A Shade of Vampire 88: An Isle of Mirrors

by Forrest, Bella

  One of Voss’s bladed wings nearly slit my throat open. It was time to try something new, as the circumstances no longer allowed for more classical combat. He’d already whipped out his black spray bottle, eager to use it on me. I hadn’t tried my glamoring on a moving target before, but what other option did I have?

  I needed to get to Astra before she hurt herself. I could hear Richard’s clone’s screams turning into tortured gurgling as the pink flames consumed every inch of his flesh and bones and skin. What she was doing to him was the stuff of nightmares, and I knew she had to be extremely furious to resort to such gruesome methods. Astra had always been the peacemaker, yet the clones had brought out the darker side of her.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” Voss’s double hissed, then tried to spray me with the black stuff. I put both hands out and released the mental lassos I’d been brewing. I felt the connection forcibly establish. The sharp tips pierced his being and took hold of the fake soul he had inside. He stilled, horror settling across his face as he realized what was happening.

  “On your knees,” I ordered him, my voice low and cold as ice. My skin tingled, anger heating up my insides, making my stomach tighten into a fizzling clump of anxiety and rage. “On your knees!” I snapped, and Voss’s clone was forced to kneel on the ground.

  Soph had her foot on Chantal’s clone’s throat, boot pressing hard until I could hear the bones snapping. The daemon princess looked at me, one eyebrow raised. “You said keep one alive. Voss’s cheap-ass copy is one. We don’t need her, do we?”

  I shook my head.

  Chantal’s clone opened her palms, fireballs forming in angry shades of yellow and orange. She was about to torch Soph, but she wasn’t as fast as she would’ve wanted. A split second later, her spine was crushed, and the fire fae knock-off was dead. With Voss’s double under my surprisingly effective control, I was able to briefly check on Astra again. Nothing was left of Richard’s doppelganger except for a small pile of black ashes.

  Astra was on all fours, taking deep breaths, heaving whenever she had to exhale. “Soph, help her, please!” I said, then shifted my focus back to Voss’s clone. I heard Jericho and Dafne as they got closer to Astra, as well. She wasn’t on her own, and that gave me some comfort.

  The veins on Voss’s clone’s throat throbbed angrily, but he couldn’t do anything against my firm hold on him. Soul had been so on the money with this ability. It was getting easier with each turn, to the point where I could feel the clone’s fears rumbling through me like a bad stomachache. He was terrified. He’d never expected to be in this position.

  “Tell me why you’re here,” I demanded, one ear twitching as I listened for movement and words between Soph and Astra. Most of the humans of the Vale had run away already, but I could still hear the occasional rush of footsteps nearby. They’d been scared off, yet there were the curious ones who just couldn’t resist, especially considering the sudden silence that had followed after Richard’s clone’s bloodcurdling screams.

  Voss’s copy sneered, defiant despite my influence. “Screw you.”

  “Tell me why you’re here!” I amplified my ability, imagining thousands of daggers that I could use to pierce his skin and break him into little bits and pieces. It worked. Voss’s clone grunted, sweat dripping down his face as my glamoring cut through him.

  He crouched from the pain, but he was resisting. I could feel the walls around him struggling to stay up, though I was pretty close to breaking them all down. Jericho scoffed. “Push him, Thayen. You can do it.”

  “Tell me why you’re here!” I snapped.

  “Ah!” Voss’s clone whimpered. Finally, the sound of defeat emerged. He was a resilient bastard, but I was motivated to succeed. “Isabelle. We’re… we’re all here for Isabelle.”

  “Why?” I asked, briefly stealing a glance at a troubled Soph. Astra was looking better, one arm draped around the daemon’s shoulders. At least she was upright, though the purple bruising on her hands was difficult to ignore. She’d worn herself out. I doubted she could still help us in the clone verification process, but I was thankful she was okay. “Why?” I repeated the question, eyeing Voss’s copy carefully.

  He muttered a curse under his breath. “She has something we need. Something she’s… something she’s been working hard to get for the past couple of months.”

  “Wait… what do you mean months?” I croaked, my blood running cold.

