Exiled Read online

  Sylvan’s delicate features grew grim. “When was the last time anyone spoke to Lauren and Xairn? They may be in grave danger.”

  Chapter Twenty-seven

  L knocked at the door and then slid away quickly, assuming another form. There was a pause and then she watched from the corridor as the door slid open and her original looked out.

  Her original who had been completely unaffected by the device Draven had hired L to plant on the Mother Ship. Everyone else on the damn ship was in an uproar—but not L’s original or her man. As far as L could tell, the two people she hated most in the universe were doing just fine. They had each other and they were perfectly happy and unaffected by Draven’s grand revenge scheme.

  It made L so angry she had taken out the crystal surveillance device he had given her to wear and ground it to shards beneath her heel. She was certain that had pissed the Hoard Master off but she really didn’t care—she had no intention of ever returning to his horrible planet. Instead, she was going to stay here and take her revenge into her own hands.

  To that end, she’d been watching her original, tracking her every movement for the past few days, observing everything she did, listening in on every conversation. She’d had several good opportunities to kill her already but for some reason she hadn’t taken them.

  L wasn’t sure what kept her from completing her revenge. Maybe it was the memories or maybe the same emotional weakness that had been growing inside her since she had spared Kat’s life instead of killing her. She hated her original with every fiber of her being—she was sure she did. And yet…and yet somehow she just couldn’t bring herself to do the final deed.

  The weakness ends now, L told herself firmly. This is it. They’re looking for me everywhere—I can’t hang around here forever. I have to do what I came to do and get out.

  L watched as her original looked up and down the seemingly empty corridor.

  “Hello? Is anyone there?” Lauren looked perplexed.

  L allowed herself a small smile, although it didn’t really show in the form she had taken. She was disguised as part of the curving silver wall. Taking an inorganic form was difficult and exhausting but it was only for a moment. As soon as her original turned her head to look down the hallway, she melted into a more familiar form and stepped forward.

  “Oh, Olivia!” Lauren put a hand to her chest. “What are you doing here? You scared me to death! Or…er…” she frowned. “Is that you or Baird? Sorry, it’s just…everything is so confusing now.”

  “It’s me,” L said in a perfect imitation of the blonde Earth girl’s voice. “I just came to tell you we found a way to switch everyone back. Ugh…” She put a hand to her back and stroked her fully rounded abdomen. “Can I come in and sit down? Ever since I switched bodies back with Baird I feel more pregnant than ever.”

  “Of course you can.” Lauren patted her own belly, which was also curving, though not nearly as much. “I know the feeling—I get more preggy every day.”

  “Thanks.” L waddled past her into the spacious living area. “Oh…” she sighed as she sank down into one of the plush couches. “That’s better. Where’s Xairn?”

  Lauren shut the door. “He’s out running an errand. I wanted to go with him but he asked me to stay put—they still haven’t caught that weird whatever it was impersonating Kat, you know?”

  “Yes.” L stood and began to shift, her features flowing and changing as she assumed her original form—the one that was identical to the female across from her. “I know.”

  * * * * *

  Lauren felt like her heart had just frozen in her chest. The face staring back at her was her own, down to the last detail. She knew at once who it was—her clone. The one they had left behind in the splicing district of O’ah.

  “Oh,” she whispered, putting a hand to her chest. “It’s you.”

  “Yes, it’s me.” The clone stepped forward, a cold light gleaming in the amber eyes identical to Laruen’s. “The one you left behind, hundreds of light years from the planet my memories told me was home. The one you left to be sold into the skin trade, to satisfy the animalistic lusts of any male with enough credit to buy me. The one he found unacceptable—defective. Disgusting. All because I wasn’t really you.”

  All Lauren’s instincts told her she should run but emotion kept her rooted to the spot. Ever since she and Xairn had fled the splicing district of O’ah, she had feared, in the back of her mind that this day would come.

  At first she’d been angry and scared that the clone of her had been made at all. But later she’d begun thinking of it from the clone’s perspective—after all, it wasn’t her fault she’d been made. And if she really did have all Lauren’s memories, if she actually thought she was Lauren, how horrible must it have been to be left behind, to see their ship blast off and leave her stranded on an alien world so far from home. To know she could never, ever get back…

  “Oh,” she whispered, coming forward. “I’m so sorry. So, so sorry.”

  “What?” The clone had raising some kind of a weapon—to Lauren it looked like a syringe filled with green goo—but she stopped in mid-motion and frowned at Lauren instead. “What did you say?”

  “We never should have left you there,” Lauren whispered, holding out a hand to the other girl. “You must hate me so much.”

  “I do.” The clone lifted her chin but some of the fire had gone out of her eyes. “I’ve been planning how to kill you ever since you left me.”

  The threat was frightening, of course but Lauren thought she heard something else in it as well. A plea for recognition, perhaps. The cry of anger and pain from a lost, frightened child who has been shut out in the cold night.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said again, holding out both hands this time and taking another step forward. “We left you in that horrible place with no one to trust, no one to care for you. No way to get home.” She shook her head. “I don’t have any excuses to give you except that I was scared half out of my mind. The idea of being replaced, of Xairn abandoning me for someone who looked just like me—who practically was me—was so frightening I couldn’t face it. I had to run away.”

  “That was exactly how I felt. I wanted to run away too.” The other girl’s voice wobbled, just a bit. “But there was nowhere to go.” She swiped at her eyes angrily. “I remembered growing up in California, remembered Mom. My childhood there, the first boy I ever kissed. High school. College. Opening a bakery. Being taken up to the Scourge father ship and held. Falling in love with Xairn…but none of those were my memories. They were yours.”

  “They’re yours too,” Lauren whispered. “You’re part of me, don’t you see? You’re like the sister I never had.”

  “Stop it!” the clone barked angrily. “Stop pretending to care!”

  “You know I’m not pretending,” Lauren said softly. “You know because you have my thoughts and feelings and memories. You know because you are me.”

  “Not anymore.” The clone crossed her arms protectively over her chest. “I took another path. I toughened up—did what I had to survive.”

  “And I don’t blame you for that,” Lauren said. “But deep down under all that, you’re still me. Still the same basic person. So you know when I say I care, that I’m sorry, I mean it with all my heart.”

  “I’m a trained assassin! A shadow caster,” the clone protested, taking a step backward. “I could kill you in the blink of an eye.”

  “You could,” Lauren admitted. “You still can if you want, but that won’t heal your heart or stop the pain. Only love can do that.”

  “What are you talking about?” the other Lauren scoffed. “Are you saying you love me?”

  “I don’t know because I don’t really know you. But I could,” Lauren said softly. “Mom could too.”

  “She wouldn’t want me!” the clone protested. “You’re just saying anything you can to save your life.”

  “That’s not true and you know it.” Lauren took another step toward t