Shaye

Allen, be careful. We don't know what they've done to get, or what state her mind is in. She could be under their control.

I highly doubted Allen would listen to me. Sure enough, he didn't move, didn't take his eyes off her. I inched closer to his big, beastly form to cover his back. Jamie and the others followed slowly.

"You came to save me," said Danielle, voice cracking again. "I thought I'd be trapped down here forever."

"Allen don't trust her!" Donovan, of all people, shouted.

"Look at her, you can tell they've screwed her up. Who knows what they did with her after they took her."

Her smile slid off her face like butter in a skillet. I felt my chest tighten, suddenly it felt like I was breathing through a straw. Then me, Donovan, and everyone except Allen went flying backwards into a wall. I wasn't anywhere near as durable as these super werewolves that the vampires couldn't even kill. I almost blacked out and every ounce of strength I had in my body dissipated.

Blinking away spots, wiping the dead vampire blood off my face, I saw Danielle embrace Allen then softly but forcefully jab him in center of his back, and run run her hand down his spine. I thought I was imagining it because of all the pain, but no, he was actually reverting back to human form! Donovan was right!

She opened her mouth and leaned towards his ear, so I used my powers to listen in.

"Allen... You have to get us out of here. You have to find a way."

She breaks down and begins to cry.

"I can't escape. The more I try the more people they send to stop me. And the more people they send the more I... I... I just can't take it anymore!" She screams.

"I can't take it Allen! Please! Please!"

"Is this endearing or pathetic? Because I can't tell."

I'd recognize that voice from anywhere. Gabriel, in a silky blue suit emerged from a dark shadow he created, and the whole room started to change. Suddenly, it wasn't a huge chamber without a ceiling. It looked like an big empty office room without any furnishings, a door on both sides of the room, and one of the walls was completely made out of windows, allowing us to see the sun setting behind other buildings outside.

No, that can't be right. That has to be another illusion, there's no way we've been here that long.

"Oh, but you have. You've been here for hours. You just didn't notice." said Gabriel, reading my mind.

He kept his distance from us and Allen, who stood at the center of the room, holding a distraught Danielle in his arms.

"I guess you also failed to notice that the one thing that isn't an illusion, besides yourselves of course, is the amount of dead vampires in room. The amount of dried up- and still fresh- blood that covers this floor. This was all your pretty little friend there, Danielle."

Danielle lifted her head up and turned towards Gabriel, eyes filled with malice.

"I'll kill you!" She screamed with rage.
She half ran half flew towards Gabriel in a way no other creature could have possibly done, only to fly straight through him and hit the wall.

"Did I not say you guys are the only things that aren't illusions in this room?"

Despite this, Danielle continued to lunge at Gabriel. Every now and then he instinctively dodged, but he mostly stayed still, with the same smirk on his face. She swiped, grabbed, punched and kicked to no avail.

"You're a coward, you know that don't you?

Gabriel looked at me for a quick second, and Danielle swung as hard as she could. Her fist went completely through his head, but somehow it still jarred him, causing him to stumble backwards a little.

My little remark meant nothing to Gabriel. His eyes lit up green, the spheres floating out orange and Danielle's eyes turned the same color.
I jumped up and ran to them as she put her face in her hands and screamed.

But Allen was faster.

He was back in his wolf form, bearing down on Gabriel in a matter of seconds. He slashed downwards, intending on ripping off Gabriel's face, but went straight through, just like Danielle did. Gabriel laughed at the effort.

"I'm not here to play games with you two-"

All of hairs on Allen's body stood on end. He punched Gabriel and the hit connected. Gabriel smacked the ground with a huge thud. He yelled at the floor and spat out blood.

"What in the hell? How did you touch me?!"

Allen, now back in human form, had a slim fiery aura surrounding him. The aura was an unnatural white, and his eyes gave the same light.

"Your magic can't save you from me." He growled.

Gabriel was holding his now swollen jaw.

"It doesn't need to. I'm just buying time."

Allen's head shifted to the left and I followed his gaze. Walking into the room from one of the doors was Avery, in a long black dress that reached her ankles with a matching coat.

I activated my eyes and the spheres began to fly. This Avery was also an illusion. Where were they hiding? What, or who, was so dangerous that they were keeping their distance?
Suddenly, ten vampires came in after her, each one of them flesh and blood.

Instead of attacking, they all lined up side by side, awaiting orders.

Donovan and the others were getting ready to fight when Danielle's screamed and vanished into thin air.

But my magic allowed me to see beyond what normal mortal eyes could see, and she was still there. She had crouched down and was clutching her ears tightly, shaking her head wildly.

The others couldn't see this.

"Where did she go?!" screamed Allen.

"Allen, she's still there!" I called out to him. "They're playing tricks on us!"

"Shut up, Shaye." Avery said venomously.

