Armand allows himself to be tugged, a rag doll that does little more than be pulled around. Then again, is that not what he'd been for so long? Simply a pawn to be used? Yet, when Daniel speaks, he's not like the others. He's entirely different, because this is the furthest thing from what Marius or his friends had done. Even with the coven, there had always been a power element in his desperation to prove that he was maitre.

If it had been satisfactory and Daniel had stopped anyway, then it means he truly does ...

The words have always been there, but Armand suspects he hadn't believed them. How could Daniel have so easily moved on with Alice? And yet, he had destroyed that marriage and another. He had come back to Armand. Could it be that he truly does love him the way that Armand has yearned for? Uncompared, unlike the rest.

It strikes him that he's been silent too long, and he drags his voice from the depths to speak roughly. "I don't know if I enjoy it because I've done it for so long and it's what I expect, or if it's something I truly enjoy," he admits. "Five hundred years is a very long time for habits to form, especially when I haven't been..." His nose scrunches up, uncertainty appears on his face. "You could never use me the way others have," he says instead. "It's not possible. I'm the one who turned you. I'm your maker. There are dynamics at play now that don't make it like the rest."