Lissa Kasey - Dominion 2 - Reclamation (11 page)

“Its Kelly, Sei. Do you remember?” He asked again. Words beginning to take on meaning. “Do you remember me? Its Kelly.”

I nodded and laid my head on his shoulder, sobbing out all the memories of the past few days. Why would my friend be here when he had to know Id killed Jamie and Gabe?

“Its okay. Youre going to be okay. Its okay,” Kelly was chanting and rocking me. There was a knock on the door. “Yeah? Its okay, Seiran. Everythings going to be okay.”

“The helicopter is here. But youre going to have to get him to come out,” a voice from the other side of the door said.

“Just give me a few more minutes,” Kelly replied, still speaking in that calm, soothing voice. It made me sleepy. I craved tea, which was odd, since Id never really liked tea. “Will you come with me, Sei? I need you to protect me, remember? Will you stay with me?”

I sucked in a sleepy breath and whispered, “Yes.” “Good. Youll have to come with me.” He coaxed me toward the door with him and held me even when I stepped a trembling foot into the bedroom. The room was empty except for one uniformed man who stood beside the door. He didnt move when we passed him and went down the stairs.
A handful of other uniformed men had taken up places around the house. Kelly ignored them all and led me to the door. When he opened it, the brightness of the light hit like a weight landing on my chest. I trembled so badly, he picked me up and carried me through the snow and cold to a loud machine that I couldnt yet recognize.
Once we were both inside, he put heavy cups over my ears and then his own. The cups only blocked a little of the noise. One of the uniformed men strapped us in, another moved toward me, but Kelly held up his hand, and the man sat behind us. The door to the machine closed, and we went upward, making my stomach lurch. Kellys voice continued to speak to me through the magic of the cups. “Its going to be okay, Seiran. I promise. Everything will be all right.”
I shook my head at him. Nothing was going to be all right. Jamie was dead. Gabe was dead. Everything that mattered to me, except Kelly who needed me to protect him. He told me so. Told me how he hoped to someday find love like I did. Maybe even be accepted in the Dominion. He spoke of his family and his older brothers who didnt much like that he was gay. Told me about his mom, who tried really hard to show him acceptance despite all the trouble he caused in his teen years.
I listened for a long time, feeling myself doze a few times before the machine set down, and another group of uniformed people moved toward us. Again Kelly held out his hand, and they gave us distance. He let me sit in a wheelchair, then pushed me toward an open door. The flurry of activity was familiar. A hospital.
The memory came easily, painlessly. I blamed my exhaustion. A woman with red hair waited inside and led us to a private room that had a tree growing in it. The smell of grass tickled my nose, and I felt the flowers waiting to wake just before they bloomed and covered the grass with happy color. Kelly helped me into the bed, holding me closely, until I realized the redheaded woman had put a needle in my arm, and finally the exhaustion took away all sense of everything.

M
Y SLEEP
was dream free. I didnt even dream of Gabe, though I did awake with tears in my eyes more than once when I saw Kelly beside me and not Gabe. My hands were wrapped in gauze again, and lungs ached from breathing the cold for days. At least the doctors kept me warm.

Kelly tried to feed me more than once, and only when I heard Gabes voice in my head telling me to eat did I take a bite. The tea they kept pouring reminded me of Jamie, but after three days I had no more tears to cry, and my head just hurt from it all.

Kelly arrived early in the morning that day with a wheelchair and another thermos of tea. He helped me into the chair, settled a blanket around me, and took me around the hospital, talking all the while. He was back to speaking about sports and whatever football game was being played, but his chatter never bothered me.

He weaved us through the halls and to a door at the end where he paused and knocked. A nurse stepped out, glanced at us, and said something to whoever was inside the room, then she held the door open for us. Kelly navigated me through the door and didnt stop when I gasped in surprise. My heart pounded painfully in my chest.

Jamie smiled at me from the bed. He wore the same type of stupid green gown theyd had on me, but he sat up, and other than appearing a little pale, he looked fine.

I felt the tears explode from me, even though my eyes already ached from days of crying. Kelly pushed me close to the bed. Jamie leaned over to give me a careful version of his normal bone-crushing hug.

