It made the clones laugh, but I knew Soul was dead serious. He had a sparkling sense of humor and sarcasm galore. He was never the kind who’d take anything too seriously, either. But when the Soul Crusher made promises of death and torture, he always kept his word, with absolutely no exceptions.
“We just need you out of the way, that’s all.” Serena’s doppelganger sighed, rolling her eyes as if this was the last place she wanted to be.
“Where’d you get your death magic knowledge?” Soul asked.
“None of your business. Just sit here, the two of you, like good little corpses and wait it out. This will all be over soon,” Draven’s clone retorted, then motioned for his partner to join him. They turned and started walking away from us.
Soul was getting restless. “Don’t you dare walk away from me!”
He wasn’t used to losing his weapon. That scythe was the single most precious part of his existence. The source of his power and an extension of his soul, much like mine. But I had lost my weapon once or twice before. To Soul, this was the worst kind of defeat, and given his galactic pride, I knew he wasn’t taking it well.
“Come back!” he shouted. “Hey!”
“Where are the others?” I called out. “The people we were with!”
Serena’s clone laughed from afar. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“Hey!” Soul tried again, to no avail.
The doppelgangers didn’t listen. They put our weapons away, hidden in their backs, then vanished beyond the trees while I tried to understand what had happened. What could I do to get us out of here? We couldn’t be stuck here. Richard, Voss, and Chantal needed us. I only hoped they’d be okay until we could find them again.
“Kelara, we’re in serious trouble,” Soul said. “We’re bloody useless without our weapons.”
“I know, my love. But we can’t lose hope. We’ll figure something out.”
“Oh, we will?” he replied, raising an eyebrow at me.
There was no point in both of us being angry beyond control or succumbing to despair. I could hold my own. I could get us out of here. For that, however, I needed a clear mind, and Soul knew it. He took a deep breath and sat down, crossing his legs.
“Okay. But we need to figure it out fast,” he said, much calmer. I took it as proof of the trust he’d put in me. It made my heart grow a few sizes, and I would’ve liked nothing more than to hold him in my arms and kiss him. Unfortunately, this death magic kept us apart. “Those two freaks have plans. You heard them.”
“I heard them.”
Two clones had bested two First Tenners. They’d locked us in our own magic, and they’d taken our weapons. We were helpless and pissed off. Not to mention embarrassed. But Soul and I were stronger together, even without our scythes. I had zero useful ideas at this point, but something would come to me eventually. The wheels in my head were already turning.
I only hoped we’d untangle this hot mess before any of our living friends got hurt. The clones were enacting somebody’s agenda, for sure, and they considered us an issue. An issue big enough that they’d needed to deal with us. That was valuable intel in itself.
Voss
(Son of Aida and Field)
“Hey. Voss.”
Chantal’s voice sounded so far away. Somewhere at the end of a tunnel, but I couldn’t see light, just an endless darkness that had embraced me, refusing to let me go.
“Voss!” It got louder.
An earthquake rocked me until I realized she was shaking me. I felt her hands on my shoulders. What the hell was going on?
“Voss, wake up!”
The darkness vanished as I came to and saw Chantal, a blurry mishmash of soft colors with two turquoise spots where her eyes were supposed to be. I had to blink many times before the image finally came into focus. Yes, it was her. My cousin. And Richard. He’d ended up with us at one point. “Ow…” I grunted, a headache stabbing my brain.
“Good. He’s awake.” Richard sighed. They helped me up, though they looked as startled and as confused as I felt. It took us a while to figure out what had happened, but we all remembered the same string of events prior to a bright explosion.
Soul and Kelara were missing. We’d sent Richard’s parents away, along with Draven and Serena. We’d taught them our safe word, knowing we’d use it whenever we met again. A portal had opened, and a throng of clones had come out, among them copies of the very people we’d just said goodbye to minutes earlier. It was all a jumble in my head, but I managed to put all the pieces into a coherent thread as Richard and Chantal shared bits and pieces of their own experiences.
