2. Decision

2

DECISION

A riana, Lucca, and I return to the Red Letter Hotel Florence, sobered by the Wanderer’s words. Her final, cryptic message at Arturos’ send-off burns inside my mind; like someone’s singed me with a red-hot poker, I can’t get those words out of me.

They’re branded into my thoughts as I try to puzzle them out. The Wanderer is an enigma; she’s left us very little to go on, other than that clue about a city of stone, water, and sunlight. I think about where I might see rainbows on the water, as those words pour through me.

But every lake, ocean, or river has rainbows on it when the sun hits it just right.

“Quinn. You’re stewing,” Ariana says now as we return to my apartments beneath the Red Letter Hotel Florence. Ariana has been staying with me this past week since we re-took the Hotel from my nemesis, Florian Delano. She’s moved into my suite here beneath my cathedral-like crystal vaults, though she still has her own rooms she can go to inside the Hotel whenever she wishes.

She doesn’t, though, and it lifts my heart from our somber evening as she removes her jewelry at an ebony armoire and makeup table I had brought up to my lofted bedroom suite for her.

As she moves around my bedroom area, I watch her, fascinated by her wild red hair as it curls beneath the high moonlight. Her tall, slender, yet curvaceous Italianate figure is perfect, intoxicating as she slides off her high heels then sits on my ample ebony bed.

I’m lost in her, annihilated by her beauty until someone moves up behind me, rubbing my shoulders. Lucca, the third of our bound trio and my lover as much as Ariana, he chuckles as he massages me.

Tension I didn’t even know I had floods out of me now, to his strong, sure hands.

“The way you’re looking at Ariana right now is like you want to devour her, Quinn. Are you hungry? When was your last meal?” Lucca asks as he steps up beside me. He strips away his white fae Victorian tuxedo jacket, pulling open his cravat and unbuttoning his silk collar as he watches me.

I get lost in Lucca also now as I marvel at him, reveling in his strong, masculine beauty. Golden and glorious, Lucca’s short, ash-blond hair has been raked up into a delicious mess by the sea wind at Livorno, as his perfect sky-blue eyes stare me down.

He holds both teasing and gravitas as he regards me. My lover for a decade, my enemy for centuries, he’s everything I want in my bed, with his Adonis sculpted features and muscled but slender, godlike body.

Except for Ariana, who watches us both now from the bed.

“Lucca’s right.” Ariana considers me, cocking her head as her jade eyes penetrate mine. “You’re getting lost in us both tonight, Quinn, which means your other passions haven’t been properly fed. Have you eaten at all today, or were you too distracted getting everything ready for Arturos’ send-off?”

They have my number, my two Dark Fae lovers. I sigh as I gaze between them, though it’s a good sigh.

Glad we’re all together .

“I need blood,” I admit, even though some part of me hates to say it. Heaving another sigh, I glance at them both, though I feel hesitant to hold eye contact. “I haven’t had blood at all this past week since we re-took the Florence Hotel and our United Haven, thanks to how strong our new bond is now, with all our Dark Fae in it. I thought I could go without blood, since my Fae appetite for food has come back. I find I still need it, however. Especially when I’m under stress, like getting everything ready for tonight.”

Wordlessly, Lucca extends a hand, setting it to my shoulder as Ariana rises from the bed. Though everything has been so lovely this past week as we recovered from re-taking the Dark Haven of Florence, making the new United Haven of Florence, something inside me feels exhausted.

We won against the Vampire Council of Rome with their attack on the Summers household in the human realm. We also won my Hotel and Dark Haven back, despite the Council’s support of my nemesis Florian Delano taking everything from me. We even won back my associate Dark Haven at Pisa, and gained an entirely new city of Vampires when we annexed Florian’s Dark Haven at Monaco, after I killed Florian.

That’s not entirely true; Arturos killed Florian, in that final moment I held Florian trapped by my power. As ever, my beloved friend knew when someone was my true enemy, not giving me even a single moment to be lenient. Arturos knew all my enemies and protected me from them.

Save for one—the Gold Eyes itself.

A Vampire Revenant of incredible power, once a godlike creature called the Ascendant Staphylogenes and father to the Wanderer, the Gold Eyes became dark long ago, tricking and terrorizing everyone he could to his will, including Arturos. Arturos defied him by breaking the bonds the Gold Eyes had inside him, which enslaved my dear friend to that fiend’s will.

For his defiance, Staphylogenes slew Arturos in his devastating might.

All that is behind us now, except that my beloveds and I still need to break free of the Gold Eyes’ terrible power invested in our magic. I sigh as Lucca and Ariana come to me; I let their hands caress me in the night.

