20. Call

20

CALL

I t’s full dark when I wake to the feel of two people lurking by my bedside. They aren’t Ariana and Lucca; I snap wide awake now with a flare of my dark aura, curling with fire as I bolt upright in bed, ready for an attack.

My response isn’t warranted, however. By the blazing light of my aura, plus a few low lit lamps in the room, I see that Curio and Devina linger by my bedside. As my power flares hard in dark Fae-wings, I’m shocked I didn’t sense them. But I’m no longer bound to them, via the Dark Haven of Florence.

Nor my dark Master’s Kiss.

“Quinn!” Curio is astonished as he’s menaced by my power. “It’s us! Be easy…”

“Forgive me.” I roll my dark magic back, furling my auric wings into my spine as I draw a deep breath. “You startled me.”

“Quinn, the Royal Dark Summer Fae, sleeps even deeper than Quinn, the Vampire Master of Florence did.” Devina gives a small smile now as she comes to sit on the edge of the bed. She ripples her long, ultra red nails over the white coverlet, giving me a knowing eyeball. “But then, you never were a Vampire.”

“Which you both knew all along.” I push up to a full seat in bed now, scooting back against the pillows and settling the covers down around my naked hips as I watch them. “And you never told me—either of you.”

“We had to keep it a secret, Quinn.” Curio has the same fortitude Devi had yesterday. Though his winter winds around me are brisk, his expression is deadly serious. “You had too many dealings with the Vampire Council, and other high-level Master Vampires we Dark Fae don’t trust. If we’d told you what you were, you would have experimented with it, fiddling with your Light to see what it could still do, like you’re prone to. Those in power would have seen what you were doing and realized what you were—then what we were. We couldn’t take that risk.”

“True.” I know Curio speaks sense, even as he explains why he and Devi hid what they were from me for ages. It still doesn’t help the feeling of betrayal inside me as I watch them, not quite knowing who they are now. It’s the reason my power jolted me out of sleep just now.

Because it doesn’t recognize them anymore.

“You’re stewing, Quinn. Be reasonable.” Devi is succinct, always able to read my mood. It’s part of why she was my second-in-command for so very long. “If we had told you what was going on, it would have put the entire Dark Haven at risk, as well as our Dark Fae operations. None of us could have that.”

“I respect that you both had the best interests of the Dark Haven in mind,” I say, though I can’t help how cold my tone sounds.

“Ugh!” Devi throws up her hands now, rolling her eyes. “Get over it, Quinn! How much do Curio and I have to grovel to prove to you we only did what we did for the best interest of all parties involved?”

“I don’t want you to grovel.” My tone is beyond dark now, though, even for me. Something black churns inside me, empty like a void as I watch them.

Some part of me that wants them to suffer for lying to me.

“He’s not going to forgive us, Devi,” Curio says as he watches me with his ice-pale eyes. “Best give up. Time may heal our divide, but it won’t if you push it. Let’s leave off and allow Quinn to get some rest.”

“No.” Devi is firm as she stares me down. “I am not leaving this bedchamber until he forgives us.”

“Then we’re going to be here a very long while.” Curio chuckles as he pulls up a chair to my bedside. He sits, crossing his legs at the knees, lacing his long fingers around them.

I watch them, Devi so intent as she stares at me, desperate for my forgiveness, while Curio sits so elegantly aloof in his chair, though I can tell by his almost studied nonchalance that he feels the same. It’s killing both of them that I’m stewing, though a part of me still can’t outright forgive them for what they’ve done.

Curio saved my life by bringing me to his father’s secret citadel to rest and be healed, while Devi saved all the Dark Fae I had inadvertently Made over the years, getting them to safety before any fighting began at the Red Letter Hotel Florence, though she couldn’t save my Vampires.

And yet, some terrible part of me still wants them to suffer for keeping all this from me. Some part of me that got used to torturing people, and making them suffer under Emiliana.

Though I don’t want to do it now.

“It’s fine. I forgive you. Both of you,” I say at last, if only to end this standoff between us so everyone can rest.

“You don’t. You’re lying,” Devi says, always able to tell that about me, as well.

“What do you want from me, Devina?” I sigh now, as I scrub my hands over my face, exasperated. “I’m upset that the both of you lied to me, for centuries . I feel betrayed, even though the logical part of me understands why you did what you did. But thanks to Lucca and Ariana, I’m discovering my heart again. And it’s hurting. I feel like we’re not even friends.”

As I speak such a deep, heartfelt truth to the both of them now, the Music chimes around me. Devina sits bolt upright on the bed, as Curio comes to full attention in his chair. The Music is low, chiming like a somber chorus of tiny fae-bells as it issues from me. It moves my dark aura in a sea all around me now, flaring it with starbursts of gold, red, even rainbow-white fire now as Curio whistles and moves a hand gently through it.

It doesn’t burn him, because a Fae’s fire never burns the ones they love.

