“Of all the people in the world, I didn’t expect to see you here.”
I nearly jumped out of my skin. My father was standing in the narrow stone walkway of the tomb, watching me stare down at the body with wide eyes.
“Dad?”
“I put an alarm on the door of the tomb in case someone tried to break in over a decade ago,” he said. “But you were the last person in the world who I thought might desecrate a grave.”
“Why would you do that?” I sneered, feeling the hot rage inside me starting to build. “Did you have something to hide?” I cast my arm down toward the body that clearly wasn’t my brother. My dad never looked or broke eye contact with me. He continued to stare at me with the same cold eyes that I had grown to resent so much over the years. That was when I realized he didn’t have a flashlight. He was seeing clearly in the dark just like I was.
He shook his head as though he wanted to shame me. To scold me like a child. But I wasn’t a child.
‘I’ve grown up a bit since I last saw you, dad. Don’t think you can treat me the same way anymore.’
“Did you know?” I asked.
“Yes,” he stated bluntly. His lack of emotion wasn’t helping his cause. It was only making me angrier.
“Why?” I demanded. “I saw the police show up at the house. And the pained look in your eyes when they told you what happened to Dirk. Did you know from the beginning? Or did you see the silver dagger in his body?
His brow furrowed at the mention of the dagger.
“Where is he?” I demanded to know as I inched closer to him. For the first time in my entire life, I wasn’t intimidated by him. Fear was something reserved for the weak. And I wasn’t weak anymore.
“I don’t know,” he answered.
“You’re lying.”
“No, Riley.”
“You’ve lied about everything else. You allowed me to grieve for my brother. I lived for over a year thinking he was dead. And now this? Why should I believe you?”
“I lost track of your brother the day the police showed up at my front door. He’s in hiding right now. If he knows what’s good for him.”
“Hiding from what? Who would want to hurt him? And why aren’t you helping him?”
“He doesn’t want my help. Nor does he want yours.”
“You don’t know that.”
“Yes, I do actually.” The smug expression on his face set me on fire. I lunged toward him and tried shoving him down the narrow stone walkway. He gripped onto my arms and flung me around, sending me through the air and rolling away until I crashed into another marble slab marking the grave of one of my ancestors. I didn’t get up all the way. I was on all fours and I stared up at him as if I was already in lycan form. Then I stood up straight, doing everything in my power to stop my body from shifting right then and there.
He shook his head at me as if he couldn’t be more disappointed. It was the same cold expression he had when he found out I was rehearsing with a rock band. When he discovered that I applied to a university he didn’t approve of. When I left the house in the clothes I liked rather than the one’s his personal shopper picked out for me. I had grown tired of constantly feeling like a disappointment. He didn’t have the right to look at me in such a way. Especially now.
He closed the gap between us and held me by the throat with one hand, pinning me against the wall faster than I could react.
‘What the hell? How is he so strong? He couldn’t do this unless…’
“You disappoint me, Riley,” he hissed. “I worked hard to make sure you had a normal life. I made sure you were safe. I had Lennard follow you. I got you into a school where you would be well looked after. I had your entire future set up to avoid this. And the second I left you alone to your own devices you let this happen.”
He knew. Somehow he knew. And he was strong. Stronger than me. That told me only one thing. My father wasn’t entirely human. He might even be a lycan.
“Why?” I grumbled through the tight grip of his hand around my throat. “Why did you keep Dirk a secret?”
“For the same reason I got you into a safe university and followed your every move. To protect you. I didn’t want this for you, Riley.”
He took the side of my shirt under my trench coat with his opposite hand and ripped it open over my shoulder. My brand was right there for him to see. His face fell. “I failed you, Riley. I did everything I could to protect you and I still failed. Who did this to you?”
“Answer my questions and I’ll answer yours.”
He relented slightly, still gripping me tight around the neck but letting go enough so I could at least speak without muttering.
“Who did this to you?” he asked calmly.
“A man named Devon.”
“And who is Devon?”
“I’m still not sure. He was a member of the academy but he ran off.”
My dad cursed under his breath then let me go. I stayed there against the marble slab, too stunned to move just yet. I felt the muscles around my throat contract then start to heal over from the bruising he caused.
“Why did you hide Dirk’s death from me?” I asked.
“To protect you.”
“From what?”
“From the people who gave you this,” he said, pointing at my brand.
“They’re not the enemy. They helped me.”
“They turned you into what you are.”
“Would you have rather I died after being bitten?”
He cocked his head, realizing he didn’t have the whole story.
“What do you mean?”
“I didn’t choose this. And the academy didn’t either. I was bitten by a stranger. A master shifter. Then the Vontex found me and brought me to the academy to finish the trials. I passed.”
He backed up into the wall behind him, looking as furious as I had ever seen him.
“Did mum know what you are?” I demanded, refusing to let his thoughts drift away too fast.
That got his attention.
He clasped his wrist in the opposite hand. I could see his knuckles turning white. “Yes. She found out when you turned eight years old. Why do you think she left me?”