We’d been taken by surprise. “I think we saw the portal open two seconds too late,” Chantal surmised, glancing around. “We’re still in the oak forest, but… where, exactly? Does any of this look familiar?”
“It’s just trees and trees and trees,” Richard muttered, rubbing the back of his head. “I may have a concussion. I’m not sure.”
“Try not to fall asleep, then,” I replied dryly. “Soul. Kelara. Where’d they go?”
“No idea,” Richard said, his brow furrowed. “Do you think the clones did something to them?”
Chantal scoffed, but I could tell she was worried sick about the Reapers. “What could the clones possibly do to entities like the Soul Crusher and Kelara? They’re First Tenners.”
“They nearly took Soul down with that black spray thing back at the hospital,” I reminded her. “Maybe they got to him again. I just… I wish I could remember.”
“We were knocked out,” Richard said. “Chances are this is all we’re going to be able to recall, at least for a while. Our short-term memory is rattled, and it will take time for the brain to fully process what happened. Until then, we need to make a move.”
I got up, a new wave of anxiety washing over me and sending chills through my arms and legs. “Wait. Why’d they leave us here? The clones came at us. There was that explosion. All the light… no bodies, see? Except for the three of us. Why? Why were we left behind?”
“Oh dear,” Chantal murmured, patting her uniform. “The tablet. The tablet with all our files and directives.”
“What?” I replied, not grasping the issue as quickly as I would’ve liked. I blamed it on the throbbing headache that had settled between my temples.
“Check your pockets. There are zero devices left on us,” Chantal said. “They took everything, including the healing magic. The earpieces. Our weapons. Everything.”
Richard gasped, rolling up his sleeve. “My watch. Damn it, it was a gift from Field!”
“What use would they have for the watch?” I wondered.
“There’s a GPS tracker in there that I could activate, but if the comms are down, then likely tracking won’t work, either, since they’re patched into the same network,” Richard explained. “But the watch had sentimental value. This is petty, even for the stupid clones.”
We spent another minute or so trying to understand what the play had been. The clones had taken us out, but they hadn’t killed us. They’d taken our devices but not our lives. We were on our own—there was no sign of Kelara or Soul anywhere around us. Heck, I wasn’t even sure this was where the portal had first opened. The more I looked at the trees, the weirder it seemed, as if we’d been picked up, carried off from the original location of the attack, then dumped here like potato sacks.
“Voss. Should we keep moving and stick to the original plan?” Chantal asked. “Or do we head straight for the Great Dome?”
“If we give up now, we won’t have enough people to count on for any kind of retaliation,” I said. “The clones are doing something big, and I fear if we go directly to the Great Dome, we risk innocents not even knowing what hits them when the doppelgangers come around.”
“We need to sound the alarm, right?” Richard asked with a heavy sigh.
“Yeah. Tell as many people as we can,” I said.
Chantal raised a hand as though we were still in class. “One p
roblem, though. Without the Reapers, how do we tell the fakeys from the realsies? I mean, ‘paladin’ works for the ones the Reapers have already tested, the ones we’ve taught the safe word, but the rest? Sheesh. Judging by the number of clones we last saw coming through, I’d dare say there are more of them now than before.”
“True, but they’re coming in without disposing of the originals,” I replied. “My guess is they’re counting on the confusion they cause to take us down. I think we just need to be careful. Anyone acting weird, even the slightest feeling that something might be off… I don’t know, we’ll have to be on the lookout.”
We’d gone from wondering about Isabelle’s doppelganger to a full-on invasion in less than a day, and I feared the growth of this problem would be exponential and fatal to many of those we loved.
Footsteps startled us. We turned around just as Serena and Draven ran out from a cluster of old oak trees and sprawling bushes. Their clothes were dirty and crumpled, partially torn and bloodied. They were both panting but relieved to find us here. “Thank the stars,” Serena managed, nearly falling over. Richard rushed to her side and helped her up, while Chantal got close to Draven. He looked like he was about to collapse, too. They must’ve been through some kind of living hell.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
“Where are my mom and dad?” Richard added, giving Draven a troubled look. “You were supposed to get to the Great Dome.”
