Resurrection

by Lissa Kasey

  Did he really want to lay down and die? Give up all of humanity just for rest? He sighed, the weight of it all too heavy for one man. He’d never asked for any of it. Seiran wasn’t some superhero despite the insane amount of power he could wield. He was meant to be a guardian, a voice of reason for the Goddess, brought to humanity. Most days he felt like a villain, helplessly shoved into a role that everyone hated him for. Was there a way out other than death?

  Page lay on his side in the grass, crying an ugly sobbing sound of desperation. He was unhurt, and unbound, he could easily grab the gun. End himself, or try again with Seiran, but that wasn’t his nature. Seiran had chosen Page because of the young witch’s gentle heart and passion for learning. He would have recognized if his servant was touched by threads of darkness that took over minds with corrupted magic.

  “Page isn’t a bad person,” Seiran felt himself whisper. It sounded distant, like there was too much noise in his head.

  “No,” Gabe agreed. “Your kids aren’t either. You? Kelly, Jamie? Con, Luca? Even Sam. Do they all deserve the end of the world? Do you feel the chaos in your mind? The edge we dangle on? Can you feel it like I can? And our bond isn’t even renewed.”

  The Goddess didn’t care about Seiran’s family. Or him. Not really. She was in pain, and he understood that. But Seiran would never hurt his kids. Never let anything separate them. He’d survived countless traumas which stained him to this day. He’d fought to keep those horrors from touching his kids. Was that all moot?

  The world was flawed, sure. Humanity was a blight, but who was he to end it for them all? And why should he have to give up everything again? Rip everything from his children? Including their chance to save the world, or hide from it. Whatever their choice, he’d stand by them.

  He’d given up the man he loved. He’d given up his choice of careers. He’d given up freedom to tie himself to the witches who hated him, protecting the twins. He’d bound himself to the fae forever to keep them from waging war on humanity. He’d even made promises to the vampires, and bound himself to one who had left him alone for far too long. All for what? To end here because the Goddess was angry?

  Everyone demanded, no one gave back. And Seiran was done with all of it. Being a pawn. Being left alone and discounted. He was tired of hiding who and what he was, just to make people comfortable.

  He’d always hated and admired Sam for being exactly who he wanted to be. Sam took no one’s shit. Stalked the night and even beat people up to blow off steam. People treated him with wariness. Not simply because he was a vampire. But because he was Sam. Maybe for once in his life, Seiran needed to be more like Sam and care less about what everyone else thought.

  Seiran could end the world. One and done. Mass destruction ushering them into a new age of dystopia if anyone survived at all. Everyone treated him like he was putting on some show, spinning the media to seem more powerful. When he was the ultimate end of all things.

  Why didn’t he let Her rage? Why had he allowed them to continue to disdain him, slowly letting Her die, so they could live? His death meant nothing to them. But his death meant nothing to Her either. Hadn’t he thought for years he’d been ready to die? At the cost of the entire world? His kids? His friends?

  No. He wasn’t ready to leave this world. And while he was a conduit, he also had free will. Another flaw in the design of mortality. But Seiran would take what strength he could.

  He sucked in a hard breath, his lungs aching with heat as though the rage were a temperature instead of an emotion. Gabe stood in front of him, his clothing smoldering, skin pink, standing in a well of power so great that if it kept going, it would burn them both up. Seiran’s gaze met Gabe’s, and he couldn’t voice the words, a plea for help to roll back the oncoming tsunami. There was so much, and Seiran felt like he either let it happen, or let himself burn up in Her rage. He could stand in the doorway, but didn’t know if he could close it anymore.

  Without him a new pillar would be chosen, if humanity survived at all. Jamie, maybe? Could he survive this onslaught hidden behind the wards? Maybe he could soothe Her rage better than Seiran had? Jamie had always been good at talking people down, part medical training, part who he was. What if it went to one of his kids? They weren’t ready. Seiran knew they weren’t. She’d rip control from them immediately. He’d been battling Her song since the moment he took the role as pillar. A siren’s song that never relented, leading to the same death and destruction as in stories of old. And he wouldn’t wish that on anyone.

