Chapter 8 Tobias
The air in the hummer was stiff and silent as we drove to the shifter military base in the Shawnee Hills. I didn’t quite understand why we couldn’t just fly there, but Char’s father had insisted on the caravan. Flying would’ve been faster, and I wouldn’t have to be stuck in this uncomfortable silence with Char sitting beside me.
So I just kept my gaze fixed out the window, watching the city slowly give way to trees and shrubbery. I was just glad that I was here, on my way to taking action toward rescuing Arya. She was the only thing that mattered, and if her safety meant selling my soul to the military after all, it was a price I’d gladly pay. Before she’d come along, this had always been my life plan anyway. I didn’t know when that changed.
“Are you really going to sit there in silence for the whole drive?” Char whispered next to me.
I stiffened and stole a glance at the two men in the front seat—Char’s father and the driver whose name I couldn’t remember—wondering if they cared to overhear us. I had words for her, but I would’ve preferred to have them in private.
“That had been the plan,” I muttered without looking at her.
She sighed. “Look, I’m sorry about the things I said during your test. I was ordered to provoke you.”
“And what a good little soldier you were,” I countered.
She scoffed. “You know the drill, Tobias. An order is an order. We don’t get to pick and choose what we carry out. I didn’t like saying those things to you. I wasn’t even sure any of it was true when I was handed the script. Given your history…it’s a little hard to believe.”
I didn’t respond. She had a point. She was one of my oldest friends, and she’d known about my family’s curse from the start. Of course, she would be skeptical that I’d imprinted on someone, and, even more so, that the someone in question miraculously broke said imprint. But the part she’d played in my test still stung.
“So, you really imprinted on this siren?” she asked, her tone surprisingly timid, and I did finally turn to look at her.
In this moment, she didn’t look like the strong, intimidating military commander she’d quickly excelled to become; she was just Char, my closest female friend—and she looked oddly…wounded.
I stole another glance at the backs of the heads in the front row before responding. “Yes, I did.”
She frowned, a sadness shimmering in her eyes. “I’m sorry. I can only imagine the struggle it’s been for you.” She laid a hand over mine where it rested on the seat, and though I knew she was trying to offer comfort, the gesture felt anything but comfortable.
I only nodded. I felt the urge to confide in her just how much of a struggle it truly was, but there was just too much to explain, especially in such company.
“Did you trigger the curse?” she asked. “Is that why she broke the imprint?”
I winced at those words, the truth of them still cutting against the raw wound in my soul, though I knew that hadn’t been her intention.
“Yes,” I said.
Her frown deepened. “So you…love her?”
I nodded again.
She patted my hand. “We’ll get her back.”
I offered her a half-smile of gratitude for her sentiment. She withdrew her hand, and we descended into silence once more.
I returned my gaze to the world passing beyond the window, trying to settle back into the stoic mode in which I’d been operating all morning. But the silence no longer felt comfortable, or tolerable for that matter. With the matter resolved between Char and me, I didn’t want to keep my walls up around her anymore.
I slowly turned to look at her, surprised to find that she was already looking at me. “So how have you been?”
Her face brightened, and she told me all about everything that had happened since she left for the military. She had climbed the ranks so quickly, and from the sound of it, being her father’s daughter had little to do with it. She hadn’t been given any sort of special treatment, and in fact more was expected of her due to her birthright.
“Let that be a lesson to you, Dracul,” she warned playfully. “Your last name might have carried weight at school, but it won’t do a damn thing for you in the military. You’ll have to earn every single thing you get.”
I smirked. “I wouldn’t have it any other way.” And I meant it.
I’d never been fond of the special treatment my name afforded me. Though I always worked overtime to earn the merits I received, I could never be certain I had. I relished the challenge of succeeding in the military with nothing but my own sweat and dedication, just like Char had.
We talked for the rest of the drive, Char recounting tales of her exploits and her father interjecting now and then to flaunt her praises—which only confirmed my suspicions that he had, in fact, been listening to us.
“Just last week, we raided a den in New York where an independent sect of vampires was trafficking humans,” Major General Stern said. “You should have seen the quick shot on Commander Char. She took out every leech in the place with one shot each, all without hitting a single civilian. She was incredible!”
