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Cory Windrunner slumped, exhausted, barely able to keep herself on the hassock she had sat upon... how long ago? Hours? Months? Years? She had heard every word of a story spanning nearly a decade, felt as if she had somehow lived it, survived it, and now sat here, in this huge, ostentatious house, dark with the early-falling winter night, shivering not from the dying, unattended fire but from the sheer agonies of having heard Gabriel's excruciating story ripped from him by the merciless dragon she thought she knew.

Benedict had barely moved in all this time, and the stallion who had been his unwitting victim had been motionless in the hypnotic thrall that the crimson drake had forced upon him. Of the three, the Clydesdale appeared the most relaxed, despite the twin ribbons of blood, narrow as a strip on a packet of gum, that had formed from his nostrils, touching his lower lip, terminating in two tiny dots of red on an otherwise pristine denim shirt. This was the only outward sign of any disturbance from Gabriel; despite the devastating emotional wreckage of the lengthy tale he had told, his expression was neutral, his eyes dry. This, above all, was the most terrifying thing.

"You were told that Demmie killed himself." Benedict's voice remained low, controlling, even after all this time. "Why did you not believe that?"

"Couldn't happen," Gabriel responded. "Too strong. Wouldn't kill himself. Had to be Parker."

"Why Parker?"

"Turned on Demmie. Didn't want to come out. Too afraid. Afraid of Demmie's father. Parker killed Demmie to stop him from outing him."

"But Parker loved Demetrius. Isn't that what Demmie told you?"

"Lied."

"Demmie lied?"

"Parker lied. Couldn't have loved Demmie. Not like..."

Cory found herself blinking, the silence around her stretching.

"Gabriel, did you love Demetrius?"

"Of course."

"No, Gabriel." The dragon seemed strangely compassionate all at once. "Did you love him more than you have told us?"

Watching the motionless Clydesdale, Cory had the sudden and overwhelming sensation that Gabriel was trying to shift, to move, to shake his head.

"Gabriel, you will still tell us the truth. You don't have to feel the emotions; you only have to report them. Did you love Demetrius more than you admitted to yourself?"

Again, the pause that should not have happened. Fighting. Resistance. But what was it that the Clyde was fighting?

"Yes."

"Your fifth promise was to Demetrius. You promised you would always be proud to have him in your life. Your first was never to make a promise that you wouldn't keep. Did you want Demetrius in your life, Gabriel?"

"Yes."

"More than you could admit to yourself."

"Yes."

"Do you feel responsible for him?"

"Yes."

"Responsible for his death?"

A pause as the Clyde seemed to fight against whatever it was that he still held inside. "Yes."

"So you sought to avenge him."

"Yes."

"Have you avenged another in your lifetime, Gabriel?"

"Benedict, no!" Cory stood. "That's not for us to know."

"We have to find out if he is capable of--"

"Pursue that question, and you'll find out what I'm capable of." The mare moved to stand next to the motionless dragon. "End this now, or by all the gods, I'll find out just how hard your skull really is."

"If I don't bring him out of this carefully, he could die."

"Then there won't be any witnesses, will there?"

No response. In two steps, Cory reached the fireplace and grabbed the poker from its place. Returning, she stood with it in one forepaw, holding it where she was certain that the dragon could see it. Blood pounded in her head, making her wonder for one brief moment if she were as much under Benedict's power as was Gabriel. With less effort than she might have imagined, she began to raise the heavy fire iron into the air.

"Gabriel," the dragon intoned softly, "do you believe that Zachary Parker killed Demetrius?"

"I'll make him tell me."

"Do you want to kill him?"

"If he killed Demmie, I'll kill him."

"And if he did not?"

The fire iron stopped at the apex of Cory's reach.

"Gabriel, how did you find Zachary Parker?"

"Search engines. Newspaper article."

"And you flew here to confront him."

"Yes."

"Gabriel, if I could prove to you that Zachary Parker did not kill Demetrius, what would you do?"

"He did."

"No, he did not. I think I can prove it to you. To do that, I need you not to carry out your threat."

The mare's arm began to hurt, but she could not lower the poker. Not until she knew it was safe. Until she knew that Benedict would end this. Until she knew that Gabriel would be safe.

"Gabriel, did your plans include seducing Cory?"

"Not planned."

"Is Cory merely a means to an end?"

"No."

Cory's head spun toward the stallion, as if she expected him to acknowledge that she was still there. The Clyde sat unmoving, but something had changed. Something visible or not, she couldn't say, but something...

"You told Demetrius that you made five promises in your life. Have you made any more since then?"

"No."

"You said that you would not try to take Sandy from Demetrius because of your second promise. What was that second promise?"

"I promised that I would protect those I love. Not hurt them. Not let them be hurt. Taking Sandy would have hurt Demmie."

"Do you love Cory?"

"Not planned."

"Gabriel, do you love Cory?"

_There._That's what was different. That's what she had seen. The mare lowered the fire iron, letting her arm hang loosely at her side as she turned fully to look at Gabriel, at his face, at his eyes, at the single tear that escaped and ran down his dark cheek.

