Page 62 of Cruel Destinies

“I had no idea,” I sputtered.

“Indeed,” he replied. “What’s even more convenient is that, if you skip ahead to 3:55, you’ll see that Arya and her friend return to the subway station, and ten minutes later, you return to your watch.”

A spike of panic shot from my stomach, and I fast-forwarded the video to that point in time to validate Hadrian’s claim.

To my horror, the vampire leader was correct. But even more shocking was that there was a third girl walking back to the station, and I recognized her immediately.

Shea.

“It makes me wonder, Julian, just how many times could you have missed my daughter coming out of her hiding place over the past week? How many times could you have missed snatching Arya?”

Shrugging, I said, “You’re the one with a video feed. Have you seen her come out before or after that time?”

He gave me a serious look. “I don’t have time to monitor video surveillance, Julian. That’s why you’re here.” He sat up again, relaxing a bit. “But upon a fast-forward viewing, no, shehasn’tstepped out of the subway station besides this one time.”

I shook my head, completely shocked at what this footage meant. “I can’t believe it. I can understand your distrust, Hadrian. But believe me when I say that I had no idea your daughter would come and go during that one window of time.”

“I want my daughter,” Hadrian stated, pointing a finger right under my nose. “You’ve missed at least two chances. Your lack of productivity is grinding away my patience.”

“She’s bound to make another appearance during Winter Break,” I said quickly. “Chances are, Arya will surface again then.”

He shook his head. “That’s not good enough. If you’re incapable of capturing Arya, you’ll have to be on the lookout for her friends. If you can successfully kidnap one of them, we can use them as bait.”

Friends? Shea was friends with Arya. Did that put her in jeopardy? I’d have to talk to her after Hadrian left.

“That could upset the entire school if students start going missing,” I warned.

“Why should we be concerned about upsetting a school of shifters?”

This mentality was one of the things that had pushed me away from Hadrian fifteen years ago. His complete lack of empathy for other living beings was so abrasive. The vampire leader was so focused on his goals, he didn’t care who he stampeded over to get to them.

Hadrian snatched the tablet from me and made a few quick motions on the screen, then handed it back.

“Thanks to our mer friend, Kendall, here are a bunch of snapshots of Arya’s friends, with their names.” He placed his hands on his hips and smiled broadly.

I looked down to see a close-up of the girl, Ashlyn Summers. She had fiery orange hair, tan skin, and yellow-green eyes. Her name was bolded at the top, and once again, I wondered if she had any relation to Evandrus Summers from the boarding house long ago.

“The next picture will be of particular interest to you,” Hadrian said, smiling slyly.

I swiped my finger to show the next friend. The picture was of a young man with thick, dark hair and serious amber eyes. I could tell right away which family this boy came from without even looking at the bolded name.

“Tobias Dracul,” Hadrian declared. “If you were to catch him, you’d be able to satisfy your own personal vendetta as well as help me. You know, the whole ‘kill two birds with one stone’ concept.”

I held no enmity toward the boy with sharp features staring at me from the tablet. He’d done nothing wrong. Tobias had nothing to do with Alice’s murder.

But I played the part, gritting my teeth and flaring my nostrils. I pretended, instead, that I was looking at the face of Claudette Dracul, which wasn’t too difficult. The boy resembled her in so many ways.

“Before you break my tablet,” Hadrian said, still grinning at my reaction, “move on to see the other two boys that could potentially draw Arya out.”

Doing as Hadrian said, I swiped to find the next boy, Nikolai Candida, his short, dark hair shaved with unique patterns. Like the Dracul boy, this one was labeled as a dragon shifter.

Swiping one more time, I found a boy with longer, blond hair, as well as blue eyes. His appearance screamedCalifornia Surfer, but the young man was labeled as a phoenix shifter, so I doubted the boy spent much time in the water.

“Most of these students happen to be the same shifters who fought us in the alley near the subway station,” Hadrian said. “Kendall says that Arya is closest to Ashlyn Summers and Tobias Dracul, so our best chances are kidnapping one of them to draw Arya out.”

I nodded, swiping back to Ashlyn and then to Tobias. “I’ll start looking for them.”

“Good,” he said, clapping me on the shoulder. “You’ll notice that the other girl who was accompanying Arya was not in the group of individual photos. I have an agent attempting to learn more about her as we speak.”

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