Deadly Alliances (Dark Shifter Academy #5)

Chapter 4 Tobias

My snout ground through the wet-compacted sand, filling my nose and mouth on impact. A wave washed in a second later, adding salt water to the mix and burning my nostrils and eyes. The deep laceration where my wing connected to my body stung. The damned creature had nearly ripped it clean off.

Krakens didn’t fight fair.

And besides, it was tricky to fight one when I was more comfortable in the air. I imagined Arya would have a better chance.

Arya...

The image of her blue eyes glaring angrily at me before she willingly left with that wretched vampire burned into my retinas. It taunted me. But it also challenged me to do better, to be better. Just like everything about her had since I met her.

Even if she did hate me forever because of this hellish curse.

The burning in my chest was suddenly more than the actual fire within, but I didn’t care. I finally knew why my mother stayed with Arthur all these years, despite loving and not being loved in return. Because love made a person do crazy things, even if it meant a lifetime of torture.

I was in love with Arya. And I’d go through Hell and back to protect her from our enemies.

Taking advantage of my momentary pause, a translucent grayish-pink tentacle wrapped around my ankle, dragging me back to the sea. The color, thickness, and sliminess of it made me want to vomit.

But this time, I was prepared. Seconds before I and the tentacle submerged and rendered my fire useless, I tucked my chin to my chest and breathed white-hot flames down my chest and abdomen. The fire didn’t hurt me, but it charred the slippery flesh gripping my leg instantly. The appendage let go and curled in on itself, making a sickly sizzle when it sunk into the waves.

Of course, it had plenty of limbs to replace that one. Two uninjured tentacles shot out to grip me again, but I twisted and managed to clamp both between my powerful jaws first, piercing them in several places for a sure hold. They wrapped themselves around my snout in defense, but I’d counted on that. I pumped my wings, taking to the air with a massive splash.

Higher and higher I flew, carting the giant squid —technically an octopus, but squid somehow felt more derogatory, more fitting an enemy—along with me as it twisted, attempting to wrap itself more firmly around me. The creature was three times my size. I struggled with the weight, but my grip held firm. Still, I found myself again falling closer and closer to the depths with each beat of my wings.

Digging deep, my patience won out, and I managed to reach a height that would ensure instant death when I finally released the kraken. The dark red stain that bloomed against the deep blue below and the sinking of the motionless monster was proof.

I’d barely had a moment’s breath—feeling near weightless with the kraken’s weight gone—before something appeared in the distance.

My next attacker.

I groaned. I thought dispatching a kraken would be the last of the tests. I’d beaten a horde of vampires, a dozen hunters, several enemy nagas and a gryphon who looked a lot like Caesar. There had even been a raven-haired mermaid who very nearly managed to manipulate my blood. Certainly, I was done by now?

I’d studied the videos, but the tests were never the same, so they didn’t help. Even if a student failed a hundred times, the program would give them a new test each attempt. It was all about skill and strength, nothing about algorithms or patterns in the system. And in all the videos, not a single student had been required to do as much as I had already done in order to pass.

And yet another threat raced toward me.

Instead of racing at it, like I had the others, I hovered in the air and took advantage of my momentary reprieve. Catching my breath and watching the blue dot grow closer, I noticed it flew like a dragon, but I was surprised it wasn’t another invisible one.

Surely an invisible dragon would be the ultimate test. But I’d already beaten one—while Arya watched. Perhaps that had been enough?

As the dragon grew closer, the shade of royal blue seemed very familiar. My large dragon heart skittered as it neared.

“Char?” I asked when I knew without a doubt it could be no one else. No, it’s just a simulation . She’s not really here.

“Hi, Tobias,” she said, almost shyly. “Miss me?” she asked, then attacked.

Throwing myself into autopilot, I barreled and rolled through the air, snapping at claws and wings without once sinking into flesh. She did the same, clipping the tip of my tail once and slashing at my already injured wing.

But it felt different. She felt different. Like she was really here and not a part of the sim.