  He stared at Gabe, begging for help and unable to move for fear that he lose his grip on the last shred of his sanity. But he also feared the fire burning them up, and knew in the back of his mind that vampires were highly flammable. Would it kill Gabe to be near him? Would Seiran survive Gabe’s true death? Even after more than a decade of separation, he couldn’t help but realize how much he loved Gabe. Missed him with every breath, even while fearing what they’d had was all a lie.

  “It wasn’t,” Gabe promised, hugging Seiran tightly in his arms. “Let me show you. Let me help.”

  Gabe wrapped around him, like a cool wind rising to ease the heat. His lips brushed Seiran’s, fingers curling into Seiran’s hair. And this too was familiar. Filled with memories of their days years ago, and how Gabe would hold him. Beneath that was an icy touch of something dark, and almost welcoming. The fingers of the grave, Seiran realized.

  “I am Death,” Gabe whispered, as he kissed softly over Seiran’s cheeks and lips, decorating Seiran’s face in delicate touches to cool the fire.

  “I’m death of the world,” Seiran said, feeling it in the core of him. It was more of what She wanted, than what he wanted. He didn’t know if he was strong enough to keep Her from taking control.

  “But you don’t have to be. You were meant to be life.”

  Seiran laughed a little, the sound painful and bloody, hurting as he felt like his lung was coming apart on the inside. It probably was, half drowning in his own blood, and Seiran’s right side felt numb. He didn’t feel like life.

  He couldn’t raise his arm to touch Gabe’s face like he wanted to. The pain intensified. The dome would fall if he died again, as temporary as She allowed his deaths to be. It also meant they’d take Page. Probably kill him before Seiran could return from the place between worlds.

  “Help me,” Seiran begged, not certain what he was asking for. Gabe couldn’t shove back the tide of death any more than Seiran could.

  “We must renew the bond,” Gabe said, his arms like a vise around Seiran, the only thing keeping Seiran on his feet. The power and pain, a matching tide of darkness rising to take Seiran. He wasn’t sure there would be a world at all to return to if he died this time.

  “Yes,” Seiran agreed. He’d give Gabe the power if he could, even if it meant Seiran ended up alone again. As long as his kids were safe, and the world still whole. He had something to come back to, even if it meant forever walking away from the Dominion, and witches in general. He was done being a cog in that wheel.

  Gabe kissed him again, lips on his cool and sweet, like a drink of water after too long in the desert. Seiran sank into the touch, closing his eyes. Gabe kissed a line down Seiran’s neck to place a gentle kiss over the pulsing vein there.

  “I hate that you’re already losing blood,” Gabe muttered, lips against Seiran’s skin like a caress.

  “When I die, you’ll have to take Page to safety. The barrier will fall.” The top edges in the center were already withering. Seiran either had to release his control of Her power to try to save himself, or let all of it fade as he was dragged back to the world between. The mortal body was so fragile.

  “You’re not going to die,” Gabe promised. His fangs pierced Seiran’s throat. A sharp spike of pain for a hot second before it shifted to power, while Gabe drank deeply.

  Seiran’s heart stuttered. Too much blood loss. The injury and now a vampire feeding, sounded like a good way to speed up his death. But Gabe’s long gulps o
f blood felt like it was coating their bond, which absorbed it, expanding, sponge-like. It brought rise to more power, a cool and soothing glide, not unlike water. Though Seiran recognized it for what it was, the true touch of death. Not that ripped from the worlds darkness he’d experienced too many times. But a gentle cradle of soothing peace.

  When Sam had first gone to ground, he’d been terrified. Seiran had been with him, watched his fear, and also thought to be afraid. Death meant an end to things for most everyone. Not for vampires, and not for Seiran, but he’d feared it just the same. Now Sam looked forward to his week of rest like it was a vacation.

  You should try it, Ronnie, Sam often told him. Best sleep I ever get.

  The delicate touch of the cool fingers of death were soothing. Even as the darkness rose up over his vision, leaving him with little more than a vague tunnel of light. He felt boneless in Gabe’s arms. Even while the fire in his chest still burned with pain. Waves of magic pooled outward, beginning with their bond, and spreading into the distance, dampening the fire. He could feel Gabe in his head, speaking, but couldn’t make out the words.