"Yes."

"Then you want to protect her from being hurt."

"Yes."

"Do you think you can do that?"

"I don't know."

"Will you let me help you? Will you let me try to prove to you that Zachary Parker didn't kill Demetrius? This does not require a new promise from you; if you want not to hurt Cory, as part of your second promise, then let me prove it to you."

"I will avenge Demmie."

"Gabriel, if I'm right about what happened to Demetrius, we will all avenge him. Even Parker."

"Don't want to hurt Cory."

"One thing at a time, Gabriel. I want you to breathe in deeply, and as you let it back out, feel yourself taking one step backward."

The stallion breathed, and as he exhaled, his body seemed less rigid. Cory could see that he was still under the dragon's influence, but it didn't feel as deep as it was before. Even Benedict managed to lean back in his chair.

"Cory," he said softly, "if you're going to keep hold of that fire iron, you could at least stir up the coals and put on another log. We're not going anywhere."

For a long moment, no one and nothing moved. Finally, more numb than anything else, the mare found herself doing as she was asked.

"Gabriel, we've done a lot of work today. You're probably very, very tired. You'll be able to sleep soon. First, I want you to look at something." The dragon held up a foreclaw, a signet ring glinting in the low light. "Look carefully. You will know it when you see it again. When you see it again, and you hear the words 'For our matchless friends', you will enter this trance again. Repeat the words I gave you."

"For our matchless friends."

"That is correct. I'm going to count down from ten to zero, and as I do, you will fall effortlessly to sleep. When you wake, you will not remember anything that we discussed while you were under my control. Ten... letting yourself start to drift, flowing toward a soft and beautiful sleep..."

The dragon continued, slowly, calmly. At seven, the horse's head began to nod, and at three, Benedict invited him to stretch out on the couch, the better to get his rest. The count moved to zero, and Gabriel let his eyes close completely, his tail and ears still, his breathing shallow and easy. Cory looked at him, at the twin stripes of blood from his nostrils, his stained, wrinkled shirt, his body finally relaxed after what felt like hours of having been in a statue-like stiffness, and she wondered if she'd ever seen him before. Silently, she moved to the couch, removing the coverlet that lay across the back of it, unfolding it, covering the young male against the dull chill of the room.

"You love him."

She turned to look at Benedict, who at least had the good grace to look ashamed of himself. "What's that got to do with it," she stated more than asked.

"You stopped me from going too far, Cory. That's what your love has to do with it." His eyes held hers steadily, his chin jutting briefly toward the fire iron that stood now in its accustomed place. "I think you'd have done it."

"Bet on it."

"I'd rather not. I might win." He paused for a long moment. "What do you want me to say?"

"Honestly? I haven't a fucking clue." The mare sank onto the hassock again, only her own anger preventing her from collapsing into a sleep no less sound than Gabriel's. "What was all that horrorshow for, Benedict? What were you looking for?"

"Answers, Cory. I knew he was involved in this, but I didn't know to what extent."

"How could you possibly have known--"

"You don't care much for licorice, do you? Or anise rings? Or my anise snap cookies."

"What does--"

"I smelled it in my office. The smell of clove or licorice. Someone had broken in, but I didn't know who, until I was able to overhear Gabriel saying that he brought his anise rings with him. You know how sensitive my nose is. There's no doubt that he was the one in my office. I just didn't know why."

"Do you know now?"

"Yes -- to get to Parker, since I'm counseling him. He was very much on a mission. He must have thought that he'd access case notes or something, searching for the proof of Parker's guilt. I'm curious how he got into the building itself, since there seems to be no sign of breaking in."

My flippin' keys have vanished on me... "How did you hypnotize him against his will?"

The dragon leaned over to bring the plate of cookies toward himself, taking a snickerdoodle from the remaining stack. "I strongly suggest that you not develop a taste for anise snaps, at least not today. I don't think this batch came out well."

"Drugs?"

"Nothing like Rohypnol. I did grind up .5mg of alprazolam, along with a measure of valerian, all added to the anise extract. There's a touch of chamomile in the tea. His system will be free of all of it in several hours at the worst, and given his size and metabolism, the only reason that it worked was because of a little verbal and draconic trickery. His body was given signals to relax from a source he couldn't identify, and ironically, when the mind fights such mysteries, it tends to succumb faster."

The mare rubbed her eyes tiredly. "Where does this leave us, Benedict? What are we supposed to do now? Just let him sleep it off? What do we tell him when he comes to? What's he going to remember?"

"I left a key with him." He displayed the ring on his finger briefly. "If I show him this, and speak the key phrase, he'll fall into a light trance. From there, I can let him remember as much or as little as is safe."

"For you, or for him?"

"I was thinking of him, but if you prefer..." Benedict released a small sigh. "If you think that I don't know what I've done here, you are completely wrong. My motive was to save Parker, and there may yet be a chance of that."

"I don't understand..."

