But just in case, Darling methodically searched the rooms.

He was about to give up when he finally found Arturo in the back courtyard where he was pawing some poor servant he'd trapped there. No older than fifteen, the girl was whimpering and crying, begging him not to dishonor her.

Darling saw red as old memories tore through him, and the beast inside him roared to life at the prospect of being set loose.

He could already smell the blood.

"Let her go."

His uncle turned, then frowned at the mask on his face. "Darling? Is that you?"

Without responding, Darling pulled the girl off Arturo's lap. "Run."

She didn't hesitate to obey.

Indignant, Arturo came to his feet with a feral snarl.

When he went to hit Darling, Darling dodged and then punched him with seventeen years of repressed fury. He felt his uncle's cheekbone shatter underneath his fist. The blow twisted Arturo around and sent him straight to the ground.

Arturo went pale as the night fog as he stared in horror at the blood pouring from his lips and nose. His face a mask of utter disbelief, he gaped at Darling.

"That's right, you bastard. I don't just take a punch. I can give one." He pulled Arturo up like a rag doll and held his uncle in front of him. "And more than that, I can kill."

The old familiar smug contempt returned to his uncle's eyes. "You can't kill me and you know it. If you do, you and your family die with me."

Darling let out an evil laugh. "There, you're wrong, old man. I finally thought of another way out. Too bad you won't be around to see it." He drove his blade straight into Arturo's heart where it would keep him alive, but in pain for a few minutes longer. Let's hear it for all the years you forced me to study human anatomy. It'd made him a much more proficient killer. "That's for my father." He pulled the knife out and then cut Arturo's throat, again with a wound that wouldn't kill him immediately.

Rather, suffering in pain, he'd bleed out at Darling's feet before help could arrive. "And that was for me."

Guards came running from all directions as Arturo reached for them, trying to get to help.

But it was too late for that.

Kicking his uncle back, Darling dropped his long coat to the ground to let the guards see that his entire body was wired with enough explosives to take out them, the palace, and everything that was within three miles of it. One shot anywhere near him with a blaster's charge, and they'd all go to hell together.

The guards hesitated, forming a circle around him.

"Who wants to die with me tonight?" Darling taunted them.

As expected, there were no volunteers.

No heroes.

Like the coward they'd served, the guards shrank back to protect their own asses. However, it was too late for most of them...

I should have thought of this years ago.

But that was the problem with being sane. Sane people played by the rules. They looked for rational explanations and solutions in an insane universe.

Now, he was one of the animals. And never had a more vicious one been born.

The one thing the Resistance had taught him was who his friends were. Who cared about him.

Who didn't.

It was a lesson Darling would never forget.

He glared at the imperial guards and made note of the faces of the ones who'd dragged him home under his uncle's orders. The ones who'd taken pleasure in assaulting and mocking him over the years when he'd been under their "care" and "protection."

They were going to pay later.

For now...

"Notify the other aristos, there's a new Caronese governor. And if any of you think you can overpower me later, think again. I was trained by Nemesis himself and I learned well. You come for me, you will die. All of you. There's no one alive who can stop me."

He gestured toward Arturo's body. "And I promise you, I won't be nearly as merciful. If you think Arturo ruled you with an iron fist, you ain't seen nothing yet, bitches. Before I'm done, you will fear me as you've never feared anyone."

Wanting one of them to try something, he pushed his way through them and made his way into the master suite of the palace.

It reeked of Arturo's stench.

Even though it was almost midnight, he pressed the link for the housekeeping staff. "I want the sheets and covers in here dragged out and burned, and new ones brought in." Tomorrow he'd have the staff throw out everything that had belonged to Arturo.

In the meantime...

He had more people to visit and kill.

7.

"Darling has gone bat-shit crazy."

Maris gave Caillen a "duh" stare through the vid screen. He was in his bedroom at the Caronese Winter Palace while Caillen sat in Nykyrian's office at the Sentella's headquarters with Nero and the rest of the Sentella High Command-Nykyrian, Syn, Jayne, and Hauk. And all of them were worried about Darling and what he'd become over the last few weeks.

Every day, Darling slipped farther down the insanity chain. At the rate he was going, if they didn't stop him soon, he would be lost to them forever.

"You think I don't know that, Cai?" Maris asked. "I live with him. He jumps at any sudden sound. Pulls a blaster on you if you so much as sneeze unexpectedly. And if that's not bad enough, he's walking around wired with enough explosives to take out half the capital city."

