by Lissa Kasey
Kevin paled. “I didn’t make it,” he said hotly. “I’ve already told them that. I’ve already answered questions.”
“Not for me,” Seiran said. “I am the head of Magic Investigations.” He raised a brow, wondering if the kid had heard of him at all. His aunt had quite the reputation of being ruthless over the years before she had retired. He didn’t think he’d cultivated the same intensity. But part of that was because very few people saw him as really having power among the Dominion. He was, after all, a lowly male when it came to the matriarchy of magic. “I am also the Pillar of Earth. You may call me, Director Rou.”
Kevin seemed unimpressed.
Seiran had to hold back his sigh. There was no respect for pillars anymore. He wondered if that was because of him, or the many figureheads that had held the position before him. He pointed at the golem. “Did you know golems can only be created from death magic?”
“Death magic isn’t a thing. It’s just part of earth. The golem is a bunch of sticks and clay, and a handful of spells. We didn’t think it was a big deal,” Kevin began talking.
“You’ve taken some basic magic studies classes then?”
“It’s required for all witch families.”
“Have you tested?” Seiran wanted to know. He could reach out and feel the power of any witch, even in a nullified room like this, but he made it a habit to not touch suspects.
“No,” Kevin said. “I’m a guy.”
Seiran waited.
“No power,” Kevin finally added.
“Again,” Seiran said and pointed to himself, “Pillar of Earth. Being a guy doesn’t mean no power.”
“My mom says you’re just some figurehead they put in office so your mom could get more power.”
Well now, that was laid bare. Seiran reached across the table and put his hand on Kevin’s arm. It was an instant recognition. Air. Probably level two, which was common among witches in general. No different than the guards at the main desk had been. As Seiran dug deeper, he heard a pounding on the door, demands for it to be opened. But this was Seiran’s case, and his aunt had ensured the rules that limited him were few. MI spent too much time chasing the darkest of magic users to ever be constrained by simple political politeness.
Kevin gasped as Seiran touched his power, studied it. He could be a level three if he worked hard. But the wards hadn’t been his, neither was anything of the golem. Not created by him, or even controlled really. Seiran withdrew his hand.
There was an edge of recognition that seemed to come from Gabe. A startled movement, something? Seiran glanced back. Gabe still stood with his back to the door, unmoving despite the racket coming from the other side. “He gave it blood. To try to bind it? I can still smell the edge of it on the golem and him,” Gabe said.
That made sense, though how a witch with no training hoped to use their own blood to control something they hadn’t created, baffled Seiran. It wouldn’t work on the best of days. And even he was struggling to control this thing. Death magic, Seiran was coming to believe, was a different element altogether. Not a facet of earth at all.
“Level two air witch, eh? Too bad your family wouldn’t have let you test. You could have been a powerful witch.” Now he’d likely spend some time in prison rather than returning to school.
“I’m not a witch,” Kevin said, as if that would protect him from using a magically created being for ill gains.
“Do you know what reckless endangerment means, Mr. Weatherford?” Seiran asked. “Do you know what it means for a witch who causes reckless endangerment?” It wasn’t a slap on the wrist, even for the powerful witch families. The media followed the Dominion too closely to let anything this public be swept under the rug. If the golem hadn’t attacked people, maybe.
“I didn’t do anything. I didn’t create it.”
“Who did?”
“I don’t know. We got it from someone. Steve found it online or something.”
Steve. Seiran glanced at his notes. The one student whose family refused to return him. This was going to be a fun afternoon. “Why didn’t you turn it in right away?”
Kevin looked away, seeming uncomfortable. “We were having some fun is all.”
“Having some fun. Sending it to class was fun?” No, that was convenient. What had they done with it before? To have fun with it? Probably when they still had full control and it hadn’t begun to unravel. A sick feeling uncurled in his gut. He prayed he was wrong, but his instincts were rarely wrong.
