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29. Invade

29

INVADE

S unrise has come, and we’re in position to take back the Red Letter Hotel Florence. Dressed in dark charcoal Fae gear from a hidden stash of Lucca’s here on the human side of Florence, Lucca and I are now stationed in an ancient catacomb beneath the city.

Far beneath the Palazzo Medici Riccardi in the human world, the vaulted catacomb is clean enough, though it’s technically a sewer; it’s pretty much only a storm drain now, from how the ancient city of Florence has changed and remodeled over the years.

As Lucca and I wait with Alleno and Curio, however, I know this is the precise location we need to be in to burst through into the Florence Hotel once we cross Realms.

Which is up to me now, as I focus to get this show on the road.

Over twenty of Quinn’s Dark Fae wait with us, another twenty in a different location, waiting with Arturos, Devi, and Bello Bellissimo. A third group is with my parents and Luliana Ouros, waiting in a triangulate spot to the first two. Gunter’s Vampire-Giants are already in the Twilight Realm, courtesy of Luliana, set to assail the Hotel from the front as a diversion. My father has given them charms to allow them to borrow Quinn’s daywalking ability for the duration of our invasion, to not burn up as they assail the Hotel in broad daylight.

But all our groups below-ground form a massive triangle around the Florence Hotel, with Quinn and his returned Revenants at the epicenter.

Waiting to burst from his hiding place, the moment we all cross Realms.

The tricky part, however, is getting all three groups to cross Realms simultaneously, so we maintain the element of surprise once we enter the Florence Hotel. Arturos and Luliana can make spontaneous portals across Realms with their incredible power, portals that are stable with no sigils or charms to link them to; that’s why they’re the leaders of their particular groups.

My parents aren’t bonded to the Summer Fae military and Darkwatch anymore, and can’t make stable portals without extensive Faeanic sigil-work, and Lucca has always had strong charms before to help him make portals with his magic.

I’ve made a spontaneous portal across Realms with my Dark Fae gift, however, before I even knew I had magic. That makes me the leader of my group, and I focus now, concentrating on the feel of the Twilight Realm on the opposite side of an invisible quantum barrier that keeps our worlds separate.

I feel for the hum of that energy now, as Arturos instructed me before we set out today. As I go into a deep trance now, I feel a lot of things as I sense all the energies around me.

I feel the beating hearts of Lucca and my Dark Fae companions; I feel their breath, curling and moving through the dim space of the underground sewer, as they wait for me to do my thing. Everyone is counting on me to do this today; I banish that thought now, since it only makes me feel stressed and further from my goal, rather than closer.

As I feel out deeper, I finally sense the auric realms where magic happens. At a finer vibration than the coarser tuning of the human world, those ephemeral wefts and weaves move with different currents than the human energies I was raised in.

I feel them shift and sing now, diving and swooping with incredible harmonies that just don’t exist in a world devoid of magic. Arturos warned me there are many Realms one can traverse, and to avoid any with darker vibrations, since they’re the Realms of Demons and other infernal creatures we Twilight folk rarely mess with.

I feel those darker, more vicious Realms now as I search for a realm of magic from my current position in the human world. The sensation of the Twilight Realm is uplifting, though, just like its name—given because of its beautiful margin of light around the twilight night sky.

I feel it then, as I think about it; as I see that beautiful nimbus of light give way to the dawn in the Twilight Realm, I know I’ve got a lock on its vibration at last. As I fix on the correct Realm, our destination blazes bright in my mind’s eye, like I’m already there.

The massive Gothic hall where the Bloodstone event happened—where all this mess started in the first place.

“I’m there,” I say quietly to Lucca and Curio, not moving or opening my eyes so I can maintain my trance.

“Now open your magic, like Arturos said.” Lucca’s voice is just as soft as he stands near me, watching me but not touching me, lest he interrupt my trance. “Send it to that place, across Realms.”

“Hold on,” I say, as I ready both myself and my group for anything.

As I open my magic at last, I feel it pour through that ephemeral barrier between worlds like pouring liquid through a sieve. The image of the black and white hall with its towering black marble vaults and checkerboard floor is bright in my mind; I feel little resistance as my power passes into it now, opening the portal between worlds.

