Page 81 of Absolution

I remembered vaguely back to when Matthew had died in the fire. The barn burned, but he’d begun to move despite my taking his head. So I’d dragged him into the fire, thinking to myself that it all just needed to burn, and the entire place had blown. Not just with heat and flame, but an eruption of magic. How I’d survived, I still wasn’t sure. I had simply woken up a few hours later outside in the cold, next to the smoldering heap that was the barn. I’d thought it was all the power that Matthew’s null ability had been restraining that had caused the explosion, only now I think it was the opposite. It was a release of his power, the destruction of his soul, or whatever it was that made us vampires. Tresler’s death seemed to be on the verge of causing the same thing on a much larger scale.

The ground shook so hard I thought it might split open any second. There was just too much. Too much power, too much wild magic, too many emotions. I looked back at Luca. Con was back in human form, curled around Luca and Seiran as though he could somehow protect them. I could see a bubble of air swirling around them. But if the ground fell apart beneath them it wouldn’t matter, they’d all die.

I could hear Max very quietly in my head telling me to redirect the power. The extra energy Tresler’s destruction released into the earth was too much, like a bomb directed underground that just needed to explode. Our tie burned. The power igniting the bond, traveling through me to him like wildfire. Max’s skin burned and began to flake into little pieces of dirt from being open to me and then a wall came down and he was gone. His last bit of help controlling the power vanished.

An explosion smashed through the arboretum, throwing me into the wall of the house and shattering the glass into a rain of daggers. I felt them pierce my skin. A thousand cuts leeching energy from my flesh. I collapsed, crushed into the ground and motionless by the weight of the energy pouring out around us. I could see Con and Luca, both looking at me, sadness on their faces, like they knew we were all dead. And Seiran, whose open eyes should have been dark, glowed like the babies.

We were still linked, he and I. I could feel it, even if he was dead. Was he? His body had been lost last year. Death, we’d all thought, though Gabe had claimed to still feel their link. Since the earth hadn’t come apart we wondered, while the Dominion had speculated if he’d really been accepted as Pillar. We’d all wondered if maybe Gabe had just gone mad with grief until Seiran appeared at the back door of the house a few days later. Alive. Whole. Something different. No longer human.

My heart leapt at the thought that maybe, just maybe… But that was stupid, wasn’t it? People didn’t just survive a gunshot to the head. Not normal people at least. Was there anything normal about Ronnie?

Shit. No wonder his blood tasted divine. Fucking Rou. Letting us all think he was vulnerable when he was practically a god. Not that I’d ever tell him that. Wouldn’t want it to go to his head.

Something separated from his physical body. It wavered in the light, transparent, but somewhat human-shaped, moving toward me. I couldn’t make out any features, just a wash of colors, green, brown, orange, and blue. Like the swirling of a storm over an island in the sea.

Seiran?I thought instead of vocalizing as I couldn’t even move to breathe. My cheek was pressed into the dirt, my blood leaking into the ground, pooling around me. At least Con and Luca had been protected from the glass by whatever shield Con had created out of wind.Get back in your fucking body and stop this!I screamed at him through our mental bond having no idea if he could actually hear me.

Plants surrounded us. Shooting out of the ground in a rain of dirt around stalks and roots a hundred sizes larger than their normal versions. The ceiling of the arboretum began to splinter and crash down around me. I prayed Con and Luca were safe, but feared this was only the epicenter of what was likely to be the end of the world.

The hand in front of my face began to dissolve, even as I fisted it into the earth like it could help, crumbling to little grains of sand, as it slowly disintegrated under the weight of the earth’s power. I didn’t feel it. Couldn’t feel anything really. Nothing but fear for Con and Luca. Maybe the babies who hadn’t yet had a chance to live. I was so mad for a moment as something dark covered my vision, and I tried to blink. My vision didn’t clear. I sucked in a breath, feeling the glass in my lungs, the power crushing my bones, body dissolving to mix with the earth and feed the growing plants. I let go of the struggle, releasing it all and sinking into something dark and luminous all at the same time.

Afire flickered, flame bursting to life, warmth spreading through my soul. Was this Hell? I deserved Hell, right? I’d killed lots of vampires. Hurt people. Stolen enough to enjoy my sorry life. The short time with Seiran wasn’t enough to absolve me of those ills. It seemed momentarily justified that I’d burn when I died. I always hated being cold anyway. Though it made me more than a little pissed off that I had such a short time with Con and Luca. Just a few days to be happy. But life wasn’t fair. Isn’t that what they always said in church? Maybe if I’d thought to repent?

Who was I kidding? I wasn’t sorry for anything I’d done. The past was done and over. No point lingering on it now. Or was that the purpose of Hell? An endless monologue of our sins? Wow, that would be Hell. Like watching the stupidest TV show you’d ever seen on repeat for eternity. Painful until it just drove you mad.

Shouldn’t it burn more? I expected burning, searing pain. Yet, it was just warm. Floating in a pool, maybe, or through the breeze on a warm day. It was a struggle of consciousness. Was I awake? Asleep? Dead?

