21. Night

21

NIGHT

Q uinn, Lucca, and I have been trapped by the Vampire Council of Rome, and some part of me can’t help but wonder if we’ve truly lost this time. As we try to raise the Music between us, finding that we can’t inside this dome of magic the Council has caught us in, I fight my temptation to go black, deep inside.

There has to be a way out of this; being trapped inside that hellish still-point with all those monstrous Descendant Revenants was far worse than our current situation. But sometimes, the devils we know are far worse than the ones we don’t.

And they’ve caught us now—snared us up nice and tight, right where they want us.

The Council doesn’t even bother to leave any of their own here to guard us as they depart. They’ve disappeared completely, now that they’ve caught us; they’ve left only a ring of a hundred Societas Sanguinis in their forbidding, archaic black armor to watch over us, standing inside a ring of sorcerous torches.

Those torches burn violet-blue in brackets the Societas have thrust into the ground between their ranks. As those Societas guards stand in their perimeter with their long black Vampire spears planted before them, Quinn, Lucca, and I try one last time to raise the Music beneath the barrier.

We get only silence again, thanks to whatever ancient Vampire relics the Council linked their power to, far beneath the earth. Even Staphylogenes’ heart does nothing now, only beating on as if it hasn’t a care in the world about our plight.

As severe worry takes us.

“Fucking useless!” Lucca snarls now as he tosses the heart’s crystal case aside on the grass. He flops to a seat beside it as Quinn and I settle down next to him. “You’d think an ancient object this powerful could lend a little help to get out of this situation right now.”

“Staphylogenes’ heart has a mind of its own.” Quinn gives a wry smile as he moves his long fingers over the crystal case containing the heart. “It must have needed to get itself out of the still-point we were all trapped in, where it was threatened by those Descendant Revenants the moment its tomb shattered. Using our internal Music, along with its own, to rip open a portal was the only way to do that. Now that we are ensnared to a lesser evil, which will most likely not affect it at all, it no longer needs to escape danger. And so it does nothing. While we are content to wait and see what the Vampire Council will do with us.”

“Content to wait, my ass,” Lucca snarls as his eyes flash a terrible dark blue in the ring of torchlight all around. “There has to be something we can do to break this prison.”

“We have tried the Music.” Quinn shrugs. “I have likewise tried sending a message of our plight through to Devi and Curio, but this barrier not only silences our Music, it also cuts off our bonds with our people. The only reason we still feel our bonds to each other is because we’re trapped inside the barrier together. Everything else… is just broken.”

“Still, we can’t give up,” I say as I process our situation. I feel how none of us wants to give up, but we’ve been cut off at the knees by the Council’s swift move.

Something we walked right into—directly into their clever little trap.

“They made this for us because they knew we’d come to Rome.” Quinn gazes up and around our barrier, swirling a dark, smoky grey by the midnight torchlight. “They understood we were gathering our forces for an attack; they meant to let us, then seize us inside this barrier when the most opportune moment came. Removing all our Music and bonds, the things that make us strongest… then decimating us with their warriors.”

“What do we do?” Lucca asks as he watches Quinn. “We can’t contact our people, we can’t raise the Music to escape, and the heart is doing nothing. We can’t just sit here waiting to be killed by the Council, Quinn.”

“You’re right, Lucca.” I see something clever and diabolical shine in Quinn’s dark eyes. He looks up and around our dome again as I see him think a hundred miles a minute now about our current situation.

“Night magic created this dome,” Quinn says as he talks through his glimmer of an idea now, and Lucca and I listen. “The Council told us it’s tethered to ancient Vampire relics beneath the city; I assume the Council could only tether this Music-nullifying barrier to relics that hold pure Night magic, rather than those that hold Light, like any Summer Fae or Dark Fae relics would.”

“So, what are you thinking?” I ask as I place a hand on Quinn’s knee.

“I’m thinking…” Quinn takes my hand, stroking my fingers. “What if we could expand this barrier? You heard Master Cabrakan: this dome prevents magical contact with anyone outside of it. If, however, we could get all our people inside …”

“Quindici DaPonti, you are utterly mad.” Lucca’s grin is everything as he beams now at Quinn. “You want to do something to push our Night magic, hard. You want to see if you can take over the power of this dome and push it outward, maybe even hundreds of miles, to restore our bonds to our people… after they come under it.”

“We still wouldn’t be able to use the Music, not until we could find a way to untether the dome from the relics that anchor it,” Quinn says as a reckless glint comes into his eyes, diabolical in the torchlight. “We are Dark Fae, though; we all have Night magic. So far, we have been fighting to amplify our Light. I believe what we need to do now is amplify our darkness… in order to fight like with like.”

