In the dead of night, Gabriel stirred awake in darkness at the tavern, tasting vodka and candlesmoke, and hearing the familiar scratching at his window. Though his room was on the upper floor, he saw outside a pale, naked woman floating as if submerged in black water, tracing her nails on the glass and whispering, "My lion."

Gabriel described her as moon-pale, with hair like tar and eyes like "black gravity," and felt an aching pull of love and pain. She asked to be let in, repeating her plea. He opened the latch and welcomed her into his arms. Her skin was cold and her touch stone-hard, but her kiss was soft, and Gabriel wept as they embraced.

The woman urged him toward bed, her teeth grazing his lip and throat, and she began undressing him. She hissed at the burn of his silver tattoos when her mouth brushed them, but continued, seeking places without silver to impede her. She touched and pleasured him, whispering that she missed and loved him.

As she took him into her mouth, Gabriel surrendered to the sensation, describing the rising intensity and the sound of her hungry moans. At the peak of his release, he felt the puncture of twin fangs amid the bliss, a flash of agony and the taste of blood, revealing her as a vampire.

After his climax, she continued to drink from him, lingering on his blood. The chapter ended with her still drinking, underscoring both the dangerous intimacy and the deep, unresolved bond between them.