by Lissa Kasey
“I’ll let the spec team know. Have them meet you in the Investigations Unit in an hour or so.”
“Thanks,” Mike said. He directed Seiran to follow him to an elevator. “You’re very quiet,” he remarked as they got in and the door closed.
“Tired and overwhelmed.” Grieving.
“He’ll be back.”
“Sure,” Seiran agreed. Not really believing it. “All this is real?” They stepped out onto a floor, after Mike was scanned again, that appeared to be living spaces. Perhaps even vampire ones as the heat of the sun was completely absent from the windows, even though the hallway was filled with uncovered panes of glass. None of this looked new.
“Welcome to the Arcane Fellowship,” Mike said.
“What is this place?”
“Exactly as it sounds. We study the unknown. All of it. Not only witch magic of the darker kind, like the Ascendance did decades ago. But vampire nuances, like those that make up some of the most powerful vampires, like Max and Gabe. And even fae magic. Though I suspect our studies in that direction will grow in leaps and bounds now that you’re here. We’ve not had many of their kind willing to work with us. Only those of mixed pedicure like your Kaine.”
Seiran was intrigued. “You have fae working here who are part witch?”
“Yes, several actually,” Mike agreed. He guided them down the long hall and around the corner to a door, where he took out a key. “You’ll have to put your hand to the door. I hope the signature is still the same.”
Seiran watched as Mike put the key in the lock and then a symbol appeared in the center of the door, a circle surrounded with points. It reminded Seiran of something he’d seen in a book of old Druid magic. Mike motioned to the symbol, and Seiran put his palm to the door, expecting something, but only felt the mild edge of magic run through him. Then the door clicked open.
“You’ll have to invite me in if you want a tour,” Mike said. “That’s standard for all onsite apartments. But this is where you’ll go if you can’t rush home during a case. It’s a good place to rest, and eat, or take a break. There is a bunkhouse a few floors down that have pods just for sleeping, but since this is your space, I think you’ll find this a bit more comfortable.”
Seiran stepped through the open door. He actually felt the tugging of wards as they recognized him. Strong, though not cast by him.
The space was like stepping into a time warp. Back to when Gabe had moved into that first underground space rather than the decorative loft he’d used as a front before their relationship had become more permanent. The entire space had the same layout and colors, large kitchen, small half bath near the door. Master bedroom and bath in the back, and small sitting area filled with shelves ready for books. Gabe had designed that first apartment for Seiran’s comfort more than his own. This place had giant windows, though the blinds between the glass were closed, and they had to be the sunlight resistant ones since Sei felt no heat or warmth from them.
Mike stood outside the door while Seiran explored. Sei’s heart ached. Too many memories, but this wasn’t the same place. The bed was the same style as they used to have. The bottom, a box that could be opened to hold grave dirt. “This looks like Gabe’s old place,” he said quietly.
“Because it belongs to both of you. Once you’re showered, I’ll take you upstairs to your office. We can schedule a crew to come in and stock the pantry, make the bed, etcetera. Gabe wanted to ensure you were comfortable if you had to work long hours. We can get the kids registered too. No reason they can’t stop in. We just ask you keep them to the lower levels. The living spaces, cafeteria, workout spaces, and there are a few game rooms. No civilians above floor fifteen.”
Gabe? How had Gabe known about any of this? He’d been in the ground for almost fifteen years. “I’m confused.”
“About?”
“Gabe?”
“I suspect as soon as he’s back he’ll be on the board with Max and Lily.”
Seiran gaped at Mike. “What?”
“What, what?”
“Lily? Max? Gabe had a part in creating this?”
“Gabe started the process after you reclaimed your father’s house and took control over the Ascendance years ago. Max liked the idea of shifting goals. Your aunt had ideas that she could not implement in the Dominion. When she retired from the Dominion, she began working here. Building up the library and overseeing research. Sadly, Gabe went to ground before most of this was finalized. But this whole building used to belong to the Ascendance.”
Seiran was reeling. The Ascendance had been an organization not all that unlike the Dominion. A coven of witches, mostly male run, who used to manipulate and gain more power for themselves, no matter the cost. He had thought he’d unraveled the organization, but maybe had failed in more than one thing.
“This was the Ascendance?”
“Was,” Mike agreed. “Now it’s the Arcane Fellowship. Specializing in education, research, and community. Sounds really fluffy, and mostly is, but there are some very powerful witches here. It took a long time to weed out the bad ones and restructure.”
“Are they stealing power for themselves?” Seiran demanded.
“No. The groups are heavily monitored for that.” Mike pointed toward the back where the master bath was. “Get cleaned up. There should be some clothes in the drawers, just standard fair, jeans and whatnot. I’ll show you around. I think that will give you a better feel for all of this.”
“Gabe was a part of this?”
Mike nodded. “He got the ball rolling. That last time he came back, after being shot in the head, I think he was already starting to really have trouble. Put us to work on this and began recruiting to help the change. Your aunt Lily, and your mom, as well as Max, all joined up rather fast. Though I think Gabe had gone to ground around the same time. Sam has been working here almost a decade.”