Maris's stomach tightened as he saw an image of Darling's current sorry state in his mind. "Swear to the gods. I think he even bathes with it on... although, to be honest, I don't think he's had a bath in weeks. He looks like utter hell. Smells even worse. He's planted dirty bombs all over the place, but he won't tell anyone where they are. He has all of us held hostage by fear. If he dies and can't reset the timers every few hours at random intervals that he alone knows the schedule to, they'll go off, and we all go bye-bye in a nasty way. No one knows how he has them wired or timed or anything. He has lost his mind. Completely. Totally. Fully. I can't even talk to him anymore. He just stares at me with these beady, creepy eyes through that garish mask that gives me the jumping heebies."

Caillen arched his brow. "Damn, Mari, that's some rapid-fire dissertation there, buddy. You practice that much or did it naturally roll off your tongue like that?"

"You're not funny." Maris glowered at him. "What are we going to do?" he asked Nykyrian. "He's quickly ascending to the top of every hit list known and probably those unknown, too. At this point, everyone is gunning for him." Literally. "And that's just making him even more paranoid and insane. You should see the grisly monument he's building in front of the palace of the idiots who've tried to kill him-he has Arturo's decaying head mounted on a spike out there, along with those of the guards who beat him in the past. It's like he's some ancient barbarian warlord showing off his power and daring someone to come after him so he can add them to the pile. It's as if he wants to die, and he plans to take as many of us with him as he can."

Their eyes mirrored the same horror Maris felt.

Caillen bit his lip in frustration. "I don't know how to help him. I don't. You're the only one of us he'll let in the same room with him. He won't take any of our calls. We can't get the time of day out of him."

That was true. Every time Caillen, Syn, Nero, Hauk, Nykyrian, Jayne, or Darling's family tried to see him, he emphatically refused.

Darling had only spent ten minutes with Lise-long enough to assure himself that she really was all right, then the instant he saw the leftover limp she had from her injury, he was done. She hadn't been allowed near him since.

Maris raked his hand through his unstyled hair and cringed at his own sorry appearance. Gah, he was a mess, too. But he was more worried about Darling than his own vanity, and that concern kept him up all hours of the night as he tried to reach Darling through the potent rage his best friend had cloaked himself with.

"For the record," Maris said to the others, "he won't talk to me either. I'm serious about the beady-eyed stare thing. That's all I can get out of him. That or a growl. Meanwhile, he doesn't sleep. Doesn't eat. He just drinks things that double as rust removers, and pops pain meds like candy. He walks the halls, day and night. I'm telling you right now, he terrifies me."

All of them knew that Darling was spinning out of control and none of them could stop it.

Since Syn had given him leave to travel, Darling had been on a vicious killing spree, taking out every member of the Resistance he could find. He'd brutally killed every doctor who'd ever treated him under his uncle's orders, and half the staffs of the mental wards where he'd been confined over the years. Two of the buildings, he'd blown into rubble. The third he'd burned to the ground and toasted marshmallows over its smoldering embers. Then, he'd laughed as he ate them.

For that matter, he'd offered one to Maris.

Worse, he'd slaughtered several dozen members of his own royal guard, which hadn't gone over well with the ones he'd spared. Okay, so the guards he'd killed had deserved it. They'd been the men his uncle had sent after him over the years who had done unspeakable things to him, but still...

It was scary.

And there was no end in sight. Each kill fueled him to the next.

The League had sent more than three dozen of their best assassins after him, and Darling had plowed through them like they were rookies. If that wasn't bad enough, he'd sent them back to the League in pieces.

Now even the League was reticent to send anyone else to the slaughter party.

But that kind of fear wouldn't last. Sooner or later, the League and the rest of the United Systems would band together to kill Darling if he didn't stop his homicidal rampage.

Syn sat back in his chair. "C'mon, Maris, can't you reach him?"

"I've tried. Believe me. He won't listen to me any more than he'll let you operate on him. The last time I suggested he let you finish with his surgeries, he tore my head off. In fact, the last words I got out of him were that he was fine with looking like a twisted, monster freak. He said it was time the world saw what they'd made of him, or something creepy like that."

Hauk frowned. "You think maybe his mother could talk-"

"Don't even go there, bud," Syn said, cutting him off.

