2XS, THE HALLUCINOGENIC CHIP OF CHOICE… To Excess—that's how they say it on the streets…before it destroyed their minds. Private detective Dirk Montgomery thinks he knows those streets. He's watched the change with the world, as the powers of magic grow and alter the balances of power. He thinks he understands even the deepest shadows and the darkest of hearts. He is wrong. Now there's something out there beyond his understanding. Something foul and alien. Something that will consume even the most wary soul. And if he’s not careful, even Dirk’s...

In the year 2060, violence rules the streets of Seattle and a conspiracy is hatched to spread a plague of vampirism. When Rachel Meyer's boyfriend Warren Storey is abducted by these conspirators, she hires shadowrunners to find Warren and bring him back. But the runners uncover a plot by Dr. Oslo Wake to transform all metahumans into walking dead. For Dr. Wake is developing a new strain of the virus that causes vampirism. The strain is far from perfected. Now, Warren has become a test subject in a medical procedure to create these unstoppable creatures. It's up to Rachel and her vampire hunter friends to rescue him.

OUT ON THE STREETS… By 2053, the return of magic to the world has filled the streets of Chicago with beings and creatures from mythology. For those in the politically dominant mega-corporations, the underworld, and everywhere in between, it is a time of chaos and wonder—and incredible opportunities ripe for the taking. For fifteen-year-old Peter Clarris, transformed by his Awakened genes from a human into a troll, the forces of magic are a curse to be broken with science. Torn from the comfortable biotech fast-track of his childhood, he becomes a pariah, shunned by friends and strangers alike. Now, living among the outcasts—the underclass of orks and trolls, the criminal societies of gangsters and shadowrunners—he grows up pursuing the elusive means of controlling his own genes, and ultimately his own destiny. But the Windy City’s shadows are dark and deep, and when Peter comes across a real chance to fulfill his dream of reversing the change that was forced upon him, it may cost more than he’s willing to pay—before he’s through, it may cost him his life…