. um... that is," I could hardly bring myself to ask him the question, "How many other people have you been with?" Bastard," I could tell he was talki...g about Chris, not me, then, "Four in total. The girl I don't remember, then there was another girl, one night stand and I discovered halfway through that I could stand girls in any way. Then there was David. We got together twice and only got a little further than you and me have. And then Adam, who was a brutal fuckwit. I couldn't stand him, he. She licked her lips again and turned her head slightly. I decided to be brave and gave her a little kiss on the stomach.Nothing.I gave her another on her right thigh.Still, nothing.Then I went for it and kissed her right breast to the left of the nipple.She sighed, but that was all.I had one knee on the couch between her legs and both arms on the back of the couch on either side of her head. She seemed to be sound asleep, so I went for the grand finale. My lips touched hers.The next 5 seconds. "I could handle it, father." Yes, darling. You could. Nevertheless, I want to make sure." The exarchturned back to me. "That man with you was sinking in and out of a poorlyrealised fighting madness, so he can't serve my purposes. Yet with himas my guest, you will be most agreeable, isn't that right?"I spoke slowly in order not to snap. "Yes, Lambency. Very much so." Good. Here's what I require of you. Listen well, so you can decide ifyou prefer doing my bidding over your deaths."CHAPTER II:. She rushed across the deck, trying blindly to make her way aft, but smashed her shin against the teak wall of the deckhouse and sank to the deck, whimpering softly, clutching her battered shin in both hands, utterly defeated.Her downfall was complete, she thought, as the hysterical core of her mind was gradually haloed by a desperate lucidity. Not only had she been the victim of some ungodly metamorphosis aboard the Vera, from saint to sinner, but that transition had been recorded and filed on.