Page 40 of Resurrection
Max nodded. “The souls within are still vampire. I will simply give it blood and rebind it to me. The visage won’t be as perfect as yours, but it will have to do. I have more questions for the other two. Vampires shouldn’t have been so easily lost.”
Seiran stared at the golem. “Okay. Forest, obey Max. He’s going to help you.” Not that Seiran thought the golem really understood what that meant, other than the direct command to obey. “I’ll let Emmaline know. Make sure she’s got all the video evidence she needs from it before they are released.”
Max nodded, his expression blank. Normally he portrayed bored indifference, but this seemed something else.
“You okay?” Seiran asked, though he wasn’t sure what possessed him to. Max was not a vampire who shared feelings with anyone.
“Is anyone?” Max replied. “There should not be this many vampires missing or dead. Where are their sires? How were they taken so easily? Why vampires?”
“No,” Seiran agreed. “But they aren’t all from here, right? Wouldn’t Mike have said something if this many of his were missing?” Technically they’d been Gabe’s. Would Gabe have to reclaim them from Mike? Or would Mike remain in control?
“Not from here. None of them are,” Sam answered. He had a checklist on his phone. “But all from the surrounding states. Makes you wonder what he was using as a lure.”
Max’s gaze fell on Sam, expression assessing. “You think the witch hunted them?”
“Lured them in probably. For what, we don’t know. But this isn’t all that different from what happened in Romania three years back.”
Seiran hadn’t heard about that, but the vampires rarely shared. “Were they creating golems?”
“No, zombies. Vampire zombies,” Sam said. “Found fire is really useful with that sort of thing. Just about the only thing that can kill a vampire zombie is fire, other than severing the magic that rebirthed them to begin with. I was only there for cleanup. Didn’t meet the actual witch that time. The nest there had killed the entire coven.”
Vampire zombies. That sounded really bad. “But all of these are just dead,” Seiran said as he stared across the mass grave. It might take days to move them all.
“Yeah, they either really fucked up and couldn’t make it happen, or it wasn’t their goal. Maybe their goal was to create the golem,” Sam said.
“If death magic isn’t their strength, it’s almost impossible,” Max added. “Even most vampires have very little death magic at their fingertips.” He looked at Gabe. “One of the last of the truly powerful is among us, only newly resurrected.”
Gabe was a master of death magic? That was news to Seiran.
“It was why Tresler wanted him so badly. What better way to put the fear of vampires in humanity, than to raise legions of zombie soldiers? I don’t believe it worked the way he had hoped it would,” Max added.
Gabe remained silent at Seiran’s back. Probably thinking, as Seiran wasn’t certain what he remembered. “He says he thinks he was pulled early,” Seiran said quietly, not really wanting to think about that.
“It’s possible,” Max agreed. “Or he could have felt the use of the death magic, as great as it must have been to create the golem, and been brought back to deal with it. It would not be his first golem.”
“Gabe can create golems?” Sam asked, incredulous. “I thought his big skills were seducing barely legal witches and managing bars.”
“I’m not sure he ever created one, but unraveled plenty. And I recall a zombie war a couple hundred years ago that he put down with a decisive and swift victory. It was one of the things that made the Tri-Mega fear him.”
“I don’t remember any of that,” Gabe said. “I vaguely remember zombies. Lots of zombies. The smell is a bit unforgettable.”
“Perhaps you should renew the bonds with your witch and see if it clarifies your memory,” Max suggested. “I will handle the golem for the evening, and the rest of the body removal. I have a lot of nests to contact. Bad news to deliver.”
“Thank you,” Seiran said. “And, I’m sorry.”
“Not your fault. Though I will be pressing for more investigations into some of the higher ranked witch families. This is unacceptable in any form. That they were my people gives me the reason to push a lot of buttons. I will not let it happen again. No matter what I have to do.”
“Good luck,” Seiran said. “I’ve been trying to do that for years. We’re short staffed, and the Dominion is reluctant to give me more money to build up the department.”
“Afraid of the skeletons in their closet,” Max nodded. “But I am not a male witch to be discounted. The fact that you still let them underestimate you, is infuriating.”
“Sorry. I’ll remember to be more of a dick,” he promised. “I’ll even take lessons from Sam.”
“Fuck off, Ronnie,” Sam said.
“You first, Sammie.” At least Seiran felt lighter as he made his way to his people to let them know he was headed home. He had a baby who needed him and this was well under control. Sometimes it paid to be the manager, even if most of the time, it just pissed him off.
Chapter 14