Page 12 of Resurrection
“Thanks for your help with the golem thing,” Sei muttered, hating having to say those words which he knew would give the vampire power over him.
“Are those frogs on your pajamas?” Sam wanted to know.
“They were a gift from my kids for solstice.”
“Frogs?”
“Not all of us dress like we play a bad guy on a TV show,” Sei snarked, motioning to Sam’s leather jacket.
“I don’tplaya bad guy.”
Seiran nodded. “Right. I forgot. Sam Mueller, big and bad, terror of mankind or at least vampire kind. Watch me tremble in fear.”
Sam looked stern for a minute. Once upon a time, he had been a sort of doppelganger for Seiran. Though he was Chinese, and Sei was part Japanese, their similarities had been numerous. Both being Asian, slender, and pretty. A history of loving the wrong men had been a trait they shared that Seiran wished they hadn’t. Although Sam had two guys who were his constant now. They grounded him in a way that Sei missed having. He couldn’t recall if he’d ever felt that same edge of calm that Sam lived in these days, but he had fantasies about it. Being a single dad, even with all the help he got, and head of an important global department of magic, as well as the Pillar of Earth, put a strain on him most people would never understand.
It was why he often retreated into his lynx. He never left the arboretum when shifted. It was a rule. He was too easily lost in the earth, worries simplified to the animal nature, giving him peace he rarely experienced.
The two of them had little in common anymore. Sam’s short hair, shaved on the sides and long on top, was maintained at his lover’s insistence, and he still dressed in a lot of jeans and leather. He was handsome in a bit of a mobster sort of way, mostly because it turned Luca on for Sam to look like a bad guy.
Sam’s scowl turned to a grin. “Anyone tell you you’re too old to be in an Asian boy band?”
Sei’s hair was a messy mop that didn’t quite reach his shoulders. A crazy bit of curl had appeared when he let it grow a bit, but without the added weight of having it long. It had also lightened over the years, taking on a touch of the golden brown of Jamie’s blond tones beneath the dark brown Sei had been gifted from his father. He didn’t think he was as pretty as he’d been in his younger days. Yeah, Asian boy band material? Not so much.
Seiran nodded. “Yep, can’t sing either. I dress mostly for work.”
“You sing just fine. Frog jammies are work requirements?”
“Frog jammies are ‘I’m going to bed’ wear. Aren’t you working? Shouldn’t you be in a suit? Or is thug sheik on the menu for your guys tonight?”
“Ronnie,” Sam groused.
“Sammie,” Sei grumbled back. “I already thanked you for helping me bind the golem. Unless you’ve got a book stashed in those too tight pants of yours about golems, I am planning on taking myself for a bit of a spin around the garden and then to bed.”
“You wish you knew what was in these pants.”
“Not without substantial eye bleach.”
“I’m hot,” Sam defended.
“Not my type.”
“No. True. You like them tall and blond.”
Seiran didn’t really like much of anything these days. He wondered if Luca and Con would be bursting through the door too, or if he would just be blessed with the vampire tonight. “If you’re not here to give me info about the golem, why are you here?”
Sam finally turned to stare at the golem, as though he’d just noticed it for the first time. “You brought the fucking golem home?” Sam asked incredulous.
“What else am I supposed to do with it?”
“Um, leave your work at work?”
“Right, ‘cause you do that all the time?” Seiran said. “Who brought me pixies thinking they’d mix with the fairies?”
“How was I to know pixies and fairies have some sort of intrinsic hatred of each other?”
“Research?”
“That’s your job. I’m a problem solver. And my problem was solved by removing the pixies.”