24. Thrall

24

THRALL

I stand across the street from the Red Letter Hotel Florence, back in the Twilight Realm as the sun sets. Though furious power lives inside me now, my magic renewed from part of my Dark Haven becoming re-Kissed to me last night, Florian Delano’s guards around the building are blissfully unaware of me, yet.

I contemplate his people, standing in the shadows of the porticos well out of the slanting evening sun as they watch Summer Fae pass in the street. Though Florian can daywalk like me, my daywalking power comes from me still being Fae, which Florian isn’t.

Not all his Sirees can withstand the touch of the sun; most of his guards hide in the shadows now, as regular citizens of Florence come and go before the Hotel’s long facade. Though I came through via portal from the human realm, right across from their doorstep, Florian’s people are still unaware of me. My Dark Fae abilities give me an advantage, and every part of my plan hinges on the fact that Florian doesn’t yet know that about me, even if the Vampire Council has their suspicions.

I’m not hiding my whereabouts, but none of the Vampire Council’s Societas Sanguinis in the city have felt me, either. As I watch the street, I know the Council hasn’t sequestered the city. Though they’d love to, to punish me, they can’t; only half of Florence’s citizens are Vampire, the other half Fae, who drift by now in the evening’s lowering shadows.

Though they want to find me, with their numbers diminished, the Council can’t start a shitstorm with the Summer Fae King right now, powerful as he is. It works in favor of my plan now, as I take a moment to gather myself, staring at the vaulted porticos and stuccoed walls of the ancient building and surveying Florian’s forces.

Had the Societas taken me right now, there’s no guarantee they would have brought me to Florian, even though he wants me. Nobody knows I’m here, and it suits me; this plan carries tremendous personal risk, but I still know it’s the best shot we have at taking back the Red Letter Hotel Florence and saving my Vampires.

I take a deep breath and still my beating heart, ready to make my entrance. Dressed in a dark maroon suit with a black shirt and tie, courtesy of my favorite human world designer Armani, I place my hands in my pockets and emerge into the sunlight from the shadows of the hedge I was standing near.

The guards at the door come to immediate attention. Their gazes pin to me as their dark auras spread wide, their black Vampire spears lengthening fast as they startle at my arrival, in shock. As their gazes sweep the street, however, they see only me standing in it.

And the Summer Fae, passing casually by.

This is my moment, as I stand tall, staring them down. I let nothing of my Dark Fae aura be seen nor felt as I come towards them now, taking my hands from my pockets to let them know I am unarmed. I do a slow spin; unbuttoning my jacket, I hold out the lapels to show them I have no weapons, either modern or ancient. As I re-button my jacket, I see the confusion on their faces.

Watching me approach without a single friend or ally to my name .

“Quindici DaPonti.” The big guard out front is someone I know, one of Florian’s guardsmen named Julian. Tall and robust, he looks like an American football player with his sandy blond hair and blue eyes. But he’s a Vampire; I see the tips of his fangs as he speaks. He hands his long black spear to another guard, gazing quizzically before nodding his chin at me. “Why have you come?”

“To turn myself in, of course.” I hold his gaze with my darkest, deepest calm. “That is what Florian wants, is it not? What he asked for, when he threatened my Vampires.”

Julian’s gaze penetrates me for a long moment, trying to figure out my gambit. His gaze breaks from mine and sweeps the street, examining even the most casual passersby to see if any of them could be my army in disguise. At last, he realizes I’m alone. As his gaze snaps back to me, a strange look is in his eyes.

Because no one would willingly turn themselves over to Florian Delano—not in a million years.

“Come with me.” Julian nods for me to ascend the ingress steps, then for four of his best guards out front to accompany us as I surrender to them. I go, stepping up the stairs of my establishment and feeling a strange thrill move through me, that Florian’s guards have no idea what I’m doing.

Florian himself is another matter; he has some mind-reading talents and I’m taking an enormous risk, heading into the lion’s den where I could be found out at any moment. I’m trusting Florian’s nature, however; that he’ll be too preoccupied gloating that I’ve capitulated to his demands and turned myself over.

Than digging deeper into what I’m doing here—and the truth of why I’ve come.

I hold on to that as I’m escorted through the halls of the Florence Hotel. A modicum of relief fills me as I gaze around, taking it all in; though several areas were damaged by magical fighting in the halls when the Hotel and Dark Haven were taken, Florian hasn’t desecrated any of the Hotel’s finer areas out of spite, of which I am grateful.

