An Isle of Mirrors (A Shade of Vampire #88) - Bella Forrest Page 0,82

vanished.

“We’re trying to get to the Port,” I told Kelara, then dodged Ben’s clone’s fireballs and bolted toward him just as he took out his black spray bottle.

Dafne cried out. I ducked and drove my clawed hand into Ben’s clone’s chest. I felt his heart between my fingers, and I tore it away from the ribcage. The doppelganger fell, stunned by what had just happened, then gave his last breath. I threw his heart on the ground before turning to look for Dafne. More clones were coming for me, but that wasn’t the biggest of our problems.

Isabelle’s copy had gotten the drop on Dafne. They were both down, and the clone was using her charmed cuffs to strangle the ice dragon. Soph was too far away. Astra was fighting off Hazel and Tejus’s doubles, utterly overwhelmed. Jericho tried to get to Dafne, but Field and Astra’s clones rammed into him, and it quickly turned into a bloody brawl.

I scrambled away from the other hostiles and ran toward Dafne. Her eyes had rolled into her head, and I wasn’t sure how much longer she’d last. My heart was racing, as I dreaded the thought of losing anyone in this fight. I threw my hand out, releasing what felt like an invisible lasso. It hit Isabelle’s clone in the chest, and I had her under my glamoring control.

“Stop!” I shouted, but it didn’t seem to be working.

Claudia’s copy slipped past the others and pounced on Dafne and Isabelle’s double. All I could see was a mixture of arms and legs flailing, and I wasn’t sure what was happening. By the time I reached them, Isabelle’s clone was dead, her throat slit, and Dafne was trying to get out from under her. Claudia’s doppelganger had already stepped back, wearing a deranged grin as she admired her bloodied hands. She was holding something.

A small cubic object, perhaps the size of a die, caught the moonlight on its surface. The object…

I tried to take her down, but she whispered “Morfuris” and vanished, leaving me stunned for a few moments. Per GASP protocol, we’d been taught to always carry a red lens on us in case it might be needed. I dug through my pockets and fished one out just in time to see Claudia’s clone running away through the redwood forest, headed straight for the Port.

“Put your red lenses on! We have to stop Claudia’s copy! She took something from Isabelle’s clone!” I shouted. It was happening so fast, I didn’t even have time to fully process Isabelle’s clone’s death or my friends’ injuries. My only reaction was to chase after Claudia’s double. She had something—the one thing that all the other clones had been working so hard to retrieve.

I couldn’t let the monsters have it, no matter what it was. So I ran. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, following someone who’d been modeled after one of the strongest and most resourceful vampires I’d ever had the honor of knowing.

Astra

(Daughter of Phoenix and Viola)

It was as if an invisible force had taken over each of us as we each slipped our red lenses on. The moment we saw Thayen running off into the woods after Claudia’s copy, we understood that our fight here had ended. Whatever Isabelle’s clone had had in her possession, it had been transferred to Claudia’s, and we could not let it leave The Shade. The enemy had gone to great lengths to get it, and we’d be foolish to let them have it.

The thought was collective in our small, frazzled group. One by one, we moved away from the fighting and started running after Thayen. Jericho and I helped Dafne up—she refused to be left behind, even though Stan and Ollie had kept some of the clones away from her. I saw Soul throwing my grandparents’ copies into one of his interdimensional pockets before he moved on to other “elders” of The Shade. Soon Soph was hot on our heels, bolting in the same direction.

We left Kelara’s group to handle what was left of the hostiles, though we were still outnumbered. I didn’t regret the decision, and I knew Kelara wouldn’t blame us for it, either. She hadn’t seen Claudia’s clone running off, but she’d heard Thayen. She understood how important this was.

As we went after Thayen, watching Claudia’s copy a few yards ahead through our GASP-issued red lenses, a peculiar thought occurred to me. We’d gotten strangely accustomed to killing the clones of our friends