A Shade of Vampire 90: A Ruler of Clones

by Forrest, Bella

  “It’s okay,” I replied. “The clones would’ve pulled that trick either way. We should’ve been the ones to figure it out. But thank you, Myst. Thank you for the support. We wouldn’t have gotten our people out of there without you.”

  “Where is Regine?” Astra asked, carefully approaching Myst and eyeing the darkness-imbued blade. “And what happened to your sword?”

  The Valkyrie exhaled sharply, drawing the blade from its scabbard. It made everyone gasp, since the infection was now obvious. It looked as though the metal was leaking wisps of black mist. “There must be a balance between light and darkness,” she said. “When there is too much of one, the other suffers. The same applies to our weapons. You give them too much darkness to cut through, and eventually they start to bleed darkness.”

  “Our weapons will be fine,” Regine said as she materialized beside Myst. She nodded at Astra. “We just need your weirdo light touch.”

  Astra raised her eyebrows but extended her hands without hesitation, palms upward and glowing. The Valkyries pressed the width of their swords against the half-Daughter’s skin, and the pink light flowed through the steel and gold alloy, illuminating the blades with tiny fuchsia veins that ran all the way down to the bejeweled hilts. Every gemstone encrusted in the ivory handles and golden pommels burned pink for a moment as the weapons fed on light and shed the darkness that had briefly affected them.

  I found myself staring at Myst, wondering why she continued to have such an impact on me. Her mere presence was a thrilling experience, and I would’ve killed for a little bit of peace and quiet so that we could just sit down, kick back, and maybe talk about our worlds, about the different realms we called home.

  “And who are you, exactly?” Dafne asked, eyeing the younger-looking Regine.

  “She’s my little sister,” Myst replied.

  “Her sister. Forget the ‘little’ part, since I’m technically older than she is,” Regine said flatly, giving Myst a smirk. “I was made before Myst. She only calls me ‘little’ because I’m shorter.”

  Myst smiled. “Well, that and you’re extraordinarily feisty. Typical little sister behavior.”

  “And Hrista is also your sister,” Soph said. She and Dafne had joined Jericho in situating Voss, Isabelle, and Chantal so they could rest comfortably, gently wiping their faces with wet cloths and helping them drink sips of water and eat a few bites of food before they drifted back to sleep. It hurt me to see my friends so weak, but I found comfort in knowing it was only a temporary state. We’d taken them away from the clones. They’d be okay. And Isabelle would answer the many questions I’d been waiting to ask her ever since we’d learned she’d been taken two months ago.

  “Hrista…” Regine murmured, then gave Myst a sullen look. “You told them about her?”

  “You know what? First, I need to know how the hell you made it into this place,” Myst snapped. With their weapons loaded and refreshed by Astra’s light, the Valkyries seemed brighter and more energetic than before. “And why in Order’s name would you leave Purgatory?”

  “I came here looking for you,” Regine said, lowering her gaze. “I just… I followed some of the Berserkers. I remembered you telling me you thought they were up to something. Not all of them, but some… and after you vanished, I figured I might as well make myself useful and pick up where you left off.”

  Jericho smiled. “So, both of you hitched a ride with a Berserker to get here? Is that the only way in from Purgatory?”

  “Basically, yes,” Myst replied. “Though obviously neither of us knew it until it was too late, we also cannot leave. Not without the Berserkers, and none will take us. Whoever is calling the shots in this place—this ‘HQ’—they’ve got a tight lid on every portal in and out.”

  As we exchanged experiences about how we had each come here, it soon became obvious that unexpected accidents had triggered these unexpected arrivals into the fake Shade. Regine seemed sad as she sat on the black, hard ground, crossing her legs and staring into the small fire Jericho had lit for warmth.

  “I worried about you,” she said to Myst. “Following in your footsteps, I ended up fighting Baldur. He was an absolute nightmare to deal with, but he knew he’d never beat me, so he chose to slip through to this place in a bid to get rid of me.”

  Myst chuckled. “The idiot thought it would be enough to be rid of you…”

  “Right?” Regine snorted a laugh. “So, here I am. What now?”

