Page 51 of Ever Dark Academy, Vol. 7

“You understand, my dear,” Seeyr said suddenly. “All these slices sense that something is wrong with them. They are missing something. Perhaps many things. For some of them it is worse than for others. But they all have this lack.”

“You say that from the inside of a cell! Both of you are my prisoners and you call me lacking?” The Kaly-slice let out a wild laugh. “Well, what does that mean about the two of you if I can outwit you and yet not be complete?”

“Seeyr is here because she wishes to be,” Fiona reminded her. “I am here because I need to be too.”

“You need to speak to Seeyr yet you are wasting our time talking to me!” The Kaly-slice chuckled. “Go on. Ask her whatever you want. I’ll not interrupt.”

Fiona gave her a deadpan look. “Oh, sure, I’ll just let you listen to it all.”

“I could leave,” the Kaly-slice offered and gestured towards the stairs.

That was the last thing that Fiona wanted her to do. She had the keys to this cell. They needed those. And they would tell the guards that they were enemies. So that was a no go.

“You look a little worried there, Wyvern. Don’t want to be without me?” That taunting smile was back. “I am your beloved Tanis after all.”

“You are not,” Fiona’s voice was arctic.

She couldn’t help wondering how Tanis had been taken over. It was not before she had died. No, it had been after. Had Tanis come to the Order to seek some kind of safety and comfort? No, Tanis wouldn’t have been fooled by this side show like she had been. Her Childe was smarter than that. Warier than that. So a Kaly-slice must have gone after her. Hunted her down and taken her out. Tanis was too smart and powerful to be uncontrolled. A fly in the ointment of Kaly’s beautiful vision of Vampire society.

“So you say. But you don’t want me to leave. And the truth is that even if I leave, it’s not like anything you say in here will be hidden from me,” the Kaly-slice informed her with a flick of her silver eyes up to the black soul gem on the ceiling. “It collects more than power.”

“How convenient! What doesn’t it do?” Fiona chuckled dryly. Then she realized that they had wandered off course. The Kaly-slice was not distracted or angry, but just amused again. Brittlely amused, but still amused. She needed her worked up and ignoring Charlie’s flex of muscles completely. “But we weren’t talking about the black soul gem. We were talking about you. I wonder… are you able to truly change anything you felt from the time you were sliced off of the real Kaly?”

There was a flash of something in the Kaly-slice’s eyes. The real Kaly bit had more than annoyed.

“You’re really getting to the heart of the problem,” Seeyr agreed. “I’ve noticed this myself. As much as these slices believe they can evolve, the core of them–what they were when they were set free–is what still motivates them. No matter what new information is given. No matter how things change. Kaly was trying to rid themselves of unwanted emotions as much as they wanted to explore other Bloodlines when they sliced. So these poor things are rather locked in place.”

“I’ve created the Order. That’s hardly like anything that’s existed before for the Vampires. You act as if I cannot change. But I have changed. I am nothing but change,” the Kaly-slice insisted.

“But you keep going on about Daemon and his Childe. You keep saying the same things over and over again in every iteration that I’ve met you despite what we told you about how things are in the future,” Fiona insisted back. “The real Kaly would adjust their thinking. They wouldn’t continue to squawk the same tired old lines over and over again.”

Charlie had dropped down slightly. He was ready to spring. She just needed to really push this idea of the Kaly-slice being on a one-way track, unable to switch over to something new. Unable to truly adapt.

“I told you that Daemon’s happiness is not our happiness. We can have both–”

“But it is, Kaly. I can truly tell you that there is nothing better than what my life is in that future. What your life is,” she pushed. But then she waved a hand and actually half turned away from the woman. “But you can’t accept this. You can’t even contemplate it. You’re just following the one destiny you have. Unable to get off of it. Unable to change–”

“You are one to talk! You tell me that this future is fixed! You want there to be no choice! You want there to be no way out, but I am going to make change happen. I am going to be the living embodiment of it!” The Kaly-slice roared.

Yes, this was definitely a sore spot. It was as if she had poked at Kaly’s underbelly with a sharp blade. And at this moment, Charlie launched himself at the Kaly-slice. But the Kaly-slice moved even faster. She spun towards Charlie and before he had moved a few inches, she had him around the throat with one hand.

“You really think I didn’t know what you were doing? Trying to get me angry? Trying to distract me from this fool about to pounce?” She gave out a wild laugh. “My goodness, this me in the future must be a complete idiot if you believed I would fall for that.”

Fiona’s heart was in her throat as she saw Charlie’s heels lifted six feet from the ground. He was gagging and tugging helplessly at that squeezing hand. Vampires didn’t need air, but his skin was purpling with bruises. His bones were being crushed. The pain would be intense.

“Stop it!” Fiona cried. “You’re hurting him!”

“I’m going to more than hurt him,” the Kaly-slice said. “He ran away from me last time. But I have him now. I’m going to pin him to a board like a butterfly. I am going to eliminate Mirryr once and for–”

The words seemed to freeze in the Kaly-slice’s throat. Her silver eyes remained fixed on Fiona, but Fiona’s gaze switched to Charlie as something was happening there. He was no longer thrashing or fighting to get away. He was no longer a he either.

Tanis was holding onto Tanis.

Oh, of course, Mirryr needs to touch a Vampire to gain their power. But if he had touched the Kaly-slice that would have drawn her attention. This way Charlie had her touch him. Brilliant, she realized.

The soul gem in Charlie’s pocket was glowing hotly as was the black one in the Kaly-slice’s other hand. Charlie smiled sadly at the Kaly-slice.

“When someone touches me or I touch them, I can do more than just take on their countenance,” Charlie said softly. “I can actually feel what they’re feeling. Know a bit of what they know. Seeyr and Fifi are right. You are incomplete and desperate because of it. All of this is to fill a hole inside of you that can never be filled. Not as you are. But not to worry! We’re going to take you back to yourself. And maybe Balky will finally make it so you can change your mind and accept that the future is good.”