The heat was unbearable, but I managed to grab Isabelle’s clone and get away from the flames. Jericho burst into dragon form and fought back with fires of his own, while Dafne and Soph grabbed Astra and joined me on the edge of the clearing. Behind us, clones were coming. I could see them. Jericho and his father’s unsettling doppelganger battled, clawing and biting at one another.
For a second, I worried Jericho might lose. The fake dragon knocked him down with his massive tail, then spat fire. The flames covered Jericho, and I held my breath in anticipation. But my friend bounced back, untouched by the blaze—after all, fire dragons were immune to fire. Then I remembered what had happened to Chantal’s clone when Jericho had burned her. It was a long shot, but it was worth trying.
“Jericho, use your fire on him!” I shouted.
He gave me a confused look, as if wondering what the hell I was talking about, until it hit him. He huffed and growled, his head slowly turning to face the incoming attack from his father’s doppelganger. His lower jaw dropped, and a stream of fire erupted with the pressure and power of a fireman’s hose. It hit Blaze’s double smack in the face, and the creature howled in agony as the inferno spread over his form and seeped through his scales. It forced the creature to move back long enough for Jericho to lower his head so that we could climb onto his back.
I held on to Isabelle’s clone and proceeded toward him. Another high-pitched sound erupted. This one was stronger than the last. So strong, in fact, that it made my ears hurt. I felt blood trickling down my neck as I fell face first into the warm leaves on the ground.
“Thayen…” Astra cried out. It was followed by the thud of another body collapsing.
Isabelle’s copy wiggled in my arms, but weakness spread through me, and I feared I might not be able to hold on to her much longer. I heard Jericho’s tortured howl and the rushing footsteps from yards away, getting louder.
But I had lost control over myself. My head hurt beyond belief. Sweat burst through my skin and drenched my clothes, swiftly followed by shuddering chills as darkness wrapped its arms around me. I knew nothing of what would come next. I only knew I couldn’t change the outcome. Not in this state.
Astra
(Daughter of Phoenix and Viola)
The blackness that had taken over my eyes dissipated, and the image came back into focus. For a second, I wasn’t sure where I was or what had happened, but my senses were fired up and pumping adrenaline through my veins, forcing me to sit up and pay attention.
The high-pitched sound persisted, louder than earlier, and despite the crippling pain, I was too angry to give in. I’d come too far to let these bastards take me. No, this had to end. I had to do something. Dafne and Soph were both on the ground, writhing and moaning in agony. Thayen was out cold, and Isabelle’s clone was trying to get out from under him. At least he’d pinned her down during his fall. Jericho roared and shook his head in a bid to stop the pain from buckling his hind legs, while his father’s clone was thrashing, still fighting the flames that had melted off parts of his scaly armor. Thayen had been on point with his advice—the clones weren’t all perfect. The fire fae and the fire dragons who were supposed to be immune to flames were anything but.
Boots thudded dangerously close, the high-pitched sound amplified by their vicinity. I forced myself to look behind us, just in time to spot a couple of familiar clones emerging from the redwoods. Jovi and Anjani. Others would join them in a matter of minutes, but it was the cubic object in Anjani’s clone’s hands that caught my eye. That was the source of the sound. I could see the air rippling around it. Whatever that thing was, it had been designed to torture us.
“I’ve had about enough of this crap!” I muttered, my throat burning as I raised a trembling hand. Jericho shifted back into his humanoid body and scrambled into his half-torched robe, grunting from the pain. I had a feeling he was taking it better than in his dragon form for some unknown reason.
The succubus’s copy laughed as she fiddled with the control, increasing the high-pitched sound’s volume to the point where I couldn’t focus anymore, the pain so sharp it sliced through my brain. With one last push, one final drop of energy I had left, I sent out a barrier. It smacked into her, and she fell back. The cube hit the ground with a clang, and the sound stopped. Jovi’s double rushed to grab it and aim it at us again, but Stan and Ollie appeared in front of him.