I hadn’t seen Charlotte Stern—blonde hair, brown eyes, royal blue scales —since she tested out last year and left the Dome to enlist. We’d known each other almost our entire lives, and yet I hadn’t thought about her much after she left. Only when Arthur passed along that greeting from her on Christmas day. Before Arya, I had grown so used to actively rejecting thoughts of any female, even though I viewed Char more as a sister than a romantic option.

My parents would have rejoiced if Char and I had become something more. So would hers. When I was ten and she eleven, our parents had unofficially arranged for us to be married when we grew up. With the curse, any attachment was bound to be one-sided eventually, and her parents knew that. Arranged marriages were how the Dracul’s survived.

I rammed into her. The force knocked us both from the sky, and we plummeted several feet below the surface of the water, sending millions of tiny bubbles racing to the surface. We both immediately recovered and were back in the air within a handful of seconds.

“You’ve improved, Tobias,” she said, a little breathless.

She’s just part of the sim, I reminded myself as I used her momentary pause to swipe at the scales along her side, leaving deep red slashes. Neither of us bothered to use fire, since it was pointless, but it also meant we had to be touching to injure the other. Sim-Char took advantage of my proximity and bit down on my shoulder.

I cried out, but she held firm, gripping me with all four claws, keeping me close before releasing her jaw.

“Let’s move this to dry ground, shall we?”

Just a sim. She’s just part of the sim.

Maybe the test was finally reaching the end.

“Alright,” I said, using the hind leg that was free to grip her calf.

Sim-Char released all but one of her claws, keeping a firm, painful hold on my hip, and we flew in an awkward, limping fashion back to the beach.

A thick forest of palm trees and ferns carpeted the tiny island, leaving only a small stretch of white sand around its borders. Just enough room for two or three rows of beach-goers if the island wasn’t deserted.

Or fictional.

Just like Char.

As soon as our feet met the soft sand, Charlotte immediately shifted back to her human form, revealing her military smart clothing, and I followed suit without an ounce of shame for my very public nudity. But I needed to not have my smart suit for what was to come.

Her uniform somehow made her blonde hair look whiter. Her hair had been quite a bit longer when I’d last seen her. Now it barely brushed against her jaw.

But her eyes looked the same. Soft brown, and...safe. Char had always been safe. Maybe it was because I loved her the way I loved Tamara—like a sister.

Despite suddenly feeling safe , my heart sped again, and I braced myself for a continuation of the fight. Who would’ve guessed the grand finale of my test would be against the simulated version of a dear friend in our human form?

She laughed, her smile spreading to her eyes as she eyed my naked body, and crossed her arms over her chest casually.

My eyebrows pinched as my gaze scanned her warily. “What? Aren’t you gonna fight me?”

Char shook her head again and looked down at her toes, which were partially hidden in the sand. “They know you can fight. That’s not your final test.”

She dropped her arms and sauntered toward me. “The vampires, the hunters, the nagas…”

Even her walk was the same, that confident yet casual swagger that bordered on seductive.

“Although I thought the look-alike of Caesar was a little cruel.” Her mouth twisted in disgust as she said it in a low voice, almost like she didn’t want my father and the teachers who were watching the test to hear. “You were brilliant with that kraken—I don’t think the sim has unleashed that thing on anyone else.”

She stopped when we were only a few feet apart.

“And yet, you’re my final test?” I scoffed, falling into the familiar banter I used to have with the real Charlotte. “Who’s afraid of a tiny dragon girl?”

She laughed again, and I found myself smiling for the first time since Shea had supposedly lifted the curse and I thought I could begin a life with Arya. That had been the best and worst day of my life.

“And that mermaid... whew!” Sim-Char threw her hands in the air. “With that dark hair, she almost looked like...”

Actually, she had looked more like Letti than Arya, but the intent was obvious. “It didn’t matter. I beat her anyway.”

“How does it feel to know that she rejected you?” Char asked casually, at a near-whisper. “She chose to leave you…and join him.”

I clenched my jaw, refusing the sting her words caused. And I finally understood why this was my final test. Arthur had accused me of being too emotionally invested to act rationally. I was here to prove exactly the opposite.

“I heard you imprinted on her, and that she actually broke your imprint,” she went on, sounding both surprised and slightly mocking. “You’re the first person in shifter history to have your imprint broken, and by your mate, no less.”