“Heard youre protecting Kelly. Thats good, he could use the supervision.” Jamie winked at Kelly.
“I shot you,” I whispered. The pain of the memory was still raw enough to make me cringe.
“Yes, and Im thankful youre a terrible shot.” He pushed part of the hospital gown aside. A heavy bandage covered the upper left side of his abdomen. “Nicked the bottom of my lung, but Im good. I get out tomorrow.” He looked at Kelly questioningly.
“Sei will be released when you are. They wont let me take him home,” Kelly answered.
“You and me will go home tomorrow then. Ill buy you some ice cream on the way. Maybe we can find a new tea flavor for you.”
Home. What a strange word that was. I didnt really have one. Not since Brock murdered someone in my apartment. Id lived with Gabe for a while, and now he was gone too. I supposed I could make a new home with Jamie and Kelly.
Imagining going back to Gabes place without him just made me cry. What a baby Id become. Kelly stroked my back, and Jamie ran his hands through my short hair. I probably wouldnt be able to grow it long again. Not without thinking of Gabe every waking second of the day and grieving.

T
HE
next day when they finally released me, Kelly helped me into some clothes hed brought for me. They were too big, and he grumbled about how I needed to eat more. Jamie appeared in the doorway, dressed and smiling.

He had a brand new coat for me. His looked a little too big for him. Hed probably lost weight too. We all piled into Jamies car. Kelly took the wheel and steered us toward Gabes building.

“I had a few of my friends bring your stuff up to my place, Sei. Just for a few days, until youre feeling better,” Jamie told me. He sat beside me in the backseat, but I pressed myself into the door, not really wanting to touch him. Id just hurt him again. My touch seemed to be lethal to others.