“We tried, believe me,” the Druid replied, rubbing his face. “They attacked us. A whole bunch of them, looking exactly like us.” His gaze darted everywhere except to meet mine. “It was weird and horrible. Every magic shot I threw out came back with a vengeance. They look like us, they have our powers, they have abilities and gadgets on top of that… we were overwhelmed.”
“My parents?” Richard insisted, fingers digging into Serena’s shoulders. Her eyes were filled with tears as she looked up at him.
“I’m sorry, honey…”
“Wait. You’re sorry? For what?” Richard demanded, edging closer to panic. I’d seen him like this before, and the last thing we needed was him spiraling out of control. Richard was a strong young man, but just the thought of losing his parents or anyone in his family was enough to send him off into a furious frenzy. He could still function, but he had little to no self-control left.
Something dawned on me. Something we’d overlooked, mostly because of the confusion in our circumstances. “What’s the safe word?” I asked.
Draven and Serena didn’t seem to hear me at first. Chantal was checking the Druid for wounds, but she couldn’t find anything despite the blood on his clothes. And Serena was sobbing, trying to give Richard some truly awful news, only… I wasn’t sure there was any truth in this entire scene.
“What’s the safe word?” I asked again, raising my voice.
“The what, now?” Draven replied.
In an instant, Richard, Chantal, and I knew what we were dealing with. At least our original plan had worked in this respect. Draven’s copy cried out when flames burst from Chantal’s hands and nearly burned him to a crisp. He managed to jump back before it did too much damage. I leapt at him, my wings spreading and flapping for that extra push.
Richard tackled Serena’s clone. Everything happened so fast. Too damn fast. I found myself kicking and punching the Druid’s doppelganger, while Chantal and Richard took on Serena’s. The original was a powerful and capable sentry, and her double was just as dangerous.
Draven’s copy rammed his fist into my side, and I howled from the pain. He grabbed my hair and whispered something as he jerked my head back in a powerful motion. His palm pressed onto my chest, sending sharp and burning sensations through my ribcage. I tried to fight back, but whatever he’d done to me had rendered me limp.
“Voss!” Chantal screamed.
I went down like a tree that had just been cut at the base. Hard and heavy. Unable to stop. I landed on my side, the image twisting before me. Unable to even think about a possible resolve, I could only watch as my friends continued to fight without me.
Draven’s clone threw a blue fireball at Chantal. She was trying to reach me when it hit her. She fell, and I wanted to move, to get to her, but I couldn’t. Richard collapsed, his face bruised by some of Serena’s doppelganger’s barriers. She got on top of him, her knees digging into his back. He growled and tried to wriggle his way out, but the doppelganger jammed a needle into his shoulder. Richard said something, slurring his words as he passed out.
“No…”
“We wanted to let you kids go, but we changed our minds,” Draven’s copy said. “We could use some of you as leverage later.”
“No… Don’t…” I whispered, my mouth drying up.
He stung Chantal with something that looked like a needle, and she fainted. I was the only one left awake, but I was useless, boiling on the inside as the clones got up and high-fived each other, smugly satisfied with themselves. Their grins were cold, their eyes devoid of any emotion. And yet they looked so much like the real Draven and Serena. It was disturbing on many levels.
“Why are you doing this?” I croaked, my voice weak and scratchy.
“Because we can,” Draven’s copy replied. “Because it’s what we’re meant to do.”
“Do we take him, too?” Serena’s double asked him.
He shook his head. “Nah. He can stay behind and tell the others that there’s no point in fighting us. Sooner or later, we’ll have them all. We will replace them, whether they like it or not. This world is ours, darling. It was meant for us.”
