Chapter 7

"Niko," Brett said, lightly smacking our friend on the arm in his lazy, surfer-boy way—even though he wasn't a skater or a surfer. "How was your night with Amy?"

He directed his boisterous laugh down the hallway so that it was sure to echo along the silver-steel walls to where Amy and her friends walked ahead.

Niko shot Brett a glare and a silencing hiss, and I just shook my head, cringing inwardly a bit. My friends were idiots sometimes. Or most of the time. And really, it was mostly Brett who was the idiot.

"Dude, let the man have some privacy," I chided in a lower tone. The way Amy snapped her sky-blue hair over her shoulder suggested that she'd heard Brett loud and clear. "This isn't a locker room. Have some class."

Brett threw his hands in the air. "Leave class to the graduates. Just because we're shifters doesn't mean we shouldn't have some teenage fun. Let's bring a little normalcy back to this school."

"So, normal to you is being a dick?" Niko folded his arms across his chest.

"If that's what it takes," Brett said with a smug smile.

I shook my head. Whatever happened between Niko and Amy was their business. "Why don't you stop obsessing about everyone else's sex life and get one of your own? Ask Ashlyn out. She's a phoenix. I bet she could spice things up for you."

"Honestly, I'd rather eat lead," Brett said, drawing out the words with a lazy expression and walking backward so he could face us as he spoke. "She's a little bit too intense for my blood. That girl is going to burn down the school one of these days."

"But we're underwater," Niko argued.

"Exactly, hazardousto my health," Brett said.

I resisted the powerful urge to slap Brett on the back of his head the way my father always did when I said or did something stupid. Towering over both of them physically brought out the dominance in me. And when they acted so idiotic, it was all I could do to not turn into my least favorite parent.

Of course, I was probably a little envious of their free spirits, as I wasn't given much freedom at all. As heir to the Dracul line, I had a certain image to uphold. It didn't help that the entire school seemed to bow at my feet, either. Mostly the avians, of course, but I'd caught more than one nod from a were or kitsune.

Sometimes, I wished I didn't have the status, or the expectations that came with it.

"Honestly, I'm more interested in that new chick who showed up in the middle of the night," Brett added. "She somehow went her whole life not knowing she was a mermaid. I bet she'd be lots of fun to play with."

"That's impossible," Niko said. "Brett, you're an idiot. There's no way a mermaid would not know she was a mermaid."

"It's true," Brett said with a mischievous grin. "I overheard that her mother was totally clueless or something. And maybe she was afraid of water? Anyway, the girl had no idea until Caesar told her."

"How do you know—?"

"Tobias."

The baritone voice I'd know anywhere cut off my question. Niko and Brett knew the voice, too, and said a quick and respectful hello before skittering off toward the dining hall. Cowards.

I straightened my back, filling the full six feet of my height. Yet, no matter how tall or strong I became, my father's presence always made me feel like that small, ten-year-old boy.

"Hello, Father," I said, bowing slightly. "What brings you to The Dome?"

I clasped my hands behind my back in the same way he did when talking with someone he considered his equal.

My father did not mirror me, though. "Caesar offered his office—"

"Lord Arthur," Miss Tanis, the dragon mastery teacher interrupted with a pinched smile. She was a distant cousin of ours. "I was not aware you were visiting The Dome today."

She pushed aside her brown hair and touched the frames of her glasses, which were a fiery red color today.

"Aida!" Arthur's smile was uninhibited and clearly not forced. A stark contrast to the look he'd given his own son. But I didn't care.

I relaxed my stance slightly since Arthur's attention was elsewhere. And then I caught sight of my mother rounding the corner to meet us. Her long, thick auburn hair hung around her shoulders, and I noticed she wore the lavender dress I'd bought her for her last birthday.

"Hey, Mom." I met her halfway and wrapped my arms around her delicate shoulders.

"Hello, Tobias," she said in the soft tone I liked to think was reserved only for me, but was certain my sister, Tamara, got an equal dosage of it.

"I didn't know you were coming to visit," I said, pulling back from her.

"Your father wanted to discuss something with you," she said, and we both looked at Arthur and Miss Tanis, who were fully engaged in their conversation.

