Branches broke somewhere nearby. We turned to see Voss, Soph, and Chantal running toward us. Out of an abundance of caution, I raised my hands and positioned myself in front of Thayen, Dafne, and Jericho. “Stop right there!” I said, loud enough for the three to hear. “Don’t move another inch!”
I wasn’t sure I could push out another barrier, but they didn’t know that.
“What are you doing?” Thayen asked me, his voice low.
“How do we know they’re the real Voss, Soph, and Chantal?” I asked, giving him a nervous glance. He nodded as it dawned on him why I was concerned.
“Whoa. What’s this about? What just happened here?” Voss asked, his eyes widening as he tried to take in the entire scene. It was a lot to process.
Soph frowned in my direction. “What’s up, cuz?”
“As you can see, we’ve had some clone trouble,” I said, my voice trembling. “And we know of four other copies you’ve been dealing with out in the field. Considering how adept they’ve been at infiltrating our ranks, I’m thinking we need to implement a vetting process going forward. You know, to make sure you guys are the real thing.”
“We can start by having Voss spread his wings,” Thayen suggested.
“That might not be enough. What if there are multiple clones with different enhancements?” Dafne replied.
Voss, Chantal, and Soph exchanged curious glances. They were an odd team. Voss was the tallest, having taken after his father, Field. He did as Thayen asked, however, showing us his wings. They looked normal.
Chantal seemed tiny in comparison, her silvery eyes sparkling with concern, and there were a few leaves caught in her pale blonde hair. They’d been doing their share of running through the redwood forest.
Soph stood out—she was a full head taller than Chantal yet at least that much shorter than Voss, with daemon horns and Zane’s vibrant red eyes. I knew Fiona had asked her to come over from Neraka, but I hadn’t had a chance to catch up with her since this whole mess had begun. The only common elements these three shared were the GASP uniforms of black leather, utility belts, and weapons sheathed on their backs.
“It’s not enough,” I told Voss. “Forgive me, we need to do more to protect ourselves.”
“She makes a fair point,” Soph conceded, looking at Voss, then back at me. “I’m told you were able to distinguish the lack of a real soul within Isabelle’s clone. Think you can try that with us, too?”
Thayen leaned in close to me. “While Soul is gone, you’re our only functioning clone detector.”
“Right. Okay,” I replied with a nod, then moved forward. “Soph, you come first. Slowly, please, no sudden movements.”
I hated having to do this, but it was for everyone’s safety. The clones had sown the seeds of chaos in our beloved island, but we couldn’t let them win. United we stood. Divided, they would pick us off one by one. While we didn’t know exactly what they were after—aside from their obsession with Isabelle’s copy and me—we could still strengthen our ranks and get ready to face the full brunt of their impending offense.
Soph took a deep breath as she slowly walked toward me, her hands up in a peaceful gesture. My heart was racing. Her willingness to comply could mean that she was one of ours… but it could also be a ruse to get close enough to try and kill me, just like Richard’s clone had done the other night. Only by reaching deep within her soul would I know the truth.
Thayen
“Did Soul show you how to do it?” I asked. Only a few inches remained between Soph and Astra. Voss and Chantal stayed back, and they didn’t seem tense—merely worried.
“Just a vague notion of the process,” Astra mumbled.
Jericho and Dafne took a few steps to get closer to Astra in case she might need help. I had to admit, a good chunk of our training was seriously starting to pay off. We didn’t require being told what to do, like in our early days as recruits. No, we knew exactly where we stood and what our options were, and we were functioning like a well-oiled machine—well, we were functioning as best as we could, considering the circumstances, at least. It gave me hope for the future, especially considering the aptitudes of this newly arisen enemy.
“Where are my clothes?” Dafne asked Voss. His eyes widened, cheeks burning red.
“Crap. We lost them somewhere along the way. I’m so sorry,” he replied, then looked to Jericho. “Yours, too. They were bundled up, we were carrying them around, it got messy, man…”
“Or maybe you’re a clone,” the fae dragon grumbled.