“And never thought to mention it…” Sei grumbled as he headed toward the shower. He was going to have words with that vampire asshole.
“We were trying to gain inside information,” Mike said. “Having some members within the organization made sense. Tanaka thought telling you would make you abandon the job before we were established enough to make the power shift.” Mike sighed. “Not all of us thought that it was a good idea to keep you in. But her attention has been on protecting the next generation.”
“Not me,” Sei said. Never him. He would have left. To be free of the guilt and monstrosities they’d forced him to be a part of for years? He sucked in a deep breath, not bothering to invite Mike in. Sei needed some time with his thoughts anyway. There was anger boiling, as well as the grief, and a healthy handful of self-pity. But he had a lot of questions that needed answers, and at least somewhere to start. Would they kick him out if he told them he had no plans to jump in with both feet and trust another organization with magic and political power? He was done being a pawn for anyone. Dominion, Arcane Fellowship, or whatever the fuck they wanted to call it.
He turned to the door. “I need a little time.”
“Sure,” Mike said. He held up his phone. “Send me a text when you’re ready, and I’ll show you around. I’ll be down a few floors.”
Seiran wasn’t sure he was ever going to be ready, but he shut the door and headed to the shower. Tired, but on pins and needles, his heart aching. No one needed to see him cry in the shower when he could almost feel Gabe’s arms around him again.
He dressed in a half fog, slowly, thinking maybe he should lie down and try to sleep, but his nerves were on fire, and he kept seeing Gabe’s burned face. They had wanted that for him, hadn’t they? The Dominion. And then what of his kids? Kill them? Lock them away? Or use them as puppets? It was too much all at once, and not nearly the answers he needed. And he was so fucking tired of having the world on his shoulders alone.
He stood in the bedroom, identical to a place he’d left behind because the memories had hurt so much, and hugged himself. Wishing it were Gabe holding him. He cou
ld go home. Leave all this behind, abandon all of the politics of magic. But they would never stop hunting him. Power sought power, and that was the ultimate sting of all this mess. No matter who won, he lost. He would always be controlled by someone else.
Seiran sucked in a long breath, centering himself, and trying to shove away the melancholy. His life wasn’t all that different from anyone else’s. He felt oddly balanced still. Like Gabe’s short presence had given him a bit of extra strength. The Goddess still called to him, but it was distant and faint.
He didn’t think for one minute he could actually rest here. Not without his wards in place, his kids close by, and the fae at his back. Funny how much those little things had come to mean to him over the years.
Again, he stood at the threshold of change. Would anything actually shift for the better? What choice did he have? Move forward? Walk away? Run for his life?
He picked the only one he’d ever really found as a choice in his life, and moved forward, heading for the door, sending Mike a text, and hoping whatever was to come, he could keep his family safe.
Chapter 29
He followed Mike on the tour, in silence, listening with only half an ear as Mike explained the places they passed. The building was huge, and actually had a dozen or so tied to it through walkways, all with screening checkpoints.
“Your job is to give witches tours?” Seiran asked.
“My job is enforcement,” Mike answered. “Most vampires are on enforcement at least half the time. From guard duty, to protecting the investigators.”
“That sounds boring. What if a vampire wants to be an investigator?”
“There are more than a handful, but they get enforcers with them out in the field too. Vampires might be strong, fast, and hard to kill, but there are plenty of witches who know how to unravel us. I’m not a fan of puzzles myself. Point me in a direction, and I’ll make something happen, but don’t ask me to pick the direction.”
Seiran studied him, a little surprised. “Never took you as much of a follower.”
Mike grinned, showing a bit of fang. “I’m not. I’m just more likely to kill everything and let whatever god of the moment sort it out.” He pointed at Seiran.
“I’m not a god.”
“Godlike powers anyway. Let me show you to your new work space.”
Seiran didn’t appreciate that they had to go up and up and up to get there. His office was a giant thing near the top of the building that felt too far from the ground, and a bit cold and sterile. Emmaline looked as shocked as he felt when she’d been shown inside.
“What the fuck, right?” Seiran asked her.
“I don’t know where to start.” She had huge eyes as they were led to a department of investigators and introduced to at least ten times the number Seiran had ever been allowed. Humans, witches, vampires, shifters, and the handful of fae Mike had mentioned.
The research was endless. Seiran demanded access to everything, and was surprised when he didn’t meet any barriers. In fact, everyone jumped to obey, which felt very weird. They all treated him with respect, saying, “Yes, Sir, right away, Sir.”
He had a new computer, all his scans finished in minutes, and access to the vast and very well-organized libraries, both on-site and digitally.
“Everything is scanned and backed up for search, or you can view the actual text if it’s on-site, order it to site if it’s not, or even request a retranslation,” someone was telling him. Far beyond the troves he used to have, he couldn’t imagine knowing the archives here as well as Page had the Dominion ones. “There is a directory of texts by keywords as well. And if you can’t find a text, there is an R&D department that might be looking into it. They are always accepting recommendations as well.”
