A distant sliver of his mind was captivated by her mouth. It was beautiful, like a shark's; so perfect evolution had left the design untouched for ages untold. It seemed Rhine intended the meal as a gift. If the creature's simple mind had misinterpreted this, it did not pause to be contradicted. Gluttonous hunger was its driving force. Talons hooked through the corpse's mandible once the throat has been torn open, spilling crimson across the floor of his labyrinth. The creature stalked away with the kill. It paused. With hollow eyes, it glanced over its shoulder at Rhine before withdrawing through a dark alcove between swinging mirrors before the lights inside the maze flickered to life. A bell chimed for the maintenance crew.
A gnarled claw emerged from the darkened alcove. It pointed at the maintenance exit at the adjacent side of the bloodied hall. "Wait." The voice was a rattling whisper, a cold wind through bone chimes. Rude, probably, but the creature would not eat with company.
The maintenance door lead to a side yard in the middle of the maze, sequestered from the cirque's guests. There were hooks on the wall; a man's clothes, a few towels and odds and ends, cleaning supplies both personal and industrial. James joined her five minutes later, wearing a spackling of blood, a complete lack of shame and nothing else. "Hey, thanks for waiting." He was grinning. Taking a towel from the wall, he cleared blood from his face and chest just adequately enough that he stopped resembling an extra from Carrie's prom scene, then tucked it around his hips.
"You brought me dinner." The Cheshire grin had lessened, but his expression still balanced confusion with gratitude. "And marinated in Macallan. That was a treat. Vice had table scraps tonight?" A nonchalant means of asking her why she'd bothered. James like her well enough from what he'd seen, but they didn't know each other well.