But there’s something wrong with our destination. Too late, I see it, even as my Dark Fae magic ripples open the spontaneous portal, depositing us right into the middle of the vaulted underground hall .

Massive wards on the white and black floor—that flare with magic the moment we arrive.

Too late, I understand the hall was booby-trapped from anyone trying to cross into it—either by crossing Realms or simply bursting into the hall via the doors. As Florian’s guards and an entire cadre of black-clad Societas Sanguinis Vampires from the Council flood into the hall now, rushing to us in a hurricane of violet-black magic, a fight is on our hands.

We form a tight ball, everyone lengthening silver Faeanic spears festooned with sigils for battle, again courtesy of Lucca and his intense stash of equipment in the human realm for his own revolution. As we clash now with the Council’s Vampires and Florian’s guards in the black and white hall, I don’t have time to think anymore. I move on instinct, hurling massive strikes of magic with my auric wings as I write sigils in the air for wreck, ruin, and banishment.

The rest of our Dark Fae resonate with me now through our newly bound magic, as I dance through battle-strikes with my spear, just like my mother and father taught me long ago. We smite our enemies, and they fall away from us now like chaff.

In a few minutes, our enemies guarding this hall are gone. We’ve lost only one person; most of our group just have scratches or a deep wound or two, from the incredible rejuvenation we were all leant last night from Lucca’s, Quinn’s, and my sex.

Magic shared now, between all of us.

Curio spreads his wintery winds through our group now, healing as many of the less formidable wounds as he can with his magic. Working together, Lucca and Alleno join him, using ancient Darkwatch healing abilities as they take care of some of the deeper wounds.

Getting everyone ready to move out—and go find Quinn.

“They’ve got wards on the halls. Probably have them on all the corridors, as well.” Alleno glances around. Nasty crimson and dark violet Vampire Bloodsigns simmer everywhere through the black vaulted hall with its white flowering mosses and pale gargoyle fountains—that we’ll have to cross to get to the outer halls beyond.

“Florian’s taking no chances that supporters of Quinn’s could get in here and take this place back,” Curio says as he sets his jaw, glancing around. “Be prepared to find wards like these everywhere once we go inside the Hotel proper. These aren’t Florian’s make, either; this is Council warding, through and through. The Vampire Council is giving Florian everything he asks for right now. Prepare to meet a lot more of their fighters in the halls, as we take this place back.”

“We’ll be ready.” Lucca’s blue gaze is steely, as Alleno echoes him with a dire nod.

Approaching one of those Vampire Bloodsigns on the floor beyond where our group was fighting, I crouch now, observing it. I don’t touch it, but feel called to it somehow, as I whisper my fingers over it through the air. Like liquid lava churning with darkness, it flares beneath my auric touch. As my Animante Dark Fae energy curls across it, it sears a terrible gold color now.

I pale as my heart drops out from under me—knowing whose handiwork this is.

“The Gold Eyes.” I watch that sigil disappear into nothing after my aura touched it. But even though my power cleared it, I feel a deep drain now, when I just felt so full of energy. Sapped, though not as bad as I might have been had I not been bonded to Quinn’s Dark Haven, I stumble and nearly fall right onto a different sigil as Lucca swoops in, hauling me up with his hands beneath my arms.

“The Gold Eyes?” He lifts an eyebrow at me as he cradles me close, then scowls at the warding all around. “Are you telling me the Gold Eyes was responsible for all this?”

“Somehow, yes.” I shake my head, because I don’t get it, exactly. “I don’t get the sense he was here, personally; I think he influenced whoever did all this sigildry, somehow, causing it to be imbued with his magic. This isn’t Ascendent-level sigil work; he influenced a normal Vampire to do this. Probably someone under his thrall, like Arturos was, to create this trap for us.”

“Another one of his little tests. To see how strong we’ve become.” Lucca snorts as a terrible smile twists his lips. “That bastard. It sapped your magic, Ariana, the moment you touched it. Then dissipating only after its terrible deed was done—making our most formidable Dark Fae weak… just when we need her to be strong.”