Seiran glanced at the golem who sat blank and unmoving in the chair like it was little more than a statue. It looked like a person because Seiran’s magic gave it that strength, but it was a thing. “What did you do with the golem when you first got it?”
Kevin’s cheeks flushed pink and he wouldn’t look at Seiran. “Nothing big. I mean it can look like anyone, right? As long as we show it a picture, and tell it what to do?”
Except that sort of shift and control, meant the magic would unravel faster. If they’d left it whatever it had been from how it had been gifted to them, they might have gotten away with it longer. Seiran sat back in his chair and stared at Forest, finally saying, “Forest?”
The golem moved suddenly, lifting its gaze to Seiran. Kevin jumped half out of his chair at the movement. “Show me the visage this man commanded of you,” Seiran said spreading his magic outward, despite knowing it would disrupt the nullifying field of the room. The golem shifted instantly, appearance changing to that of a girl, probably not much more than one. Teenager at most. Pretty in an unfinished way. And almost completely nude, skirt short like they never were outside of anime, and topless.
They used the golem for sex? That was a new level of kink Seiran hadn’t thought possible.
Kevin gaped at the girl; his hands clutched on the table. The noise outside grew louder. Gabe kept his arms folded across his chest, acting as a sentinel at the door. Useful.
“What did they ask you to do, Forest?” Seiran inquired of the golem. He knew the many cameras of the room would be catching this all. Good documentation for court. Kevin would be lucky if he didn’t get life in prison for this. Death was off the table, since he didn’t create the golem. Reckless endangerment would have been for not reporting it. But using it, not only for the classes, but as some sort of deviant sex toy? That was an abuse of a magic object with malignant intent.
The golem got on its knees and splayed itself like it was ready to be taken from behind. It made noises like a porn movie would, but sounded very fake even as it said things like “Fuck me, big boy,” and “Oh, yes, you’re so thick,” in between what appeared to be sucking as well.
“Make it stop,” Kevin said huddling back into the corner of the room, while the smell of his arousal was unmistakable. The noise from outside the room had vanished, probably in stunned silence.
“I’m making note that the suspect smells of arousal,” Seiran stated for the record.
“I also smell his arousal,” Gabe added.
“I’m not…” Kevin protested even as he couldn’t tear his eyes away. “It’s not… it is just a toy. Not real. It wasn’t…”
“Not a toy,” Seiran corrected. “That was created from souls. Vampire or otherwise, it still requires new death to create a golem, and an object created from sentient life used for malignant intent, is a life sentence. And there are souls trapped inside, not just some clay vessel empty and ready to do as you command. You raped dead people,” Seiran said the quiet part out loud, putting voice to their crimes. It wasn’t a toy or a lifeless thing to be manipulated. They had raped it, and “Murdered people.”
“Wasn’t rape. It’s willing,” Kevin tried.
“It can’t say no, which does not mean it was willing,” Seiran said. He got up. “Forest, stop. Return to the way you were, and rest.” The visage of the girl vanished, melting away to the young man from a book Forest had found the day before, and seating himself back in the chair. Seiran felt bad for making it replicate what had happene
d. The golem probably didn’t care, but the souls tied to it might.
He gathered up his laptop and paperwork, more intent on solving this case than he had been before. Logically, everyone knew there were kinks like this. Probably entire online communities committed to this sort of thing, but it wasn’t anything Seiran wanted to know about. He’d stop it where he could. His own past of assault reared up, making him nauseous. Therapy could only do so much to quell the trigger of memories. He wasn’t that kid anymore. Not helpless. Or he pretended as much, shutting down his emotions. He had a job to do. If there was anything Seiran had mastered in his life, it was survival. The earth might not let him die, but there were plenty of ways a soul could fade until not even the body could return. And he’d seen enough horrors for a thousand lifetimes.
