"Carlo doesn't feel like talking right now." Cardinal D'Orio came into the office, followed by a dozen Brethren in street clothes. He passed the Taser in his hand to one of them before walking to the desk and helping himself to one of the sandwiches. "I always loved ham and cheese. My mother would forget sometimes and pack it in my lunch on Fridays. The nuns would snatch my sandwich and strip it off. I always thought they waited until we went back to class and then ate it themselves."

"Your Eminence." Hightower's eyes went from Carlo's inert body to the cardinal's placid expression before he recovered and rose to his feet. "I had no idea that you were in America."

"How many?" D'Orio asked.

"Your Eminence?"

D'Orio sniffed the glass of iced tea Mrs. Murphy had left on the tray before sipping from it. "Not enough sugar. I've been doing a little research on your archdiocese. Imagine my surprise when I discovered just how much funding you've spent on the care and feeding of poor little orphan children over the years. So how many have you used for your own experiments, August? A dozen? Twenty? Fifty?"

Dazzling red lights occluded his peripheral vision, as if the fires of hell were closing in on him. Sweat poured down his face. "I don't know what you mean, Your Eminence."

"You'll tell me now," D'Orio said, "or you'll tell them later." He nodded toward the men waiting by the office door. "But first they'll hang you from some very nasty meat hooks and show you what happens when you attach jumper cables to a man's testicles." He dusted off his hands and the front of his robes with a napkin.

Hightower glanced down at Cabreri. "If Carlo has been involved with some misuse of our funds, I will of course investigate immediately—"

"August." D'Orio sighed. "Your pathetic power play is over."

Hightower felt as if a crushing weight had landed on his chest, and the heat became stifling. "I serve the Light," he gasped. "You won't torture me."

D'Orio pursed his thin lips. "I'll do anything I like to you, and we both know it. Now, I'll ask you one more time: How many?"

Pain streaked up Hightower's arm, eating at it from the inside, and then he understood what it was. "Carlo doesn't know," he said, with no small amount of satisfaction. "No one does but me. You'll never find them."

D'Orio looked bored. "If you think that, then you're a fool."

Hightower pressed a hand to his chest, gasping in one last breath. "Wait… wait until… he comes…" He pitched forward and fell on top of Cabreri.

Air whistled slowly from August's lips as men shouted and pounded on him with their fists. He closed his eyes as the pain radiating from his arm became the hell that consumed him.

After Valentin's elderly manservant assured himself that Liling was comfortable with her bedchamber, the private bath, the many lovely garments he had stocked in the closet, and the bottle of bloodwine he poured for her, he withdrew.

The room had been decorated in pure white, from the snowy carpet to the frost-colored walls. A crystal vase with a single red tulip it in was the only spot of color in the room. Liling took a moment to gawk at the luxury of her surroundings before retreating into the bathroom to clean up.

She took off the ball cap and shook out the short mop of hair that had grown back on her scalp. Her hair grew quickly, but not this fast—another change she would have to grow accustomed to. Valentin had told her that the hair of a Darkyn sometimes grew as much as a foot a day, and still it seemed like a miracle that she wasn't completely bald. As she undressed she discovered that patches of soot still blackened her skin, so she made use of the shower.

Once she had finished in the bathroom, she wrapped a large blue towel around herself and went out to pick something to wear from the closet. She chose a simple ivory dress and matching slippers, and placed them on the end of the bed.

"Lingerie," she muttered, looking around the room. She nearly dropped the towel when she saw Valentin leaning against the closed door. "Oh. I didn't know you were there."

"I came in while you were in the shower. I thought I might join you, but then you came out." He looked at the towel. "Take that off."

She glanced at the windows overlooking the lake. Sacher had opened the curtains, so anyone in the right place outside could look in and see her.

"Liling."

Her mouth dry, Liling slowly pulled out the end tucked between her breasts and let the towel fall to the floor.

His cool eyes moved over her as he inspected her from head to heels. "Come here."

Ignoring her jumping nerves, she walked across the velvety white carpet toward the door, stopping in front of him.

"Turn around."

She pivoted, showing him her back, and felt him come up behind her. He didn't touch her, but leaned forward to put his mouth by her ear.

"Are you weary?" he asked, his breath stirring her hair.

