I shouldn’t be surprised. Nothing happened quickly when the courts were involved. I glanced at the headmaster. “I’d like some time alone with my parents. Am I allowed to take them on a tour of the academy? It’s been years since they walked these halls.”
“Yes, of course,” he nodded with an awkward smile. “They are invited to stay as long as they wish.”
Rather than tour the inside, I led them both out toward the outdoor training facilities. Supes were participating in activities all around us, but there were fewer cameras out here. What I wanted to say to them couldn’t be shared with the academy administration. We ended up in a clearing on the outskirts of the campus, surrounded by hundreds of trees and other hedges. “Now that this nightmare is nearly over, I wanted to get an update on the rebellion. Do you still think all of these events are connected?”
“If they were, it would mean the Stoica clan is involved,” Dad offered casually. “But it sounds like that clan has too much internal turmoil going on to organize anything of importance.”
I had to agree. Cassius was running for his life when we met. He didn’t trust anyone in his clan. There was a small chance that his brother was part of a rebellion, but he had his hands full as well. It made me wonder if someone wanted us to believe the vampires were responsible—someone who wouldn’t mind watching the most powerful clan in the world downward spiral into oblivion.
“You look unusually pensive,” he pointed out with furrowed eyebrows. “Do you have a theory?”
“Cassius suggested the shifters were involved,” I revealed, leaving out his accusation against Sacha. “I didn’t believe him at first, but no one hates vampires more than shifters. Taking out their most powerful clan would have disabled them for a long while.”
Mom turned to Dad, who looked as if he were weighing the possibilities. “The theory certainly does fit together nicely. All tied up and wrapped neatly with a bow.”
“You think it all fits together too well?” I questioned.
“I don’t have enough evidence to go one way or the other, but I will say his theory warrants more investigation,” Dad explained. “In the meantime, return to the academy and get back to your normal routine. Keep your eyes open. I’m not confident we’ve reached the end of this game.”
After my parents left, I raced to detention. I couldn’t tell anyone about Cassius or the upcoming high council trial, but I could update Sacha. He already knew so much, anyway. And he could still read my thoughts and all of that. Plus, I wanted to tell him I would be leaving. I wasn’t sure how that was going to affect our relationship. I wouldn’t be able to see him every day as I could now. In all likelihood, I’d return to my reaper team.
An ache settled in my chest as I considered all of the possibilities. I might be assigned to a new reaper team or get an assignment out of the state or country. I might never see him again.
When I shifted around the corner of the building, I saw Sacha waiting there for me. He leaned against the barnyard door with his muscular arms crossed. He wore his usual tight t-shirt and shorts, but today, he added a baseball cap turned backward. All of our tools and gear weren’t there, and I assumed he delivered them to whichever flower bed we were mulching. My hand warmed at the memory of our fingers entwined.
“Something is off about you,” he noted. “I’m not quite sure what I’m sensing. Are you disappointed to see me?”
“Not at all,” I replied, brushing my lips against his. “I have some news.”
He took my hand, and we strolled together through the grassy landscape. “My parents came to the academy to deliver the news in person. The high council called an emergency session after Cassius’s father gave them the un-doctored surveillance video. Cassius managed to present the evidence without involving me, you, or anyone else.”
Sacha slowed to a stop. “What is the high council prepared to do?”
“My parents believe they’re going to charge Cassius’s brother with attempted murder and extortion,” I explained. “Once the formal charges get filed, they are anticipating I’ll receive a full acquittal. I’ll be free to leave the academy.”
He ran his thumb across my cheek. “That’s great news.”
“It is, and it isn’t,” I placed my hand on top of his. “I don’t know what that means for us. I might get sent away. I don’t know what’s going to happen.”
He wrapped his arms around me, and I buried my face in his chest. All the tension in my shoulders melted away as I sunk into the warmth of his touch. “I don’t want you to think about that, right now. What we have isn’t going to go away. We’ll figure it out.”
A sharp pain pierced my temple. I pulled away from Sacha, putting distance between us. I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a pained shriek. The ache pulsated in my head. I didn’t know what was happening or how to stop it. My stomach churned, and I fell to my knees. I sensed that he was beside me, but I couldn’t hear him. The flashes of memory returned. They were just as painful as they were when Sacha shared his blood with me.
I tried to focus on my breathing. Maybe if I didn’t fight against the pain, the memories might start to make sense. The aching throb in my head continued as I tried to focus on only one of my memories, the fragment that had appeared days ago. I concentrated on the room. I tried to remember the placement of the furniture, the smells, the voices of the people I’d heard. The longer I honed in on the memory, the flashes slowed.
I couldn’t see what Sacha was doing, but I felt him inside my head. “I’m okay,” I yelled, not sure if he was close or far away. “The memories returned all at once, like before. Don’t do anything, please. Let me see if I can control them.”
The memories moved like a carousel. Around and around, one after the other, never stopping. That’s why I couldn’t focus. I went back to the image of the room. There was something there I needed to see. There was no way for me to explain how I knew this, but I did. The deep breathing helped slow down my pulse. Even with the pain, I had managed to calm myself. I sat on the ground in a meditation pose.
