Daniel has been to Italy before, but not to Venice. His impression of it now is through Armand, his pieced-together stories that seem parts impossibly fantastical and in others harrowing. At one point, horribly disjointed, Armand attempted to produce a question, and it had taken long minutes after the vampire had given up and left for Daniel to understand that he was trying to ask if he'd ever had any traumatic experiences while selling sexual favors for drugs. A child's inarticulate fumbling, reaching in the dark for understanding, trapped under centuries of repression. Breaking through because Daniel smashed his life apart. He nearly threw up.

I don't understand why we're here. A thought that makes it through. Inelegant, a mortal's artless effort.

He doesn't know if he wants to like Venice.

Armand is in the room with him again, now. Surely he notices Louis. He's been in Daniel's head like he belongs there, for weeks. He sits across from Daniel and looks at him, and neither of them say anything.

Until:

"I'll give him to you."

Armand breaks the silence, and Daniel isn't sure if those amber eyes are looking at him or through him.