Even things they didn’t want.

The morning after the bombing, three Chosen men had arrived at their room. Within minutes, they’d been packed up and moved across the dome to much larger and fancier accommodations—a three-bedroom, two-bath apartment complete with a kitchen, a luxury reserved only for the wealthiest of Chosen under the dome.

Packing up their stuff had caused Daria some concern—so had moving from their private area where they could speak freely—but it wasn’t like they could refuse Sante’s gesture. That would look pretty suspicious. Once Alejandro and Daria reached their new digs, they’d resecured it.

Daria had taken one of the guest rooms.

Alejandro didn’t like it. He’d been brooding about it for two days now, casting only dark looks in her direction. But it had to be done. She had to distance herself a little from him.

A relationship was not what she’d gone into this mission looking for. She wasn’t ready for one yet. Maybe she’d never be ready for one.

It was her desire to not complicate her life. Her choice to remain alone. She had made that decision many years ago and she intended to maintain it. She didn’t need a man to be happy, or to complete her. She had her career. That was enough. Sex she could get anytime.

Not only had their rescue of Ari procured them nice new digs, they’d also gained a new respect around the dome. Entry to where they’d never been able to gain entry before.

Like at the teddy bear factory.

Now Daria was headed there on the pretense of visiting Jia Ying, as she did most days. However, today she had an ulterior motive, one she’d been setting up for a week. She wanted in that packing room.

Alejandro was focusing his efforts with Brandon down at the honey fields, though so far hadn’t had much luck.

“Valerie!” Jia Ying greeted her with a warm hug as she approached her at the belt. “Have you come to visit with us peon minions again?”

Daria winked and glanced at Rodrigo and Emmet. “There are only a few peon minions I come to see.”

“We’re always glad to see you,” said Emmet, “but we miss you down here on the lines.”

She eyed the teddy bears passing on the belt, glancing down at their final destination, the ever-secret packing room. “I’m happy to visit, too. Today I actually came on a mission for Christopher Sante, though.”

“Oh!” Rodrigo waved his hands with dramatic flair. “Madam is on official business.”

Daria grinned. “I am, but as you’ve noticed I came right at quitting time. I’d hoped you’d all take a drink with me after you’re done.” The Alhambra Building had a disturbing melange of willing blood donors and actual alcoholic consumables. “Say the Alhambra, right after shift?”

A smile spread across Jia Ying’s face. “We’ll be there.”

They said their good-byes, and Daria walked away from them, down the line past the other workers to the packing room and the manager she could see standing there. Even though her heart was pounding, she kept a confident look on her face.

She was about to take a risk, one she’d discussed with Alejandro and Brandon at length. Everyone agreed this was their best shot at getting into the packing room at the factory. It might be their only shot.

“Bennie,” she said as she approached the Chosen male. He’d been in his midthirties when he’d been Chosen and was of a swarthy complexion, perhaps from some sort of Mediterranean descent. “You have a lot to explain, sir.”

Bennie pushed away from the wall as she approached. As he recognized who she was, a look of alarm passed over his handsome face. “Excuse me?”

“Mr. Sante has heard some very disheartening things about what’s been going on here in your packing room and sent me over for a surprise inspection.” She came to a halt in front of the man who towered over her and stared up into his face with a severe expression.

“I-I haven’t heard anything about Mr. Sante being unhappy with our work here.”

She compressed her lips into a thin line. “You’re hearing it now.”

“But I—”

“I don’t want to hear any excuses.” Daria whirled and marched straight for the door of the packing room. “Open this immediately and allow me entrance.”

A guard stood nearby. She’d always suspected he was there specifically to watch this door. Her suspicions were confirmed when the man’s hand went to his waist, undoubtedly moving toward his weapon.

When the manager made no further move, she glared at him and barked, “Now!”

“This is against everything we’ve been told—”

Daria put a hand on her hip. “Should I call Carlos, then? I can buzz him right now—mentally, of course—and have him over here right away. Then you can deal with him instead of me.”

Bennie blanched.

“Of course, neither Carlos nor Sante are in a very good mood these days considering the bombing of the house and near death of Sante’s new mate.” Her identity still wasn’t being advertised, though there were plenty of rumors and suspicion in the dome these days. “Carlos might be a little more difficult to deal with than me.”

“All right,” Bennie said. “Okay, okay!” He walked toward the door. “I didn’t mean to imply I didn’t trust you. It’s just that we have explicit instructions on the management of this room.” He punched in the code to unlock the door. “But you’re Valerie Hollan. We know you’re close to Sante.”

The door unlocked and swung open an inch. Finally, I’m in. For a moment, she savored her triumph.

She turned and looked at him. “I get that. Look, you made the right decision. I’ll be a lot gentler in my assessment than Carlos would be.” Then she pushed the door the rest of the way open.

The room was well lit. The belt continually brought teddy bears into the room past a line of four workers who stuffed small, white plastic pouches into the bellies of the toys before sending them down the line into a machine that stitched them up, tagged, and packaged them.

The workers looked at her curiously as she approached the belt, wanting to find out what was in those pouches. Boxes were stacked along the sides of the room and a desk strewn with papers stood in the corner. Otherwise, the room was empty.

