"Damnable woman," Venomania swore, pressing his face to Karchiss’s back. "Ruining tonight’s fun for us."

Crim didn't answer. The base of his spine was a throbbing tight knot, the bruise on his wrist a virulent purple. A dull ache assaulted his hips and his stomach, either from the corset, or else from what Venomania had done to him there. Karchiss tentatively pressed the back of one hand to his cheek. His skin was hot and tender and swollen.

None of that seemed worth mentioning to the Duke, but the other pain the woman had inflicted could not be so easily ignored. Lying beside Venomania’s bare body was uncomfortable enough in itself. He vehemently wanted not to be touched, had turned away in a clumsy attempt to avoid it. So far Lord Venomania had only put his arms around Karchiss’s waist, nuzzling between his shoulder blades with a kind of contented sigh.

"Talk to me," he murmured softly. "Tell me what sort of mysterious stranger dares take comfort in the madman Venomania’s arms."

"There’s not much to tell," Karchiss admitted. "This has been the most extraordinary business of my life thus far." He tried to stifle a yawn. It was growing very late. "I’m quite certain I’d had a bit too much to drink the night the meister brought those noblemen to me. Yufina had just gone missing, and we’d not parted on the best of terms. I was depressed and worried. More than that, I was her betrothed. I had a responsibility to protect her." He shook his head. "There were rumors that our quarrel had led her to suicide in some remote location, and though that hardly seemed likely, I was relieved when her father came to me with news she'd been seen walking the grounds here. My relief disappeared when he handed me the dagger."

"I kept looking from one blotched face to another, thinking how these men were supposed to keep us safe, men whom we allowed to live off our blood and sweat and tears for that sole purpose. They had sworn to keep us safe, and yet there they were, too fearful to do anything more than press a blade into the hands of a mere merchant's son, a boy without martial skill of any kind."

"Ah, but a clever boy, nonetheless." The Duke nibbled playfully at his ear. "One who knew his advantages and invented this little charade in order to use them strategically."

Karchiss rolled onto his back. Venomania was leaning out over him on one elbow, smiling.

"It doesn’t matter who holds the blade, Lord Duke, so long as the aim strikes true."

"It matters a great deal to the person receiving the blow. A man should fully appreciate which of his follies has brought him to ruin." Venomania paused. "Didn't anyone try to dissuade you from doing this? From placing yourself in such danger?"

"Who'd bother?" Karchiss shrugged. "It's only me and my father. Yufina wouldn't have stood for it, but Yufina wasn't there."

"I understand what it's like, having no one left to care for you."

Crim glanced up uneasily. The Duke appeared lost in his thoughts.

"Your family- some of the townspeople say that you're the one who killed them."

The Duke sighed, running his hand through Karchiss' hair. "There are some extraordinarily far-fetched tales about the whole affair, from people who purport to remember it all very clearly. I alone have no answers. No memory."

Karchiss wondered how far he should take this line of questioning. He smiled, as though he found the entire idea ridiculous and wasn't frightened of it in the least. "They also say that’s a consequence of the bargain you made with the demon."

Venomania laughed. "More likely it was a consequence of the massive head wound I managed to incur that night." He leaned low over Karchiss's chest and tilted his head towards him. "If you look closely, you can still see the scar."

It was true. Part of the Duke's scalp didn't quite match up with the rest. It was an unexpectedly grosteque aberration on that otherwise flawless body.

"Lord Duke," he breathed, "I'm so sorry-"

"Don't be." Venomania pulled several pillows behind him, giving them all a quick, habitual plump. "It's the only proof I have of my own innocence, knowing that I was also attacked that night."

Or one of them may have injured you in self-defense-

Karchiss had the thought immediately but didn't dare give voice to it. Either the Duke would know he'd seen through his explanation, or he'd begin to doubt the provenance of the injury. If Venomania was truly innocent of such a horrendous act, it would be inexcusably cruel to steal that one small comfort away from him.

"The circumstances may have been less than favorable, but I'm still very glad you came to me." Karchiss glanced up, feeling his cheeks flush. "All men have come to fear me," Venomania murmured. "Justly or unjustly, I have become a pariah. I had despaired of ever knowing the touch of another man, the tenderness of another man's smile-"

Karchiss averted his eyes. "You should hardly be speaking to me in this way, Lord Duke."

“Oh? And what other way should I speak to you? As if we were negotiating business, or arranging the particulars of a duel?" The Duke's lips brushed against his cheek and burned there, warm and teasing, not so unlike the way Yufina had kissed him.

"I would be more accustomed to that than to hearing you say such embarassing things.”

“Is it really so unpleasant, then, lying here beside me? Hearing me speak to you with fondness, feeling the warmth of my flesh and of my regard for you, knowing that I find you unutterably pleasing?" Venomania caressed the lines of his cheek. His touch was wonderfully soothing, and Karchiss found himself closing his eyes yet again. "Is it not a lovely thing to find human acceptance?,” that hushed voice whispered. “To not be turned away?”

The Duke was referring to himself as much as anyone else, but Karchiss still felt the bitter sting of Yufina's refusal. He understood Lord Venomania's pain all too clearly. "Yes," he murmured softly. "It is."