She shook her head.

"Do you wish to be left alone?"

Biting her lip, she shook her head again.

"Go and lie on the bed," he told her. "Facedown."

She heard the click of the door lock as she walked over to the bed and did as he had instructed. She turned her head to watch him as he moved around the room, closing the curtains and turning off the lamps.

She tried not to squirm, but her skin crawled with anticipation.

"Be still." He was standing over her now, looking down, watching her.

He might be immortal, but this waiting was going to kill her. "Valentin."

"Some Kyn masters know what their sygkenis is thinking," he said softly. "Even when she says or does nothing to betray her thoughts to him. Their bond is that strong. It seems that is the case with us, for I knew what you were thinking as we were flying to O'Hare."

She had been terribly nervous about getting back on another plane, but Valentin had been at her side every moment, either holding her hand or with his arm around her. During the flight she had kept the fear away by remembering what they had done in the back compartment of the other plane.

And he had known, and had held her hand and said nothing.

Liling felt his fingers stroke the curve of her hip, and arched into his touch.

"You loved how we were together," he said quietly. "It excited you to surrender yourself to me like that. But I did not have time to do all things I wished." He bent down, putting his mouth to the small of her back and running his tongue up the length of her spine. He pinned her down with his body, stretching her arms out. "Now we have eternity together, Liebling, and I have you completely at my mercy."

His dark, silky words should have terrified her, but Liling only shivered with delight.

Jaus wedged his hand under her, pulling her hips up an inch from the bed. With his other hand he opened his trousers and guided his penis between her legs. He prodded her slick folds with the stiff head, pressing against her but not penetrating. She wriggled her hips, trying to entice him to give her more.

"Liling," he breathed against the back of her neck. "This is what I was thinking of on the plane."

He pierced her body with a single thrust, pushing deep as he jerked her hips up, his hands holding her in place until he had forced her to take his entire length. He shifted one hand under her, sliding it between her breasts before he brought her up and back against him, her shoulders to his chest, her thighs spread wide over his.

He kissed her shoulder as she writhed on him, and put his cheek against hers. "Put your hands on your breasts."

Liling groaned, her hands in fists against her thighs, and then forced them to open and pressed them over her breasts. The stiff, distended points of her nipples seemed to scrape her palms.

Valentin pushed her hips down, working the head of his cock an inch deeper. "Squeeze them." When she did, he flexed inside her and began to thrust back and forth. "Harder. Like that. Yes. Does that feel good?"

She didn't know if he meant the subtle, maddening strokes of his penis or the way he was making her torment her own body.

"Yes," she gasped. "I love it. I love you."

His body tensed, and then he brought his hand down between her thighs. He caught her clitoris between his thumb and forefinger and gently squeezed the stiff little bud once, twice, three times.

Even as Liling felt her climax budding, he said, "No. Do not come yet. Wait."

"Valentin."

"You will wait." He took one of her hands from her breasts and pushed it down. "Touch yourself. Rub it while I fuck your pretty little cunt. The way I wished to every minute I held your hand."

Liling knew he watched over her shoulder; she could not fool him by pretending. She brought her middle finger to rest against her clit and rubbed slowly.

"Faster," he said, working himself harder inside her.

She flexed her finger, stroking herself with more vigor. Her clit sent a ripple of red-hot sensation through her groin.

"Harder." He put his hand on top of hers, holding her and forcing her to do his bidding. When he felt her hips twist and shake, he quickly withdrew from her and inserted her finger and his own into her vagina.

"Please," she begged, needing him inside her, and then she felt him rubbing his cock against the sensitive ruck of her bottom.

He pressed in there, not quite entering her but stimulating her unbearably while he fucked her with their fingers.

"Now you will come for me. Liebling," he said, his voice hoarse. "Come on our hands."

As if he'd released her from some unseen restraint, Liling came with a wild cry and felt his penis jerking and twitching against her bottom as he spilled his semen between her buttocks, rubbing it into her with long, luxurious strokes of his shaft.

He brought her down gently onto her back on the bed and lay beside her, his hand caressing and fondling as he stroked her breasts, belly, and thighs. Little quakes of pleasure, like climax aftershocks, shook her as his touch kept them shimmering through her body.