Kinzer rolled onto his back, his chest rising and falling, sweat rushing down his face from his forehead. It was like he’d had the most intense fuck of his life. He sat up, looking around anxiously. Several yards away, near a few packed dumpsters, blood gushed from Dedrus’s forehead and pooled onto the asphalt. He shook feverishly.

Kinzer sprang to his feet and ran to him. Kneeling beside him, he assessed Dedrus’s shredded body. It reminded him of the last time he had seen Janka. The last time he would ever see Janka.

“Kinzer.” Blood rushed from his mouth, dripping into his pool of blood.

It pained Kinzer to see his ex-lover in this suffering state. There was a time when all he wished upon Dedrus was pain—pain for hurting him so much. Right then, he would’ve given his life to take that pain away.

“You have to get to the child,” Dedrus continued. “You have to protect it from the Almighty.”

Here he was, with his last dying words, still concerned over the fate of mortals. It reminded Kinzer of all the time they shared together, discussing morality, equality. It reminded him of all those things that he had worshiped about Dedrus—those things that had been his reasons for falling in love with him.

“I will.”

Dedrus eyed his sword on the other side of the alley. “Take it. Find them. Put a stop to all this.”

Kinzer nodded.

“Promise me.”

Kinzer wrestled with his request. How could he promise that he could put a stop to this? For all he knew, Veylo had already killed Maggie and the child. For all he knew, the Christ could come and destroy them all. However, knowing that his friend was dying, more than anything, he wanted to help him have peace before his last breath.

“I promise,” he said.

“And Kinzer…” A tear rushed down Dedrus’s cheek. “I don’t care what you think. Ryson…it was, but it was nothing. I always loved you. That last night, before I went off, I was hoping you’d ask me…ask me to be with you…to be the one. When you didn’t, I assumed you weren’t ready. But I never stopped loving you.” His prickly face shook violently. “I wish I would’ve said something before I lost my chance.”

It was the most painful thing Kinzer could have heard. Had the immortal he’d loved so much really felt the same all this time? Was it true? Had it always been that simple? Had Dedrus been just as insecure as he’d been about their relationship? Had all those years of hating Dedrus really been for nothing?

Surely not. Had it turned out any different, he wouldn’t have ended up with Janka. Still, Kinzer couldn’t help but wonder what it would have been like had he confronted Dedrus…had he realized how much he truly loved him.

He’d always loved him. Even when he’d hated him, it was only because he believed Dedrus could never love him in return.

It didn’t matter anymore. He was about to lose another love…just as he’d lost Janka.

He wrapped his arms around Dedrus.

“I love you, too,” he whispered.

He pressed his lips to Dedrus’s blood-filled mouth. He could feel Dedrus’s breath as it caressed his face, as it steadied.

Dedrus’s tremors subsided. Then, he was still.

Kinzer stayed in their embrace, because he knew it would be their last.

His mind flashed to his Janka.

He had rocked back and forth, massaging his fingers through his lover’s bloody flesh. From the corner of Janka’s blue eye, staring vacantly forward, blood slid alongside the tip of his full eyebrow, across his temple.

Kinzer had pressed his lips to Janka’s blood-smeared forehead and offered a gentle kiss.

As Kinzer’s thoughts returned to the present, he could feel himself losing control. A fire welled within him, but he wouldn’t allow it to consume him. Not just yet.

He pulled his lips from Dedrus’s, and turned back to the garage. His eyes filled with rage.

Veylo, here I fucking come.

***

Welts formed on Kid’s ass as Deter continued assaulting him with the paddle. Mika came up alongside him. Removing a bullwhip from his bag, he twisted it around Kid’s throat. Kid moaned. Mika tightened the whip, restricting Kid’s breath until he gagged.

“Fuck you, you bastards!” Treycore shouted.

Craetis, with an arm around Treycore’s neck, pet Treycore’s back like he was trying to soothe him.

“No…more! He…can't…take it,” Treycore said.

Vera giggled.

“Hasn't he already?” she asked, her eyebrow arching.

“You fuck—”

Craetis tightened his chokehold.