“Can we go see Gabe tonight?” I asked Kelly, who would obviously be driving for the next few days, at least.
“The barn burned down, Sei. Its a crime scene. Its not safe,” Kelly told me, glancing back at me in the rearview mirror.
“He wasnt in the barn. I buried him far away from it.” I wondered if I could find it again in human form. But I knew the earth would help me find it. Id never felt the power so strongly or clearly in me as I did now.
“What do you mean?” Jamie asked. “Wasnt he in the barn?”
“He was, but Sam helped me get him out.”
“Sam who?”
“Sam Mueller from my Curses class. He was helping Matthew.” Did he survive? Hed gone back in just before it exploded. Maybe everyone but Gabe had made it. If Andrew Roman was alive, I was going to insist on a Dominion trial. And the Trimega had to know about Matthew.
“There were no human remains, but vampires burn so hot, there wasnt much left of anything,” Jamie said, tone mild but forlorn.
Kelly pulled into the lot, parking below ground in the warm parking garage. “We thought it was Gabe in the barn. We were waiting for you to make funeral arrangements. Scatter the ashes or something.”
“He didnt burn. I put a knife through his heart. He died. His eyes looked like Brocks had, cloudy. He said he loved me. I didnt get to tell him I loved him cause Matthew commanded me not to talk. But I dragged Gabe away. Wouldnt let Sam take me away from him. I dug a hole and put him in it before the sun came up. The earth helped. I feel him in the earth. It will protect him until we get there.”
Maybe we could give him someplace nice. A pretty headstone or a nice plaque. Vampires couldnt be buried in normal cemeteries. They werent normally buried at all, though I couldnt remember why. But there had to be a place that would be willing to take him. Someplace I could visit a lot.
Neither one of them tried to get out of the car.
“Do you have a shovel?” Kelly asked Jamie.
“No, but the hardware store is five minutes away,” Jamie replied.
“Its not dark yet. He has to stay safe.” I shifted in my seat to look at Jamie, who was staring at me with an unreadable expression.
“Well keep him safe, Sei. I promise. Can you show us where he is?”
I shrugged. The pulse of him still felt strong, and I could follow it to the place I left him with little difficulty.
Kelly restarted the car, and after a quick trip to the hardware store, we were headed north. The snow grew thicker as we traveled, though I didnt remember much of the snow from my days wandering as a lynx. I gave them a few general directions, and we left the actual road for one of those side farm roads with nothing but icy gravel covering it.
Kelly kept talking about whatever it was that he liked so much about sports. Neither Jamie nor I responded, but I liked listening to him. Sometimes it was hard to focus on the world around me. I just wanted to bond with the earth, but his rambling kept bringing me back.
“You never said how you found him, Kelly,” Jamie brought up.
“I heard about the fire on a police radio. Id been sitting at the station for ages, waiting for word after you were shot. So I got in my car and headed for the fire. When Sei wasnt found, I stayed in the area, camping in my car. I tried to read the snow for any sign of him. But snows really not all that receptive.”
“Read the snow?”
“Its just frozen water. I hoped it would tell me when he passed, but the glimpses were so brief I couldnt keep up. It wasnt until I felt him displace water from a creek that I finally had a general area. But I was honed in to that area anyway, trying to feel the snow.” He blushed, “My mom told me how to do it.”
“Wow,” Jamie said. “Thats a pretty impressive ability.”
“When I caught that glimpse I called the police, hoping their dogs and stuff could help find him before he froze to death. Thirty below isnt safe for anything. Not even a lynx. Its good that he found his way to that house.”
“Thats amazing. I heard the police talk about how you kept them back until you could calm him down.”
“Yeah, Ive watched Gabe do it a time or two. I know how I feel when coming back from a shift. Sometimes you go so far its hard to come back.” He looked in the mirror again. “You okay, Seiran?”
“Fine,” I mumbled, staring out at the trees that were starting to rise around us. We wouldnt be able to drive much further. The earth wanted me to come and play, but I had to see Gabe first.
“I dont think hes all there yet,” Kelly told Jamie.
“Why?”
“Seiran, do you remember Metaphysics 101?”
I blinked at him. “Huh?”
“Wheres your book reader?”
What was a book reader? I just gave him a blank look.
Jamies sigh was heavy. “I see what you mean.”
The car pulled to a stop at some heavy woods. A tree stood in our path. I could have asked it to move, but it had been there longer than I had lived and liked its place, so I let it go and climbed out of the car.
“At least its in the twenties rather than negative,” Kelly said of the temperatures and opened the trunk to pull out the shovel hed bought at the hardware store. “I realize I will probably be doing all the shoveling, but if you can help carry something, that would be nice.”
Jamie took the shovel from him, and they stacked up a bag of things that looked like glittery packages and maybe a large tarp. I leaned against a tree feeling calm, but Gabes voice was almost as insistent in my head as the earth was. He called for me. I needed to see him.
“Sei shouldnt be eating any of this stuff,” Jamie protested.
“Hell need to eat. He hasnt been.” Kelly stared at Jamie for a long minute. “Are you thinking what Im thinking?”
“Yes. Lets get moving. It will be dark soon.”
Kelly grabbed my hand, and we walked into the heavy cover of the woods. It was hard not to get distracted by all the life here. The trees were sleepy from the cold and snow, but they felt me, welcomed the power that ran through me. Little things came down from the trees, watching us curiously. We kept moving even as the sun set.