My stomach churned as Serena’s copy gave me a brief glance. I could almost spot a glimmer of pity in her eyes as she grabbed Richard’s legs and started dragging him away. Draven’s copy threw Chantal over his shoulder like a rolled-up rug and proceeded to follow his fake wife. The urgency of this situation overrode whatever Druid magic he’d dosed me with, and I started moving, much to my surprise. I managed to shakily stand.
“Wait!” I called out, my wings flapping uncontrollably but without the strength required to lift me off the ground. All they did was raise the dust around me, pushing me into a violent cough.
Draven’s clone looked back at me, a sneer slitting his face. “Stay down. Be a good boy.”
“No!”
I wanted to fight. I just wasn’t sure how much of their attacks I could still take. My vision was not steady, blurring every other second, making it harder for me to focus. He’d done quite the number on me already.
“Hm. Okay. I’ve changed my mind, then,” he shot back and threw a shimmering ball of energy at me. I barely saw it coming. It hit me right in the head, heat burning through my mind as darkness returned to wrap me in its cold arms.
“No…”
“That’s a good boy!” he said, as though I were a dog. “Let’s just hope the other two handled the Reapers properly. You heard the bosses… No loose ends. No interference.”
“We’re modeled after the same material and we’re doing all right,” Serena’s copy replied, her voice muffled in my head. Their exchange made me think that there were more Serenas and Dravens out here—not just these two. But I was useless and definitely their prisoner now.
There was no strength left, only darkness and emptiness as I succumbed to a deep sleep. My thoughts scattered, leaving me helpless, like a fallen leaf lost with the deluge. No…
Tristan
Sissa and Loren were not in any way frightened or intimidated by Joy’s presence. After all, she’d been assigned to protect them many eons ago. But they didn’t look comfortable either, and I wondered why. They didn’t seem to like her very much, though they both put on dry smiles whenever she looked at them.
I, on the other hand, was quaking in my boots. I didn’t show it. Unending had taught me a long time ago that Reapers took one’s fear and used it as a weapon if given the opportunity. Of course, in this case the chances of actual conflict were relatively slim—assuming Joy wasn’t some blunderin
g psychopath. Death hadn’t been notified of our discovery of this place, nor of our presence. This visit hadn’t been sanctioned, and I knew Unending would reach out to her if push came to shove.
“Stay calm,” she told me telepathically. “We want to keep Death out of the loop for as long as possible so we can figure out what this place and this particular Reaper are all about.”
I agreed. Death had a bad habit of keeping secrets, and risking ourselves in this circumstance felt like a safer bet than just trusting Unending’s maker to provide us with the whole truth. We’d learned from experience that Death was picky in what she disclosed, for very selfish reasons.
Joy towered over us both, the light of her scythe casting reflections through her short, spiky fire-red hair. She looked as though she’d been designed for war. Beautiful but with rough features, sharp edges, and a blazing gaze of cosmic wrath. And that ginormous scythe of hers had a chilling effect on my ability to think clearly. “I’m going to ask you one last time,” Joy said. “What are you two doing here?”
“Follow my lead, love, please… this whole thing stinks to high heaven. I’m afraid we’re going to have to play for both sides,” Unending told me, her voice echoing sweetly in my head.
“I trust you. And you know you can count on me,” I thought, loudly enough for her to hear.
She gave me a faint smile, then looked at Joy. “Do you know who we are?”
“Yes. It still doesn’t explain what you’re doing here,” the Reaper replied. “You’re not supposed to know about this place. About these people.”
“If you know who I am, then you must also know what I am capable of,” Unending said, revealing her scythe. Its delicate blade shimmered with warning. A promise that if Joy resorted to violence, my wife would respond in kind.
“You may be one of the more well-versed in death magic, sister, but I have a few tricks up my sleeve as well, courtesy of Death herself. If you’re here, and since you were able to identify the extent of the damage my weapon can deliver, then surely you understand the lengths I will go to for their protection,” Joy said, briefly glancing at Loren and Sissa.
A Shade of Vampire 88: An Isle of Mirrors Page 11
