Deadly Alliances (Dark Shifter Academy #5)

Chapter 10 Arya

The night air outside my small window was still and crisp, but it brought me peace despite the cold. It was the only glimpse of the outside world I’d been afforded here, as going beyond the main doors was strictly prohibited by my guards under Hadrian’s orders.

I missed outside. At least at the Dome, there was a lawn and trees and a garden. Here, this window was all I had, and it comforted me to sit in front of it and look out at the star-speckled night sky, at the pine trees that sometimes swayed in the breeze. If only it was wide enough for me to squeeze through. I could go harpy and fly away.

Despite the denial of access to the outdoors, I was surprised to find that I didn’t completely hate it here. With my ever-present and apparently mute guards, I had full access to the citadel and its amenities. The vampires I came into contact with never dared speak to me, but they didn’t look at me like they did the other humans, or even as I’d expect them to look at a shifter. The look in their eyes was one of reverence, like I was some sort of princess.

When Alex wasn’t studying with his tutors, I spent my time playing with him and trying to indulge the child in him. I was fairly certain he’d never played with any kids his age, and it was a wonder he was so socially functional, if just a bit too formal for an eight-year-old.

But Alex spent at least half the day with his tutors, so when sharing his company wasn’t an option, I roamed the citadel, feigning idle curiosity when in fact I was carefully committing every inch of the building to memory so I could formulate an escape plan.

There were no windows in the halls or communal rooms, and those in the bedchambers of the elite were sealed with metal shutters. All the vents were built into the ceilings, no coverings to pull off. There were only two doors I’d found that led outside—one in the Great Hall on the ground floor, and the one on the roof I’d come in that first night. I couldn’t trace my steps back to find the rooftop door, and a pair of guards always flanked the front door.

Escaping would not be easy.

In my wanderings, there were some places my guards wouldn’t allow me to go, especially anywhere below the ground floor. That’s where the humans lived, and I guessed that would be where I’d find a way out. My only hope was to find some way to ditch them so I could explore unhindered.

Then again, why bother escaping? I had nowhere to go. If I went back to the Dome, Hadrian would just send his army to fetch me again, and I didn’t think he’d spare the students a second time. I had no other family outside these walls, and there was Shea and Caesar, but chances were if I went anywhere, Hadrian would still destroy the Dome for good measure.

Maybe things really were better off for everyone if I stayed put. After all, the prophecy did say the siren would kill Hadrian. What if I was meant to do that under his own roof?

I remembered how Celeste had ruptured that vampire’s heart in the sim. I was nowhere near that level of skill. I could try to drown him with water manipulation, but drowning didn’t permanently kill vampires. I could shift into a harpy and fling my weaponized feathers at him, but he was far faster than me, and I’d never land a blow. There were my new ursa powers, but I didn’t know much about them at all, except that whenever I got mad, I pretty much turned into the Hulk.

If I was meant to kill Hadrian with any of those powers, though, the prophecy would’ve been about a mer, harpy or ursa. But it specifically said a siren. I was meant to use my siren voice. I’d forced that poor vampire girl to kill herself under General Dracul’s orders. Could the same thing work on Hadrian? And the question remained: was I capable of killing him? I’d only killed that vampire girl because I believed— hoped —it was part of a sim, and I was devastated when I realized it wasn’t.

I’d only heard of Hadrian’s cruelty, but I hadn’t witnessed it for myself, aside from the fear emanating from his followers. Though maybe that was just respect?

Every night, he’d come to Alex’s room to join us for dinner. He didn’t eat, of course, but he sat at the table and engaged us in conversation. For all the millions of ways in which I was sure he was a horrible person, he seemed a pretty good dad to Alex, asking him about his day and actually listening to what Alex said. I could swear I saw love in Hadrian’s dark blue eyes whenever they were on his son. If someone was capable of love, did they deserve to die? Did anyone really deserve it?

Knock, knock, knock.

“Good evening, Arya.” Speak of the devil . “I have something for you.”

I rose from my window nook and slowly went to answer him, cracking open the door a sliver. “What is it?”

Hadrian held a thin, square box in his hands. It looked like a jewelry box. “Something that can help you with your current predicament.” He held up the box, looking at me imploringly. I sighed and opened the door wider, closing it behind him and taking a few steps back to maintain my distance.

