27. Honor

27

HONOR

M y life is misery, as I’m kicked to the floor by Florian Delano and made to beg at his heel like a dog. My bonds to Lucca and Ariana, and my entire Dark Haven feel gone inside me; there’s so much darkness now from Florian’s eternal opiate haze that I’m barely aware which direction is up anymore.

I am losing the will to fight him, as something inside me dies from no longer being able to feel Lucca’s raging brightness and Ariana’s beautiful balance within me. Only my own Light, such a small thing, guttering now to this Night of eternal torture. Now, Florian makes me lick his boots—covered in excrement from his own bowels, that he shit upon me earlier and made me smear there.

Then punished me for it, viciously.

I was sitting in Florian’s shit; he made me roll in it earlier, and I smell all over of it now. But Florian’s terrible power makes me feel like it’s somehow the greatest ambrosia I could ever have upon me, as I slave to do anything that will win his approval.

Something deep inside me knows it’s wrong, though; something in me dies, knowing I’m being debased, but powerless to stop it. Through it all, my heart screams that my beloveds will be attacked by the Council this night, thanks to me.

And I can’t do anything to stop it.

“There, cur. Good dog.” Florian pets me now on my hair, which is one of the few places upon my entire naked body that isn’t smeared with his shit. He seizes my hair, making me look up at him now, as I receive yet another dose of his awful mesmerizing magic from his sparkling green orbs. It makes me feel pleasure as he approves of me—so hard I come from it.

Yet again.

“There. Good dogs get rewarded, don’t they?” Florian laughs now as he sits at my old dining table, taking up a goblet of blood and sipping it. Extending his legs, he pats his thigh for me to come. I do, hating myself for it.

He kicks me right in the ribs, sending me sprawling again.

“Cur! Look what you’ve done. You’ve dirtied my breeches with this shit. Lick it clean.” Florian gestures to his pants, where a smear of his own shit has indeed sullied him. I come to him, crawling on all fours because that’s how he likes me to be, as his dog. Sticking my tongue out, I lick it.

Horrified, even as the part he controls is elated to do his bidding.

“Make him lick more! It’s a riot,” a laughing female voice says from the table. Florian isn’t alone tonight. He has two of his ally Masters here with him this evening, to enjoy his hospitality and the show.

Calla and Eduardo Romero are dressed in their black haute couture finery as their dark eyes glow a bright canary yellow now to see me debased.

Allies I thought were mine—but who were Florian’s and the Council’s all along.

“It really is lovely, seeing him this way.” Eduardo sips a gilded chalice of blood, setting it down with a grin. “All this shit we’ve had to put up with over the years, pretending to be his allies just so the Council could get the dirt on everything he was doing in his little get- togethers each year. Thank all the saints and devils that’s done. Now we can get back to business as usual. Speaking of… may Calla and I make him dance?”

“Be my guest.” Florian nods me over to the Romeros now, who sit next to each other at the table, at corners to Florian. Calla wrinkles her nose at my smell, then gets a wicked grin as she waves her hand.

And then I’m up on my feet—doing an old English jig for her pleasure.

“Marvelous!” She claps her hands, laughing and waving, so my feet move faster. “Don’t be sloppy now, Quinn, get those steps right!”

“Did I say you could rise to your feet?” Florian joins the game now, sending a wave of pure torture through me with his power, though I can’t fall down to hands and knees anymore from him allowing Calla’s power to swamp me. “Bad dog!”

He makes me whimper and whine now as he thrusts spear after spear of torture right through my groin. My world fades to black as I come close to passing out, but Calla keeps me on my feet.

And Eduardo joins the fun now, making me sing opera for them, as well.

I want to scream from my pain now, but Eduardo won’t let me as his power takes my voice, and Calla’s keeps me on my feet. Everything inside me is twisting, spearing, horrible as all my previous injuries from when Florian used me like a pincushion from his ire rip back open and gush dark lines of blood down my naked, shit-smeared body.

