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.

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.