Chapter 45

JAMIE

I can"t helpbut notice the similarity between the catacombs and Maeve"s vision. The shadows around the scene in Maeve"s mind hid a lot. Part of the catacombs resemble a derelict factory, but that doesn"t mean we"re in the same place. Maeve hasn"t spotted anything that matches what she saw—including this room.

But I stay close to Maeve.

Whatever happens, we do not separate.

That"s our agreement.

Especially now we suspect the First spent time here. A girl similar in appearance to Maeve with the same first name? How could the girl not be the creature? The trepidation I had about stepping into the catacombs multiplies. Forget worrying that Gabriella may be nearby; the First might be.

The creature"s toying with us and Gabriella. Has the First approached and helped Gabriella? Gabriella hasn"t met the First since it was in a small child"s body, and she"s unaware that the child grew. Even if Gabriella suspects the First changed appearance, she won"t know precisely what the creature looks like now. We"ve no way to know if Gabriella and the First made contact again, or if Gabriella knew the creature walked amongst her recruits.

What"s the First planning? The endless, answerless question.

We need to alert Tobias. Speak to Andrei. The First might be here. Maeve can"t detect the energy close by, but Andrei"s blood recognises the First from further away.

I"m wary about moving far from where we are as we wait to make contact with the others again? I can picture the way leading to the catacombs entrance from this room, but we"re in a labyrinth. If our group moved any further onwards, we could lose ourselves.

Uncomfortable with having my back to anybody, I turn around. The vamp who spoke still scrutinises us, as do the witches, and my chest tightens. "I think we should leave," I say quietly to Maeve.

Remembering our group"s agreement that if we come across too big a threat that we"d return to the entrance, I attempt to communicate with Andrei what we"ve seen, looking at him and gesturing at the lists of names with my head. He and Tobias glanced at them earlier, but were interrupted by Art, so must"ve missed the whole list.

Andrei needs to see the girl"s name on that sheet and talk to Tobias.

Taking Maeve"s hand, I edge us towards the archway protected by the locking runes to wait for the others. Although we"re watched still, I"m prepared for any risk if someone follows. At a decent pace, we could be out in the open within five minutes. If not, we"ve our magic.

"Hey!" shouts one of the vamps. "Nobody leaves."

The hubbub fades, the number inside the space suddenly seems larger as eyes turn our way. The witches by the back wall throw mocking looks as the vamp who passed us earlier rises from the table and strides through the centre of the room until he"s inches from Maeve"s face. Several of his buddies join him and surround us.

"I"m in charge of witches," he says in a voice that cools my blood. "Unofficially. We"re all stuck down here until there"re enough witches, and I"m fucking bored."

"Enough?" asks Maeve evenly. "How many witches are needed?"

"Two less now that you"re here. You"re not leaving." He tips his chin. "And if Art sees you sneaking off, you"ll spend time in a room with hemia overnight."

I slide a look to Andrei and stiffen. The weirdness surrounding him intensifies, eyes shining brighter than natural, but he hasn"t stepped from his position outside Art"s door.

"Get away from that tunnel and back to the witches or I"ll fucking take you over to them myself," he says, looking between us before settling his eyes on Maeve. "By the hair."

"I"d advise you not to touch my friend," I say.

"Or him," she adds.

Two bulkier vamps knock into me, then stand to block most of my view of the room, and the arsehole hemia whispers to Maeve, "I have my own brand of punishment for misbehaving witches."

"You"re not allowed to touch witches," she says evenly. "And again, I"d advise that you don"t touch either of us."

The magic from our linked hands pulses in both directions, and there"s an edge of darkness to Maeve"s Winterfall light.

"Okay, bad idea, we stay," I murmur to her. "Heads down and wait for Tobias to finish."

"Alright," Maeve says to the guy. "We won"t leave. Let us past."

"Good girl." The vamp"s fingers touch Maeve"s cheek and, in a blurred second, he"s no longer standing by us.

