Stopping a murder that happened forty years earlier may be the only way to heal a tortured mind ...<br><br>Six months after Jesse Madding is brutally tortured by Marcus Brooker, he is still experiencing flashbacks, panic attacks, and jumping at his own shadow. His lovers, Gideon Keel and Emma Coolidge, would do anything to help him, but Jesse refuses to be hospitalized for treatment, or even visit a therapist. Desperate for a change, Gideon and Emma suggest a radical solution.<br><br> Jesse wants to fix his life. More than anything, he wants to be normal again. He doesn't want to live in fear. He doesn't want to be ashamed of his scarred and mutilated body. He doesn't want to shy away from Gideon's touch. Certain that the holding pattern will kill him, he agrees to Gideon and Emma's proposed solution: travel to an alternative dimension and save Marcus Brooker from witnessing Mary's grisly murder ... in order to save Brooker's soul.

Chaos and Communion

While Michelle sipped at her coffee, Gideon didn’t move. “What Jesse needs—what he wants—is to not be scared anymore. To forget. Explain to me how putting him in Brooker’s path again is going to make that happen.”


“Jesse is too kind-hearted for his own good. You do realize he doesn’t hate Brooker, right? He thinks Brooker was a victim, too. He’s got a lot of anger and a lot of confusion, and he has nowhere to direct it, so he’s directing it back to himself. He won’t entertain the idea that the situation is your fault,” she looked directly at Gideon, “for a second. He knows Brooker was insane, but he’s convinced it didn’t have to be that way. And no, he didn’t tell me any of this. But it’s there, if you listen to the way he talks.”


“But won’t it make it worse if we send him to Brooker and confirm that Brooker was once a normal, non-werebear person?” Emma asked.


Chapter 8