Page 60 of Resurrection

Gabe wandered between the rows of bodies, keeping out of everyone’s way, and trying to place what he was feeling. Not only from the bodies of the vampires themselves. That was sort of a weird emptiness. Death, but not. It felt vaguely familiar? But whatever memory that came from hadn’t found its slot in his mind.

Some had the revenant close, almost a bit of a dark shadow peering out from between the lines of magic wrapped organic matter. A few were nothing left but organic material breaking down, and some still glowed with magic. It didn’t seem time or torture specific, but Gabe mentally categorized the things he saw hoping to share them with Seiran later.

The golem was still and silent. Whatever had been tugging on it the day before was gone, leaving it almost like it was floating in the sea of Seiran’s power. Gabe found the listlessness of it a bit disconcerting, like it could explode into action at any second and was biding its time.

The fact that he couldn’t release the souls either, not without a complete breakdown of the body, was unusual. That too, had been muscle memory. As if he’d done it a thousand times. Yet this golem was tangled, the ties almost like barbs to cut whomever tried to unravel them. And he debated on destroying it outright. Would it harm the souls within? Or finally give them rest?

Then there was Seiran, who took charge of the room the second he walked in. Didn’t matter that it was a mix of high-level vampires, police, and MI investigators, they all took notice, and gave him command.

It was different than last night, when everyone had been fixated on removing the bodies, helping those that seemed to be savable. It was almost as if they recognized this level of magic was Seiran’s forte, and got the fuck out of his way so he could fix this mess. If there were witches who thought him suspect, they were not there. The police, the MI investigators, and the vampires all deferred to him without any resistance.

Gabe was surprised by the bit of pride he felt for the respect showed to Seiran. Not that he had any say in the creation of it, but that these people recognized his worth, and treated him like the intelligent and powerful man he was. Why didn’t the rest of the Dominion recognize that? By design? Gabe was beginning to believe they did it to try to hold him back. The Director the other day seemed well aware of his power, even while she tried to take control of something that wasn’t her department. She had to have witnessed the entire display at the front desk. Why shove him aside? Other than to make him feel like he was worthless, and powerless. Yet he persevered.

Here he was king. Pointing out small bits of magic he detected, or finding small bits of fiber or other physical things that the police and investigators might miss. Like some sort of supernatural bloodhound, he tracked through each, seeming to sense more than the entire room of people combined.

The bodies were numbered based on when they’d gone missing. The two that they knew to be part of the creation of the golem sectioned off to one side. They had not found the third. Which left the question, where was that body? Was there another graveyard?

Nearly a dozen true dead. Decapitated, substantially rotted, and difficult to identify. They’d been gone a while. Those were the oldest of the bunch. But there were a lot more that didn’t seem to be rotting. Or at least suspended in a middle stage of decomposition, as though it had begun, but was achingly slow?

And so many vampires with that odd echo of emptiness. As though something was tied to them, only not. Sam had been wrong. Theyweredecomposing, at a rate so slow it would take them a century or more to find true death. That, in and of itself, was torture. Soul not present, but not released. It was a strange combination that was both confusing and horrifying.

Gabe could sense it most from the oldest bodies. Like the animation that created the vampire was fighting the drag of death. Did that mean the souls could be returned to fix the vampires? Or that only releasing the souls from golems would grant them true death? The questions were dizzying. He knew he couldn’t feel those normal ties that would allow a sire to raise a vampire. He could recall having to pull a few vampires from the earth over the years, or untangle them from their revenant. These were little more than magic encased corpses, empty. Like bottles waiting to be filled with the oozing darkness of the revenant. Creepy.

Gabe stood nearby as Seiran examined those who had been used to create Forest. The golem lingered near the wall, looking very still, though human in appearance. Seiran had commanded the golem to stay put and it hadn’t moved. Gabe didn’t feel anything pulling on it either. That made him think that whomever was doing this, knew they’d found the killing field and was perhaps trying to hide? Was it the missing kid? Steve, or whatever his name was? Gabe listened to the many voices around him, trying to process all the information while keeping a close eye on Seiran.

Sam had found a spot in the corner away from everyone else and curled up to nap. He had grumbled after they arrived about ‘unvampirely hours’ and ‘fucking witch bullshit’ which had Seiran casting him off to improve his mood. Sam’sfuck you, Ronniehadn’t stopped the vampire from finding a place away from the crowd.

