Page 56 of Absolution
“It will make the decision easier.” He fell silent again for another minute and began plating up the food like he worked in some high-end restaurant. It surprised me in that moment to realize, while I smelled the food, it didn’t irritate me like it had before. It looked tasty and smelled pleasant, not overwhelming to the point of making me gag like everything had before I’d gone to ground. That was a bonus.
“Do you have any spells you remember that might help?” Seiran finally asked as he was putting together the last plate. “From the books Roman gave you?”
We didn’t talk about those. In fact, I let no one know that I still had those books. Most of them. Some had been damaged by water, but borrowing Kelly’s power I’d been able to dry them out easily enough. They were currently buried and spelled to protect them from insects and elements. I had hoped to find enough clarity eventually to begin searching them for what I really was. Make some sense of my power.
“Help how, Ronnie? He just needs to go to ground.”
“Maybe so he’s not so against it?”
“Control him? I’m pretty sure that’s your job as a Focus. I don’t know of any magic to control a vampire other than the sire-baby vamp dynamic. And last I heard his sire is dead.” Andrew Roman’s wife had been the one who made Gabe as far as I knew. And he’d turned around and killed her for killing his lover Titus. We all knew just tiny bits of the story. I had a feeling there was a lot more left unsaid than anyone realized. “You have the power to put him in the ground if he won’t go willingly,” I pointed out.
“I don’t want him to hate me.”
“Seiran, I’m pretty sure Gabe hates himself right now. This self-destruction? And you realize that’s what it is right? Because he knows that he could fix this with going to ground. This is something inside him that is broken. Not because of you, or the babies, or even life. It’s something in him that has gone wrong.” I knew that Gabe knew that. It was common sense and the man had never lacked common sense. Maybe it was more complicated. Maybe Tresler was keeping him above ground with threats. Gabe wasn’t sharing with us, so it was hard to know all the details. “He needs to rest. I just did it and I’m now a fan.”
“Vampires used to go to ground every night,” Luca said, coming into the kitchen. “They didn’t have cushy lives to live, so they could do that. Now they try to maintain the status quo and it wears at them. My dad still goes to ground every night—well every morning. I think that’s why he’s so powerful. He’s also never lost centuries like Galloway did.”
“Hard to have a lover that way,” I pointed out. “I kind of liked sleeping with you guys today.”
“I don’t think it’s absolutely necessary to go to ground nightly,” Luca said. “But maybe on a set schedule? Once a month? Like on the new moon or something?”
That reminded me. “So I have something to confess and I want both of your takes on this,” I said.
Con appeared in the kitchen. Seiran pushed their plates towards them and pulled up his own. “Should we not start eating before this confession? Is it going to be gross?” Seiran asked. “Like boy pussy gross?”
“I like boy pussy,” Luca said.
“I’m pretty sure you like boy everything,” Con pointed out.
“I’m trying to be serious,” I told them. “And um, no. Just what do you think I’d be confessing?”
“Maybe you like to be double-teamed and haven’t shared that with us yet,” Luca said.
I blinked at Luca.
Seiran pointed his fork at him. “I don’t want to know that.”
“I don’t mind being double-teamed as long as I’ve been appropriately stretched,” Luca said. “Can be really good with the right pair.”
Con and I exchanged a look. My pants tightened. Seiran growled. It was funny because it sounded more like his lynx than him. “Okay, Ronnie. Nothing I can do about the porn star sitting over there. But my confession has nothing to do with sex. It has to do with how I got out of the tomb.”
“I was wondering about that,” Luca said. “Those things have a ton of safety features to keep people out and vampires in.”
“How did you get out?” Seiran asked.
“And all the way across town for Galloway to find you?” Luca wanted to know.
Did Seiran know about Galloway? He waved away the question he must have seen on my face. “I’ve already questioned Luca at length. He might not be undead yet, but all humans are a product of the earth.”
“He can be very persuasive, and terrifying,” Luca said, for the first time not adding any innuendos to his comment. The witch scared him, which I thought was a good thing. Anyone with half a brain should be scared of Seiran Rou.
“I flew,” I told them. “That’s how I got out.”
“Vampires don’t fly,” Seiran said.
“You wouldn’t have gotten through the door that way,” Luca stated.
“I changed into a raven and walked through the slats in the grate at the top, then flew. I thought it was a dream at first, until I ran into a tree, and then Galloway siren-called me to his window.” I blurted out all the details, waiting for the shock and disbelief.