He paused and looked away from her. "I don't like looking in mirrors and I d.a.m.n sure don't want to do it first thing every morning."

She took the razor from his hand and to his shock, she shaved the scarred side of his face. "You are incredibly handsome."

Adron stared at her doubtfully. "When I was younger, I was really vain about it. Zarina used to tease me that I looked at my reflection so much that one day the Tourah beast was going to come and steal my face from me." He dropped his gaze to the floor. "I guess she was right. He did."

Livia rinsed the soap from his face. "You know, there is a bright side to all you suffered."

"And that is?"

She hesitated as if gathering her thoughts. "Tell me truthfully, Adron. If Kyr hadn't scarred you, would you have taken me home that night at The Golden Crona? Would you have even looked twice at me?"

Adron opened his mouth to deny it, but he couldn't. She was right.

She was beautiful to him now, a vital part of his life, and yet he would never have looked twice at her before Kyr had crippled him.

That thought cut him all the way to his soul.

"I wish I could be whole for you," he whispered. "I wish I could hold you and dance with you, take you in my arms and make love to you the way I want to."

"And I'm just grateful I have you, at all. It's not your body or face that I love, Adron. It's your heart, your soul, and your mind."

He trembled at her words, then he pulled her to him and kissed her.

She moved carefully into his lap.

Adron nibbled her lips as he felt her sliding her hand over his shoulders, down his arms.

She lifted her hips, then impaled herself on him. They moaned simultaneously.

Bracing her hands on the edge of the tub, she rode him hard and fast, making him blind from the pleasure of her body surrounding his. And for the first time, he was grateful to Kyr. Grateful he'd found Livia.

G.o.d help him if anything should happen to her. She was the one thing he could never lose. The one thing that could truly destroy him.

His throat tight, he watched her as she climaxed in his arms. The pleasure on her face tore through him. And as he felt her body tighten around him, he surrendered himself to his own release.

Livia started to collapse against his chest, then barely caught herself before she hurt him.

She smiled at him, but she saw the turmoil in his eyes, felt him go rigid over her action. It always hurt him when he realized the frailness of his body.

She would give anything to remove that look from him forever.

Would you give your life?

"I love you," she said.

As usual, he said nothing as he shifted away from her.

Livia sighed. She hadn't meant to hurt his feelings. But it was too late, he was closed off from her again.

By the time they dressed, it was nearly dinner time.

"You want to go out to eat?"

Adron's question startled her. "No, it's okay."

He looked at her skeptically. "C'mon, you can't spend your life locked in this apartment."

"Are you sure you feel up to it?"

"Truthfully? I hate being stuck here all the time. I was never a home-body."

They didn't go far, just a few sectors over to a quaint restaurant.

Adron sat beside her with his arm wrapped around her as they waited for their food.

"I don't believe it."

Adron went rigid at the voice.

Livia looked up to see a man who looked so incredibly similar to her husband that she knew he must be Jayce.

Jayce's green eyes were warm with friendship. He extended a hand to her. "You must be Livia."

Before she could move, Adron knocked his arm away. "You're not welcome here. Why don't you slink off into the hole you crawled out of?"

"Oh, that's real original. Look, can't we just put it behind us?"

Adron's response was so crude that it sent heat over her face.

Jayce went flush with his rage. "Fine, wallow in your self-pity."

He turned to leave.

"That's right," Adron snarled, "turn your back on me, you coward.

That's what you were always best at."

Jayce whirled about and grabbed Adron out of his chair. Livia gasped as she rose to her feet.

"Don't you ever call me a coward. You, of all men, know those are fighting words."

"Why not? It's true, isn't it? You dare wear a League uniform yet you betrayed your oath to them and you betrayed your oath to me. You are nothing but a self-righteous coward."

After that, everything happened in a blur.

Jayce bellowed, then swung.

Adron ducked and caught Jayce a staggering blow against his jaw.

Trained and honed as an a.s.sa.s.sin, Jayce acted on auto-pilot as he returned the blow with one of his own. A fist straight into Adron's heart.

Livia heard the horrendous sound of bones breaking. The force of the blow knocked Adron back, into the table.

Before he hit the floor, Livia knew he was seriously injured.

"Oh, G.o.d, Adron," Jayce gasped as he knelt beside him. "I'm so sorry.

I didn't mean to. It was completely reflexive. Oh, G.o.d, I'm sorry."

Adron couldn't answer.

Livia watched, horrified by the paleness of Adron's face as his breath rattled loosely in his chest. She'd never seen panic in Adron's eyes, but she saw it now and that scared her most of all.

Jayce called for a med tech unit, but it was too late. Adron's breathing was growing shallower. He started coughing up blood.

Livia cupped his face in her hands.

Adron touched her arm and tried to memorize her features before he died. He should never have goaded Jayce. His brother had always let his temper get the better of him. But now it was too late. Jayce had finally done the one thing he was supposed to have done when he found him lying in the dumpster.

He'd killed him.

Adron reached up and placed a hand to Livia's face. His angel of mercy. At a time when he had wanted to die, she alone had given him a reason to live.

He didn't want to leave her. Couldn't stand the thought of not having her with him.

But it wasn't meant to be.

Her face faded from his sight, then everything went black.

"No!" Livia screamed as his hand fell from her face. "Don't you dare leave me!"

Jayce laid him on the floor, and prepared to resuscitate him.

"Dammit!" The agonized cry tore through her as Jayce realized he couldn't give him CPR. Adron's body couldn't sustain it.

In that instant, Livia did the only thing she knew to do. She reached down deep inside her and summoned all the power she possessed.

She didn't care what it cost her. She couldn't live without Adron.

And if it meant her own life, so be it.

Almost instantly, her hands were hot. Hotter than they'd ever been before. She placed her hands against Adron's chest and willed her life force into him.

Jayce leaned away as an orange halo of healing surrounded Adron's body.

Adron came awake with a jolt. At first, he thought he was dead. There was no pain anywhere in him.

His body felt strange. Different.

It felt whole.

Then he became aware of Jayce touching his face, and of a strange weight on his chest.

"Adron?" Jayce gasped in disbelief.

Looking down, Adron realized the weight on his chest was Livia.

His heart pounding, he sat straight up with an agility he hadn't had in five years.

And in that instant, he knew what she'd done. She'd healed him again.

As he pulled her to his chest, he saw his blood-covered hand. The scars were completely gone from it. Not even the scars on his knuckles remained.

"Livia?" he asked, holding her against him.

She didn't answer. Adron tilted her head and saw the ghostly paleness of her face.

"Livia?" he tried again, shaking her gently.

She didn't respond.

The med techs came in and he released her to their care.

More terrified than he had ever been before, he followed them out of the restaurant.

For the first time in years, Adron sat in the antiseptic waiting room while Theo tended Livia. He finally understood some of what his parents had felt while they waited for word of his multiple operations.

The fear and uncertainty tore him apart. And he and Livia had only known each other a short time.

How much worse must this have been for his mother?

"Adron?"

He looked up as his mother and father joined him. Kiara took his face in her hands and stared at his cheek. "What happened to your scar?"

"Livia cured him," Jayce answered. "I don't know how she did it, but one minute he was practically dead and in the next, he was perfectly fine."

"What did the doctor say?" his father asked.

Adron pulled back from his mother's touch. "He wants to do tests on me later." He didn't give a d.a.m.n about himself.

Livia was all that mattered.