"You're pushing your luck. You shouldn't have lived this long."

"Tell me where Danielle is!" Allen started to go after Avery but the dead vampires at his feet rose and grabbed his legs. They weren't actually moving, but to Allen and everyone else, they were.

"Allen, listen to me. Those vampires at dead, they are not touching you and they are not moving. Danielle is in the same exact spot she was in before. Don't believe anything you see."

"Then why can I feel them touching me!?"

He screamed while stomping the dead vampires. He completely crushed the skulls of the ones he thought were touching him, but others were starting to get closer. That's when he started to back away. I had hoped he would keep fighting but seeing dead things move again would scare anybody shitless.

Donovan, Jamie, Marissa and Isaac also believed the dead vampires were moving. They all began shapeshifting except Isaac, who ran at the dead and attacked them with superhuman strength, ripping them apart and throwing corpses. At least, that's what he thought he was doing. The illusion was so strong I could still see even after focusing my power.

I couldn't help everyone at once. Not against Gabriel. For some reason, Allen was their target, so he was my first priority.

"Allen, turn around, look at me. None of those are real. Trust me! Just turn around and look at me!"

He finally did as I told him and as soon as he made eye contact I sent a little of my magic into his own eyes so Gabriel's illusions would disappear.

Still breathing hard, he scanned the room and saw things with a whole new light, literally. He saw through Avery and Gabriel, he saw the vampires were still in the same spots they had been in and most importantly, he saw Danielle curled up on the floor.

I reclaimed my magic as he ran towards her and heard Avery laughing across the room.

"It's so amusing, he's been spying on you the whole time and he asks you to trust him!"

"Shut up, witch." Allen replied. "You're not even brave enough to come here in the flesh."

"Maybe that's because I have more important things to attend to. Because of these demons you've surrounded yourself with, Allen."

"Demons?" Allen scoffed. "You call them demons? Look at this room! You've done this! Look at Danielle!
Who are you anyway? What sort of vampire cult crap is this?!"

"This is just one of the many testing areas of vaccines to fight the disease that comes from them! You don't much about those werewolves do you? I bet Shaye can tell you, because he's had his eyes on you ever since you and Danielle were working in the park. In fact, he was watching even before then, when your friend Jacob got himself killed by the same werewolves that you came with!"

Allen looked at Marissa and the others, who, all but Isaac, had physically turned into wolves and were fighting the illusions. Then he turned to look at me, and he looked tired, so tired, like this just being in this room was draining his energy.

"H-how? That doesn't make sense, they were all chained up. If you've been watching the entire time, why haven't you told me what happened to him? Why didn't you help me before I went with Samantha?"

Gabriel

Gabriel, I heard in my head. Have Allen and the others found Danielle yet?

Avery was making her way towards the Midwest vampires on the highest floor. I could almost sense her purpose and determination. After drinking London's blood, she most likely sealed her fate and became a full revenant. Her skin still isn't as rotten or haggard as a regular revenant, but it was getting there quicker than I thought it would. I put a glamour over her body to make it appear normal to the vampires from the other territories.

Yes. I responded. They found her.

Keep them busy. This could take a minute.

As much as I wanted to do what she said, I had to watch this meeting myself. I opened my mind, finding a stronger connection to the illusions I placed with Allen and the others, and tried to imagine everything Avery and I would have done if we were truly there. Then I disconnect myself from the illusions and let them play out themselves.

Running up the stairs as fast as I could, I had just missed the beginning of the conversation when I entered the hallway to Avery's office.

The one in front wore grey jogging pants and a grey hoodie, as if he was just going out for an evening run. His crew was not as underdressed as he was. The men looked like bouncers at a club, and the few girls in his clique looked like they were getting ready to have fun at that club. I know different territories have different rules for staying undercover, and this one wasn't as bad as others. There's at least one territory that hides as homeless people.

"Glad you could join us," said the leader of the other vampires.

"My name is-"

"Chris, I believe."

Chris stared at me for a second.

"Yes, yes it is. I find it weird you still have mindreaders in this dump."

Avery turned and glared at me, and I felt as if I shrunk ten inches.

"We know why you came. Just get to the point." Avery said bluntly, unblinking.

Chris smirked. "I assume you've handled the werewolves, as you promised you would."

"All of the werewolves have been gathered within the confines of this building." Avery told the leader. There are no werewolves running around in this region."

"Are you sure about that?" asked one of the girls in the group. We killed three on the way here."

That's impossible." I said aloud, forgetting I was only supposed to watch.

Chris, the leader, smiled at him.

"Oh, yes, it is possible. The three werewolves your father failed to kill apparently have some type of disease too. Every human they come into contact with has become huge, wolfish beasts with no sense of purpose. They aren't even werewolves, they can't go back to normal. This whole territory is tainted and we're gonna purify it, starting with you."