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

“Touch her, and it’ll be the last thing you do.”


Henry chuckled. “Cute. You act like you actually have a say in the matter. Nice to know Gideon hasn’t beaten all the fight out of you yet.”


Jesse thought about how easy it was for Brooker’s goons to get the drop on him, to corner him and knock him out and drag him away to a dark room with chains hanging from the ceiling. Nobody was ever going to do that to him again. Henry’s eyes flashed dangerously, and his fangs looked sharp and hungry. But Gideon wasn’t going to come and rescue them


Not unless Marcus could contact him. They must have known Marcus was in the rectory, but maybe he could distract the four vampires long enough to give Marcus a chance to escape.


“Is that what this is all about? Getting to Gideon?”


Chapter 85