Page 37 of Vicious
“I wanted to, believe me I did, but I didn’t trust you. You, Ellison, and Randolph were acting so strangely that I thought you must’ve been controlled by a Mind-I. Now I know it wasn’t really any of you at all that I was talking to but some…otherthing.”
Ellison shuddered. “There’s a superstition that if you see your own doppelganger, a copy of yourself, it’s an omen of your death. And I saw mine. Righthere.”
I hugged her to me. “It’s just asuperstition.”
“But if this thing looks like us and talks like us, how will we know who’s real and who’s not?” she asked. “Did the copy of me appear to know everything Idid?”
I nodded. “It was you, only grayer, not as lifelike. I knew something was off about you lately, and it was because that thing definitely wasn’t mysister.”
She pressed her wet cheek against mine, my chains clinking around both of us in a protectivecocoon.
Captain Glenn rubbed at his chin. “If we can somehow make everyone prove they are who they say they are with…I don’t know, a secretcode?”
“We can track everyone’s location if we can rig it correctly.” Ellison dug in her pocket and pulled out a small plastic disk. “Withthis.”
A Mind-I.
“Where did you get that?” Idemanded.
“The engine room on top of Poh’s toolbox. I was helping her paint the metal barrier around the engine and found it before that thing took me.” She looked to Poh. “I hope you don’t mind, but we could really use it. Can you rig it forus?”
I glanced sharply at Poh, who nodded. Betrayal sizzled under my skin. She’d had a Mind-I this whole time and hadn’t said a rusted word about it. “It was just lying out in the open,huh?”
Poh winged up her eyebrows, making her gray scales appear misaligned down the center of her face. “Not possible. I’ve been looking for a Mind-I everywhere, and there definitely wasn’t one anywhere near mytoolbox.”
“Well, now we have one,” I said, my voice hard. “So I guess you don’t need to lookeverywhereanymore.”
Randolph eyed Poh from the doorway. “Did the seventh lifeform on our ship put the Mind-I on your toolbox for you to find? Is the thing working for you, or is it the other wayaround?”
Poh fingered her holster where her gun was supposed to be. “I work for noone.”
“You work forme,” Captain Glenn barked. “We need that Mind-I to be able to pick up all of our locations on this ship. You said you might be able to make that happen. Is that still thecase?”
“Yes, Captain. That’s still the case.” She moved toward the hallwaydoor.
I dodged in front of her, kicking the tray that Ellison had used to smash into the seventh lifeform’s head. “Where do you think you’regoing?”
“I need tools if I’m going to rig the Mind-I. I would also like some sort of weapon since that thing stole my gun.” She gestured to her empty knife straps down both legs. “And I haven’t seen my knives indays.”
Wariness rolled off of me in thick waves. That, and disappointment that I could no longer trusther.
“Use tools from the kitchen like I do.” I jabbed my finger at the air behind her, barely containing a snarl. “You’re not goinganywhere.”
11
Before lunch,Mase helped me clean up the dining room while Poh and Randolph went to the infirmary for another gurney table. We probably should’ve stuck with it in the first place, but our hope that the ship had been cleared of all threats had clouded reality. Lessonlearned.
Despite the crew’s continued search for the doppelganger, it hadn’t been found again. I had a feeling it wouldn’t be found until it was good and ready, and then it would likely findus.
“This is why we can’t have nice things on this ship,” Mase muttered at the pile of table and broken dishes. “Except you, of course. You’re extranice.”
“Only to you.” I handed him a garbage bag but not because of my niceness. “I’m going to make cupcakes for dessert tonight. If you’re lucky, I’ll leave a special one on your chair with hearts all overit.”
He took my wrapped wrist, and I stiffened, hoping he wouldn’t ask about it. Or why I had wrapped another rag next to the first. With everything going on lately, I refused to voice what was happening—the scales were slowly spreading. It was stupid, but I couldn’t handle any more more terror. Not right then. But I would deal with it, andsoon.
Mase dropped a kiss on the top of my head, the ends of his blond hair tickling my nose. “I knew there was a reason I loveyou.”
“Well, you should.” I gently unfolded myself from his grip, my gaze pinned to his lit-up arm under his heavy coat. “Remember when you thought you saw Parker on this ship? In the hallway when it was stillhaunted?”