Maris agreed. "I wouldn't put it past him to gut her at this point. He hates her almost as much as he hated Arturo. When Lise forced her to come visit a few weeks ago, I had to stop him from shooting her in the reception room. Seriously."

Guilt stabbed Maris at the memory. He'd been the one who'd stupidly talked Darling into meeting with her instead of sending her back into exile at the Summer Palace.

Maris had cornered Darling in his office. "Look, Darling, my mother won't even acknowledge the fact that I was ever born. I'm told she was the one who burned my birth registration on my wedding night. I know you two have had a bad past, but still... she made the effort to be here. The least you could do is spend five minutes with her. You can't repair the relationship unless you're both willing to give something. C'mon, Dar. I'd do anything if my mother would visit me. Allow yours a chance to redeem herself."

Darling was right. He was a naive asshole.

As soon as Darling had entered the reception room where his mother had waited, she'd curled her lip in revulsion of his appearance. Her first words to the son she hadn't spoken directly to in more than four years? The same son who'd been lost to them for half a year and who'd almost died?

"You should consider abdicating in favor of Drakari. I know he's still too young to rule, but with your support the CDS might be swayed to accept him early. And make sure when you speak to them that you cover up that face so that it doesn't sicken anyone."

She'd actually shuddered as she held her hand up in front of her face so that she wouldn't have to look directly at Darling. "You're so hideous. Even if you were straight, there would be no chance of marriage or children now. No one in their right mind would touch you. So, for once in your selfish life, be decent and let your brother have the inheritance he deserves. Maybe he can finally redeem the family name before you destroy it even more than Arturo did. The people need a hero to follow, not some grotesque, effete egotist."

Bellowing in rage, Darling had pulled his blaster out to shoot her. Luckily, Maris had stopped him, but in the scuffle, Darling had almost shot him.

Not an event or mistake Maris was eager to repeat. He'd learned his lesson. For whatever reason, Darling's mother really didn't care about her eldest child.

But Maris did.

He sighed regrettably at the only other people in the universe who loved Darling as much as he did. "I've seen him bad off before, but never have I seen him like this. He has absolutely snapped. He's gunning for any and everyone. I'm an idiot for being here."

Nykyrian's features sharpened. "Do we need to evac you?"

Maris shook his head. "No. Darling's in consummate turmoil and agony, and like Cai said, I'm the only one he'll let in a room with him right now. If I have to die for his friendship, so be it. I won't leave him alone when he's hurting this much."

But it broke his heart to see Darling like this. Darling had always been so strong, so resolute. Maris wasn't used to being the strength in their friendship. He was used to being able to lean on Darling.

How do I reach him before it's too late?

Maris frowned as an idea came to him. "Nykyrian... when we rescued him, you said that you'd been where he is. What saved you from your madness?"

"My wife."

"Excuse me?" Syn asked in a highly offended tone. "I think I was there for you a little longer than she was, by a couple of decades as I recall. No offense."

Nykyrian rolled his eyes. "Syn helped, too."

Syn snorted at that. " 'Helped' my ass, you psycho son of a bitch. How many times have I been shot protecting your hulking ass? Yeah, I'm going to remember this the next time you're in the dog house 'cause you left a sock on the floor or didn't lower the seat, or an assassin comes at your back."

Nykyrian gave him a feral grimace. But when he spoke, his soft, lilting tone belied his fierce expression. "Syn... what can I say? I love you, man. I can't live without you. You are the air I breathe."

Syn scooted his chair farther away. "Man, don't say shit like that. Other people are listening."

Jayne handed Syn a small pill container.

Syn frowned at it. "What's this?"

"My period medication. I think you could use some."

Hauk, Nero, and Caillen burst out laughing.

Grimacing, Syn gave it back to her, then glared at the three men who were still cracked up. "I hate you people."

"I'm not people," Hauk reminded him. "I only eat them."

Ignoring them, Nykyrian returned his attention to Maris. "All idiocy aside, I was never as far gone as Darling is right now. I always had control of myself. As badly as I wanted to, I never gave in to my need for human extermination. Aside from, you know, assassination contracts. But that was business and not pleasure."

Caillen nodded as he sobered. "Which is why we think you're the only hope he has. He loves you, Maris. He always has. Can't you seduce him or something? Give him one really good, mood-altering lay or blow, and make him see reason?"