Resurrection

by Lissa Kasey

  “Does this look like Ascendance magic?” Seiran asked Max. Years ago, Max had been the head of the organization, but when Seiran had inherited his father’s legacy, he’d joined the Ascendance to the Dominion and ended the destructive cycle of dark magic they were using. Or that had been what Seiran thought had happened. Maybe this family had Ascendance members within it that hadn’t liked the change.

  Max surveyed the field. “Yes, and no? Seems like a lot of wasted energy, of magic? For what? Have they been creating golems this whole time?”

  “I don’t think so,” Seiran said. The life animation didn’t feel the same as the rest of the death. He had to admit he was using his tie to Gabe to get a better grasp of it. While the power tickled his senses as the Pillar of Earth, it didn’t feel like his magic. Could he create a golem from new death? Maybe. He didn’t think it would be easy. Not with souls bound in it, as he’d never even heard of that happening before. But maybe a lot of intense spells and practice. Was that what this was?

  “Not the same magic,” Gabe said absently. He kept close to Seiran, though seemed tense, with his arms crossed. Ever since he’d mentioned on the drive over that Seiran closing the ties between them was making him struggle, Seiran had tried to keep the link open. “This death is almost as if they were trying to do something.” He gazed at the golem. “Maybe even trying to make a golem and failed? Choosing vampires because they try to go unnoticed?”

  The golem stared out into the killing field with empty eyes.

  “Were you here?” Gabe asked. The words felt more like a command than a request, like a vampire sire might make of a fledgling. “Can you show us where you came from? The bodies from which your souls were freed?”

  Seiran startled when the golem actually moved. In fact, the entire group of enforcement stopped moving when the golem began to trek across the area, weaving through bodies in different stages of being documented, then packed up and transported. Seiran could feel the tie from the golem to Gabe, and wondered how it was different than his own. It wasn’t the gentle thing of the blood bond he’d created before they left the house that day, but almost a net, or thinly stretched webbing that spanned the distance between them. As though Gabe could grab a hold of that web and yank it back in a titanium grip. Was that how it worked between vampires and their fledglings?

  The golem finally stopped at one set of charred remains, recovered, but too far damaged to be recognized. The vampires had indicated it was dead, no reanimation available even though the head was still attached. Vampires couldn’t heal everything. Seiran swallowed back bile at the horror that they might survive damage like this corpse had suffered. How long had they lived through the torture?

  The sheet thrown over it, and a lot of the other worst victims didn’t help fade the memory of seeing them come out of the ground. The fact that Seiran had asked for the earth’s help in revealing them all, so the team wouldn’t have to flounder and use dogs, had meant he’d been in the middle of all that death until the ground stopped rumbling.

  Like the worst zombie movie ever realized, with skulls and limbs jutting out in places as the ground slowly spit them out. The dirt a bit reluctant to let them go. Fuel, it told Seiran in subtle pictures, reminding him, as though he could ever forget, that the ground ate through organic matter. Didn’t matter how they died or what they’d been before they died. Death was an equalizer in a lot of ways.

  This badly damaged body was on the far edge of the field, near where the trees restarted. She had even been buried on top of other bodies. Like they’d run out of room. She. Because that’s what the golem changed into. The soul seeming to find a few seconds of purchase over the golem’s magic.

  Forest’s appearance shifted, turning to the girl Seiran recognized from the files of the three missing vampires. Blonde hair, young, looking no more than a barely finished eighteen. Not much older than his kids, Seiran remembered thinking when he looked at her file. Though she could have been centuries old, since vampires didn’t age. Missing from a nest in Madison Wisconsin, not far from the Twin Cities, but still not a short ride. Had this tortured corpse been her? She looked back at them from the living features created by the golem’s visage and seemed surprised to see them all.

  “I’m dead?” She asked, as she began to sob, even dropping to her knees and wrapping herself up into a ball. “It’s over. It’s finally over.” She cried while everyone looked on at the mounting horrors of the day. Whatever spell or geas that kept the souls from directing them before had been broken, at least when it came to the killing field. Jana Rosette’s body was here, burned, sliced up, limbs missing, and part of a killing field with far too many bodies.

