by Anya Bast
“I have a headache and the drug patch I put on isn’t working.” She bit the inside of her lip until she nearly drew blood at the whine in her voice.
“You’re not human anymore, Daria. Of course it’s not working.” Alejandro’s voice was gentle.
Dread curled in the pit of her stomach with the reminder. He was right; she wasn’t human anymore. She’d forfeited her humanity. Forfeited it to get Sante. If she could attain that goal, maybe it would be worth it.
She pushed past him and walked into the small tent that housed their dune bikes. “Come on, let’s get going.”
Daria and Alejandro secured their packs, donned their protective gear, and mounted their bikes. Brandon had left not long after he’d arrived. He’d headed to the dome right after midnight and was probably already in.
Alejandro and Daria revved the vehicles’ engines to life and flew off in puffs of sand, leaving the tents behind.
The moon hung like a lavender ball in the beautiful Darpongese sky. She’d never seen a more stunning night sky than she’d seen out here in the desert reaches of the Logos Territory, except maybe when she took the shuttle from Earth to the Angel System and back.
She should get used to the night sky since she wouldn’t be seeing blue sky, not the real blue sky, anyway, ever again. Too bad, it had been too long since she’d seen the blue skies of Earth.
If all went well with this mission, maybe she could go back there on leave and visit her mother. She’d have to introduce the topic of her Chosen-ness slowly. Her mother would have a heart attack, thinking her daughter had joined one of those strange vampire cults.
They were the fad now. Simple humans—fed on the romanticism of the Chosen and hoping for immortality—joined them. Most of the Chosen themselves scorned the cults. They would Choose only those marked for it at birth, and in most cases no others. There was too much risk that unmarked humans would not be strong enough to breach the succubare stage. Now Daria could see why so many did not.
Even though vampires fed from the succubare and therefore needed them, the population was too large. Succubare sex workers littered the galaxies, feeding off their clients’ lust and orgasms to survive.
Daria shivered. She’d been lucky to avoid that fate, though maybe what she’d done was even worse.
Alejandro angled his bike toward the east, and she followed suit. They weren’t far from the protected space encircling the compound of the Shining Way. It lay in an area monitored heavily by armed guards and was sheltered under a dome that deflected air missiles. Purportedly, within the dome was a self-contained society of Chosen modeled to mimic Earth. It was probably the closest the Chosen would ever get to their own space.
Sante had amassed a fortune in the four hundred years he’d been alive. Many of the older vampires, if they were intelligent enough, had managed to make a lot of money through various means over the centuries. From her research, Daria knew that Sante dealt in antiquities on the side and had made quite a few good investments over the years.
His blood mother had even more money stashed away from her shady dealings. According to the information the ABI and GBC had, she’d helped him finance the construction of the Shining Way. The damn place was built from the blood of veil-addicted humans. Daria’s glove-encased hands gripped the handle of her bike. It was time Sante paid his dues.
Silver glinted in the distance and Daria watched no less than five dune bikes approach them.
Halt. Stay where you are, commanded a voice within Daria’s mind.
6
SHE jolted in the bike’s seat, startled by the intrusion. Shit. She’d read about the vampiric ability of mind-speak in the handbook, but actually experiencing it was something else entirely.
Alejandro came to a stop, letting his dune bike hover above the sand. Daria pulled up on his side.
Sante’s borderguards drew close, forming a circle around them. They all wore black leather uniforms and solid black helmets. All she could see were their mouths, drawn in tight, straight lines, and their strong, masculine chins.
There was one woman, as far as she could tell. One delicate chin among them. One slender body under the leather. The pulser she held looked as threatening as the rest.
Pulser fire would only kill a Chosen if the setting was on synap-cease, or if the pulse stream was very strong and the vamp very weak. If the pulse stream was set on low, Daria bet it would still hurt . . . a lot. All the weapons were aimed at Alejandro’s and Daria’s heads. She felt naked without anything to aim back.
“Put your hands up,” one of them ordered. “Make any move besides raising your arms toward the sky and we’ll fire.”
