Chapter 1

chapter One

A government hunter discovers she’s the prey. Unleashing long-buried powers, Ariya must confront her monstrous lineage and a deadly conspiracy that destroyed her family—before her own fury consumes everything.

*Ariya*

"You might as well tell us what we want to know."

"Never!" The man said, bound by his hands and feet to a chair.

"Come on Tex. Don't make this more difficult on you. We'll get what we want out of you. It's just a matter of time."

"You'll get nothin outta me!" Tex spat.

"Is that so? That's funny. Because apparently you don't know how this works. I mean, haven't you heard the rumors?"

Tex shifted uneasily.

"Well let me clear this up for you. It doesn't matter if you look away. It doesn't matter if you struggle. It doesn't matter if you pass out from the torture. The only thing that matters is if you're dead. And we won't let a thing like that happen. After all, you have information that we need. And we? Well, we have a Switch."

Tex went pale. He'd always heard that the government had some secret weapon to get people to talk. The Switch is what they called it. Most people had some sort of gift. A sort of bloodline trait passed down from generation to generation. Switches were able to get anyone to tell them anything they needed to know. Well, almost anyone. Only one specific bloodline was able to block them, but they had long since disappeared.

"This is your last chance Tex. Tell us what we want to know. Or" A woman in a red dress with long brown hair stepped out from behind the shadows. A light of excitement in her eyes. "we'll let her deal with you."

Tex swallowed. He knew that this woman was the Switch. That all she would have to do is ask the questions and he would be forced to answer, unable to stop himself.

"Do it." I said to the Switch, stepping aside.

She smiled, grabbed an electric rod and jabbed Tex in the stomach with it. As Tex cried out in agony, her eyes went white and just like that, the connection was made and the switch was flipped inside of Tex's brain.

"Now," she cooed, "Tell me what happened last night."

"There was this guy. He was actin weird which is why I noticed him. He kept lookin around like he was lookin for someone. Then this guy pops outta nowhere and tries to attack him. He was one of those shifter things but seemed more like an animal. The guy wasn't expecting that shifter, so the shifter had the advantage. I went to help when another guy showed up. He grabbed the attacker around the throat and snapped his neck. Just like that. The attacker was dead. Then he looked at me. I saw his eyes. His eyes were the eyes of the Navi. I couldn't move. I was frozen. He looked at the guy, the one that got attacked, told him to find her. Didn't give him no name. But he nodded and took off. Then he looked back at me and said 'I'm sorry Tex, you weren't supposed to find out about any of this.'"

"Why not tell us that in the beginning?" The woman asked.

"Because, I knew who he was. At least I thought I did. I thought he was my friend. We lived next door to each other."

"What was his name?"

"Drake." Tex stated and I froze.

"Good work. Find out where he lives. Then see what else you can get out of him." I said to the Switch as I left the room to go talk to Boss.

"SoDrake Navi is still alive then. Hmm that's interesting...What do you think about this Ariya?" Boss asked me.

"There's no way. The Navi have long since disappeared. There hasn't been a single trace of any of them in 14 years." I said.

"A fair assessment. But, just because we haven't heard or seen anything going on doesn't mean that they aren't there. Keep in mind, Drake is a Blood Born. His line is the last and only known line left in the Navi that are Blood Born. Blood Borns are crafty, especially Drake. If he is looking for someone it must be from his line. That means that 2 Blood Born Navi are here. They must be found and killed. They are the only ones who can stand in our way and block the Switches. Not only that, they are monsters who must be destroyed!" Boss shouted.

"Understood." I said.

"Go home Ariya. Sleep on what we have found so far. We'll start fresh tomorrow."

"Yes, sir."

I couldn't stop thinking about everything going on. There was no way I was getting any sleep, but there was no way I could figure out what to do either. I made my way home as quickly as I could.

"Caleb, we need to talk. I need you to shift back." I told him. Caleb pretended to be my dog most of the time. Being a lycan, Caleb was able to be in wolf form when he pleased. Truth was that Caleb was my guardian when I was a child, when we all got separated. Now, he still watches over me, but mostly in wolf form so he could go unnoticed.

"What's going on, Ariya? Are you ok? Is it about the Navi?" Caleb asked. His eyes were still yellow but slowly changing back to their usual brown color when he was in human form.

I nodded, "Drake is alive."

"Says who?" Caleb asked cautiously.

"Says a guy named Tex that got picked up today. I had to interrogate him and you know how that typically ends." I said, pacing anxiously.

"Yeah, with you guys using the Switch to get all the truthful answers out of a person. You know what this means don't you?"

"That they're going to be searching high and low for Navi for the next couple years." I said, still pacing.

"Nowell yes, but also no. Ariya, it means Drake is" Caleb said slowly trailing off.

I stopped moving and looked right at him. "I know, Caleb. It means Drake is looking for me."