  “There’s a lot we don’t know about this place,” Myst said. “But the one certainty I do have is that Hrista is here. I can feel her sometimes, like warmth flowing through me and filling my spirit to the brim. I just can’t seem to find her.”

  Regine gave me a curious look. “And what’s up with Mr. Soul Manipulator here?”

  “I call it glamoring,” I replied, smiling. I still had some misgivings regarding the origin of my power, but I kept them to myself. “It’s a newly discovered ability.”

  “Well, don’t try it again with any of us,” Regine warned. “It could get you killed. Our spirits are supercharged raw energy. Trying to manipulate one of us, Valkyrie and Berserkers alike, would be like swallowing an entire sun.”

  I offered a slight nod. “Yeah, I noticed. There weren’t many options at the time, though. It sucks to feel useless.”

  “You’re not useless,” Myst replied, motioning around us. “These creatures have clearly chosen you as their leader. You have the clarity and the drive required to survive this. Personally, I don’t see what good you’ll do if you kill yourself trying to ‘glamor’ a Berserker. Haldor’s shadow hounds cannot be killed, either. They’re former Berserkers, spiritually destroyed when their Aesirs were obliterated. Torrhen sees through everything, magic and non-magic alike. He can even see into your soul or hear your thoughts if he has the time and the tranquility for such a task. And you’ve already seen what Brandon can do with his twin blades.”

  Her words filled me with pride. It felt surprisingly good to receive her validation more than anyone else’s, likely because of what she was and where she’d come from. It also added an extra kick in my step, filling me with the energy I needed to keep forging ahead until we prevailed.

  “So, what, we just roll over and let them kill us?” Dafne muttered, crossing her arms.

  “No. We outsmart them,” Regine replied. “The Berserkers can be defeated. They can be contained. They can be disabled. That’s the most you’re going to get. Besides, they’re just enforcers here. They don’t call the shots. They’re not HQ.”

  “How do you know?” Astra asked.

  Myst was just as curious. “I’d like to know, as well. We don’t yet know who HQ really is.”

  “Have you ever seen a Berserker who didn’t take credit or brag about something? Especially a project as huge as this?” Regine replied with a cool grin. She shifted her focus back to me. “Truth be told, Berserkers aren’t natural leaders. Few have such a gift, and none are here. Our Valkyrie mother, for example, Edda… well, we call her mother, but we’re not actually family, obviously. Anyway, with Edda… boy, you can feel her from miles away. The spiritual power in her is titanic. The same can be said about Bodil, the Berserkers’ father. I feel nothing like that here. Only our dark brothers.”

  “And Hrista,” Myst said, and her sister nodded slowly.

  “And Hrista…”

  The air thickened, icy tendrils making their way up my back. My skin pricked and stretched over tense muscles as the Valkyries’ gaze darkened, looking at something right behind me. I turned around to see Brandon entering the cave, both swords resting in the crossed scabbards on his broad back. He owed us a few answers, and Astra was the first to hold him to account. “We need to talk,” she said.

  “You’re colluding with this two-faced snake?” Regine cut in, her lips twisted with disgust.

  “Hey, I’m not a Valkyrie’s best friend, but cut me some slack here,” Brandon shot back as he raised his hands in a defensive gesture. There wa
s tension between them. Myst had shown a degree of sympathy toward him, but Regine was still green in this place. She clearly didn’t know the details of his involvement. Unless she’d figured it out on her own and simply disliked him. “It’s been a long day, and I’m looking at an eternity as one of Haldor’s shadow hounds,” Brandon added. The reminder made me feel bad for him. Even sympathetic. I couldn’t hold certain decisions against him, and I could tell from the expressions around me that I wasn’t the only one thinking this.

  “What?” Regine gasped, her eyes suddenly round and white with shock.

  Myst exhaled sharply. “Yeah, things happened so fast, I didn’t have a chance to explain…”

  “My brothers have Hammer,” Brandon said. “I never wanted to come here in the first place, so don’t treat me like an enemy.”

