Resurrection

by Lissa Kasey

  “Creepy,” Sei said to his unexpected visitors as he pulled out clothes for the day and set them on the bathroom counter. “There’s a thing called boundaries.”

  “The golem is calmer close to you,” Gabe answered still not looking his way. Sei wondered if he was completely back or his eyes would still be black.

  “He should have stayed in the chair. I gave him a direct order.”

  Gabe said nothing. Seiran returned to the bathroom and closed the door, like it would stop either of them from busting in on him. But he dressed in a hurry, brushed his teeth, and combed his hair back.

  He felt a bit self-conscious stepping out of the bathroom. But he’d chosen a pair of pale brown skinny jeans, with a long-sleeved black T-shirt instead of his usual slacks and button up. If he was interviewing the jocks today, maybe it would help if he looked less like some stuffy office worker, and more like one of them. Though as he pulled his hair up into a small pony tail, he stared into the mirror and felt weirdly young looking. Closer to forty than twenty, but he still looked like a kid. Witch genes or the Focus bond? He sighed, and made his way back to his room. His appearance wasn’t why people didn’t take him seriously, that problem was mostly related to his gender.

  Forest still sat in the chair, but he was fidgeting. Tapping his feet, drumming his hands on his thighs, while his eyes looked oddly hollow. Gabe stood across the room, arms folded across his chest like he was hugging himself, but his fists were clenched and eyes closed. Was he still fighting the revenant? Maybe remembering things? Or was being this close to Seiran difficult for him?

  “Maybe you should sleep?” Seiran offered. “Since it’s daytime?”

  “I did sleep for a while,” Gabe said. “At dawn. I laid down on the bed you said was mine. Slept for a few hours until I felt the golem.”

  Gabe had felt the golem first? Or heard it? “You felt it throwing itself at the wards?”

  “Before that,” Gabe said. “It was a pull.” He was silent another minute or so before adding. “I think I felt it before, too. When I woke from the grave. Something really strong and powerful…”

  Did that mean Gabe had been pulled back early? Maybe that was why his control and memories were so messed up? Seiran didn’t think that was good news for either of them. If he had to put Gabe back in the ground, he would, but knowing that he might spend another decade or even a century alone, that might be too much for him. “Do you think it brought you back too soon?”

  Gabe seemed to be focused on breathing, or meditating. “Maybe? I mean, I felt the pull, but could have probably ignored it if I wasn’t ready. It’s not tied to me. More a brush of strong magic,” he hesitated and added, “like when the hairs on the back of your neck rise, and you’re not sure why. Something… might be nothing.”

  Only it hadn’t been nothing. Whatever this was had created a golem, and was doing what? Trying to call it back now? “Something called it?” Could Gabe sense the death magic controlling it, could he follow that magic? If so, that might be easier than Seiran trying to drag the answers out of jocks or even the puppet itself. Gabe finally opened his eyes and they were green. Seiran let out a long breath of relief.

  “I don’t know. Both, maybe? The dreams when the sun is high are often faint.” He was quiet a minute, gaze roaming over Seiran, but not in a way that felt overtly sexual. More assessing. “I think I recall, that we sleep better with the grave near?”

  “The magic of vampires, if that’s what you want to call it, seep into the ground a vampire uses as a grave.” Seiran picked up his phone and sent Sam a text about needing grave dirt for Gabe. “You’ll sleep better when we get more earth in the box.” He tugged on a pair of shoes and debated how the day was going to go. The golem’s movements tugged at his magic, like they were small attempts to subvert the bond. That couldn’t be possible, right? Not after giving it blood and wrapping it in earth magic. “I have to go to the office.”

  “You need to keep the golem close. Something is pulling on it. Calling it maybe…” Gabe said quietly. He looked at the golem.

  “I’ll take the golem with me.” Seiran had to question the jocks anyway, maybe putting the golem in the room with them would yield useful information.

  “I…” Gabe began but seemed unable to form the thought he needed.

