Chapter 3

Caesar

I took my freshly-refilled mug back to the table where Celeste was waiting for me. The teachers' lounge was surprisingly empty for late afternoon, but I appreciated the time to speak with her alone.

"I think you'll find Kai's schematics to be quite intriguing," I said, reclaiming my seat and accessing the three-dimensional holo file that demonstrated the new vampire tracking system on my tablet.

"Military tech has never been intriguing to me," Celeste deadpanned. "Such things have always fallen under your umbrella."

I smirked. I always appreciated her bluntness.

"I thought you might at least find the science behind it interesting. With this new tech, the military will be able to detect a vampire attack before it happens."

She arched a meticulously shaped eyebrow and folded her arms. "Well, seeing as foresight is my department, color me officially intrigued."

I chuckled. I knew that would get her attention. I enabled the holographic display, and her eyes lit up, reflecting the neon green pixels.

"This is the actual size of the device," I clarified as we observed the sphere, just an inch in diameter. "But for greater study, we'll magnify."

I tapped a zoom command on the tablet, and the 3D image grew to the size of a beach ball. "How in-depth would you like to go into the schematics?"

"The basics will suffice," Celeste replied. "Honestly, I trust your judgment on this. If you believe it's worth investing in, we have the finances to make it happen. If you're on the fence, maybe we need to talk to Kai about working on something else."

"Of course."

This was how our conversations usually went. Celeste didn't want to know how each little part of something worked. She just needed to know that it did work.

"Let me explain the design in the simplest form so you have a basic understanding of how the device works," I began. "First of all, you'll notice that the shape of the system is similar to a golf ball. You can see the tiny divots encompassing it. Those are sensors that are ultra-tuned to a particular hormone—the one that vampires excrete when they need to feed. Kai calls it hemoghrelin . The thirstier they are, the more hemoghrelin they release, and the easier they are to track. That amount indicates just how dangerous they'll be."

Celeste tapped her bottom lip in thought.

I manipulated the controls again, and the outside of the image shot out as if it had been blown apart. "As you can see, within the device is a GPS unit, as well as a cellular chip for transmission. These GPS units will let us know where the thirsty vampires are located. The cellular chip will tap into local services and transmit levels of hemoghrelin directly to the servers here at the Dome. The military will have live data to observe and be able to react accordingly. And, of course, a solar-powered battery is powering it all inside."

"You're traipsing out of the ‘basic' information zone," Celeste said.

I chuckled and shrugged. "I guess even I get wrapped up in the technicalities of Kai's designs. These devices will allow us to shift from tracking vampire attacks to detecting actual vampires."

" Thirsty vampires," Celeste corrected, pointing up a delicate finger.

I tilted my head to one side. "Well, yes. But that gives us a chance to prevent attacks versus waiting for them to happen."

Celeste nodded. "And how many of these devices will we need?"

I sighed. "At least a hundred, to start. We'll begin testing in Chicago then expand from there. Kai has mapped a grid of the city with the pertinent locations to install them, mostly on street lights where they'll be well-hidden. From there, he plans to implement this technology into the watches the military wears so they can detect imminent attacks on their patrols."

Celeste's emerald eyes shimmered in the light from the holo-schematics. At last, she nodded. "Let's bring the necessary parts in and get these built and distributed."

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. "We haven't gone over cost yet."

"I don't need to see the numbers," Celeste replied, flicking a lock of her red hair over her shoulder. "I'm not worried about cost as long as everything is accounted for in the end. And don't seem so surprised; if these devices will help us prevent vampire attacks, there's really no choice. We have to do it."

I nodded in satisfaction. It was a good thing Celeste coupled her bluntness with altruism. "I'll let Kai know. He'll be pleased to hear of your approval. Hopefully, it'll give him more motivation to stay in his position."

Celeste tilted her head, her red hair angling to the side. "Has Kai been complaining about his job?"

I frowned and offered a hedging shrug. "He expressed an interest in being transferred to the military, but I talked him out of it."

Celeste pointedly blinked several times before giving a short laugh. "Kai? In the military? He'd get eaten alive—and not by vampires. Can you imagine him trying to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Arthur Dracul?"

I chuckled, imagining how the General would react to Kai's corny jokes.

"Believe it or not, I've seen Kai in combat, and he's a force to be reckoned with," I said in my oldest friend's defense. "He's knocked off his share of vampire heads in the past. But his talents are better spent here at the Dome. I'm giving him the responsibility of monitoring this new system, so he'll have contact with the military as data comes in."

"Hopefully, that will be enough military involvement for him," Celeste mused. "As much as the fox irritates me, it would be odd not to have him lurking through the halls."

I leaned forward and offered a playful, faux-shocked expression. "Are you actually warming up to your relentless admirer?"

She rolled her emerald eyes, the motion exaggerated by the catching light of the hologram. "Hardly. And if you mention any such thing to him, I'll make you regret it. He's already like a horny dog I have to kick off my leg. If he even suspected I felt anything but disdain for him—which I don't—he'd never leave me alone."

I burst out laughing, slapping my knee at the mental image she painted.

She scoffed, clearly not amused, which only made my laughter harder to stifle.

"Alright, I think that's all I have for you today," I said when the rumble in my chest finally subsided, and then I dismissed the hologram and turned off my tablet.

"Actually, there's one more thing I wanted to discuss with you," Celeste said, rubbing her hands together. "It's about Arya."

"Oh, yes. How's our little siren doing?" I asked.

Celeste's lips thinned. "She's struggling with transformation."