Voss frowned. “I’m not. Feel free to test me. I’ve got nothing to hide. But I also didn’t have any way of reaching you. We had a couple of skirmishes of our own. What I do have is a general idea of where your clothes might be.”
“I think I remember where you dropped Jericho’s,” Chantal added. “Once we’re tested, we could definitely head in that direction and maybe we’ll find Dafne’s, too.”
“I’ll get by with this.” Dafne grumbled and motioned at the jacket. “At least until I find something with more coverage. We’ve got uglier issues to deal with, anyway.”
The lack of communications worried me, but I knew I’d see my parents soon enough. The hospital blast had rocked the entire island. I could already hear the sound of running footsteps across the forest floor and down the nearby stone-paved alleys. People were coming from all over—at least those who could leave their posts. Rose and Caleb had been pretty specific in their orders, and there were crucial positions all over the island that needed guarding now more than ever. Our supply warehouses and the command center—the Great Dome—were particularly vital. As long as the doppelgangers’ plan wasn’t entirely clear to us, we had to be ready for strikes to occur anywhere, not just where Astra and Isabelle’s clone would be.
“I need you to stand still,” Astra told Soph. “I think it will hurt.”
Soph bit her lower lip. “How badly?”
“No idea. I’m sorry.” Astra sighed.
“It’s okay. Do it.”
Taking a deep breath, Astra placed her palm on Soph’s chest, just beneath her throat. She closed her eyes, and the daemon princess braced herself for the worst, hands balled into fists at her sides. Astra’s skin took on a peculiar pink glow, her Daughter energy seeping through. The light intensified and concentrated in her hand, which gradually sank into the leather, then the skin, the flesh, and the bone.
“Oh, this is weird,” Soph managed, beads of sweat appearing on her temples.
“I’m sorry,” Astra repeated.
“Don’t be sorry, just get it over with!”
Anyone with a pair of functioning eyes could see that Soph was in pain, but she was doing a damn good job of keeping it together. Whether it had something to do with Astra’s finesse in digging through her being for a soul or with Soph’s daemonic resilience, I wasn’t sure, but it was clearly less excruciating than the time the Soul Crusher had checked Isabelle’s clone.
Astra pulled her hand back with a gasp. “It’s her. I can feel Soph.”
“How can you tell?” Voss asked, in awe of what he’d just witnessed.
“It’s hard to describe, but to keep it simple… I didn’t feel the void I felt in Isabelle’s copy,” Astra explained. “It’s Soph, for sure.”
“Well, thank the bleepin’ stars,” the daemon princess exclaimed and wrapped her arms around Astra, holding her tight for a few seconds. “I’m so glad you’re all okay… we heard the boom, the screams from afar. We were still chasing after Chantal’s clone, so we couldn’t rush here straight away.”
I sucked in a breath. “Wait, you’ve been chasing Chantal’s clone until now? That’s weird. Did you lose sight of her at any point? Where’d she go?”
“We had our eyes on her the whole time,” Voss replied. “And she vanished through one of those shimmering portals about a mile north of here, closer to the witches’ sanctuary.”
“Did she look okay?” Jericho asked.
“What do you mean
?” Chantal said, nervously approaching Astra. “Check me next, just so we’re all on the same page,” she told the young Daughter.
“Thing is, we fought with Voss and Chantal’s clones about ten minutes ago,” I explained. “And Jericho did quite the number on your copy. She was burnt beyond recognition, though she did survive and managed to run off.”
Voss shook his head, while Astra repeated her soul-searching process. It hurt Chantal on a deeper level, but much like Soph, she kept herself straight and tense, putting up with the pain so the truth could be known. “No, the clone we were after looked okay,” Voss said. “Which is weird. Does this mean we have two Chantal doppelgangers on the loose?”
“Oh, good grief,” the succubus-fae cried out when Astra was done. “That was invasive on so many levels…” She gave me a troubled look. “Hold on. I’m immune to fire. How did my clone get scorched? Correction, how did one of my clones get scorched?”