“Until we can somehow get free of this dome and get our Music back. Then it’s time to blast the Council’s asses with the power of our purest Light,” Lucca says darkly now, brutal. “Char those fuckers six ways to sundown.”

“Precisely,” Quinn says with a vicious look as he and Lucca nod.

“I’m game,” I say as I look back at Quinn. “But how do we raise our purest Night magic, Quinn? We’ve only ever focused on our love before, to get the Music to rise between us in its brightest Light.”

“We do something me and my kind excel at,” Quinn says, regarding me like he wants to devour me. “We revel in debauchery and the pleasures of the flesh. We do it not for love’s sake, but for the rut, and the fuck, and the high. We indulge in every darkest fantasy we’ve ever wanted to have with each other… then roar up in a tower of lust and seething darkness… and Night.”

“Reveling brings the Light. Devouring brings the Night.” I understand as a sudden thrill spills through me to do all my wildest fantasies with Quinn and Lucca—not reveling in them like a Fae would to build Light, but drinking from them in a kind of hedonistic, crazy orgy as they drink me in return.

To superpower our Night.

“Fuck.” Lucca shivers now with hot tension and eagerness as I see his blue eyes darken six shades in an instant. “I don’t even know what that would entail, Quinn.”

“Letting go, into the darkness,” Quinn says as he regards Lucca frankly. “Letting all your wildest fantasies come out about the things you want to do with us. For this, you’ll need to forget being the white knight, Lucca, and descend into your darkest side… do you think you can do that? ”

“I think I have to, if it’ll give us a chance.” Lucca swallows, his gaze searing, his voice rough.

“Good.” Quinn is decisive as he gazes around us now, through the barrier at the guards. As he does, however, I suddenly feel squeamish about our plan. Our entire endeavor is going to be performed while the Societas look on. I’m pretty sure this barrier is as translucent to us as it is to them.

They’ll see everything—and we’re planning on doing a lot.

“They’ll be watching us the whole time.” Lucca voices my concern now as he scowls at the guards around the dome’s perimeter. “I’m not sure I’m a fan of that.”

“They are trained to be empty; only vessels of fury for the Council’s will to fill and give purpose.” Quinn dismisses them with a wave of his hand as he looks back at us. “Treat them as no more than empty vases. Unless… being watched makes you feel hot.”

I feel a scalding blush rise to my cheeks then. Because Quinn has hit the nail on the head with this one; it is one of my deepest, darkest fantasies to fuck like an animal while an entire horde of men watch. Quinn feels it as his gaze pins me. A slow smile devours his face.

As the hottest, darkest look commands me now from his eyes.

“On all fours, Ariana. Now,” he commands me.

“What?” I blink at him.

“You heard me.” Quinn is deep in his Masters’ game now as he pins me with his gaze, waving at me like I’m his dog. “Go on all fours. Like the animal you will be when I come for you. Let the men standing all around us beyond this barrier see. And think of you… and everything you might do for them from that position.”

“Quinn…!” Lucca protests.

“Hush, Lucca.” Quinn holds up a hand. “Ariana? Did you hear me?”

Something about Quinn’s commands for me to do as he’s asked is both infuriating and ridiculously hot. I hate being ordered around by him; but some part of me loves it .

Some deepest, darkest part of me wants to just relinquish all control to Quinn in the bedroom, and ride out whatever diabolical game he has for me. I move to all fours in the grass as a spike of heat blazes through me. My breath is high; my heart is pounding as I do as he says.

And the darkest wave of my Dark Fae power rolls out, shimmering over the grass.

I see the Societas stand up straight as they notice something is happening inside the dome. They don’t seem to think it’s anything to raise an alarm about—though their gazes pin me from the wash of magic that I spread.

Their gazes are locked to me; my breath is too high now, as I feel all that male attention. I hate it and love it, knowing I’m safe in here with Quinn and they can’t touch me. Some part of me wants to put on a show for them.

And Quinn knows it as he gives a terrible, glorious smile.

“There…” He looks at Lucca, who has set his jaw in fury now as he lifts an eyebrow at Quinn. Quinn waves at me, waiting in my ridiculous position on the grass. “She likes being ordered around by me, Lucca; Ariana enjoys relinquishing control to someone she trusts in the bedroom. Some part of her is a deep exhibitionist and likes having an audience for her situation even more. But Ariana and I have consent between us, and safe words, to be used if anything even begins to go awry. I would never abuse her; this is consensual hedonism . Though we go into the darkness, we do so in love. Stand down with your affront… and let her tell you what to do. And how she needs this to go, to unfurl the darkest side of her nature.”

“Ariana?” Lucca moves to me now, touching my hand in the grass as he gazes deep into my eyes. “Are you okay with this?”