Even when we’re mad at them.

“Quinn…!” Curio breathes as he touches my slow-roiling power, and the Music fades. “How long have you been able to manifest the Music of the Spheres by yourself, without even bloodshed to summon it?”

“Since I came back from being a Revenant, perhaps. I’m not sure.” I am honest, still unable to hold anything back from my two most trusted, no matter how angry I feel.

“This is big, Quinn.” Devi stares at me, her dark chocolate eyes round. “Very few Dark Fae can manifest the Music, which was something we already knew made you, Lucca, and Ariana’s trio different, that you all could do it when you were resonating together. To raise the Music alone… only Royal Dark Fae with power akin to Master Ilyov can do that. Now you.”

“I still can’t control it, however.” A terrible feeling engulfs me. That void yawns inside me, awful as I feel it devour me. “Despite all I’ve been through, despite everything I’ve come to terms with now inside myself, I’m not one step closer to being able to wield the Music of the Spheres in any kind of coordinated fashion to achieve my aims. Now I have to abandon them, my Dark Haven taken, my political endeavors shattered, without even a home to go back to.”

“But you’re not giving up.” Curio watches me shrewdly, his pale blue eyes like fiery ice.

“No, Curio. I’m not giving up.” I am firm, staring him down. “I will march into my Dark Haven naked and alone, if that’s the only thing I can do against Florian Delano. And trade my life for my Vampires, to release them from his clutches.”

“Quinn! You can’t!” Devina is horrified as her lips fall open.

It’s Curio who stares me down now, however.

Knowing everything I went through with Florian, back when Emiliana was still in charge.

“He’ll kill you.” Curio’s voice is flat, his pale eyes terrible as they watch me. “You may not be dead in the flesh, not for eons, but Florian Delano will kill you just the same, with the things he can do to your spirit, Quinn, and your heart. He’ll laugh each and every day he controls you, and make you do it all over again, just for spite.”

“I know.” I feel dead already, even as I say it. “But I’m out of plans, and I’m out of options, Curio. Florian is already torturing his first batch of my Vampires into becoming his, and in a few days, he’ll execute them. Then he’ll do it all over again, and I have nothing against the Council’s might, who is still protecting his back. Not to mention Florian’s own devastating ways.”

“You have us, Quinn.” Devi reaches out and seizes my hand where it rests on the coverlet. “You have Curio, and me, and all the Dark Fae you’ve Made, safe here in the human world. Just say the word, and we will re-Kiss to you, blood-oathing ourselves back into your Dark Haven, wherever it may reside. We were a family once; we can be again. But not if you give up.”

“It’s not enough.” I shake my head, even as I grip her hand, my heart beating now as I’m touched by her fierce love. “A hundred Dark Fae against the Council’s might just isn’t enough, Devi. Dark Fae may be more powerful than most of Vampire-kind, or Fae, but the Council is ancient, their chosen warriors tremendous. Maybe if we had an army of ten thousand Dark Fae to go up against the Council. But a hundred? Doubtful.”

“Still. It’s a start,” Curio says as he eyeballs me. “The Quinn I knew would never give up when there was a possibility of creating a new plan. No matter how meagre it might seem, at first.”

As Curio confronts me with my old nature, I pause. Because I feel that side of me rising; already beginning to plot and plan how much magical sway we might have with a hundred Dark Fae, all bonded as one to our cause.

But I have to abandon my ambitions of power to wield the Music of the Spheres into Ascendant Sigils, so we can break Ariana, Lucca, and me away from the Gold Eyes. A war devours me now, deep inside, as I feel a conflict between my head and my heart.

Wanting to plot and plan with my head like always—and knowing I have to use my heart instead.

“What gain is there for me now, rescuing the Dark Haven of Florence from Florian’s clutches?” I ponder aloud as I wrestle with my ambition versus my love. “For I love the Dark Haven and the Hotel, and everything it represents, and the people once bound to me who I care for. All of that, however, was to one day gain a seat upon the Vampire Council. Now, all those plans have been destroyed.”

“That’s not why you took over the Dark Haven of Florence, Quinn,” Curio says quietly. “Tell me, what was it that moved you when you killed our old Master, Emiliana DiClario, that sunny morning she slept? Was it ambition, to sit the Vampire Council in her place?”

As Curio suddenly points my inner compass in the right direction, I see where my logic has been wrong.

As I feel my heart break wide open—and realize what I’ve been missing.

“No,” I whisper, as I see where all my mental logic has failed. “Emiliana was a tyrant, and I wanted to kill her. She wasn’t just abusive; in my mind, she had failed—failed to keep safe all those who descended from her bloodline, or were bound to it. Because to me, being in charge of a Dark Haven was a responsibility; to protect all those who depended on us as their Masters to keep safe their undead hearts for all eternity. Emiliana betrayed that most sacred trust; she shat upon it, every day of her heinously long life, and laughed as she was doing so. I thought it was an abomination, and I still do, for Masters who are like that.”

