Page 64 of Absolution
“Gabe no longer has an invite I’m assuming?”
Seiran got into the elevator beside us. Max stepped in last and hit the button for the top floor that I knew to be Luca’s new place, Max’s old place.
“Correct.” His voice was tight and careful, tired I realized. Emotionally rather than physically. Had love broken him?
“That will only work for homes that are not yours,” Max told him. “Since you’re his Focus, your home is his and he will always have an invite.”
Seiran frowned. “Can he cross my wards just because we are tied together?”
Max shrugged. “I’m not sure I know of any vampires who are bound to witches. You’ll have to let me know.”
“Fuck,” Seiran muttered.
I agreed. We needed to put Gabe in the ground fast and pray it fixed whatever in him that was broken.
Luca’s loft was as I remembered it, open and very modern, lots of space with almost no room separation. Max went to the minibar in the kitchen and poured himself a few fingers of scotch before making his way to a slatted wall that slid back to reveal a bookcase. “You’ll find all the reading you want, right here. First shelf on the bottom are vampire memoirs, ridiculous in my opinion, but insightful about some of the variations of vampires. Second shelf is law, human, lycan, vampire, and witch, in that order. Third shelf is reference, with a handful of guides written by former masters about vampirism. Fourth is witchcraft. Spell books and the like. Though you’ll find them mostly useless as spells are individual rather than universal, or so I’ve discovered over the years. Top shelf is current reads, useless works for entertainment.” He sipped the scotch and didn’t to seem to be much interested in us. Was it an act?
The entire wall was filled with books. I didn’t even know where to begin, but Seiran went right to the reference shelf, gliding his fingers across the spines as he searched the tomes.
Gabe had given me one once. It read more like a memoir and had been boring as hell. Lots of talk of seduction and keeping to the shadows. I hadn’t done more than skim it. Would any of those talk about some of the powers Gabe had used? Group influence? Mind control? What other powers did vampires have that I needed to know about? And what was a siphon?
Luca and Con practically had to carry me to the bed, and I dropped onto it like a limp noodle. Why the fuck was I so tired? “Is this from turning into a revenant?” I asked Max. “This exhaustion? I feel like my limbs aren’t quite working right.” It was more than a little unnerving.
“I suspect it’s a number of things. The revenant eats away energy, but so did Galloway’s power and blood bonds also take energy. You’ll be fine in a few hours. Everything realigns on its own in due time.”
“Tell us about Galloway. He was a siphon?” Luca asked. “How did Sam beat him so easily.”
“Sam is a siphon. Galloway was just a wannabe. He’d spent a millennia learning magic to steal power from whomever he could. I suspect Tresler is much the same.” Max shrugged. “Power is a thing of perception. Those with true power are often smart enough to keep to the shadows instead of making for easy targets. Those who dream of being all-powerful step into the spotlight only to have it eventually burn them.”
“Gabe was powerful,” Seiran said. “Almost as powerful as you.”
“Likely more so, if he was sane. I suspect he’s been walking the edge for years,” Max said. “Unwilling to go to ground because he had nothing to come back to, and now because he fears leaving you long enough for you to abandon him.”
Seiran looked at him, pain clear on his face. “Do I know him at all? Has all of this been a lie? Our entire time together?”
“I can’t answer that because I simply don’t know. Speaking to some of the vampires he’s created might give you more insight.”
“But he can command them to say certain things, hide stuff from me, right?”
Max looked thoughtful but nodded. “Yes, and no. It would be a very specific command to keep all his vampires from telling you about him. If they couldn’t speak of him at all, that would be suspect, likely a command, but for them to just not say small thoughts or opinions of him? Too individual to really control. And the older the sire-bond, the less strength it has. After a decade or two, most vampires don’t need the bond at all, though it remains until the sire passes or a new blood bond is sealed.”
“So you could talk to Mike,” I said.
Seiran rubbed his face and turned back to the shelf. “I hate all of this. Not knowing. It’s like driving down the highway at eighty miles an hour in the dark with no headlights.”
“Ditto,” I agreed because fuck wasn’t this all a big mess. Luca wrapped around me was nice though. He rubbed my back while I used Con as a pillow. If my body didn’t still feel like it’d been put through a meat grinder, I might have been a bit happier to be sandwiched between them.
Seiran took a book off the shelf and looked around a bit like a cornered animal. He needed to just breathe for a few minutes. I could feel it, the tie between us stretched, but awake and liquid. He met my eyes like he knew I could feel him, was partially in his head. “Is this part of the siphon thing?” He wanted to know.
I shrugged, just as clueless as him.
“Yes,” Max said. “Once a siphon tastes your power it’s a permanent bond. Not in the same way of a vampire to a Focus, but more a link. The siphon will always have the ability to borrow and enhance your power. It’s one of the reasons the church, and later the Dominion, hunted them to oblivion back in the day.” He walked to the shelf, took the book from Seiran’s hand and chose another before placing it in his grasp. Apparently he was getting what was in my head due to our bond. It was a dizzying web that I was too tired to contemplate. “Start with this one. It has a good overview.”
Seiran took the book, flipped through it for a moment before nodding.
“There’s a sun porch up the stairs and to the right,” Luca said pointing to a spiral staircase off to the side. “Has comfy chairs, a nice view of the stars, and a door.”
That sounded like a good idea. “You can close us out for a little while. Take a breather, and still be safe, knowing your kids are safe,” I pointed out. Luca’s place or even if it still belonged to Max, would be a no enter zone for Gabe. I couldn’t do anything to heal the hurt Seiran was feeling, other than letting him rest and regroup without all the responsibilities of being a new dad and the earth Pillar. Jamie had the twins and I knew they were safe with him. So Seiran just needed some time to decompress, I could give him that.