“I trust Quinn,” I say as I reach out, cupping Lucca’s cheek in my hand. “He knows me, Lucca. He can feel my… darker pleasures, deep inside. As I’m sure he can feel yours. We need to give in to that now, if we are to have a shot at trying his plan, even the smallest bit. Are you in? ”

“Can you give in to your darkest pleasures and lusts?” Quinn asks now as his gaze pins Lucca. “You have to, if we are going to give this a go.”

“Surrender your do-goodery,” I say now as I smile at him. “Be bad, for once. Enjoy it. And know we will all be safe.”

As Lucca looks at me, I see something open up deep inside him. A feeling of utter relief, it’s as if constraining himself to be just the white knight in any situation was throttling his power his entire life. As Lucca opens up to his most wanton desires, the deepest, darkest part of his power opens. As Lucca heaves a hard sigh, I see his Night come unwound.

Shimmering as it spreads from his shoulders in glorious dark cobalt rainbows—the darkest I’ve ever seen from him.

“I’ll do it.” Lucca leans in on hands and knees, kissing my lips. “I… want to.”

We are in agreement as a deep wave of Night spreads all through us. It inundates our connections to each other like some luxurious, potent flower, unfurling its blossoms to the deepest midnight.

As it does, however, even as Quinn moves forward to consensually debase me and do all his wildest, wickedest fantasies with me in front of these guards, I suddenly find he can’t. He’s the one who stops our progress now, halting before me.

As he blinks, reaching out—and raising me up to my feet.

“I can’t do this.” Quinn holds my gaze with his beautiful dark onyx eyes, brimming with heat—and astonishment. “I can’t debase you like this in front of them , Ariana. I thought I could… but this darkness inside me. It isn’t like them anymore. I’m not… one of them. I’m not a Vampire. And I can’t even pretend to be, even for one moment, anymore.”

“It’s okay, Quinn.” I reach to cup his cheek in my palm as we hold hands and he draws me close.

“We have to nullify this barrier around us, though—” As he protests, I see in his eyes what he’s afraid to say.

That he’s failed us, because he can no longer be entirely in his own darkest Night anymore .

“It’s okay.” Lucca steps to us now, coming into our trio as Quinn and I hold each other. Wrapping his arms around us, Lucca cuddles in close. “None of us is entirely Night, Quinn… and I don’t think we should even pretend to be anymore. Even though it sparks my desire to think of doing all my wildest, wickedest fantasies with both of you… I want that to be when we’re together, alone, having a good time rather than in dire straits. Is that what you’re feeling also?”

“Yes. I believe so,” Quinn says as he inhales. “I want to wield my Night to help us, but I find I can’t just delve into my innermost darkness like that anymore. Being with you both, discovering that my Light still lives within me… it’s changed me. I am still a dark Master, but only because I am a Dark Fae Master… able to wield both my Night and Light simultaneously. Rather than diving so far into the dark, anymore.”

“Then be that.” Cupping his face in my hand, I stroke his cheek with my thumb as my deepest, truth-reading intuition sings inside me. “Just go with it, Quinn, and see where it takes us. At the union of all things, we are a Light beyond the Light—we’ve discovered that when we manifest the Ascendant Sigils between us all, and the Music that goes with it. I don’t think we’re supposed to be either mortal Light or Night anymore… but their union into something greater. If we are truly something greater, like the ancient Ascendants, before their Fall when their Light and Night split… then be the union of your Dark and Light now. Don’t hold back anything that you are. And we won’t, either. And we’ll just see where it takes us.”

“And if our unified Light and Night can’t raise the Music and blast us out of here?” Quinn asks, a dire look in his dark eyes. His heart is full of woe; I grip his hand as Lucca sets his palm to Quinn’s fast-beating heart.

“Then we go out fucking.” Lucca chuckles as the most beautiful, incredible power lights him up within the torch-lit darkness, making his blue eyes shine like ancient stars. “They can watch,” he juts his chin at the Societas Sanguinis , “but this is just for you, me, and Ariana. Pretend no one is there at all, just like you said earlier. Let’s light up the night with how much we love each other. And if we go out like that… well, so be it. No better way I’d rather die.”

“Me, neither,” I say as I squeeze Quinn’s hand, moulding to him as I press Lucca’s hand to his chest.

“Me, neither,” Quinn says now as the slowest, most beautiful smile lights him up, rather than take him to his most diabolical darkness.

Quinn still wants to do all those sexy, incredibly wicked things I see brimming in his eyes. Lucca does, too, as we come together in our trio, pressing close and beginning to kiss. But we’ll do those things in the privacy of our own boudoir, thank you very much, once we survive this.

For now, we go out fighting.

And for us, the best way to fight is with true love in our hearts.

Nothing else.