“A flaw in the design, most likely,” the Soul Crusher interjected, reappearing beside us with Kelara and their ghouls. Stan and Ollie had joined her and the others for food, since Soul had stayed behind with Astra and me. Their expressions as they returned and saw the mess that had once been the hospital bordered on hilarious, though there wasn’t anything funny about this whole situation. I’d made a habit of searching for tidbits of humor in the worst of moments—if only in my head—as a coping mechanism, so I was thankful Stan and Ollie looked so weirdly comical despite their shock. “We’ve got a problem,” Soul added. “There was an attack at the terrace. A series of blinding explosions. Kelara and the ghouls were thrown back by the blast.”
“Oh, no.” Fear stiffened Astra’s frame. “Where are the others?”
“I’m not sure. Stan, Ollie and I passed out somehow,” Kelara replied. “By the time we came to, everybody was gone. The explosions were more like flashbang grenades, rather than explosive devices, though. Most of the structures along the terrace were okay.”
“We’re obviously going to investigate this,” Soul said, then looked at me. “But I wanna talk about you kiddos first. What did we miss?”
I cursed under my breath. “We need to go check the terrace out!”
“You need to calm down. One step at a time,” Soul insisted, his tone clipped. “Your people are strong and resourceful. Considering the lack of dead bodies over there, I find it safe to assume that no one died during those blasts. So, talk to me. Let’s get this out of the way.”
“Wait, you said there’s a flaw in the design?” Chantal replied, quickly adjusting to the Reaper’s request. He was right, but I had trouble shaking the anxiousness off. “How can that be? Isabelle’s clone had everyone fooled. You Reapers included.”
“Either their maker isn’t bothering as much now that the cat is out of the bag, or there’s a certain lack of information as far as your abilities and weaknesses are concerned,” Kelara said. “If the former, it means the clones are now being mass produced, so to speak, with more of a focus on appearance than accuracy. Voss’s clone had bladed wings, which are an improvement, if you think about it.”
“My what, now?” Voss blurted.
“Long story. I’ll tell you later,” I said, then looked at Kelara. “What if it’s the latter?”
“It confirms what we were already suspecting. That the enemy has very good intel, but not as much as they’d like. And that maybe not all of their DNA samples are good. They can be tainted or incomplete, depending on how they were extracted or retrieved. I suppose we’ll find out when we get to the clones’ leader. Someone’s got to be behind this, for sure. Look at how they’re organized, how they’re watching us. They know when to strike, where to run, what tools to use against those who fight back,” Kelara said.
Voss took Chantal’s place in front of Astra. “Check me, too.”
“I can do it,” Soul offered, but the wolf-hawk shook his head.
“Nope. No. Nuh-uh. Astra’s method seems slightly more bearable than what I was told regarding yours.”
The Reapers both seemed confused. Astra gave them a wry smile. “I’ve been practicing on Soph and Chantal. I think I’m getting a good handle on it…”
We all watched as she did to Voss what she’d already done to Soph and Chantal. He whimpered from the pain, a muscle tensing in his jaw, but he kept it together while Astra dug into his chest and confirmed what we were already suspecting. “It’s Voss.”
“Consider me impressed,” Soul replied.
“He could be gentler if he really wanted to,” Kelara said, pointing a thumb at her partner. “But you all know he’s a high-functioning sociopath. Inflicting pain is like a drug to him.”
“Aw. You’re too sweet,” Soul shot back affectionately.
We briefed Voss, Chantal, and Soph on everything we’d omitted earlier from our clone clashes. They gave us the details of their hunt for Chantal’s clone, after which we agreed that we would need a better and more efficient way to recognize one another as our true selves, going forward. Astra’s method, albeit less painful than Soul’s, still required close contact. Any clone aiming to kill her would jump at the opportunity to pretend to get tested, so we had her safety to consider.
“We need a safe word,” Jericho said.
“Oh, I’m not sure you know what that is,” Dafne muttered, prompting the rest of us to chuckle, while the fae-dragon frowned, trying to find the humor in the ice dragon’s remark. They locked eyes with each other for a moment before she smiled and politely conceded. “But yeah, we need a safe word.”