The time passed quickly, and Gabe felt the sun high in the sky, peaking then beginning to fall. He tried to clarify what he felt in ways he thought might be helpful to the investigation. But as everything else in his head since he’d awoken, it was a muddle.

“These bodies are a lot more heavily damaged than the rest,” Seiran said. Gabe thought it was more to himself than anyone else. These two, the ones used to create the golem, had also been missing longer than the others who hadn’t found true death. A couple months, while some were only a few weeks old. Spaced out as far as Gabe could tell. One or two missing a week, from all over the upper Midwest. Meaning someone had specifically gone out of their way to try to make it seem as though the disappearances were random.

Vampires went missing all the time. Taken down by other vampires, or disgruntled humans with race issues. It was one of the reasons vampires kept to their flocks, and checked in regularly with their sire or the master of their territory. The badly damaged bodies hadn’t been reported missing until weeks after they were suspected to have been taken. Lax masters. Gabe wondered if Max kept track of that, or anyone did now that the Tri-Mega was dead. Bad master vampires could lead to more than just dead vampires. It could lead to another war. Gabe had seen plenty of those in his lifetime.

A handful of the investigators, witches Gabe thought, had to leave to throw up. They rushed off, looking a bit green and did not return. Seiran paid them no attention, instead documenting minute details with the medical examiner. None of the vampires would be cut up or autopsied as was the standard for a murder. Max had refused on behalf of all the vampires citing the monstrosities already suffered to them.

Gabe had received a voicemail from Max indicating he was to ensure the humans followed the rules, whether they be ordinary mortals, or witch ones. He’d also left off with, “I expect you to put them back in the ground as soon as possible. Therightway this time.”

What had that meant? Wouldn’t Seiran be the better one to ease the vampires to the next life? Free them? It was another piece in the puzzle of Gabe’s memory. He hadn’t asked Seiran about it.

Gabe looked out over the sea of bodies, finding it a weird murmur of disquiet. Not like a graveyard, which he’d always found peaceful. He even remembered a handful of battlefields, long fallen to the silence of death, and blood-strewn hillsides, all feeling a little less empty than this. Those places had an energy, whether it had been the rages of a former battle still echoing or the howls of the dead screaming for justice. This was hollow.

His gaze fell on Seiran who kept returning to the two golem vampires. Something about them made him frown, so Gabe frowned too, trying to read Seiran’s emotions without digging too deep. He could tell that Seiran felt something—magically speaking—that was different about them, but couldn’t place it. It frustrated him. And he kept checking to see if he missed something. Gabe looked over them again too. Wondering if he could discover the missing piece.

The two vampires attributed to the golem, were badly mutilated. Cut up, burned, parts missing. According to the information they’d gotten from the golem last night, the torture had been extensive. The others, not as much. Some damage here and there. But not like these, which were almost physically unrecognizable as people, or vampires if they weren’t considered people. Would a vampire survive that amount of damage? The simple answer was yes, but also maybe? It depended on the age and strength of a vampire.

Gabe couldn’t tell who sired them. And that wasn’t unusual. It simply meant that whomever they belonged to, wasn’t some large power that Gabe had met before. Even with his broken memory he suspected he would know the signature of most of the powerful left in the world. Like he’d met or bargained with them in his life, and maybe he had.

Underneath his senses, that odd ripple of aching emptiness trickled. He had the strange notion that he could reach out a hand and pull them to their feet, what was left of their feet, and make them dance. Not their souls, as they weren’t there at all, the vague glow of them still entwined in the golem. But the bodies.

“They feel like the newly dead still,” Gabe thought out loud, but only so Seiran could hear.

“What does that mean?” Seiran asked.

“When a body is first put in the ground, or even still in the morgue these days as it takes so long to bury people in this century, they have that weird sensation of emptiness. Like the soul has just left and it’s a vessel ready to be occupied by something else. Lots of legends of demons taking over a corpse that was left aboveground too long.” He glanced around as though trying to catch a glimpse of that darkness rising.

Seiran’s expression was assessing. “Was someone trying to summon a demon?”

Gabe didn’t know. It was simply a sensation he’d felt before. “I wish I had better answers for you.”