by Bonnie Vanak
As if she were his next breath, his entire world.
The familiar guarded look dropped over his face. As he shifted his weight, Sam flinched.
“You’re hurt,” she cried out.
“Just a small break. I can walk.”
“On a broken leg. Nothing serious. Sam!”
“I’ve had worse.”
Now she noticed the odd angle of his leg, the lines of pain bracketing his mouth.
“I’ll splint it, and we’ll get on our way.” He looked around the yard. “We have to get moving before those bastards return.”
Kelly lifted her face to the burning sun. “Let me try something. I can heal in the sunlight. You bonded us together. Maybe I can combine my powers with yours to heal your leg. Will you let me try?”
A rough nod. Water beaded his dark lashes and clung to the tip of his strong nose. His mouth was a firm slash, indicating just how much he hurt.
With one hand, she clasped the triskele, her other hand gripping his. Kelly began the lyrical chant her father had taught her.
Soothing light and warmth filled her as the sun’s healing rays surged into her body. Stunned, she watched the triskele pulse with white light. A glow suffused her body and traveled down her arm to their linked hands.
As the light touched him, it brightened to white, becoming stronger. Gasping, he shuddered as the warm energy pulsed down his torso to the wounded leg.
After a few minutes, the glow faded. Sam ran a hand over his calf.
“I’ll be damned,” he muttered.
Beaming, she touched his leg. “It’s the bond. Alone, we are not strong enough, but together we are practically invincible.”
Sam narrowed his eyes. “How did you do that? What exactly are you, Kelly?”
Stricken, she drew back. “It’s me, Sam. I’m just an Arcane. It’s the triskele. It works as an amplifier.”
“Not even the triskele can turn an Arcane into a healer. The power has to be within the Mage first.”
“Are you calling me a liar?”
Sam’s jaw tensed. “I’m saying your ability to heal isn’t normal. We’ll talk about it later. Right now, we need to get the hell out of here.”
She’d thought they could regain what they once had. Forget they were Arcane and Elemental. But the suspicion on his face threw up new barriers.
They found their packs on a shelf in the front room and swiftly dressed into a spare change of clothing. Sam retrieved his pistol from the shelf where the Mages had placed it. Kelly slipped into a pair of sandals, glancing at the still-flooded back room.
“Those were my favorite sneakers.”
“I’ll buy you a new pair.” Sam tucked the gun into his waistband. “Time to go hunting.”
“For what?”
A ruthless look entered his hazel eyes. “The son of a bitch who wears my face.”
* * *
Finding his duplicate proved easy.
From a shadowy doorway across the street, Shay watched the restaurant. His twin sat at an outside table, downing a bottle of suds. Several bottles sat on the table before him.
Same brand Shay enjoyed.
His hands itched to hook around the bastard’s throat and snap his neck. Shay curbed the urge. He was a SEAL and was used to waiting. Waiting to deploy. Waiting for the enemy to surface.
Waiting for Kelly to open her mouth and breathe again.
Waiting for Kelly to close her mouth about things he’d rather not discuss.
That kiss had been special. And kissing her had brought out all his fears about losing her. Damn if he could bring himself to admit it.
The old chemistry still flared between them. But taking it further was dangerous because deep inside, he still had feelings for Kelly Denning.
And then there was the little matter of Kelly’s very unusual powers. Shay wondered about that. Maybe it was the triskele, as she’d suggested.
The same waitress who’d served them earlier approached the doppelgänger with the wariness of a sheep serving a wolf.
Laughing, the fake Shay swatted her bottom. “Nice ass.” The words were a drunken slur.
As the girl backed away, his twin pulled her into his lap and began fondling her. Stark terror pinched the girl’s face. Patrons in the café turned their heads.
Bile rose in Shay’s throat. Why was everyone ignoring this?
“What the hell is wrong with those people?” he muttered.
“They’re enchanted,” Kelly said. “They don’t care about anything. It’s as if everything they cared about has been erased from memory. Including their own values.”
