XXXVII
Clones
Something, whatever it is, is happening to Iana. She felt more powerful, and fulfilled. Her thoughts seemed to lighten and her mood brightened up.
She didn’t know what was happening, but when she started singing to Jack, she felt it. That weightless giddy feeling that makes you want to yell out in joy.
Light enveloped her figure, and for a moment, Iana couldn’t see anything because of it. She squinted her eyes at the brightness, hoping it would fade away. Though the light did not fade, Iana knew what was past its barriers.
Jason and… Jack, were looking in astonishment. Their mouths gaped open as they were frozen in shock at what they were seeing. But all Iana wanted was to be able to push the light away and run into Jack’s arms.
“Jack!” She yelled. He didn’t hear. She repeated his name a couple more times, but he still did not hear.
The feeling of lightness increased, and Iana felt dizzy. She fell to the ground in a moment of weakness, and though Jack was near, it did not stop the incessant shivering that overtook her body.
The second her knees touched the cold wood, Iana was overtook in warmth. Arms wrapped around her figure, and she burrowed in the warmth that was holding her. The shivering stopped immediately, and Iana felt tons better than a few minutes ago.
Though she still felt the strength and power, she still felt herself.
“Oh Iana,” Jack whispered into his love’s hair. Finally, finally, he got to touch her again, to feel the soft endless plains of her skin, and the smell of her hair. “I’ve missed you so.”
“Me too,” Iana whispered, “so, so much Jack.”
Jack clutched Iana tighter to him. He was almost afraid that if he held her too loose, she would be ripped from his grasp.
“Uh, Jack? Iana?” Jason said behind them, and Jack faced him. Guards, geared up with fatal looking weapons, were slowly circling around them.
In seconds Jack was up and in a defense position with Iana behind him. The only thing that mattered right then was that Iana would not be taken from Jack. Not now, not ever.
The air around Jack was static with ice shocks, and everybody but Iana backed up cautiously. Instead of moving back, Iana stood next to Jack, taking his hand in her own and giving it a light squeeze of reassurance.
Jack remembered that she’s not as fragile as she was when she was kidnapped. She’s received her powers, fully. And Jack will never forget the image of Iana air born in a white circle of light. It was beautiful to see her change.
Her hair only got more luminescent. Her lips, more full and blood red. Her skin was of the finest threaded gold, perfectly tanned to flawlessness. Those eyes… the sea didn’t hold anything close to how blue and pure they were. Not only those, but her figure also filled out. Her hips became more curvaceous, her arms more lined with muscle, and her legs more soft and shiny.
Jack broke out of his daze, and went back to staring deadly at the guards surrounding the three. Again, the air around Jack and Iana went up in ice shocks. But now that Iana was holding his hand, the shocks were more intensified.
“Iana,” Jack whispered, and she turned to look at him. “Don’t show that you’ve come into your powers. They’ll use it against you.”
Iana nodded, and turned back to look at the guards in front of her. Jack knew if that looks could kill, every one of these guards would be dead by his love’s icy glare.
Someone clapped behind them, and in a split second Jack was facing the perpetrator with Iana behind him again. When Jack saw who was clapping, his lip curled up in disgust. “Barron,” he snarled.
“Jackson,” Barron replied simply.
It had been a couple hundred years since Jack had last seen Barron, but oh how he remembered him well. The old bastard always looked the same in every lifetime. He was the same every life, scavenging of innocent rich ladies and using them to breed his kin, before sending them off, divorcing them, or killing them.
Barron began walking around Iana and Jack, eyeing them warily.
“You see Jack,” he started, “I’m tired of having to die and grow up all over again, just to be at the same rate of progress every life. I’m tired of doing it all over again, and I intend for this to be the last life I ever need.”
The way Barron looked at Iana with want while he said the last sentence stiffened Jack’s body, and he clenched his bare fists, that were now icing over.
“So,” Barron had started to circle around Jack and Iana, watching them closely and carefully. “Hand over your dear Iana, and nobody well be harmed. Well,” Barron chuckled, “most wont.”
That was Jack’s ending point.
Jack hurled spike after spike of ice at Barron, but none seemed to hit him. The bastard’s been consuming other souls too, giving the illusion effect he’s using on Jack.
“Don’t be a coward Whelp,” Jack snarled, looking for the real Barron, now that there were tons of them in the places of the guards. Jack heard Jason curse under his breath, scared or confused, he didn’t know.
“I’m right here Jack,” the clones of Barron said, and it sounded like an echo. “Just find me.” The Barron clones laughed.
Jack twirled, trying to find the real Barron, but the others were too convincing.
A hand on Jack’s shoulder stilled him from his frantic spinning, and he focused on who was touching him. By the way his shoulder flared up in heat and tingles, he knew it was Iana.
He tried to turn around, by Iana whisper shouted a no. “They can’t see me. I’ve been invisible to them the whole time. Only you and Jason can see me. I learned I could do that. Don’t turn around, because then they’ll be able to figure something’s up.” She whispered.
