Chapter 51

MAEVE

A rowof six closed coffins on tables, and over a dozen others stacked four high around the room, like macabre furniture. Some are used as furniture, their surfaces covered with printed paper and pens, and takeaway coffee cups.

"My vision," I mumble. "This is the place, I swear. They're arranged the same way and this room… brick and windowless. And the symbol…"

The black symbol that's repeated through visions.

I've never visited a morgue but shouldn't bodies in coffins fill the space with an unpleasant odour? This place smells staler than the rest of the building, the air heavy with the odour of rusted pipes and decaying wood, but not the stench I'd expect from dead bodies.

"What the actual fuck?" asks Ash, not moving from the foot of the stairs.

Only Andrei and Tobias approach the nearest, simple polished wood with the blank silver plaque attached. The coffin's nothing like the polished ones I've seen on TV shows—an economy version? I quietly laugh at my sick thought and Jamie frowns.

"No, I'm not about to get hysterical. Are the coffins empty?" I whisper.

Andrei points. "That one isn't."

I swallow hard again at the answer I never wanted. "And the others?"

Andrei wanders along, tapping his lips as he does as Tobias steps up to join him. "These six hold bodies."

"What?" I ask hoarsely.

"I'll stand watch at the top of the stairs," Ash announces, averting his eyes. "Someone has to, right?"

"Of course, Ash," says Tobias and nods at him. Poor Ash can't get upstairs fast enough, and I'm about to suggest that wan-faced Jamie follows him.

"Why would Gabriella store human bodies under a theatre?" asks Jamie.

"Not humans. Well, not anymore. At Gabriella's, I met her new staff, at least one recently turned. Me and Tobias sensed younger hemia in the catacombs." His eyes lift to Jamie's. "I guess Gabriella's new creations weren't for personal use. Either that or she has a high staff turnover."

"Andrei," I say as he adds to my horror. "Don't joke." Wrapping my arms around myself, I back away, sorely tempted to join Ash on the stairs.

"Can you sense if any have the blood?" asks Jamie.

"Not sure," replies Andrei.

"Don't do that!" I half-shriek when Andrei slides a lid from one of the coffins and peers inside.

Andrei leans over the coffin and touches the corpse's head. The not corpse. "Vamp blood but not Gabriella's Special Brew." I breathe out in relief when he replaces the lid.

"These are turned humans?" I ask. "New vampires?"

"Not quite," says Tobias as he examines the contents of the neighbouring coffin, something I'm a hundred percent not doing.

"How old are the bodies?" Jamie asks him.

"A day or two."

I glance between them in bewilderment. "How long does it take for a human to become a vampire?"

Andrei shrugs. Shrugs. "If they survive, anywhere between two to four days. These are fresh. A day at the most."

"Omigod." I swallow down the urge to vomit, almost too scared to ask the next question. "The stacked coffins… are they empty?"

Andrei wanders over and places a hand on the side of each. "Well, they're not all full. Tobias?"

"If I were a turned human and woke up as a vampire inside a coffin I'd freak out." Complete understatement. "Whoever put these… people in the coffins surely won't leave them here?"

Andrei sits on a wooden chair with metal legs that's set between the coffins. "No. But Gabriella has to put the changing bodies somewhere before they return to life."

"What? Like randomly move coffins full of bodies across the city?" scoffs Jamie.

Andrei pulls a face. "Sorry if I don't know the logistics."

I steady myself on the wall, the windowless room becoming more oppressive by the moment.

"What if the people in these coffins didn't agree?" I ask, eyes brimming with tears at the surrounding horror.

"People turned against their will don't always survive," says Tobias. "There's never any guarantee that a turned human will transform and not die, but those resistant are more likely to perish. Gabriella wouldn't waste time by taking the unwilling."

"Gabriella's recruiting humans," I say to myself. Not a question. An obvious fact. "Omigod."

"Where does Gabriella put them once they…" Jamie waves a hand. "Become hemia?"

"Catacombs?"

"But why would they work for the Dominion? If they're human, they'll have no clue about any of this," I say.