That was an answer I wasn’t expecting. The constant running from city to city, the way we lived in a tent, and the worry my mum had once we left England, it all made sense now. She was running away from my dad. Somehow, she found out what he was. And she feared him. Rightly so.
“You’re mother was naive. And irrational,” he snapped. “She thought I was the enemy. All along I was the only one who could keep you safe. She put the two of you in danger from the moment she walked out the door with the two of you in tow. I used every last resource I had to find her. Then I let her believe she was hiding once I did. She got away but I always knew right where you were. I had to. She wouldn’t give me a chance to explain. So I took matters into my own hands.”
I shook my head, not quite believing what I was hearing. “Maybe she realized you were the type that would lie to his own children.”
My remark didn’t seem to phase him. He merely stared at me with his usual expression of disdain. Like I was a spoiled child who needed to be taught a lesson.
“I tried to protect you. I failed your mother. I failed your brother. It may already be too late for you.”
I never saw what happened next. It was too fast. And he was far stronger than I expected. Something hard struck me in the back of my head. My dad grabbed me by the head and smashed it onto the marble slab behind me. I was out before I even hit the dusty stone floor of the tomb.
5
The blow to the back of my head would have killed me if I was still human. I woke up in time to feel the hair on my scalp start to tickle as new strands formed over the broken skin. My vision was the next sense to come back. I opened my eyes to see a dark ceiling above me with blue and yellow stained glass. I turned my head. There were tall tapered black candles lit everywhere.
Something heavy was o
n top of my wrists. I tried moving them only to hear a clanking noise. They were restrained above my head with irons and metal chains. Only these weren’t regular irons. They were wrapped with locksin. The same material Lothar used on me in the graveyard when he first found me and I was still a werewolf. I looked down at my ankles. There was locksin tied around them as well and chained to the large stone slab. I was tied down. A woman stood over me with her eyes shut and her hands above the center of my chest. She held them there as if she was holding a spherical ball. Words tumbled out of her mouth that I didn’t recognize. But I recognized her.
“Adeline?” I mumbled.
She didn’t open her eyes. Her focus was solely on whatever it was that she was doing.
Adeline’s beautiful long blonde hair that I always envied fell down to her waist. Her skin was like a porcelain doll. I recalled the nights I saw her with my mum and I wished I looked just like her. She was the reason I started growing my hair out long. But mine was thick and curly. Hers was bone straight. And her eyes were a deep sapphire blue.
She was my mother’s best friend when we lived in France. They met at one of my opera classes and became fast friends. Before I knew it, Aunt Adeline was helping look after my brother and me while my mum ran errands. She would be at all my rehearsals and she followed my mum where ever she ran. I lost all contact with her after my mum’s death. I didn’t have a phone number or an address. And I never thought in a million years that I would see her again.
“Adeline, what are you doing here?”
She started speaking louder. The words became more and more strange to me. A hot flare ignited inside of me like hot coals were seeping out of my stomach and oozing through my skin. I let out a blood-curdling scream. My back reared up and I forced my eyes to stay open to see what the bloody hell she was doing.
The red light of my crowning magic oozed out of my skin and between her hands, rolling about in a circle of light in Adeline’s palms. She opened her sapphire blue eyes and weaved it around into a ball-like shape then moved her hands back down to my body, watching as my skin absorbed it once more. Only this time, it didn’t feel like hot coals running through my flesh. It was icy cold. So cold that I started trembling.
‘What the hell is she doing?’
No. More like how was she doing it. The only other time I saw someone manipulate magic like that was while Nurse Roslyn healed me when I was locked between transformations. That could only mean one thing.
Adeline was a witchling.
I’d like to say that the feeling of freezing cold was better than the heat but it wasn’t. If anything it only stung more. The rush of magic came crashing down inside of me with so much force that I was shocked the slab under me didn’t shatter.
“Stop! Adeline, please!” I screamed.
She didn’t hear me. She was somewhere else. I watched as her eyes shifted from side to side behind her eyelids, moving back and forth like she was having a dream.
Then it stopped. The pain, the magic brewing over me, and Adeline’s hands over my body. She placed the magic back inside and slowly opened her eyes. I gasped for air, finally able to take in a full breath after what felt like minutes of not breathing. Sweat plummeted down my forehead and into my hair. The locksin was still holding me tight. Adeline moved one hand toward my wrists and the other to my ankle. A bright array of green light left her palms and the locksin wrapped irons snapped open. My arms and legs were free. I could sit up. If I could…well… that was another story entirely. My body ached. My limbs were exhausted. I wasn’t sure of what happened but I had the sudden urge to slap my mother’s best friend who I hadn’t seen in years right across her pretty little porcelain face. The only problem was that I could barely move.
“It’s not her fault,” Adeline said softly.
I managed to shift my head to see where she was looking. My father was standing in the corner of the candlelit stone room. One I hadn’t seen before. Which was odd given I thought I had explored every inch of my father’s property, except the tomb, of course. That was a new one until today.
My father stood firm with his arms crossed over his chest. He gave a huff then stroked his chin and let his hand fall to the back of his neck, as though he was considering something and it was causing him pain.