“Dad,” Char groaned as blush colored her cheeks.
I leaned forward in my seat. “I’m sorry, trafficking? Like, for blood?”
Stern’s jovial expression soured, and he shook his head. “Not just blood.”
My stomach turned as I understood his implication. Those vampires had abducted women to vent all their depraved carnal needs, not just thirst. My blood began to boil with protective anger. What kind of sick, sadistic bastard would you have to be to do such a thing? Vampires really were pure evil.
Fear suddenly shot through me, chilling my blood into tepid stillness as a single thought consumed me—what if the demons at Heritage Prep were doing the same to Arya? With her beauty, how could those bloodthirsty bastards resist? Would her family ties to Hadrian protect her from the rapacious villains under his roof?
I fell into a deep and disturbed quiet, barely listening as Char and her father continued to talk. What was I doing here? We were wasting valuable time driving and would waste even more going through the bureaucratic bullshit once we reached the outpost. I should be flying to Heritage Prep this very moment. I should be—
I shook my head at the thought. That was exactly the kind of thinking I needed to avoid. Acting on my emotions wouldn’t save Arya; if anything, it would just get us both killed. I couldn’t go after her alone. That was the entire reason I’d worked so hard to enlist since she left. Despite all the pomp and circumstance—and obvious time inefficiency—I needed Char and her team to have any chance of retrieving my mate.
I just hoped we’d get there soon enough to have anything left of her to save.
“Hey, you okay?” Char asked me when she noticed my silence.
“Yep,” I said brusquely.
She frowned at me again, an expression I had rarely seen on her face aimed at me. I suspected I’d see it a lot more often. I was no longer the obedient boy with a secret playful side she once knew. I had rebelled against my father, fallen in love after a lifetime of swearing never to do so, and was now on a mission to rescue a damsel who would likely hate me for the rest of my life. I had been broken and rebuilt, and I would never be the same person I used to be.
Char might not even like this new version of me.
“Ah, there she is.”
Char and I both looked ahead to see the gate peeking through the trees, and the tension in my chest loosened only slightly. After hours, we were finally here. One step closer to going after Arya.
We pulled up to the tall guarded gate, and our driver rolled down his window to show his clearance card to the guard outside. I looked out my window and studied the thick metal wall that hid behind thickets of pines and bushes. The structure was well camouflaged by the greenery; if I hadn’t known it was here, I wouldn’t have seen it at all. But was it really enough to keep vampires out?
My eyes caught a twinkle of sunlight reflecting off something in the greenery along the wall a few yards down, and I squinted in that direction. Finally, I saw some sort of spotlight hidden amongst the leaves.
“Ultraviolet beams,” Char whispered to me, obviously having noticed my scrutiny. “There are vampire sensors and beams all along both sides of the wall, and if a vampire gets close, those beams will fry them to ashes in a matter of seconds.”
I nodded in approval. That would definitely do it, or at least slow down an older vamp.
The gates opened, and the guard waved us inside. Once beyond the entrance, the space opened up to a wide and cleared meadow full of buildings. I had visited my father enough times over the years that I was familiar with the layout of the compound; Tamara and I had been scolded more than once for playing hide-and-seek in the barracks. And yet coming here now, as a new recruit, felt so surreal.
We parked in a row of identical black hummers outside the administrative office, and my hand shook as I reached for the buckle of my seatbelt. Get it together, Dracul.
Soldiers came to open all of our doors, and I stepped out with my head held high despite the knot in my gut.
“Major General,” one of the soldiers said, saluting Char’s father.
“Sergeant,” he said, mimicking the gesture. “Tobias here is a new recruit. Please see to it that he gets through orientation. I trust the next session hasn’t started yet?”
“No, sir,” the soldier replied. “It’s scheduled to begin at twelve-hundred hours.”
Char’s father checked his wristwatch. “Excellent, just enough time for Dracul to fill out the required paperwork.” Then he turned to me. “Welcome aboard, my boy. We’re glad to have you.”
He extended a hand, and I shook it firmly, then we saluted each other and he walked away with a pair of soldiers in tow.
“Hey, come find me when you’re done with orientation,” Char said to me before treading off in the other direction.
