by Lissa Kasey
Sam’s power was a little wonky on the best of days, even though he did work regularly on training.
“They popped out of the body bags.” Sam threw his hands in the air imitating a familiar kid’s movie Sei knew he’d watched a dozen times with their kids. “Like daisies.”
Sei snorted, and dissolved another golem.
The vampire zombies tore at the golems. Like the horror movies of zombies attacking to tear people up, these zombies did exactly that, a red glow illuminating from their eyes, those that had eyes at least.
The golems were fighting back much the same way, tearing limbs and trying to rip each other apart. It was a bit gruesome, but at least it kept the undead vampires and the handful of witch and human investigators safe. Seiran realized his mother, and a smattering of his investigators were holed up in a corner trying to offer triage to those injured while still having a couple of people guarding against attack.
When one of the golems reached for Tanaka, he feared he’d not get there in time, but the ground in front of her erupted with a giant wall of tangled vines. Not his magic, but hers. He smiled to himself, snagged the golem in a weave of living vines, found the mark and unraveled it.
“How are you finding the mark?” Sam demanded.
“Odin’s Eye. The mark glows.”
“Hmm,” Sam sounded disgruntled, but they had spent some time mastering the spell. Sam had wanted to be able to find Luca and Con if necessary, and Seiran suspected he could find Max that way too. “Do we need any of these whole for questioning?”
“No.” Seiran said. “They are soulless. I already bounced back the fire spell. We’ll have plenty of burned witches to track, if they survived that inferno.”
“Good.” Sam stretched out his hand and Sei felt the hammer of power. The room shifted to a weird black and white wash for a half second, revealing the marks on all the golems, and staining them with glowing color so even as the light went back to normal, the mark still shined.
“Now who’s the show-off?” Seiran grumbled. Sam’s power was more like a sledgehammer than a butter knife. But Sei used it to his advantage, bouncing around the room and unraveling any golem he could reach. It was easier now that he knew what it was. The touch of earth to the mark could send them back to the Goddess, a bit like asking the earth to dissolve the blood used to tie them to this world. Sam was at his back keeping them off him, and even holding some down, until Sei could unravel them.
There had to be a couple dozen golems. All from the killing fields they found? Was that the pull Gabe had felt? Someone trying to control an army of golems? None of them had souls like Forest did. All just toys of some greater magic that Sei would now recognize if he ever met it again. The signature of it strong enough to burn into his memory. Another thing he could track.
Sei landed in Bryar’s mess of body parts last, sweeping a wave of magic outward. The reforming golems shattered, clay blasting into pieces, with a messy spray of poop brown. Bryar looked disappointed when none of them got back up.
“Sorry,” Sei offered, breathing hard, and dripping with chunks of clay. It looked like they stood in the center of a blood bath, though it was clay rather than blood. Bodies and bones everywhere. The zombies stopped, all turning eerie gazes Sam’s way.
“Whoa… creepy,” Sam said.
“Put them to rest,” Sei said.
Sam blinked at him. “How do I do that?”
And Gabe was in the ground. Was there anyone else to ask? “Didn’t you say you dealt with zombies before?”
“Just to set them on fire.”
And that didn’t seem like the best option since the nests these vampires belonged to wanted them back. “Sammie…”
“Are you wearing DuckTales pajamas?” Sam asked incredulous. “To a battle between zombies and vampires?”
“That cartoon is a legend, you know. Do you know how much history it teaches?” Sei said searching the room for survivors and those still in need of help. Maybe Max would know how to get the vampires to stand down? Or Mike? “Who you gonna call?” he said more to himself than anyone else.
“Zombie busters?” Sam asked.
“I could cut them up,” Bryar offered. He was splattered in clay and zombie goop, but looked as excited as a child digging into their first birthday cake.
Seiran sighed. He was tied to a bunch of psychos. Though he could not have been more grateful for having any of them at his back.
