28. Heal

28

HEAL

W e stand breathless as we hear Quinn’s speech in the night. The fighting at my parent’s house only just ended with that fantastic blaze of light from the Music; Lucca’s and my connection to Quinn has been blasted open as the entire Dark Haven feels Quinn again, too.

Despite being riddled with nasty cuts and curses, Devi has tears in her eyes from Quinn’s passionate, heartfelt speech ringing through us. Curio heaves an incredible laugh as we feel all the returned Revenants pledge to Quinn; hope fills us, not just because we won our own battle tonight, but also because Quinn has now done what he set out to do with his insanely brilliant plan.

He’s gained us allies inside the Hotel at last, as a cheer fills the night. It’s still a far cry from winning the showdown at the Red Letter Hotel Florence that we know is coming now; but it’s an incredible feeling to share so much joy as Dark Fae slap each other on the backs and embrace.

Curio and Devi smash into each other for a heady kiss as Lucca rakes me in close. Lucca and I kiss also, and it’s a towering joy that blazes inside us as we share in so much love, celebrating all around .

Just like we so recently blazed with the Music—and that Ascendant Sigil, borne of our truest hearts—we sear with triumph as we finally get a win, blessing all our hearts as we come together.

There is much to be done now, however, as Luliana and Arturos quickly make the rounds with my parents, assessing physical and magical injuries and sorting out who needs immediate attention versus those who can wait. It’s battlefield trauma medicine, as the Sirens quickly get to work on those who are in the most critical condition, so they can be moved to the house. My mother shakes her head at a few who are too far gone.

Letting them breathe their last with friends around them, as we heal those who can make it.

I’ve never been in a battle like this before; shock settles into me now as the thrill of our success is replaced by the heartbreak of seeing how many didn’t survive. A full third of the Vampire-Giants have been killed, finding their true death; their towering bodies lay like enormous heaps of meat around the property now, as their brethren start a solemn chant for their dead in the night.

At least three dozen of Quinn’s Dark Fae have been killed, as well, though far more bodies of the Council’s Vampires litter the night. It’s a grisly scene, riddled with blood and curses burned right into the ground, the trees, even the house, though that plus a line of scorched cypress trees protected the rest of the yard and my mother’s herb fields.

But everything at the front of the house has been lost; vines are shriveled in their pots, wrought-iron hangs blistered and askew from being hammered by magic. More than a few trees have burned up at the edge of the forest from the battle that was so hot and fast with both Vampire and Fae magic.

The gravel drive is an abattoir; my father moves around now, lighting flickering Fae-fires in his hands and setting them to our enemy dead, charring them to ashes. Several Dark Fae in better shape join him.

Small fires burning our enemies to ash, all through the night.

“Ariana? Would you like to come inside and clean up?” Lucca asks me, even as he rubs his shoulder, which I can see was badly singed by some cursed drive of magic that hit him during the fight. I’m unscathed, but I have blood all over my clothing—though whether it’s our enemies or our friends’ blood, I do not know. Alleno has a limp from a badly ripped-up leg as he comes to us, supported by Lucca’s owl, Altenni. Her tawny feathers bloodstained and her beak covered in gore, she gives a happy chirrup as she nuzzles Lucca.

Getting streaks of blood in his bright golden hair, and chunkier things.

“I want to help the injured, and the dead,” I say firmly, my own comfort able to wait until everyone is taken care of. “But I’ve never healed with my magic. How is it done?” I ask, looking at Lucca, then Alleno.

“Raising your Fae fire to burn the dead is easier. Here, I’ll show you,” Alleno says now as he wraps a piece of torn cloth around his leg, staunching it from bleeding too much as he demonstrates. As he spirals deep within, I feel him concentrate his Light deep inside his core and his hands. As he focuses all that Light like a prism inside his body, I feel that energy spark into flame within him.

And fire blossoms from his hands.

I try it, but find the process isn’t so easy for me. Because I’m still relatively new at using my power for specific aims, the prism-focusing trick doesn’t work for me, even though I give it my best. Lucca rubs my shoulders as Alleno smiles wryly at me.

“Looks like it’s not your thing,” Alleno says as he nods for Lucca and me to head inside. “Go get cleaned up. You both have a lot to talk about… and a lot to plan with Quinn, now that he’s been returned to us.”

“Us?” I ask, because even though Alleno is Dark Fae, he’s not bonded to Quinn via the Dark Haven’s Kiss.

“I’m just as bonded to Lucca and you all as anyone Kissed to Quinn.” Alleno chuckles as he lifts an eyebrow at me. “Or did you think a Darkwatch protector’s oaths to their charge are just petty things? ”

“I’m sure they’re not.” I smile at him, glad Alleno is with us to the end.

