Page 42 of Resurrection
Gabe couldn’t help but look at Seiran as Mike led him toward a truck. His witch looked devastated. “Maybe I shouldn’t go.”
“You should. He needs to take care of his kid, and you need to find some sanity. Yeah?” Mike opened the passenger door of the pickup truck and motioned for Gabe to get in.
“Do I have a choice?” Gabe wondered as he got in and pulled the seatbelt on.
“Until you’re the normal Gabe, nope.”
“How will we know I’m normal?” Gabe asked as Mike got in the driver’s side.
“When you remember regular shit, like the fact that man is the love of your life. And you are one of the most powerful vampires left in the world.”
Gabe cast his narrowed gaze on the man. “I don’t feel like I’m some big and bad.”
“You weren’t. Not bad, not really. More indifferent.” Mike turned on the truck and waved to the group, before driving them out. Gabe felt the bond slowly stretch, already thin and weak, it felt like it would snap at any moment. Or maybe that was him. He clung to the door. “There wasn’t much that interested you until you met that witch.”
“It doesn’t sound like meeting him was a good thing.”
“On the contrary. It was probably one of the best things that happened for all of us.” Mike sucked in a long breath. He steered them back toward the city. “You needed to go to ground long before you met him, but refused. We all suspected it was because you weren’t planning on coming back. Then Seiran…”
“Was I me? The normal sort of me, at all when we…” Had he been broken? Would he remember all the details of his time with Seiran? A handful of broken memories weren’t going to help him mend ties, or even become a partnership if that was all they could have. He would need to know as much as possible.
“Yes. And no.” Mike shrugged. “Sounds weird, but you were different after you met him. First, you never went for pretty men before him. It was always the big and burly type. Your choices of women were a lot more lenient than the man who caught your eye.”
“I’m bisexual?” The word sounded like a memory, but didn’t feel quite right.
“Maybe? Lots of labels these days for nuances. Not sure it matters much. You were attracted to whatever, and never had trouble getting attention. Seiran Rou was an unusual distraction.”
“Young.” Gabe said.
“Yes. But you wouldn’t touch him until he was legal by law, even though he chased you.”
That was an interesting revelation. “Yeah? But a witch?”
“I think he was it for you. Once you’d had him. Blood, body, whatever poetic crap you want, he was it. You began crafting your life around him, even though he was skittish and refused to commit those first few years. He grew up abused in a dozen ways. I didn’t realize how many witch families rule through abuse until I met him. At least their male children. The other one, the water witch? And Jamie, Rou’s brother, run a sort of underground network to get witches out of bad situations. Not just the boys. There’s a line of vampires who help with that.”
Gabe thought about that. Seiran had said he’d been abused a lot in his life, though not from Gabe in a physical sort of way. It was little relief to know he hadn’t used his fists, though he suspected abandonment probably stung pretty deep too. “Still? At the Dominion office, many treated him with disdain. But he’s the Pillar of Earth, and insanely powerful. It makes no sense.”
“Right? We call that Darwinism at work. But Rou is wasted at the Dominion. He’s tried for years to change them. Succeeded in small ways. Males can be tested now for magic, even get education in some of the better schools. But very few witch families allow their males to test, or attend classes. And almost none get jobs dealing with magic within the Dominion. Any who try outside of it are shunned.” Mike drove them into downtown and an area that brought rise to a handful of vague memories. Gabe let them come and go as they might, not trying to grab on for fear of losing them. “In fact, Dominion membership is down. Witches are opting out, keeping under the radar per se. Not attending witch classes, although I don’t think that’s a good idea, and often turning down offers to work for the Dominion. But Seiran still tries to change them.”
“Why does he still try?”
“His kids. Doesn’t want them facing the same things he did. Isn’t that what most people want? Well, rational people anyway. There will always be assholes. And technically, they’re your kids, too.”
Gabe blinked, “What?”
“It was an agreement, between his very powerful mother and yourself, that Seiran would provide a Rou heir. You negotiated it to gain his freedom, but he was coerced. He’ll never say that he didn’t want kids, not out loud where they can hear. He loves them, would give up everything for them, but had never intended to be a father. You were supposed to be there to help. Their mother is actually Jamie’s half-sister, though she and Rou are not related by blood. But her spouse drove a wedge between them, so she’s not involved with the kids much. Kaine’s conception was a bit more complicated, but no less coercion. This time by the fae. Dominion bullshit pissed them off, and Seiran bore the brunt of that too.”
“I went to ground before they were born?” Gabe tried to process the fact that he’d been part of that coercion, and was supposed to be a father. Abandoned. Not just Seiran, Gabe realized, but the children. No wonder they were all mad.
“The twins were born before. A few months, I think. Those last months you were bad. Never seen you like that before. Tresler’s influence, maybe? You were very scattered.”
“I feel very scattered now,” Gabe admitted. They turned into a parking lot, that looked mostly full, and a bar that brought up a wild dash of memories. He hissed in pain and pressed the cloth back to his nose as he felt more blood trickle. “Bloody Bar and Grill?”
“Your bar. We closed it for a private party tonight.”
“Not sure I’m up for a party.”
“Your nest is all here. And with them, volunteers,cibos, those your flock feed on, who are willing to feed you. You need real fresh blood. Even after your witch allows you to drink from him again, you’ll need to find a handful of willing donors. There is no more bottled blood. And while the bagged stuff can work in a pinch, it will not keep back the revenant.”