Page 152 of Winterfall Destiny

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.

53

TOBIAS

Hybrids.

Discovering that Gabriella’s turning humans didn’t entirely surprise me, but the possibility that she could create hybrids throws me completely.

Hybrids.

Is this possible? Has Gabriella created any yet or is this genuinely her first attempt? If the scene hadn’t dazed me, I would’ve got my hands on Gabriella long before Andrei appeared on stage.

This woman dies. No question. But we need answers. There could be other witches who survived the First’s blood, and we need to locate them.

But how capable is Andrei of staying in control long enough? Maeve spoke to me about an encounter she had with Andrei last night and her worry about his stability. But what can we do apart from hope that his decision to reach out and reconnect can temper his reactions. His obsessive need to kill Gabriella grows every day and, like all his other emotions, that hatred intensified since he changed. If Andrei reacts as strongly as he does when Maeve’s threatened, Gabriella could be dead in seconds.

Andrei at least attacked the hemia first and focuses on those who’d stand between us and Gabriella, so at least he’s thinking for now. Once the first recruit goes down, Gabriella’s army aren’t good little soldiers anymore, because the moment Andrei burns out two more who step forward to defend their leader, the others take pause, nobody else moving as they watch the scene unfold.

As Jamie and Maeve push through the standing, wary vamps, I grip onto Gabriella. Last time we fought in the woods near the Winterfall house, the day she abducted the child and intended to pin the crime on me, Gabriella bested me. Now? She isn’t fighting back. Biding her time? Or held by my magic and the proximity of my nails to her throat? Either way, Gabriella’s heart rate doesn’t change, steadily pumping the small part of the First’s blood around her body.

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