  “You had some blood from the freezer?” Seiran asked. It was still hard to look at him. The similarities between the current Gabe and the man Seiran remembered, seemed few. The width of his shoulders, but that was about all. The unruly mess of his blond curls, unlike anything the Gabe of old would ever have worn, was oddly appealing. And Seiran had the urge to run his fingers through those curls, discover if the hair was as soft as it looked, and if he could wrap his hands in the length to tug him close for a kiss. Would his lips be warm and welcoming? His gaze indicated there was something awake there, maybe not human, perhaps not even a full memory of what they’d been, but a glimpse?

  The edge of vulnerability intrigued him. In their handful of years of dating, Seiran couldn’t recall a time he’d known Gabe to be uncertain. He’d been the strong silent type, which had been part of their downfall. Survival mechanism, or had he simply been that far gone?

  Seiran bit back a distressed sound and forced himself to take a few steps away. Maybe going to the office for a few hours would help. Distance couldn’t be bad right? Even though Seiran wanted to wrap his arms around Gabe and cry to let out the years of loneliness.

  “I did, but…” Gabe paused and sighed deeply. “It’s not… I don’t know… my control is better when I’m close to you.” Gabe paused, letting the thought linger a moment half spoken.

  The last thing Seiran wanted was a vampire raging out of control in his house when his kids got home from school. “You’re saying you want to stay close in case I need to put you back in the ground?”

  Gabe swallowed hard, and nodded.

  “It’s daylight out.”

  “I think if I can keep covered in the car, it will be okay. The hallway didn’t burn.”

  “At all?”

  “No. And I stood outside your door debating for a while whether or not to wake you.” In the full light of the hallway, the many windows would have been pretty bright.

  This day was just full of unusual revelations. “My car is at the parking garage at work, so I’ll have to call a lift for us. Are you a danger to the driver or anyone else you encounter? I may rule the archives of the Dominion libraries and a couple dozen investigators across the world, but there will still be people around. Witches.”

  “We aren’t supposed to touch witches,” Gabe said.

  “Except me…”

  “You are my Focus.”

  Which didn’t exactly answer the question. Seiran packed his bag. “But you still don’t recognize me?”

  “No. I’m sorry.”

  Seiran thought about that for a while as he moved around the room, and put his bag over his shoulder. It still stung a little.

  “I…” Gabe began again. He once again hugged himself. “Am drawn to touch you. But I won’t,” he said hurriedly. “Unless you want me to. I just wanted to let you know, that even if my memory has not returned, I’m still drawn to you.”

  Seiran let out a long breath as he debated those words. “Do you want to hurt me?”

  “No,” Gabe promised.

  “Okay,” Seiran agreed, keeping his distance.

  “But I crave your blood,” he sounded almost apologetic. “The taste was…”

  “Yeah, witch’s blood has a kick,” Seiran agreed. “And since I’m the Pillar, it sort of means blood on steroids to you guys.” He made his way to the door and pulled up the app to request a driver and a specialized car with tinted windows, just in case. He had no idea how he was going to explain the vampire at the office. Though in reality, he shouldn’t have to. As Director of MI and the Pillar of Earth, he shouldn’t have been dancing on a short leash. If only those things got him the accreditation he deserved.

  “
That is an understatement,” Gabe muttered as he followed. “Forest, come,” he commanded, and strangely enough, the golem did as Gabe said. Using Seiran’s magic? Or death magic? Seiran wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

  The car ride had been almost eerily silent. Seiran crammed in the middle of the back seat of a specialized SUV with Gabe on one side, and the golem on the other. The golem stopped fidgeting when Sei touched him, almost like the pull on it stopped? Or was muffled?

  It left a lot of questions. Was earth not stronger than death? Was there a way to muffle the creator’s bond permanently, or until Seiran could figure out who that was? Would another creature of death magic, like a vampire, have better control of it?

  If things went Sei’s way today, he’d hopefully be able to unravel the golem before heading home this evening. One less problem would help ease his growing anxiety.