“Who was the girl?” Seiran asked Kevin as he got ready to leave the room and head for the next suspect. “Some celebrity or something?” He hadn’t recognized her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t famous or something. His kids were more into pop culture than he was. Either way, the charges were the same. He’d press because he didn’t like the way the girl looked underage. Bad enough they were raping the dead, even worse that they were perpetuating pedophilia to do it. If it had been his daughter, he’d have fought for a rule change, putting the death penalty on the table. If he didn’t kill the kid first.
The earth might not like that, and even take him back, but it would be worth a true death. Seiran had a powerful distaste for child abusers of any kind.
“Steve’s sister,” Kevin said so softly Seiran barely heard it.
Chapter 12
The show was no less disturbing the second time around. And the two women from the first hall silenced the new woman waiting outside the second room.
Gabe acted as guard, using his size, and his natural vampire presence to keep them out. Seiran had gone very silent in the first room when the deviance had been revealed. It was a closing of the link between them. Not cut off, but a firm wall in place, which made Gabe shut down harder on the revenant.
His connection to the witch needed to be renewed. That much he understood now. Whether that was through blood or some actual metaphysical tie, he didn’t know. But Seiran closing him off brought a renewed struggle for control. He shouldn’t have been this unsettled after going to ground for so long. Maybe he had been pulled early. It would explain why his memories were coming back in a tiny trickle and the revenant kept fighting for release.
At least the golem wasn’t drawing on him much now. The strength of Seiran’s power seemed to have a firm grip on the creature while in this warded area.
The space was unusual. Gabe could feel the absence of magic, other than what Seiran projected, as white noise. Almost a muting of the world around them. It was interesting to see how much of actual life was magic. Or at the very least, tied to magic. Himself included.
The second boy caved just as fast as the first, claiming he hadn’t raped the golem, and it wasn’t really meant to be one of the boy’s underage sisters. Something about ‘teaching that bitch her place’ and ‘it was just a game.’
The rage that filled Seiran, becoming a tangible thing as the room seemed to heat, made Gabe tighten his arms. He was already hugging himself, with arms folded like he was a bodyguard, near the door. But the level of anger, feeling almost like fire, reminded Gabe that earth, while most thought was limited to growing things, also included fire, water, and death. Much more than just life. He couldn’t recall if he’d ever seen that expansion of power from an earth witch before. But his scattered memory told him he avoided witches. Before this one at least.
This witch was his. He could feel the thrum of that in his bones. Even when the memories refused to clarify. The need to protect him, somehow stop this pain that was making him close off, hurt. It was easy to turn pain to rage, easier than basking in what hurt, and Gabe suspected that was what Seiran was doing.
By the time they left the room, the hallway outside was silent. Only Director Han waited, her face drawn in a pinched frown. “I will have guards sent to fetch the last boy,” she told Seiran.
“Don’t bother,” Seiran said. “My team will bring him in.”
“His family needs to know… about his sister. What if he…?”
Seiran barely glanced her way. “Maybe you should have let me question them?”
“These boys come from prominent witch families who donate a lot to maintaining the balance of the Dominion,” Han protested.
“Meaning they donate to you? Or offered you money to sweep this under the rug? I believe that’s an ethics violation, Director Han.”
“I accepted nothing from them.”
Seiran nodded. “I’m sure you won’t be bothered when I have the Ethics Committee review your bank records.” Page lingered near the end of the hallway, an armful of books as a shield while he kept out of the long spread of nullified cells. “Page, please get Director Ariana on the phone for me. I’ll discuss ethics with her on route to my last suspect.”
“We thought the boys were just using it to take tests for them,” Han said quietly.
“A golem is created from new death,” Seiran reminded her. “I know taboo magic wasn’t taught a half century ago, but it’s a required yearly update for those employed here. You can’t just scrape together a bunch of clay and will it to live. Something has to die to animate it. It’s how animation works, it’s part of necromancy,” he waved at Gabe, “vampirism, all of it.”
“The earth has power over life and death,” Director Han said.