To say Seiran was shell shocked was a bit of an understatement. Reports began to trickle in of all the fires, burned witches, and property seizure that was finding more bodies, dark magic, and hints of a long history of buried problems. All of the bodies, vampire, human, witch, and their history, began to pile up. The massive team of investigators were working on sorting out who belonged where and reporting to Seiran on their findings.
For the first time in his life, he felt like people actually saw him, beyond his family. And it didn’t feel like fake respect. He’d even had a handful of them act very shy and awkward, more like he was a celebrity, than a department advisor, as he was now labeled, simply because he was the Pillar. It was weird, but Seiran was too overwhelmed to really let it bother him.
The President made an address indicating his support. Congress was not so cut and dry. Lots of bluster and talk of overreach, but more than half of the sitting members of Congress were either related to a high-level Dominion witch, or in the pocket of them. The system built to give them power was crumbling, but it wouldn’t be an easy change.
Seiran had a feeling another war was on the horizon. Perhaps a civil one as the vampires stood ruthlessly against the witches in this. He felt a little torn, his lifetime of indoctrination making him feel like he was betraying everything he knew. But he’d be lying if he said he wasn’t relieved. Not only at the possibility that he would no longer be considered part of the legalized death end of the Dominion, but that maybe his kids would have another opportunity in life, beyond being a cog in the wheel of rich people’s power.
“We’ll want to screen the new additions,” a man by the name of Detrick Jacobson told them. He’d been introduced as lead administrator over the investigations department. “Advisor Rou will have final say, of course,” Detrick added.
“My investigators?” Seiran wondered.
“Those you think you can trust and who are willing to leave the Dominion. Unfortunately, we will have to monitor everyone to ensure they are not providing information to the Dominion. Transition like this is rarely easy or straightforward.”
“Including me?” Seiran asked. He had no intention of ever being involved with them again if possible.
“Yes, and I apologize for that. We are honored to have the Pillar of Earth on our side. But we have long been in opposition to sitting power, and find ourselves a bit more cautious than most.”
Seiran sighed. “I’m not sure I trust any of you anymore than I trust the Dominion.” Emmaline nodded her agreement.
“That’s justified,” Detrick said. “I hope time will help with that. We have a lot of information coming in right now, so there is a ton of ground to cover. We will need more investigators, but we work with what we have.”
“You have more than we ever did,” Emmaline grumbled.
“By at least ten times,” Seiran agreed. He had a dozen investigators he thought he trusted. Those like Emmaline, who really took their work with a global full colored view, rather than rules set in black and white. Many more were very rule bound as the Dominion preferred. He hoped at least a few were willing to make the change.
The following flow of information was so intense that Seiran’s head spun with all of it. He admitted the exhaustion was getting to him and he floundered in the wake of the intensity of it all. The list of names, witches burned to death, flickering through a screen of information, was the only thing keeping him on his feet. Four Directors, including Han, were dead. Many members of their families, now identified as one of the largest covens in the USA, were also dead or injured.
He felt a little sick. He hadn’t meant to kill anyone. But that was the way of things, wasn’t it? Their spell, he reminded himself. Not his. If it had hit him, bounced from Gabe to him, would it have hit the kids? That was the only thing keeping him from dissolving with guilt. That, and memories of Gabe’s burned body as they laid him on the ground.
It happened to him often enough, this sort of backfire of power. And he had never really stopped having nightmares about his first kill, a man named Brock, who had raped him and tried to murder him to steal his power. Seiran had instead performed the ritual to accept the power of the pillar. Unsanctioned by the Dominion, of course. But the earth had accepted h
im in a blaze of power. The Dominion had been trying to get rid of Seiran ever since.
He walked in a daze, trying to follow the endless data, but swaying a little on his feet. Seiran felt a hand on his arm and flinched, turning, ready to yell at someone for touching him, but it was Sam.
“Looking like shit, Ronnie,” Sam said.
“Fuck you,” Seiran grumbled.
He grinned, not at all offended, then folded his arms across his chest. “Sounds like until the big guy is back and trained, I’m on your six.”
“What?” Seiran snapped.
“I am your enforcer,” Sam said slowly.
“You’re going to what, scare people into talking to me? I don’t need a guard.” Seiran put up his hands and wiggled his fingers, plants growing around them in delicate flowers. “Pillar.”
“It’s the rules. Every investigator gets an enforcer.”
“Can’t I have Mike?” Seiran wondered.
“You trust Mike more than me to watch your back?” Sam sounded offended.
“I’d trust him to start less shit.”
“Point,” Sam shrugged. “But nah, he’s only part time enforcement. He’s got businesses to run, at least until Gabe is back at capacity.”
That was another fist to the gut. Would Gabe be back any time soon? Seiran didn’t want to think about it. Between the exhaustion and grief, he was barely holding it together.
“You need some rest?” Sam asked.
“Probably. But it’s not going to happen right now.” Every time he closed his eyes, he saw Gabe’s burned face. Better than the original betrayal at least. Eventually Seiran would collapse and sleep.
“What if you went home and hugged your kids?” Sam said quietly as he stepped in close. No one else was nearby. It was sad how well Sam knew him. But going home meant falling apart. Was he ready for that?
“Not yet,” Seiran breathed out an unsteady breath. “I just…”