I remind myself that we’ve won, and everything has been calm this past week since we beat the Council of Rome at their own game. Though they threatened retribution, nothing has come of it yet.

One week of relative peace, finally.

Though I have so many more things I’m tempted to worry about, I let my worries go now as my lovers come to me. Ariana steps to my front as she wraps her arms around me, while Lucca steps to my back.

I know I’m supported by them. They have my back and they always will, even having brought me back to sanity with their love when I became a mad Revenant like the Gold Eyes.

They love me; I used to doubt it, but I know it now as I let them come close. And I love them back; as Lucca bites his wrist with his small Fae-fangs, then lifts it up before my mouth, I know they will always support me.

No matter what madness I engage in next.

“Drink, Quinn. Soothe your hunger and enjoy it.” Lucca holds his wrist so temptingly before my mouth.

Glancing at him to make sure it’s what he wants, I lift his wrist reverently to my mouth before descending to drink. Lucca’s blood is like an aphrodisiac to me now, searing with light, lust, and power. I can’t get enough of it suddenly, as I crush his wrist to my mouth.

Needing more, and more—and more.

My sharp Vampire-esque fangs grow from my mouth now, puncturing Lucca, and he gives a small grunt. I’m not a true Vampire, not like I once thought; I now know I’m a Dark Fae of the Mentale variety, which is akin to a Vampire, though still Fae.

A deep part of me still feels very much like a Vampire, though. My Night energy strengthens as I take Lucca’s blood, drinking it down in a sweet, hot rush.

Lucca breathes hard as we all resonate with our trio’s powerful Dark Fae magic, sparked by my dark lust. As Ariana heaves a deep breath to our building eros, her sigh on my neck feels intoxicating.

Removing Lucca’s wrist from my mouth, I turn my head, whispering my lips over her ear. She knows what I want; with a sweet moan, Ariana tips her head to give me access.

I bite, gentle but firm, into her neck.

She gasps as I take her—not from pain, but from pleasure. Unlike with Lucca, I remember to flood my aura through her with my bite now, sending my Night magic into her to give her heat, rather than have her feel agony from my fangs in her flesh.

Ariana gasps, pressing into me now as I wrap my arms around her. Her balanced Animante Dark Fae energy flows through me with her blood, as dark rainbows with silver and gold flashes surge from her.

My darkfire energy rushes out after hers, seething through the moonlight like black smoke, as crimson and gold flame burns through it. Lucca’s searing, bright rainbows with flashes of white and sky-blue blaze from him also, as he shares in our ecstasy.

A towering wave of magic flares through us now, as Lucca’s bright rainbows twist into my dark flames, and Ariana’s shadow rainbows simmer through it all.

As we sing suddenly, with the Music of the Spheres.

It leaves us. After only a brief joy of the Music ringing through all our hearts, it departs. Though it surged through us so powerfully just a moment before, unifying our energies, we can’t sustain it.

We’ve made powerful magic with it in the past, banishing the Vampire Council’s most elite forces from these very halls. But we can’t seem to do it anymore. Though the Music is still with us, it’s a tempered thing when we’re not in dire need.

Nothing we can consciously control as it simmers away now—lost.

“That was beautiful.” Ariana sighs as my fangs slip from her neck. Using a vial of the Hotel’s unguent that heals both Vampire and Fae bites, I dab some on her. She turns her back to me and cuddles into me now, close.

“It’s insane how it rises between us at the drop of a hat now.” Lucca kisses my neck, then steps around me. He takes my hand, leading us all over to my bed.

Though something about our trio is quiet now.

“I wish we could sustain it longer,” I say as we reach the bed and crawl onto it. Though we’re still mostly clothed, we lounge upon each other now, close to sleep. My head rests upon Lucca’s stomach as he lays his head on Ariana’s belly while she puts her head on my abdomen.

A trio joined forever, in the darkness and the light.

“We’ll never be able to battle the Gold Eyes unless we learn how to master the Music,” Ariana says, as we all share a thought through our bond.

The Wanderer’s last words simmer through all of us now, making us stew, despite the blood flowing through me and satiating my various hungers. Not only did she say her father couldn’t be killed, she expressed doubt that we could break free of his power, still invested in us from when we were all Made Dark Fae by him. Though I had hoped for more, her cryptic last words have provided no help at all.

We still have no idea how to move forward, despite speaking with her.

“Master Ilyov said we ought to go see the Dark Fae at their hidden city in Venice,” Ariana continues now, as we share one mind. “He said that if anyone might help us mature our Music and our ability to produce Ascendant Sigils to break free of the Gold Eyes, it would be them.”

