Chapter 52

MAEVE

I sitbeside Andrei on the back row, Jamie on my other side. Andrei leans forward with elbows on his knees as he waits, staring at the thick maroon curtain spanning the stage. Four male recruits sit on seats several rows in front, obscuring us, also watching for movement and chattering in excitement. Nausea rolls through me. I'm half-inclined to agree with Andrei that we should take Gabriella out before anything else happens, but the deaths… These people are no longer a faceless army or only fanatics willing to follow Gabriella's word to the letter.

But they would happily kill any Dominion enemy, including us.

Sucking in a shaky breath, I turn my eyes upwards at the dimmed stage lights, stomach churning further.

"The three at the front, on the left." Jamie points to a row of seats across the aisle. "They're dressed in suits. Not everybody is."

"Do you recognise any of them?" I ask both guys.

"No."

Andrei doesn't reply, worryingly lost in thoughts or plans.

Jamie's phone screen lights up with a silent message and I lean across. "What are Tobias and Ash doing? Have they seen Gabriella?"

four vamps two taken care of but others close to G she's preoccupied in a backstage room we'll keep watching

I take Jamie's phone.

please be careful

Vamps weren't hard to kill we'll get the others when she's away from them

the first here?

no

I hand the phone back to Jamie. Still no response from Andrei, so I link an arm through his. "Stop plotting. Please don't act alone."

"I won't," he mutters.

"Now say that again convincingly." I take his cheeks in one hand and turn his face.

"I'm aware I messed up last time, so I won't." He wrinkles his nose. "I've another headache like the shadows gave. Maybe sitting with you influences me?"

"I hope so." I nudge him.

Andrei laces his fingers through mine and places my hand on his knee. "I love you," he whispers and presses his lips to mine.

"And I love you. Now, promise not to be a psycho." My mouth tips into a smile and he pokes his tongue out at me.

As much for reassurance as connection to his magic, I link fingers with Jamie too, sitting between the pair ready to challenge Gabriella at the right moment. I take calming breaths before studying my fingers, reaching inside to find my magic. Are the shadows with me?

My spine goes completely straight, eyes wide as the curtain opens to reveal nothing but a simple podium and a vertical banner behind that drops from the top of the stage to the floor.

"Is this a ritual or a political rally?" asks Jamie.

The Dominion don't use anything to symbolise their organisation, preferring to keep off the radar in all ways. The images flash into my mind again and I grip Jamie's hand harder. "The same symbol from the coffins. On the banner."

"Shit."

The dramatic music I'd half-expected doesn't join Gabriella as she moves slowly across the stage to stand behind the podium, leading someone with her, while two male figures stand either side at the edge of the wings.

Dressed in a smart grey skirt suit with a scarlet red blouse to match her lipstick, Gabriella could be a politician addressing her supporters. The First's blood within Gabriella adds an aura of superiority to her already lofty self-opinion. I swallow, her appearance reminding me of the first time we met at the Blackwood house and everything that happened in those horrible days.

Can she detect Andrei yet?

The change in Andrei hits immediately as his heartbeat speeds in my ears, and the aura gifted by the First surrounds him.

I'm too focused in shock on the person accompanying her to react to him, and the world lurches. I'm not close enough to see her freckled cheeks, but recognise the girl with curly hair.

The witch from the catacombs. Melissa, stumbling and pale, eyes glazed.

"No," I say beneath my breath. "No."

"Good evening." Gabriella's sonorous voice drifts across the theatre, the acoustics taking her words to every ear. "Thank you for joining." She pauses and grips the edge of the podium. "Both this evening and our crusade."

A murmur and applause ripple through the gathered recruits and her painted lips spread into a superior smile.

"Apologies for the somewhat secretive nature of tonight's events, but I've tried to avoid individuals who may interfere." Gabriella's gaze sweeps the stalls, and I shuffle down in my seat, further out of sight.

Andrei mumbles something about whose death and the darkness around him spreads.

"Andrei?" I whisper.

"Tobias is right. We need to watch for people entering the door behind," whispers Jamie.

"I also apologise so few of you could join us and fewer still take part on this occasion. Once we balance the number of hemia and witches, this will change, I promise. In the meantime, your names will remain at the top of the list."

‘Take part'. The hemia in suits?

"You are my frontline," she announces. "The best of the best, willing to do what's needed in the war against those who claim to lead our world. Those who would hide who we are and allow humans to one day destroy us. We are the New Dominion."

Some vamps straighten with pride, but I can't take my eyes away from Melissa, the vacant and compliant witch staring ahead making no sound.

"This is bad," mutters Jamie. "Really, really bad."

Gabriella gestures to her followers. "I gifted the blood to everybody in this room. You're stronger than Confederacy troops who've no access to such a thing. Unfortunately, you still would not equal the strongest of our enemies. Tonight, we begin the task of fixing that." She pauses. "Tonight, for the first time, we create something to match our greatest foes."

The recruits watch in quiet awe, some cheering at her rousing words, as Gabriella addresses them.

"This witch contains the First's blood too." She gestures at Melissa. "An unfortunately rare result. Many witches sacrificed their lives in order to further our research and we should remember and thank them. We finally have candidates and here is our first."

"Like they're a fucking biology experiment," says Jamie through gritted teeth.