“Looks efficient to me,” Daria said to Bennie, who stood nervously beside her. “I wonder what the complaint was about.”

She stepped closer to the belt and picked up one of the pouches. It was opaque, and there was no way to tell what was within. Palming it, she turned and did a tour of the room. “It’s clean, seems well organized.”

Bennie visibly relaxed. “We run things as well as we can down here.”

She nodded, inspecting the equipment and then standing for a time, watching the workers.

Finally she turned and walked toward the exit. “I wouldn’t worry, Bennie. I think this was a waste of my time. This place appears to be running smoothly.” She frowned. “Do you have any enemies who might be trying to get you into trouble?”

His mouth quirked in a mirthless smile. “I do.”

There always were, weren’t there? She nodded knowingly. “Hmmm. In any case, I’ll be giving a favorable report to Sante. You can relax.”

He opened the door to allow her to exit. “Thank you so much for your help, Valerie.”

She turned and gave him a dazzling smile. “My pleasure.”

“Carmin,” Daria and Alejandro said together. What a surprise.

Alejandro dipped his finger in and tasted it to make sure. The bitter flavor of it spread over his tongue, gradually turning into a slow burn as the organisms died. He made a face immediately and nodded. “Oh, yeah. That’s what it is. Dios, I hate that.”

Taking it on his tongue wouldn’t get him high. Like some of the powdered drugs from Earth of old, it had to be inhaled to be effective. However, unlike the powdered drugs from Earth of old, carmin was actually comprised of microscopic, living organisms that found a comfortable place within their host’s brain to live out their life spans.

In the process the parasite slowly destroyed tissues and released toxins into the bloodstream of the victim, toxins that gave the host a euphoric, invincible feeling. It was highly potent, very addictive, and eventually killed the host.

Carmin was a drug made from the carmilla plant, found only on Darpong until it had been exported and grown elsewhere. The plant was infested with the parasites, the only place, other than comfortable brain tissue, where the bugs could survive. Parasite and plant had become synonymous.

The early settlers in this part of the universe had wasted no time identifying the alien plants, and their bugs, that would get them high. Thousands of people on Angel One died every month from doing carmin.

It did well in sunny, hot weather and Alejandro would bet a million syscredits that Sante had a whole field of it here.

“Bastard!” Daria put the pouch down on the table and whirled, pacing away from Alejandro. “I knew the bastard was financing this place through illegal means.”

Alejandro stared down at the pouch in his hand. “If what you say about the teddy bear factory is true, we’ve got enough to put him away for a long time just on drug charges.”

Daria chewed the edge of her thumb. “Yes, and yet . . .”

Alejandro knew exactly what she was thinking. “We need to wait and see if we can get him on blood slave trafficking.”

She halted and nodded. “That would put him away for the rest of his unnatural life. Eternity.”

“No,” Brandon broke in. “We have the drug charge. That’s all we need. We get the names of the manager, the guard, and the workers in the packing room at the teddy bear factory and we take Sante. Now. End of story.”

“And the blood slaves? What about them?” Daria whirled toward Brandon and yelled it, her face going red. “That would give the inner circle plenty of warning before the ABI and the GBC arrive. Do we just let Carlos and god knows who else shuffle them away into a dark corner to prevent them from being discovered?”

“We have all we need, Daria!” Brandon countered. “See reason.”

“See reason?” She made a scoffing noise. “Have you ever seen a blood slave, Brandon? Blood slaves are a far cry from your average veilhounder. Slaves are drugged into docility, physically abused, often raped, and starved half to death. We can’t ignore an opportunity to help them.”

“We don’t even know if there are blood slaves,” Brandon shot back. “What I saw by the honey fields may well have been simply the paid blood donors being shuffled back to their quarters.”

“Qué pasa contigo, tio? What’s wrong with you, man?” Alejandro rounded on him, patience at an end. “Then why all the guards? Why the seclusion, the secrecy over on that side of the dome?”

Brandon shook his head. “We take the bird in our hand and leave the rest. We take the sure thing and get the fuck out of here.”

“You aren’t making any sense,” said Daria. “I know there are blood slaves just like I knew there was something illegal happening at the teddy bear factory.”

“I don’t want to waste my time trusting your gut, Daria!” Brandon spat in a low, dangerous-sounding voice.

Alejandro took a couple of menacing steps toward him. “I don’t know what your problem is, Brandon, but you’re outnumbered. We’re in a good position right now, and there’s no reason to move in quickly on Sante. We’ve got the luxury to wait a little and investigate the slave possibility.”

“You’re fucking her, so you’re willing to go along with anything she says, is that it?” Brandon snorted. “Bloody hell, Alejandro, you’re a pussy-whipped son of a bitch. You both do remember that—”

Alejandro cut him off. “I don’t want to hear a fucking word about rank. It’s two to one right now and we’re miles from any ABI or GBC outpost.”

“So it’s to be mutiny, then?”

Alejandro flashed fang. “We can make it a violent one, if you like.”

Brandon glared at them a moment, then turned on his heel and stomped out of the apartment, slamming the door behind him.