  I’d opened up a can of worms, and I wasn’t sure any of us could face what was coming. I was already beginning to regret asking. Simply knowing that Isabelle’s clone had been around for two months presented a series of nightmarish scenarios along with a plethora of difficult questions. The most important one was raised by Astra.

  “If she’s been around for two months, why did she wait so long to try and kill me?”

  “Answer her question,” I commanded Voss’s clone.

  He was on his knees and panting, my glamoring influencing him physically and ripping through his resistance. Admittedly, I’d allowed myself a streak of meanness, focusing my ability on him like a concentrated laser beam. I wanted to tear him apart from the inside, but not before we got as much intel out of him as possible.

  “Damn you…” Voss’s clone blurted. “I don’t know what it is. We only know it as the Object. We have orders…”

  “What orders?”

  Jericho came to my side. “What if he’s lying about this… Object?” he whispered.

  “I’m not lying!” Voss’s double cried out. “Only Isabelle knows what it is. That was the whole point, so no one who got caught would snitch!”

  The more the doppelganger spoke, the more questions I had. “What are your orders? Speak!”

  “Argh! Sow the seeds of chaos! We were ordered to either go after our originals or attack key military points across The Shade,” he replied. “The orders keep changing… we’re told to go to one place, then another. We’re all waiting for a green light to go after Isabelle.”

  “Don’t call her Isabelle. She’s not Isabelle, just as you’re not Voss!” Astra retorted, strength returning to her wavering voice.

  “Well, I am Voss. And she is Isabelle. Just not your Voss. Not your Isabelle,” the clone shot back, baring his teeth in an aggressive grin.

  I tightened my hold on him, ripping a groan from his throat. “What’s your next move? What were you doing in the Vale? How many of you are there? Who’s leading you?”

  Voss’s clone sighed heavily, tears streaming down his cheeks. “You can’t do this to me.”

  “I can. And I am. Talk.”

  “No! No, I can’t! No!” he shrieked and started toward me. It happened so fast, I didn’t even register the amount of willpower it must have taken for him to break out of my hold. Either that, or I hadn’t had a good grip on him to begin with.

  He lunged at me, his bladed wings spreading wide. But Jericho torched him before he could even get close enough to use those sharp feathers. The fire swallowed him whole, and he screamed in agony, but it was too late. He collapsed into a charred pile of molten flesh.

  “I had to,” Jericho said. “Those wings were a problem.”

  “I know… it’s okay.”

  Astra moved to stand beside me. “Thayen, you heard him. Their prime objective is Isabelle’s doppelganger. Whatever she spent two months impersonating our cousin for has got to be extremely important.”

  “Oh, it’s important, all right. This freak here managed to free himself from my glamoring. He chose suicide by GASP instead of telling the truth,” I replied.

  Before I could formulate another thought, the horn sounded again. This time, it was much louder. Heavier, too. It pressed directly on my brain, sending throbs of pain through my skull, inflaming my temples and sending my senses into overdrive. It rang for about a minute, during which time no one dared to move.

  “I think it’s a signal,” Soph concluded. “Look…” She pointed somewhere behind us. We all turned around to see some of
the humans slipping out of the side alleys and running into the redwood forest. They were headed south.

  “Those aren’t Vale humans,” Dafne said, her brow furrowed. “They’re doing the same thing as the clones. As soon as they heard the horn…”

  “So, there were copies inside the Vale, too. Why didn’t they jump us?” Jericho asked, shaking his head slowly. “I swear, this is getting more confusing with every minute, and I’m not sure we’ll pull through unless someone starts talking.”

  A sense of urgency came over me as I watched the human clones disappear between the giant redwoods. “We need to go back to Isabelle’s clone. If she’s their ultimate endgame, not an actual invasion of The Shade, then we have to secure her. Now!”

  We started running once more. The clones had worn us out. They’d successfully sown the seeds of chaos, pushing us to doubt one another. Some of our people were missing, but if Isabelle’s clone was their prime objective, then I dared hope that our friends and loved ones would return to us eventually.