“So was you killing her about ambition, or power?” Curio asks now.

“It was about love,” I say as I lock eyes with him, understanding he’s right. “It was because I loved you, and myself, and everyone else there under my charge. I knew I had to be the one to change things… or we could never be a family, safe and cared for, and loved.”

“So is taking back your Dark Haven about power?” Curio pushes me, the smallest smile upon his lips.

“No. It’s about love.” I realize now, as something fierce rises inside my heart. “Taking back our Dark Haven from Florian is about saving those I love. Those all of us love… who are counting on us to come get them back.”

As the Music pours from me now, roaring in a powerful harmony through the room, I feel my heart blaze. Where there had only been darkness and doubt after going mad into my Revenant, a fierce certainty opens up all through me, as I finally know what’s right.

That certainty gets me out of bed; I don’t even know I’ve risen, until Devi is taking a maroon silk men’s robe down from the bedpost, helping me into it. I don’t care about clothing, food, or anything else now, though. As everything inside me fixes on every weakness I know about Florian Delano, and how I might use the few resources we have to exploit them, I suddenly feel myself come rushing back.

Because I’m planning my moves now with my heart, rather than with just my head. I feel my deep inner nature to plot and plan join with my blazing heart now.

Singing all through me—as the Music careens around me a hundredfold.

That pure surge of essence and sound is soon lost, however, unable to be sustained despite how strongly it just blazed from me. But the effect it’s had, even for that briefest of moments, on Devina and Curio is massive; both are down on their knees before me, gazing at me with true awe as the after effects of that Music inundates them.

They feel its glory, even as much as I just experienced it. As that incredible sound fades from the room, without making an Ascendant’s Sigil in the air, I offer my hands. I help my beloved friends to their feet.

Even as both stare at me open-mouthed, in shock.

“Prepare our Dark Fae, Devi, Curio.” I give instructions for where I know we must begin. “For we are to have a ceremony tonight, to re-bond as one with my Master’s Kiss for all those who would have me. I intend to get our Dark Haven back, and I will not sacrifice myself to Florian Delano or any other Master, to make that happen. Not anymore. Because I know who I am now—the Master of Florence. Even though I’m a Master Dark Fae, rather than a Vampire, I am still the Master, for all those who depend on us to protect them… along with everything else we love.”

As my tirade ends, I see true belief shine in Devi's and Curio’s eyes. I don’t know if it’s my words, or my passion, or the Music’s influence still working on them—but I find I don’t care. It feels too good to have myself and my dearest comrades back, despite us all being Dark Fae now.

As I make for the walk-in closet to find something suitable to wear from the clothing Illyria brought up for both me and Lucca, a knock comes at the door. Whoever it is doesn’t wait to be invited in; pushing open the door, Arturos strides in.

A woman behind him in the shadows.

Devina and Curio are on alert, as their twin auras seethe, menacing Arturos with their winter-white and crimson-dark power. It’s clear neither of them has forgiven him one bit for the part he played in betraying me to the Gold Eyes, though Arturos has tried to make amends these past few days.

Watching them with his sea-dark gaze, however, Arturos neither raises his power to defend himself, nor gives up ground. As his gaze fixes upon me, I watch him invite the young woman behind him into the room.

As I see her in the light, surprise takes me. It’s the same Vampire-Siren woman the Music returned from her Revenant state nearly two months ago, when the Gold Eyes’ influence caused Ariana’s, Lucca’s, and my power to shatter the Bloodstone.

She seems ageless, though her visage looks young, gazing at me with serene blue-white eyes. As she watches me, I feel the weight of millennia in her.

Old, like the oldest Elder Vampires on the Council.

And just as powerful.

“Quinn. This is Luliana Ouros,” Arturos says as he watches me, gesturing at the woman. “You may recall she was the Vampire-Siren you returned with your Music weeks ago at the Bloodstone event—the only Vampire-Siren I’ve ever met, besides myself.”

“I recall.” I feel entranced staring at the elegant woman, though she’s done nothing to mesmerize me in any way. Still, a feeling of understanding passes between us, as I feel us resonate with our powers. She steps in front of Arturos now, staring me down as that power simmers between us.

Forming strange cords and bonds that I can see now, shimmering through the air.

“You have called me, and I came,” she says, as her silvery alto voice breathes through the midnight air. Her blue-white eyes pin me, drowning me in their endless depths as she speaks. “Though you are not my Master, and I have not your Kiss upon me…still, you have called me up from my sojourn to the fathomless deeps. To be here, by your side, in your hour of need. A call I could not resist. And a resonance I do not want to.”

As she speaks, a strange thrill passes through me. Because here is one of the once-Revenants from the Bloodstone ceremony, returned by the Music’s power. She’s come to find me, because she feels a connection to me.

Calling her to my side in my darkest hour.