A yell echoes from the tunnel to our right, and I pull Maeve aside, gripping her tighter to me at the second higher pitched scream. I whirl around to find the missing vamp, and I"m bumped to one side as recruits rush over to watch the spectacle. Across the room from the surging people, three people pause outside the door where Andrei stood.

Stood.Because he"s gone.

Realisation about what"s happening doesn"t take long to hit, and Tobias darts a look around for Andrei before his brow furrows. He turns back to Art, locking eyes with him and squeezing one of his shoulders. The braver of the curious recruits now fill the tunnel entrance, although others haven"t looked up from their activities in the room, as if infighting regularly occurs amongst the recruits.

As Tobias guides Art back into his makeshift office away from the oncoming chaos, Maeve"s hand breaks free of mine, and she pushes her way through the spectators. One or two edge backwards into me as I follow, swearing under their breath.

Andrei stands in the centre of the tunnel, the hemia vamp at his feet. Magic doesn"t surround him, but something does—the aura around Andrei that freaks me out whenever I"m close enough for it to touch me. He hasn"t torn the vamp"s throat or ripped out his heart in a typical hemia attack, but the guy"s immobile. Blood spills from his ears and open mouth, and the lantern on the wall flickers across his dead features.

The vamp"s eyes match those on the body we found in the London house when we arrived—scorched holes instead of eyes.

"What the fuck, asshole?" snarls one of the vamps beside me. "Dumb move unless you want to take us all on."

Oh, fuck, no. Can the guy not sense how dangerous Andrei is?

"Mate, see what he did to Stefan," mutters another one.

But the vamp who spoke doesn"t hear his friend because he"s gone. Did Andrei move forward to grab him and return to the same spot in a split second, or did he magically pull the guy to him? The vamp screams out and his legs collapse, holding hands on either side of his skull as his knees hit the bricks. The blood from the vamp"s mouth and nose runs scarlet across his ashen skin before his head jerks back and eyes flare like shooting stars before burning out.

I gag at the growing smell of burned flesh as the vamp slumps completely to the tunnel floor, hitting his head on loose rubble. Not that he"d feel anything. Not anymore.

Andrei"s eyes absorbed the light, his void-like energy intensified by the deaths, but he doesn"t move or speak. The world lurches out of reach, everything distant and unreal. How the hell did Andrei do that? I can"t speak as others beside me turn, jostling as they rush away from Andrei.

Chaos rushes through the room with the sound of chairs upending and screams.

"This is because of her," says a vamp next to me, and the dumb bastard seizes Maeve"s arm.

The yell of pain from the magic Maeve surrounded herself with fades in comparison to the noise the vamp makes as he joins Andrei"s kill count, the guy bloodied and burned out on the ground beside his friends in seconds.

"Andrei, stop!" Maeve shouts, but Andrei doesn"t register her, merely smiling, revealing the hemia teeth he no longer needs to kill these people.

Andrei doesn"t even need to fucking touch his victims.

"Stop this!" she repeats, but even Maeve"s hesitant to move forward to the creature we barely recognise.

"Why stop? They"re all prepared to die for the Dominion," Andrei says softly.

"Killing wasn"t the plan, Andrei," I say.

There"s no point using false names now or any need because with three bodies down, recruits no longer risk standing in the tunnel entrance. Nobody hears us.

As if I didn"t speak, Andrei takes a step towards the room, and Maeve side-steps to meet him face to face. "I said, stop, Andrei," she snaps. "We"ll fucking struggle to get the five of us out of the catacombs now that you"ve done this."

Andrei takes Maeve"s chin in his hand, and I make to move, but he flashes me a look. Self-preservation prevents me from moving closer because I"ve no clue what this Andrei might do next.

"The vamp wanted to hurt you," he says to Maeve.

"He barely touched me!" Maeve wrenches her chin away and stares at the bodies at Andrei"s feet. "I can protect myself."

Andrei laughs harshly. "Every single person in that room will eventually work for Gabriella. They"re a danger."

"They"re part of our answer," I protest.

"I don"t fucking care!" he yells. "We take the kids out before Gabriella uses them."

"That is not the plan," half-shouts Maeve.