He stilled, realizing what was about to happen. The ghouls pounced and tore him apart, limb from limb. He screamed, and then it was quiet, but Stan and Ollie weren’t done. I looked away as they did the same to Anjani’s copy, blood spraying outward as they disemboweled her on the spot. I managed to pull myself back up.
“Thayen, wake up!” I shouted.
Voices murmured through the surrounding forest. The clones were coming, and there were more of them than I could even count. Jericho grabbed Isabelle’s clone just as she wormed out from under Thayen, and Dafne rushed to get the vampire back on his feet. He blinked and shook his head as he came to, and I gripped him by the shoulders, giving him a shake for good measure.
“You with us?” I asked.
Thayen nodded. “I think so… What happened?”
I pointed to the bloody pile of body parts that Stan and Ollie had left behind. “They happened. It was that device,” I said. One of the ghouls grabbed the cube and brought it over, but Soph took it and smashed it into the ground.
“We really don’t need this,” she said, wiping the blood from her ear. “Jeez, I can barely hear anything…”
It would take a while for us to fully heal, especially since I’d used the very last of my energy to stop Anjani’s copy from turning our brains into literal mush. Jericho pointed up. “Flight is our only option.”
“Do it,” Thayen said. Isabelle’s clone kept laughing. “Laugh it up. You’re coming with us.”
“Am I, though?” she shot back. “Look around you, idiot. You’re surrounded.”
Jericho slipped out of his robe and tossed it over to Dafne, who looked away one second too late. He burst out in full dragon form and lowered his head once more. We could all hear the clones shouting at one another as they rushed toward the clearing. Only seconds remained before this whole place would be swarming with their wretched kind.
Within seconds, we’d climbed onto his back. I held on tight, though I knew how heavy we were on a dragon his size. Jericho sprayed all the fire he could conjure around him, turning clockwise as he raised a curtain of orange flames around us. Some of the clones walked right into it and screamed as the blaze licked at their skin. Most, however, stayed back and yelled orders.
The dragon clone had collapsed, parts of him reduced to charred flesh and crackled bones. Jericho exhaled sharply, releasing a cloud of black smoke, then flapped his wings and got us off the ground. Seconds later, we were up in the sky, having left a ring of fire behind. The flames started eating through the redwoods, spreading fast, but they’d done a decent job of keeping the clones at bay.
Isabelle’s copy didn’t look very happy, back under Thayen’s control with her hands still trapped in charmed cuffs. “Bet you didn’t see that coming, huh?” I said, and she rolled her eyes.
“We’re headed for the Port, right?” Dafne asked. She glanced down at the ground once in a while, keeping Jericho’s rolled-up robe under her arm. The night sky was illuminated by the flames, and the smoke rose to swallow the stars and the moon of The Shade’s nocturnal spell. None of us were comfortable with setting the redwood forest ablaze, but we’d had no other choice. I was too weak to do much else.
It was a miracle we’d made it out of this mess alive once again. On top of that, we’d taken what the clones had been aiming for this whole time. We had Isabelle’s copy, along with whatever she must’ve stolen from us—I figured it had to still be on her somewhere, but we’d figure that out later. First, we needed relative safety more than anything else.
“Yeah, the Port,” Soph replied, cringing from the ear pain she was sti
ll dealing with. The wind blew in our faces, slightly cooler than usual, drying my sweat and brushing through my hair. It had a soothing effect as Jericho flew east, far from the fire ring.
I knew Stan and Ollie were capable of looking after each other. With their ghoulish abilities, they could easily sneak past the clones that had come for us down there. And they would soon go look for Soul and Kelara. We needed the Reapers, now more than ever.
“You’re not going to win this,” Isabelle’s clone said.
“I need you to just shut up for the time being,” Thayen replied dryly. “Your voice is the last thing I want to hear after that audio torture.”
The doppelganger laughed lightly. “Don’t you understand? They won’t stop until they find me. They will kill each and every one of you until they have what they came here for.”
“And what is that, exactly?” Dafne asked, her tone clipped. “What did you take that is so damn precious to your clone buddies?”