“We’ll take care of things here.” Devi comes up to us now, giving me a little shove to head inside, though she’s covered in blood and gore from top to bottom, countless small wounds upon her as she nods at me. “You fought well, little Dark Fae. Impressive, considering you’ve never been in a real battle before. Now: go rest. Quinn needs you at your best when we invade the Dark Haven of Florence tomorrow. The hour is already late… and all are tired.”

It’s Devi’s pushy Italianate ways that get me to give in. Though I want to stay and help, she and Alleno are right; I don’t have the skills to aid with the post-battle cleanup or healing, and just hanging around here all night is only going to make me more tired.

A deep fatigue falls over me now as Lucca escorts me inside. As if I had no idea how much energy I was expending during that battle, or perhaps did with that last blast of Music and the Ascendant Sigil it wrote in the night, I feel like I could drop into a bed or a bath now; I don’t care which.

As Lucca helps me up the stairs, I feel like my feet are lead. My body is a dead weight as he helps me into the central bedroom of our guest suite now.

I collapse into a chair—shaking my head as I heave a hard breath.

“Does battle always feel this way?” I glance at him, and see him pour us two stiff whiskeys from the small side bar in the guest suite, rather than wines.

“Always.” Coming to me, Lucca hands me my drink. We clink in a silent toast that all were saved this day.

Or most—as we down our glasses, drinking for both the living and the dead.

“Once the adrenaline fades and the searing heat of battle leaves you, and your magic is exhausted, you feel just awful.” Lucca chuckles now as he rakes a hand through his hair, finds it’s still slicked with gore from his owl’s greeting, and wrinkles his nose at it. “I can remember times I was left shaking like a leaf in a gale after battles in my youth. Falling asleep in my soup—though I had a nice feather bed to return to, and most didn’t even have that.”

“You and Quinn were in a lot of battles back then,” I observe. I think about Quinn and Lucca’s early-life history now, and how involved they were in the War of Rome, along with my parents.

“We were.” Lucca is sober as he pours again and we sip our drinks more responsibly. The whiskey warms my body, giving a bit of life to my limbs that feel like lead.

“Quinn and I fought in many battles against the Vampires, for the War of Rome lasted a long while.” Lucca eyes me. “Your mother was an excellent First Spear and battle-general, though, and your father was a maelstrom of magic when he headed up the Darkwatch in nearly every fight as their Tempest. We were in excellent hands. Seeing them in action again tonight made me remember how truly formidable they are. And feel hope, that we have Fae such as them on our side.”

“Not to mention Quinn’s Dark Fae, those Vampire-Giants Gunter Spielmann sent… and now thirty returned Revenants, all of whom are older than sin.” I shake my head, amazed. I don’t feel a lot from Quinn at the moment, only get the impression he’s somewhere safe, taking time to recuperate just like we are after all the revelations and battles today.

“Formidable assets, all.” Lucca’s bright blue gaze is faraway now, as he thinks about how we might use those assets in the coming weeks and days. It’s almost like Quinn, and I smile to see him adopt some of Quinn’s personality through our bond. I know for certain Quinn has developed more of Lucca’s blazing, beautiful heart recently.

As I feel balanced between them now—no more war in my heart.

“So what now?” I ask Lucca, as we take a quiet moment to regroup.

“Now, we rest.” Lucca gives me a pointed look as he drains his whiskey. “We need to clean up, eat, and get some sleep, Ariana. Quinn is finally in a safe place. He’s got the returned Revenants on his side now inside the Hotel, and we’ve just fought off the Vampire Council’s horde, so they’re going to take a moment to regroup. We need to do the same. One can’t fight any more battles if one hasn’t rested. So we will rest now. And face battle tomorrow, or the next day… or however long we take to complete our plan to invade, now that the first part has been accomplished.”

“You sound just like Quinn.” I chuckle, smiling at him. “It feels good to have you both on the same side. Not tearing me apart with your contention anymore.”

“I’m sorry we did that. Truly.” Lucca takes my hand, though it leaves us both bloodied. “I now know the value of working with all Quinn’s plots and plans, rather than against him. And I love him. And lovers shouldn’t fight like that.”

“But they still do.” I smile wryly, knowing that our trio’s problems haven’t been solved, not by a long shot, though we’ve made good strides in the past weeks.

Working together and loving each other—at last.

I feel Quinn open up to us then, from where he rests far away. Clean, finally, I feel him laying in a bed of black silk, softly lit musical instruments of many centuries glowing all around him. He’s listening to music; Beethoven, as he reaches out to sip a wine now and again. I feel Quinn’s dark inner fire rise to the beauty of his surroundings, to the clean softness of the silk sheets he’s laying in, to the passion of the music, and the perfect, complex flavor of the wine. He takes a bite of chocolate, and I feel an aphrodisiac cordial explode all through him. Quinn sighs, and I’m suddenly on fire with lust at that sigh.

Feeling my dark Master revel and enjoy life again—and relax.

“Quinn’s recuperating.” Lucca chuckles, as he gets everything I’m getting through our connection. “We should do the same. A bite of food first so we don’t pass out in the shower, then it’s the bathroom for us.”

