the puzzle here, and until we find out what it is, we’ll keep hitting these glass walls.”
The hospital’s ground floor was sparsely populated with a handful of nurses and doctors waiting for any walk-in patients. I didn’t mind. It meant our island was healthy and rarely in need of medical assistance. Besides, we had bigger fish to fry.
Outside, everything seemed peaceful. Warmth permeated the enormous clearing where the hospital had been built—the late spring temperatures helping the citrus blossoms burst open and spread their lemony fragrance all around. The permanent night gave us a starry view of the sky, the moon slowly moving across as it bathed everything in a delicate pearlescent light. For a moment, it seemed as though nothing had really happened.
As though it had only been a wicked dream.
Soul appeared outside, giving us both a surprised look. “What are you two doing out here?” he asked, and I told him about Voss and the sudden lack of comms available.
“Then we’d best get the others,” Soul said, and the three of us headed west. The terrace was only a couple hundred yards away. Beyond the giant old oak trees and the magnolia garden, the Vale humans had erected a cobblestone alley with posh little shops and gourmet bistros, each with an open-air terrace and fresh flowers in cast-iron pots decorating their tables. The whole area was secluded from the hospital’s traffic, making it perfect for the occasional cup of coffee or, in my case, crystal glass filled with fresh deer blood.
It served as our miniature French alley, complete with a sweet water stream—one of the many that flowed through The Shade. We couldn’t see it from here, but I could already smell the latest batch of croissants that had just left the oven. It made me miss my Trakkian days, but I had found different comforts in my life as a vampire.
“I can teleport us over there,” Soul nodded ahead. Both Astra and I were inclined to agree, since time was of the essence at this point, but a familiar voice cut through.
“Stop right there!” Chantal shouted from somewhere behind us. I quickly turned around. We still had a view of the hospital clearing—just enough to see several figures bolting through the woods beyond. Instinctively, I ran toward them, and Astra and Soul followed.
I could see Chantal running, but she wasn’t alone. Soph, Zane and Fiona’s half-daemon daughter, and Voss were with her, just a few yards from the edge of the forest. They were chasing after someone. The sight before us didn’t make sense. “Wait, isn’t Voss—"
“What the…” Astra cut me off, equally stunned. We all recognized the creature they were trying to catch.
“Come on,” Soul said, grabbing us both by the wrists.
“No, wait, Voss is supposed to be up in the hosp—” I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence as everything went black for a split-second. We materialized closer to the chase just as Voss, Soph, and Chantal ran past us. They were going after… Chantal.
“Holy crap,” I blurted, my blood running cold.
There was a clone of Chantal darting between the redwoods and moving at an impressive speed. She threw fireballs back at her pursuers, her skin shimmering silver under the moonlight that pierced through the tree crowns. And the Voss we were seeing… was that a clone or the real one? Who was the Voss we’d left upstairs? My brain could no longer compute this entire sight.
“I said stop!” Chantal demanded, fury drawing a deep shadow between her eyebrows.
Voss shifted into his wolf form and went ahead, getting dangerously close to the clone, while Soph picked up the pace and extended her daemon claws. Chantal flung fireballs back at her doppelganger, careful not to hit Voss in the process.
“Well, this is weird,” Soul mumbled, watching Chantal’s clone shrink in the distance with Voss hot on her trail. Soon they were all tiny dots against the dark green backdrop of the forest.
“We need to go back to the hospital,” I said. “Voss!”
It didn’t take long for the realization to fully sink in.
“Oh, no,” Soul managed, finally realizing what I’d been trying to say. Not that I could really blame him. This whole situation was confusing to all of us.
He grabbed us both again, teleporting our stunned asses straight back to the hallway outside of the clone’s room, where Voss’s doppelganger was already hard at work on breaking the door open. He wasn’t able to get through, however, despite the weird-looking bladed object he’d been