I tried to avoid looking directly at Mom's face as she watched them but failed, and I felt the stab of pain that always accompanied the expression she wore.

Octavia was beautiful. She was my mother, but I couldn't argue that fact. I'd heard more than one of my friends comment on her beauty, despite her age, and I'd seen the looks other men gave her, though she never noticed.

She looked twenty years younger than her age, with her thick auburn locks, near-flawless porcelain skin, and amber eyes. My black hair, thick eyebrows, and strong features were straight from Arthur, but my amber eyes came from her.

Octavia always looked a hundred times more ethereal whenever she watched Arthur. The reason she never noticed the gazes from others was because of the undying love that drew her eyes to the face of Arthur, and only Arthur. She could stare unabashedly if his attention and her thoughts were distracted. But the second his eyes met hers, the spell was broken.

Though her expression only changed a fraction, small enough that anyone else might miss it, I had that pain-laced expression burned into my memory. I didn't see it now, but I knew it would come the second Arthur finished his conversation with Miss Tanis, so I fixed my gaze on the polished floor.

"I've accepted it, Tobias," she said softly, tilting her head to force me to meet her eyes.

"He doesn't deserve you," I gritted out bitterly. It wasn't the first time I'd said it to her, either. "Do you still feed Adam and Alex and…her every other Sunday night? Does Tamara put up with it? Or has she started making excuses to miss out? She said she would." I grumbled the last part under my breath.

Octavia tilted her head down so she could look at me through her It was her way of showing me authority, ever since I grew an inch taller than her when I was eleven. It was still effective.

"It's not your father's fault," she said.

"Bullsh—"

"Tobias Dracul," she cut me off in her firm tone. The one that demanded the attention of every creature around her. "You will not curse at me."

Since no one other than Arthur and Miss Tanis were nearby, I got the full force of it. My father and Dragon Mastery teacher didn't even glance over at us, lost to their own private bubble.

I straightened again but lowered my head and laced my fingers in front of me.

"It's not fair," I said so quietly she shouldn't have heard me.

But she was my mother.

"I know it's not fair," she said in her soft tone and I felt a hand reach out to loosen the grip my fingers had on each other.

I looked at her only to see that pain on her face. "Are you…?" She couldn't even finish the sentence. "Have you…?"

At first, I wasn't sure what she was trying to say, but it only took a second.

"Have I fallen in love?" The words came out with a bitter edge.

She nodded, her brows pinching together.

I looked down at my hands but made sure my words rang with truth to put her at ease. "No, Mom. I haven't fallen in love." I almost added that I vowed I never would.

I didn't know the exact words of the curse on the Dracul line, but I was pretty sure falling in love was just as certain as that love being unrequited.

It was the reason Octavia looked at Arthur the way she did but never got a look in return. It was the reason I had half-brothers. Arthur loved Adam and Alex's mother, and that was the reason why she'd left him when Alex was a baby. It was the reason Tamara would have an arranged marriage. I probably would, too.

I didn't know which was worse: loving my future wife as she yearned for another, or turning into my father. There was no way around it, no matter what a Dracul did or didn't do. I was pretty sure a relative tried to escape it by becoming a hermit, but ended up falling for the poor hunter girl who got lost and fell into—and then out of—his arms.

Octavia blew a sigh of relief.

"Don't worry, Mom," I said, lightening my tone. "I'm only eighteen. And I have plenty of responsibilities to keep me busy."

She smiled at me, but I didn't meet her eyes. We both knew there was nothing she could do to protect me from the inevitable. But as long as I kept things purely physical, and kept my emotions securely locked away, I would never suffer the curse's wrath.

"Hello, Octavia," Miss Tanis said formally as she passed, adjusting her glasses.

"Nice to see you, Aida," Octavia said in her genuine way.

"I'll see you in the morning, Tobias," Miss Tanis said over her shoulder before disappearing around the corner.

"Tobias." Arthur also approached. "I have some business to discuss with you." He seemed to be in a better mood after talking with Miss Tanis.

I groaned internally. I'd hoped to ask my mother what the reason for their visit was, to prepare myself for whatever Arthur's business was. But I'd gotten so caught up in being angry at Arthur that I'd completely forgotten.

But…what could I do?

"Caesar's office, you said?" I asked.

