Free Severed by Sarah Alderson

group of Shifters whose wall of shimmer offered some cover. Finally they broke free of the crowd and he could see them heading towards the green glowing exit sign up ahead. He was wondering whether it was now safe to leave them and head back into the club to start this fight when a curtain of shimmer erupted suddenly out of nowhere blocking their path. Evie stumbled backwards, almost banging into him. The shimmer faded almost instantly and two Shapeshifter girls appeared. Lucas was already beside Jamieson and Evie, standing there invisible, sword raised.
    ‘Oh my God!’ shrieked the first girl. ‘You’re so that girl! You’re so her. Aren’t you?’
    ‘Aren’t you?’ squealed the other in unison, jumping up and down.
    ‘Er – what girl?’ Evie tried.
    ‘That girl,’ the first one said, pointing one arm at the pixelating picture on the wall behind them. ‘The one who Lucas Gray is going to die for!’
    Lucas was holding his knife at chest height, pointing it at just the right angle to slide between the ribs and into the left chamber of the girl’s heart. They were completely unaware that the person they were talking about was at that moment standing right in front of them, ready not just to die, but also to kill for that girl .
    ‘Girls,’ Jamieson suddenly burst out laughing, ‘do you really think an on-the-run Hunter would come to a place populated by demons who want to rip her to shreds and scatter her body parts to all corners of the realms?’
    The girls stared blankly at Jamieson and then frowned at Evie.
    ‘But you look just like her,’ the one with the knife against her ribs said unhappily.
    Lucas didn’t want to kill them. It would be like killing puppies. He took a breath, calculating whether he could knock them out instead and drag them somewhere without anyone noticing. Maybe it could look like they’d had too much tequila – be a lesson in under-age drinking. But before he could sheath his knife and bring his hands up to squeeze the nerve at the back of their necks, he caught sight of a ball of shimmer just to his left.
    For half a second Lucas wondered what the hell Jamieson was doing and then he started praying that his sister’s boyfriend was shifting into something good – a lion or a three-metre tall bear, anything that would send them running, screaming, in the other direction.
    But Jamieson went one better.

Chapter 12
    Evie turned to look at Jamieson but he had vanished. There was just the mirror on the wall opposite and her own reflection smiling back at her. It took her a good five seconds to register that she wasn’t staring into a mirror at all, but at Jamieson. He had shifted. Into her. He’d copied every detail, from the camisole strap that had slipped down her arm, to her mussed-up hair, which she’d swept over to one side in an attempt to obscure her face. The only visible difference between them was that he looked a whole lot calmer than she knew she did. And he was smiling. She was fairly certain she wasn’t smiling.
    ‘It’s like totally our thing,’ Jamieson said, turning to the two girls. Evie’s jaw dropped. Was that what she sounded like?
    ‘So don’t copy us, OK?’ Jamieson said, planting one hand on his hip. That was so drag queen. She’d have to talk to him about that. She never stood like that.
    The first girl’s mouth fell open like a dead fish. ‘OH, MY …’
    ‘GOD!’ the second girl chorused.
    They both started shimmering wildly, like faulty Christmas lights, and in the next instant Evie was surrounded and staring back at two more reflections of herself. She felt dizzy, as if she’d been led unexpectedly into a hall of mirrors after a wild turn on a teacup ride. The two Shifters standing opposite were now admiring their arms and legs – her arms and legs – and groping each other’s butts – her butt. Then, once they were done groping her body, they turned to each other and started admiring each other’s eyes and eyelashes.
    ‘I am so