"What I did to Gabriel is perhaps a tenth of what was done to Parker. The stallion can recover from having been forced to tell the truth, especially if I can help rid him of his own demon -- to know who killed Demetrius. What was done to the pup... Cory, he has spent the last five years living a half-life, with all of the time that he spent with young Riddell stripped from him. The truth is locked up somewhere inside him, and the walls around that prison are starting to crumble. His life is on the line, quite literally. I made the choice to do this to Gabriel. I won't say that I'm sorry; I can help Parker now, and I can take away Gabriel's murderous intent. The greater cost will be to you."

"And to you." The mare's voice was steady. "You just put our twenty years of friendship on the line."

"How little you must know me, after all that time. Do you even remember what brought you into my life in the first place?" The look on the dragon's face changed, for the first time dropping the formal mask he usually wore. "Wendell. That beautiful young serval cat who came to me for help, who came to love me, and who I came to love. You fought against those who tried to tear us apart. Did you forget that you championed the disgusting old pervert, the scale-covered, cold-blood demon with claws, who risked his own life even then because he wanted to help, wanted to love as freely as the rest of you warm-blooded, decent, god-fearing furs?"

"No, you pompous bastard, I haven't forgotten. Nor am I blind to what you've done to Eoin."

"Leave Eoin out of this!"

"Oh, that's a knee-slapper; you should tell another one!" Cory advanced on the drake, as much flame in her eyes as the dragon might cause with his breath. "Did you betray his love like you did mine? Were you as brutal about it? Yes, Benedict, I loved Gabriel. Yes, I was very much in love with him; he was the first decent male I've known in years, or so I thought. And you've changed completely how I look at him; you stripped him more naked than he's ever been with me, and you forced him, under duress, to tell you how he feels about me. You've laid bare everything about him, including his desire for vengeance which may be nothing more than misplaced love that he couldn't admit to himself. Is that enough blood for you to save Parker? How many more bodies are you ready to step on, to help this pup?"

"That stallion used you, to get to me, in order to kill an innocent pup. Is that your definition of decency? Have you become so desperate in your cloistered years that you'll take a would-be murderer into your bed?"

Cory flung herself at the damned drake, forepaws high, ready to beat him senseless if need be. She found her wrists held tightly by two powerful foreclaws, pushing back hard enough that she was hauled off the ground.

"Do you think you're the only one who can feel, little mare?" The dragon's eyes burned red hot as he stared at her. "Nelson was once my lover too, and he dragged Wendell's memory into this; he all but dared me to turn away from Parker, comparing my sweet serval to this damned Akita whelp. The same whelp that has taken Eoin from me, just in case you didn't think that boot wasn't on the other hindpaw. One lover lost to the years, another lost to his job, and this one lost to the person that I was all but blackmailed into helping. No worries; Benedict won't mind. After all, he doesn't matter, he doesn't feel_like we do, doesn't _love like we do, he'll get over it. Just one more little sacrifice, eh? Taking just one more for the team? What makes you dare to think that you're the only one with a stake in this, you godsdamned, stupid, _arrogant_little..."

The air in the room thickened. Cory felt herself choking, drowning in the anger -- no, the hatred in Benedict's eyes. She stared, unblinking, her breath stopped, her heart pounding. It took moments for her to realize that her hooves had come back down to the floor. The claws that held her wrists released her, but the stare continued to hold her pinned in place.

"Do you think you know me, Cory?" the dragon screamed, and then his voice dropped to a whisper. "Do you think you really want to?"

Wide-eyed, the mare could not answer. Before her, the drake seemed to shrink, his eyes cooling to their soft yellow shade. The face, at least, she could recognize, even if the being himself was no longer familiar.

"Would it shock you to know how much I love you? That you were the only furson that I could trust enough to be my conscience this afternoon? I couldn't ask Eoin, and I didn't ask Nelson, or Stackhouse, or anyone else. Nelson is strong, Stackhouse stronger; they could have physically overpowered me, if they thought I had gone too far. But they wouldn't have. You, Cory. You would. You almost did. It's possible that you'd have done so to protect Gabriel, because you love him. Present tense, not past tense. You still love him enough to fight me. And you love me enough to break through my glamour, my armor, and make me see just what I am and what I'm doing. And that's why it had to be you, who was to be my conscience." He took a breath. "And if you want to hate me for it, so be it. But hate me, Cory. Don't just hate. If you let hate into your heart, it will make a home there, and it will not be evicted easily."

His glance flicked to the sofa, then back to her. "Loving you was his downfall. If he had only used you, he would not have risked getting too close, to you or to me. His love for Demetrius became vengeance, but it had not turned simply to hate. He hadn't meant to love you, but he did. And now, there he lies, waiting for judgment in a trial he won't even remember. If you spare me no mercy, Cory, you might think about some for him... and for yourself."

Slowly, the dragon turned and moved sluggishly toward the main hallway of his house. "Let him rest for as long as you wish. I trust that you can see yourselves out."

Benedict disappeared down the great hall, and after several seconds, all that was left was the sound of a door opening, then softly closing. In the vast space of the house, only the occasional popping from the fireplace broke the even more vast silence. Cory stayed motionless, her mind frozen, her spirit in agony, her hope moribund. Gabriel slept, oblivious.