The firelight flickered warmly against the Duke's skin, filling his violet eyes with shadows. There were no words to express what Karchiss wanted to say in that moment. He could only stare at his naked reflection, there, deep within Venomania's eyes.

"My Lord Duke," he began, helplessly.

"Saterias," Venomania murmured, his warm breath tickling Karchiss's neck as he peeled the coverlet back from his aching body. "My name is Saterias. It's ridiculous wearing a title when you're dressed in nothing else."

The Duke's hand slid quite casually between his thighs. Crim stared up into his smiling face, wondering how anyone could be possibly be so utterly shameless.

"Does this hurt?"

"N-no-"

Venomania's fingers ran up and down his flesh in a light caress. His soft lips curled into a smile.

"I can be as gentle as you like."

Karchiss snatched hurriedly at the covers. "The gentlest touch would be no touch at all.”

To Karchiss' surprise, and perhaps to his disappointment, the Duke did not block his clumsy attempt at modesty but simply stood and stretched.

"All right," he responded airily. "If you don't want me, I'll find someone who does."

Karchiss jolted up, startled, watching in disbelief as Venomania started slipping on his pants.

"You can't-," he blurted out.

The Duke turned to him with a bemused expression. "Oh, I can't, can I? I already told you, I'm tired of being told what I can and cannot do inside my own house, so unless you have an excellent reason-"

"I don't want you to leave me." Karchiss stared down at the marble floor, immediately regretting those words.

"And why is that?"

Venomania was enjoying this humiliation far too much. Karchiss sighed and rolled over so the Duke wouldn't see his flushed features.

"Never mind." He listened for the sound of the heavy door swinging open, dreading it to the very depths of his soul, but the Duke just stood there, staring silently down at his blanketed back.

"Are you so willing to allow your pride to keep you from me? You have but to say the word, and I am yours." The softness in Venomania's voice made his breath catch. "I will turn all your pain to sweetest pleasure, and leave you desiring nothing." The Duke was using his devil's magic. There was no other reason his heart should be beating so quickly. Nothing short of hellfire should be making his body feel so restlessly hot.

Karchiss shook his head. The pillow beneath it bore faint traces of Venomania's scent, and he suddenly had a despairing feeling, as if there was no way of escaping this man.

"I will not force this any further. I should not have pressed you to begin with, and I humbly apologize for it, but has it not proven less bitter, and more sweet?"

Karchiss did not answer. Venomania sighed heavily, and the sound Crim had been awaiting so anxiously finally came.

"Lord Duke- Saterias," he called out abruptly, staring into the wavering flames. The name tasted strange on his tongue. It left him with a cold feeling, as if he were summoning a demon. The thought made his mouth go abysmally dry. "I am hardly fit to judge the morality of your actions. It may be I would have murdered an innocent man."

"May be-?," the man repeated. "Then you're still not convinced." Lord Venomania shook his head, sighing. The bed sagged beneath his weight as the duke sat down beside him. He placed a heavy hand on Karchiss' back. "If I was truly possessed of these demonic powers, do you think I would have allowed you to live?"

"Deception and manipulation are the devil's tools."

"And this God of yours is said to work in no less convoluted ways. A man might as easily ascribe his tribulations to the one as to the other."

"Forgive me, Lord Duke, if I find it exceedingly difficult to believe that God has brought me to your bed."

Venomania smiled softly. "No. It is merely human frailty that places you here- your love for Yufina, the meisters' cowardice, your imperfect deception. Your physical inability to overcome me, coupled with my own loneliness and lust."

Thoughtlessly, the duke's fingers swept along his neck and came to rest at his still-turned cheek.

"All men are sinners. Neither gods nor demons are required to make that of us."

Why did it sound as though the man was close to tears?

Hesitantly, Crim reached up and wrapped his fingers around the back of that warm hand. Venomania's body tensed up in surprise. The wrist started to draw conscientiously back, but Karchiss held it close against his skin.

They remained there, silent, fixed in that same pose for interminable moments, until Karchiss turned towards him, and those questioning, beautiful eyes reflected his image once more.

“Saterias,” he repeated, hoping the more times he said it the more natural it might feel, “you are not at all what I expected. I’m not sure how to regard you, or what to do with that regard.” Karchiss stroked the man’s fingers. “All I know is I don’t want you to leave me. Lie with me tonight, beside me, as you were. Give me time- to decide.”

The Duke smiled ironically. “Are you certain you want to do that? After all, I might kill you in your sleep, or steal your immortal soul.”

“You know, I didn’t understand your reasoning when you pressed my blade to your throat. It seemed so foolhardy a move only a lunatic would make it. Either that, or you were acting with the certainty of invulnerability, but then I cut you, and you bled, so that could not have been the case. I’ve been asking myself if I think you truly are a madman, and I’ve come to the conclusion you are not. That could only mean you gave me the opportunity to kill you, in order to prove your suspicion that I wouldn’t. Now I am making the same sort of wager.”

“Karchiss-” The Duke seemed shaken.

Crim favored him with a gentle smile. A tentative hand reached up to brush his face. “You may be rash, but you aren’t stupid. You are probably quite brilliant. If I wake up tomorrow with my body and soul still intact, I might indeed do well to follow your example.”