  Something had to give in this hot mess, because I wasn’t able to make much sense of it. What had Isabelle’s doppelganger taken? And who’d ordered her to take it? We had no idea what their ultimate goal was, but at least we knew where they were all headed.

  Deeper in the woods, we saw more clones running in the same direction. I froze on the spot, realizing the full scope of this monstrous operation. They had no interest in attacking us this time around, but they were beating us to the finish line.

  “Jericho,” I said, trying to think of a faster way to reach the hospital before the swarm of clones. “I think we need to ride on your back, buddy. They’ll get there before us if we go on foot.”

  Jericho didn’t need to be told twice. A moment flittered past, and he’d burst out into his dragon form, roaring as Soph, Astra, and I climbed onto his back. Dafne seemed hesitant, giving me a weary look. “I could fly out with you,” she suggested.

  “Come on, we don’t have the time, hurry!” I replied, and she ran up Jericho’s tail, climbing behind Astra. With one flap of his wings, the dragon took off from the small clearing, sending a storm of dried leaves and twigs swirling beneath him.

  I felt suddenly very small as we breached The Shade’s starry sky, and Jericho began his short flight back to the hospital area. There were dozens of clones out here—at least—all of them headed in the same direction. My heart was strained, yet I couldn’t give in to the fear that had been circling me like a hungry lion.

  We still had work to do.

  Thayen

  Riding Jericho had been the best idea. The hospital area was clear except for Stan and Ollie, the ghouls we’d tasked with guarding Isabelle’s clone’s warded room. We landed with a thud in the middle of a clearing. Dafne was the first to slip right off, helping Astra down. The Daughter was slower than usual, but considering she’d just depleted her energy by torching Richard’s copy, it was a miracle she was still standing and not halfway into dream world.

  Soph and I were the last to jump off Jericho’s back after a brief survey of the wide clearing. The smoking rubble was the same as we’d left it. A remnant of what had once been The Shade’s hospital. I remembered coming here as a kid, fresh off Visio, to get my physical checks and immunization shots. Shayla, one of our witches, had opened an office on the third floor, where I’d stop by once in a while to discuss the many nightmares I’d had for years after I’d moved here. Visio continued to haunt me for a long time before I felt like I truly belonged here.

  It was all gone now, and there had been no time to fully process what this building had meant to me—not to mention the other Shadians. Taking in a deep breath, I walked over to Stan and Ollie, leaving Astra with Soph, Dafne, and Jericho for a moment, though I could still hear the dragons bickering in the background.

  “Oh, for heaven’s sake, put some clothes on!” Dafne said.

  “I would if I had any!” Jericho replied.

  Soph giggled, a sound followed by shuffling and crunching. Looking over my shoulder, I saw her extract a medical robe from a nearby pile of crumpled and still-smoking textiles and rubble. The garment was similar to what we’d found for Jericho earlier, only this one had been half burnt. There must’ve been a supply locker here before the flames. “It’ll do,” Jericho grumbled, snatching it from Soph’s hand. “Thanks.”

  “Hey, fellas,” I said to Stan and Ollie. Their big black eyes sparkled with recognition as I approached them. “Have you seen your Reaper partners since we last saw you?”

  Both ghouls shook their heads, letting out simultaneous low growls that sent shivers down my spine. I didn’t have to speak ghoulish to understand that they were concerned. Peeking through the glass panel of Isabelle’s clone’s room, I found her still sitting at the table, her hands cuffed and her expression just as sullen as before. I pressed on the two-way speaker button mounted near the glass panel so she could hear me. “I see you’re still here.”

  “Took you forever,” she muttered.

  “We ran into some of your friends,” I replied.

  The doppelganger grinned coldly. “Yeah, I heard the signals. They’re coming for me. You know that, right?”

  “What is it that you got from this place? What is it that you had to spend two months pretending to be Isabelle to get?” I demanded. “We thought you’d replaced her just a few days ago. Not months.”