He knows this place is a jewel for his crown; even though I hate him, Florian has sense when it comes to building his empire, and not needlessly tearing down that which could be an asset. Indeed, a number of the halls are already being repaired, Florian’s people and even several of my own Vampires hard at work fixing beams, replacing ruined drapes, and cleaning.

The only part that twists me is to look around and see my Vampires gazing at me with bleak beseeching in their eyes. Florian isn’t known for treating his people nicely; even as I’m led through the main halls, I see no fewer than six of my Vampires get beaten to their knees by Florian’s guards, for not doing something to Florian’s specifications. It takes everything I have to bite my tongue as I’m led on through. I gaze up at my beautiful pastoral paintings on the walls and will myself to calm.

Though I’m raging, deep inside—wanting to kill him until he meets his true death for harming even a single one of them.

At last, we head down into the underground. Though Florian can daywalk, most Vampires still feel safer living beneath the earth; it doesn’t surprise me he’s taken my grand cathedral suite, as I’m led inside the towering ebony doors and am instructed to wait within. I see all the warding sigils used to contain my mad Revenant have been scrubbed from the space; my rooms look more or less how they did when I still lived here.

Except for a distinct, flowery perfume that pervades the air.

Florian’s cologne, it has my lips curling with distaste. Terrible memories flood me as I inhale that scent; I push them away now as I wait with Julian, standing inside the closed doors of my suite. Two of the massive fireplaces are lit; it’s becoming autumn in the Twilight Realm, and even here in Florence, the nights are now brisk.

It’s a long while before Florian arrives, as if he wanted to make me twist, having to wait for him. At last, he pushes in through the double doors at the rear of the space where my study is .

Dressed in a long, emerald green men’s dressing gown of quilted silk, Florian looks like a French billionaire bachelor as he comes towards me. His chiseled face is tan even in the blazing firelight; his sea-green eyes sparkle from his golden-stubbled face as he beams his ultra-white smile to see me.

Florian’s short, tawny gold hair is rucked up into an artful mess like he just fucked someone, and he swirls a glass of prosecco in one hand as he gloats that I’ve come to him. It’s my finest prosecco, I can tell with one inhalation. The bastard’s opened a bottle I was saving for Lucca and Ariana, as something dark grinds inside me.

That Florian gets to enjoy the benefits of everything I’ve built in this place.

“Quindici DaPonti. Well.” Florian’s surprise is both genuine and a sham as he beams at me; he’s goading me by his show of innocence, like he hasn’t a clue why I’m here. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”

“Can’t a man just come for the pleasure of your company, Florian?” I play his little game, acting nonchalant as I adopt my best sexy slouch against a side table behind me. I grip it with my hands, letting Florian watch my tendons flex and think of sex.

Which is what I want him to be thinking about, as his sea-green eyes twinkle with disaster now, watching me.

“Your company is very pleasurable indeed.” A smirking smile takes Florian’s full lips, making his golden beauty wicked as his ultra-smooth voice moves in a touchable, silken sensation all around me. He chuckles, and it’s as if he’s touched me with that smooth-as-butter sound, though it makes me shiver. “But that’s not why you’re here.”

“I hear you have some of my Vampires under your thrall, Florian. I’d like them released. Immediately,” I say now, dispensing with games as I get right to it, though I keep my tone light as I examine my recently manicured nails.

“What do you have to trade that you would bargain for their release?” Florian asks with veiled danger in his eyes as he watches me .

Though he can’t disguise how hungry he is, for me.

“I have me.” I look at him now—scalding him with the full force of my dark onyx eyes and letting him feel, once again, how much I can do for him. He plays it cool, but I can feel how aroused he suddenly is, playing this game with me once more.

“My, my,” he says as he takes me in. “Hungry for my bed, are we, Quinn?”

“You are hungry for mine,” I say with hot force now as I stare him down. “Or am I wrong about what the release deal was? My Vampires… for me.”

Florian has nothing to say for a long moment. His green eyes rove me now, however, scalding with need as they drink me in with my sexy Armani attire and my perfectly honed body slouching just so against the table.

I see his ardor roar at last—a furious fire, scalding through his veins just like his daywalking power. Because once upon a time, I was Head Courtier of this place under Emiliana DiClario, and she did not allow me to pick my assignations for deals she wanted to seal.

Many of those deals were made with Florian, securing relationships between Monaco and Florence for centuries. But I was never subservient to Florian in the bedchamber when Emiliana forced me to take his pleasure.

I was his dominant—something he loved to the depths of his vastly maligned soul.

“That was the deal, yes.” Florian watches me, needful but also wary of whatever game I’m playing. He knows I’m playing one; he just doesn’t know what it is yet, and it keeps him guessing as we stare at each other. “But why are you here, Quinn… unarmed and alone?”