She can choose who she doesn’t want to see her now? Jack asked himself. Incredible.
“Look at their behaviors, look at what they’re doing. The guards are still the clones, they just look like Barron.” Iana whispered in Jack’s ear, and he slightly jumped when he felt her lips touch his neck. It took everything in him not to turn around and envelope her in this grasp.
“Look into their eyes,” she continues to whisper, and wraps her arms around Jack’s waist comfortingly. Again, Jack held in the urge to hug her. “Their eyes all show confusion. Look for the one that has content, and knowledge. That’s Barron.”
Iana’s arms left Jack’s waist, and he suddenly felt cold and empty.
Just think, Jack said to himself, if you follow her directions, you can hold her again.
The thought made Jack internally smile, and he started looking at the Barron clones. Finding the actual Barron was harder than it seemed, he had to watch both their actions and eyes, so either changed when he looked away.
Iana’s words echoed in Jack’s head, and he repeated them to himself as he looked closely at each clone of Barron. Carefully eyeing them, seeing if anything was off or different.
Finally, it came down to two clones, and of course, they were side by side. If this weren’t the situation, Jack would’ve chuckled.
Both clones were absolutely still, their hands behind their backs, their pressed suits with the exact wrinkles. The faces of both were expressionless, as if nothing ever fazed them, and that just made it harder.
Though Jack was repulsed by the idea, he circled the clones, just like Barron had to them, and checked everything. He circled them, (much to his dismay) three times, before catching something on one of the clones. The right one’s hand was twitching, and his eyes were looking around frantically.
Bingo.
Jack came around to the front, happy not to be circling them anymore, and looked at the left clone, but heading for the right one. He was right in front of the right clone, their noses almost touching.
“It’s you,” he whispered to the clone. But just as he said it, he stabbed the left one, and Jack expected nothing more than the clone (now recognized as Barron) to fall, it did, but something more happened.
It’s appearance changed. As the body hit the ground, the face of Barron morphed into one of the guards.
Jack whipped his head around to the other one, to see it smirking.
“Your right,” it said, “it is me.”
A sharp pain entered Jack’s chest, and he looked down to see a knife through it.
“No!” Iana screamed, and she knew that everybody could see her now.
“Ahhh!” Barron breathed, “you’re finally here!”
Jack dropped to the ground, and Iana following him. She grabbed him and pulled him into her arms, carefully maneuvering him so that it would cause him less pain.
“You bastard!” She screamed, “I was here the whole fucking time!”
Barron momentarily looked surprised, but it was quickly wiped away with his signature smirk.
Iana continued to sob, clutching Jack’s hair in her fists, kissing him all over.
“Iana,” Jack coughed, “it’s okay. I’m okay.”
She shook her head. “Do you see yourself?” She asked, “you have a damn knife plunged into your heart, and you say that you’re okay?”
Jack chuckled, a blood seeping out of his mouth as his breathing became more labored.
“Oh isn’t this a lovely-“ Barron was cut short by a man’s cry. Iana looked and saw Hadean, Barron’s son, slicing his father’s throat. Another body fell to the ground, and footsteps sounded everywhere. The guards ran away now that their leader was dead, and Iana’s father, Cindy, Brandon, and Dean came rushing in, all stopping in their tracks to see the scene before them.
He’d done it. He’d finally done it. He killed his father. After all these long painful years of wishing, it now came true. No more moving, no more commands, nothing.
He was free.
A thought came to Hadean’s mind, and all that mattered was finding Gracie, and leaving with her.
They could do anything that they wanted. Hadean would get his father’s money, company, everything. He would say that his father was killed by someone else, and then everything would be his. He’d sell all the mansions all over the world, pay off the debts his father never got around to paying, and marry Gracie.
Hadean ran through the halls of the mansion, in search of Gracie, frantically looking in every room to see if she was there. He burst through the doors to one of the courtyards, and planned to quickly cross the grassy space, before something caught his eye.
Gracie sits on a fountain to the left of him, her hands tapping the water in the basin. A sigh of relief escapes Hadean’s mouth before he strides over to her and buries her in his arms.
“What the-“ she says.
“I’m so sorry Gracie,” Hadean whispers, and tightens his hold on her.
“Hadean,” Gracie warns, and pushes him back, “what’s going on?”
He started to chuckle, which turned into a laugh, and then into a loud bellow.
“Stop Hadean, tell me what’s going on,” Gracie said, and Hadean saw that something changed in her. She was more serious, and kind, as if she turned her life around in the matter of an hour.
“He’s gone, my father’s dead,” Hadean whispered, looking down, suddenly ashamed, “I killed him.”
He heard Gracie’s breath stop for a minute, before starting again, and he looked up to see her with tears cascading down her cheeks.
“What does this mean?” She asks.
Hadean kissed her full and long, happy to have his lips back on hers again. “You’re mine now, forever.”