  The darkness flared off him like tiny black tendrils of smoke. Astra couldn’t take her eyes off him, and she clearly had trouble finding her words in his presence. Weirdly enough, we both seemed drawn to creatures we understood little about, but at least in Astra’s case it was clear Brandon had a soft spot for her. Myst, on the other hand, was virtually unreadable. “You’ll be safe here for a while,” he said to us, ignoring the Valkyries.

  “You don’t always make it easy for people to like you,” Astra replied. She didn’t seem angry, though. More… conflicted. We’d learned enough about Brandon to understand that he’d done many things against his will. HQ had been using Hammer, his Aesir, to force him into submission.

  “And I don’t really care. Besides, I would do it all over again if I had to,” Brandon replied, his brow dark and furrowed. “You know damn well why I had to do every single thing they’ve asked of me.”

  Regine scoffed, shaking her head slowly. “You’re weak.”

  “Yeah? Well, I don’t see your Aesir—or your sister’s, for that matter—anywhere!” Brandon retorted. “You left yours behind because you weren’t sure where it would end for you, right?” Regine didn’t respond, choosing to glance to the side instead. “Yeah, I figured as much. And you know what? I’m tired of the attitude. I’ve saved these people more than once, despite the risk of losing Hammer. Yeah, I’ve done some bad things along the way, but can you really blame me?”

  “No,” Astra whispered. “It’s just so… infuriating.”

  “Tell me about it. And to have two Valkyries—not one, but two of them—flaunt their high morals at me when their own sister is responsible for this mess, well… pardon me for getting pissed off,” Brandon blurted, drawing a stunned gasp from Myst.

  “What did you just say?”

  Regine was livid. “A Valkyrie made this place?”

  “Hrista. Your sweet, perfect sister,” Brandon replied, letting out a heavy breath. His shoulders dropped, and he seemed genuinely sad and disappointed for having told them. “I may have left you to fend for yourselves with Torrhen back there, but I didn’t sit idly by either. I did some digging into HQ. I finally learned the truth.” We’d asked before, and he’d admitted to ignorance on the subject. But it was the grief in Myst’s brilliant blue eyes that soon distracted me from the revelation. I could practically hear the wheels turning in her head, and she was beginning to see how Brandon might be right—at least from what I could tell by watching her. Surprised by the news regarding Hrista, Myst had forgotten to shield herself from us. For the first time, she was an open book to me, and to anyone who paid close enough attention.

  “You’re lying,” Regine spat, clutching her sword. “HQ sent you to cause strife between us! They know two Valkyries are stronger than one, so they figured they’d try to throw us off, huh? Is that it?”

  Brandon scoffed. “I wish it were that simple. No. Do either of you remember the Reaper she was involved with?”

  “A Reaper?” Regine asked, all the more confused.

  Myst nodded once. “I do. Regine never heard of him. Hrista only told me about it…”

  Without warning, ancient memories from twenty years ago began to emerge in my mind. Slowly but surely, snippets of the past slithered back into my stream of consciousness, and I remembered the First Tenners talking about the Spirit Bender. The mention of him peeking behind the curtain. He’d said something about “her.” Could Hrista be the one he’d referred to?

  “What is this about?” Astra asked, still very much out of the loop on this.

  “Hrista… she made contact with a Reaper. Order never knew about it,” Myst sighed. “There were feelings involved.”

  “Yeah, and after the Visio incident, you both know Hrista was never the same again,” Brandon replied. “When Order came back and told us what had happened… remember?”

  “I do, yes. So many souls had come to Purgatory at once, all of them from Visio,” Myst said, giving me a pitiful look.

  Astra had no idea what they were talking about, but I remembered it all. I’d been sworn to secrecy regarding that entire incident, but I was hoping that Myst might tell my friends the truth. They deserved to know what had truly happened on Visio, before the Spirit Bender was destroyed.

  Breathing out, Myst gave me a slight nod. “Everybody died,” she said, everyone’s eyes suddenly glued to her. “On Visio, before Death showed up. Thayen was only a boy at the time, as you know, but he is one of only two living creatures present who were allowed to remember the truth.”

  “What are you talking about?” Viola asked me. But I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t give Death reason to come after me.

