached out her hand, palm up. Before his eyes flames licked her her hand, dancing around her fingers, the flames much too red to be it a natural color.
The as quickly as they had appeared she had squashed them in her fist.
Her eyes never left his, never wavered, she could tell by his reaction she was getting it dangerous territory for him.

"I bet you get that same feeling in the pit of your stomach, its because we are the same thing," She pushed on, only riding on her instincts that pushed her forward towards the possibility that she was not alone in the world, that there was another dragon like her out there.

[DarkAssassin]

As the flames danced before his eyes, James looked at them with a surprise he only barely managed to contain. This woman? She was like him? She was like him. A dragon. Another.

He blinked when she squashed them in her fist, glancing back at her. He felt his mind moving far too fast, too many things going on. The feeling in his stomach was bothersome now, intensified by her actions.

"In flesh, in race, we may be the same," he whispered to her, his lips barely moving. "But we are not the same. You don't know what or who I am. And it's better that it stays that way."

He tried to push aside his conflicting emotions. Tried to focus. This woman. A dragon. That feeling had only appeared after he had touched her. In this small moment, she seemed genuine, as if pushed by instinct. But he couldn't let himself open up. Not if this were a trap. Not if she wanted something from him.