Andrei snorts. "Created hemia? Their brains take time to work properly, only focused on feeding, and will do anything they're told to get hold of blood."

My heart hammers and I reach around for another chair, convinced I'll pass out if I don't sit. "What is this? Gabriella's plan to ‘out' supes? What if Gabriella sends these new vamps into the world?"

Tobias pulls on his bottom lip. "Cargo."

"What?" asks Jamie.

"These are cargo to travel with Gabriella—if she's actually leaving. Exotic goods could refer to this only. Not her."

"These people aren't going anywhere." Andrei jumps to his feet and again flips the lid from one coffin. Then the next. Effortlessly, as if flicking the caps from bottles.

"What are you doing?" asks Jamie cautiously. "Don't use the First's power on them."

I look the other way. If I see one of the aberrations hidden inside the coffins, I'll definitely throw up.

A sound I never knew until I joined this world jerks my head up. Bone cracking. Squelching. Andrei walks from coffin to coffin, placing a hand inside each time but he doesn't lift anything up. He doesn't need to.

"Don't let him do this, Tobias," I say weakly and stare at my shoes.

The noise doesn't stop.

"Good thing that Ash did walk upstairs," mutters Jamie.

When I manage to look back, Tobias stands near Andrei, arms crossed over his chest, face a mask of darkness. Andrei wipes blood on his jeans and gives me an apologetic smile.

"I'm sorry, Maeve," says Tobias flatly. "The humans are better off dead."

"Like the vamp Dorian brought to torture?" I ask him pointedly. "Mercy killing?"

"There could be more coffins," interrupts Jamie.

Andrei replaces a coffin lid. "No more hearts beating nearby."

"I mean elsewhere. Other locations, " says Jamie. "What if this is the tip of the iceberg?"

"Gabriella could never turn dozens of humans into vampires without others noticing!" I protest. My eyes widen as Andrei approaches the stacked coffins. No. "Andrei, please don't start unstacking the coffins to kill more."

"I agree," says Tobias.

"Thank you," I whisper.

"Because we don't have time, not because Andrei shouldn't end their half-life." I gawk at him as he checks his phone. "If this place is the one in your future vision, I'm damn sure that Gabriella's ritual happens here. We need to be prepared. Scout every inch of the place. Then we go somewhere and wait."

Tobias walks away from the scene, Andrei at his heels as they climb the steps, blood still staining his fingers.

Jamie crouches in front of me, taking both my shaking hands. "I'm here. You'll be okay." I bite my lip and nod. "I hate when they do this. Sometimes the guys have no clue how this stuff affects you."

Stuff.

"I understand the urgency, Jamie." I stand. "And I don't want to stay in here a second longer."

"But still…" He stands too and holds out a hand. I'm grateful for the hug as he squeezes some courage into me, but I'm out of his arms and up those stairs in a heartbeat.

Heartbeats the undead humans finally lost at Andrei's hands.

"Do you think that killing Gabriella will stop whatever this is?" I ask Jamie and gesture at the coffins.

"Depends on how high level the Dominion members need to be in order to continue, I suppose. Or whether they die when Gabriella does because they have the blood." He pauses. "Or are insane enough to believe they can carry out a plan to turn humans into hemia vamps en masse."

We walk up the steps and I catch Jamie's fingers before we catch up to the others. "If Gabriella doesn't die, I might not change this happening. But if we kill her, others dragged into this and brainwashed will die too."

Jamie strokes the back of his hand down my heated cheek but says nothing.

* * *

We'vea final place to check—the attics and the balconies. Nobody arrived yet but the evening draws nearer, as does a night where we've no idea what we're facing. If the ritual involves the people in the coffins, Gabriella will know someone interfered and guess who. Tobias doesn't find that relevant—she'll expect us anyway and will surround herself with as much protection as she can.

The balcony rows are empty and as mildewed as everything else, and we discover an old projection room behind. The theatre must've become a cinema before it fell into disuse. Jamie studies the old film reels with interest, distracted as the rest of us sweep the room. He's touched several items in each area but picked up nothing magical or suspicious held in the objects, just a human past.