I followed the sergeant into the administrative office, surprised to find a line of a dozen or so people waiting. My nerves prickled with impatience, but I kept reminding myself that these were necessary formalities. Once I got to the front, I went through the motions of my orientation, filling out the forms and being issued my equipment practically on autopilot, as if I’d done it a hundred times. I suspected my uniform was commissioned months before, since it fit perfectly without a single measurement.
The orientation itself was long and tedious, an hour or so of just sitting and listening to some higher ranking officer—though obviously not high enough—recite the rules and regulations as well as familiarizing us with the layout of the compound. Though I knew the compound and rules like the back of my hand, I did my best to listen intently because the alternative was giving air time to the litany of horror scenarios starring Arya.
After being shown briefly to my bed in the third section of the barracks to unload my things, the rest of the afternoon was nothing but running through drills: running laps around the compound, sit-ups, push-ups… It was like I was a kid again, stuck at home with my father. I so hadn’t missed this shit. But everytime my fire dampened, I repeated my new mantra, For Arya. For Arya.
When at last the day was over, I gratefully returned to the barracks to rest before dinner.
I looked up as I came through the threshold and instantly froze when I saw Char pulling her smart-suit down her body.
“Whoa, sorry!” I blurted, spinning around, though the pair of large breasts was already burned into my retinas.
“What are you sorry for?” Char asked with a snicker behind me. “It’s not like you haven’t seen them before.”
I swallowed, unable to think of a retort. I had seen Char naked dozens of times. Not because we’d ever done anything remotely sexual, but because we used to always shift nude and fly together. I’d never thought anything of it back then. But things were different now.
“Ugh, it’s fine, I’m done now,” she said, tapping my shoulder.
I turned around slowly, willing my cheeks not to be as red as I was sure they were.
Fully clothed now, Char eyed me with one golden eyebrow raised. “Since when are you such a choir boy?”
I frowned at her. “I’d hardly call myself a choir boy. I was just…” I floundered for a moment, “trying to respect your privacy.”
She chuckled. “Well, you’d better get used to seeing naked bodies because privacy doesn’t exist here and modesty isn’t really a policy we practice. But don’t worry, nobody is going to oggle your junk—well, except for Peters. Watch out for Peters.”
“Good to know.” I pursed my lips, making a mental note to look for that name in the mess hall.
She perched on the side of a bed that was to the left of mine, and sure enough her jacket was laying on the pillow. What were the chances that I’d have been assigned the bed next to her? So much for our names meaning nothing here.
I came to sit across from her on my bed. “So, when do we leave?”
She braced her hands on either side of her and leaned forward as she crossed her ankles above the floor. “We’re heading out tomorrow night. We’ll fly under the cover of night and, as long as we don’t have any stragglers, we should arrive at first light.”
I nodded, relieved to hear that the pace was finally picking up. Arya wasn’t going to be trapped much longer.
“You really do care about this girl, don’t you?” she asked.
“More than I ever thought possible,” I confessed.
She sighed, that same sadness touching her brown eyes. Then she reached beneath her mattress and tossed me the item she retrieved. I caught it, looking curiously down at the metal flask in my hands. I looked back up at her, an eyebrow raised in question.
“From the look on your tortured face, you need it more than I do,” she teased. “It’ll be our little secret.” She winked.
I chuckled. Char really hadn’t changed much, after all. I unscrewed the lid and swigged back a mouthful, wincing at the burn as I swallowed and handed it back to her.
“What the hell is that? Lighter fluid?” I hissed, unable to shake the acrid taste.
“We don’t have access to real liquor, so Peters distills this moonshine from select leftovers in the kitchen,” she said before taking her own swig—and grimacing as well.
“Wait, you trust drinking something by the very guy you told me to watch out for?” I asked, the taste lingering on my own tongue no longer the only thing fueling my disgust.
She shrugged as she twisted the lid closed. “Desperate times.” She rose and patted my shoulder. “Come on, I’ll introduce you to the rest of the team. They should be at dinner.”
As I got to my feet to follow her, the pressure in my head intensified as a buzz pulsed through my veins. Damn, that shit was strong. I couldn’t afford to have any more. I would need every single one of my wits about me for the mission to come. Failure was not an option. I was going to get Arya out of there or die trying.