The frightened waitress pushed at his chest as his twin slid his hands beneath her skirt.
“If he takes her into the back, I’m going to be sick.” Kelly bit a knuckle.
Shay shook his head. “All he cares about is screwing her. And he thinks he’s my exact duplicate. That’s not me.”
She glanced at him. “No, it’s not. But you once were obsessed with women. Your reputation was well-known even among Arcanes. Oh, you had too much honor to do that,” she said, flicking a hand at his twin. “But all the servants talked about Master Samuel sneaking lovers out of the mansion when dawn broke.”
Guilt pricked his conscience. “House gossip. Rumors.”
“That’s what I said, until I cleaned your room and found boxes of condoms in your closet.”
No condemnation, just resignation. Stricken, he stared at the mirror image of himself, remembering his twin’s mocking words. Kelly was right. And he still was a womanizer. Everyone knew it, from his tight unit to the support staff on ST 21.
I’m not like this anymore.
Yes, you are. After the fire, the old ways were comforting and familiar.
It sickened him to see tears rolling down the young waitress’s cheeks as the fake Shay nuzzled her neck.
Shame gnawed through him. “He’s got my DNA stamped into his body. He’s like me. He uses women for sex and then moves on.”
“Did you ever force a woman?”
“No!”
“This one seems intent on it. And that’s not you, Sam. You may have been a womanizer, but you’re no bastard. If you were, I’d never have become your lover.”
“Why did you?”
Her soft gaze met his. “Because I believed in you, not your reputation. It wasn’t the sex. It was your kindness, your generous nature and your compassion for others. You always treated everyone, even the lowest servant, with great respect. And you saw me as a woman, not an Arcane.”
She looked at him tenderly, as if touching the broken pieces inside him, willing them to mend. Too overwhelmed by her deep faith in him, he could not speak. Reaching up, he caressed her cheek with a finger.
Then he dropped his hand and glanced at the restaurant.
“We’ve got to get him away from her. I have an idea.”
Two streets away, he turned onto a deserted street. Shay scanned the area and saw an abandoned hotel. He picked the lock and opened the door. A waft of stale air greeted him. The lobby smelled of mildew. Shay ran a finger over the dusty front counter. How long had this village been enchanted?
“How fast can you run?” he asked.
“I’m a good sprinter.”
“You don’t have to go far. Go back to the restaurant, lead him here and I’ll be waiting.”
“I can outrun him, but not if he calls on his Arcane magick,” Kelly said.
“He’s too damn drunk to remember how to use his powers.”
“Ah. I guess...it’s a good thing you know him so well.”
Guilelessly she looked at him. Sam’s heart kicked hard. So pretty, and honest. Honesty was something he valued, because in his job, he sometimes had to lie.
And in your personal life, too, the little voice inside him added.
“If he looks like he’s going to use magick, start screaming. No one will care but me.”
“Be careful.” Kelly touched his arm.
He hesitated, desp
erately wanting to kiss her and hold her against him as he had before. Shay nodded, watching her jog back.
Hovering by the doorway, he cupped his pistol and waited.
A few minutes later he heard the sound of footsteps in the street running fast. “Tag, you’re it,” she sang out.
Shay pointed his Sig and aimed.
“Can’t you run faster, you drunk monkey? Twenty feet behind me, and you’re ready to fall over.”
She’d given her pursuer’s position. Good girl.
Kelly hooked a right and ran toward Shay. His twin was on her heels. Seeing Shay, Kelly dropped and rolled clear. Shay fired at his twin’s left thigh.
The Mage screamed and released a string of curses Shay knew too well as he clutched his leg and fell down.
Shay dragged him into the hotel lobby and searched his quarry. Kelly ran inside and shut and locked the door.
“Draw the curtains,” he ordered. He trained his gun on the fake Shay. “Where the hell are those kids?”
“I don’t know.” His twin was cursing as blood seeped between the fingers pressed against his leg. “Goddammit, that hurts, you bastard.”