Chapter 28
Max arrived with a heap of vampires, EMTs, and apparently a couple witches. The witches being male, which surprised Sei a little. But Sam seemed to recognize them. Two of them stepped in to help Sam put the zombies down. Necromancers? Sei thought more regular witches, as they used spells to direct the magic, pointing out lines of the spell to Sam.
Sei tried to pay attention to the spell, feeling like he should learn how to use Gabe’s power, but he was insanely tired. The exhaustion actually added to his grief and depression over having Gabe go back to ground, and anxiety about protecting his kids.
Would nothing he did ever be enough? He ended up sinking down in a corner, wishing for sleep. Tanaka appeared briefly. “The kids okay?” She asked.
“Yes, safe at home,” Sei agreed. “The fire spell hit Gabe.” Sei swallowed hard, trying not to picture the damage that had been done. “He had to go back to ground.” He wasn’t going to cry, and he’d tried to hold onto the rage. But it wasn’t really in him anymore to hold onto it. “I reflected the spell back. There are going to be a lot of burned witches.”
His mother seemed to take that easily enough, turning to the group of investigators and issuing commands. Including a call to all hospitals and police about severely burned witches arriving for care. If they survived. Sei wondered if he’d killed them. It did bother him a little, even though they’d tried to kill him.
Emmaline appeared with a bottle of water and some wet wipes. “Maybe wipe your hands and face before drinking?”
“Sage advice, my friend,” Sei said as he cleaned up and then popped the cap. He guzzled the entire thing before finally feeling like he wasn’t toasted inside. “How many hurt?”
“Four vampires. They’ve already been transported to their grave sites. Hart is hoping they have a full recovery.”
“There were no humans or witches close enough to be injured?”
“Not by the fire. A few got hurt when the golems attacked, but the golems seemed to fixate on the vampires, and destroying the evidence.” Emmaline looked out over the mess. Bones scattered everywhere, some burned, and the vampires laying down on their body bags looking like broken dolls.
“How much evidence was destroyed?”
“Most of it was saved, at least the records we took. We may have lost some of the remains, and a lot of them are scattered, which means a longer process getting them back to their families, but I documented everything digitally. Saved in four places, not uploaded to the Dominion servers yet.”
“Don’t upload it,” Max said, appearing a few feet away. He had probably heard the conversation from across the room. “It’s likely why they attacked. They thought the evidence wasn’t saved.”
“You think the Dominion did this?” Emmaline asked.
“I don’t doubt it,” Max said. His gaze found Sei. “How bad was Gabe hurt?”
“He went to ground,” Sei said, his voice tight.
Max nodded. “He’ll be back.”
“In less than a decade?” Seiran couldn’t help but feel bitter.
“Likely, yes.” He turned toward the door like he heard something Sei couldn’t. Tanaka was there as people in uniform with guns shoved their way inside. Not police, as they were already there trying to make sense of the mess. This was an elite squad of witches sent out for enforcement, usually to drag witches to the stake. Their uniform actually mirrored some of the old military uniforms of almost a century ago. He’d always hated the brown and green colors, like somehow, they represented the earth, when they were all political power. T
his squad had been nicknamed the Death Squad. Sort of a boogeyman of the witch world, though they were all women.
“Fuck,” Sei said as they crossed the room, splitting into two groups, heading toward Sam and Sei, looking ready to kill.
Emmaline’s eyes widened. “This isn’t…”
The group reached Sam first, and tried to use some sort of magic binding on him, which he instantly dispelled with the nullification ability he’d leeched from Matthew long ago. They were already fighting before the group could get halfway across the room to Seiran.
“Enough!” Max shouted, and the entire room went still. “What is the meaning of this?”
“We don’t answer to you, vampire,” one of the kill squad said.
“But you answer to me,” Tanaka stated.
“Not anymore,” the same witch replied. “Those witches are wanted for the murder of more than a dozen witches, and you let them, so you are being removed as Senior Director. If you’re not up on the stake as well, I’d be surprised.”
