Chapter Two #3
Maybe Cyril should have been offended, but he wasn’t. If anything, that made him feel how much Vale loved him. He’d never had that before. Most of the people he’d tried to date in the past had been weirded out by what he could do or were only interested in his ability.
But not Vale. Vale didn’t care that Cyril was a powerful necromancer. He loved Cyril because of that and in spite of it.
And no matter what happened next, he wouldn’t let Cyril face it alone.
* * * *
VALE HAD NO IDEA WHAT any of this meant, but even though it was a mess, he wasn’t going anywhere. He was in this for the long haul, always had been when it came to Cyril. He hoped that Cyril knew that and that he believed him when he said it. He’d repeat it as many times as Cyril needed.
Vale hadn’t been kidding when he’d said that his priority was Cyril. If they managed to help other people while figuring out what was going on with Cyril’s abilities, good, but they weren’t Vale’s priority. They couldn’t be.
Cyril was clearly excited by this email, and while Vale wasn’t showing it, he was, too.
Unfortunately for them, it didn’t sound like Diana had any idea what was going on, but at least they knew that Cyril wasn’t an isolated case.
Something was happening that was changing the ability of several necromancers.
It wasn’t Cyril-specific, which meant it wasn’t because he was more powerful than most or because something had happened to him.
He sat on the couch, pulling Cyril with him. He knew his boyfriend, and Cyril would be out the door in seconds if Diana had so much as hinted at the area where she lived. Vale hoped she hadn’t. He wanted to look into her before they reached out.
“What does she say exactly?” he asked.
Cyril thrust his phone under Vale’s nose.
Vale rolled his eyes but took it, quickly going over the email.
Diana started by introducing herself and explaining that she was a necromancer, then told Cyril how awed she was by him and what he could do.
She admitted that she wasn’t anywhere near as powerful as he was, but also that it had never bothered her.
She helped people with her ability, and it was all she wanted.
But her ability was changing. Apparently, it wasn’t anything that had happened to her before, which tracked. None of these necromancers really had any idea what was going on.
“She sounds scared,” Cyril murmured.
Vale thought that since she’d written all of it down, she couldn’t sound like anything, but his boyfriend was softhearted, unlike him.
If he thought that Diana was scared, nothing would dissuade him from that idea, and he probably wasn’t wrong, anyway.
Vale had seen how weirded out Cyril was by what was happening to him.
It would make sense that the woman was afraid.
“Well, she doesn’t know what’s going on. ”
“And she doesn’t have the support I have,” Cyril added. He was right, of course. He had Vale, Russell, and Rachel. He had Robbie. He had his mother.
Vale wondered who Diana had.
He held the phone out so that Cyril could get it back. He did, quickly opening the browser. Vale wasn’t surprised that Cyril was already looking for more information on Diana, or that he found it. She was a working necromancer, and her website was in her email signature.
The first thing they saw when Cyril opened her website was a big picture of her.
She seemed to be in her mid-thirties, with dark hair and dark eyes.
She wore a lot of silver jewelry around her neck, wrists, and fingers.
Her bare arms were covered in dark tattoos, most of them flowers and skulls.
It was a little cliché, but if her abilities were changing, it meant she was the real deal.
She was a necromancer, and apparently, she made enough money with her ability to live comfortably.
“This is her,” Cyril murmured.
“I’ll send the website to Rachel and ask her to look into Diana,” Vale told him.
“But what if something happens to her tonight?”
“Even if something does, it won’t be your fault. Whoever is behind this doesn’t have anything to do with you. I don’t know why you saw Marcus’s death as it was happening, and I hope you won’t see Diana’s, but we can’t afford to rush into this. We don’t know what’s going on.”
“I can at least warn her to be careful.”
Vale wished his boyfriend wouldn’t reach out to Diana at all, but he knew it was a moot point to ask him not to. If Cyril felt there was anything he could do to help, he’d do it, no matter what Vale thought. It was one of the reasons Vale loved him.
“Fine. Tell her to be careful after what happened to Marcus. Don’t go into details, and tell her we’ll contact her again as soon as we can. I just need to know you’ll be safe when we do first.”
Cyril looked like he wanted to argue, but he knew better. This wasn’t something Vale was willing to compromise on. He was willing to sacrifice anyone or anything in order to protect Cyril.
And he’d do it without remorse.