Page 78 of Absolution
“You’re still an asshole,” Seiran said.
“Love you too, Ronnie.” I let go of him to stare out the door again at the pacing monster beyond. He’d been sane when he’d brought me over. Perhaps not completely in control like he’d made us think, but the thing that raged and growled out there was nothing like the man who’d mentored me in my first few months. That man had been quiet, reserved, and respectful. This was nothing but a beast barely held back from totally losing it to bloodlust.
Seiran sighed and pushed open the door but didn’t step through it. Gabe did not advance. “Let me tell him one last time. Give him one last chance to make the right decision.”
I sighed. Fucking martyrs. “Only if I come with. If he starts something, I will finish it. Do you understand that? Thatthingout there is on the verge of becoming what you saw from me yesterday.”
“You came back.”
“Because Max took control. I feel him even this second. I’m not sure how he did it, not after I apparently took down Galloway. Do you think he’s strong enough to bond Gabe too? Gabe is like a billion years old.”
“Tresler bonded Gabe.”
“Gabe willingly did that because Tresler convinced him he needed to so he could protect you. And I’m not sure how strong that bond is, it could just be what’s driving him mad.”
Seiran frowned, “Do you think that was his plan from the beginning? Tresler, I mean?”
“The fuck if I know. The old vamps really seem to have a skewed version of the world. I hope I don’t get so stupid as I age that common sense eludes me.”
We shared a look that I took to mean that he feared the same thing happening with him. A vampire Focus lived as long as his master, and Seiran as Father Earth might actually have been more than just mortal anyway. Would we both go mad over time? “We’ll keep each other honest, yeah?” I prompted.
“Or become total enemies fighting each other ‘til the day we die in the ultimate destruction of the earth,” Seiran remarked.
I snorted. “Sunny view, Ronnie, but possible.”
He reached for my hand, which I gave him.
“If he goes revenant you put him in the ground, Ronnie. Understand? I can hold him off, but not forever. He’s stronger than me, lived long enough to probably tear me up. So you can’t hesitate. You get that? You need to live because you have super-babies upstairs who need you. Think of how pissed you were that your dad wasn’t there ‘cause he died before you were born. Don’t do that to your own kids.”
“Bastard,” Seiran grumbled.
“Jerk,” I threw back.
Seiran took one step out the door, then down the stairs onto the dirt-packed ground of the arboretum. I followed, giving rise to the connection between us and the power that he kept locked away. Flowers bloomed beneath our feet. Well, flowers for Seiran, cacti for me. I’d have to ask him about that sometime.
Gabe took a step in our direction. Seiran held up a hand to ward him off. “No.”
“You belong to me,” Gabe said. He sounded almost normal, but the raging red of his eyes said otherwise. “Why would you put a wall between us?”
“You need to go to ground, Gabe,” Seiran said. “You need real rest.”
“I needyouto stop trying to make decisions forme.”
“What decisions have I made for you?” Seiran demanded. “Everything I’ve done is for you.”
“Right,” Gabe snarled and went back to pacing. “Moving out and leaving was for me.”
“Yes,” Seiran said. “You know what you need to do, and obviously I’m holding you back. Removing myself from the situation was best for both of us.”
“You’re not safe. I can’t protect you if you’re not with me.”
“You’re not with me,” Seiran pointed out. “You were at some club feeding on groupies and trying to mind rape teenage girls. How is any of that protecting me? How is you abandoning me when I’m caring for the twins, helping me? You were part of my mother’s scheme to beget heirs. Now they are here and you don’t get to say that you don’t want to be part of it and still be in my life. That’s not fair to me, or to them.”
“They make me hungry,” Gabe admitted quietly. “Their power, your power…it’s too much. I crave it so much, it’s better if I’m not home. If I feed off others. I’m not sure I could stop…”
That was news neither of us had expected. I wasn’t tempted by the twins at all, despite their crazy power. In fact their super energy set my own power on edge, a warning of biting off more than I could chew was the idea I got from all of it.
“If you can’t be with me why not go to ground? Heal?”