“My Vampires mean much to me.” I am blunt as I stare him down with a not-nice heat in my eyes now, letting him see how much I care for my people. “To have them enthralled to you for any length of time is a death sentence I would not wish upon anyone. Ever. ”

“Always the bleeding heart.” Something softens in Florian then, away from wariness—even as something else in him becomes more cruel. “Did you never enjoy your time with me, Quinn, when you were under my thrall?”

“I took my pleasure when I needed it.” I stay evasive now. Florian does not need to know how much I hate him, though he probably already does.

“But you dominated me.” Florian’s gaze is wicked. “Don’t you like that?”

“When I’m not being forced to, yes.” I give him something carnal in my eyes now, to see how he likes it. “I might even dominate you without being forced, Florian. But you never gave me that opportunity.”

“Because you would tie me to a rack, flay me alive, and laugh until you put a torch to me and I met my true death,” Florian says with a knowing look as he shakes his head. “I know you, Quinn; you were the most ruthless torturer Emiliana ever had. Both in and out of the bedchamber.”

“Just say the word, and I’ll torture you for free,” I say with dark venom now, because I’m tired of this game. “Show me to my Vampires, Florian. Let me watch you release them from your thrall and let them walk out of this establishment unharmed, right now. That, and I require a blood-oath from you that you won’t take any of my other previous Dark Haven Vampires under your thrall, even though they’re yours to command now as Master of this place. Give me those things, and I’ll let you bind me again in your slim golden manacles… just as you did of old.”

“A tempting offer.” Florian’s gaze is hot. “And if I refuse?”

“Then watch me burn this place to the ground, with you and all my Vampires inside it. Rather than let you take even one more of them into your eternal torture.” A slow roil of my blackest aura unfurls from me now as I show Florian how deadly serious I am.

“My, my. Temper, Quindici.” But Florian is intrigued as he watches me. “You really are serious, aren’t you?”

“Test me and find out,” I snarl, spreading my black auric wings wide like two poisonous serpents from my spine .

Florian watches those massive wings spread out, which I keep carefully clear of my Dark Fae fire now. But he doesn’t know my Fae magic was ever still a part of me; my fires barely ever rose when I was still Kissed to Emiliana, and never when I was alone with Florian.

He only knows me like this; the darkest side of Quinn that tortures, kills, and takes. I see it light him up like a storm now as he shudders.

Wanting me with a heedless abandon.

“I don’t believe we need to be vicious in all this.” Florian waves his hand now at Julian, who’s been silent and waiting beside me this entire time. A long-time guard of Florian’s, he already knows my history with the Master of Monaco; as Florian waves to him, Julian straightens, alert for instructions. “Julian. Please bring the seven Vampires I have enthralled to my unearthly delights to the front of the Hotel at once. We shall meet you there.”

“Yes, Master.” Turning abruptly, Julian is out the door without summoning any other guards to replace him. It leaves Florian and me alone as we stare at each other in my foyer.

With a genteel wave of his hand, Florian invites me to accompany him out the door as we go to meet my enslaved Vampires at the front of the Hotel. Though he’s in a dressing gown, Florian has a shirt and slacks on underneath, and doesn’t bother changing as we exit his new rooms.

I move towards the main ingress of the Red Letter Hotel Florence, maneuvering through the underground halls, then up the stairs and through the vaulted upper ways like I still own the place. Florian is alert as he watches me, even with a touch of admiration, as we walk in silence through the halls.

Until we get to the vast main entrance.

And I see my Vampires, ready to be released.

They’re all naked; of course they are. Three men and four women, they’ve been put in Florian’s signature thin golden bracelets and neck-torque, which he controls via his power. All of them have a vacant look in their eyes. As if they stare at nothing, as if their whole world has become nothing, they’ve already been a number of days under Florian’s thrall.

And I know what that feels like, as he comes near and they all shiver awake.

They do, and they don’t. They only wake from their emptiness enough to register he is here, and move instantly to his side. As he motions for them all to go down upon their knees before him, they do, without hesitation. Opening his dressing gown, Florian unzips his fly and motions for the closest man to start sucking his cock.

He does, eagerly—again, with no hesitation whatsoever.

It’s disgusting, as I watch Florian flaunt his hold over my Vampires, right in front of me. I know for a fact the man he’s got sucking him, a Sicilian Vampire by the name of Truvio Bernini, isn’t the slightest bit homosexual.

And yet, when one is under Florian’s thrall, a person will do anything for his approval and touch. Because Florian has one of the worst powers I’ve ever come across; he can make anyone of lesser mind and power crave him with just a single wave of his magic, and a glance from his eyes.