  My blood ran cold as I wondered where the real Isabelle was. Where she’d been kept for so long… and if she was even still alive. I was genuinely afraid to ask her clone about it. There was little patience left in me to deal with her games and riddles. I was determined to get the truth out of her, one way or another, but time wasn’t on our side. Not with who knew how many copies racing toward the hospital as I stood here and watched Isabelle’s double giggle in her seat.

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” she replied.

  “I most definitely would.”

  Jericho drew my attention. “Thayen, we have to go. Soph can already hear boots on the ground. At least dozens, maybe even more than a hundred.”

  I gave him a quick glance, training my ears on the sounds around us. I heard the distant rumble, too. Thuds and twigs breaking. Dried leaves crumbling beneath the soles of their boots. Short breaths and swishing past the redwoods. They were less than a mile away and coming in fast. If we didn’t move within the next five minutes, the headway we’d made by flying with Jericho would have been for nothing.

  “As much as I would love to stick around and glamor you into submission,” I said to Isabelle’s clone, “there’s no time, and I have no intention of letting you go with your knockoff buddies.”

  I released the speaker button, then looked at Stan and Ollie. “You two should head out and find Soul and Kelara. We know nothing of their group’s whereabouts, and I’m starting to get seriously worried. The comms are still down, not just for us but for the Reapers, as well. I have no way of reaching out to them.”

  “Thayen, we have to take her somewhere safe, as far from here as possible,” Astra said. “Stan and Ollie need to know where we’re going. We might as well regroup there when they do find Soul and Kelara’s crew.”

  “Right. You’re absolutely right,” I replied, thinking for a moment. “Crap, where are we taking her?”

  Dafne raised a hand. “Might I make a suggestion?”

  “Of course,” I said.

  “The Port.” Dafne sighed. “The underground cells, to be specific. Not everybody knows about them, and I figure it’ll buy us some time because it’s such a maze down there.”

  “That’s a really good idea,” Jericho agreed. “Especially since the clones are using intel from the originals, though I’m not sure how they’re getting it—”

  “Probably magic,” Dafne said, cutting him off.

  “Yeah. Makes sense. The Port is definitely our best bet. Not everyone can navigate those tunnels. Most in our generation have never even been down there,” Jericho said.

  I nodd
ed once. “The Port it is, then.” Pressing my palm against the charmed reader on Isabelle’s clone’s door, I listened for the lock’s click as it gave me access. “Don’t try anything stupid,” I warned her as I unhooked her cuffs from the table-mounted ring and yanked her upright.

  “Wherever you go, I go.” Isabelle’s doppelganger chuckled. “At least this way I get to watch you die in pain, cousin.”

  “I’m not your cousin. You’re not Isabelle,” I hissed and dragged her out of the room and away from the hospital’s piles of scorched rubble. It would take forever for me to shake off the charred smell of this place.

  “We need to move. Now,” Soph said, her voice wavering. “Something is coming.”

  “You’re damn right something is coming,” Isabelle’s clone replied.

  Before any of us could even take a step toward the Port, we were frozen on the spot. A high-pitched sound cut through my brain. I gasped, bucking under the sudden pressure. I had never experienced pain like this before, and I wasn’t the only one. Jericho snarled as he fell to his knees, clutching his head with both hands. Dafne screamed, her legs shaking, but she fought against the agony, stubbornly remaining upright.

  Soph bared her fangs, looking somewhere behind us, while Astra whimpered and wobbled. The daemon held her close, and I followed her gaze. Something big was coming. I could see its enormous figure treading through the forest and knocking the redwoods aside like they were nothing more than matchsticks.

  “Dad?” Jericho managed, blinking rapidly as he looked at the giant dragon. It seemed familiar, yes, but I couldn’t shake off my unease at his presence. “It’s Dad!”

  “Oh, no… it’s not.” Isabelle’s copy chuckled.

  The creature stormed into the clearing, making Stan and Ollie jump back. He certainly looked like Blaze, but the sheen of his black scales was strange and unnatural. The glow in his eyes was a tempestuous green and certainly not what I remembered Blaze looking like in dragon form. Most importantly, his jaws unhinged and released a storm of fire upon us.