But my eyes opened and the world below was still growing. Apparently, I’d tossed my body aside again to become a bird. Only my wings weren’t black, they glowed orange, red, and yellow. Like a fire.

I flew above the madness. Seiran had vanished, likely absorbed into the earth as his clothes were left behind. Jamie knelt on the steps, hands to the earth, probably trying to control some of the earth’s power. Con tried to hold the vines back with his wind, but they squeezed at the bubble he’d created around himself and Luca. His bare back and the tree of birds reminded me of the comment Con had made:“We’re all connected through the earth, so that’s why it’s the tree. Birds land in the tree, rest, and nest in a tree. Earth and water make the tree grow. Fire burns it down to make way for new growth. It’s a balance.”

Life was a balance. All the elements were part of that life; earth, water, air, and fire. Without any of them the whole balance shifted, and entire species died. Life was a delicate thing. It was why all witches were elemental since all witches were part of the earth and the chain of life and death.

What were we missing from that teeter-totter? Fire?

I glanced at my blazing wings and thought,maybe we weren’t, though where it had come from was unclear to me. Was Max a fire element? I think I would have sensed it in him. His power came across as non-magic. Something more physical than metaphysical. Luca maybe? Same issue.

Either way something needed to be done to stop this insanity and put the genie back in the bottle. But how did one cut back the earth? I swept down toward the bubble wrapped in squeezing ivy. I squawked at it, sounding like some sort of eagle, warning it to let go, only fire spewed from my mouth with the sound.

Shit!

The vines lit like they were soaked in gasoline. They burned away quickly, leaving a bewildered Con staring at me from inside his weakening bubble. Luca lay unmoving beside him, barely breathing, but alive. Tiny vines had begun to curl around his limbs like they were planning to drag him under. I glared at those nasty little vines trying to steal him from me and they burst into flames, falling away from him somehow without singeing him.

Okay, so I was fire. I could work with that. I flapped my wings, turned and headed for the largest growth, which had burst forth from where I’d kicked Tresler’s head. Gross. I briefly entertained visions of a live Ent-like tree with Tresler’s mad gaze coming at me. But it was just a tree, gnarled, blackened with corrupt power. I shot fire at it, pretending I was a mini dragon instead of just some orange bird. It took a few passes to get it to ignite, but the flames began to crackle and the branches moved, mimicking the Cthulhu of old, tentacles raging toward the sky. I lit all of them up, too.

Watched Jamie drag a weary Con into the house, which appeared untouched by the rage of magic, earth, and freed vampire power. Jamie reappeared a moment later to scoop up Luca. I kept raining fire down on it until it all burned, crackled and stopped writhing like a thing of nightmares. The fire began to devour what was left of the arboretum, melting metal, bursting the last of the glass, and sizzling through the lower drywall layer. The plant matter fell to the dirt as nutrients, ready to fuel the soil into new growth. I hoped the fire wouldn’t overtake the house. Wouldn’t that just suck. Sam Mueller absolving himself by saving the world, only to burn everything down by accident. Yeah, that was the story of my life.

We needed fucking water. Good thing there was a water witch nearby. I could feel him, close. Not anywhere near the door, but it didn’t matter. He’d used my power to amplify and focus his own before, so the seed still sat in my gut. I pulled on the metaphysical link, demanding water, even if it was a burst in the ground beneath where I flew. I thoughtcleansing, which is what we needed, not unlike Seiran’s California house, or the river beside the old ranger tower where I’d been forced to carve into my own flesh for evil spells. It all needed to be cleansed to rebalance. Earth, air, fire, and water.

Kelly appeared in the doorway, the look on his face ashen, but he glanced upward when Jamie pointed toward me. Con put a hand on Kelly’s shoulder. They shared a look and a few words I couldn’t make out, then the sky darkened overhead as clouds amassed in the sky. A crack of thunder rumbled loud enough to shake the house. I fumbled in my flight, banging into a blazing branch and trying to right myself. Then the rain began. Not a gentle spring shower, but a full-on downpour so thick I couldn’t see them anymore. The fire sizzled out, water pooling like a lake in what was left of the arboretum. The beat of the downpour battered at me with the weight of an anvil.

The bright fire of my wings vanished and they felt suddenly heavy. I flapped them trying to stay in the air, only the drenching of my wings became lead weights and I dropped like a stone. I hit the water with a thud, struggled for breath and direction as the water bubbled and swirled, cleansing, but also fighting with the earth. A moment later someone swept me up in firm arms and lifted me free.

Without the fire I looked like a raven again, black wings, talons, and beak, what little I could see of it in the reflection on the glass in the door.

The rain began to ease, and slowly trickled to a stop, while Jamie waded back through the now waist-high water with me held against his chest. He climbed the stairs up into the house and carried me through the doorway. Con was wrapped in a sheet. Kelly held out two towels, one for Jamie and one for me. Jamie carefully placed me in the outstretched towel before taking his own. Kelly rubbed at my wings, and I was grateful when the towel began to leech away some of the water.

After a few minutes I flapped my wings again and the orange reappeared. Kelly took a step back, holding me away from his body, as fire reignited in my wings, though didn’t touch the towel. “Whoa!”