Page 63 of Resurrection
“Did Steve make you do this?” Seiran asked quietly, catching on fast, though he said Page had been working for him for two years. He probably knew his assistant fairly well.
“I wouldn’t have, if I had known what they were doing… even to… free them. I thought it was only a few. Didn’t know about…”
“Page,” Seiran said gently, more like he was speaking to one of his children rather than his young assistant. “We’ll fix this. Are you at home? Can I meet with you? You can tell me how this happened?”
“I’m not evil,” Page gasped, his sobbing garbling what he said. Sam was awake now, staring in their direction. Gabe worried that meant he’d go after the kid. How did he hear when he was halfway across the room and Seiran was whispering? Maybe being a witch made his hearing more sensitive even than a regular vampire?
“I don’t think you are,” Seiran said. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“They were being hurt,” Page whispered, sucking in large gulps of air and Gabe could hear him struggle to keep from totally falling apart. “Suffering.”
“And you thought putting them in the golem would free them?” Seiran asked. Was Page a necromancer? The transfer of souls was usually a bit more complicated than that. But he was very young. Gabe wondered if he had had any training at all.
“Less pain,” Page said. “He promised to stop hurting them.”
Seiran nodded like Page could see it. “You didn’t know what he would do with the golem.”
“He said he just wanted it to help with chores and stuff. I thought it would be better than torture.”
“And what about the rest?” Seiran prodded gently. Sam was headed their way now, though no one else was.
“I didn’t know.”
“Did you make more golems?” Seiran asked quietly.
“No. I promise. I’m not even sure how I made Forest. It was a mess. I…” Page cut off, sucking in air like he was hyperventilating.
“I need you to breathe for me, Page. Breathe and count with me. I’m going to lead, okay? And once you’re calm, I need you to tell me where you are.”
“They’ll kill me. The Dominion. I don’t want to burn. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone.”
“I know that, honey,” Seiran soothed, his tone soft. “You know I won’t let anyone hurt you. Breathe with me.” Seiran mimicked taking long, deep breaths, talking Page through a panic attack. The kid had a right to be afraid. Accident or not, one time or not, the Dominion would kill him. It was what they did to witches who had power they didn’t think they could control. That was what Seiran had been trying to tell Gabe. And what Gabe’s broken memories were reminding him of in small chunks. Seiran had nearly been locked away in a concrete room to try to keep him from realizing his power. Coerced to create children that the Dominion could possibly use. Gabe had been a pawn in that game too.
Sam stood nearby, arms folded across his chest, facing away from Seiran, looking out to the sea of bodies, expression blank. Gone was the snark, and with it the last bits that looked human. Everything he presented was a cold and emotionless killer. Would Sam kill Page first? Was that why Max had sent him?
Chapter 21
Seiran did his best to calm Page, even while trying not to panic himself. Page, his assistant, who wouldn’t hurt a fly, had created the golem. The fear that filled him couldn’t be expressed without alerting everyone. And Sam stood there, looking ready to kill.
Yet the whole thing felt familiar. Not unlike Kaine’s story about the bunnies. Freeing them from mortal pain. Was that what Page had done?
He said he hadn’t created more golems. Should Seiran believe him? And what did all this mean? The deaths? The torture? Steve trying to create a golem but unable? Why so many dead vampires? And how? One barely legal witch kid shouldn’t have been able to do something this massive. Not without help. That thought burned in Seiran’s gut.
Not without help.
Sure, he had his buddies mess with the golem, but their signature wasn’t anywhere over the massive grave of bodies. Not fibers or even a residue of their presence. The mounting evidence Seiran had collected, magic bits and fibers, would hopefully help them trace the murders back. Would it all go to one kid? Seiran didn’t think so. His family perhaps? A large coven of several families maybe, with this sort of death toll. No one person killed this many without getting caught. But a coven? Easy enough.
This kid had somehow convinced Page to create a golem for him. By torturing vampires until Page could no longer stand watching the pain? How could he have held three vampires hostage, and kept them bound well enough to torture them? There wasn’t a power or spell that could bind the revenant of a vampire once it had broken free. It was why they were forced to ground or were outright killed to keep them from raging. Beheading was thought to be the only thing that worked on a vampire gone rogue if they couldn’t be put back in the ground.
Seiran couldn’t imagine a revenant not rising from torture. Pain, rage, and fear meant loss of control. A revenant was a vampire’s berserker rage; the stuff of nightmares. It bordered on the edge of demonic, though was less a hellborn creature, and more an animal of instinct.
Who had created the dorm room ward? There were too many unanswered questions. No one was strong enough to do this on their own. Not even Seiran thought he could bind a couple dozen vampires and torture them until he got someone else to comply. One golem with three vampire souls stuck inside seemed to be his limit. Maybe that was because death magic wasn’t his strength?
Why had Page been involved at all? If the family cast out his family decades ago, why use him? Because he had power? Because they were tracking that line, looking for power?
Gabe stood nearby, seeming to catch everything, but not looking as murderous as Sam. If Seiran hadn’t been so focused on Page, he might have been able to sort through some of Gabe’s thoughts, as Seiran felt a handful of them pushed his way. Like Gabe had insight to share, but didn’t want to vocalize it. Seiran had to calm Page first.
“Where are you? At home?”