Damen's humor was dark-tinged these days. He leaned back in his chair. "No. But if you believed me a murderous Beast, thus far I must have failed to live up to expectations."

His eyes never strayed from Laurent's face, seeming to almost glitter in the dim light as he stared at the tip of pink tongue that flicked the underside of the fork.

"What can a Beast appreciate?" Damen responded in Veretian, his rumbling voice sounding suddenly almost elegant with the rolling lilt. "Certainly not the niceties of Godrey, the philosophies of an Aetion. The palate of fine culinary arts. Nor the natural beauty of a rose garden." A jaded, almost bitter edge completed the Veretian effect. Laurent saw him as nothing more than savage, an animal inhabiting a castle far beyond his ability to appreciate or utilize.

Someday, that's all he would be.