  Two of the three vampires who had created the golem were in the field. Only two. Gabe had issued a command for the golem to show them all where the bodies were, and it had led them to the second, but then when it tried to walk beyond the field it stopped. Almost as if it were unable to pass a border or a ward or something. Seiran couldn’t find any such ward, nor did the earth around them indicate a marker that could create one.

  Seiran’s group sat the golem down and recorded what it remembered of the last days of each vampire’s life. The torture too much for him to hear, he’d walked away to take in the evening air, and breathe something other than the stench of death, rot, and burned flesh. This was why he was Director now instead of an investigator. Eight years of field work, and hundreds of horrors, though none as bad as this. Was he getting old?

  Gabe remained at his side, shielding his back while he watched the golem mimic some of what was done. The sounds alone, of begging, crying, screaming, and a shrill sound like an animal dying, wouldn’t go unheard even in Seiran’s nightmares.

  He wondered if Gabe was angry, or thought he was weak because Seiran wasn’t watching. The show earlier in the day had brought back too many memories from his youth that he’d long thought buried. He’d have to restart therapy. Had thought for a while that he’d been free of all that mess. It seemed a different life. But wounds like that never really healed. They scabbed over and sometimes even became scar tissue, waiting for the right snag to rip them open again.

  “You don’t have to stay with me,” Seiran whispered to Gabe. “Not even because I’m your Focus. Max can probably help your control.”

  The vampires stayed close to the center of the group, observing, not to protect the witches, but likely to bear witness and ensure justice would be served in the end. Max had become the king of the recovery effort, directing everyone for efficiency that Seiran knew both the Dominion and the Police rarely showed. But these were his people, even if none of them had been his fledglings. And Max did scary super vampire really well.

  “I’d rather stay with you. Unless my presence bothers you,” Gabe said so softly Seiran barely caught it. “I have a vague memory…”

  “Of?”

  “Someone hurt you?”

  “Lots of people hurt me,” Seiran said.

  “Including me?”

  Seiran let out a long breath as he tried to sort through what to say. “Yes, but not in the same way. You hurt me by leaving. By not telling me you were struggling. By waiting too long to face what was happening to you, that you did some very not okay things, but none of them directly to me.” He let that sit for a minute, then added, “Me, you mostly abandoned.” Though Seiran knew it hadn’t been Gabe’s choice. He’d spent years going over in his mind what had happened and how things might have changed.

  They were silent a bit longer, before Gabe finally said, “I think I was pulled this time too.”

  That comment hit Seiran like a fist in the gut. Who? And how? Did that mean Gabe would have to leave again? He tried to breathe and suddenly found his airway tightening. It had been years, almost a decade since his last panic attack, and this was not the place. He tamped down hard, told himself that he wasn’t dying, even if he couldn’t breathe. The earth wasn’t ready to take him. But his vision narrowed, darkness closing in on the sides. It would be real
ly embarrassing to pass out on the edges of a crime scene.

  Strong arms wrapped around him from behind, pulling him into a fierce embrace. He knew from the scent that it was Gabe, but couldn’t regain enough control of higher function to respond.

  “I’m going to try to soothe some of this panic. Don’t punch me, okay?” Gabe whispered in his ear. The wall between them was open, as open as it could be from years of disuse and distance, but the waves of darkness began to recede, and suddenly Seiran caught a breath, sucking in gasping lungfuls of air with Gabe pressed against him, his face in the crook of Seiran’s neck. “That’s right, breathe.”

  Would he leave again? Why did that tear Seiran up? He’d only been back a day or so. Gabe didn’t even remember him. It shouldn’t hurt like this.

  “I was down a long time,” Gabe said quietly.

  “But maybe not long enough,” Seiran said, his heart still pounding.

  “We’ll deal with that as it comes. Now, do you need to be here?”