“I’m so fucking tired of hearing you talk!” he whispered. He rubbed his free hand along Treycore's tense ass. “Mmmm…yeah, I like that.”

Mika’s eyes lit up as he loosened the whip just enough for Kid to catch a breath, then tensed it again.

The suffocation was unbearable. It was worse than anything Kid had experienced with Treycore. The spots were all around, but with Treycore, he trusted that he would protect him, keep him from reaching a point that was too far. With these monsters, they would take him to the depth of pain, and then he would die. And no amount of screaming or crying or desperately gasping for air was going to save him from that inevitable end…the end that he had agreed to.

***

“Leave…him…alone…you…bitch!” Treycore called out through gritted teeth, his voice straining from Craetis's chokehold as he watched his lover being destroyed. It was an agonizing sight, especially knowing that there was nothing he could do to bring Kid any relief.

Vera clicked her way over to him.

“Your mortal is pathetic,” she said. “I don't imagine he can stand much more of this, do you? I remember when you would have suffered to see that happen to me. You would have wanted to rescue me. Time gives so much, so much that you can't hold on to, and promises to rip it all away from you. How many times have we been in love, Treycore? How many times have we longed for companionship only to be dissatisfied with this one or that one? How many times have we been betrayed? It's a miracle any of us can keep going on after all the sadness…all the disappointment. You think that we would have all discovered by now the futility of love. And yet, I long for it more. You think I take pleasure in the misery of others, but truly, I am the one who suffers, the one who is constantly being tortured, ravaged by my need for you. I'll admit that it gives me satisfaction to hurt him. I'll admit that it's perverse, but in some way, it lessens the pain.”

Deter reached the paddle as high as he could and dropped it on Kid’s ass with an intensity that left Kid convulsing.

“Enough,” Vera said.

Deter stopped, a dissatisfied expression strung across his face. Mika begrudgingly loosened the whip. Kid’s naked ass and legs trembled.

Vera approached him and rested her hand on his back. “How do you feel?” she asked with concern and worry.

He panted as his body forced air back into his lungs.

“Oh, you poor thing,” she said. She lifted him up and slipped between him and the desk. As she rested his head on her lap, he vomited beside her.

“There, there. Shh…shh.” She skimmed the back of her finger across his blood-and-vomit-stained cheek. “I know it hurts. I know. Be strong. You have to. You don't have any other choice.”

Lifting his head off her lap, she slid across his vomit and set his head back down.

She stepped around the desk, opened a side drawer, and tucked her hand inside. As she retrieved it, coiled around her arm was a snake-like creature. It was thicker than a snake, and it didn't have any eyes. It was nearly twice the size of Vera's forearm, and just below its serpent-shaped head were two limbs that looked like lizard legs.

“Do you remember blaggovites, Treycore?”

“Stop!” he whimpered. “Just stop.”

“You must.” She twisted her arm as she stroked the blaggovite with the back of her free hand. “So much easier to control than Morarkes.”

Vera lowered her arm and rubbed the blaggovite against Kid's back.

“As I recall, you were almost killed by one.”

“I'm the one you want! Do it to me, you bitch!”

“I'm sorry, but I've already made a deal with Kid. And you know how I am about deals.”

“Please,” Treycore whined, his chin quivering, his eyes watering.

Vera's jaw clenched. She gripped her hand around the blaggovite's neck and squeezed. Its tail whipped through the air. A slit opened at the tip of its head, and a screech, like a child crying in the night, filled the room.

“Don't you see?” she said, raising her voice to combat the blaggovite's scream. “This is all I've wanted…to see you experience the pain of losing the one you love. Just like I did.”

Her grip around the blaggovite's neck tightened. It screeched even louder.

She lowered it to Kid’s head. It slithered off her arm and coiled around his neck.

“No!” Treycore wailed.

The immortal serpent tightened around Kid’s neck, just as Mika had done with the whip.

Kid closed his eyes like he was drifting off to sleep. His face trembled and shook before he unleashed a shaky scream.

“You must know what it’s like,” Vera told Treycore, "the horror of being tortured by your own vicious memories…the horror of having to relive every dark moment…every fear, until you die. What horrors do you think a boy like Kid has lived that could be so cruel…so painful?”