Maria stepped out of the car and stared at the strange building. It wasn't like the Baron's big house at all. This pce had tall, pointed parts that reached up to the sky, and windows made of many small pieces of colored gss. The sun made the gss shine in reds and blues and greens, sending colored light across the ground where Maria stood.

  "What is this pce?" she asked Nara, not moving from beside the car.

  "It used to be called a church," Nara expined. "Before Viscount Gabriel lived here."

  "Church," Maria repeated the strange word. "What does that mean?"

  "A church was a pce where people talked about light and faith," Nara said. "See that shape at the top?" She pointed to where two straight pieces crossed each other on the highest point. "That's called a cross. It was a symbol of a pce of light and faith, before demons—before vampires came."

  Maria stared at the cross, her mouth slightly open. A pce of light. A symbol of faith. Her hand went to her chest, where The Promise lived inside her. Had the light brought her to a special pce? Was this part of the light's pn?

  "The light was here?" she whispered.

  "People believed so," Nara said carefully. "They came here to talk about light and promises and faith."

  Maria felt a strange feeling in her chest, like her heart was too big. The light had sent her to a pce where people once knew about it. This had to be important.

  As they walked toward the big doors at the front of the church, people came out to meet them. They wore simple clothes, not like the gray uniforms of blood bags or the fine clothes of demons. They smiled at Maria, which still felt strange. At Blood Farm #17, no one smiled much.

  "Welcome to Viscount Gabriel's sanctuary," said a woman at the front of the group. "I'm Helena, the household manager. Your rooms are prepared."

  "Thank you," Nara said. "This is Maria."

  Maria looked at the people watching her. They seemed friendly, but she saw something in their eyes when they looked at her. Not meanness, but something else. Like they knew a secret.

  "The Baron told us about your beliefs," Helena said to Maria. "About the light and The Promise."

  Maria stood straighter. "The light will return when enough blood is paid," she said firmly. "And the demons will turn to ice."

  Several of the staff made strange sounds, like they were trying not to ugh. One young man turned away, his shoulders shaking. Maria frowned, confused. Why did they think The Promise was funny?

  "I'm sorry," Helena said, noticing Maria's confusion. "It's just... hearing you call vampires 'demons' while standing in front of one seems... unusual to us."

  "What?" Maria looked around quickly. "Where's the demon?"

  "You'll meet Viscount Gabriel soon," Helena said. "First, let me show you to your room so you can rest after your journey."

  As they walked through the big doors, Maria gasped. Inside was a huge room with a high ceiling. More colored gss windows lined the walls, sending rays of colored light across the floor. At the far end stood a raised ptform, and on it was a rge wooden table. The walls had pictures made of colored gss showing people with light around their heads.

  "This is the main hall," Helena expined. "The Viscount holds gatherings here sometimes."

  Maria could hardly hear her. She was staring at the pictures in the windows. People with light. People looking up at the sky. The images seemed to tell a story, but she didn't understand what it was.

  "Who are they?" she asked, pointing at the gss pictures.

  "Those are saints," Helena said. "People who were believed to be special to the light. From before."

  Saints. Light. Faith. Promises. This pce was full of words that matched what Thomas had taught her, but different somehow. More. Bigger. Maria felt both excited and scared. What did it all mean?

  They continued through the hall to a corridor with doors on each side. Helena opened one of them, showing a small but comfortable room with a bed, a chair, and a window that looked out onto a garden.

  "This will be your room," Helena said. "The bathroom is through that door. Dinner will be in two hours, if you'd like to rest until then."

  After Helena left, Nara stayed for a moment. "I'll be in the room next door," she said. "If you need anything."

  "Why did they ugh?" Maria asked, still bothered by the staff's reaction to her words.

  Nara sighed. "They weren't ughing at you or The Promise," she expined. "They just found it funny to hear you talk about demons while in a vampire's home. They weren't being mean."

  Maria didn't fully understand, but she nodded anyway. This pce had too many new things to think about all at once.

  After Nara left, Maria sat on the bed, trying to make sense of everything she'd seen. A church. Saints. Crosses. Pictures of light. It seemed like the light had been known here, long ago. Maybe that's why she'd been sent—to remind people about The Promise that had been forgotten.

  Eventually, she got up and went to the window, looking out at the garden below. It was beautiful, with flowers of different colors and small trees. As she watched, she saw a man walking alone among the pnts.

  He was tall and thin, wearing dark clothes that reminded her of what Thomas had described from the time before demons. Something about the way he moved—careful, like each step mattered—made her keep watching. In his hands, he carried papers, which he looked at from time to time as he walked.

  The man stopped beside a small pool of water, still reading. Then, as if feeling her gaze, he looked up directly at her window. Even from a distance, Maria could see his face was serious, with deep-set eyes that seemed to see right through her.

  For some reason she couldn't expin, Maria stepped back from the window, out of sight. Her heart beat faster. Who was that man? Something about him felt important, though she couldn't say why.

  Later, she would learn it was Viscount Gabriel she had seen in the garden, reading her transfer documents. But for now, she only knew that she had arrived at a strange pce where light had once been known, where people once shared promises, and where a serious man walked among flowers, carrying papers that might hold her fate.