Chapter 9 Ashlyn
A pair of guards stood just inside the library, stationed on either side of the door. Since when did a room full of books need such heavy security? Oh well. They wouldn’t be able to see or hear us in our secret spot. I was just eager to meet Niko, if only for just a few short minutes while he was on break from general babysitting duty.
I made to pass between them, but the pimply one on the right stepped in front of me, holding up a hand. “Do you have a library pass?”
“What?” I balked, confused by the question.
He sighed and rolled his eyes, looking just about as thrilled to be harassing me as I was to be harassed. “Do you have a pass for library time?”
I wrinkled my nose, both at the absurd insinuation he was making and at the overwhelming smell of his cologne, which did little to mask his pungent B.O.
“I need a pass to do research for my history essay?” I tried to say that without an attitude, but it was honestly impossible; I had a hair trigger these days, and this guy had already expended the last of my patience.
“General Dracul’s orders,” the skunked up guard said. “Only five students allowed in the library per hour, and all students must procure a pass for entrance.”
I looked past him to the empty tables and aisles. “There’s no one in there. And I wasn’t told about any ‘pass’. Can’t you just let me in for a few minutes to at least find the book I need?”
“Not without the proper permission,” he insisted.
I glanced back and forth between the two guards, growing more frustrated by the second, but neither of them showed any signs of relenting. I hadn’t had a single moment with Niko in days, and our secret spot in the library was the only place we could go with any measure of privacy. There was no way I was leaving this goddamn room without seeing my boyfriend, and if I had to burn a couple of assholes to do it, so be it.
I opened my mouth to give what I thought was a very witty retort, but Niko appeared, putting a hand on the pizza-faced guard’s shoulder.
“She’s Lieutenant Summers’ daughter, and she has been given express permission to use the library whenever she needs,” he informed them with authority. “I would advise you to show a little more respect. You wouldn’t want to be reprimanded for your ignorance.”
The guard stiffened, and for the first time, I was grateful for Niko’s military ranking. Apparently being the general’s glorified bitch carried a lot of weight.
I held up my chin and shot a smug glare at the guard, and he reluctantly stepped back, giving me space to enter and finally escape his horrible odor. I was tempted to make a comment about him using less cologne and showering more often, but I figured I’d better not push my luck.
With their eyes on us, I couldn’t just follow Niko to our private spot, and we both knew it. So Niko disappeared into the aisles, and I made a show of searching for a book, looking over my shoulder now and then for an opportunity when their attention was elsewhere.
Finally, another student dared to enter, earning the full discrimination of both guards as they began to interrogate her. Seizing my opportunity, I ducked and swiftly scurried down the aisle to the back of the library as quietly as I could.
I swept into our private nook and almost squealed when Niko slid in behind me. He silenced me with a passionate kiss that stole all sound—and breath—from me, and I gratefully melted into him.
When he eventually pulled away from my happily abused lips, he smiled down at me and whispered, “I’m glad you could sneak away to meet me.”
“So am I,” I whispered back. “I just wish thing one and thing two weren’t patrolling the entrance like a pair of bloodhounds. Do you think they’ll check with my dad?”
He shrugged. “Doubtful. They’d be seen as incompetent for fact-checking with a high ranking officer. Even if they did, wouldn’t your dad cover for you?”
I snorted, putting a hand over my mouth a second later to stifle the accidentally loud sound. “No. Ever since the general took over, he’s been a completely different person. All the teachers are like that. This whole school is just turning into a fucking penitentiary.”
“I know,” he sighed. “We need Caesar back.”
“Yeah, try telling that to your boss,” I scoffed. “Can’t you say something to him?”
“Really? You think it’s that easy? I'm replaceable, Ash. I'm not Tobias. And even if I were, he wouldn't listen. You don’t know the General. He’d kill me just for a suggestion. And then my dad would revive me just to kill me again.” He plopped down on the bean bag, and I could see the same sense of helplessness dragging his shoulders that had been plaguing me for days.
I sat beside him on the beanbag, and he wrapped his arms around me as the two of us nestled into it.
“There has to be something we can do,” I said. “The students are being pushed too far. The infirmary is overrun daily by kids who fail the mandatory sim runs. Miss Heather and her harpies can barely keep up. If this insanity doesn’t stop, Dracul is going to break his toy soldiers before the vampires even get here.”