They don’t care. They laugh, sipping their wine as Calla waves her hand for me to dance faster. I’m in a frenzy now, inundated by her and Eduardo’s power.

As Florian grins—thoroughly enjoying the show.

I’m close to passing out now, my Light becoming so dim as I lose all hope of ever getting out of this alive, much less being left alone to muster the returned Revenants and get them to fight for me, when something suddenly blazes inside me.

I feel it as my connection to Lucca and Ariana—and my entire Dark Haven—is seared open wide by a towering explosion of Light.

Light so bright, it’s a hundred times the normal light of day as it blazes from me in a searing wave now, unstoppable. I throw a hand up, covering my eyes with a cry as Calla and Eduardo scream, their twin powers abruptly cut off inside me.

It blasts even Florian back as his golden manacles and torque melt in that incredible wave of heat and Light, dripping down my naked, shit-smeared skin.

Breaking his fog inside me.

I don’t waste a moment, as that Light sears everything around me and melts my manacles, freeing me all at once from Florian’s torment. I use whatever power I have left to thrust up a towering shield of darkness all around me, devouring the dining area of my old rooms—then dash with my last remaining strength to a pastoral painting on the wall that accesses the Hotel’s back-ways.

It still responds to my power; it opens and I’m through, before my obscuring blast of Night magic can die. Heaving hard breaths, I’m in the blue-lit back halls of the Hotel.

As I hear a roar of fury and agony on the other side of the painting—from Florian.

I don’t hear Calla or Eduardo, and I don’t stick around to find out if they survived that incredible blaze of Light that came somehow from Lucca and Ariana, and the rest of my Dark Fae at the Summers estate. Strength fills me now from being connected to them once more, my wounds healing fast now that I’m once again bolstered by their magic; but these back ways of the Hotel aren’t infallible.

Even if Florian has not yet figured out how to break my magical encryptions on these ancient passages, he’ll get the Council’s help to do so. I have only one safe space I can go, where I know I can hide my magical signature and imprint from any seeking mind.

Because I’ve used that cellar as my hiding-space, all my Vampire life .

I make it to my deep underground solar and stumble through the access painting at a dead run, shutting it hard behind me. Wards in this space flare up all around me now for protection; laid down by me back when Emiliana was in charge, no one knew about this space for ages, until I ran this Dark Haven and told Devi and Curio about it.

This is my private panic room and living area, as the vast wards flare up all around me now. They’re made of both Vampire Bloodsigns and Faeanic runes, because I was well aware I could use both, even the moment I became Dark Fae, though I thought I was Vampire.

As my underground solar of art, artifacts, musical instruments, and wine glows around me now, lit bright by the power of my wards, I sink to a seat on the cold marble floor. I breathe hard, some part of me still amazed I’ve escaped.

The Romero’s frenzied taint is no longer inside me; neither is Florian’s as I look down now and see his golden manacles and torque melted upon my naked body. Though their magic is broken, they’ve smelted into my skin when that blaze hit them from inside me; I growl as I pull each runnel of gold from me, not caring that skin rips up with it.

Now that I’m connected to my Dark Haven again, I’ll heal fast; with a sigh, I plunk my head back upon the blue-curtained wall, not caring that I’m smeared in shit and bleeding more now from these new wounds.

I’m free—and my bonds to my beloveds and Dark Haven are still alive inside me.

Everything in me wants to take a shower, get some food, and recover both mentally and physically from all the torture I’ve been through over the past twenty-four hours. But I know my priorities, as I still my hard breaths and pounding heart, diving deep inside myself now.

Because the returned Revenants know I’m here—and they’ll be looking for me, now that I’ve escaped. As I reach deep inside my auric body, I search for something, anything, that connects me to those returned Revenants.

