Page 52 of Absolution

Con escaped to the living room, and I heard the Xbox boot up.

“You work at the bar tonight,” Seiran called to Con.

“I know,” came an annoyed reply.

“Con’s working at the bar now too?” I asked.

“We all are,” Seiran said. “Even Luca has taken a few shifts. Mike and Jamie are back to managing it.”

“While Gabe is off doing who knows what,” I said. Seiran flinched. He glanced at Luca who put his hands up, and backed into the living room.

“I’ll just join Con for a rousing game of kill something not real,” he said.

I looked at Seiran. He refused to look at me. “Ronnie?”

“I can’t,” he said.

“Can’t what? Talk about it? See the forest for the trees? Leave the vampire? Break it down for me, witch.”

He paused in his quest for pantry items, staring blankly at the countertop for a minute. “I’m all he has.”

“Which is sort of the point. I’m assuming Jamie has already talked to you.”

“And Kelly.” He sounded miserable.

“Sucks when the people who care about you make sense, right?”

He returned to his search for items. At least this was something I recognized. A form of a panic attack for Seiran was order to chaos. A way to control it. As long as he wasn’t reaching for the cleaning supplies, we were okay. So far he was just organizing vegetables and bakery items. “Sweet or savory, Rou, make up your mind,” I teased him.

He sighed. “I wish I could hate you.”

“Yeah? Right back atcha, Ronnie.”

Again he was silent. Moving with purpose but emotionally blank, though I could feel the stir in the earth from his unease. If he didn’t reign that in soon there’d be some minor quakes on the news tonight.

“You shot him,” he finally said.

“Who?”

“Matthew. I always wondered. You wanted him, but you shot him. Cut off his head. Like it was so easy for you. I thought you loved him.”

“I wanted freedom. Matthew was just another chain. He liked to track young vampires and kill them. It was how I knew his head had to come off. By the time he’d been reminded of you, I was already his slave.” I sighed, hating the memories. Another life ago wasn’t long enough. “For a while I thought he could make me powerful. That was always a lie. And then I died. Death really is a bitch.”

“So is life,” Seiran added.

“Not always,” I pointed toward the living room. “Party? Could you hear us all the way through the floors?”

“No. Just the earth doing a weird little thing when a powerful air witch, a dhampir, and a vampire with amplifying magic all get busy. At least I didn’t get visuals. I’d need brain bleach.”

“Like I haven’t seen enough of your naked ass?”

“Sexing with Gabe?” He wanted to know.

“Thankfully, no.” I frowned. “And um, gross.”

“Gabe’s hot. I’m hot.”

“You’re pretty. Like bend over and give him that boy pussy of yours pretty. Gabe is like…stuffy. It takes away all his attractiveness.”