Page 79 of Transfiguration
“You’re not going anywhere without me,” Sam said.
“Uh, babe, you’re a bit of a wildfire right now,” Con said. “How about you spend some time practicing control of these new powers before we fling you at danger, okay?”
“Fuck you,” Sam cursed. “I’m not sitting on the sidelines.”
“I’d rather you stay here and protect Luca.”
“He’s in the ground. Is there more protection than that? And I’m a vampire and Pillar now. Fuck my life. But that means I’ve got muscle to flex.”
“I don’t think any of us should go,” Gabe said. “They targeted Luca, yes, but that doesn’t tell us why they killed the Pillar of Fire only for Sam to take on that power. Did they know? And the wind Pillar is also suspiciously absent,” he added.
“You think the other Pillars are involved?” Seiran asked.
“I think they are dead. We know none of them were the true scions of their element like you are,” Gabe said to Seiran. “Or Kelly is, or now Sam.” He looked at Con. “If they have a seer, like we suspect, then they know who will become scion.”
“But why?” Seiran asked. “They can’t control me. If they think they can control Sam, they are fooling themselves. I can’t even get him to show up for an event on time.”
“Hey,” Sam said. “Luca made sure I was on time…”
“How many times have you nearly lost control?” Con asked Seiran. “Why does Kelly stay away from the sea?” Con felt the draw. He knew how the song of his element could lure him, and he wasn’t even Pillar. Would Sam be as easily lost?
“Me losing control means the end of the world,” Seiran said.
“Any true scion losing control would,” Con agreed. “And all at the same time?”
“They want the end of the world?” Sam asked.
“Much easier to cull magic from it if you only have a tiny population left,” Gabe said.
“Destruction of humanity? Or full control of it?” Con wondered out loud. He pulled a book out of the stack that he’d found ages ago. It had been a history reading more like a fairytale than anything he thought was reality. “Did you know that legend says a long time ago, the elements were all one? That it was the birth of humanity that separated them? Split them, and divided up the powers of the gods to give humanity dominion over the earth? It’s where the original name for the Dominion came from.”
Seiran’s eyes got huge. “That is really old mythology. I think we still teach some of it in philosophy. You think they want to reunite all the elements, take dominion away from humanity?”
“If they had avesselpowerful enough, it’s possible,” Gabe said.
“Wouldn’t that kill all of us? How is that smart?” Sam asked. “Even if they could give Luca all this power, how would they control him? And he is untrained. How would he control the power? It sounds like a recipe for disaster.”
“Lots of people do things against their own best interest,” Con said. “How many cults end themselves seeking some glorious afterlife? But maybe they think they have a spell that can control the vessel?”
“They would need Pillars for all the elements then, right? Earth, water, fire, wind, light and dark?” Page asked. “I don’t know that I’ve ever heard of dark or light having a Pillar.”
“Maybe they already have light and dark,” Con said. “The Dominion buried the existence of those two elements. It would make sense that Pillars for them would be in hiding.” Or under control of some cult of crazies. He headed for the door. “I need to find a vampire.”
“What if he has this crazy power? Does the demon have Pillar strength already?” Seiran asked, frozen to the floor.
“It would explain how he controlled you,” Gabe said. “As young as he was, he should never have had control over a witch of your strength.”
And that’s what they all feared. Matthew taking control of Seiran. But Con wasn’t under the strings of some old vampire lover. Roman was dead, and he had never met Matthew. Though he planned to rip that monster from this world for good.
“Don’t worry, Ronnie,” Con said, adopting Sam’s usual fuck-the-world attitude. “I plan to kill the big evil monster under the bed. Stay here. I’m about to go be the bad guy and kill a bitch.”
THIRTY-FOUR
“What do you need me to do?” Sam asked, refusing to be left behind. Con had picked through a stack of books, made his way into the arboretum and laid a handful of spells without offering much in the way of explanation. Sam analyzed the symbols, but he’d never been a fan of the structure needed to use magic. Basics he could do, shields, a couple power up spells, but the rest he left to what he considered proper witches like Con. Maybe that had been a bad idea since he was Pillar now.
“Kill the bad guys,” Con said. “Rescue the princess. Wait for Luca to come back.”
“In that order?” Sam asked.