Chapter 37 Shea

"What is it? What happened?" Caesar asked, his forehead creased with worry as he looked at me. He had been sitting next to me through the whole conversation with Julian, only able to hear my responses and growing more and more concerned as he listened.

"Julian, he's… Hadrian found out about his disloyalty," I said with a shaky voice. "As punishment, he gave Julian to some vampire bitch to play with. He's got some kind of cuffs on that weaken him. He sounded like he was in so much pain." My voice cracked as my throat constricted with anger and grief.

"No," Caesar breathed, his eyes darkening in dreadful understanding. He shook his head. "What are the fucking chances we'd both be found out on the same day." He kicked the leg of the coffee table in front of the couch.

"I know," I whimpered. But hatred and fury soon burned through the sorrow, and I gritted my teeth. "I'm going to kill that vampire whore. I'm going to rip her to pieces and use magic to make sure she doesn't die, so she'll have no choice but to exist as a mutilated monster for—"

"Slow down, Shea," Caesar cautioned, putting a calming hand on my shoulder. "I want to avenge Julian just as much as you do, but we have to be smart about this. We need to come up with a plan to get into Heritage Prep and survive long enough to get Julian out. And to do that, we need to keep our cool and channel our anger into something useful."

My shoulders were shaking with rage, and I wanted to burn the entire damn world to the ground to get Julian back. But I knew Caesar was right. My mind was so charged with murderous intent that I couldn't think clearly, and that kind of mentality wasn't going to save Julian.

But without the anger to fortify me, I was defenseless against my fear over what would happen to him, helpless to the onslaught of gory images of things Julian's captors might do to him before we could rescue him.

"I should never have let him go back," I lamented. "I should've insisted he stay. Fuck the vampires. And fuck the shifters. Dammit, this whole world just sucks!"

He pulled me against his chest and squeezed my shoulders. "We're going to figure this out. Julian is strong. He's been through so much over the decades. He'll be able to hold out until we get to him."

"But what if his mistress gets tired of him?" I burst, trying hard to ignore the mental flashes of her playing with him against his will, punishing him for his non-compliance. "What if she lets Hadrian kill him after all?"

Caesar shook his head. "I think I know who this vampire is. Did he say the name Marguerite?"

I nodded, trying to control the tremors in my neck and jaw as I did.

"That's what I thought. From what he's told me about her, it'll be a long time before she tires of him. She's been obsessed with him since before they both became vampires. Now that she has him at her mercy, she's going to savor every moment of it, and do everything she can to bend him to her will."

I hiccuped as tears forced their way over my eyelids and streamed down my cheeks.

Caesar hugged me tighter. "Hey, it's a good thing. Like I said, Julian is strong, and he's far more clever than me. He'll find a way to endure for now."

I leaned into him and pressed my damp face into his chest. "What are we going to do? How are we going to infiltrate a heavily guarded vampire structure and get him out without anyone seeing? We can't just go in guns blazing. A witch and a gryphon against an army of vampires?"

He sighed, rubbing my upper arm. "I don't know. I'll need to talk to Kai. His technical knowledge and electrical mastery might pair perfectly with your magic. We'll figure something out."

I nodded against him, even though I didn't really believe it. I suddenly felt so small and powerless. How could we possibly win this seemingly losing battle?

"I'm going to fetch Kai," Caesar said. "Then all five of us can sit down and discuss the possibilities of combining witch magic with shifter abilities and technology. Will you be alright for a while?"

"Yes," I said softly, then wrapped my arms around his neck and clung to him a few frantic heartbeats.

"I'll be back soon," he said when I finally let him go. Then he got off the couch and bolted for the door.

I sat there for a moment, staring at the carpet while I tried to regulate my emotions. But sitting made me feel jittery, and I couldn't just do nothing. I got the grimoire from my room and opened it on the couch, closely studying each and every page for any spells that could help us in our rescue mission.

Anything I found that I thought could be even remotely useful, I marked the page with a sticky note. Protection spells, cloaking spells, locking and unlocking spells. And, of course, anything to do with vampires.

I spilled over the pages for hours, even after Caesar returned with Kai and Aunt Janette, and everyone began planning and plotting. I tried listening in on their conversation now and then, but I didn't want to miss any helpful secrets this book might have.

I came across the snaring spell and read it over and over. Could there be a way for one witch to use it against more than one vampire at a time? Could I possibly tweak it to do so? Though Gram and Aunt Janette were on board with my unorthodox relationship, I hardly expected them to come with us to save Julian. In fact, I'd avidly refuse if she offered. She was too old and slow. A vampire stronghold was no place for her. Aunt Janette, maybe, but I wouldn't forgive myself if she got hurt or captured—or worse—trying to help us.

This wasn't their battle. It was mine and Caesar's. And though Kai had no allegiance to Julian, he was so loyal to Caesar that he followed him in exile and remained so even after knowing about his intimate relationship with the two of us. Kai had also lost loved ones to vampires, so he had just as much hatred for them as we did. I was grateful to have him on our team.

It was late afternoon when my phone buzzed in my pocket. I couldn't summon the interest or motivation to pull it out. Everyone I cared about was within a block radius of me or hundreds of miles away, trapped in a tower as some blood whore's pet. There was Ashlyn and Arya, of course, but my mission was more important than chitchat.

I let the call go to voicemail and continued scanning my current page. But then, immediately after, my phone started buzzing again, the vibration a nagging irritation against my thigh. Fine.

