by Lissa Kasey
“Okay. How about we go look at that cabin then? I’ll drive. There’s some interesting shit coming up in the evidence our peeps are documenting.”
“Don’t think I’m not mad at you for not telling me about this stuff.”
“I did tell you, Ronnie. I think you asked me what the fuck I did for Max, and I said I’m an enforcer.”
“For a secret witch organization?”
“We aren’t a witch organization.” Sam put his hands to his chest. “Vampire. Lots of fucking vampires here.”
“And witches.”
“And shifters. Stay away from the workout rooms if you don’t want that stink of sweaty dog to linger with you.” Sam shivered. “Now are we going, or do you need me to knock you unconscious for a while?”
“As if you could.”
“Try me, Ronnie.”
“Fine, let’s go.” Seiran followed Sam, hoping that he didn’t come apart at the seams before he could catch a break. The names kept scrolling across the screens, dead witches, witches in custody for Crimes Against Humanity, and those wanted for questioning. It was too much, and he needed to get away, even if it was just to bury himself in another mystery.
Chapter 30
Gabe woke feeling like he’d had a long nap. A cool swath of earth cradled him, but he was aboveground, not floundering below it.
He stretched, working out the aches and taking in the scent of earth, flowers, and green. He was a bit startled to open his eyes and find himself in the arboretum rather than a crypt.
There was a buzz of bees going about their work, and flying balls of color darting too fast to be any sort of bug. The light overhead, beaming in to illuminate the space felt warm, but not uncomfortable. Gabe blinked at it all, taking in the scenery and letting his body work out the kinks of having mortal weight again.
Distantly he heard a door open, and thought Seiran was headed his way because he smelled Seiran’s blood. But it was Kaine who appeared beside him, in his fae form, the pretty ethereal man, rather than the wide-eyed child.
Gabe tried to recall if he knew the details of Kaine’s creation, but if they’d been shared with him, he’d forgotten them. Though, thankfully, all his other memories seemed to be in place.
Kaine set a cup down on a bench and held out a piece of fabric. Gabe frowned at it for a minute, then reached out to snag it from Kaine’s grasp. A robe.
“Thank you,” Gabe said, slurring a bit. He felt well rested, but it would take blood and some movement to get the last bit of stiffness out of his joints and brain. He tugged on the robe and slowly found his way to the bench, a bit reluctant to leave the cool draw of the soil. He recalled the burns. That memory would hurt for a while. His skin was whole, and as it had been since the day he’d died his first mortal death, more than two thousand years prior, but the lingering ache etched into his memory would take some time to fade.
Kaine picked up the cup and pressed it into Gabe’s hands. “I warmed it. It’s only a few days old. Daddy tries to keep a bit stocked.”
Gabe accepted the cup and expected it to be regular blood, with maybe a touch of Seiran’s since it smelled like chocolate cake and strawberries with a hint of vanilla honey. But when he put the cup to his lips and took the first sip, he knew it wasn’t a spiked version of Seiran’s blood. It was Seiran’s blood. Not fresh, but holy fuck the punch through his veins had Gabe spinning as his nerves came alive all at once.
Kaine gripped Gabe’s shoulder, holding him upright, and keeping the cup from spilling. “It’s got a bit of a kick, right?” Kaine’s smile was so similar to Seiran’s, that Gabe’s gut hurt. Was Seiran mad? How long had Gabe been gone this time? Fae didn’t age, and Gabe recalled Kaine looking like this when they crossed the veil. Which meant he had really no indication of how much time had passed.
He took another long draw from the cup, letting the sparkles fill his sight, and magic swirl through his body. He squeezed his eyes shut as dizziness came and went. The bond zinged into place, awakening and stretching much as he had, like muscles too long unused. He could feel Seiran through the bond. Not close, but not across the world or anything. It wasn’t at all withered or stretched like it had been.
“Maybe Daddy can forgive Grandma. I miss Grandma,” Kaine said wistfully.
“What did Tanaka do now?” Gabe wondered, taking his time to work through every drop. Too soon the cup was empty. He craved more, though didn’t need it.