Inhale slowly, exhale slowly. The ache dimmed until I could barely feel it, but I didn’t open my eyes. I had to go into the memory and find what I was missing. My vision was fuzzy. I was in the room once more, but something changed. I couldn’t move. I tried to stand, but something blocked my way. I glanced down. Even though my vision remained blurred, I saw the handcuffs on my wrists. A short chain connected the restraints to the wall behind me.
This time I wasn’t alone. I heard them all around me, multiple deep-toned male voices. One of them moved around the room as if he were pacing. There was a voice I recognized. It was Cassius. He reached out and grabbed one of the males by the collar, and threw him up against an adjoining wall. I blinked several times, begging my eyes to focus. Two other males pulled them apart, and it took a moment for Cassius to calm.
I couldn’t hear what they were saying. There was a humming in my head that wouldn’t shut off. I rubbed my temple. When I glanced at my hand, blood covered my fingers. It was my blood. The humming came from some kind of head injury. I tried to take control of the memory by reminding myself that I wasn’t there. I was in a safe place. I only needed to see what happened to me.
I blinked hard again, but this time, my vision focused. I saw the males with Cassius. Two of them I didn’t recognize, but the other two I’d seen before. I put my hands over my face and let out a scream. I was back with Sacha. He held up his palms, trying to calm me down. I stared at him with complete astonishment. I just kept shaking my head back and forth as I tried to convince myself that I was wrong.
“What did you see,” Sacha asked. “Please tell me something.”
A lump swelled in my throat, and I swallowed hard. “I was back in the room. The place where Cassius imprisoned me, but I saw them. They were there with Cassius.”
“Who,” he asked, gripping me by the biceps. “Who did you see?”
“The two vampires I killed,” I replied, dumbfounded. “They weren
’t chasing Cassius through the forest as he claimed. They were working with him.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
My stomach churned, and I worried I might vomit.
I replayed the scene over and over again in my mind, desperate to find something that proved I was wrong. Nothing relieved my suspicions. Still, I wasn’t ready to admit what was in front of me. I couldn’t believe Cassius lied about everything. If I accepted that as truth, I’d have to acknowledge the manipulation I’d overlooked from the start. The memory made me question everything I’d done since, and wonder how deep the deceit descended.
Sacha watched me cautiously. His expression shifted between worry and anger. He couldn’t see the memories in my mind, but he sensed the emotions I attached to them. I didn’t need to tell him how bad this indeed was. He stood and helped me to my feet. “Are you sure Cassius was working with the two vampires?”
“I hope not, but that’s where the evidence is pointing,” I assured him. “There are still a lot of unanswered questions. Will you help me?”
He took my hand and squeezed. “I’ll help you in every way I can.”
I had to question everything that took place since I arrived at the academy, anything that involved Cassius. “Do you still have the laptop Cassius supplied?”
“Alexei has it hidden in his dorm room,” he replied. “Why?”
I thought back to my run-in with Tony and the rest of my reaper team. Tony said that there was no electronic record of Cassius visiting the blood bank the day he drank the putrid blood. The details were sketchy, at best. That led me to believe there was something there I wasn’t seeing. Some detail the reapers may have missed. “Can he check the surveillance footage from the cameras outside of the blood bank?” I requested. “I’d like Alexei to pull all of the footage of Cassius from the day of my arrival to the witches' spring equinox celebration.”
“That’s going to take a little time,” Sacha admitted. “But I know he can do it.”
Time was the only thing I didn’t have. There was a sinking feeling in my gut that something terrible was about to happen. Something that would change our world in ways that we couldn’t undo, and I had to do everything I could to stop it. “Forget about detention. I’ll finish the work. Go talk to Alexei,” I begged. “Tell him it could be a life or death situation.”
“Life or death?” he questioned. “What did you see in your vision?”
“It’s not what I saw that’s got me worried,” I explained. “I have a disturbing theory, and if I’m correct, Cassius’s brother and father could be in grave danger.”
I didn’t have to wait long to hear back from Alexei. He was waiting for me in our dorm after I got back from detention, but by the looks of things, I’d guess I wasn’t the only reason he came. He and Kiera were deep in conversation when I strode inside. They sat next to each other on the floor, surrounded by piles of comic books and graphic novels. Kiera had clearly found a kindred soul in Alexei.
Neither of them noticed I’d returned late from detention. The job took longer than expected without Sacha’s help, but he was needed elsewhere. They did manage to glance up from their reading when I entered the room, giving me some acknowledgment. I knew I was a mess. Dirt and sweat covered my clothes. Sections of my hair had escaped the band, giving me an extra special kind of look. I was grateful Sacha hadn’t come with him.
I rushed into the showers to clean myself up. By the time I returned to the room, Sacha had joined them. I felt a ping of embarrassment. My hair was wet, and the ends of the strands dripped down the back of my t-shirt. I tried not to think about it. At least I was clean and no longer smelled like mulch. I twisted my hair into the towel to get rid of some of the water. “What did I miss?”
