"A dark, relentless and violent character portrait of a sadist."To Damon Carter, a vicious torturer, little is more arousing than the submission of his victims, and the grand pleasure of seeing them shatter. Or so it had been before his art was stripped away from him, forcing him into exile.Five years later Damon leads an empty, dull existence. Apathetic, docile, bored; he yearns for the means to escape his self-induced purgatory. But unbeknown to him, years ago his torture left a mark on someone. A mark that festered into an intimate obsession with Damon's true self. When the enigmatic victim of his past hunts him down, a sycophant determined to reawaken the man underneath, Damon must reconcile his darkness if he is to win.