An attic yields nothing but dust-covered boxes containing more metal cannisters with films along with theatre memorabilia—old programs, newspaper clippings, and photographs. Back on the darkened balcony floor, I gaze from the window in the hallway and over the rubble-covered rear of the property. Darkness fell quickly, but the orange streetlamps don't reach this part of the yard, the high walls blocking light and everybody else out of the area.

A bus pauses at the stop we sheltered under, and other vehicles pass the opposite way. As I watch for anything unusual, the tall gate opposite the window opens, and a dirty white truck around six metres long turns from the street to the rear of the theatre.

Immediately, I step back and grasp at Ash's arm. "Someone's here."

Tobias joins us and we step back, while he stands to one side of the window, out of sight, and watches for a few minutes. "People in, coffins out?"

"People or vamps?" asks Jamie.

"Hemia moving from the back of the van at their speed. They're headed to a side door on the left of the building."

One we unlocked in case we needed to leave quickly.

"How many?" asks Andrei.

"Unsure."

Ash peers out. "Gabriella?"

"Nah." Andrei rests against the wall beside the window and crosses his arms. "She'll make an entrance, not travel in the back of a van with subordinates."

My mouth goes dry. In all our searching, we've found nothing that reeks of the supernatural apart from the undead humans. No vessels or runes to use in a ritual unless that's the coffin-bound people's role.

"If Gabriella's supposedly sailing tonight, she might not appear. Smoke and mirrors," says Jamie.

"I still believe that those coffins are the exotic goods, not her. Dorian only found half an answer from his captured vamp."

"You think Gabriella's staying in the country?" I ask.

"If she's decided that fleeing from the First would be pointless, maybe." Tobias sighs. "Planning to go underground again no doubt—and I don't mean the catacombs."

Andrei pulls himself from the wall. "Can we all remember that Gabriella's not leaving this place alive?"

"Andrei," says Jamie. "Apprehend her first."

He stares. "Dorian's bloody right. Too much talking not enough doing. Gabriella has nothing to say to us, nor us to her. She knows we won't join forces against the First."

"Voice down," says Tobias sharply. "We echo up here."

"Gabriella's turning and storing humans. That's a step further than recruiting supes. If we want to stop that, we stop her," says Andrei in a lower voice. "That'd take out most high level too, since all her closest and most powerful must contain the blood mixed with the First's. It's her insurance policy against dissent—if anybody took Gabriella out, they'd die." Andrei's jaw sets hard. "Maeve, even you have to agree we've no choice. Take her out and quickly."

"Are we contacting Dorian?" asks Ash.

"No." Tobias and I speak at the same time, but Tobias continues, "However much he pushes himself in, Dorian isn't part of us. He's more unpredictable than Andrei."

"Gabriella would be dead the moment he stepped into the place," adds Jamie.

"Fuck," mutters Ash suddenly. "They are taking the coffins."

I'm looking at a horror film again—men with faces covered carry coffins on their shoulders into the van's dark interior. They're built heavily, showing no sign that the coffins are heavy as they support them on their broad shoulders.

Dragons?

"This shit ends tonight," says Andrei darkly as he watches too.

But what does the First want? Gabriella dead or alive? The creature's supposed anger with Gabriella for stealing the blood and the claims it couldn't kill Gabriella originally was bullshit. The creature's opening move pushed us into the game. We're to play out our roles to maintain the First's envisioned future in a series of events that brought us here.

Or is this the end for me and the guys? The First ensured we're gathered together and that could be to wipe out all her enemies at this place and time. Ash shared this theory earlier and it's one I believe too readily. We've discussed what to do if the First appears—literal fight or flight, although the fight part's pointless.

Futures will be unthreaded and tangled again tonight.

Who won't have one anymore?

Quiet voices grow in number and bounce around the auditorium below. We all look at each other, before Tobias nods and we creep downstairs to the doorway between the foyer and the back of the stalls. We could hide in the balcony area, but we'd see nothing unless revealing ourselves as the only people up here.

