Page 11 of Transfiguration
“I suspected that for a long time. You’re not exactly subtle. And there were plenty of things that you took care of that should have been a Dominion clean-up.”
“Except they refused if it’s anything to do with vampires, shifters, or anything not one hundred percent witch issue,” Sam said. “It means I’ve dealt with some shady shit. But if you want to mad scientist stuff, talk to Con. He’s the I&R guy, I’m just muscle.”
Seiran frowned. “I&R?”
“Information and Research? He works in recovery. Gets assigned something to find, a book or a spell or an artifact, and does all the,” Sam waved at the wall of madness, “puzzle solving to find it. Then he goes and gets it. Could break into Fort Knox or the Vatican, probably. He’s good.”
“And delivers it to the Fellowship?” Seiran said, staring at his wall.
“It’s why they have the most comprehensive records. Books you never knew existed. Artifacts the Dominion denies are possible to create. I&R is the largest department in the Fellowship. Technically, your new job is a branch of it. Con is one of the handful of field agents who are fantastic at their jobs.”
“Would he know about any of these?” Seiran pointed at the wall of symbols they’d found. Spells or runes, perhaps. Things Sam didn’t recognize, and Seiran, despite his years of training, did not know what they meant. But spells were individual, and anything could become the will of a strong caster. For all Sam knew, it could be a language created by the coven for use only by them.
“Kresnik is old-school vampire hunters,” Gabe added. “Been around for centuries. I’m not sure if this group is related to the original?”
“Vampire hunters?” Sam asked him. “I’ve never seen this symbol before the case with the golem. I’ve had plenty of people attack me over the years for being a vampire.”
“They started as a family line, not unlike the witches, but their goal was to kill vampires, or any supernatural being.” Gabe shrugged. “A purity of race thing and all that bullshit. I have seen nothing from them in a couple hundred years. Perhaps Constantine has come across more since his job is broader than yours?”
“You’ll have to ask him. He’ll be home in a few hours. But don’t call right away. I’m pretty sure Luca needs to get reacquainted with our third and I plan to enjoy watching Con’s cock buried deeply in Luca’s boy pussy.”
Gabe blinked. Seiran flinched.
“You’re so gross,” Seiran said.
“Right, ‘cause you haven’t had the king of zombies here all up in your ass?” Sam asked. Seiran turned red. Gabe let out a long breath and relaxed against the wall. He wasn’t getting involved. “And do you think this raising zombie thing will fade? ‘Cause I drove by two cemeteries on the way here and I could feel the dead. Like it would have taken a snap of my fingers to say‘bitches, it’s wakey-wakey time.’”
“Since you’re a siphon, probably not,” Gabe said. He shrugged. “Sorry.”
“Great. Super,” Sam growled. “Let’s add that on top of the rest of the mess.”
“Sam…” Seiran begged.
Sam looked back at him. “I understand, Ronnie. But this,” he waved at the mess, “is beyond me.” He pointed at himself. “Aim me at a problem, and I will fuck someone up. Don’t you have investigators you trust that better understand all of this?”
Seiran’s shoulders slumped. “Not really. I mean, I thought I did.” He pointed to one section of his wall. “But those witches were part of my team…”
Fuck. Betrayal from all sides really hurt.
“Okay, what if we start with the basics? Heads of the family? Trace that back as far as it goes?” Sam asked. Con watched a lot of true crime when he was working on projects. Background noise from which Con absorbed a lot of information. Sam knew his brain didn’t work the same way. Noise was noise, and he was good at tuning it out. “Are they all fire witches?”
“No,” Gabe said. “We should add elements. We have been tracing the families, but records are easily rearranged. Page’s family has been shuffled around in the records enough that it’s hard to trace his line at all.”
“There might be more summoners?” Sam wondered.
“There probably are dozens. Necromancers too. And a half dozen other flavors of dark magic,” Gabe agreed. “The Dominion has been burying that flavor for a long time.”
Each comment made Seiran droop even more.
“Why don’t you take a breather, Ronnie,” Sam said. His gaze turned to Gabe. He knew the vampire had been back only a few days, and that Seiran had been working nonstop since the eruption of the Dominion. Which meant a month of very little sleep, time with his kids, or even alone time with the long-lost love. Sam knew how long it was because Con had been gone just as long.
“How many people will die while I’m resting?” Seiran demanded.
“Not your problem alone,” Sam pointed out. “It is not your job to single-handedly save the world. You get that, right?”
Seiran was stiff, hugging himself like he was afraid of coming apart. Sam glared at Gabe. He should comfort the witch. It was literally Gabe’s job to take care of this super witch. Gabe gave a small shake of his head. What the fuck was that supposed to mean?
Sam’s phone pinged with a text. He flipped the screen to see it was a note from Con and a follow-up from Luca. Con was bringing someone home? Strange. Everything was off balance right now. The texts bounced back and forth a minute and Sam absently sent an eggplant emoji, hoping to keep Luca and Con occupied while he could unravel this pickle.