  “I’m the Director of Magic Investigations.”

  “Which I take to mean you’re more a manager than an active investigator. Am I wrong?” He wasn’t wrong. Seiran had taken the role so he could be home more with his kids. “Your people seem competent. And if they aren’t, Max has things in hand.”

  “What if there are more?”

  “Bodies? Your power already crawled through the grounds of this property and found nothing else, right? I felt that.”

  Were they supposed to be linked like this? Sense each other’s powers, maybe even borrowing them? They hadn’t gone that deep before, but maybe that had been because Seiran hadn’t been willing to be that open, or Gabe had been hiding as well. Would he remember any of their time together? Or would that all be lost in the blackness of the revenant he’d become?

  Seiran’s phone rang, silencing his thoughts, because it was Kaine’s ringtone. He pulled out his cell but didn’t free himself from Gabe’s arms. He hoped no one judged him for accepting an embrace while standing on the brink of all this horror.

  “Hey peanut, whatcha need?” Seiran answered the phone.

  “Will you be home soon?” Kaine asked, his voice soft and careful.

  “Do you need me to be?” It was a stupid question because he wouldn’t have called otherwise. “I just have to let my people know I’m leaving. They have all this in hand.”

  “Okay,” Kaine’s voice was still small. Seiran sometimes forgot that Kaine was very young. Maybe not in fae terms, but in human terms he still had a lot of growing to do. The fae didn’t automatically know all the secrets of the universe either. And Kaine was only half fae, the other half mortal, whether that be human or witch, didn’t seem to matter more than that he needed to be held sometimes. Seiran was pretty sure they all forgot that from time to time when Kaine seemed so grown up.

  “I’ll be home in less than an hour. Is that okay? Is Jamie home? Can you snuggle with him for a bit?”

  “He’s here. We’re all gonna watch a movie.” Even though it was late and a school night. Jamie must have understood that something was happening, even if Kaine wouldn’t share it with him.

  “Okay, I’ll be home soon. I love you.” Seiran said. When he’d been younger those words were hard to say. Expressing emotion meant being vulnerable and letting that person know they had power. But he adored his kids and tried to tell them often that they were loved, and were everything to him. He never wanted them to feel unwanted or a burden, like he had growing up.

  “I love you too,” Kaine said, sounding a little lighter. Seiran hung up, worry still lingering in his gut. Not just for the case, but now for his kid.

  Gabe slowly let him go, and it was a little sad to feel the warmth and weight of him vanish. “Let’s talk to those in charge, so you can go see your kid. Sounds like he needs you.”

  Vampire hearing was profound even on the worst day. But Gabe was right. Seiran was wasted in this space. Everything had to be documented and cataloged, evidence filed. His job was to delegate, review, and step in when necessary, but there was really nothing for him to do right this minute as his people had it all in hand. Everything from identifying bodies, to recording comments about the magic energy left on the remains, his people, the police, and the vampires, all seemed to be working in tandem to get it done. More Max and Emmaline’s direction than his.

  Gabe turned them toward the field and found a handful of vampires with their backs to them, as though acting as a barrier between them and the field. None of them looked their way, but quickly dispersed as they approached. A guard perhaps. Since Sam was nearby, he thought maybe Sam had sent them to ensure Seiran and Gabe had a bit of privacy. Sometimes he could be human that way, when he wasn’t working himself into a frenzy trying to be an asshole.

  Seiran found his way to Max and Sam, as his own investigators had finished with the golem and Forest was sitting at Max’s feet, silent, and completely immobile. Seiran wondered if he could release those two until they found the third. The bonds were complicated, interwoven, knotted. He could sever them all, but not one at a time. He felt bad about keeping them here at all, but they were still missing one body. Did that mean there was another killing field somewhere?

  “Can your magic release them one at a time?” Seiran whispered to Gabe. He knew the other vampires would hear, but he didn’t need everyone in his business. “I don’t want to release the last one until we find his body.”

