Page 67 of Resurrection

“No,” Seiran admitted. “But I plan to remedy that if you’re staying.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Gabe said as he found a way down a side road that was little more than ruts for tires. They were getting into the woods now. He didn’t think it was part of the state forests, but wasn’t sure it was private land either. Maybe a hunting spot?

He drove a while, weaving until he wasn’t sure he could drive much further, but then there were other cars. Flashing lights and a dozen cars parked in a clearing. That couldn’t be good.

Seiran swore and Gabe felt the spell snap away, the light vanishing, as well as the intensity of power. Director Han stood on the edge of a clearing with a handful of other women her age, all wearing Dominion badges. None of this looked friendly, in fact everyone was armed, and Gabe could sense the magic pulsing of energy from the witches. They were prepared for violence, not taking someone in for questioning or even a peaceful arrest.

Why were none of Seiran’s people there? Even if they’d been busy with the other site, the investigation team should have been at the forefront, but none of the badges were the bright lime green Gabe had seen at the warehouse marking all of the investigators. Gabe’s stomach lurched.

“Does this feel like a set up to you? Why are none of your people here?” Gabe wondered if Page had set them up.

“He wouldn’t,” Seiran said, catching Gabe’s thought.

“But you didn’t know he had this power, what else could he be hiding? And how would they have known?”

“Someone else called them? I have a lot of people.” Seiran said.

“Would Sam have called them?”

“Sam doesn’t work for the Dominion. He works for Max. The only reason the vampires work with the Dominion at all is because of me.”

“You have a lot of allies for a man the Dominion keeps trying to shove in a basement like he doesn’t exist,” Gabe remarked.

Seiran sucked in a deep breath. “I do.”

“They don’t look like they want to negotiate.”

“The Dominion doesn’t negotiate. They just kill.”

Gabe let that comment filter through him. “You don’t strike me as the kind of guy who kills for the sake of killing.”

“I’m not. I don’t actually kill them.”

But he’d never been able to stand in the Dominion’s way before. Except… A vague memory came into place. “Sam?”

“That was more you than me,” Seiran admitted. “Sam did a lot of shit, but once a vampire, he was out of the Dominion’s hands. I don’t think making Page a vampire is going to be a way out here. Plus, Sam was already mostly dead when you brought him over.”

“And tied to Roman,” Gabe recalled. “And necromancers aren’t supposed to be changed.”

“No?” Seiran asked. “Why can’t necromancers change?”

“They don’t usually rise,” Gabe said. Something else tugged at his memory. A familiar but vague idea of vampires and necromancers mixing. “If he is a necromancer at all, and his comments about the souls makes me think he’s not. We will have to find another way to save your assistant. Or let them kill him.”

“He said he raised his cat,” Seiran pointed out.

“Living enough that her soul was there, that’s not necromancy. She’d have just been a rotting corpse without the soul. Putting her back in the ground wouldn’t have needed fire.”

Seiran seemed to think about that for a minute. “You don’t think he did this on purpose? He’s not our killer?”

“No. I’d have sensed it. Whatever pulled me from the grave early wasn’t Page. It was bigger than Page.” Gabe felt that in his gut. An awareness that the constant tugging on his revenant was a demand from somewhere. A witch perhaps, more likely several. But he knew he’d have recognized that tug from Page if it had been him.

Seiran was silent as Gabe directed the car near the edge of the grouping. How many cops and witches were needed to take down one witch? This seemed like overkill, even for a baby necromancer. Gabe suspected that Page’s powers, as strong as he might be, were still undeveloped, and minimal. Could he be powerful enough to raise an army of the undead? Maybe in a few decades with a lot of training.

And with that came another strange bunch of memories as if Gabe had received training. Death magic was something all vampires accessed in different terms. Raising armies of zombies and golems weren’t usually in their scope. Yet he could almost feel the pull of those things. Like he’d done them before. But that couldn’t be right. Necromancers didn’t rise. Once the grave claimed them, it never let them go. Why did he feel like that was only mostly the truth?

“There is only one way to save him,” Seiran said.

“Unleash the kraken?” Gabe asked in a half joke as he parked the car.