“Like I’d be stupid enough to tell,” Isabelle’s double muttered.
None of us were really comfortable, crowded like this on Jericho’s back, since the dragon was smaller than his father and others from his species, but at least he was strong enough to hold us. Despite his clear discomfort, Thayen found enough energy to grab Isabelle’s clone by the back of the neck, pushing her down until the side of her face pressed into Jericho’s scaly nape.
“You either shut your mouth, or you start talking,” he snapped.
“Why don’t you make me, huh?” she replied, then burst into mocking laughter. “You can’t, can you? Batteries depleted? You’re getting soft, buddy. No way you’re getting out of this alive.”
Every word she said made Thayen angrier and angrier until he unleashed his glamoring on her. I was sure he would’ve liked to compel her in a more controlled environment and not on the back of a dragon, but Isabelle’s doppelganger did have a way of bringing out the worst in us.
“Where is Isabelle?” Thayen asked.
The clone whimpered under his influence, and he tightened his grip on the back of her neck, too, just enough to make it hurt.
“Where is Isabelle?” he insisted.
“Argh… stop!” she cried out. Jericho growled, his body rumbling beneath us. “Stop, Thayen! Please!”
Thayen wouldn’t yield. “I’ll stop when you start talking. Where is Isabelle?”
“She’s alive… she’s alive…” the clone managed.
“And the object? What is it? Where is it? Where did you get it from?”
“I can’t…” she mumbled, unable to keep her eyes open anymore.
I carefully leaned to the left so I could get a glimpse of her face. Blood trickled from her nose. Thayen was bleeding, too. He’d pushed himself too far again. “Take a break,” I told him. “You’re wearing yourself out.”
“I won’t stop until she tells us everything we need to know!”
“Damn it, Thayen, I’m too weak to help any of you right now. We need you at full power, and the more you push yourself, the worse off you’ll be!” I replied. “Please. Stop. We know Isabelle is alive, and we can get more out of this bitch later, once we reach the Port.”
“She’s right,” Soph chimed in. “You’ve done enough already. We have to save our strength until we get to safety.”
Thayen sighed, releasing Isabelle’s double from his grip. She exhaled sharply and muttered a curse, but she didn’t dare say another word. None of us were pleased with how it had turned out, but we had to be grateful for still having her in our possession. The clones could’ve taken her away. We could’ve lost her…
The fight wasn’t over. The war had just begun, and I doubted we’d won a single battle. But we’d managed to make it this far. With the Port in our sights, I could only hope we’d unravel this mystery before it killed us and all the people we loved. These were dangerous times, and we had to get Isabelle’s clone to talk. Once we knew what she’d taken from us, what that object really was, we’d have a better idea about what the enemy was truly planning.
They’d been brazen enough to infiltrate The Shade. They were determined to kill me. I was sure the problem wouldn’t end with the clones retrieving what she’d stolen. I had no idea where my mom was. I didn’t know if Derek and my dad and the others were okay. I couldn’t even imagine where the other Shadians were or how they were holding up in the face of this bloody onslaught.
I could only move forward with Thayen, Soph, Jericho, and Dafne by my side and hope that we’d reach a safe spot soon. There was still so much work to be done and so little time. Our home had been plunged into chaos, and I had a feeling it would be up to us to pull it back to the surface. It was an overwhelming thought, but it also served to keep me on my toes.
I needed to stay sharp.
Kelara
Soul and I had been sitting here for about an hour, maybe more. Time seemed to flow differently when a Reaper was stuck inside a death magic pentagram. I’d tried everything, including reaching out to other Reapers, but our telepathic connections were still off, courtesy of the annoyingly resourceful clones. I’d tried tapping into my bond with Death, as well. No luck on that front.
“I feel incredibly stupid right now,” Soul muttered, sitting with his legs crossed. We’d seen dozens of clones rush by. Some stopped to grin at us or tease us for our inability to leave. He’d promised each one a disturbing and bloody death, but that hadn’t made him feel any better.