He nodded, running his free hand over the top of his head. “I wish the military didn’t have so much power. A nation can’t be effectively run by its military. It needs an actual governing body.”
“The last thing we need is a king,” I countered. “Dracul is descended from dragon royalty, and I’m pretty sure he already thinks he rules everything.”
“No, not a king,” Niko said. “We don’t need some royal family pulling all the strings. We need a council of some kind, made up of prominent members from every species. If we had that, they could put a stop to all this.”
Inspiration ignited in my chest. “Holy shit, Niko, you’re exactly right!”
He cocked his head at me curiously.
“None of the students here like what’s happening, and half of them are members of powerful families,” I explained, excitement spreading inside me like an inflating balloon. “We just need to reach out to the right people, convince them to form a council or whatever and take the power back.”
He pursed his lips as he considered it. “That’s a nice idea, but you gotta be real careful who you confide in right now. Even talking about this kind of thing is treason, and most people would sooner turn us in than side with us just to save their scales.”
I frowned. He had a good point, and my dad had proven that me being his daughter actually counted for very little. And even if he did care as much as I wished, he wouldn’t be able to protect me if I was ratted out for attempting to overthrow his precious boss.
But not even that fear could suck the wind out of my sails. I needed to do something, needed to take action. The military was out of control, and no one else seemed to have the balls to work against them. If I could reach the right people in positions of power outside Dracul’s ranks, I could affect actual change.
“Oh no,” Niko said, giving me a wary look. “You’re actually considering this, aren’t you?”
“Oh, I’m done considering,” I said. “I’m absolutely doing this. Are you with me?”
“Ah fuck.” He shook his head, closing his eyes for a long moment, and my heart squeezed as I braced for a lecture or an outright rejection. Finally, he lifted his head and looked at me. “If you’re actually going to pursue this, of course I’m with you.”
“Yes!” I whisper-shouted, throwing my arms around his neck.
“But we absolutely cannot get caught,” he cautioned. “We can’t just go around petitioning every student. We’ll have to carefully vet every single potential candidate and make certain we can trust them before bringing them in.”
“Of course,” I said, my excitement balloon filled to the brim and ready to pop in my chest. “I actually have a few people in mind.”
“So do I,” Niko agreed.
“What about the teachers?” I suggested. “I know for a fact that there are some who don’t like the new leadership or curriculum. Like Celeste, for example. She controls the finances for both the school and the military. If we could get her on our side, we’d have a major ally. She could be the mer representative.”
He shook his head. “I don’t know about confiding in Celeste.”
“Why not? She might be perfect,” I argued.
He took a breath. “I’m afraid the general is using his dragon abilities to... influence Celeste.”
I turned in the beanbag, giving him an uncertain frown. “What do you mean?”
“Some dragons, the really powerful ones, have the ability to exert their charisma onto other people,” he explained. “Dracul is the most powerful dragon alive, and it would explain how he’s managed to amass so much authority. Think about how easy it was for him to boot Caesar out.”
I looked down at the dusty carpet as I processed that. Celeste had been acting strangely ever since the general took over, and so had my dad. I wanted to have faith that my dad really was the man I’d started to believe he was, but the idea that the general could influence people to side with him was scarier than anything else. Celeste had been one of Caesar’s closest friends, and if the Dracul really had been able to trump that, we were in even more trouble than I previously thought.
“I think our best bet is to avoid the faculty completely,” Niko reasoned. “Until we have reason to believe otherwise, none of them can be trusted. We’ll stick to students for the time being.”
“Okay,” I agreed with a nod.
Niko glanced down at his watch, then sighed heavily. “Dammit, I need to get back.” He stood, pulling me out of the beanbag to stand with him. “Let’s both work on getting some names. Carefully . Then we’ll all convene and see what we can come up with.”
“Wait, where should we tell everyone to meet?”
He chewed on his lip for a moment. “I have a place in mind. I’ll have to check it out before knowing for sure. I’ll let you know. But for right now, I really do have to go.” He planted a hasty kiss on my forehead before darting out of our private corner.
I waited for a few minutes before returning to the main part of the library, not wanting anyone to spot us leaving together, for both our sakes. I was eager to get started. I had a few ideas of students to approach, students I knew remained loyal to Caesar and hated Dracul.
But I had to be tactful about this. Though it was thrilling to be the one who started a revolution, it was also fraught with peril. I had no idea what sort of punishment the general would exact for forming a rebellion, and I really didn’t want to find out.