I pulled it out and checked the screen. Arya. I moved to dismiss the call but then paused. Caesar said the asshole general guy had taken over the school for the sole purpose of weaponizing her. What if she needed me? What if I was ignoring her when she was in some kind of trouble?

She would never abandon me if I needed her, no matter her personal problems. What kind of friend would I be if I couldn't do the same?

I swiped the green answer button and put the phone to my ear. "Hey, what's up?"

"Shea," she wept, sniffling. "I'm so fucked up. I don't know what I'm doing anymore."

"What happened? Are you okay?" My whole focus was on her, concern twisting my guts anew.

"No," she sobbed, laughing humorlessly. "I'm so not okay. Caesar's been kicked out of the school for fuck knows what, and the general of the shifter military has taken it upon himself to be my personal slave driver because apparently I'm the answer to some prophecy bullshit. He made me… He made me…" She gave into heavier sobs.

Of course, I knew now about the prophecy, and it wouldn't do either of us any good for me to ask about the details of it right now.

"He made you what?" I prompted softly, pressing the phone harder against my ear to make out her words through her crying.

"He made me use my powers to force a vampire to kill herself," she confessed. "I didn't want to do it, but he strapped me to a chair and threatened to starve and force feed me until I did it. God, I don't want to be this person. I don't want to become a monster to fight monsters."

I put my hand over my mouth as she continued to weep. That was inhumane. Horrible. Especially coercing a teenage girl to do that. When Caesar told me about the general, I never could've expected such cruelty.

"I'm so sorry, Arya. What can I do?"

She sniffled again and took a deep breath. "I don't know. They've got me locked in my room like a prisoner. I don't think you can help me. All I know is that, as soon as I have the chance, I'm going to escape this hellhole."

I didn't know what to say. First, Julian was being imprisoned by the vampires, and now my best friend was being imprisoned by the shifters. I had little idea how to rescue one of them, let alone both. At least Arya had her imprinted mate to protect her. Now that Tobias was free of his curse, I was sure he would do everything in his power to get Arya out of her nightmare.

"And that's not even the worst part," Arya added. "Tobias… I found out he's been lying to me all along. He only got close to me because his dad, the general, told him to. Everything between us was all an act. When I confronted him about it, he told me that he'd imprinted on me. I didn't believe him at first, thought it was just some ploy to save himself, but…I could feel that it was true. And…I think I made a big mistake, Shea."

Shit. Shit, shit, shit!

How could this have happened? I only just reversed his curse yesterday. He and Arya were supposed to live happily ever after and all that shit. This wasn't right.

"W–what did you do?" I asked nervously, afraid of what the answer might be.

"I broke our imprint," she admitted on a sharp cry.

"You did what?" I gasped, my eyes widening painfully.

"I was just so angry, and I hated him so much for making me love him and imprinting on me after all the fucking lies!" she shouted defensively, bitterly. "So when he came to talk to me just now, to bare his soul or whatever, I used my siren voice to sever the imprint."

"Omigod," I breathed, pressing my hand to my chest as my heart threatened to crack inside it. "No, Arya, please tell me you didn't. I know Tobias can be a pompous asshole, but he really does love you. It's the only reason I helped him—"

I slapped my hand over my mouth, the silence that rang on the other line making me realize that I'd stopped myself too late.

"Helped him do what?" she asked, suspicion clear in her dark tone.

One more cat out of the bag. Might as well just rip the bandaid off, especially since this one I did for her best interests.

"Tobias came to me a few days ago and told me about the imprint and about this curse on his family that made it so no Dracul could ever find requited love. I wanted you to have a chance at happiness, so I agreed to break his curse with my magic. He came over yesterday after school, and with the help of my Gram and aunt, we did. Or at least, I thought we did."

Another long silence.

"So, you knew about the imprint and this curse for days but decided not to tell me about it?" she finally asked, the accusation in her voice crisp and biting.

"I had to keep it quiet," I defended. "He said he knew he was falling in love with you and that the curse would trigger any day. I was afraid if I told you, it would mess with the curse. I couldn't risk it."

"Hey, what's going on?" Caesar asked, coming into the living room with a curious expression. He must have been alarmed by the pitch of my voice.

"I, er…" I stammered.

"Who is that?" Arya demanded. "Is that Caesar?"

Fuck.

I bit my lip. "Um, yeah. He came here last night after being thrown out of the school. My aunt is giving him a place to stay."

"I don't understand, why did he go to y—" She stopped abruptly, and I could almost hear the wheels turning in her mind on the other side. "He snuck you into the school to revive Letti, but that wasn't all, was it? Omigod, he's Professor Douche!"

I squeezed my eyes shut as the accusation sliced through me. This particular bandaid was really going to hurt. "Yes, I'm sorry! But it's not what you think, I prom—"

"You know what, save it!" she snapped. "You're all a bunch of fucking liars! You, Tobias, Caesar! At least the general is honest about his depravity. Well, I'm done. I'm done with every last fucking one of you. Have fun with Professor Douche!"

The line went dead, and my lip trembled as the horrible truth of what just happened settled on me.

Caesar knelt beside me, putting his hand on my knee. "Hey, who was that?"

I pursed my lips as the weight of my regret crushed down on me. "It was Arya. She knows everything, and she hates me."

Fresh tears spilled down my face, and he pulled me into his arms while I cried.

The world was falling apart around me, and all I seemed capable of doing was making things worse. How was I going to fix any of this?