"Honey, I'm sure they made that guy exactly like Lendill in every way except one. Scent doesn't lie and that guy not only had a different scent, but he had taint all over him. You don't get that tainted in the space of a few hours. It would take years to get that bad. Come on; let's go looking for the real thing. I have a feeling he's in trouble."
Norian finally capitulated, dressed himself and I folded him back to Xindis. It's a good thing we went when we did—Lendill was in the fight of his life. The whole ASD headquarters had been ransacked and Lendill was involved in a shoot-out. If Norian and I hadn't shown up, they might have killed Lendill—he was in the middle of two sets of enemies, huddling behind a brick column outside headquarters when I grabbed him up as mist. I dropped him and Norian on top of the building and then zipped down to street level to take out a few snipers.
* * *
"Lissa Beth, you could have left at least one of them alive so we could question them," Norian grumbled later, as six bodies were lined up—all headless—inside ASD headquarters.
"They were all shooting, what did you want me to do?" I did some grumbling myself. Yeah, Norian was right, but my adrenalin had been pumping and I took them all out before I even realized we might need one of them.
Lendill had been shocked when Norian told him what we'd seen. "Now what do I do? They'll be hunting for me for sure." He was pacing and fretting over the whole incident.
"Do you recognize any of these?" I pointed to the six bodies. Norian shook his head. They were all Solar Red, according to him.
"Then I'll try a little trick I learned from the Larentii," I said, and walked over to one of the heads. Normally, I'd have matched up body parts by scent, but these had something blocking their smell—as if someone worried the scent might incriminate them. I was forced to match clothing, instead, and I kept the scenting problem to myself—no sense in worrying Lendill or Norian more than they were already. I set about using power to change the appearance of the head and body I'd chosen, until we had a third replica of Lendill. "There," I said. "Now, let's scatter two or three of these f**kers around, make it look like a takedown and then dump the others on Tykl."
Norian had been watching me with shocked fascination as I'd disguised the attacker to look like Lendill. He also called somebody and told them where the three bodies would be on Tykl, in addition to asking them to investigate the entire mess there at headquarters. We'd have to find another place to stay.
None of us was happy when we had to leave most of our clothing and supplies behind—it would look suspicious if we didn't. I took one complete change of clothes with me, as did Norian and Lendill. I folded them back to the hotel in Rezael, after borrowing a credit chip from Flavio. He'd been wakened from a sound sleep but it couldn't be helped and I Pulled the credit chip in and let Lendill use it, after altering his appearance. He now looked like the third most beautiful man I'd ever met.
"Lissa Beth, life just keeps getting stranger and stranger around you," Norian had fists on hips when we got inside the hotel room.
"Honey, you have no idea how strange things can get if you stick around, and we haven't even made a dent in that thirty years yet," I informed him.
"I'll need new equipment," Lendill ventured to say. Honestly, the poor man was probably still in shock. I know I would be if I found out somebody had manufactured a twin who was meant to take my place, and then gotten attacked by those who wanted my twin to take over. And the fact that his face no longer looked like his own had to be the biggest surprise of all. At least he was extremely handsome now and likely would have to fend off women wherever he went.
"Can we get what you need on Le-Ath Veronis?" I asked.
"Probably."
"Good. We'll go there. I desperately need to soak in the hot tub and we have that f**king hearing on Cloudsong tomorrow."
"As long as you get me back here the minute it's over," Norian huffed. "We have work to do here. I need to contact one of the twenty." Well, maybe he was on a first name basis with all of them. How was I to know? I truly didn't care, either. I folded us to Le-Ath Veronis.
"No, I made him look like Flavio. That's Lendill Schaff." I'd explained it for maybe the fifteenth time since we showed up in the kitchen of my palace to see if we could find something to eat. Rolfe was there and watching us. He even sat with us to have a snack, once he discovered it was Lendill and not Flavio. The Head of Earth's Vampire Council still carried a lot of clout.
Norian and Lendill went off to grab equipment, Rolfe promised to find Lendill a bedroom and I yawned the whole way to my bed. Drake and Drew discovered I'd come back—I'm sure Rolfe sent mindspeech but I didn't call him out on it. I had two Falchani in my bed when I reached my suite, and they let me sleep. Eventually.
* * *
"Raona, wear this for the hearing." Taff and Mora were making suggestions on what to wear to Cloudsong. I had a headache—big surprise. Norian had come and was trying to herd me around. Not only that, but nearly all my mates had shown up, including Karzac. Roff was rustling his wings as he watched me fret, Drake and Drew had dressed in full battle leathers, with both blades strapped across their backs. Erland and Wylend had come; Gavin wore his old shuttered look. Garde was blowing smoke and the Larentii were watching everybody.
Then all the casino owners began to filter in. At least they were forced to stand in the hallway outside my suite; my guards wouldn't let them near me. I had no idea what they thought about all this and I'd been afraid to Look. Nobody had come to report to me either, over any of this. I think I was thankful for that. Mora ended up handing me a light-blue silk tunic with dark-blue loose trousers. A belt that matched the trousers was wrapped around my waist, and then shoes that matched the belt were slipped on my feet. At least I would be color-coordinated when things went to hell in a handbasket.
One of my Larentii folded everybody who wanted to go, which turned out to be quite a crowd. Grey House had brought around fifteen—Glendes, Raffian, Shadow and the other Master Wizards were there, plus their legal counsel, I presumed. Then there was Melida and Marid—I had to Look to determine who they were since I'd never met them. There weren't many seats inside the Hall of Hearings for an audience, either—only the major players were allowed to sit. And then we had to rise for the entrance of the King of Cloudsong, his remaining son and the judge appointed by the King to preside over this circus.
We got to sit again once the King sat. If he ever came to Le-Ath Veronis, I intended to make the f**ker stand.