  Gaining entry to the Dominion building was more annoying than usual. The guard on the front desk, a rotation of witches with strong telekinetic abilities, usually air witches, often gave him crap. He brushed it off as teasing most days. The checking of his badge, his sign-in process, and scrutiny they gave his file. Today, filling out visitor forms nearly had him at his breaking point.

  “Enough,” Seiran growled at them. “The golem is part of the current investigation, and I’m not filling out fucking forms for it.” He’d already created a half dozen for Gabe, since he wasn’t normally authorized personnel.

  “Policy…” the witch began.

  “I’m the Director of Magical Investigations,” Seiran reminded her.

  “That doesn’t excuse you from the rules,” the witch snarked back.

  This was why so few men still worked for the Dominion. Kelly didn’t have an office job. He was the Pillar of Water, and head of a private school for witches. Jamie was a nurse practitioner now, and these things were why. There were less than a handful of men working in the Dominion at all. And to this day, Seiran was still the only one with a high-ranking position. Most witches assumed that was because his mother was still regional director. How they explained away the fact that he was the Pillar of Earth, he didn’t know. But with the constant bullshit they were given, it made sense why so few wanted anything to do with official channels and Dominion politics.

  Men shouldn’t have power over magic. It was against the natural order of things the vocal influencers shouted from the rooftops, or at least their media platforms. There were still media outlets that called him infidel and a dozen other terrible things. Everyone waiting with bated breath for him to turn into some sort of raving madman so they could burn him at the stake in a public display of why men shouldn’t have magic. Not that they couldn’t, but shouldn’t.

  Seiran was tired. Tired of the politics, of being second-guessed, and putting up with people’s bullshit when he had a job to do. He let out the earth. Felt the warmth of Her flow over him. The floor at his feet bloomed with moss and flowers, and the reception desk where he rested his hands began to crack as plants erupted from its surface. He knew from his experience that his hair would take on a shade of green, and flowers would weave through it. His eyes would glow with the pulsing power of the earth. A small thing to call Her forward, a little show of how aligned She was with him, how much She approved of him. He wasn’t a figurehead stuffed into a role, he was power, Father Earth, as selected by the Goddess herself.

  “As the Pillar of Earth, chosen by the Goddess, I am allowed my servants, and none but Her is allowed to question me,” Seiran said, stating the Dominion doctrine as though it were a bible quote. He glanced at Gabe and added, “That belongs to me, and to the earth.”

  The guards stepped back from the desk. Fear and surprise palpable on their faces. It gave Seiran no satisfaction. But it wasn’t even the first time he’d had to flex a little power in his own workplace. Each time it would result in a changing of staff, and eventually re-education. He’d get a few weeks, sometimes even a few months of a semi-respect before there was a changing of the guards again. It was as though the Dominion cycled through staff to ensure they didn’t gain respect for him. And he’d long since stopped trying to make nice with anyone outside his department.

  He was so done with it. Maybe it was time for him to retire, too. Find another job, less full of bullshit and more rewarding. He knew of a handful of field agents that were qualified. He’d have to pull them back from overseas to take up the position, but maybe they’d want that? Something more stable than running around the world chasing magic? The only reason he’d stayed as long as he had was for the stability of his home life. His kids needed him, so he’d endured. Maybe they were old enough to have him away a couple days a week? He’d have to have a family meeting about it before he made any major decisions. And solve the golem problem, which meant dealing with the bullshit a bit longer.

  He sighed and stalked past the desk and to the elevator that would take them down to the dark depths of the archives. He had never been moved to the main level with all the other directors. Hadn’t let it bother him much since he didn’t have to spend more than a meeting or two a week with the bunch. But now, it irritated him.

  Maybe that was having Gabe close? Or the golem tugging at his energy? Or maybe he was just getting old. He felt the Goddess begin to recede as he stepped into the box, though behind him a trail of growing things etched his footsteps into the stone. Gabe entered the elevator and took a spot in the back corner. Forest found a spot near the side. The golem’s fidgeting had stopped again, though it gazed at Seiran with a sort of disturbing and hungry look. For Seiran’s power? Or his blood?