My current predicament is that I’m trapped here. I don’t think you’re going to give me anything to help with that.

“I do believe I’ve been smelling ursa pheromones the last few days,” he said, at least pretending to respect my personal space by standing a couple feet away from me. “Your ursa DNA has been triggered, then?”

I crossed my arms. “Yep. Just over a week ago.” And it’s your fault I have it in the first place.

“Ah, what awkward timing,” he said with a nod. “And during a full moon, no less. It’s amazing you haven’t shifted and destroyed half the citadel by now.”

“It’s been tempting,” I said, boldly meeting his gaze.

He hummed a laugh as we stared each other down for a moment. “In any case, I brought you something that will put your were abilities under your full control, so you’ll never be a slave to those volatile urges again.”

He opened the box and lifted a clunky yet elegant turquoise necklace from it. Without asking for permission, he was behind me in a blink, fastening the necklace around my neck and gently lifting my hair up and over the chain. The motion startled me so much I didn’t dare move, let alone breathe, until he was back in front of me.

“The Navajo believed that turquoise warded off weres, which is the initial reason the stone ended up in so much of their jewelry. But that’s not exactly the case. Turquoise merely dulls the intense reactions of the hormones, so weres are able to keep their shifted form reined in more effectively, without the random outbursts.”

As Hadrian spoke, the coldness of the stone soaked into my skin. The fuzzy anxiety I’d been feeling the last few days dissipated, leaving behind a strange tranquility. I took a deep breath, savoring the absence of the static that had been sizzling across every inch of my skin.

Hadrian sniffed the air. “Ah, much better. The scent of angry bear really doesn’t suit you.”

“Thanks,” I said, uncertain how to feel about Hadrian’s gift.

“Anything for my daughter,” he said, the intensity of his gaze making me blush and turn away. “Only a week, you say? Then you haven’t been taught much about this side of yourself.”

I quietly shook my head, blindly fingering my new necklace.

“What have you been taught? Have you discovered your harpy abilities yet?”

I narrowed my eyes at him, remembering why I should be angry at him. “Just how many different species’ DNA did you put in me?” If there were any other shifters waiting to jump out of me, I had the right to know.

“Harpy and Ursa.”

“No others?” I interrogated, narrowing my eyes further, as if I could force the truth out of him.

“No. I’ve been splicing shifter genes for several decades, and those were the two that worked best together and were least likely to result in mitosis failure or prenatal death.”

Several things about that rubbed me the wrong way. “How many times did you run this experiment on unborn children?”

He brought his hands together in front of his waist. “Three hundred and eighty-seven times. Every single one of them failed. Except for you.”

Three hundred and eighty-seven forcefully mutated children died before drawing their first breath.

“Did their mothers volunteer for the experiments?” I had to ask.

“Most.” Judging by the wicked twinkle in his eyes, mercy had not been given to those who weren’t volunteers.

“And my mother? Did she volunteer to give birth to a monster?” There it was, the question that had been burning inside me since I found out I was Hadrian’s daughter.

His face softened, his lips parting slightly before answering. “It was different with Zaia. The other volunteers were just strangers to me. And, let’s just say that the insemination process was purely scientific.”

I grimaced at that bit of information, not wanting to envision any part of what that sentence implied.

“But Zaia and I had a true connection. She was a princess of her people, and she’d come to land right before she met me, trying to find a way to bring them up.”

“She was a princess?” I blurted, astounded. “Wait, that means I’m...”

“Mer royalty?” Hadrian finished for me. “Yes. Higher even than your friend Kendall, I’d wager. Your mother’s kingdom was the oldest.”

“What happened to them? Did Mom succeed?” Maybe I do have family out there somewhere after all!

Hadrian shook his head sadly. “I don’t believe she did. After she ran away with you still in her belly, I had scouts scouring every coast in search of her. I don’t believe she ever went back to her people after she left me.”

My insides burned with promise and curiosity. A whole civilization of mer were still underwater—mer that were directly connected to me. I needed to know what became of them. All the more reason to get out of this prison. But how?

I decided to change my line of questioning. “You said you and my mom had a connection. If that’s true, why did she leave?”

He lowered his head, as if his sadness made it heavy. “She got scared. She forgot that wars have casualties. She walked in on an interrogation that went awry, and she started to fear she made the wrong choice. She snuck out that night, and I never saw her or our unborn baby girl again.”