  The Goddess’s power met that cool breeze and seemed to calm. Like lava hitting the shore on a beach, stinging at first, then sizzling as it cooled to solid rock. His chest burned, and Gabe pressed his hand hard against the wound, seeming to spread the cool waves over the heat, drawing out some of the sharpness.

  “If I die,” Seiran slurred, “Get Page to my house. Jamie will protect him.”

  “You’re not dying,” Gabe’s whispered in his ear, face pressed to Seiran’s cheek. Seiran felt like a limp doll in his arms, weak, though calming, the rage not gone, but edges soothed. “We are immortal.”

  “What are you doing?” Seiran wondered as he tried to remain conscious. The cool power spread the heat and fire outward, a tide of rolling gentle pulses quenching the flames. He sucked in a deep breath, surprised to find his lungs full, both of them with cool and refreshing air.

  “The world underestimates you,” Gabe said, his lips finding Seiran’s again for the briefest kiss, a brush of lips more than a taste. “And me.”

  “I don’t…” Seiran began, trying to sort through the swells of cooling heat to find something solid to hold on to other than Gabe. He was there, everywhere, in Seiran’s mind, pressed against his body, holding him up in a thousand ways. It felt like a dream, or a distant memory.

  “And I’m sorry for that,” Gabe said. “My fault. It should have always been this way. You and me, united in the bond, inseparable. Your power mine, and mine yours.”

  The layers of magic continued to flow between them until Seiran felt full, sleepy, and calm, the last of the rage trickling away. He breathed deeply, feeling safe for the first time he could remember in over a decade, and warm. Bits of memories took root in his mind. Moments with Gabe in the past. The good times rather than the bad. The way he’d kept close and worked hard not to push. Seiran had been hesitant to begin their relationship back then. Sex had been one thing; relationships were where the abuse began. He’d been so broken.

  Had been. Ha. As though that had changed. The trauma didn’t fade, only how he dealt with it changed. Bury it? Bask in it? Or learn from it? Wasn’t that what Gabe had been pushing for all those years ago? Seiran didn’t linger over those memories, the arguments, or his constant battle to find himself. He wasn’t that kid anymore.

  “No,” Gabe agreed. The memories shifted to the past few days, of Seiran holding Kaine, protecting Page, and even investigating with everyone around him jumping at his command. “You are so fucking beautiful. Strong. Independent. But you don’t have to hold up the world by yourself anymore. Let me help.”

  “If you leave me again, I will kill you myself,” Seiran said, his head swirling.

  “Threat received,” Gabe said, sounding amused. “You’ll have to deal with me going to ground semi-regularly. But it won’t be years at a time.”

  That he could live with. Seiran sighed, relaxing into the arms that surrounded him, and letting the bond open completely. It felt saturated in power now, both the heat of life, Seiran’s power, and the cool essence of death, Gabe’s power. He could have basked in the sensation, a feeling of completeness he couldn’t recall ever experiencing.

  Balance, he realized. For so long he’d been holding back the Goddess’s power on his own, not realizing that it should have balance.

  “I feel light-headed,” Seiran muttered.

  “It’s the bond settling,” Gabe agreed. “And a bit of blood loss. Your body trying to catch up.”

  Seiran looked upward at the withering barrier above. He was going to pass out. The combination of the bond, healing, and the cooling of the rage sucked the energy out of him. That wasn’t good. Not dying was good, but the barrier failing when there were witches waiting to kill them outside?

  He muttered a handful of words, pressing the power not into this world, but the veil between. A request, not a demand. He prayed someone on the other side heard. Would Bryar be listening?

  “I’m going to pass out soon,” Seiran muttered.

  “Okay,” Gabe agreed, not letting go.

  Seiran could bask in this feeling forever—safe and loved—like a dream. “Barrier will fall,” were the last words he got out before that final tunnel of light vanished and he fell into oblivion.