I shake my head to shush him as fear tears down my spine, weakening my muscles as if the nerves were cut. What do we do? When?

"Although many witches can't tolerate the First's blood mixed with my hemia, for those who do and survive, transformed, their magic remains intact." She smiles at the unresponsive witch beside her. "Unfortunately, you can see this witch is not a hundred percent with us any longer. But no matter, since she contains what we need."

"You said witches who become hemia lose their magic," I whisper. "Is Melissa hemia or not?"

"The First's and hemia blood together polluted the witch blood but never ended the magic." Jamie pales. "The blood mix preserves their witch state."

"Yes. But what does it mean if Melissa survived and kept her magic?" I whisper again.

Andrei finally speaks. "She's a hybrid, Maeve."

The earlier fear paralyses me further. "No. Gabriella indicated the witch isn't ‘with us'. She's nothing like a Dorian hybrid."

"Oh, fuck." Jamie pushes both hands into his hair and stares wildly at me. "But the witches have what Gabriella's hemia need."

"Hybrid blood," says Andrei, not breaking his concentration on Gabriella.

"Gabriella's creating hybrids. That's impossible," I say. "Isn't it?"

"If she's about to give the corrupted witch's blood to the hemia as her ritual for the first time, Gabriella can't be sure of the outcome. The hemia receiving the blood might die," suggests Jamie.

"Or they might become hybrids one step on from Dorian because the First's blood is in the mix!" I say.

"Now do you understand why we need to kill her?" snarls Andrei. "All of them."

I hold a hand over my mouth, processing the possibility, watching the macabre scene unfold. Gabriella steps aside from her podium and beckons to one of the smartly dressed vamps. The young guy with his tidy brown hair and hemia beauty walks with stiff pride towards her, like a kid neatly groomed and ready to receive his high school graduation certificate.

"Turn to face your people." He does as she asks, head held high, and she places a hand with blood-red nails onto his shoulder. "You are willing to give your life to the cause… temporarily of course?"

"Yes."

The vamp's barely given his answer before something flashes and a blade slashes across his throat. The world freeze frames then speeds into a blurred nightmare as the blood gushes from the wound, Gabriella still beside him, now holding a small dagger. Jamie retches as the red pool grows around the vamp who collapses to the floor.

"What's happening?" I croak out. "Isn't he supposed to take the witch's blood?"

"He's bleeding out," says Jamie. "The vamp's losing all his blood."

"Gabriella killed him?"

"Hemia, so temporarily. And if a hemia dies through exsanguination, they'll have to replace all the blood or their life ends."

Exsanguination? I heard that word once before. Total blood loss.

The haemorrhaging vamp struggles to stand, sliding around on hands and knees in his blood as his dulling eyes search his surroundings.

Gabriella snatches Melissa. "Kneel." She shoves her with enough force that the girl lands on her knees.

The edge of the red pool stains Melissa's jeans and her palms land in the blood. Gabriella commands one of the onlookers to join her on stage and he's out of his seat and beside Gabriella in seconds. Gabriella whispers something to the long-haired female vamp, and she nods before kneeling behind the weak, confused witch. One of the vamp's arms bands her waist, and she wraps a hand around Melissa's hair before tugging her head back. Exposing her throat to the vamp bleeding out.

"No," I breathe out swallowing down the need to vomit. "No. They can't do that to her."

Where is Tobias? Ash? Why aren't they preventing this?

The dying vamp hauls himself closer to the witch who's a puppet in the other vamp's hands. Is she aware what's happening? No. Witches. The First's blood. She's disappeared inside a broken mind.

Andrei's silence swallows the space between us, and I reach out to take his hand. Tearing my eyes away from events on stage, I turn my head. Everything about him matches the guy from the catacombs.

"If that vamp takes the witch's blood and survives he'll become a hybrid," says Jamie. "We need to move."

But I'm focused on Andrei. He isn't responding to me, now preternaturally still and retreating. "Andrei," I urge again.

"No fucking way," he says.

My mouth falls open but not with a reply, instead in shock as Andrei vaults over the rows of seat, above the heads of those in front. He's on the stage in half a second, beside those gathered. Gabriella's eyes show no surprise at his move, but Andrei doesn't touch her. Instead, he snatches the witch and half-throws her across the stage, far from the reach of the dying vamp.

The witch lands in a heap, like a doll tossed aside.

Gabriella screeches in fury and makes to run at Andrei, and as her security step forward to assist, each is dragged into the backstage darkness, their shouts muffled.

Gabriella stops short as if she hit a barrier created by Andrei's new appearance. I've barely time to blink before Tobias's figure blurs across the stage, a bloodied hand around her throat, nail tips against her jugular. Tobias slashes at her hand with his nails, and the dagger clatters to the wood.

The dazed vamp knocked aside when Andrei pulled the witch from her stumbles to her feet and approaches Andrei. Andrei turns his head, his star bright eyes and world-devouring aura freezing the vamp's next move.

"Remember me?" he asks.

If he doesn't, this vamp's heard enough about Andrei to know her upcoming fate.

"We need to get down there," I say to Jamie. "Now."

As we dash to the aisle, a scream to match those I heard in the catacombs fills the auditorium as the vampire dies.