David finally spoke. "City? Cause? What's going on?"

"You will address me as 'Sir' when you speak to me," the youthful-looking vampire said, with a tone that was not so much commanding as gloating, and suddenly David's mind was seized in an iron grip. He was held completely, utterly, far more so than when Aidan had overwhelmed him. He would have gasped in shock, but the incredible power around him wouldn't allow any motion that it didn't command. And then it did command, and David dropped to his knees. He fought against it with instinctive resistance for a moment, but then he remembered. He was here to learn. This bizarre vampire would have to release him eventually. For now, best to just go along with whatever happened. He relaxed mentally, allowing himself to be held.

"Call me Sir," said the vampire, and allowed David the ability to speak, while still keeping him utterly pinned in place.

"Yes Sir," David said, keeping his tone level.

"Very good. You have sense enough not to fight when it's hopeless. I approve of that. And you're strong, that's also good. You'll be a good addition to the cause." David found himself unable to speak again when he tried to ask what the cause was, but the vampire answered the question anyhow. "The cause is our crusade, our goal, our quest to take our proper place. Humans are cattle. They are food. And yet they live in comfort in the cities, while we huddle in caves. Well, not for much longer. We nearly have enough now. When we have gathered a few more we will attack and the first city will fall. With that strength our numbers can grow until all the cities have fallen, all the humans left are our cattle, and the vampires rule the world. And I rule the vampires." His smile was hard. "You can join our cause, and benefit from it. A strong vampire like you could easily rise quickly in power. Or you can resist, and I will kill you." He released David, with a painful mental twist that left him bent over and gasping.

"Well?" he said.

David straightened, though he stayed on his knees. "Yes Sir, I'll join your cause." This vampire might be able to command, but he still couldn't read minds, David knew. If he could, he would know better than to even offer the choice, for everything in David was appalled, horrified, at the thought of the vampire's "cause." But he managed to keep it off of his face as he knelt there.

"Excellent. Rob, show him around. Get him some synthetic and see if you can get him quarters and put him on a duty roster."

"Yes Sir," said Rob.

The apparently teenage vampire swiveled his hair around, obviously dismissing them. Rob turned and left, with David, feeling a little shaky, following after.

"Bit of a shock, isn't it?" said Rob.

"Yeah..."

"Well, I should go take you down to Synthesis and get you fed."

"Synthesis?"

"Yeah. Synthetic blood. It's what we live on, as far as just regular everyday goes. It's supposed to be synthetic human blood, and it's better than animal, but whatever that extra something is that humans have, it hasn't got it, which is why the humans there." Rob nodded towards the pair of closed doors as they passed them.

Back out in the main hallway, they turned back the way they'd come. As they strolled along, a pair of vampires came out of another door and turned towards them.

One of them paid David and Rob no attention, but they other went wide-eyed in shock, and David felt an unpleasant shock go through him as well. He has a sudden flash to the night he'd rescued Megan, the three vampires. He had fought them for several minutes, long enough that they knew very well what he looked like. Two of them had died that night, but the third had escaped, and he stood in the hall now.

The vampire male stared incredulously for a moment, then yelled "That's the Hunter!" He and his companion both turned to run, but Rob jumped at David, apparently not afraid.

"Ah crap," muttered David, and drew his sword. It took only seconds to kill Rob, though he had a tiny pang of regret. As much as his obvious pleasure at having captive humans has angered David, the other vampire had been so genial, so human-seeming... But David had no time for such thoughts. The fleeing pair would soon have the entire city's worth of vampires alerted, and that was very, very bad.

He dashed down the corridor, and turned at the doors he'd come in by. They sensed him, however it was they did that, and apparently didn't know that he was no longer in the good graces of the inhabitants, because they slid aside. The doors at the end of the short corridor, however, did not. David looked at the panel next to them. The one on the outside had had a lot of little buttons, illuminated very dimly with a blue glow. This one had just three, one green, one red, and one amber. The green one read "Open" and so David pressed it. To his relief, the doors slid aside.

He dashed out into the night, but before he'd even gone fifty yards, he was suddenly seized in that impossible grip. Somebody had alerted "Him" and apparently he could reach over distance as well. It seemed perhaps a little bit weaker than it had been at close quarters, but it was still plenty strong enough to hold him still. But though David hadn't expected the mental attack so soon, he was ready for it all the same. He blanked his mind for just a moment. And grinned to himself as he felt the other's power snap back. It was snapping over a longer distance, and apparently that made a difference, because he could feel, behind him, a kind of mental squeal of pain.

He wasn't safe yet though. He couldn't stop and keep his mind blank; with the numbers they had to search with they still might find him by ordinary means. So that meant he had to get away, and fast.

He ran then, at full speed, as fast as he could go. For the first minutes he was concentrating on setting his course to the north, on moving as fast as possible to try and gain a lead. But he knew that behind him the vampires' leader was almost certainly readying another mental attack. And so, once he knew he was going the right direction, he began to disengage his brain from his feet. It was harder when he was tense like this, but he breathed deeply, steadily, as he ran and let that sensation, and the sensation of the wind in his face, be the centers of his attention. Soon he was relaxed mentally if not physically, his eyes connected directly to his feet, his mind elsewhere and he ran in a state of pure being. Unlike the white room trance, in which he didn't exist at all, he existed now as wind, as motion, as the desert floor under his feet.

There were vampires behind him, lots of them, and they fanned out in a search pattern, most of them heading north, where they knew he was most likely to go. But they were unimportant, they didn't really exist. Only motion mattered, only motion was real. And as the vampires behind wasted time looking for him, he drew steadily ahead of them, until the sense of them vanished, left behind, and there was nothing else in all the world but running.

Dawn was nearly there when he came back to himself. He had never gotten quite so thoroughly lost in running before. He had a moment of panic, but his feet had apparently known to carry him towards a familiar bolt hole, for he recognized the twisted outcropping of rock that marked the path to one only a little ways off.

He wished he could keep on during the day. There were almost certainly still vampires behind him, particularly if they'd been able to find his physical trail. But at least they would be forced to stop during daylight, the same as he.