A Shade of Vampire 90: A Ruler of Clones - Bella Forrest Page 0,70

recording, saying the exact same thing, followed by Serena’s laughter. As soon as Phoenix pulled the screwdriver back, the sounds went away, and a heavy silence settled over the Great Dome.

“What the hell is this?” Ben muttered, staring at the cube.

Phoenix turned it over several times until he found a small hole to connect a wired pin. “It’s a storage and projection device,” he said. “It’s electronic, though the circuitry shouldn’t be able to function like this. My guess is that foreign magic is at least partially responsible. See these?” he added, pointing at tiny crystal dots that had been glued to a small green square. “These are quartz inserts, and that’s jade. They’re not supposed to work this way. The metals and wires are excellent conductors, yes, but the precious and semiprecious gemstones are an aberration in this setting.”

Derek and I looked at one another. “Isabelle’s clone was recording us,” I said.

“But what was the point of keeping the recordings here, in The Shade?” Esme asked. That was a good question, but none of us had an answer. “I would’ve taken these back to my leader, if I had one. I’m assuming she had one.”

“Someone is absolutely calling the shots with these creatures,” Rose sighed.

It took a few more tries and inspections with other strange-looking tools, but Phoenix was finally able to tap into the cube’s video source. He’d found the right switch on the circuit board, pointing the display lens at a flat white surface—a sheet of paper that Kailani held up for him. Images danced across it, accompanied by muffled voices and crackling music. “It’s a party,” the witch said. “With… guitar music. Holy crap, I remember this. Voss’s birthday from a month ago!”

“I need a bigger surface,” Phoenix told her. “The image and the sound are both displayed and limited by their projection surface. That sheet of paper won’t do if we want to see and hear the full picture.”

Kailani nodded and walked over to the nearest glass pane, pressing both palms against it. It turned matte white, and Phoenix brought the cube over, careful not to disturb the improvised contraption of pincers and pliers that made this projection possible. The closer he got to the white pane, the better we could see and the louder we could hear.

Yes, there was music playing. Field was strumming heavily on a Spanish guitar. They were on the beach beneath a starry night sky. “They’re near The Shade’s extension,” Kailani said. “I know that area.”

We were all quiet, watching the scene unravel before us. Field and Aida sat on a tall rock. He handled his guitar while she fawned over him, love leaving her face aglow. Below, a campfire had been lit. Voss and Richard were laughing and adding more wood to the flame. There weren’t many people present, but that had always been Voss’s nature. Isabelle, Chantal, and Astra had been invited, along with Kailani, Hunter, Jovi, and Anjani.

“I think we can make this hotter,” we heard Isabelle say, giggling as she approached the fire, holding something in her hand. It was a bottle of lighter fluid, which she squirted over the flames until they swelled and licked at the night sky. The fire got too big, too fast, startling Field and Aida with its sudden heat. They fell back, vanishing behind the rock.

Voss and the others broke into hysterical laughter, and I couldn’t help but smile when I saw him grinning at Isabelle. “That’ll stop his mewling,” he said, running a hand through his dark shaggy hair. “I keep telling him he’s terrible, but he keeps playing that damn thing anyway.”

A low growl emerged from behind them. Isabelle yelped and jumped back. Voss whirled around just as his mother jumped him in wolf form. She was big enough to knock him down. Voss ended up on his back, Aida licking his face as she held him down with her huge paws. It was a sweet moment, until Chantal smiled and discreetly took Isabelle away from the jolly beach party. We watched them walk up the sandy beach for a while, going deeper into the night and farther from the sounds of music and laughter.

“Did you get it yet?” Chantal asked. Only then did I understand that she was a clone. After all, so was Isabelle in this recording.

“No.”

“How much longer?”

“I don’t know. It’s not easy to find something that not even the witches know they’ve got!” Isabelle’s double replied bitterly. “I don’t need any of you breathing