Deadly Alliances (Dark Shifter Academy #5)

Chapter 21 Caesar

I rocked back and forth over my crossed legs inside the tent, trying to wrestle my tumultuous emotions into submission. This mission was already going so wrong.

Typical Arthur, sending his own son on a rescue mission for his precious siren. Was there nothing he wouldn’t sacrifice for his pride? Tobias had never seen true combat before, had no experience with stealth operations, but clearly Dracul didn’t give two shits. All he cared about was winning this war, no matter the casualties.

The knowledge that Tobias was in Hadrian’s clutches had nausea twisting my insides. It would be a miracle if he wasn’t dead already, and if he wasn’t, that meant we had one more person to rescue—two, actually; Shea said someone else was captured with him.

What a fucking shit show!

And Shea was stuck right in the middle of it. What if Tobias said something to incriminate her? He could ruin this whole thing.

No, Tobias was smart. And he was one of the most stubborn shifters I’d ever met. He’d be tactful. I had to believe that. I just hoped he’d survive long enough for us to get him out.

“I need some air.” I pushed myself up and slid out of the tent, leaving Kai and Janette to continue studying the feeds.

I stood to my full height and stretched in the comforting heat of our enchanted little circle, taking one deep breath after another. This wasn’t me. Sitting on the sidelines, waiting for someone else to wave the green flag—especially when that someone was my mate and she was deep in the heart of a vampire fortress. I needed to take action.

But sitting and waiting was the best action I could take right now. After the failed attack by the shifter military, the vampires would be even more vigilant and guarded than before, and stepping even one foot outside of our protected camp was a recipe for disaster.

Dammit!

But Shea was okay. The vampires had bought her act, had accepted her into their folds. At least for now. She would be alright. Please let her be alright.

Snap, crunch, scuffle.

I shot my head in the direction of the noise in the woods toward the north, every one of my senses suddenly on high alert. Figures were moving through the trees several yards away. On instinct, I crouched behind the trunk of the tree that stood inside our circle, momentarily forgetting that the magical shield protected me from view.

But would it protect me from all forms of detection? Vampires had an extremely keen sense of smell. What if they sniffed out my breath?

A flash of sunlight winked at me through the leaves of the canopy. It was midday. The vampires wouldn’t be ballsy enough to venture into the woods during the day, would they? The tree branches and leaves offered a great deal of shade, but I highly doubted they’d risk it. Unless they had a reason.

The figures came closer, crunching over the brush and snapping twigs. Definitely not vampires. Their footsteps were far too loud and clumsy for that. Humans, maybe? Did Hadrian send out a group of mortal scouts to scan the area?

“Peters, I swear if you don’t get your hand off my ass,” a male voice growled.

“Shh! You want every vampire in a hundred-mile radius to hear you?” a female voice hissed.

My curiosity piqued, I pressed closer against the tree, tapping into my gryphon sight to enhance my vision. Like turning the dial on a telescope, my eyes zoomed in on the motley crew, their features defined with clear precision.

There were four of them. A petite asian girl with familiar rainbow-colored hair was under the arm of a tall blonde male, who was limping. His leg was bleeding and probably broken. Under his other arm was a lithe russet-haired man, who definitely looked too svelt to be carrying another man’s weight. And bringing up the rear behind them was a burly man with dark brown hair, clutching his side with his hand.

They were all wearing the same slick black one-piece.

Holy shit, they’re shifter military!

And they were clearly hurt.

With a wary sweep of my eyes, I scanned the area for any other signs of movement, making sure it was safe. When I was sure the area was secure, I abandoned the safety of our magical hiding place, pushing past the invisible barrier and into the frigid winter air.

My steps crunched as I strode across the snow and thistle, making the foursome freeze in alarm, huddling tighter together as I came closer.

“It’s okay,” I called softly out to them. “I can help you.”

“Omigod, Caesar?”

I thought I recognized those pastel rainbow streaks. Sakura Tekashi, one of the most brilliant kitsune students I’d ever taught, was the girl helping to carry the limping man. She gave me a trembling smile of relief and gratitude.

But I didn’t recognize the others. Very few of the soldiers under Dracul’s reign had the opportunity to attend the Dome, either because their parents already had a military background, or they were human recruits converted by weres.

“Who?” the limping man asked.

“That’s Caesar Rex, director of the Dome,” she said as if she was insulted by his ignorance of my identity.

“ Former director,” the burly one muttered.

Sakura and I both frowned at him.

“That doesn’t matter,” I said. “What does matter is that you need help, and we can’t stay out in the open like this any longer. Follow me.”

Sakura and the other carrier moved forward, but the limping man planted his one good foot, waving his hands over their shoulders. “Where? Look around. We’re sitting ducks out here.”

“If you’d keep your mouth shut and your eyes open, you might find out,” I barked with all the authority of my former position.

With a bitter purse of his lips, he helped the other two move him after me, and the burly one followed while muttering under his breath.

My eyes and ears were painfully alert as we approached the hidden place where I thought the camp was. Now that I was outside of it, I truly appreciated how thorough the magic was—I couldn’t see our camp at all. In its place was nothing more than an open clearing. The only reason I found it was by following my footsteps in the snow to where they abruptly ended.

We passed through the invisible barrier, the warm air caressing my cheeks and the tent atop the dry, snowless ground materializing into view.

“Whoa, what the hell was that?” the limping man gasped, looking all around the protected circle with wide, disbelieving eyes.