“I feel like there are eyes on me,” Kelly said.
“The forest feels us.” Jamie patted the trunk of a large tree. A squirrel chattered at him from a branch above. “It feels Sei. Its almost like its the new moon.”
“Were only at a quarter.”
An owl hooted at us from above. I settled into the comforting sound and picked my way toward the pulsing beat that was Gabe.
Jamie held a bright light in front of us, though I couldnt remember what it was called. I finally let the glowing distract me when it worried me that it would be too bright for Gabe when we found him.
“You should put out the light,” I told Jamie. “It will hurt Gabe.”
“Its fake light, Seiran. A halogen flashlight. It cant hurt Gabe.” He watched me move away from the light, then sighed and flicked it off.
“I hope we can find our way back,” Kelly said.
“I have GPS on my phone. Were fine.” Jamie shoved the flashlight in his bag and shifted the weight of the shovel he was carrying. “Wheres Gabe, Sei? Is he close?”
A tree nearby welcomed me. It remembered when I wandered by before, my tears watering its roots. I let the throbbing of the earth lead me to where I felt him. He was part of the ground, but not meant to stay in it. We passed the creek and kept moving north until I saw the spot that Id lain in, grieving him. Snow had blown partially over it, but I reached down and felt him there, safe.
“Hes here?” Jamie asked.
Kelly took the shovel from him and began digging carefully around the edge of where I stood. “The ground is frozen.”
“Hes safe here,” I told them. The towering trees and heavy soil protected him.
“He is safe here, but we cant leave him here, Seiran.”
I dropped down onto my knees and felt the ground for the sense of him. He was there, in my head, as hed been since the barn exploded nearly a week ago. The gauze on my hands wouldnt let me get a full grip of him being there. I tugged at the wrappings.
“No.” Jamie grabbed my hands and held them against me. “Leave the bandages on, Sei. You dont want to go back to the hospital, do you?”
“But Gabes under there.”
“I know. Its okay. Well get him out.” Jamie shuffled us to the side of the makeshift grave. Kelly continued to pick away at it, breathing hard and trying to break up the hard earth. “Let me try something.” Jamie motioned Kelly away.
Kelly stepped back.
Jamie put his hands to the ground, and I felt the earth move through him. The power of it ruffled through the sand, loosening the dirt.
“Holy shit! I see clothes or something. Keep going!” Kelly encouraged Jamie.
I watched Jamie flounder to keep pressing the power of the earth toward Gabes body. He was running out of strength, while it just ran through me like a never-ending current. I pressed my cheek to his, plugging him into the channel of earth power.
He froze in my arms but kept his hands pressed to the earth. The power cycled through both of us. The ground continued to move until it pushed Gabe free from the confines of its dark embrace. He looked so peaceful, though blood made his shirt look brown.
Jamie let go of the power. I felt it snap back to me and resume the comfortable roll of it through me and back into the earth. Both Jamie and Kelly began brushing dirt off Gabe. I watched, wishing I could feel his lips again, maybe even watch them say, “I love you,” again.
Kelly pulled the shirt back and laughed. “I knew it!”
I looked at my friend, certain hed gone crazy. Though I imagined digging up bodies in the dark could do that to anyone. Kelly pushed the damaged shirt out of the way, and despite the caked dirt and blood, Gabe looked unharmed, skin unmarred. But I remembered the bone breaking, lung bursting, heart stopping.
“Whos going to open a vein?” Kelly asked.
“Ill do it.” Jamie dug a pocketknife out.
“Youre still not fully healed. I should do it,” Kelly protested.
“You have to drive us back.”
“I bought QuickLife at the hardware store.”
“It wont be enough. Hell need the real thing. Save the QuickLife for when we get him in the car, and pray he doesnt eat us all.”
I leaned over Gabe and stared at his pretty face. Even in death some people are beautiful. That was probably why many found vampires so attractive.
The smell of blood hit me, and I jerked back. Kelly put his arms around me, holding me close as Jamie brought his bleeding arm to Gabes lips. For a while none of us moved. I searched Gabe for signs of life.
“The cut was shallow, and the cold is stopping it. Ill have to do it again,” Jamie muttered in the dark, sounding frustrated.
“Gabes dead,” I told them. “I killed him.”
“He was already dead, Seiran. Hes a vampire, remember?” Kelly tried to remind me. “Reborn from earth and blood.”
I looked down at Gabe. Was he still in there? I felt him in my head. Maybe that wasnt all wishful thinking. I shoved Jamie away and lay down on Gabe, pressing my lips to his. They were warm with Jamies blood, but that didnt matter. Gabe felt so still and unalive. I kept pressing my lips to his until I finally forced his lips apart with my tongue and dipped it inside to seek out his sharpened canines. A flick against it, a quick stab of pain, and I felt my blood trickle from the wound.
Gabe shifted beneath me. For a minute I thought the ground was giving way again to take him back. But his arms wrapped around me, mouth feeding at mine in a deep kiss that shared more than just the blood. Finally he pulled back, sucked in a deep breath, and muttered a faint apology before his fangs found my throat.
The bite went right to my cock, making me hard. I clung to him, feeling slightly numb and disbelieving. If this were a dream, I hoped it lasted forever. It didnt even matter when my vision began to fade or when darkness finally yanked me down to dream for real.