Kiera and Alexei faced away from me. They both sat at Kiera’s desk. She had taken my desk chair for him. Sacha stood overtop of them, watching as Alexei worked through the code on the computer screen. I made my way over to stand next to Sacha. His eyes roamed my body, and then a smirk appeared on his face. “Is it strange that I think you look cute like this?”
“Probably,” I teased. “But I don’t mind.”
Alexei cleared his throat. “I managed to get footage from several cameras around the blood bank. I didn’t see anything out of the ordinary.”
That could be a good sign. Maybe this wasn’t as bad as I thought. “That’s good, I guess. It means that Cassius didn’t tamper with the blood.”
“I wouldn’t exonerate him just yet,” Alexei added. “There was something that came up. It’s small, but you should at least see it.” He ticked on his keyboard for another minute or two until a screenshot appeared from the video footage. “The day before Cassius drank the putrid blood, he did go to the blood bank. I have footage of him taking a vile similar in size to the one we saw him drink.”
“Lots of vampires drink from vials,” Sacha added. “We need more than that if we’re going to take this to the headmaster.”
Alexei continued on his keyboard until another video appeared on the screen. “This footage was recorded from a different surveillance camera. It appears that Cassius purposely tried to move out of the visual range, but the camera still managed to catch his shadow.” He pointed to a dark spot on the screen. “If you look closely, it appears that he’s adding something to the vile.”
“Can you slow it down?” I asked.
“Sure,” Alexei replayed the footage at a slower pace. “Here you go.”
I leaned closer and narrowed my eyes. Cassius was adding something to the vile, but there was no way to identify what it was. A sinking feeling settled in the pit of my chest. There was no way what we saw in the video was coincidental. The timing was too perfect. It was time to admit what I already knew but wasn’t sure I could prove. “Cassius played us, especially me. He set all of this up.”
“How?” Sacha asked, crossing his arms.
“In the very beginning, Cassius told me this elaborate story about how his older brother, Prince Orpheus, wanted to kill him because he was the favored son. He said his father was ill, and wished to step down as the leader of their clan, but Orpheus feared his father would choose Cassius. I think all of that was bullshit.” I sat down on the edge of my bed. My elbows rested on my knees and my face in my hands.
“I don’t understand,” Sacha questioned. “What does that have to do with you?”
“Everything.” I glanced up at him. “I think Cassius used compulsion on me so I’d kill those vampires. He needed to cover his tracks, and then he used me to help him get into the academy.”
Sacha scratched the top of his head. “Why would Cassius want to get inside the academy?”
“Cassius needed Mina to investigate,” Alexei added, leaping to his feet in a startled tone. “Having a reaper, especially a Van Helsing, discover the missing surveillance footage validated his claim. I’d wager he staged the blood poisoning to ensure that Mina would keep helping him without ever questioning his intentions.”
Kiera came to stand next to me. “And once his brother was out of the way, Cassius would be crowned king of his clan.”
“If this was all about the throne,” Sacha paced. “Why not just kill Orpheus and be done with it.”
“Cassius needed to discredit his brother,” I said, still reeling from the betrayal. “I’d bet his father wouldn’t pass him the crown otherwise.”
“It does make sense,” Kiera acknowledged. “That would explain why Cassius went so far to make all this happen. Seriously, this guy is the Lex Luthor of vampires.”
I glanced at Sacha with furrowed eyebrows. “Did you understand that reference?”
“He’s Superman’s greatest enemy,” Alexei exclaimed, with his arms flailing. “One of the best comic book villains of all-time.”
“You have to take this to the headmaster,” Sacha insisted while ignoring Alexei. “We’ve got to get this evidence to the high council before Orpheus is found guilty.”
“I’m worried Cassius’s plan runs deeper th
an a guilty verdict,” I pondered. “After everything he’s done, he’s not going to leave any loose ends.”
“What are you suggesting?” Sacha asked, looking pale. “What could be worse than this?”
“I don’t think Orpheus will make it to trial,” I said, glancing at each of them with terror in my eyes. “Cassius is going to kill him.”
I decided to go to the headmaster’s office alone. I didn’t think I’d have a problem convincing him to alert the council, but in the off chance he didn’t, I wouldn’t risk the rest of my squad. I’d accept the punishment alone. I brought the laptop with me, along with the tech I used to break into their network. There was no way I could prove anything without showing how I did it. When he finally brought me inside his office, I explained everything to him, leaving out my parents and friends involvement.
Once the shocking expression left his face, seething rage replaced it. He stood up with his fisted hands pressed against his desk, and he sneered at me. “I could have you arrested and sent to prison for this.”
“After everything you just heard, this is your reaction?” I replied, stunned. “Cassius is going to murder his brother, and maybe his father.” I pointed to the image on the laptop. “He poisoned himself just to avoid suspicion. Do you realize how insane you have to be to do something like that? He’s beyond dangerous.”
The headmaster sunk into his desk chair and stared at me with disgust. “All you have is a shadow in an image, Ms. Van Helsing. I’d hardly call that evidence,” he dismissed. “That and a memory that conveniently returned to you today.”
“Convenient?” I shrieked, flailing my arms. “The memories returned all at once and nearly killed me. Memories that were stolen and altered by Cassius.”
Van Helsing Academy Page 17