Arthur nodded and led the way.

***

"Tobias, I'm impressed with the progress you've made at The Dome," Arthur said when we were standing alone in Caesar's office.

I was speechless. I was expecting a lecture, not praise. And the fact that Arthur came unannounced had me thinking I'd majorly screwed up somehow.

I bowed my head slightly in gratitude.

"What do you know of this Arya girl?" Arthur was never one to beat around the bush.

"Who?" I wasn't sure if I was more baffled that my father had come all the way to ask about the new girl in school, or that Arthur actually knew the name of that new girl.

"The mermaid Caesar recently found," Arthur clarified with a wave of his hand.

"Only the gossip that has been circling around the school," I said with my chin held high.

"And what gossip is that?" Arthur's thick eyebrow arched toward his widow's peak.

"Just that she somehow never knew she was a mermaid until Caesar contacted her. And that her mother died in some shifter or vampire attack?"

The muscles in Arthur's stern face relaxed slightly.

"Why? What should I know about her?" I knew I was inching toward the line where my father would snap and put me in my place, but I couldn't help it. I was curious. And I'd been out of the presence of my father for so long that my manners were out of practice.

But Arthur didn't snap or even silently disapprove. Instead, his features softened as they often did when he was deep in thought, and then he placed both hands behind his back.

"Intelligence tells us that she could be the siren from the prophecy."

Arthur wasn't the type to joke or tease. I was pretty sure I'd never even heard him use sarcasm. So, though I was dubious, I knew my father would never talk lightly about something as serious as the prophecy.

"You think she's the siren?" I had to make sure I heard him correctly.

Arthur nodded once.

"But she's a teenager. And she thought she was human only hours ago. How could she possibly—?"

"Tobias," Arthur interrupted sternly, but not condescending like I was used to. Still, it silenced me. "It is imperative that we find out if she's the siren from the prophecy before anyone else."

I didn't dare ask what would happen if someone else found out first.

"This is your chance to prove yourself, Tobias." Did Arthur actually just smile?

"You want me to find out?" I hedged. "But how? If she didn't even know she was a mermaid, how do you expect her to know she's not only a siren but the siren? It's not like the prophecy is common knowledge."

I wasn't even entirely sure what a siren could do. I knew they were sort of a type of mer, and that they could compel others somehow. But they were so rare that hardly anything definitive was known about them or their powers. Not to mention that the mer were a very secretive species and didn't like to share their knowledge.

How was I going to be able to find out if this girl was a siren if I didn't know what a siren's powers were? How would I recognize them?

"Befriendher, Tobias. Gain her trust."

"Befriend her?" I knew that wasn't the word my father meant. "You mean seduce her?" I hid the slimy feeling of disgust from my expression.

Arthur shrugged uncharacteristically. "If that's what it takes to get close to her, then yes, seduce her."

"I'm not charming some poor girl into thinking I'm interested in her." I folded my arms over my chest and stood up straighter, so I towered just a bit more over my father.

"I'm not asking you to fall in love with the girl," Arthur said, laughing once. "We all know where that gets a Dracul. Just get close to her and find out if she's the girl we've been waiting for."

I wanted to punch him in the face for speaking so casually about the very pain I saw on my mother's face every day—or at the very least, slap him upside the head. But I refrained. And here he was, asking me to do the exact thing to Arya that he'd been doing to my mother for decades.

Arthur might not have said the words, but seducing Arya was exactly what he intended me to do. I had no intention of obeying that order. In fact, I now had every reason to stay as far away from that girl as possible.

"I won't do it," I said firmly, turning my back and reaching for the door. I was willing to do almost anything for my father—mostly out of fear rather than love—but this was the one thing I could never agree to.

"You will not turn your back on me, boy!"

I froze in my tracks, suddenly ten years old again.

"You will face me when I'm speaking to you!"

I turned slowly and set my jaw, bracing for the lashing.

"Tobias, you are a disgrace to the royal Dracul line." Arthur's voice was low and cruel. "I would have done anything, andI would have sacrificed anything, to protect our people."

He threw the door open and stomped out before slamming it inches from my nose.

Despite how small and dejected I felt, I knew one thing for certain: I would have nothing to do with Arya.