“Didn’t tell Daddy about the secret organization she was a part of to take down the Dominion.”
Gabe’s memories chugged into place. He had helped found a new organization. Though he could only recall having a meeting or two to get it started before he’d gone to ground the last time. Had they made it happen without him then? He hadn’t invited Tanaka in, but he’d never trusted her enough to actually look after Seiran’s best interest.
“How long was I down?” Gabe asked.
Kaine shrugged. “Time is weird here.”
“Time is weird across the veil,” Gabe corrected.
“Nah. There is no time across the veil.” Kaine took the empty cup and got up, offering a hand in support. “Maybe get cleaned up?”
“Seiran isn’t home?”
“He’s at work.”
“At the Dominion?”
Kaine snorted. “No. At the Fellowship.”
Gabe was confused again, but he would ask more questions later. “I’d love to shower. Can I enter the wards of the house?” He glanced around and the external barriers that had wrapped the house in plants were gone, at least from his view out the windows. The sun was bright overhead, though didn’t hurt, even while he felt the heat of it. A perk of being bound to the Pillar of Earth he supposed. Vampires didn’t burn in sunlight, not like legends rumored. But it could drain them, and make their bones ache. He didn’t feel tired at all and the stiffness likely came from his resurrection.
“Sure,” Kaine said and bounced toward the main entry Gabe recalled leading to the kitchen. He followed at a gentler pace, his body still slowly acclimating to movement. When he reached the door, he tensed, expecting a ward, but finding nothing that pushed him back. And the kitchen was unchanged. If it had been a long time, either their decorating tastes were the same, or they hadn’t cared enough to change it.
As soon as Kaine entered the kitchen he returned back to his child form. Looking about ten or so. Maybe Gabe hadn’t missed much time. He tried to remain hopeful.
Kaine put the cup in the sink, running water through it for a few seconds, then heading to the basement door. “There’s more blood in the freezer. Not as fresh as the stuff I gave you. I took the packet off the top when the garden alerted me you were there.”
Gabe heard footsteps coming down the stairs and a few seconds later the male of the twins appeared in the doorway. He blinked wide eyes. “Kaine? You didn’t wake the vampire, did you? And why is he here instead of at the crypt?”
What was his name? Mizuki? But Gabe recalled Seiran calling him Ki. Crazy how both Seiran’s boys were gingers, though Kaine’s hair was more fresh blood red, than the carrot of his brother’s. He recalled the girl had dark hair like Seiran’s. Mizuki didn’t look any older either.
“I didn’t wake him,” Kaine protested. “The garden told me he was there.”
“I’m going to go shower,” Gabe said carefully. “And maybe find my phone so I can call your dad?” Wasn’t he supposed to play a dad role too? Those were boundaries he was going to have to work out with Seiran. As long as he didn’t find himself kicked out for having to go to ground again.
Ki looked suspicious. “I’ll call him while you’re in the shower.”
“Okay,” Gabe agreed. He headed for the basement door, wondering if there was destruction from the fire he had to worry about cleaning up. But as he descended the stairs and flicked on the light, the rug was gone, the bed looked undamaged, made up like a magazine shoot, and the floor was clean, no sign of water or fire damage.
He found clothes
and headed to the shower, needing to feel the warmth over his skin to chase away the lingering chill of going to ground. When he stepped out, and dressed, it was with thought as he tried to recall everything that happened. They’d been attacked. Something aiming a fire spell at Gabe through the link of his zombies, to reach Seiran? Or just take Gabe out again?
The warmth of the water had helped awaken his stiffened nerves and he felt the bond tightening. Not closing as much as a feeling that Seiran was getting closer? He had to work not to reach for Seiran. He didn’t want to interrupt him while he was driving or something.
The Fellowship? What was that?
He tugged on clothes with slow intent, mostly to keep himself from racing out to find Seiran and decimate anyone who tried to harm them again. He had a lot of questions about the time missed, and wondered if they’d settled into another rut with the Dominion still in power. He had never hated them as much as he had that first moment when Tanaka had threatened to lock Seiran away for life. And even if she wasn’t working for them now, he had no plans to ever forgive her. No one could hold a grudge like a vampire. Of that he was certain.
