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Deryn kept the same fake smile up. "I'll go get changed."
Seizing hold of her neck, Alejandro forced her back against
the nearest wall. She yelped and in an instant he had all men
he'd brought with him doing their best to yank him
backwards.
"Colonel!"
He snarled as he stared into whatever the thing before him
masquerading as Deryn was. "Where is my wife?"
She gave him a wide-eyed innocent look. "Alejandro, what
are you doing? It's me. It's Deryn."
Kane came at him fast and Alejandro was left no choice
but to knock his friend away. "No! This is not Deryn. Where is
she?"
"Alex?" Kane staggered and shook his head. "Look at her!
It's ... oh shit ... she offered to cook us lunch! Where's
Deryn?"
Nodding, Alejandro stared into the thing's eyes. "You are
not, Deryn. Tell me where she is!"
As tears began to fill its blue eyes, eyes that looked
identical to Deryn's, Alejandro began to second guess himself.
What if he was wrong?
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Fulk stepped forward. "She didn't seem to know I was
talking to her when I called her bookworm. Our Deryn would
know."
"I am your Deryn," it said, looking as though it were on
the verge of crying.
Alejandro took a deep breath in and shook his head
slightly. "Then tell me what color dress you wore the first
time we made love?"
"Alejandro please. I don't know. I can't remember. I have
so many dresses that I can't remember which one I had on."
Kane gasped. "Where the fuck is our Deryn?"
The thing beneath his hand began to lose its form for a
moment before it flickered back. It smiled and then laughed.
"Your Deryn is living a happy little life with her husband with
you. She's moved on."
Issac moved up next to Alejandro and glared at the thing.
"Colonel, could you excuse me for a moment?"
"No. I want to gut it. Where is my wife?"
It laughed again. "She's fucking you, Colonel."
Issac's magik buzzed all around Alejandro. He let go of the
thing's neck for just a second and Issac used that opening to
thrust his power at it. It hissed and clawed at its skin skin
that looked like his wife's, at least until it began to sizzle.
"Where is Deryn?" Issac asked, his voice not sounding like
his own. It sounded like hundreds of voices wrapped in one. It
was power in its purest form.
The thing spit at him and shook its head. "You worry about
the life of one woman when you should be worried about the
lives of your people, prince?"
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Issac ignored its goading. "Sir?"
"Yes."
"It won't tell us where she is. Want to kill it now?"
Alejandro let his claws protrude from his fingertips. "Yes."
* * * *
Crouching, Alejandro glanced toward Fulk who was moving
up from the other side. They'd spent the last hour casing the
area. Issac had managed to latch onto the residual magik
that the kektaus had left behind. So far, they'd bounced all
over the world, opening portal after portal and ending up at
various locations. In the four days they'd searched endlessly,
each spot had led them to another Deryn impostor. It had
even gotten to the point that they'd come across kektaus
posing as Ondrea as well.
A little part of him, one that he didn't want to think about,
was beginning to wonder if Deryn was still alive. Leaving her
behind had been the worst thing he could have done. Had he
just kept her with him she'd be safe, by his side. Now, as he
looked around at the tropical rain forest they'd walked into
from a portal, he couldn't help but wonder what he'd do if
Deryn truly had moved on without him or with who she
thought was him.
His gut churned as he edged out further and broke through
to a clearing. There, in the full sun was Deryn, or at least a
semi close replica of her. He sighed. This one had some
obvious differences. One, being the fact it was running about
in full and direct sunlight. Another was that it wasn't trying to
hide the slayer portion of itself. It also had on a long white
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cotton wrap skirt and a matching bikini top. Its hair was piled
up onto top of its head, leaving tendrils falling over its
shoulders.
"Deryn doesn't have tattoos on her wrists," Kane said,
moving up next to him.
He was right. She didn't.
"Look," Fulk said, pointing towards a rather nice looking
white house.
Alejandro spotted Ondrea there or something pretending
to be her anyway. This one's hair was longer than Ondrea's.
She was also busy talking with a man who had his back to
Alejandro. When he turned, Alejandro couldn't believe his
eyes. It was him, or at least it looked just like him. For the
most part anyway. The impostor's hair was about three
inches longer than Alejandro's and his choice of clothing
wasn't something he would have selected.
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