Emmaline stepped forward. “I think you’re mistaken on who murdered who.” She waved a hand at the room around them. “We have dozens, if not hundreds of bodies, human and vampire we’ve been tracking. All leading back to a similar magical signature. A group of witches working together to create death magics. Which means a coven killed all of these people. I have substantial evidence and signature markers of the magic.”
“And two dozen witches are dead by a fire magic spell,” the witch said. “Cast by Mueller and Rou.”
“I reflected a spell that had been directed at me,” Seiran said. “My lover was badly burned.”
“And several of our vampires,” Sam said.
“I did not cast that spell.” Seiran said. But he knew that didn’t matter. They’d been looking for years for a way to kill him. Now Sam too? And removing his mother from her role as Senior Director? This all sounded planned. Though he doubted they bargained on having two dozen witches dead to do it.
The witches were headed his way again and Max scowled, but the room was suddenly full of vampires and human police.
“We are done,” Max stated as the kill squad was surrounded by vampires, the police looking ready for shit too. “No more kowtowing to the Dominion. I have vampires dead and tortured by witches to create golems.” He pointed at Forest who was the only golem left in the room. He still sat in the chair, though he looked more like sticks and clay than a person, but occasionally flash-shifted to one of the visages of the vampires whose souls were trapped inside.
“You don’t have power here,” the witch said again.
“I think you’re mistaken,” Max said. More vampires appeared, pouring through the doorways even though it was daytime. “I think it is you who do not have power here.”
The vampires reached the first group of kill squad witches and grabbed them, despite protests, and clapped them in nullifying cuffs. Seiran blinked at the insanity of it. Dozens of vampires, accompanied by the human police, arresting witches?
“By whose power do you dare?” The witch demanded. “These monsters murdered Director Han and leading members of three other families.”
“By Executive Order of the President,” Max said.
And that’s when the military entered. The soldiers raining down on the place like it was a war zone. Guns at ready, and all of them wearing nullifying amulets. They had come for witches.
Seiran gaped at it all. Never in a million years would he have thought the government would rise against the Dominion. And certainly not in his defense.
“The Dominion is being declared a terrorist organization,” Max continued. “Charged with multiple abuses of power, including murder by magic, embezzling, and extortion. The President and all of Congress has reviewed the overwhelming evidence that contains decades worth of misdeeds.”
How was that possible? The Dominion worked really hard to control the information released to the public. Even editing Seiran’s reports and reclassifying a lot of what he’d cataloged over the years. He looked at his mother, who stood silent, and unsurprised by any of this. Not the kill squad orders, or even Max’s rebuttal of them. Had she done this? Been feeding information to the government?
She glanced his way and gave him a tiny reassuring smile.
Holy fuck, she had!
“I have a list of witches who are declared as belonging to us,” Max continued. “Including the Rous, and Mueller.”
“And Jamie, Kelly, Con, and Page,” Seiran whispered.
Max nodded. “The list that belong to us, is large and growing. Witches have been defecting for years, tired of the manipulation and murder of their kind for power.” The kill squad witches were bound and gagged with charms to keep them silent. “We actually have ways to jail witches without murdering them.” Max’s gaze found Sam. “Please have all of their IDs checked. I suspect a lot of these are on our Crimes Against Humanity list.”
Sam cursed, but nodded. “Fucking bullshit witch shit.” He took a tablet from one of the other vampires and logged into something.
“What is even happening?” Seiran asked. His mother stepped in close to squeeze his shoulder. “Shouldn’t you arrest me too?”
He had helped. His investigations over the years often ended with these terrible kill squad witches set upon someone. No matter what he did, or how much evidence he produced, they always took over. He’d actually become very picky over the past few years about what cases his department actually took. Only finding time and resources for things that involved a lot of destruction and death. Not that it often justified the ends the Dominion required.