  Before Seiran could close the door, Director Han put her hand on the edge and stepped inside. “Good of you to finally join us, Rou,” she said as she let the door close and hit the button for the basement level.

  “Director Han,” Seiran greeted without warmth. She was a high-level fire witch, at least as old as his mother. He often wondered why she hadn’t stepped down to give one of her children her spot. Not much within the Dominion was earned anymore. The entire structure was a hierarchical mess. A handful of witch families ruling like royalty, when, in fact, their power was waning. Perhaps none of her children were powerful enough to take the reins from her.

  She stared at the golem and Gabe, arms crossed over her chest, and facing them directly, which was strange elevator behavior Seiran knew was meant to make them uncomfortable. But neither reacted. Forest, likely because it wasn’t human at all, and Gabe, because his attention was still on Seiran. While the vampire’s gaze was intense, it wasn’t uncomfortable, more a meditative awareness, as though Gabe was using Seiran as the Focus he was meant to be.

  “We’ve already questioned your witnesses,” Han said.

  “What?” Seiran growled. “That’s not your place.”

  “Their families didn’t want to wait around until you decided to roll in. Some of us were here early.”

  “And I was in the office until after nine last night. I can hold any of them without charges for up to a week. But I wouldn’t expect you to know that since you’re not part of MI, and I’d say none of this is your place.”

  “You’re out of line, Director Rou,” she said, as though he didn’t deserve the title. The door to the elevator opened to the nearly empty basement area. “I’ve left the reports on your desk.”

  “You let them go?” Seiran was incredulous. “They were in possession of a golem created through death magic.” He pointed at the golem in question. “You let them walk without being questioned by my department? And I’m out of line?”

  “Death magic isn’t a thing, Mr. Rou,” Han said, seeming to suddenly forget he was Director. “I would have thought you learned that in college.”

  Seiran stared at Forest, and even Gabe, who to his eyes, looked like death magic. It was a stark distinction in how the earth perceived them. Maybe it was exclusive to earth?

  “I would think, Ms. Han,” Seiran said, purposely dropping the director title from her name too, “that if you wer
e of a reasonable power level, you’d be able to perceive what is right in front of you. Death magic in two different forms.”

  “They are earth magic, Mr. Rou. Death magic is part of earth magic, just as weather is part of wind and water.” She turned and headed toward the file room, one of the few areas Seiran spent very little time because everything was computerized now. Some of the older witches didn’t much care for technology. “I suggest you work on unraveling that golem before it hurts anyone else. If you’re incapable, I’m sure we can find a witch who can take care of it quickly enough.” A glow filled her eyes as she stared at the golem. “Fire takes them out fairly easily.”

  Seiran stepped in front of Forest. “I need those students brought back in.” He also needed the golem in one piece.

  “They’ve already been questioned. It’s just a toy they found.”

  “Right, because golems created from murdered vampires are things found at the local park?” Seiran demanded.

  Han looked startled, and so did Gabe at that moment, both of them looking at the golem now, who stared with creepy eyes at Seiran.

  “Murdered vampires?” Han asked.

  “How many witches do you know that are strong enough to murder several vampires to use it in a spell? Bring the students back in, Director Han,” Seiran demanded.

  “You’ll upset their families.”

  “I thought they weren’t from witch families?” Seiran asked. “That dorm is a non-witch dorm.” And an all-male dorm. Which meant a handful of things that made sense to Seiran all at once. First, that a witch family had shoved its male offspring into a non-magic dorm, and second, that it was unlikely there would only be one male witch of some power hiding. Most of the powerful families still denied the power that could arise in some of their males. It wasn’t that they didn’t want the power in their families. More that they believed male witch equaled evil. And nothing Seiran did could dissuade that. It was an oddly false belief, as the history was vague at best, with only a handful of male witches labeled as bad. Their label had been unjust as far as Seiran was concerned. They’d risen up against the oligarchy of power, and had been slapped down, villainized and murdered to keep them silent.