Gaven learns that being Vlar's pupil in all things is a mixture of pain and pleasure. He hates his Finnarian teacher. Yet his body betrays him time and again, especially when he experiences the sexual ecstasy of a bite giving his own blood.
There seems to be so much more in their relationship than either of them can understand, so Vlar calls in his father, a Finnarian prince. What he tells them shakes Gaven to his core and he fears he cannot possibly live up to what Vlar wishes of him. Then when they seem to be on the edge of truly discovering each other, a shadow from Gaven's past comes to shatter it all to pieces.