Page 64 of Cruel Destinies

“If only,” I said with a sigh. “This invisibility tech is a masterpiece and will be extremely helpful. The military will be particularly overjoyed to put it to use.”

“What new useless trinket will we be overjoyed to use?” a skeptical voice sounded from behind us.

I closed my eyes and let out a heavy breath through my nose.Now, of all times?

Opening my eyes again, I gave Kai an annoyed look, then turned around. Arthur Dracul was approaching, Nikolai Candida awkwardly trailing him, looking like a mer out of water.

“General Dracul, what a pleasant surprise,” I greeted as nicely as I could without sounding too fake. I gave Nikolai a warmer expression. “Welcome back to the Dome, Intern Candida.”

Niko sent me a grateful smile while Arthur nodded his head in acknowledgment, looking past me and observing the various parts of Kai that were visible.

“Is this some new phasing technology?” he asked with exasperation. “Don’t tell me you’re in two places at the same time. I’m not quite sure how useful it is to have your body in one place and your head, arms, and legs in another.”

Kai snorted. “If I’ve made the brilliant Arthur Dracul believe that thistrinketis a phase-inducer, then I’d say the invention is quite a success. Wouldn’t you, Caesar?”

A scowl formed on the general’s face. “It must be a sad life, trapped in this prison you helped form, unable to fight the real battles that are waging in the real world every day.”

Kai opened his mouth to give a retort, but I stepped in.

“Is this how the military trains their recruits and interns?” I asked. “To be belligerent and disrespectful?”

Arthur’s scowl darkened as he shifted his gaze to me. “We train our recruits and interns to show respect to rank—something I hold, and the lowly engineer does not.”

Electricity crackled behind me, and he knew Kai was about to make a grave mistake. In front of me, Arthur held a dancing flame above an outstretched hand.

“That’s enough!” I shouted. “We already have enough enemies—we don’t need to start attacking each other.”

The static behind me slowly fizzled out, and the flame before me extinguished.

“That’s better,” I said, feeling like I was dealing with a couple of juveniles. “Now then, the device that Kai has invented integrates with smart clothing that has cloaking capabilities.”

Kai patted his stomach, and for a moment, what seemed to be a ripple hung in the air, then went back to the emptiness it held before.

Arthur’s hard features softened as he looked Kai up and down again. At last, he straightened his stance and pulled his uniform down at the stomach, removing the bunching that had formed during his heated moment. “Forgive my harshness, Mr. Inari. Your latest creation is quite remarkable and useful.”

Kai’s scowl was replaced with proud humor. “Apology accepted.”

After pulling the camouflaging device free from his smart clothing, his whole form reappeared.

Arthur’s eyes stared greedily at the cloaking gear. “When will it be prepared for field testing?”

Kai looked up, as if in deep thought. “Well, it’s only in the prototype stage right now. And we’d have to get Celeste to approve bringing in more resources—which won’t be cheap.”

“I’m sure she’ll be just as impressed with your research as I am,” Arthur replied.

Kai raised a finger. “I should mention that the invisibility has a few limitations.”

The general nodded. “Technology usually does. What sort of limitations are we talking about?”

“It works great when a shifter is in human form, but it doesn’t work at all once the user has shifted.”

Arthur’s expression solidified like a rock. “You call that a limitation? It sounds useless! What are we supposed to do? Fight vampires while in human form?”

The dragon shifter’s tone brought forth another scowl from Kai. “At this point,LordDracul, I would categorize the cloaking device as reconnaissance hardware. It’s great at getting your soldiers in and out of dangerous places undetected.”

No retort came from Arthur, which I was quite grateful for.

“Technically,” Kai added, “this isn’t a limitation of the cloaking device. It’s a limitation of the smart clothing. I’m not going to go into the nitty-gritty of how the smart clothing works, but it should be noted that smart clothing doesn’t rip and tear like normal clothing because it essentially tricks the shifted body into believing that it doesn’t exist.Itphases until the body is returned to human form.”

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