A Shade of Vampire 90: A Ruler of Clones - Bella Forrest Page 0,23
them? It sounded counter-productive, but their condition was unique and without precedent. I had no idea how they would react or how to prevent a potentially violent outburst.
Tristan and I had waded into dark and unknown waters. My primary concern was to keep us safe. Nothing else mattered. Nothing, unless Tristan and I were in it together. Looking at the Ghoul Reapers, I understood that they had been betrayed and deceived by Death. Where would I even begin to repair the damage she’d done to them without causing more damage to the universe itself?
Sofia
A few days had tumbled by since Thayen and the others vanished, likely into the same unknown realm that had flooded ours with murderous clones. Two days of feverish waiting and studying every portal remnant the creatures had left behind, thanks to the Daughters of Eritopia. There were hundreds of shimmering portal traces, some newer and others dating back six months. It still boggled the mind to consider this horrifying fact. For half a year, the clones had been coming in and out of this world, and we were no closer to figuring out their agenda.
They had taken Isabelle, Serena and Draven’s daughter, two months ago. Voss, Chantal, and Richard were also missing. Viola had been taken, as well… I could only hope that our son’s crew would bring some justice. That they would recover our people safe and sound.
But in the end, we didn’t know anything. We only had this muted hope while we struggled to find a way into that strange realm. Phoenix was working with Safira and the other Daughters on a way to reverse engineer the shimmering portals, though they were nowhere near a solution. Mona and Kiev had returned, but the witch didn’t have much to add to our investigative efforts—much like Corrine and Shayla and the others, Mona was stumped by this entire affair. This wasn’t about throwing our most powerful witches at the problem—the problem itself pertained to magic and knowledge that none of us had ever dealt with before.
We had put teams in place, each with a witch or a djinn ready to teleport them to wherever a new passageway might open. Derek and I had made a crew of our own for the same purpose, joined by Rose, Ben, and Kailani. Caleb and River were manning the executive side of all things GASP-related, while the rest of our friends and family—Victoria and Bastien included, along with Lucas and Marion, Claudia and Yuri, Eli and Shayla, Tejus and Hazel, Vivienne and Xavier, and Liana and Cameron—focused on making sure each of the deployment teams were fed and equipped with everything they might possibly need for a new and mysterious dimension. Alas, there was only so much preparing we could do…
Waiting was all we had left, and I refused to spend another moment in this damn limbo. A mere hour earlier, I’d decided to take Derek, Ben, Rose, and Kailani to Serena and Draven’s treehouse. Our great-granddaughter and her Druid husband only used it for their holidays since they lived on Calliope, but Isabelle had been spending more time here over the past year, particularly during her training sessions with GASP. She’d once told me she liked The Shade better, though she hadn’t given me any specific reasons why.
The house had already been searched by our agents, and nothing of significance had come to light. I wasn’t sure why I wanted to do another thorough search, but it was the only thing I could think of to stop the anxiety and keep me from falling apart. We needed our wits about us if we had a chance to go after Thayen. My son was missing, and an emotionally distraught mother would not be able to save him.
Keeping busy in this treehouse had seemed like a good idea, and none in my crew had spoken against it. We assigned ourselves different parts of the redwood residence to search. Draven and Serena had built it on three sprawling levels, with each floor designed as a self-sufficient apartment—the top belonged to Isabelle, the middle to her parents, and the bottom was reserved for potential guests from Eritopia. I suspected Draven and Serena had also contemplated having a second child, but given the current madness, it was the last thing on their minds.
“Derek is making them tea,” Kailani said as we searched through Isabelle’s living room. Rose and Ben had the bottom level, while my husband was keeping our great-granddaughter and her soulmate company.