I nodded. "She told me so a few days ago. I'd asked her to meet with me, so I could check in on how her first week went."

Celeste frowned, her brow furrowing. "Her inability to shift at will doesn't concern you?"

"She'll get it down, Celeste," I replied. "It's been a little over one week. Arya's entire world has been turned upside down. Between all the new experiences she's going through here at the Dome and losing her mother, the stress she must be under could be limiting her abilities."

"But we have no basis for believing she's the prophesied mermaid," Celeste countered. "Besides finding her late, she hasn't shown any abilities out of the ordinary. In fact, as far as expectations go, she hasn't even come close."

"Again, it's been just over a week."

"I've begun one-on-one tutoring with her. The effort she puts herself through to shift is abnormal. Yes, such things take focus, but I know infant mermaids who have figured out transformation. For mer, these things come naturally. With Arya, it seems foreign and forced."

"My recommendation would be to keep working with her," I suggested.

"It could take a lot of time," Celeste said. "Of all people, I'd expect you to be the most urgent about seeing the prophesied siren take power."

Her words caught me off-guard.

Of all people?

Images of my slain parents flashed in my mind. Hadrian's wickedly gleeful face. Hatred and anger boiled inside me, spilling through my veins like liquid fire.

Of course, I wanted the bastard dead, wanted him to pay for all the lives he'd stolen. But that couldn't happen by pushing a broken young mermaid to perform. I was a teacher, not a drill sergeant. That was why I'd left the military, to form and nurture young shifters rather than command soldiers to their possible deaths.

When I didn't say anything, Celeste continued.

"I think it's worth mentioning that when I found Arya through vision, there were no fireworks or angelic voices indicating that she was the prophesied mermaid." She leaned forward and rested her cheek on her hand. "I was hopeful then because she was the first stray mermaid we'd found. But more and more, I'm thinking we need to keep looking."

I narrowed my eyes on her. "You want to give up on Arya because sparks didn't fly during the vision you found her in?"

Celeste partially smiled. "And the fact that she's been struggling with shifter basics for the past week. I understand that her life has been put in a whirlpool, but the qualities that would be expected of the prophesied siren… I'm not seeing them in Arya."

I sighed and rested back in my chair, feeling heavier all of a sudden. "And so you want to continue your search for another stray mermaid."

"With your permission, yes," Celeste replied. "If the siren is still out there, we're only hurting ourselves by focusing our efforts on Arya."

I couldn't argue with that. Just because I hoped and believed Arya was the siren didn't mean that she was. And if the stray mermaid from the prophecy was still hidden, valuable time would be wasted.

"How would you feel about having one of the more advanced mer students take on her tutoring responsibilities?" I suggested, unwilling to give up on her just yet. "That would free you up to spend more time searching for another stray mermaid."

Celeste considered for a moment, slowly nodding. "That might be very good for her. She's having a hard time fitting in with the other mermaids."

I nodded, rubbing my chin. "I've heard as much. But I know that she has been getting along quite well with Kendall Green. Perhaps he'd be a good tutor for her?"

"Kendall has taken a particular liking to her despite how the rest of the mer students have been acting around her," she said. "But I'd like Kendall to continue focusing on honing his visions. I think it would be wise to involve somebody who has become skillful with their abilities. That way, they can focus on more than just transformation."

"Who do you have in mind?" I asked.

Celeste tapped a finger to her lips. "Cora would cause too much drama, I'm afraid. And so would Adina." She pulled her hand away and sat up straight, snapping her fingers in the process. "Letti. She's an extremely gifted swimmer, and out of the rest of the mermaids, she's the best at water manipulation."

"Well, that sounds promising."

Letti had been a good pupil in my history classes, and from what I'd heard from the other teachers, she was a well-rounded student in general.

"My biggest concern is how she will react to such an assignment and how she will act toward Arya," Celeste added.

"Who knows? Maybe some one-on-one time together will bring them closer." At least, that was my hope. I'd certainly had my issues with Celeste throughout the years, but we'd been able to see past those differences and become good friends.

"I wouldn't expect it, but perhaps that will be the case. I'll give Letti the assignment this evening." She got to her feet and pushed the chair back under the table.

"One other thing on Letti," I said before she could get too far. "Arya has expressed to me how certain cliques have gone out of their way to haze her. Can you emphasize to Letti just how important this is to you and to me? Don't go into detail or anything. Just… help her to realize Arya is a mermaid, too, and deserves to be treated like one. That will help her more than any tutoring could."

"Of course, Director," she said. "I'll let you know what comes of this. And in the meantime, I'll spend a little more time searching for other stray mermaids."

She headed out of the room, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

I sighed, looking down at my full coffee mug, which had certainly gone cold by now. I used to enjoy being left with my thoughts, but lately, they always strayed to Shea.

Her face popped into my mind, her long wavy hair and those damned piercing green eyes. I forcefully shoved the image from my head, only for the memory of her naked body in the school's entrance to take its place.

Dammit!

Why was this witch so vexing? Why couldn't I stop thinking about her? Stop wanting her…

Whatever this foolish obsession was, I couldn't allow it to continue. She may not be a student, but she was the close friend of one of my most important students. Such feelings were so vastly inappropriate, that even as I felt desire for her, I also felt shame.

I pushed away from the table and bolted out of my seat. I needed to get out, needed to do something. Anything to clear my head.

With purpose, I strode through the halls toward the entrance. I hadn't gone on a flight in far too long, and that seemed like exactly the remedy I needed tonight.