“Yes,” Seiran agreed. “And She grants limited access. The rest of us have to take from one thing and move it to the next to create life. Energy, life, and power are not a vacuum, they need a balance. Living beings died to create that thing. There are souls still trapped inside of it.”
“Vampires…”
“Are considered sentient life,” Seiran interrupted before she could get more insulting. “And you didn’t know it was vampires that created it until I came in and told you.” He headed toward Page, Gabe following at a silent distance, keeping the golem in front of him. It wasn’t pulling on the bonds for the moment. But that could be the warded area they were in. If necessary, he could jump on the thing and tear it apart. Enough damage and it would take a while to regenerate. Maybe enough time for the witch to unravel it.
Seiran took the stack of books from Page, the young man pale beneath his dark skin.
“I heard about…” Page said, his cheeks flushed pink. “I’m sorry. I know you… well, I hate that you had to experience a reminder.”
Reminder of what? Gabe wondered.
“Feel worse for the souls inside the golem who had to live through it.” Seiran said. They headed for the front door. The sun was setting, the cast of colors stretching across the windows. It felt a bit unsettling to stare at the fading light. The sun itself already lost in clouds and the horizon, leaving only the wash of colors to indicate the time. Gabe knew he should feel the tug of light in some way. And he supposed he did, a little. The fading edges of fog seemed to be evaporating from his brain.
He thought he’d felt a little sluggish all day, suspected it was the distance from his Focus, the lack of shared blood, but that was only a small portion of it. The sun didn’t burn, but it did make him slow. That was good to realize. He could work around it. Maybe he should rest during the daylight hours, even if he wasn’t tired.
“It’s terrible,” Page said. “Who would do that sort of thing?”
“Not everyone sees vampires as people.” Seiran had his phone out.
“But they still have souls. They still feel pain,” Page pointed out. “To use it that way…”
Seiran’s gaze fell on Gabe. There was almost a question in his eyes, like was it true? Did vampires feel emotions the same way regular people did? The answer was yes, and no. Time could dull emotions. But often vampires went to the other extreme, feeling too much, seeking out the fringes of things, love and hate, just to feel.
Gabe recalled feeling that way for a while. Could picture a handful of times in his life he’d been considered reckless, just to feel something.
“We do,” Gabe said. “Pain and pleasure, hate and love, and a thousand other things. Can we release the souls soon?” He felt bad for those stuck within it, though as the sun set, he also found it easier to wrap his power around it, cradling and comforting it as he would a brand-new vampire. The tugging on it had faded when they went into the warded area of the building, but now in the entry, it finally seemed naturally quiet.
“I hope so,” Seiran said. There was an SUV idling outside the main entry. The back door opened and it was the vampire Sam who leaned out. “About time,” Seiran griped.
“Shut up, Ronnie. Some of us have to sleep and enjoy waking up with our guys.”
Seiran flinched, but headed toward the SUV. “I’ll send you notes, Page. Go home. I’ll see you tomorrow. Don’t worry about calling the Director, I’ll phone her myself from the car.”
Page lingered near the door, his gaze sad. “I’m sorry, Director Rou.”
“For what?” Seiran asked.
Page waved his hand in an all-encompassing gesture. “Everything?”
“It’s fine, Page. See you in the morning. I’m hoping to actually get more than four hours of sleep tonight.” Seiran looked at the golem. “Forest, get in the vehicle.”
Gabe followed since he had no plans to be separated from Seiran. Not until more of his memories returned and he had a better grasp of his control. At least the setting sun eased some of the constant struggle of the revenant. It almost seemed to lay back and rest. Ready to rise fast enough if he let it, but no longer fighting to take control. Normal? Or a consequence of being newly aboveground. Would the other vampire know?
The back of the SUV was roomy. A middle section of seats in which Sam sat, and the back where the golem was. Gabe took the seat beside the golem, and Seiran sat next to Sam, sliding the door shut. Seiran rattled off an address. “Meeting a handful of guards there, to pick up the last boy,” Seiran said.