Page 60 of Absolution

“He can’t leave me. He’smine.We are bound.”

“And he is earth itself. Do you think he can’t tell it to take you back?”

“He would never hurt me.”

That was true. “Not like you’re killing him. Is that the point of all this? Are you looking for death?”

“You wanted to be a monster. This isn’t good enough for you?” He growled and gripped my shirt, dragging me out the door. “Fine. We’ll do it your way.”

My way would have been to go home and play games with Luca and Con. But Gabe dragged me out of the club and into the darkness of downtown. We were far enough downtown that I could hear the noise from other clubs, sirens from passing cop cars, and chatter from bars. There were also armed soldiers standing at every corner.

I struggled to free myself from his grasp. “I’d like to not get shot, thanks.”

“They won’t even see us,” Gabe said, dragging me toward the noise of the bars. People came and went along 1stAvenue. A game or maybe a concert had attracted a crowd of people lined up to get in. And just like he said, no one seemed to see us. Was this another power he had yet to tell me about? Some sort of suggestion? Or real magic?

Gabe steered us toward the crowd. “You want to be the monster, fine.” He shoved me toward a group of teen girls standing off to the side. “Be a monster.”

“I don’t need any little kids.” And I didn’t hunt people who didn’t hurt others.

“Those girls snuck out.” Gabe tapped his forehead. “Can’t you hear their chatter? They are all excited about how bad they’ve been and how much trouble they could be in for if discovered.”

“They don’t deserve to die,” I said.

Gabe shrugged. “So don’t kill them.” He approached the girls, looking every bit the tall and sophisticated man we’d all thought he was, smile in place, but eyes tinted with a hint of red. “Ladies, how are you fine women tonight? Looking forward to the show?”

And it was that simple for him. They all fell under his spell, if that’s what it was. I’d never seen it before, not like that. One moment the girls were animated and talking to each other, the next their expressions were blank and they stared at him waiting, like he was some goddamned puppet master. I hadn’t even known group influence was a thing. Yet he’d just done it as easily as breathing. He reached for the first girl, and I slammed into him, using my entire body weight to knock him away.

He growled, his connection to the girls lost, they screeched and scattered, rushing off into the bigger group and lighted areas.

“Are you fucking insane?” I demanded. Not only were they underage and couldn’t consent, we were in the middle of a fucking crowd. “We’re done here. It’s time to go home.”

Gabe rose slowly, eyes looking like pools of fresh blood instead of his normal green. He grabbed me by the throat, and slammed me against the wall, teeth bared. That was okay. I was pissed too. He could kill me if he wanted, and legally that was his prerogative since he was officially listed as my sire. He could just tell the authorities that I’d gotten out of control. Even if he was the one out of control. But I wasn’t alone in my own head.

He began to squeeze my neck like he was going to take off my head. I closed my eyes to wait for the end. At least Seiran would know. He could put an end to this fight since he was still with me.

And Seiran was pissed. His rage fueled my own, his as hot as lava building in my core. “You guys always forget about the witch,” I said and put my hand on his arm and Seiran poured power through us. I just let it flow, had practiced it quite a bit with Kelly’s power, letting the energy slide through me, amplifying with my own power before being directed elsewhere. Gabe’s arm sprouted branches, leaves, and flowers, the earth eating away at it. His grip crumbled with his strength as the muscles dissolved into fine particles of earth.

He growled and pulled away, dropping me, cradling his injured and disintegrating arm. I sucked in a deep breath and sighed at the feeling of my ribs being broken once again. It was sad when you recognized that sensation because it happened so often. “We’re done,” Gabe said.

“Yeah, we are,” I agreed. I was so done, with him and every other abusive bastard who decided I was prey.

“The Tri-Mega will kill you. The Dominion will kill you,” he said.

I shrugged. “They’ll have to get in line.” I pulled myself up, using Seiran’s offered strength to heal my ribs. It hurt and I bit back the cry of pain, but it eased fast enough. It’s something he should have been able to do for Gabe too. Except Gabe was completely closed to him.

“I revoke my mentorship of you, leave you adrift, and unrestrained,” Gabe said. I didn’t really think much about those words in that moment, instead I left. Turning my back on him as my mentor and my friend. I couldn’t save him, I reminded myself and Seiran who was sobbing. I could feel Kelly’s arms around him even though they were across the city. At least he wasn’t alone. Gabe was now, or what was left of Gabe. Was there any other way to fix a revenant? Could going to ground bring him back or was he too far gone?

It was the first trickle of red easing over my vision that clued me in on the change. Subtle for a few seconds, the rage and hunger began to fill my stomach. I swallowed back the urge to scream.

Chapter 18

One of the groups of soldiers approached as Gabe backed away, vanishing into the crowd. “That guy is a vampire,” I told them. “He was after those girls.” I pointed in the direction Gabe had gone. They scattered around the group, searching it with weapons pointed. It was unlikely they’d catch up with him, but they’d be keeping a better eye on the crowd.

The clarity in my head began to fuzz, and soon I wasn’t seeing straight anymore. I stumbled, trying to find my footing through the red haze. What had he done to me? Revoked his mentorship? No longer my sire? Is that what he meant? I hadn’t realized it was much more than a title as he’d been telling me since I’d been brought over that Roman was technically my sire.

Hunger poured into my gut. A mindless bloodlust filling every ounce of my being like a cup of water overflowing. Rage snapping through my veins with weight I couldn’t ever recall feeling. It made me sluggish and heavy, slow and disoriented. The world pulsed around me, no longer living beings, but food and outlets for rage, the rational part of my brain drowning under the onslaught.

I found my way back out to the main street where I caught a cab, one thing on my mind. The anger and bloodlust needed to be redirected. I could have gone back and beaten the shit out of Gabe. He probably would have killed me, so that wasn’t the wisest course of action for release. Going home to Con and Luca was out of the question. They didn’t need the red eyes or vampire rage that Gabe had brought back to the surface, or the well of energy still pooling in my veins from Seiran’s power.