The door from upstairs opened, and footsteps raced down. Gabe turned, expecting to find one of the kids, but it was Seiran.
One second, he was across the room, the next he was in Gabe’s arms. Gabe catching him and holding him tight.
“Please tell me you fucking remember me?” Seiran demanded.
“I do,” Gabe agreed and silenced his next question with a kiss. It was a long and slow kiss, devouring, as well as sweet. Need building. Their bond collided and solidified, coming together as gentle laps of power instead of a turbulent tide. All the jagged edges of memories and questions soothed into an overlapping sense of unity. This was how they should have been from the start, Gabe thought.
He’d been unraveled too far. Worried that letting Seiran in would scare him away. Instead, he’d left Seiran vulnerable. He’d been so stupid. Gabe longed to throw Seiran down on the bed and memorize him all over again, while apologizing and trying to earn forgiveness. But he settled for a hand in his hair, Seiran’s legs around his waist, and one hand on Seiran’s ass.
Gabe tottered backward until they both landed in an armchair. Since his arms were full, he didn’t care. When the kiss finally ended, Seiran held tight to Gabe as though unwilling to let him go.
“You couldn’t have clued me in?” Seiran demanded.
Gabe blinked, looking around on what he was to have clued Seiran in on. Him coming back? He didn’t really get advanced notice on that. “Huh?”
“The Arcane Fellowship?”
“I don’t know what that is,” Gabe admitted. Was he still missing bits of his memory?
“The organization you helped turn the Ascendance into?” Seiran tugged on Gabe’s hair until their eyes met. “Secret society of witches, vampires, shifters, oh my? Not so secret anymore.”
Oh. “Is that what they named it?”
Seiran made a rude noise at him.
“I don’t think I was there for the naming,” Gabe said.
“Apparently not. Could you have maybe let me know?”
Gabe tried to recall the details of the organization, but they were sparse. Like he’d drafted an idea, got together a handful of his most trusted vampires, but that was all the further he’d gotten. “I’m not sure I was much involved.”
“Your money funded it.”
“Okay, but I was in the ground. Who had control of my money?” Gabe threw back. He didn’t want to fight with his witch, but would if he had to. And he had to admit the intensity of the gaze and scrutiny Seiran had on him, made him a little hot.
Or maybe that was just Seiran’s blood running through his veins. Not that it mattered, he’d take the fiery passion any way he could. It was one of the things about Seiran that had always appealed to him.
“Max.” Seiran cursed. “That…” He made to get up, but Gabe held firm.
“He’s always been a bit on the manipulative side. Even when we were humans.” Gabe recalled back to Max’s mortal days. He actually didn’t really miss being in that storm. There was always a new city to conquer, an organization to plunder, and riches to obtain. Gabe hadn’t really needed any of that. He’d been more about the adventure, discovering new places, and learning everything about new cultures. “Was I gone long this time?”
“Are you all healed?” Seiran asked. “Memories where they are supposed to be?” His gaze looked over Gabe, letting go of his hair long enough to tug at Gabe’s shirt. But all the damage from the fire was gone.
“Yes. A little stiff, but otherwise fine. Memories seem to be there.”
“But you woke up in the garden? That’s bizarre. But we put the grave dirt from the bed there. Wasn’t sure if we should carry it all the way back. Do you need more blood?”
“Kaine gave me some of yours that was in the freezer.”
“Yeah. Figured I’d save some for a bit. Just in case.”
“Thank you.”
“How do you feel?”
Gabe thought hard about that. “More me? Less like I was ripped early? More in control. Even the hunger when I woke was only passing. Necessary.”
“The revenant isn’t pulling at you?”
“No,” Gabe agreed. It was silent. Always there as was the nature of a vampire, but not the beating presence it had been.
“It’s been about two weeks,” Seiran said. He looked tired, like he’d barely slept. “Not long…” But still hard, Gabe could hear that in his voice. Maybe he hadn’t been pulled that early last time, or something about resting in the garden this time with the bond renewed had better helped his regeneration.