  Chapter 24

  Seiran went limp in Gabe’s arms. At least his heartbeat was strong. Their bond pulsed and grew in strength with each beat. Every nerve and cell of Gabe’s body was on fire. He was going to need a lot more practice if he had to regularly diffuse the power of the earth elemental Herself. Seiran might call her a Goddess, but Gabe had met plenty of Her kind before. Powerful, yes. But also, very shortsighted and destructive.

  The barrier overhead was failing fast, dark lines of rot and disintegration beginning to thread its way down the sides like fingers of death. They didn’t have much time before it crumbled and whatever madness the witches had planned rained down on them.

  Gabe tried to grasp at the power of the barrier, but couldn’t hold it. Too much for him without some substantial training. It felt a bit like trying to hold back the ocean with a fishing net, and Gabe’s power sliding right through the holes. Without some tie to Seiran, or a ward renewed regularly by blood and magic, it was a temporary thing. And he knew that outside waited death for all of them.

  He carefully lowered Seiran to the ground. If the barrier crashed and the witches came in shooting, he’d need to try to keep Seiran from being hit again. It was his fault Seiran had been hit to begin with. Gabe had moved without thinking. He should have blocked the shot all together, and taken the bullet himself, rather than let it go wild. He hadn’t expected the trees to act like some sort of impenetrable force for the bullet to bounce off of.

  Blood still trickled from Seiran’s side, although it had slowed, and the wound was healing, no longer a gaping hole, his breathing clear of blood. The bullet had passed through him, Gabe could sense that much. But losing blood from the wound and then Gabe having to drink from him was a lot. He’d be out for a while, even with Gabe’s bond working hard to heal him.

  Gabe’s head throbbed. Memories like a mallet on his skull. The rich and decadent flavor of Seiran still zinged on his tongue, the power circling through Gabe’s system, dizzying. It was a lot all at once, and he’d have to sit for a while to let the pieces drop back into place. But that would have to wait until they weren’t about to be mobbed and murdered.

  “I didn’t mean to hurt him,” Page was still sobbing, curled around himself on the ground.

  “I need you to get behind me,” Gabe said quietly. “That barrier is going to fall and they are going to come at us with an army.” His gaze fell on the still man lying in the grass. No sign of life in him, but a ripple of darkness told Gabe the death was new enough. He also didn’t appear to be wounded at all, no blood on the grass, or scent lingering other than Seiran’s.

  “Did you?” Gabe wondered if Page had shot
him.

  “He was already gone when I got here,” Page whispered. He crawled closer, avoiding the gun like it would burn him.

  Why come here at all? Lured to a body? A trap? A reason to kill him without evidence? Would he even get a trial? No wonder Seiran had been enraged.

  Gabe’s gaze fell back to the cabin and the lines of power etched into it. Dark magic if there was a color to magic. Spells and wards not laid by personal power, as much as death magic. That felt very familiar, though Gabe didn’t recognize the lines. He, much like Seiran, had never really needed spells to direct his power.

  “You’ve been here before?”

  “The family’s cabin. I never came here growing up. Just that one time when I raised Mattie. It was where they burned her.”

  “But Steve asked you to come here?” Gabe deduced.

  “Sent me texts. Said he had proof it was all me, and would take it to the Dominion.” Page bowed down over his knees, hunched in a ball, like making himself smaller would make him disappear. “It’s all my fault. He was hurting the vampires.”

  “He’s the one who made you create the golem?” Gabe asked.

  Page’s face crumbled again. “Yes. I’m so sorry.”

  “Be sorry later,” Gabe said, watching the barrier continue to crumble. “We need to find a way to survive right this second.”

  “They’ll kill us anyway. It’s what they do.”

  Fuck. Gabe put Seiran behind him along with Page, trying to think of a way to create his own barrier as the walls fell. Darkness pulsed from the ground, familiar, cold and soothing. Like death. He glanced behind them at a small cabin a good twenty or thirty yards away. A hunting cabin maybe? He could feel bones beneath them, long still. Lots of death around them actually. Spades of it etched into the magic, the ground, and even the air. It felt like a place a coven met regularly, burning their elements into the area to combine their power. But most covens didn’t have death witches. At least Gabe didn’t think so.