“How did it happen?” he asked Adeline, not even bothering to look at me.
“She was preyed on.”
“By who?”
“A man named Devon. A former professor at the academy. He went rogue. I’m not sure why.”
“Was he given orders by someone else?”
“It’s possible. He wanted the same as you wanted. To find out where Dirk is hiding. He thought he could use Riley to find him.”
“Then he’s a fool. I didn’t tell her anything.”
Adeline sighed and gently caressed my forehead. Her skin was warm to the touch. She let the green light from her palm seep out of her skin and delve into my cheek. I felt the most incredible surge of energy pulsate through my body. She was reinvigorating me.
“Come now,” she said. “Let’s get up.” She reached for my hand and clasped on tight, pulling me up so I was sitting.
“What was that?” I asked in a low grumble.
“I’m sorry I had to put you through so much,” she said. “But it was necessary. I needed to know what happened to you.”
“I would have told you if you had asked.”
“No, I needed to see it.”
“See it?”
“I peered into your memories. I had to access the magic inside of you to do so.”
I shook my head in disbelief. This world I lived in was much more complicated and much less boring than I ever imagined.
“You mean he wanted you to do so,” I hissed, looking over at my father who was still leaning against the wall with a look of discomfort on his face. “Where were you, Adeline? You disappeared after mum died. I looked for you.”
She clasped both hands in front of her face and sighed. It was a similar gesture my mum started doing after she met Adeline. I knew what it meant. She was about to tell me something that she didn’t like. And she was ashamed.
“I wanted to stay,” she admitted. “I wanted to look after you and your brother. Your mother asked me to. Only I had no legal right over your father. My mother demanded that I search for the man who harmed your mother. I had no choice. I had to leave.”
I couldn’t help but squint at her. The words coming out of her mouth didn’t even feel real.
“Harmed her? Who harmed her?”
My urge to slap someone wasn’t directed at Adeline anymore. It was directed at my father.
I stood up from the slab, surprised that my body was already healed and I was back to feeling normal. I marched right up to him and struck him across the face with all the force I could possibly muster. He took it and barely moved an inch. He simply shut his eyes and opened them slowly as if he was being taunted by an annoying child. The mark I left behind faded within a few seconds.
‘Suspicion confirmed.’
“You told me the mortician said it was an aneurysm!” I yelled. “You said she didn’t feel any pain! That it happened fast and she died almost instantly!” I slapped on my sides in aggravation. Clearly, I was the fool here. He was right. “You lied. Just like you lied about everything else. Someone hurt my mother and you had the audacity to lie about my brother’s death too.”
“I was protecting you,” he sneered. “Everything I ever did was to protect you and your brother. And your mother. Do you think your mother met Adeline and hit it off with her for no reason? I called in a personal favor to the vixra. Adeline is Ellinor Prescott’s granddaughter. She found where your mother was hiding and watched over all three of you.”
That wasn’t an answer I was expecting.
I looked back at Adeline and she gave me a small nod.
“Do you honestly think that I didn’t know where any of you were for all those years?” My dad said. Only this time, his voice wa
sn’t cold. Nor was it condescending. He leaned forward as though he was trying to get through to me. “I always knew. The second your mother found out what I was, she ran. She didn’t understand and she didn’t give me a chance to explain.”
“What you are?”
“A Blackatter. Just like you. Our ancestral line goes back over a thousand years, Riley. I went through the trials at the academy when I was twelve-years-old. I was the youngest to ever survive.”
I stepped away from him. “You’re a lycan.”
He allowed his eyes to change right before me. They went from light blue to scarlet red. Proof of what he was. I bumped into the slab behind me, nearly knocking over the tapered candles set on an end table to one side.
“One night in London, I walked in on someone trying to rob our flat,” he said. “You were too young to remember. I found the man attacking your mother. I shifted right in front of her and killed him. Then I disposed of the body the exact way I was taught by my professors at L.I.T. When I came back, your mother was gone. She took you and your brother with her. There were dangers to her knowing that our kind exists. Dangers you can’t even fathom. I had to make sure she was protected even if she wouldn’t see me. So I contacted Ellinor and asked for her help. She made the bracelets you and your brother wear. Adeline gifted them to your mother and she gave them to you both. The Blackatter bloodline carries a particular scent that lycan can pick up on. The bracelets hide it with vixra magic.
I unconsciously reached for the bracelet on my wrist, along with my brothers on the other one.
“Riley,” Adeline spoke behind me. “You need to go back to the academy. You have to learn from your professors as best as you can. Then you must join the Eastern Vontex close to where my family lives in Hungary. It’s the only way you’re going to survive. My family can offer you a certain amount of protection. You won’t live long if you’re without a pack. The Vontex share a special bond. As a collective, you can survive. On your own, you’ll surely die. Those who came after your mother will find you. I failed in my mission to protect her. I can’t live knowing I failed you too.”
Restrike: (Lycan Academy of Shapeshifting: Operation Shift, Book 2) Page 5