Oh, good. The games have begun. She eyed the line of muzzles uneasily. If the pulsers were on the highest setting, she was probably the only vamp weak enough to be killed by the blast. Alejandro would likely only be knocked out, since the guards were a good distance away from them.
“What business do you have here?” the one in front of them asked.
“My name is Alejandro Martinez. Christopher Sante and I go way back. He’s expecting Valerie”—he motioned to her with his elbow—“and I to arrive this morning. We should be on a list somewhere, guys. Watch those pulsers, okay? We’re all friends here.”
The guards’ expressions didn’t change as far as Daria could see. Not one of them cracked a smile. Apparently, they didn’t think they were friends.
All the guards remained silent. Daria assumed they were communicating mentally with someone at the compound on some vampiric wavelength she wasn’t on.
Finally, the first one spoke. “Both of you, lower your arms, take off your gloves, and hold your hands toward me, palms out.”
They both did as requested.
The guard came closer and held up a small black box she recognized as a standard issue identification kit, an Identi Box. He pulled the long sensor free from the kit. He aimed it first at the pads of Alejandro’s fingers, then at hers. The sensor emitted no light, nor any visible stream. It slowly scanned her fingerprints from a good five feet away. She felt a faint pressure on her skin.
Daria’s fingerprints had been altered during her surgery. Valerie Hollan, her alias, would come up as an out of work waitress living in a community hostel in downtown New Chicago on Angel One. “Valerie” had been born in the Angel System and had lived there her whole life in relative poverty. Her blood father, Alejandro Martinez, had recently Chosen her and she was registered as a newly made vampire with the GBC.
The little light on top of the Identi Box blinked green. “All right. We have confirmation,” said the guard. “Follow us.” The black-swathed sentries put their weapons away.
The guards powered up their bikes and sped off toward the horizon. Alejandro and Daria did the same. These guys have lots of personality, Alejandro said to Daria telepathically on their own private communication wavelength.
Yeah, I noticed, she thought back at him.
Telepathy was nifty, but she’d have to be careful she didn’t broadcast thoughts she didn’t want Alejandro to hear.
She’d have to be even more careful that she didn’t broadcast her thoughts to any of the vamps inside the compound. That could be disastrous. She’d been instructed in how to shield her mind and she felt locked down tight, but sending thoughts still made her nervous. There had been no way to practice before she’d been Chosen and there’d been no time afterward.
Soon the dome of the compound came into view, glowing blue black in the moonlight. It was enormous, much larger than Daria had expected. The guards flew into a tiny opening at the base of the dome and Alejandro and Daria followed them.
Daria choked back a gasp when the dune bike cleared the doorway. It was daylight here.
Beside her, Alejandro visibly jerked in surprise. A Chosen’s pupils never dilated, so she knew his reaction wasn’t from the sudden influx of sunlight. Likely it was because he hadn’t seen a day—even a vamp-safe simulated one—in nearly seven years.
Lush
green grass spread across the ground, dotted through with many different colorful flowers. Stone walkways and streets dotted the thriving greenery. The walkways led to a series of white buildings with high, arched windows and tall doorways. She looked up and the sight stole her breath. Blue sky with soft, scudding white clouds spread across the underside of the dome.
Earth sky during the day.
Hadn’t she just been thinking it’d been too long since she’d seen the blue sky of Earth? Here it was, right in the middle of the Darpong Sector. No travel agent needed. No monthlong hyper-sleep journey on a high-speed ship to get you to a polluted, overpopulated planet that gave you only glimpses of this kind of sky on a good day.
She’d known that the Shining Way had this kind of artificial reality since the vamps who’d left this place had spread the tale. Experiencing the extent of it was another thing. There were a few corporations that had campuses like this. She’d been in them, but they weren’t nearly this realistic. Daria had never dreamed Sante would have the resources to create this kind of state-of-the-art authenticity.
Where was Sante coming up with the cash for this?
