~Elara~
The Seattle skyline gleamed like circuitry against the morning sky. From the fifty-second floor of TechNova Tower, I could see it all—the Space Needle piercing the fog like an upload indicator, ferries crossing Elliott Bay like data packets traversing networks, and somewhere beyond Bainbridge, the Lunaris compound where I'd been reborn last night.
My fingers hovered over the sleek glass keyboard as Damon watched me with those predatory eyes that missed nothing. Eyes that thought they were reading source code when they were actually staring at an encryption they couldn't begin to crack.
"Something wrong with the workstation?" he asked.
I smiled, letting just a hint of my new nature bleed into my expression. Not enough to trigger alarms, just enough to make him wonder.
"Just fam