As the strangest sensation like dark stars opens up inside me then, I watch those stars move all around the Hotel—and realize I can feel all the Revenants the Music returned at the Bloodstone event. They’re bound to me, via what Ariana, Lucca, and I did that night; bound to all of us by the power of the magic we wrought, yet still free to live their own lives and have their own will.

Just as Luliana described, then the Pict woman, it feels like a strangely bright Light fills their Vampiric darkness now, though none of them are Dark Fae like me and my current Dark Haven. I feel them, nonetheless, beaming like tiny stars in the darkness, now that I am restored to my connections. As they move about the Hotel, I decide to try something I’m not sure will work.

I go to the quietest place inside me now, that was still there, even when I was Revenant.

All you who were Revenant, as I was, hearken to me. I say now inside that quietest place, which feels ancient and endless, even as it feels so terribly fleeting. It’s like a breath inside my very soul as I call to the returned Revenants now—whispering to those tiny lights, through the darkness.

I feel them stop. I feel them listen, as those little lights inside my mind halt.

There is a beauty in the universe, which is light. I say as I bare my truest heart to them, speaking from my agony and rawness right now, but also my brightest Light as it shines through to Lucca and Ariana via our restored connections. That light is Love — not false love for a person, a place, a status, or a thing, as many strive for, but an all-encompassing, all-expansive True Love, that permeates the darkness.

I feel the returned Revenants listening to me. They hear what I have to say, as I contact them from my soul’s deepest heart, and through my mind also now.

That True Love created us, I continue, not planning anything but speaking from my deepest heart, which knows the right words. That Love lives inside all of us, be we Fae, Vampire, or Dark Fae. And it was that Love, that returned all of us from darkness. And has brightened inside us now… chasing the evil of our blackest nightmares away.

I pause, and feel some of those lights pause with me. A few of them move now, as if coming towards me, though they are still so far away.

I was once a lost Revenant, like you. I know the sting of that endless Night, that lives inside me still. But because I delved so deeply into my darkest Night, I now know the feel of True Light. The True Love that made the universe—and makes it still, if our hearts are pure, and our minds are clear, and our true souls know the way.

More of those lights drift towards me. My heart beats hard in my chest, feeling them.

Not so very far away now.

I am ready for a change. I put both hands to my heart now as I feel it beat, so alive and strong in my chest. Black wings of living gold and red fire, and blazing rainbow-dark light unfurl from my spine, indomitable as I continue. I am ready for things to be different in Vampire, Fae, and Dark Fae society. I am ready for peace, rather than war, between us all. I am ready for the True Love to unify the Light of day and the darkest Night. So we can find our Origin again. And be happy, at last.

They come towards me. I wait in the blue-lit darkness, blazing as they come.

Fight with me. Join me, to battle the darkness that would keep us all separate and alone. I say, coming to my point at last as all those lights move towards me now. For you and I both know how it feels to be lost in the darkness, separate and alone—and it is knowledge of this very feeling that drives us towards the Light of True Love now, because we finally have perspective on the Night. We are not one, but both, melded together in impossible harmonies of creation that surpass this separation that divides us. Come to me, fight with me—and help me unite the Light and the Night… for good.

They come. All of them are hurrying towards me now, as I feel a few minds able to reach me through my copious wards at last. Because each and every Vampire Revenant we returned at the Bloodstone event was a powerful Master—far more ancient and mighty than myself, or even many modern Vampires on the Council.

I feel Florian’s Master’s Kiss upon them burn off now as the hope I give brightens inside them. I can’t hear Florian inside me anymore—but it’s as if I can hear him screaming, raving as those powerful, ancient Master Vampires he Kissed to him with the Council’s help when he overtook this place are now headed back to me.

Far more lights are coming towards me now than the returned Revenants who remained at the Red Letter Hotel Florence; I realize now that my speech has recalled not just those seven to me, but the entire thirty Revenants who had been returned by my trio’s Music, who are now scattered all around the world.