“Mike will take you to the new office. Familiarize you with the basics,” Max said. “If you’ll bring your Dominion laptop, our people will begin retrieving data from it and give you a new one.”
“Did you just take over the world?” Sei wondered.
Max gave him a small smile.
“Let me give you a ride. We can get your laptop later. But maybe call your fae buddy to you?” Mike said.
Bryar was stalking the scattered bones like he was waiting for them to rise so he could hack at them again. Everyone gave him a wide berth.
“Bryar?” Sei called. The fae turned his way, examined him for a minute then bounded over. Everyone in the room tensed. Having Bryar in full armor wielding a giant sword looking a little like some sort of Goliath headed their way, was a bit more than a little intimidating.
“Can you head home and look after the kids?” Sei knew there were more death squad witches. Probably over a hundred if he recalled the ranks. The Dominion tried to keep their names and faces quiet, using them as sort of assassins sometimes, to sneak in and take a witch from their home. Though the deaths were never quiet.
He knew his wards would keep them out of his house and properties. But for how long?
Bryar took off his helmet, his face smeared with clay. “No more battles today?” He sounded disappointed.
“Not here at least. But those witches might target Jamie or Kelly, the twins, or even Kaine.”
Bryar snorted. “Stupid mortals. You and yours belong to us. Kaine is ours.”
“He is,” Sei agreed. “But maybe he needs you to be a dad for a bit, yeah? Since I can’t go home right this second?”
Bryar shimmered with magic, changing from his warrior form to something not all that different from Seiran, even dressing in pajamas and slippers, his hair bound up in an elaborate ponytail. Though the images on his PJs were some sort of creepy looking duck with fangs thing. Seiran smiled instead of asking. Bryar put his hand over his heart, as if that was where fae hearts were if they had them, and bowed slightly. “I go to guard the prince.”
“Thank you,” Seiran said. And that fast, Bryar was gone, stepping through a tear in the veil and closing it behind him.
“People underestimate you,” Mike said mildly.
“They do,” Seiran agreed. “We are going somewhere?”
“Yep. You can clean up there and I’ll show you yo
ur new workspace.”
Seiran’s mind was reeling. “I…” But he didn’t know where to begin, so he followed the vampire, who was one of Gabe’s most trusted people, out to a waiting car. In fact, Seiran had trusted Mike for years. And there were too many questions in his head to even find a place to begin. And the sense of anxiety sat like a lump in his stomach. Worry for his kids and the Dominion rising to smash them all like flies.
The building they drove to was very innocuous. It looked like every other high-rise around it. The parking garage the same, though entry only allowed after passing a heavily guarded checkpoint. It could have been a building for the wealthy and elite rather than some secret society Max had created.
They entered through a lower-level blast door, Mike having to scan his palm to get in. Seiran frowned at that, thinking of a dozen ways from movies it could go wrong. But maybe he had an overactive imagination.
“We’ll get all your details registered and set up once you’re clean,” Mike said as they entered the building. The first hallway was bland enough, but filled with security. Vampires, humans, and witches, all genders and abilities.
“What if someone cut off your hand to open the door?” Seiran wondered out loud.
Mike laughed. “It’s spelled. Without my life-essence and actual signatures, it won’t work. Sort of like a magical checkpoint, though it’s not checking my magic so much as my soul. Or whatever you want to call it. But good thought. I’ll have security double-check.”
“Hopefully not by cutting off people’s hands.”
“Yeah, I don’t think that will be necessary.”
There was a giant wall carving that said AF in fancy script on the wall behind what appeared to be a sort of reception area. Though instead of a check-in, it was more guards.
“Heard the order came down,” one of them said to Mike. “Looks like we are finally doing this.” He nodded at me.
Doing what?
“We’ve got over a hundred bodies in the past week. Even for the Dominion it’s a bit excessive. The government had to act,” Mike responded. He waved a hand at me. “I’m taking Rou up to his onsite apartments, then on a tour of his space. We’ll have to get his data updated and logged.”