Alejandro vibrated with rage, staring at the door.

“Thanks for backing me up.”

He glanced at her. “I trust your gut.”

Daria made fists at her sides. “The sooner this mission ends, the better. I don’t like that guy.”

“What’s to like?”

He glanced at her and did a double take. Damn it. She hadn’t been feeding. “You’re pale and shaking.”

She turned away. “I’m fine.”

“Fine, my ass.” He took her by the upper arm and spun her around to face him. “You haven’t fed. Fuck, Daria. I knew you weren’t feeding from me, but I thought you’d have sense enough to feed from someone.”

She yanked her arm away from him. “Leave off, I’ll find a donor today.”

Overwhelming possessiveness swamped his brain and shut everything else off for a second, including logic. “The hell you will. I don’t want your fangs in anyone but me.”

Daria glared up at him. “You just said you thought I’d been feeding elsewhere these past couple of days.”

“That was then. Now that I know you haven’t been, your sweet ass is mine.”

“I’m not sleeping with you, Alejandro.”

He hitched one side of his mouth up in a wry smile. “Isn’t it a little late for that? That deed’s been done.” He paused and his grin widened. “Several times.”

She turned away from him. “I can’t.”

The rejection stung. “Afraid you can’t resist me?” He tried to sound cocky.

“Yes,” she answered honestly. “My libido has had a good taste of you, Alejandro, and it wants more.”

And, for whatever broken reason, she didn’t want to indulge it. Daria didn’t want a longer taste of him.

Alejandro went silent for a long time, processing her words. In a way, maybe he should be flattered. She considered him a threat to the walls she’d built around herself. That meant he’d done a good job with his original intention—tearing them down.

It hadn’t been enough, though. Alejandro was beginning to understand that Daria was too damaged to accept his love.

Then he finally said, “I promise not to push you, okay? Take my blood, and I won’t touch you in any way not related to the feeding.”

She turned and looked at him.

“I’ll be a perfect gentleman.” He raised his hands, palms out. “Swear.” He’d do his best, anyway.

“I would rather feed from you than a stranger.”

“That’s a point we can both agree on.” He moved to sit on the plush, overstuffed burgundy couch. He stretched his large frame and groaned. “Better hurry up, though, it’s almost time for us to head back over to Sante’s.”

They’d agreed to watch over Ari Templeton ever since the explosion. Tonight they would sit with her and watch the asteroid shower, a magnificent yearly event.

She glanced at him, hesitating.

“Daria, you’re going to do the biting, not me.”

She took a moment longer and then walked to the couch.

“It’s not flattering to my ego to be treated like I’m an executioner.”

She only lowered her gaze and straddled him tentatively, not meeting his eyes.

His breath rushed out of him at the sensation of her cunt pressed against him, the warmth of it bleeding through his pants and touching his hard cock.

Alejandro knew she fought herself over him. Obscenely, that made him want to push her even though he’d promised not to.

Daria rested her hands on his shoulders and stared into his eyes. Shadows and uncertainty lurked in their depths. He’d vowed that if there wasn’t a way into her heart, he’d find another way to get under her skin. Apparently he’d succeeded. But it wasn’t enough. Alejandro wanted her love.

“Come on, querida,” he said softly. “Bite me.”

Her eyelids lowered a little as the invitation settled over her, likely the result of the acute hunger she must have been feeling. She leaned in toward him and he tipped his head to the side, offering her his throat. Daria hesitated, her gaze flicking to his eyes and then focusing on his jugular. She dipped her head, and her fangs scraped his skin, making pleasure flare throughout his body. Two sharp punctures, a stab of sweet pain, and her veil unfurled over him, making his body tense with sexual need.

Was it wrong that he wanted to ease her pants off and tease her until she yielded to him? The urge was strong. To keep his fingers from straying, he fisted her shirt in his hands and held on tight as she took what she needed from him.

Alejandro would always let her take what she needed from him.

The suction on his throat intensified. Her body trembled. She shifted her hips against him, rubbing herself like a cat along his body. Her hands fluttered from their place on his upper arms and eased downward.

“Don’t,” he growled. The one word ripped through his throat.

He couldn’t handle it if she touched him. He would strip her and fuck her right here on this couch for sure and break the promise he’d made.

She halted and a shudder ran through her body. Her hands gripped his waist and didn’t move again.

Finally the suction at his throat eased, but not until he began to feel the strain of the blood loss in his body. Daria had waited far too long to feed.

She eased away from him, still not meeting his gaze. He grabbed her wrist before she could pull away.

Alejandro really didn’t know why he did it, other than that he hated what lay between them right now. He wished he could force it to be another way, that he could erase parts of Daria’s past and make her heart fit to love and trust again. He could feel her slipping away from him more and more.

Daria stilled, looked down where he’d trapped her wrist and then up at his face. Her color looked better now. She was flushed from the rush of his blood through her veins.

They remained that way for several moments, holding each other’s gaze—his jaw locked and fear flickering through her eyes.

Finally he released her and she snatched her arm away as if he’d burned her.

And that was that.

Daria was lost to him. Maybe she’d been lost from the beginning, and he’d been stupid to try and make her see he loved her.