Placing a foot on the man’s groin, he aimed the pistol at his other leg. “A shattered kneecap hurts worse. First, another bullet in your thigh, right into the muscle. Then a kneecap. I’ve got time and ammo. Tell me where the children are.”
Panic flared in the man’s hazel gaze. Shay felt disoriented, as if looking into a mirror image of himself.
It’s not you.
“You’ve got ten seconds. Nine, eight, seven...”
“They aren’t here,” the twin burst out. “They’re not even in the country!”
Behind him, Kelly gasped.
“Where. Are. They?”
“The master refused to tell me. My orders were to find you both and kill you but not damage your body too much. Her, it didn’t matter.” Shay’s twin pointed to Kelly.
Frustration and anger snaked through him. “Are they in the United States?”
No answer. Shay fired a bullet into his other thigh. The man screamed. Kelly paled but remained silent.
“Yes, but I don’t know where! Only the master knows.”
“Who set us up at the LZ? The admiral? Curt?”
“I’m just like you. I’ll never tell.”
Holding on to his fraying temper, Shay shook his head. “You’re too weak to pull this off alone. No matter how much you look like me, you’re not.”
“Fuck you.”
Shay retained his cool. No way would this bastard get under his skin. But the man’s expression shifted and turned crafty. A chill snaked down his spine. He knew the expression, knew what it meant. Had used it on the enemy before to interrogate. Find the weak spots...
“I may look like you, but I’m stronger. I’d never let a stupid yearly tradition weaken me. Sentimental rubbish.”
Shay went still.
“The one time of year when the big, bad navy SEAL turns to mush.” The other tilted his head as if listening. “I can hear the Christmas carols playing now. The favorites, of course. So pathetic. A ritual for rotting corpses.”
“Stop it,” Shay ordered. The knife in his heart gave a vicious twist.
“Pretty, shining, sparkling tinsel,” he murmured. “So festive, fluttering in the wind. His favorite. You couldn’t save him because you were too busy fucking that slut, so every year you invade the stores like the other losers. But you’re all alone, Samuel Shaymore, so sad and alone, celebrating a holiday no one will celebrate with you. Your father would be so ashamed....”
Fury and grief collided together, adrenaline shooting through his body. Shay pointed his weapon at the man’s face.
“Good thing he’s dead and you can’t disappoint him anymore.”
“Shut up,” he screamed.
“Sam, don’t let him do this to you.”
Shay glanced at Kelly and saw the pity and anger tightening her face. “Kelly, get back, now!”
“You went from rebelling against the old man to trying to make him proud. Do exactly as he would have wanted. That’s the only reason you became a SEAL. You rescue others but couldn’t save your own little brother.”
A beseeching look from his twin. “Please, Sammy, save me. Please, it’s hot. It’s so hot, and you promised to sing for me. You promised, you lied...”
“Oh, Sam,” Kelly whispered.
“Oh, Sam,” the other mocked. “You saved yourself and let them die.”
“Don’t listen to him. This bastard wanted you as a sacrifice because of your courage and honor, remember?”
Shay’s fingers curled tightly around his weapon. Courage. Honor. He was a U.S. Navy SEAL and a powerful Phantom Mage, not some ass-kicked whimpering fool....
He was a soldier, and no one caught him off guard....
Goddammit!
“Kelly, down,” he yelled, spying the move, seeing the stiletto the fake Shay fished out of one boot.
Shay dropped and fired as his twin threw the knife. The blade landed in the wall, where Kelly’s chest would have been.
Blood dribbled from the hole in his twin’s forehead as the man stared sightlessly at the ceiling. Shay put a finger against the man’s neck and checked his pulse to make certain.
This is what I’ll look like dead.
And then the corpse shimmered and shifted into a square-jawed man with features nothing like his, a body that had gone to fat. The duplicate’s true form.
Taking a deep breath, he expunged the grief and shame, purging it from his system.
“Sam, are you okay?”
“Fine,” he snapped. “Next time, listen to me when I tell you to stay back. Do I have to save your life twice?”