There was so much information to process. Every time I thought I knew my mother, another skeleton jumped out of the closet. I really didn’t know her at all. Could Hadrian be telling the truth? Even Kendall had said my mom fell for Hadrian. But would she have willingly allowed him to experiment on her baby? I couldn’t imagine any woman doing that.

“Is Alex like me? I mean, is he a chimera too?”

He shook his head. “No. Alexander is completely human.”

“Why?” I felt like it was a stupid question, but I couldn’t see why the boy would be so important to Hadrian as just a human.

He shrugged ever so slightly. “He’s my Heir.”

“But what does that mean?”

Hadrian’s face brightened. “My family is the oldest and noblest vampire line in existence. Every fifty years, the patriarch produces a male heir, and when that heir comes of age, he’s turned into a vampire. This compounding of vampire blood produces a stronger vampire each time. I’m more powerful than my father, and he was more powerful than his. Alexander will be more powerful than me.”

“Wait, so Alex is going to become a vampire?” Horror struck a deep and harrowing chord inside me, inciting an urgency to protect the little brother I hardly knew.

“Yes, when he turns eighteen.” Hadrian was practically glowing with pride.

“Does he know?” My voice raised a whole octave, but Hadrian didn’t seem to care.

“He’s known all his life that he’s being primed to take my place as leader of the vampires.”

No, no, no! Not sweet, innocent Alex!

“Why don’t we get off this conversation. I can see it’s making you upset.” He put a hand on my shoulder. “I have something else in mind for today. You don’t have any ursa training. Let me show you what you’re capable of.”

He went around me and opened the door, gesturing for me to follow him out. I didn’t want to go with him. As curious as I was to learn about my ursa side, I was disgusted by Hadrian for what he was doing to Alex. Alex was nothing like his father. The boy may look like a miniature version of his dad, but he was pure and kind. I hated that Alex was destined to become a monster. I would keep that from happening, even if it was the last thing I did.

“Come, Arya,” Hadrian insisted.

Getting rid of Hadrian was the only way to ensure that Alex’s innocence remained intact, that my friends and all shifters stayed safe, and that I could one day reconnect with my mother’s people. If I could use Hadrian to perfect the monster he’d created me to be, then maybe I could actually fulfill the destiny everyone insisted was mine.

* * *

“What have they taught you at your shifter school about ursas?”

Hadrian took me down to the main level and into a training room in a section I hadn’t previously ventured. He instructed me to change into a pair of smart clothing he’d “acquired”, and now we stood in a large, empty square room with a mirror lining one wall.

I skimmed through my mental repertoire on bear-shifters before answering. “Ursas, like all weres, have their transformation triggered by full moons. They’re bitten, not born. They’re the strongest of all the weres, impossible to contain when they’re having a fit, and struggle the most with self-control.” I’d experienced that last bit first-hand.

“Good,” Hadrian said, pacing in front of me with his hands clasped behind his back. “Basic, but good. What do you know of their powers?”

I pondered. “I thought their strength was their power?” I said, my answer coming out more like a question.

“In a manner of speaking, that’s true. Ursas have the most physical strength of pretty much all shifters, not just weres. But they’re hyper-strong in other areas as well. Some have been known to have very powerful telekinetic abilities, even able to create forcefields at will.”

Hadrian snapped his fingers and a projection began to play on the widest wall in front of us, though I had no idea where the projection was coming from. The video showed a man in shredded clothes being circled by black-clad opponents—vampires, I assumed.

The man let out a bestial roar, then every muscle in his body bulged and expanded, making him twice as large as he’d previously been. A coat of thick, brown fur covered his skin as his clothing ripped and fell away, his face mutating from that of a handsome man to a snarling, nightmarish monster. I wasn’t even sure I could call him a bear. Red shame flushed my face at the thought of what I must look like when I lost control.

As I watched, a visible disturbance rippled through the air, radiating outward from him. The ripple sent his opponents flying backward, and he leapt off-screen and out of sight. The projection faded like it was never there, the wall blank once more.

“Wow, I didn’t know ursas could do that,” I said, still staring at the naked wall.

“Few do,” Hadrian said. “Ursas aren’t as aware of themselves when in shifted form, so it’s rare they’re ever lucid enough to explore their powers. After all, such a thing takes patience, and ursas aren’t known for that virtue. But there are some that find a way to manage their emotions and hone their special talents. I would like to help you do this.”

