Page 147 of Winterfall Destiny

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’ve a 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.”

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