  “It should be possible,” Max interrupted. “If you’ll allow me to take the golem with me this evening?”

  “Can you control it?” Seiran asked.

  Max nodded. “The souls within are still vampire. I will simply give it blood and rebind it to me. The visage won’t be as perfect as yours, but it will have to do. I have more questions for the other two. Vampires shouldn’t have been so easily lost.”

  Seiran stared at the golem. “Okay. Forest, obey Max. He’s going to help you.” Not that Seiran thought the golem really understood what that meant, other than the direct command to obey. “I’ll let Emmaline know. Make sure she’s got all the video evidence she needs from it before they are released.”

  Max nodded, his expression blank. Normally he portrayed bored indifference, but this seemed something else.

  “You okay?” Seiran asked, though he wasn’t sure what possessed him to. Max was not a vampire who shared feelings with anyone.

  “Is anyone?” Max replied. “There should not be this many vampires missing or dead. Where are their sires? How were they taken so easily? Why vampires?”

  “No,” Seiran agreed. “But they aren’t all from here, right? Wouldn’t Mike have said something if this many of his were missing?” Technically they’d been Gabe’s. Would Gabe have to reclaim them from Mike? Or would Mike remain in control?

  “Not from here. None of them are,” Sam answered. He had a checklist on his phone. “But all from the surrounding states. Makes you wonder what he was using as a lure.”

  Max’s gaze fell on Sam, expression assessing. “You think the witch hunted them?”

  “Lured them in probably. For what, we don’t know. But this isn’t all that different from what happened in Romania three years back.”

  Seiran hadn’t heard about that, but the vampires rarely shared. “Were they creating golems?”

  “No, zombies. Vampire zombies,” Sam said. “Found fire is really useful with that sort of thing. Just about the only thing that can kill a vampire zombie is fire, other than severing the magic that rebirthed them to begin with. I was only there for cleanup. Didn’t meet the actual witch that time. The nest there had killed the entire coven.”

  Vampire zombies. That sounded really bad. “But all of these are just dead,” Seiran said as he stared across the mass grave. It might take days to move them all.

  “Yeah, they either really fucked up and couldn’t make it happen, or it wasn’t their goal. Maybe their goal was to create the golem,” Sam said.

  “If death magic isn’t their stren
gth, it’s almost impossible,” Max added. “Even most vampires have very little death magic at their fingertips.” He looked at Gabe. “One of the last of the truly powerful is among us, only newly resurrected.”

  Gabe was a master of death magic? That was news to Seiran.

  “It was why Tresler wanted him so badly. What better way to put the fear of vampires in humanity, than to raise legions of zombie soldiers? I don’t believe it worked the way he had hoped it would,” Max added.

  Gabe remained silent at Seiran’s back. Probably thinking, as Seiran wasn’t certain what he remembered. “He says he thinks he was pulled early,” Seiran said quietly, not really wanting to think about that.

  “It’s possible,” Max agreed. “Or he could have felt the use of the death magic, as great as it must have been to create the golem, and been brought back to deal with it. It would not be his first golem.”

  “Gabe can create golems?” Sam asked, incredulous. “I thought his big skills were seducing barely legal witches and managing bars.”

  “I’m not sure he ever created one, but unraveled plenty. And I recall a zombie war a couple hundred years ago that he put down with a decisive and swift victory. It was one of the things that made the Tri-Mega fear him.”

  “I don’t remember any of that,” Gabe said. “I vaguely remember zombies. Lots of zombies. The smell is a bit unforgettable.”

  “Perhaps you should renew the bonds with your witch and see if it clarifies your memory,” Max suggested. “I will handle the golem for the evening, and the rest of the body removal. I have a lot of nests to contact. Bad news to deliver.”

  “Thank you,” Seiran said. “And, I’m sorry.”

  “Not your fault. Though I will be pressing for more investigations into some of the higher ranked witch families. This is unacceptable in any form. That they were my people gives me the reason to push a lot of buttons. I will not let it happen again. No matter what I have to do.”