“How?” I asked, incredulous. “I think we both know that if I shift, this room won’t be safe for you.”

A smirk curled Hadrian’s pale pink lips. He looked down and hooked his thumbs in his pockets as he strolled forward. “That’s why I won’t be in the room. I’ll be in a safe location, instructing you via intercom.”

And then he was gone, the click of the door’s lock the only evidence that he didn’t just vanish into thin air.

I took a step toward the door, but a puff of yellow gas assaulted my face, a painful sting forcing me to squeeze my eyes shut. I stumbled, hearing the hiss of the gas filling the room. And before I had time to get angry or worry about what the gas might do to me, an insatiable, agonizing prickle seethed under my flesh— everywhere! I struggled to contain it, but it was no use. In several palpitating heartbeats, the beast unleashed, my thoughts, senses, and vision a blur of red and fury.

I slammed against the walls, clawing at the door. The urge to destroy was the only thing I understood.

“It’s no use, Arya.” Hadrian’s voice echoed around me. “I’ve had this room reinforced with a silver-steel alloy specifically for your training. You can’t escape.”

A guttural roar quaked out of my throat and rattled the mirror wall.

“The only way for you to get out is to concentrate.” His voice was muddled and distant, reverberating in my eardrums as if spoken through water. “Hone your breathing, clear your mind, and gain control. Do not be a slave to the beast. Be its master.”

Every one of my muscles ached with frustration, and the desire to go on a destructive rampage nearly overwhelmed me, like an itch that had to be scratched despite knowing that no amount of scratching could make it go away. I wanted to hurt someone. Anyone. Hadrian, especially.

No. I didn’t want that. That was the bear talking. I had to resist.

Clenching my oversized teeth, I closed my eyes and stood as still as I could. I tried to ignore the pain of irritation that seized my entire body, tried to drown out the wacky emotions that whispered all manner of angry demands.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breath in. Breathe out.

I repeated the mantra in my mind over and over, feeling each breath as it entered and exited my lungs. The itch slowly became less intense, the fog that clouded my mind thinning ever so slightly.

“Very good, Arya,” Hadrian’s voice said, and I heard it much more clearly than before. “Now, shatter the glass.”

The bear wanted to ram an angry fist at the reflection it detested and savor the satisfying sound of glass crashing, but I had enough clarity to understand his meaning—I was to break the mirror without touching it.

I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and pushed my will outward from my core. The room shook, and the sound of exploding glass surprised my eyes open in time to see fragments raining to the floor.

Another puff of gas—green this time—sprayed all around, and in seconds I shrank, returning to my normal height, to human form.

Wobbling in place and disoriented, I saw Hadrian enter the room, clapping his hands. “Very well done, and on your first try. You’re nothing short of incredible!”

“Wh–what was that stuff you sprayed at me?” I asked, rubbing my aching head. The shifts had both been too quick, and now I felt sore, almost hungover.

“The first one was inducer gas, a toxin to force you to shift,” Hadrian explained. “And the second was inhibitor gas, obviously forcing you to shift back to human form. I apologize for using them on you, but they were necessary for this first exercise, don’t you agree?”

No. I never wanted to feel anything like that again. It was horrible. I felt violated and nauseous and ashamed—too many things to list. Just about the only good thing I felt was surprise at being able to access such a difficult ursa skill on the first attempt.

“Why was it so easy for me?” I asked, mostly to myself.

“The necklace.” Hadrian touched the turquoise stone on my neck. “Remember I told you it gives you more control? Without the necklace, you would’ve had little chance of making progress. But even with it, withstanding the ursine urges takes a great deal of willpower and inner strength, and that’s something that can’t be manufactured. I’m very proud of you.”

He rested a hand on my shoulder and squeezed, and I didn’t feel the impulse to jerk away this time. His praise felt oddly…good. His methods had been forceful, to say the least, but none of what he did just now had been meant to hurt me—or anyone else. Not like the general.

Maybe Hadrian wasn’t all bad. My mother had found something to love in him. Maybe he—

No, stop it, Arya!

I couldn’t allow my thoughts to continue on this track. Because if there was any part of me that believed Hadrian was good, I knew I would never be able to come back from that.