I don’t need to Kiss these Vampires, I understand, as tirades of multi-hued black smoke come hurtling towards me through every painting and vault in my warded halls now. These wards are as nothing to them, ancient in their power as they materialize before me.

At last, the smoke stops coming. Thirty Master Vampires surround me now, watching me as I sit naked on the floor streaked in shit and blood, heaving hard breaths. As they watch me with clever, darkly aware eyes, I know I don’t need to bind these ancient Vampires to my service—indeed, I don’t want to. What I need to do is inspire them, as I gaze around every pair of eyes and see I’ve tempted them with what they crave most.

Hope.

The Pict woman steps forward now, stepping so quietly to my side I only hear my own breath. Her dark eyes are dire as she takes me in, extending a finger to touch the bleeding manacle-tracks on my wrists. With a single touch, she heals them.

Then licks her finger clear of my blood—savoring it, as she closes her dark eyes.

“He speaks the truth, from his heart,” she says, as she turns to regard the once-Revenants watching us. “He means every word of what he said to us just now. He does not need our submission, not like other Masters would ask of us, to secure our ancient might. Only our alliance… to throw down the Gold Eyes of our nightmares and set us all free, at last.”

My eyebrows rise as she says this. I hadn’t even mentioned the Gold Eyes anywhere in my speech; but as I see sober nods and deep affirmation in every Vampire around me now, I understand why they’ve come.

These Vampires care nothing for the trials of lesser mortals; they were gods among our kind, way back when divisions among our power were less and the might they wielded was far more. No, these ancient Vampires will help me in my modern, far more mortal aims, because they care about only one thing.

Finding the Gold Eyes—and annihilating him, at last.

I see in their eyes how much he tortured them, all of them, during their endless Revenant Night. Not only that, but he was the instrument of their annihilation. I see it in so many eyes now as I feel their minds whisper all around me—hating the Gold Eyes to their very fundament, and everything he represents.

They respect me, that I’m going up against him. They honor me, for trying to find a way to break free of his control and endless torment. Because myself and my trio have already broken them from part of that terrible equation, just as we broke me free, as well. Now, they want to go the rest of the way.

And know I’m the dark horse they need to bet on to achieve it.

Just then, a terrible sound rings through the Hotel’s halls and back passages. My own alarm system from long ago, Florian uses it again now, to inform me of his terrors as his disembodied voice penetrates even my safest place.

“Quindici DaPonti. I feel your bonds to me have been sundered; my blood-oath between us is broken, and now you will pay my price,” Florian says as he goads me, though his voice is rasping and terrible, as if he was damaged by that terrible wave of Light that blazed from me earlier.

“Because you have broken free of me, my manacles no longer upon you, it is your Vampires who will suffer my punishment,” Florian continues, rasping and terrible as he addresses me. “No more games, Quinn; I have already taken a hundred into my control, and will break them posthaste. More will come; your Dark Haven will be as nothing by the time you move to retake it. And I will laugh all the way to your true grave as you die from seeing how terribly they have been tortured and maimed before their own true death. Be warned, Quinn; take your freedom, if you can enjoy it. Because I am coming for you. And only true death will be your solace before the next dawn.”

As Florian’s terrible voice dies from the halls, silence envelops us. But then a tall, frighteningly gaunt Master Vampire with burning red eyes steps forward from the rest of the returned Revenants.

Addressing me.

“Tell us where to go and what to do, to save your people,” he roars softly like an ancient wind of hell as his insane red eyes stare me down. “Only honor what you came here to achieve—kill the Gold Eyes. And set us all free from our endless torment.”

“That, I will do. I swear it.” I press both hands to my heart in the solemnest oath I’ve ever taken. My spilled blood on the ground creates a kind of blood-oath for me now, as a wind of magic stirs all around us, ancient.

But because I’m a Dark Fae, that blood-oath does strange things. Strange, tremendous things now, as I feel all these ancient Master Vampires around me acknowledge it.

Ready to do as I tell them.

And fight with us—all the way.