Hurt filled her wide blue eyes. Shay rubbed his nape. “I’m sorry, Kelly. But you need to listen to me when I give an order.”
Her gaze fell to the dead man. “We have to bury him before someone finds the body.”
“No need,” he said curtly. “Stand over there, by the door.”
Summoning his powers, he directed a sizzling current of energy at the corpse. It imploded, leaving behind a mound of gray ash. He went to the wall and leaned against it. Gods, he was exhausted.
Kelly placed a reassuring hand on his arm as he holstered the pistol. He hated how she kept looking at him as if expecting him to break down and cry.
Not him. That was saved for one precious day every year.
“We need answers,” he muttered, more to himself. “Someone here has to know something.”
“Even if we could question the villagers, it’s useless. They’re enchanted. There’s no way to break the spell.”
He remembered the book of spells. “Maybe there is.”
* * *
A hardened soldier walked beside her, gaze scanning the area, his muscled body tensed and coiled for action. When they reached the shop, they found the book of spells still open on the counter, and Sam slid on black gloves he’d found in his pack. With extreme care, he turned the pages. “The spell to enchant them has to be in this book, so the counterspell must be here, as well.”
Kelly shook her head. “You won’t find it like that. Every Arcane spell has a counterspell, but they’re hidden.”
She pointed to the spidery writing. “This is a book of darkness, so the opposite would be...”
“Light,” Sam finished.
Outside, he placed the book on the ground in the direct sunlight. Nothing happened.
And then she walked around the book to read it upside down. Faint writing appeared around the edges of each page.
“Here.”
Sam squinted and shook his head. “Singing chant. I can try this, but I’m no Arcane. I can’t carry the correct notes.”
“I can.”
Lifting her hands skyward, she closed her eyes. Power hummed through her body. She recited the spell, calling on the good, strong light to cast away the darkness of sleep holding the townspeople hostage.
Kelly op
ened her eyes and caught Sam’s sharpened gaze. “I felt something in the air. Let’s see if it worked.”
“Wait.” He knelt down and leafed through the pages. “We need to find a spell to contain this book, keep the dark magick at bay.”
Sam scanned the pages and tapped the parchment. “Here’s a locking spell. Try this.”
Stunned, she stared at him. They’d been in such a hurry before, she’d failed to notice.
“Sam, this is a book for Arcanes. How can you read the spells? They should be obstructed to an Elemental. My ancestors guarded this book from your people.”
He glanced down. “I’ll be damned.”
Expression guarded, he touched the book. “Doesn’t matter now. Chant the spell and lock up the book. We need to take it with us.”
After, they gathered their packs and went into the street. People looked dazed as they stumbled down the sidewalks, shaking their heads as if dispelling a long sleep. Sam went still and swore.
Kelly’s heart dropped to her stomach.
The dark enchantment holding the townspeople hostage had cloaked them, as well. People of all ages and races walked the streets. Dark-skinned. Pale. She glimpsed a redheaded girl about her age accompanying an Asian boy. They looked like college students.
A golden haze surrounded each person. Kelly gasped.
“They’re not locals. They’re Elementals. How did they get here?”
His jaw turned to granite. “The rogue Arcanes probably rounded them up to make the mass extermination easier.”
Kelly stopped a woman wearing skinny jeans and a scoop-necked yellow shirt. She looked American and about eighteen years old. The girl hoisted her backpack, looked at her and smiled.
“Are you an Elemental?” Kelly asked in English.
The girl beamed. “You headed to the festival, too? Sweet. I heard there’s a record number of attendees this year. This town rocks. None of those slimy Arcanes for miles.”
The insult stung. “I’m an Arcane,” Kelly said.
Immediately the girl squinted, as if examining Kelly’s aura. Her expression changed. “What the hell do you want, bitch? I’m late meeting my friends.”
“Whoa.” Sam pushed himself between the girl and Kelly. “Easy now. We’re looking for answers. What brought you here?”