“It’s like magic,” Sakura said, her voice softened with awe and reverence.

“It is magic,” I corrected, willing a gust of air to rise and comb over the tracks we left in the snow.

Kai and Janette poked their heads out of the tent, shocked at the company we now had.

“What’s going on? What is this?” Kai asked, crawling out. “Tekashi?”

“Professor Inari, you’re here, too?” Sakura gushed. “What are you guys doing here?”

“A rescue mission, same as you,” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “But we’re doing it the right way.”

The four of them all cast their gazes down, and I regretted chiding them. None of this was their fault. They were just following orders.

“Come on, sit down,” I invited, waving them to the center of the circle. “Tell us what happened.”

Sakura and the russet-haired man carried the limper, gently setting him down, which was difficult with his broken shin.

“We attacked the towers with atomizing bombs,” Sakura began. “Our goal was to distract the vampires and kill as many as we could by exposing them to the sun while Peters here was supposed to infiltrate the fortress and retrieve the siren.”

The man with auburn hair and the rugged jaw raised a hand.

“But the vampires were too quick for us, and far too many,” she went on. “Even with the sun on our side. Gibson got sliced by one of them and barely made it out.”

The burly one grunted, shrugging the shoulder above his wounded side.

“Commander Stern ordered us to retreat, but as Hennessey was flying away carrying both Peters and myself, there was an explosion of pellets that came out of nowhere.”

The image of Tobias that night in the alley flashed into my mind. His body riddled with lead pellets.

“I tried to dodge the blast, but my wing took the brunt of it,” the blond said, wincing as he adjusted his leg. “We came crashing down, and I curled around Tekashi and Peters, but my leg broke in the fall.”

Sakura rubbed his shoulder with a sympathetic pout, and he leaned into her comforting gesture. Then Peters rubbed his other shoulder with more vigor, and Henessey leaned even further toward her, scooting away from Peters despite the strain it put on his broken leg.

“Stern and Dracul went radio silent after that,” Sakura said, her brow creased with worry. “We have no idea what happened to them.”

“I do,” Kai said, raising a hand. “They got captured. They’re in the dungeons.”

“How do you know that?” Gibson asked, and I couldn’t tell if he was trying to be a dick or if he just had resting-dick-face.

Kai tipped his head toward the tent. “I hacked into their surveillance system.”

Sakura’s shoulders sagged. “Oh, no. What are we going to do? We couldn’t go in after them even if we wanted to.” She glanced mournfully at Hennessey’s leg, then over to Gibson. “But we can’t just leave them there.”

I took a deep breath and clapped my hands on my thighs. “What we’re going to do is get you the medical care you need. Janette here is a witch. She can use magic to heal you.”

I gestured to Janette, who still huddled just inside the tent with her head out. She climbed out and offered a friendly smile, coming to kneel in front of Hennessey to tend to his leg.

“We have someone on the inside, and when they give us the signal, we’re going to get all of them out,” I continued. “If you want to help, that’s great, but you’re more than welcome to go home. That is, if Hennessey can carry all of you once his wing is healed.”

Sakura immediately shook her head. “I’m not going anywhere.”

“Neither am I,” Hennessey declared.

“Neither am I,” Peters chorused, and I thought it odd that both Hennessey and Sakura rolled their eyes. Strange dynamic in this bunch.

I nodded, then looked to Gibson, and everyone else in our camp did the same.

He grunted. “Fine. It’s not like I’ll get very far without a pair of wings anyway. I’ll stay.”

“Good. But understand this.” I pointed a stern finger at all of them. “I am the commanding officer of this mission. If anyone has a problem with that, you can fuck right off.”

Sakura straightened her posture and gave me a two-finger salute, inspiring the rest of her team to follow suit.

That response was satisfactory enough, so I sat on the log and watched as Janette finished healing Hennessey’s leg.

“Are you in any pain from your wing?” she asked him.

He shook his head. “Not in human form. I only feel it in my dragon form.”

“Okay. I’ll fix up Gibson first, then we’ll shift you and get your wing taken care of.”

He nodded in agreement, but the tightness to his jaw told me he was lying. The pellets he’d been shot with were lead, and even if he didn’t still have any of them embedded in him, the metal would’ve absolutely burned him. When I’d had my wing injured in the past, the pain isolated and intensified in my shoulder in human form. I was sure he was experiencing the same thing.

“Caesar, I found Shea!” Kai called—when did he go back inside?

I bolted off the log and into the tent, dropping to his side in front of the screens. He was pointing at one of them, and some part of me finally relaxed at seeing her in one piece.

“Where is she?” I asked.

“Looks like she’s on the seventh level of tower one,” he replied. “She just came out of that room there.”

I squinted at the other figures walking with her. Hatred flared in my gut at the sight of Hadrian’s smug face, but I shoved it down. I didn’t recognize the blonde woman, but she was carrying…

“Julian!” I gasped.

Kai cocked his head at me. “Where?”

“The guy being carried,” I blurted urgently without tearing my eyes from the screen.

Julian looked terrible. His skin was paler than normal, with a greenish tint to it, his cheeks and eyes sunk in. His body was limp. What had they been doing to him?

It was a small comfort that Shea had found him, that she was with him now, but my abdomen clenched with dread at seeing the two vampires escorting them.

They walked out of the pane, and I didn’t see them in any other feed.

“Can you follow them? I want to see everywhere she goes.” And make sure nothing happened to her.