“Your parents said they know the way.” Lucca glances at Ariana from where he rests on her belly. “Perhaps it’s time we called them.”

“Curio knows how to get there, as well.” I glance at Lucca. “His father, Master Ilyov, sent him with us from Novakitsk because Ilyov knows Curio can help us with the Venice Dark Fae. Either getting to them, or perhaps by convincing them to help us. ”

“So when do we make our move?” Lucca frowns. “Your United Haven has been liberated from Florian and the Vampire Council, Quinn. This Red Letter Hotel is a home for all who would join us now, not just Vampires but Fae and Dark Fae. We’ve had over three hundred Summer Fae join us recently—families of Dark Fae who want to escape my father’s pogroms. All the Dark Fae who were still hiding in the Darkwatch and the military have joined us now, even a few Magistros—friends in very high places. As the Summer Fae talk openly, finally, about overthrowing my father, Lady Eiseth Pendragon and Master Vasily Ilyov rally their Dark Fae in the north. I’ve technically lost my rebellion, thanks to the fact I’m no longer Summer Fae, but something else is brewing, Quinn. Because of what we’ve done, for the first time, Fae, Dark Fae, and Vampires are talking—even sharing knowledge with other Forbidden Lineages. It’s creating a massive wave of revolution, not confined to one Lineage alone. We need to figure out what to do with that. Before it drowns us, when all our higher-ups find out.”

It’s a tirade from Lucca, when I’m normally the one to spew all the details of our situation as I mull over every possible angle inside my mind.

But Lucca, Ariana, and I are sharing far more than just our power these days. We’re sharing our minds and hearts so closely now that we have taken to blocking our trio’s connection out each day, or most of it, so we’re not overwhelmed by each other’s thoughts, feelings, and actions with everything that’s been going on.

“Do we have to figure it out?” Ariana asks now from where her head rests on my stomach. “In my mind, we’ve sparked a massive intra-Lineage revolution that will not be stopped by one Council or King alone. We’ve begun a revolution of the people, Lucca—many peoples, who are banding together now, talking with each other at last. And that’s not ours to control.”

“Still, it involves us. Deeply.” I simmer as I think about what we’re going to do with all this revolutionary energy spinning up all around us. “We harbor refugees from many Lineages here now. Although our might protecting this United Haven is great, and the Vampire Council still hesitates to challenge us because of it, it’s only a matter of time before they do. If they’re wise, they’ll band together to come after us. We need to be ready, to protect what we love here, and keep all peoples free who wish to escape tyranny.”

“Which means we need to break free of the Gold Eyes, and truly learn how to use our Music.” Ariana sighs now as she ponders our situation. “We’ll never have the convincing power, or the firepower in our magic to get so many enemies to leave us alone, if we never rise to the full power of the Music and the Ascendant Sigils it creates. It’s not like we can march into the Summer Fae King’s throne hall and undo him with our Music. He’s immune to it… unless something in our power changes. Which it never will, unless we head to Venice to find out how to break free of the Gold Eyes.”

“A conundrum, all around. Because to go to Venice to mature our magic, we face the same problem that happened when we journeyed to Master Ilyov.” I think now, drumming my fingers on my chest. “The moment we leave this United Haven, we leave it unprotected by our power. The strongest center of our support—the three of us—will be elsewhere. Not focusing on our people, but on our magic. Which can become tumultuous indeed.”

As I drum my fingers on my chest, lost in thought, Ariana reaches up, stopping it. I compromise my nervous tell by running my fingers through her glorious hair as I ruminate.

Knowing we have to take a chance on Venice, if we ever want the Music to fully cooperate with us.

“We have to break free of the Gold Eyes,” Lucca says, as I feel him frown. “Right now, he still controls our magic and everything we do with it. Even if we orchestrate some kind of massive, multi-Lineage revolution, I would never be satisfied with it. Waiting for it all to crumble to some diabolical, grand plan of the Gold Eyes.”

“I could never sleep easy, either.” Ariana stares up at the crystal ceiling of my cathedral-like apartments as she lays with Lucca and me, taking in the night. “For I would forever wonder when the other shoe was going to drop. When the Gold Eyes would come for us, using our power and the vast influence we had built to make something heinous out of us.”

“The Music of the Spheres can rip worlds apart and devour minds.” I recall that most infamous power and all the heavenly or hellish things it can do. “When the Music tunes sour, as it tends to whenever the Gold Eyes pushes it, it does terrible things. I don’t want to be a bringer of doom to our world. Yet… I cannot, in good faith, leave my people behind. And the budding place of hope and solace we are building here.”