She slanted a look at Alejandro. She wanted to ask him if he was suddenly as suspicious as she was, but she didn’t trust her telepathic ability enough yet. Anyway, Alejandro was probably still too day-struck to be thinking that way.
The first guard hovered near them, but the others sped away, out the doorway and back into the dark desert wastes of the Logos Territory. The remaining guard lowered his bike onto a wide paved parking pad and Daria and Alejandro followed suit.
The guard dismounted and removed his helmet, revealing a blond head of hair and a face with vibrant blue eyes and a square jaw. “Leave your gear here. Follow me,” he said and walked toward the largest of the structures, the one to which it seemed all the paths led.
The building appeared to be the central point of the campus. It was long, white, and rectangular, topped with a white dome. Tall, shimmering blue black windows lined the sides. Skylights were set in along the sloping length of the roof. Looking around, Daria realized that was true of all the buildings—better to soak in the fake sunlight, she’d make a guess.
Daria and Alejandro divested themselves of their helmets and leather jackets and followed. Daria’s boots crunched over the pebbles that comprised the path. As she walked, she studied the perfectly manicured green grass and the well-maintained buildings that scattered the area. It was like Earth, only without the overpopulation and the pollution that came with it.
Earth, but five hundred years ago. To an Angel settler, even one used to Angel One, it was paradise.
They approached the white-domed building. The guard pushed open the heavy wood and metal double doors and they entered. The floor and walls were made of blue black marble, and the ceiling arched high above their heads. It reminded her of a church.
A large fountain dominated the entry room, overflowing with pale emerald water. It looked unpurified, chock-full of the minerals that gave it that distinctive shade. The pure drinking water was one of the reasons that Logos Territory had been the place the settlers had decided on two hundred years ago. It looked as if Sante had found an underground water reserve to service the dome residents.
Daria looked up. The arched ceiling was painted to look like the night sky—dark blue and scattered through by glittering silver stars. Aside from the fountain in the middle, the room was devoid of ornamentation. With the polished blue black marble walls and floor, much more decoration would have been overkill anyway. The sound of Daria and Alejandro’s bootheels on the floor echoed throughout the chamber as they walked.
A door leading to what Daria presumed was the main part of the building whined open. A man with shoulder-length glossy black hair and deeply tanned skin entered, followed by five men who looked like muscle. More guards.
The black-haired man smiled as he approached them. He shook Daria’s hand first, then Alejandro’s. “Valerie, Alejandro, welcome to the Shining Way. I’m Carlos Hernadez. I’ll be helping to orient you to your new surroundings.”
Daria smiled and nodded like a good little Valerie would. Carlos Hernadez. He was one of Sante’s inner circle, one of his most trusted. No one knew his age for certain, but it was reckoned to be close to two hundred. His records had come up clean, but she didn’t like this man. She had an instant gut reaction. When she tuned into him he felt really strong. Her intuition said dangerous and sleazy.
Carlos clasped his manicured hands in front of him. “Please. Remove your weapons.”
She held her arms up and out. “We didn’t come in with any weapons.”
“We thought about bringing our pulsers, but figured you guys would search us and take them away,” said Alejandro.
“You were correct.” Carlos glanced at the guards and flicked his wrists toward them both. The guards moved toward them. “I believe you are unarmed, but please understand that we must still search you.”
Three guards surrounded Alejandro. Two others approached her. Their eyes seemed to say, fresh meat.
Daria braced herself for the inevitable. The guards grabbed her roughly, hustled her up to a wall and pressed her face-first against it. Her breath oofed out of her at the impact. She gave a bark of laughter. Now she knew how her prisoners felt. “This is quite a welcome, Carlos.”
“I do sincerely apologize. It’s necessary to preserve the tranquility of the Shining Way,” he answered.
He really didn’t sound sorry.
Daria couldn’t tell what they were doing to Alejandro since her face was becoming so intimately acquainted with the wall. The guards slapped her palms flat on the cold marble and one of them moved behind her and kicked her feet apart. The other stood to the side and looked on.