It’s not just a craving, either; it’s a deep-seated desire for him to approve of everything one is doing, and everything one is. So much that those under his thrall will do anything for him, regardless of how much they scream inside, knowing it’s not what they want.

And Florian gains pleasure—and more power in his magic—by making people do things that make them die, deep inside. Die, until they waste away into true death.

Not from a broken body—but from a broken heart.

It’s disgusting, as I make myself witness now, because I know the feeling of everything my Vampire is experiencing, sucking Florian’s cock but not even being remotely attracted to him.

As Florian pets Truvio’s head, urging him to go faster, a mean little smile takes his face. He looks at me, giving me the full show of everything he’s put my people through in the past few days, not to mention giving me a preview of everything he’s going to put me through soon.

Not only that, but he treated me like this for centuries, as part of Emiliana’s trade deal. He could never keep me when he left the Florence Hotel to return home to Monaco; but even a few days under Florian’s thrall is enough to drive a person mad.

I know all these Vampires will need deep counseling once they come home. But they will come home; I can already feel Devi and Curio waiting outside to get them across Realms to the Summers estate, where they can be rehabilitated after everything they’ve gone through.

I’m staying here, however, and will wear those little gold ornaments soon. As Florian finishes, coming into Truvio’s mouth and making him swallow it just for spite, he gestures Truvio back down to his knees like a dog before him. Zipping up, Florian strokes my Vampire’s hair.

Then smacks him across the face—spilling him to the floor.

“That was badly done,” Florian says, making sure Truvio takes it to heart that Florian’s unsatisfied. “Think about how poorly you performed that, right now, and how displeased it made me. And don’t stop thinking about it. Ever.”

I set my jaw as I watch the hope inside my Vampire’s eyes die. Truvio hangs his head; I can feel the shame that boils off him now, that his Master was so displeased with his work. Florian gives me one last gloating look, then motions for Julian to remove all their bangles. He does, going down the line and taking them off, one by one.

My people look confused as they glance around, as if waking from an endless trance. It’s a trance of nightmares, I know, as they look up at Florian, cringe, then see me.

Understanding floods their eyes. Horror at the trade I’m making as they all help each other to their feet. The biggest thing I see is gratefulness, however, that I didn’t abandon them to this ruthless Master.

With a nod, Florian breaks all his last mind-snares inside them, jutting his chin at the vaulted main doors .

“You may go.”

They do. They glance at me first, though, which steels my heart; I nod as well, gesturing them out the front main doors of the Red Letter Hotel Florence. “Devi is waiting for you. She will take you someplace safe.”

“Quinn…” The man who had been on his knees, Truvio, gives me a rough growl.

“Go,” I say gently as I nod to him it’s alright. “You shall be part of the Dark Haven of Florence again soon. The real Dark Haven of Florence, where I am Master… and no one else.”

He nods. I see all my Vampires stand taller now as they feel my strength bolster them. With one last glance, they turn and head out the main doors of the Hotel. Florian and his guards let them go, as promised, and I glimpse Devi now as she helps them across the street, everyone unaccosted.

It’s enough. I take a deep breath, steeling myself for what’s about to happen. But this was the plan, and I was the maker of that plan, as I turn back to Florian now.

“The blood-oath?” I insist, before I let him take me.

“Oh, very well.” Throwing up his hands, Florian shakes his head as he beams at my stubbornness. He takes a slender golden pin from his lapel, then pricks his finger with it rather than bite his hand, as is traditional. But it’s enough, as his blood spills to the floor and Florian reaches under his shirt to set his bleeding hand to his heart.

Marking his dead heart with blood, to seal his oath.

“I blood-oath this day, that I shall take none of Quindici DaPonti’s former Vampires under my thrall, so long as Quinn himself remains bound to me via my golden accoutrement. Satisfied?”

As I feel a dark wind of magic seal Florian’s blood-oath, I nod. Blood-oaths are an ancient and little-understood art. Though nobody enforces them, they enforce themselves somehow among Vampires, by the mystery of their magic alone.

Extending my hands, I wait as Julian moves in, affixing one pair of Florian’s golden bracelets around my wrists. The gold burns like cold fire with Florian’s power, but soon turns a comfortable temperature as I feel my mind cloud with a soft haze.

Florian moves forward, staring into my eyes. I feel his full power steal into me, then, as we watch each other. I don’t blink, or fight it with my own magic, lest he feel the trio I am bound to, or my other Dark Fae.

Waiting in the human world to make their move, as soon as I say so.