“Kaine said you were at work? I didn’t mean to interrupt your day.”
“I’m going through evidence. Endless fucking evidence. I’m a thousand years behind. And learning things I didn’t want to know.”
“Okay. Like?”
“Like some vampires don’t die even if you behead them?”
Gabe flinched. Yeah, false rumors spread easily enough. Vampires were hard to kill in general. Beheading slowed them down enough for fire to really destroy them before the earth could rebuild them. Total body destruction, really, it was a bit of a crazy balance. “Only way to really kill a vampire is by burning it to ash. Usually, aboveground. Good luck getting them to stay there that long.”
Seiran was silent for a minute contemplating. “Is Tresler really dead?”
Gabe tried to recall what he could, but he’d only heard about Tresler’s death. Whatever tie the old vampire had over Gabe in the past was gone. “I don’t know. You were there, I wasn’t.”
“Technically, I was dead. Shot in the head. Sam burned it all down that day. The earth tried to take him back, but Sam burned everything. How the house didn’t burn down…” Sei shook his head. “That guy is like a hammer to the forehead. Nothing delicate in his magic.”
Gabe laughed. “Yeah? You’re one to talk.”
“Hey!”
Gabe curled himself around Seiran in the chair, reveling in the feeling of him being there. His memories back in place made him breathe in deep, the scent of Seiran, the pulsing beat of their magic settling together, and even the sound of his heartbeat. However, he had a feeling something was up. “Why the question about Tresler?”
Seiran tensed in Gabe’s arms, then curled in to rest his forehead on Gabe’s shoulder. “Just hold me a little longer, then I’ll tell you, okay?” There was a hint of a tremble in Seiran, some of the confidence vanishing beneath a tide of fear.
“Sei?” Gabe whispered, holding him hard enough to hurt. Whatever was bothering him was big.
“You know how there were three souls in the golem, and we couldn’t find the body for the third?”
“Yeah?”
“The body was Matthew’s.”
Gabe blinked, processing. Not possible was his first thought. Beheaded, and exploded, the entire site now a field of nullification. However, if there had been e
nough of the body intact… put in the ground and resurrected? Possible.
“You’re certain? You have the body?” He could kill it for sure. End that vampire as he had thousands in the past. It was something necessary as a sire and master vampire, but in this instance, he would enjoy it. The man who had abused Seiran as a child, manipulated Sam, and had tried again to take Seiran from him, he deserved to die a slow and painful death.
Seiran wouldn’t look at him, his gaze going blank and finding a spot of nothing on the far wall to stare at. “We only have pictures. Video. Some security footage.”
“You don’t know if it’s really him.”
“It’s him,” Seiran said firmly, an icy hand forming like a fist around their bond. Gabe flinched as it cooled the fire, but felt sharp enough to cut. His rage, he realized, not Seiran’s who was all heat and life, but the cold touch of the grave.
“But the soul is in the golem? We could release them.”
“Which would free the revenant to control the body.” Seiran sighed and finally shifted his tired gaze back Gabe’s way. “We think they are using Matthew’s body as a vessel for a demon.”
“Who’s we? I’ve seen demons before. It’s not pretty.” Gabe recalled that Seiran had said he’d encountered one before too.
“Sam. He’s been my enforcer, at my back until you can fill that role. I guess if you want to. I mean, maybe you want to go back to business or something instead of following me around.”
“I have no intention of going anywhere without you again.” And Gabe’s first goal would be to put down Matthew Pierson once and for all.
“Then best get training. Sounds like there is a course you have to complete before you meet the requirements to be my backup. Sam says it’s intense.”
“To Sam, anything beyond playing a video game is intense.”
A smile touched the edge of Seiran’s lips. He still looked way too tired.
“When was the last time you slept?”
“I sleep. I come home, hug my kids and fall into a coma for about three or four hours.”
Gabe groaned. Back less than an hour and he had a dead man to rekill, an organization to take over, or several of them, and a lover to retrain. “You’re a lot of work.”