The guard’s hands were all business as he patted down her arms, but when they dropped to her waist and slid up, his motions slowed. All of a sudden, her mind was all on her own body and her personal space, instead of what was going on with Alejandro.
The guy searching her pressed his body up against hers. His hot breath stirred the small hairs at her nape as he slid his hands up way too slowly over her breasts.
The bastard is feeling me up.
Panic and rage filled her as he groped her breasts, running his fingertips over her nipples. Then he dipped down with one hand and slipped between her spread thighs to rub her clit through the fabric of her pants. Daria fought the urge to bring her elbow back into his face, turn around, and nail him in the balls. That’s what she wanted to do, but what would Valerie do?
“Hey, I’m not your girlfriend,” she snapped and tried to turn around. The guards forced her back into position. She struggled against them, but they held her tight.
Horror choked her for a moment as she fought for control over herself. Even if she fully let loose on these guys, she could sense they were far stronger than she was. Especially now, since she’d barely cut her new fangs.
7
FROM across the room, Alejandro watched Daria protest the guards’ treatment and try to turn. Both men grabbed her arms and pushed her up against the wall. When she tried to twist away from them, they struggled to control her.
The guards near Alejandro hadn’t touched him yet, so he stalked toward the assholes harassing Daria, but didn’t get far. The men surrounding him grabbed him by his upper arms and wrists. He jerked free of one, only to have the hands of another clamp down on him.
Enraged, he pulled away from all of them. They scuffled. Alejandro brought his fist up fast and hard and punched one of the guards in the mouth, bloodying him.
“Zap him,” said Carlos.
Pain assaulted his head as one of the guards hit him with a low pulse stream. He went straight down on his knees, stunned. The world went dim for a moment. The guards pushed him down, and he hit the floor, hard, on his stomach. One of the guards wrenched his hands behind him and cuffed them at the small of his back. As an extra torment, the guards held him down so he couldn’t thrash.<
br />
Apparently, they wanted him conscious, or they would’ve used a higher setting. They’d effectively prevented him from aiding Daria, that was for sure.
Well, hell.
Alejandro glanced at Daria for a moment, but just for a moment because in this position it was hard to hold his head up. The guards held her firmly by her upper arms, but the assholes weren’t fondling her now. “Are you okay, Valerie?”
“I’m fine.” Cold rage, tightly restrained, seemed woven through those two syllables.
“Bastard,” Alejandro swore at Carlos. He pushed up, trying to dislodge the strong grips of the guards. “You let them hurt a hair on her head, and I’ll have your throat for dinner.”
Carlos clucked his tongue. “Don’t make threats when they’re un-called for. She’s fine, Emanuel. That’s your true name, isn’t it? Emanuel Alejandro Martinez?”
“I’ll judge whether or not she’s fine.”
“Emanuel, I don’t want her hurt, either. If I don’t want her hurt, she won’t be.”
“Call me Alejandro.”
“I prefer your first name. You were born on Earth in the country of Spain, isn’t that correct? Madrid is your city of naissance and where you spent your childhood. Your parents were both unmarked and live there still.”
“Yes.”
“Your father is a commview repairman. Humble beginnings, Emanuel.”
Alejandro stilled for a moment under the restraining grasps of the guards, fear flickering through him. How deeply had they researched them? If the GBC’s protections for their peacekeepers hadn’t held up, he was dead. If the ABI hadn’t provided a convincing background for Valerie, so was Daria.
Alejandro grunted as one of the guards decided to press his knee into the base of his spine. “There’s nothing wrong with humble beginnings.”
“No, not at all. I come from humble beginnings, myself. Many of us do.” Carlos walked toward Alejandro and paced slowly in front of him. His boots clicked with every step. “You are young,” Carlos continued. “So very young, yet exceptionally strong for a vampire who is only seven years of age. Your blood mother is Lucinda Valentini, yes? She holds a GBC seat and a territory in the Barand sector. An Italian by birth, I believe. She offered you a coveted place in her inner circle, but you declined.”