On any other day, Dafne would’ve had her fun poking and prodding Jericho. The chemistry between them was obvious, though I doubted either was aware.
“Paladin,” Astra suggested. “They were knights in medieval France. Much like King Arthur’s Knights of the Round Table. It’s easy to remember and unlikely to come up in normal conversation.”
“And it carries a deeper meaning. I like it,” Dafne replied.
Soul cleared his throat. “Has anyone noticed how quiet it is?”
We’d been so absorbed in our conversation that I’d nearly lost track of our surroundings. But the Reaper was right. The footsteps and crackling branches I’d heard earlier were gone. Silence had replaced everything, and it wasn’t normal. The hospital had just been blown to bits, and everyone within at least a one-mile radius must’ve heard the explosions.
“What does this mean?” I asked.
“I’m not sure, but it’s suspicious. It makes me wonder where Sofia, Derek, and the others have gone. They were a pretty big group,” he said. It made me sick to my stomach to think that something might’ve happened to my parents or Rose or Caleb or any of those who’d been here with us until an hour ago. “And if we find them, how do we know they’re the real ones? If they’re hostiles, if they’re clones, how in the world will we test them all before the crap hits the fan? Right now, it’s just Kelara, me, and Astra who can detect fake souls.”
“He has a point,” Chantal said. “There aren’t enough of us to withstand a large group of clones, especially if they whip out that black spray thing.”
The truth of this statement sank in, making my knees feel heavier than ever. “We need to move,” I replied. “We have to verify as many of the originals that we come across as possible and get them all to meet us back at the Great Dome. Once we’re gathered there with our parents and siblings and close family members, we can organize an action plan.”
“We should also split up to cover more ground,” Kelara said. “Soul and I can go east with Voss and Chantal and leave Stan and Ollie to keep an eye on the Isabelle clone. The rest of you can head west, where the terraces are, and pick up as many of your people as possible to send to the Great Dome. We can circle back to that hall before the morning and put more heads together for a solid strategy.”
“We could do with a Reaper on our crew,” I replied.
“You’ve got enough death magic knowledge to handle yourself,” Soul shot back. “Astra can do the soul c
hecking, and she’s got Daughter mojo to work with, too. Besides, we’re working against a foreign magic, anyway. Neither ours nor yours seems equipped to handle it.”
“Soul and I work better together,” Kelara added, then gave me a small coin which she fished out of her pocket. “Consider this a tracking device and an alarm. If you need one of us, just break it, and I’ll know where to find you.”
“Why aren’t my parents here? They should’ve been here by now… If the terrace was attacked, they would’ve come to the hospital, looking for me.” Astra nervously glanced at the path that led to the restaurant area beyond the greenery.
“I don’t know, but we will figure it out,” I told her, hiding the charmed coin in a back pocket. “We just need to be extremely careful and stay out of sight. We can’t handle large numbers of potential clones for the time being. We can’t leave anyone a note about this, either. There could be more doppelgangers roaming through The Shade, so we have to work on a case by case basis.”
She sighed heavily but didn’t disagree. “Okay. So, we head west and check the terrace first before meeting back at the Great Dome. If our people aren’t in one place, surely they’ll be in another. Soul’s right about the lack of bodies. It’s a good sign.”
“Yes. We’ll do east, including the Vale,” Voss said. “We’ve got this, cuz.”
“You’re damn right we’ve got this,” Soph replied. “There’s no way I’m letting these knockoffs cause any more trouble.”
“Paladin” had become a salute for those of us in this initial core group. We hugged one another and hoped for the best as we split into two teams and set off to find others to bring into the fold. I wanted Mom and Dad with us most of all, along with my brother and sister. Not only because they were my family, but also because they were among the most experienced in The Shade in times of crisis.
Since we couldn’t communicate in any way, I had to think of where I remembered seeing them last. I felt like we were about to go swimming blind in the ocean, but this was The Shade. There were only so many places they could be, especially right now. Anxiety crept up my spine, piercing through my innermost self and threatening to dismantle my defenses.
A Shade of Vampire 88: An Isle of Mirrors Page 7