  “He’s sworn to secrecy,” Myst said. “Please. Leave him be. The Spirit Bender killed everyone with an awful spell. It didn’t just take their lives. It sent their souls straight into Purgatory. I was there when they all arrived. They couldn’t be resurrected, not even by Death,” she added. My whole body trembled slightly as the terror of that day seeped into my bones once more. “Death destroyed Spirit, of course, but she couldn’t bring anyone back. So she summoned the Word, and with his help, she summoned Order, too—”

  “Wait, so you’ve known about Order all along,” Astra said, catching on quickly, half-jokingly narrowing her eyes at me.

  I offered an apologetic smile. “Sorry. Yes.”

  “Thayen, you have nothing to apologize for,” Viola replied. “I always knew there was more to that story than any of us thought. We’re but tiny life forms, mere specks of dust compared to the forces that have built this universe.”

  “Thing is… Order did what Death couldn’t,” Myst said. “She sent the souls out of Purgatory and into the land of the living. I was comforting Derek and Sofia and the others just before they came back to life. They were utterly confused by everything around them, poor souls.”

  “Yes. And when everyone returned, nobody remembered a thing, so we just breathed a collective sigh of relief, thanking the stars for having survived that nightmare,” I added. “But now that you mention Hrista and her relationship with a Reaper, I’m pretty sure we’re talking about the Spirit Bender.”

  Brandon’s eyebrow arched upward. “Death destroyed the Spirit Bender.” He looked at Regine and Myst. “And Hrista changed that day. You both know it, whether you wish to accept it or not.”

  “Not,” Regine insisted, dangerously close to using her sword. She was angry, and it made her irrational. Myst took her by the arm as Astra gripped Brandon’s wrist and pulled him away from the Valkyries. While her light had been used to fuel Myst’s weapon against Berserkers, Astra herself had little to no effect on Brandon in that sense, unless she shone from the inside with her pink glow. But while in her normal state, Astra was a delight for Brandon—he’d smiled when she’d touched him. I figured it felt good to see her have his back against the Valkyries for once.

  “Delude yourself all you want!” the Berserker snapped, allowing Astra to lead him out of the cave. “But something broke inside Hrista that day, and now she’s the one responsible for all of this.”

  I felt sorry to see Regine so broken and dismayed. It made me wonder what the Valkyries’ relationships were l
ike, what the emotional intensity was about. Brandon had warned me once not to get soft on Myst, that her love might be too much for me or anyone else to handle, since neither the Valkyries nor the Berserkers were designed to feel such things. But I could see Regine’s affection for Hrista. Could hear the gut-wrenching sound of her heart breaking as Brandon’s words took hold.

  Myst seemed more willing to accept what he’d said. Regine, on the other hand… she wasn’t ready. I stared at them for a while, wondering what had motivated Hrista to do any of this, until I began to consider the logical, magical and scientific implications. The fake Shade was a work of art, despite its fraudulent nature. The clones, too. Hats off to whoever made them, even with the fake intel and tampered DNA that Brandon had provided. We were facing a worthy opponent, that much was clear.

  But was our enemy really just a scorned Valkyrie? I found it hard to believe.

  Astra

  He was seething. I could feel it. His anger was flowing through me somehow, and I wasn’t sure it had anything to do with my half-sentry nature. Brandon appeared to literally carry his emotions on his sleeve, and I was picking up on them.

  We sat on the stony edge outside the cave’s gaping mouth, big and black behind us. Ahead, dirty green and brown canopies blanketed the mountain’s ridge, more grottos opening up below. The faint light from above poured over everything, drawing shadows and jagged silhouettes across the land—this fake world that seemed every bit as real as our home.

  Neither of us said anything for a while. Brandon needed to cool down. It didn’t seem fair to ask him for complete loyalty at this point, as HQ still had Hammer, and especially since I’d seen what the shadow hounds were like. They resembled the true death of one’s soul, at least in my mind. Something I wouldn’t have wished on the worst of our enemies. So, I decided to prepare for the worst and hope for the best, going forward.

  “They don’t believe me,” Brandon muttered after a long and heavy silence. “About Hrista. Their precious, immaculate Hrista.”