As silence envelops us, I feel us all churn through the endless possibilities of what the Gold Eyes might have planned for us and our magic. As we all realize that none of us wants to make even one more move, bound to him as we are via the magic of our Night, I feel a decision reach us.

Ariana heaves a sweet sigh and Lucca draws a deep breath, huffing it out hard. I make no sound, though my deepest inner self churns with emotion.

My living heart betraying me, as it gives a series of rapid, anxious beats.

Lifting up, Ariana comes to me. She slides up beside me in her lovely pearl-white couture for our evening of saying goodbye to Arturos and cuddles close to my side.

Lucca moves my head off his abdomen and comes to us, too, propping his head in his hand as he stretches out next to me. My trio is with me, and it calms me as Ariana puts her head on my shoulder and Lucca reaches out, setting his hand to my chest.

I clasp his hand as I turn my head, kissing Ariana’s brow. Lucca leans in and kisses me sweet and slow before moving to Ariana’s lips and giving her his most beautiful Light next.

It bolsters us. I feel our trio’s conflict ease with every breath of Lucca’s intense Light flowing through us. Each press of his lips is like a balm as it soothes my heart; he takes turns now, kissing Ariana and then me again.

Rolling to my Light Fae, I meet his lips, kissing him harder. Ariana moves close to my back as she kisses my shoulders, then my neck .

Everything between us heating deeply now, for sex rather than war.

“I think… it’s time to get naked.” Lucca gives the chuckle of a ruffian as he regards me. As Ariana hums her agreement, pulling my open shirt down now so she can kiss my bare shoulders, I feel my heart beat fast for them.

My beautiful lovers—safe beside me at last.

“We rest tonight,” I say decisively now, as I kiss Lucca’s soft lips and feel Ariana’s decadent touch, “then we’ll make preparations to go to Venice in the morning. We’ll ask Ariana’s parents how to find the Dark Fae in Venice and take Curio with us, just in case there are any tricks along the way. By tomorrow night, we’ll be in a place where we can get answers about our power. And hopefully learn how to uncouple our magic from the Gold Eyes, so we can build our lives in peace, at last.”

As both my lovers nod, I know we’ve come to accord. As Lucca rolls me down to the bed, Ariana mounting on top of me, I know I’m right where I want to be. Because even if what we face in the coming days or weeks is dire, it’s nothing compared to how I feel about them.

That emotion fills me up now as my heart pounds hard, filling my body with Lucca’s, Ariana’s, and my own blood, as it thunders in my chest. Ariana smiles down from her perch atop my groin as she feels it, filling me up. Lucca gives a wicked smile now as he runs a hand over my cock through my pants, gripping it.

“My, my, Quinn. Hot already?” He chuckles, even as Ariana changes position so she can grind down upon my most turgid member. Lucca lets her, relinquishing it as I give a small gasp, unable to control my ardor anymore around them.

Especially not when they tag-team me like this.

“You both are wicked.” I smile now, as I enjoy everything about this moment. “No matter what comes next, I’m putting that on both your headstones whenever we finally pass. My truly wicked duo, who fill me with true Light. ”

“Your truly wicked trio.” Lucca begins to unbuckle my pants. His blue eyes have gone so dark they’re almost cobalt, his fingers insistent as they slide in and grip me, making me huff with pleasure. “Because we are your trio, Quinn, just as much as we are Ariana’s and also mine. We share power all ways now with this new bond of the Music between us. It makes the United Haven great—don’t forget that when you think those we leave behind here are weak. They’re not. They’re able to channel all our trio’s power now through our strange new Dark Fae bond. Just like we do.”

“They will be weak if we never get to Venice and remove the Gold Eyes’ taint from us, though.” Ariana stares me down. “Because, like us, they will be forever bonded to the will of the Gold Eyes in their deepest Night. And that is a darkness we can never escape, much less wrest our people away from. So we go to Venice and do what’s right?—”

“And break ourselves and all our people free of the Gold Eyes—to live in the Light, at last,” I say as my lovers stare at me.

A bright pact takes us then, as in our deepest hearts, we know what to do. Then Lucca is stroking me as Ariana lowers down to kiss me, and I’m swept up by their power.

I don’t even know when I come, but I do, as the pinnacle of our intense lovemaking hits its brightest height. As the Music streams from me and all of us, I come and come and come, as my lovers come with me.

But that sound is soon gone, unable to be sustained between us.

Until we break free of the Gold Eyes’ terrible might, at last.