Page 56 of Resurrection
Seiran glanced back his way, gaze trying to meet his, but pausing a few times to wander lower, before snapping back up again. “Could you put some clothes on?”
“Distracting?” Gabe asked.
“You know I find you attractive. That was never a problem,” Seiran snarled as he disappeared into the bathroom and Gabe heard the shower turn on.
“Spell out for me, what was the problem? Pretend I don’t remember.” Gabe heard cursing. Steam filled the shower and as Gabe followed him into the bathroom, he thought about how he’d like to be in the shower with Seiran, taking his time to relearn the man’s body as well as soothe his frustrations.
“If this memory loss thing is bullshit, we’re done,” Seiran said.
“I wish it were,” Gabe said. He leaned against the cold tile near the edge of the entrance to the shower. He had never thought someone could angrily shower until that moment. But Seiran’s jerky movements and fast shampoo job made him think the witch was not only angry but in a hurry. Was it crazy to look at him and salivate over how sexy he was? And at the same time fear that anger being directed at him?
“Stop staring at me,” Seiran growled.
Gabe turned around and folded his arms across his chest, giving Seiran his back. “Okay.”
Chapter 19
Seiran’s ass ached in reminder that he’d folded like a deck of cards. Fuck Gabe for being handsome. Not even handsome, but beautiful like only a work of art should be. He stood there, completely nude and seeming not to care. It made Seiran angry. Mostly at himself for caving to his desire. Well desire, and a few pretty words.
“Talk to me,” Gabe said. “Tell me what I did.”
“That’s a joke, coming from you,” Seiran said. He was tired of forever being the one to share, speak up, and not getting the same courtesy back.
“It seems like the best way for us to work together is to talk to each other.”
“Since when?” Seiran demanded. He rinsed the soap out of his hair, and hoped he’d gotten clean enough without a thorough scrubbing. If he was going to be around vampires today, questioning when and where they’d last seen their now deceased friends, he prayed he wouldn’t go into the room smelling like sex. It seemed, at the very least, cold in light of the mass death they’d just discovered.
“What do you mean by that?”
Seiran turned off the shower and grabbed a towel, drying off as he made his way to the walk-in closet. “You’re the king of not telling anyone anything. It’s yourmodus operandi. The whole reason no one knew you were fucking struggling until it was too late, was because you wouldn’t talk to anyone. Not me, not Mike. No one.” Seiran grabbed a pair of jeans and a T-shirt with a Disney blue alien, upside-down, that said “I Tried.” He would need a bit of cheer today when facing a warehouse full of bodies and their grief-filled flocks.
Had his people gotten through questioning the family? He would have to read through their reports when he had a moment, and hoped he wouldn’t have to question them himself. His people were good, most of the time. Face to face with some of the Dominion’s political elite? That might be a lot to ask of them, but he tried to begin his day hopeful.
He yanked on his clothes and ran a comb through his hair, finding it just barely long enough to pull back into a ponytail. The front escaped a little, falling around his face, making his cheekbones look sharp and delicate, which he found annoying. But he wasn’t out to impress anyone today. Not while cataloging bodies and searching for magic evidence as he suspected the day would go.
He hadn’t realized Gabe was still there until he turned around and found him lingering in the doorway to the bathroom, expression clouded.
Seiran sighed. “Look, I get it. You’re back from the grave and your brain is sort of like mashed potatoes. Maybe I should drop you off at Max’s for a few days? You can find some smelly shapeshifters to feed on while I work?”
Gabe wrinkled his nose. “Not a fan of shapeshifters and we haven’t renewed the blood bond. I need to stay close to you. The revenant is more unsettled than it should be.”
Seiran folded his arms across his chest and wished for a thousand things that had never been within his grasp, including a supernatural sense of patience. “Because you were pulled early. A decade and a half in the ground wasn’t long enough. Funny how you chose to start something while standing on the edge of insanity. Makes me question your judgment.”
“Youpursuedme,” Gabe said. “I don’t remember everything, but I remember that.”
“And you kept me at arm’s length long enough to keep yourself from facing execution. I just wanted to get laid, not be bound forever to your obviously selfish whims.” Seiran left the bathroom and dug out a pair of shoes. He’d be on his feet all day and needed something comfortable. He wondered how many vampires would be lingering at the location Max had created for the bodies. He could do with dealing with less vampires today.
Gabe stood in silence, which drove Seiran’s rage to the brink thinking he was being shut out again. He turned around to add another heated comment, but found Gabe lost in confusion, blood trickling over his upper lip as his nose bled. Seiran paused.
“I’m sorry,” Gabe said as he pinched his nose. “Too many memories at once bring on the nosebleed. It’s a bit dizzying. Trying to put the pieces back where they belong. I’m not trying to be silent. Trying to make sense of things feels like a complicated math problem that I once knew I could solve, but can’t quite put the x and y in the right place.”
Losing blood after feeding last night seemed like a bad idea. Seiran grabbed a towel out of the drawer near the sink and handed it over. Gabe pressed it to his nose.
“Wouldn’t it be easier if you slept during the day?” Seiran asked quietly. “Give yourself some time to recharge?”
A wild look passed over Gabe’s face, not like the revenant was taking control, but full-on fear. He was afraid that if he went to sleep, he wouldn’t wake up? Or that the revenant would grab hold?
“Gabe?” What was he afraid of?