"Most ran into the catacombs once you started killing people from the inside out," I say. Andrei snarls at my challenge, and my nerves churn into fear.

"What do you intend to do? Hunt the recruits one by one?" asks Maeve.

"Sounds like fun," Andrei replies, and prepares to move.

Maeve again steps in front of Andrei, staring him down. "Stay here until we figure out how to get out of the catacombs," she says harshly.

Andrei halts, eyes going to her hands, before returning to her face. "Testing your theory about the First?" he whispers.

I sense the shadows before I see them on Maeve"s hands. The magic that passed between us throughout the time we held hands in the room now feeds the direction she chose. Blackwood. The mist-like magic surrounds her fingers, but remains snaking across her hands and wrists, not shifting to wrap around her arms as Lex"s shadows do.

"Is the First making you do this, Andrei?" I ask.

Andrei flicks his gaze to Maeve"s shadows. "You shouldn"t have locked me up."

"We did not lock you up," retorts Maeve.

"Everything"s been locked up," he says, baring his teeth.

At Maeve.

The girl he just killed for because someone touched her cheek.

"I guess your heightened abilities also heighten your stupid decisions," she retorts. "Do not walk away. Jamie, find out what"s happening to the others. Explain."

"I"m not walking away either," I say in shock.

Andrei closes the final gap between him and Maeve, looking down, and her mouth tightens into a thin line. "Move."

"If we kill everybody in the catacombs, Gabriella starts again somewhere else!" she shouts at him. "She"ll move deeper underground. We"ll lose Gabriella when we"re fucking close to finding her."

"I"ll find Gabriella before she gets a chance." He presses himself against Maeve, and the magic around her fingers grows thicker. "Someone in this place knows where Gabriella is. I"m sure I can persuade them to tell me."

"No! We minimise the damage you"ve fucking done, Andrei, and we get out with the information Tobias finds," says Maeve, meeting his scalding gaze.

She holds her ground and I edge closer to her, linking fingers, as the pair of us create a possibly useless barrier between Andrei and the entrance. I clench my other fist, searching for the magic pooled inside me from my synergy with Maeve. Shadows don"t come, but I"ve more defence than Andrei thinks.

"Move," he snarls at me.

"No."

"I said fucking move!" His searing eyes meet mine and I"m hit with a pain square between the temples, staggering backwards as my fingers fall from Maeve"s hand. "What the fuck, Andrei?"

"Don"t you dare hurt Jamie, you arsehole," shouts Maeve and shoves Andrei in the chest with both shadowed hands. "Fucking control yourself!"

Andrei doesn"t budge, and Maeve moves to grab his wrists. "Jamie. Please. Find Tobias," she calls back.

The shadows spiral between her hands and Andrei"s arms, the magic she controlled now bursting out. Maeve gasps, stumbling as if the shadows pushed her closer to Andrei. They consume Maeve"s body before engulfing Andrei too, the pair obscured by the cold mist. Andrei screams out like the darkness is consuming him and he"s trapped inside the cloud before he lands heavily, lying across the legs of one of his victims.

The shadows pull Maeve with him, and she struggles to push them away, as Andrei yells out again.

"I only wanted to stop you," she chokes out. "To hold you here."

Andrei"s thrashes beneath Maeve, breathless, choking. I shove my fingers into my hair and watch, uselessly.

Fucking uselessly.

No. I aided this magic and even with the shadows out of control, this was the right action to take. We"ve no clue what Andrei might do, and I"m convinced he would massacre everybody in the catacombs. And then what? Walk out of the catacombs looking for more Dominion to kill?

Maeve and Andrei become a tangle of shadows and limbs, but Andrei"s resisting the attack, physically overpowering Maeve even though the shadows pull at him. He knocks Maeve onto her back and seizes her shadowed wrists in one hand.

"I"m not staying here," chokes out Andrei.

I"m blinded by a sudden darkness, terrified that the shadows turned on me instead, but my vision clears, and I stare at the vampires" bodies leaking blood onto the tunnel floor.

No Andrei.

No Maeve.

No shadows.