We were trying to figure out how Draven and Serena’s copies had gotten the drop on us. That bright explosion must’ve done more than just blind us. Then again, blitz attacks were designed to disarm a target. In that sense, the clones had definitely done the job right. It was just so embarrassing for the both of us—prime fighters, First Tenners, Reapers with special abilities renowned in our world for all the amazing things we could do. Yet we were stuck in here, unable to get out, our weapons removed.
“It’s the fact that they took our scythes,” I said. “That’s what hurts the most. Because you and I know we would’ve gotten out already if we still had the blades.”
“Yeah. There’s only so much death magic entrapment can accomplish when a Reaper still has a scythe.”
We’d tried everything in our power to leave. Nothing had worked. We’d gone through all the stages of Reaper grief, too. At this point, Soul and I were resigned to our fates, waiting and hoping that someone might come along and break the circle from the outside. Without our scythes, external interference was pretty much our only option.
But the forest had been quiet for more than twenty minutes. Not a single breath. A misstep. A clone. Absolutely nothing. We knew nothing about the rest of The Shade, either, though we’d been assuming the worst. I was hoping Seeley and Nethissis might come around, or at least the Time Master. They’d made a habit of checking up on us more often than the others, mainly because their business kept bringing them back to The Shade lately.
Sighing deeply, I looked around again. Nothing but trees as far as the eye could see. Trees and lush shrubs. Grass on the forest floor with specks of pink and purple wildflowers. Beautiful patterns on the underbrush leaves. A squirrel foraging through a bush for food.
“We’re going to be here for a while,” Soul said. “So… how’s your day going so far?”
I couldn’t help but laugh. He wore a broad smile, the kind that said, “Hey, we’re screwed, but my sense of humor ain’t dead yet,” and it made me want to reach out and hug him and shower him with kisses. But that wasn’t an option, and I felt a pang of sadness poking me in the stomach.
“No, no, don’t pout, my love,” Soul said, his smile gone. “We’ll get out eventually.”
“I just hope we get out before the whole island is blown to bits and pieces.”
“You care about them, huh?” he asked, slowly narrowing his galaxy eyes as he studied my expression from five yards away. “The living of GASP.”
I nodded. “Yes. Don’t you? They’re good people. You know they
would do anything they could to help us.”
“Mm-hm… just don’t tell my siblings. They’ll think I’ve gone soft.”
“They already think that,” I said, drawing a scowl from him.
“How so?”
“Well, we’re a pair. Dream and Nightmare keep making bets about who’s really wearing the pants in this relationship, if you know what I mean.” I giggled. It made him scoff, but I could see he was trying hard to keep a straight face.
A low growl made me turn around. I nearly squealed with joy when Stan and Ollie emerged from the woods, their noses pressed to the ground as they sniffed out our tracks. “Fate smiles upon us after all!” I exclaimed.
The ghouls lit up when they saw us. They rushed to greet Soul and me, but the pentagrams’ magic pushed them back. “Sorry about that, buddy,” Soul said to Stan. “We’re trapped in here.”
“But you can help!” I said, carefully eyeing Ollie, who was now circling me, whimpering and anxious because he couldn’t reach through. Every time he tried to touch the invisible shield, it zapped him with painful electrical currents, making him snarl. “No, not like that, buddy. Our scythes. The clones have our scythes. You can track them, can’t you?”
Stan and Ollie exchanged concerned glances before they gave us a double nod.
“Good. Draven and Serena’s clones had our weapons the last time we saw them. If you can track the scythes, you can find those bastards and try to retrieve them for us,” Soul said. “This is powerful death magic they’ve put on us. You can’t help otherwise, since you belong to the same realm.”
Within seconds, the ghouls bolted somewhere northwest of here. I watched them for a while, until their bony figures disappeared between the trees. Silence settled over our little spot in the woods as Soul and I looked at each other. It was getting harder to keep my spirits high, but I needed to stay strong for whatever might come next.
A Shade of Vampire 88: An Isle of Mirrors Page 18