Page 33 of Resurrection
“Not a toy,” Seiran corrected. “That was created from souls. Vampire or otherwise, it still requires new death to create a golem, and an object created from sentient life used for malignant intent, is a life sentence. And there are souls trapped inside, not just some clay vessel empty and ready to do as you command. You raped dead people,” Seiran said the quiet part out loud, putting voice to their crimes. It wasn’t a toy or a lifeless thing to be manipulated. They had raped it, and “Murdered people.”
“Wasn’t rape. It’s willing,” Kevin tried.
“It can’t say no, which does not mean it was willing,” Seiran said. He got up. “Forest, stop. Return to the way you were, and rest.” The visage of the girl vanished, melting away to the young man from a book Forest had found the day before, and seating himself back in the chair. Seiran felt bad for making it replicate what had happened. The golem probably didn’t care, but the souls tied to it might.
He gathered up his laptop and paperwork, more intent on solving this case than he had been before. Logically, everyone knew there were kinks like this. Probably entire online communities committed to this sort of thing, but it wasn’t anything Seiran wanted to know about. He’d stop it where he could. His own past of assault reared up, making him nauseous. Therapy could only do so much to quell the trigger of memories. He wasn’t that kid anymore. Not helpless. Or he pretended as much, shutting down his emotions. He had a job to do. If there was anything Seiran had mastered in his life, it was survival. The earth might not let him die, but there were plenty of ways a soul could fade until not even the body could return. And he’d seen enough horrors for a thousand lifetimes.
“Who was the girl?” Seiran asked Kevin as he got ready to leave the room and head for the next suspect. “Some celebrity or something?” He hadn’t recognized her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t famous or something. His kids were more into pop culture than he was. Either way, the charges were the same. He’d press because he didn’t like the way the girl looked underage. Bad enough they were raping the dead, even worse that they were perpetuating pedophilia to do it. If it had been his daughter, he’d have fought for a rule change, putting the death penalty on the table. If he didn’t kill the kid first.
The earth might not like that, and even take him back, but it would be worth a true death. Seiran had a powerful distaste for child abusers of any kind.
“Steve’s sister,” Kevin said so softly Seiran barely heard it.
Chapter 12
The show was no less disturbing the second time around. And the two women from the first hall silenced the new woman waiting outside the second room.
Gabe acted as guard, using his size, and his natural vampire presence to keep them out. Seiran had gone very silent in the first room when the deviance had been revealed. It was a closing of the link between them. Not cut off, but a firm wall in place, which made Gabe shut down harder on the revenant.
His connection to the witch needed to be renewed. That much he understood now. Whether that was through blood or some actual metaphysical tie, he didn’t know. But Seiran closing him off brought a renewed struggle for control. He shouldn’t have been this unsettled after going to ground for so long. Maybe hehadbeen pulled early. It would explain why his memories were coming back in a tiny trickle and the revenant kept fighting for release.
At least the golem wasn’t drawing on him much now. The strength of Seiran’s power seemed to have a firm grip on the creature while in this warded area.
The space was unusual. Gabe could feel the absence of magic, other than what Seiran projected, as white noise. Almost a muting of the world around them. It was interesting to see how much of actuallifewas magic. Or at the very least, tied to magic. Himself included.
The second boy caved just as fast as the first, claiming he hadn’t raped the golem, and it wasn’t really meant to be one of the boy’s underage sisters. Something about ‘teaching that bitch her place’ and ‘it was just a game.’
The rage that filled Seiran, becoming a tangible thing as the room seemed to heat, made Gabe tighten his arms. He was already hugging himself, with arms folded like he was a bodyguard, near the door. But the level of anger, feeling almost like fire, reminded Gabe that earth, while most thought was limited to growing things, also included fire, water, and death. Much more than just life. He couldn’t recall if he’d ever seen that expansion of power from an earth witch before. But his scattered memory told him he avoided witches. Before this one at least.
This witch was his. He could feel the thrum of that in his bones. Even when the memories refused to clarify. The need to protect him, somehow stop this pain that was making him close off, hurt. It was easy to turn pain to rage, easier than basking in what hurt, and Gabe suspected that was what Seiran was doing.
By the time they left the room, the hallway outside was silent. Only Director Han waited, her face drawn in a pinched frown. “I will have guards sent to fetch the last boy,” she told Seiran.
“Don’t bother,” Seiran said. “My team will bring him in.”
“His family needs to know… about his sister. What if he…?”
Seiran barely glanced her way. “Maybe you should have let me question them?”
“These boys come from prominent witch families who donate a lot to maintaining the balance of the Dominion,” Han protested.
“Meaning they donate to you? Or offered you money to sweep this under the rug? I believe that’s an ethics violation, Director Han.”
“I accepted nothing from them.”
Seiran nodded. “I’m sure you won’t be bothered when I have the Ethics Committee review your bank records.” Page lingered near the end of the hallway, an armful of books as a shield while he kept out of the long spread of nullified cells. “Page, please get Director Ariana on the phone for me. I’ll discuss ethics with her on route to my last suspect.”
“We thought the boys were just using it to take tests for them,” Han said quietly.
“A golem is created from new death,” Seiran reminded her. “I know taboo magic wasn’t taught a half century ago, but it’s a required yearly update for those employed here. You can’t just scrape together a bunch of clay andwillit to live. Something has to die to animate it. It’s how animation works, it’s part of necromancy,” he waved at Gabe, “vampirism, all of it.”
“The earth has power over life and death,” Director Han said.
“Yes,” Seiran agreed. “And She grants limited access. The rest of us have to take from one thing and move it to the next to create life. Energy, life, and power are not a vacuum, they need a balance. Living beings died to create that thing. There are souls still trapped inside of it.”
“Vampires…”
“Are considered sentient life,” Seiran interrupted before she could get more insulting. “And you didn’t know it was vampires that created it until I came in and told you.” He headed toward Page, Gabe following at a silent distance, keeping the golem in front of him. It wasn’t pulling on the bonds for the moment. But that could be the warded area they were in. If necessary, he could jump on the thing and tear it apart. Enough damage and it would take a while to regenerate. Maybe enough time for the witch to unravel it.