It took everything I had to keep my reactions inside. Especially with Char, the only other girl outside my direct family that I could always trust to be myself with. But this wasn’t Char, and I couldn’t let this simulation provoke me. Not with the most prominent military eyes watching.

I had one last trick up my sleeve, the trump card that would force Arthur’s hand, and end this simulation once and for all. I had been practicing all night to do it without my scales, and the stakes being what they were, there was no better time to expose the secret I’d been so closely guarding for so long..

“Yes, that is all true,” I said. “But that won’t be the only thing they say about Tobias Dracul in the history books. There is one more thing that is unique to me among shifters.”

Char narrowed her eyes in intrigue, cocking her head slightly. “Oh, and what’s that?”

I grinned and then willed my body to do what now came naturally.

Her face suddenly shifted into a confused expression before she took a few steps back.

I watched her closely, her look of complete bewilderment oddly satisfying.

“Tobias?” she asked, looking on either side of her and turning as if I was behind her. “Tobias?” She walked past me and toward the tree line. “Where the hell did you go?”

Pride and freedom welled within my chest at finally displaying my greatest and most hidden talent. I had nothing left to hide from the world. And now that those in power had witnessed my skill, I had so much more leverage.

I let out a mirthful laugh. “I haven’t moved. I have the ability to go invisible, with or without my scales.” For show, I let my flesh fade in and out of visibility.

Her mouth fell open as she watched my display of power, and I couldn’t help the smug smirk that formed on my face, especially when the scene around me began to pixelate back to white walls.

Applause sounded behind me, and I turned around to see Arthur coming into the sim room wearing a proud smile. He put his hands on my shoulders and squeezed.

“Well done, my boy. That was an incredibly impressive show. Why didn’t you ever tell me about your camouflage? With your skill, we could accomplish so much in this war. We need you in our ranks.”

“I agree,” Char said behind me, and I stilled.

Slowly, I turned around to find her still standing there in her military smart uniform. She hadn’t been part of the sim. I narrowed my eyes at her in silent accusation for her part in all this, for the words she’d thrown at me, and she gave me an apologetic shrug.

We would have words later. Now was not the time.

I faced my father once more. “You’re absolutely right, and it would be my honor to join the military, with my first mission being the rescue of the siren from Hadrian’s fortress.”

Arthur’s expression hardened dangerously for a moment, but he seemed to remember that he also had the eyes of his peers on him, so he chuckled dismissively. “I hardly think that’s an appropriate first assignment for a novice.”

“I’m hardly a novice,” I countered. “You’ve given me excellent military training my entire life. And with my invisibility, who is a better candidate for this assignment?”

“Tobias, my boy, you are absolutely right,” Major General Stern said as he entered the room. “It would comfort me greatly to know that my daughter, Captain Stern, will have such an asset on her team.”

My eyes widened, and I stared at Char as she came around me to stand next to her father. “You’re leading the rescue team?” I asked with surprise.

“I am,” she confirmed with a nod.

“While I appreciate your candor, Major General Stern, I think Tobias is better suited in another placement,” Arthur argued.

Char’s father cast bewildered eyes on him. “I’m surprised at you, General. After everything we just witnessed, how can you not see your son’s potential? He’s exactly who we need on the forefront of enemy lines.”

“I couldn’t agree more,” Char added, giving me a wink.

“Thank you,” I said, bowing my head slightly in respect even as joyful spite for my father swelled inside me.

“Then it’s settled,” Char’s father said with a wide smile. “Congratulations on your graduation, and welcome to the shifter military.” He held out his hand, and I shook it firmly.

“Gather your things, Private Dracul,” Char said. “Your training begins at o-six-hundred.”

I gave her my well-practiced military salute, and she did the same before following her father out of the room—leaving me alone with mine.

His eyes were narrowed to slits as he looked at me, and I could feel the rage emanating from him like heat waves. “I hope you don’t come to regret this choice.”

I smirked at him. “I will never regret making the right choice.” And without another word, I walked past him out of the room.

I had a bag to pack and a mate to save.