“I couldn’t agree more.” I stand, albeit shakily, as Lucca lends me his arm.

We make our way to the table, and I eat from the leftovers still there from our dinner earlier. I haven’t felt this ravenous in my life; I don’t even pause to chew as I stuff my face and swallow, again and again. Lucca laughs as he does the same, both of us reveling in the joy of eating, and being alive.

Once we’ve had our fill, we head for the bath. It’s a shower first, because both of us are covered in gore. Our clothing needs to be burned, so we step into the glass-walled shower clothed, then strip everything away to lie sodden on the floor as we get naked.

Rivulets of blood and gorier things wash away from us as the hot water soothes our muscles and souls. As Lucca scrubs his hair and body thoroughly, then heaves a deep sigh, rinsing all the soap away under the shower’s stream, I echo it. He trades me and I soap up like crazy, including all my hair as I revel in my mother’s sweet almond, honey, and lavender soap. It leaves me squeaky clean yet magically moisturized as I shake out my limbs, getting the last of my battle-fever out.

Then Lucca and I step from the shower and head to the tub.

We don’t make it. Even as we leave the shower’s flow, the look in Lucca’s eyes makes me stop in my tracks. Because his gaze is so hot, so scorching after what we just survived, that it makes everything tingle and clench inside me.

I’m just jumping him then, right here in the bathroom like an animal. We fall to the bathroom rug in all our naked glory, and Lucca pins me down on my back, his blue eyes blistering.

After the heat of battle, we don’t wait for foreplay; hauling my leg up over his naked hip, Lucca finds me—him hot and hard and me deliciously wet—and thrusts, deep into me.

Lucca is hard and full, and I gasp as he takes me. Setting our foreheads together and kissing as we both cry out, he starts a strong, deep rhythm inside me. I rock to him, gripping and arching as my fatigue is banished.

We rut on the large bathroom rug, finding a deep rhythm now as Lucca fucks me. He’s always taken his time before; but this is hot and hard, needful as we both revel in being alive right after such a formidable battle. I never knew sex could be so good; Lucca does, though, as a renegade heat blazes in his eyes and he takes me like a wild thing now.

Hard, deep—and fast.

Lucca thuds into me now as our wet bodies thwack together on the rug. Steam billows around us in the bathroom from our shower; our Fae auras blaze, making that steam rush and ripple with a thousand colors of magic, as Lucca’s bright and my dark rainbows come together in an intense, prismatic glory. Our wings shoot from our spines as we both gasp and fuck hard, and try to hold on so we don’t come just yet. As we do, I feel Quinn sear into our connection.

Fucking with us, even though he’s so very far away.

Quinn works himself as Lucca and I fuck each other. As we all gasp now, pouring our emotions and sensations through the bond, I feel how Quinn’s Dark Haven gets some of it as well.

But I don’t care, as this hard fucking with one of my mates here and the other one joining us from far away fills me. It’s everything I need right now as bodies heave and thunder, magic roars and singes, and emotions careen and blaze.

As we all spiral up towards climax together, the Music bursts out between us. Creating impossible harmonies, it writes a single Ascendant Sigil all through our hearts and bodies now as it blazes between us. I understand that sigil, with both my physical eyes here in our world and my mind’s eye in the otherworld . It says surrender .

And I do, as Quinn, Lucca, and I pour our entire beings into our incredible life-saving fucking.

We revel in each other as we come, surrendering to this incredible fucking , and it regenerates us. Though we were spent, that vast Music and the Sigil it creates sears new life through us all now as we come hard, roaring with passion and surrendering to each other and the love we create.

That Sigil blazes through the night, banishing exhaustion as we are regenerated in love. As Lucca collapses atop me, I run my hands over his back, soothing him.

He’s sobbing, and I feel Quinn hitch hard breaths also as tears drip from his full, dark lashes. I’m crying also, letting it all flow not just for the pain and sorrow of everything we’ve gone through, but also the joy. I’m crying for the raw bliss of us all simply being together in this moment.

Alive and still bonded to each other, despite everything.

It’s enough. As Lucca’s sobs turn to laughs, an incredible, bright aura blazes from him. I join him in laughter as a similar aura sears from me; Quinn is with us, roaring out his laughter as he slaps the bed where he is, the brightest aura I’ve ever seen scalding off of him.

Because even though we go to battle tomorrow to get the Red Letter Hotel Florence back, and all of Quinn’s Vampires, it somehow feels like we’ve already won. The cards are stacked against us with the Vampire Council and all the resources they can give Florian; but that seems like a small thing, now that this tremendous spirit has possessed us.

As we all laugh, so very healed by what just happened between us, I feel Curio, then Devi and Arturos laugh through our Dark Haven’s bond. This beautiful recovery energy has spread to everyone.

As Dark Fae laugh, and revel, and heal, all through the night.