The theatre contains more life than for years, if you call hemia ‘life'. As the bodies fill the seats, the eerie echoing from our footsteps as we explored earlier disappears. People occupy seats stretching between the doorway and stage. Fifteen? Twenty? Thankfully not a whole building full, but more than enough for my liking.

Some hemia must be recent human acquisitions and easier to beat, but others will have greater power. Are we enough against this number? I glance at Andrei. If the recruits present witnessed his abilities yesterday, they'd think twice.

Ifthe recruits are capable of thinking for themselves.

There's a palpable excitement amongst them all—kids eager to watch the newest show in town. I tuck trembling hands into my pockets as familiar faces from the catacombs sit amongst them.

But not the witches.

"Vamps only?" I say.

Andrei glances at me. "Looks like removing the witch influence from the Dominion aided Gabriella's plans."

"Then why did she recruit witches and not bring any here?"

Nobody responds to my question. Nobody needs to. Witches might be here. The ritual.

Did the witches we met yesterday escape in the skirmish that Andrei caused? I can't stop replaying my time with the group—how Carter and his friend had given up, convinced they'll meet the same end as the other witches. But what end? His words will not leave my head: I don't remember agreeing.

Tobias urged me not to think about the witches' situation, but he must be hesitant about killing indiscriminately if he's already let two Dominion recruits go.

"What if one of the recruits recognises Andrei?" I whisper. "Or any of us?"

"They're focused on the stage, not us. We stay quiet and hide," says Tobias.

"If they recognise me, they might leave and save us time." Andrei chuckles then sidles through the door. He creeps along the back of row of seats, pulls one down to sit in, then places feet crossed at the ankles on a seat in front.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Waiting for the show."

Jamie huffs at him. "We're no longer inconspicuous wherever we go in the building, but seriously?"

"Shouldn't we search for Gabriella?" I whisper.

"We can't waste magical or physical energy on driving our way through these vamps and alert her that we're here. She'll bring others to protect her," says Tobias.

"We won't waste energy on killing the recruits unless they interfere," Andrei says. "Gabriella dies; her creations die. That's what would've happened to me."

"And if they know their possible fate, the kids will fight back harder," says Ash.

Andrei sneers. "Either way, they'll die."

"This is the point we need to split up," says Tobias cautiously. "I'll take Ash to search for Gabriella and security. Stay here to watch for anybody coming through from the front of the building." He points at the doorway behind. "I'll sneak out that way with Ash and head to one of the rear entrances. Take out any guards."

"Why Ash not me?" protests Andrei.

"Because Gabriella will know you're only metres away. You could cloak your mind but not the blood. Besides, don't you want to stay with Maeve?" Tobias arches a brow, silencing a pouting Andrei.

"I'm uneasy about this, Tobias," I say and take his hand.

He holds my hand between both of his. "If there're too many people for us to manage in that part of the theatre, we'll move away. I promise not to put either of us in danger. Gabriella won't notice us if I cloak Ash's mind and close mine."

"Do what?" asks Ash sharply.

"You never attended one of Professor Whitlock's classes," says Jamie. "It's a spell but not mind control. Blocking your mind from others won't affect you or last long."

Ash scrunches his nose. "Right."

"If Gabriella's planning to walk onto that stage, someone needs to be close enough to intervene," continues Tobias.

Perspiration breaks out across my back. "What if Gabriella still sees you? Be careful."

"I won't be a martyr, Maeve," he says pointedly. "But I'll do whatever I need to keep us safe."

Tobias presses his lips to my forehead, and I hug him, then Ash, in two minds whether to let them go. But Tobias's plan makes sense. Hiding some of us between the stage and door, while others deal with whoever Gabriella brought to protect her covers our bases. The recruits waiting in the stalls could attack, but they'd be weak against our combined power, especially Andrei.

And Gabriella? I glance between Tobias who's edging through the door to the foyer, and then to Andrei. Gabriella's fate might depend on who gets their hands on her first.