“So if we want to sneak into the Hotel’s halls without being discovered, taking our enemy by surprise… we have to pay the Gold Eyes’ price,” Alleno growls now as he gets it, too. “Fucking hells. I had a feeling stealing back in to take this place would not be easy. Now I know why.”

“Unless any of you can discharge this warding,” I say as I glance at them, “then I’ll have to do it. Or we’re going to be flooded with fighting like we were just now, at every corner. Rather than being able to get to Quinn and have a coordinated attack to take back the Hotel.”

As Lucca, Alleno, and Curio glance at each other now, I see they’re game to try. None of the other Dark Fae are strong enough in their magic to approach this kind of cursing; though Lucca steps forward first to try his hand, Curio moves quickly past him, kneeling down to take a look.

“I’ve got the magic with the most Night in it. Let me try.” Curio examines the sigil-work, perusing those scalding Vampire Bloodsigns. But as he whispers his winter winds over one, trying to coax it to dissipate, he gets nothing but zapped—so strong it throws him backwards into Lucca and Alleno, who catch him as they all fall to a hard seat on the floor.

“Well, that didn’t work.” Curio rubs his wrists and chest, breathing hard as if he got shocked by a megawatt of pure electricity.

As Lucca and Alleno move forward now, Alleno pushes Lucca back, shaking his head. “No. You stay, Lucca. You’re an integral part of this, since you’re directly bound to Quinn and Ariana, forming the core of our magical strength. I’ll try next.”

But even as Alleno kneels down to peruse his magic over that nasty red Bloodsign on the floor, he gets little better. Though his zap is absorbed into his magic, he grunts and doubles over like he’s been punched, gasping as he goes white as a sheet. As Alleno stumbles up, Lucca shoves forward now to try. Alleno is too drained to stop him, as Lucca kneels down beside the Bloodsign in question.

It dissipates to his careful perusing—just like it disappeared to mine.

“Guess we know who this trap is for.” Lucca gives a dark growl as he rises, unsteady on his feet now as he wobbles. Though Alleno is still pale, he gets under Lucca’s arm. We all face each other.

Knowing how we have to move forward this day.

“We discharge them in shifts,” I say, as I hold Lucca with a deep look. “First me, then you… as many as we can do in a row and not pass out as we walk. That’ll give the other person a little time to recover. I’m already feeling better than when I touched the first one. But we’re not going to make it if we don’t have time to rest.”

“Wiser words were never spoken.” Lucca gives a dark chuckle as he regards me, then heaves a sigh as he gestures to the next sigil on the floor. It sits right at the exit of the underground hall, between two weeping statues. “Ladies first. But the moment you start to feel woozy and black out, you tell me, Ariana. Don’t be a hero. Heroes only wind up dead.”

“But you’re my hero,” I say lightly now as I step past him, cupping his cheek with my hand and giving him a brief kiss. “And you’re not dead.”

“I will be, if we’re not smart about this gauntlet the Gold Eyes has set up for us to maneuver through today,” Lucca says with warning, though he takes a moment to kiss me, deep. “Be safe.”

“I will be, but only if you are, too.” I give him one last chaste kiss, then move past to the entry foyer.

The doors to the hall are open now, thanks to the guards’ invasion. I don’t know if there were more wards on the doors; thankfully, I don’t have to touch them as I kneel right between two towering black marble columns here.

I whisper my aura over the Bloodsign at the doors now, as I feel myself fight to take our home back. The Music whispers out from me, as I focus on that righteous feeling—not just for myself, but for all of us who call this place home. As if all our power blossoms out straight from my heart now, I feel less drain as I touch that Bloodsign and it evaporates.

As a dark smoke wafts up from where that Vampire sigil once was, I feel the Music still singing inside me. It hasn’t raised to a crescendo, nor made any Ascendant Sigil in the air. But it acted as a barrier somehow, to the Gold Eyes’ ancient magic.

Helping me, as I ended his terrible works.

“Lucca,” I say as I turn, glancing at him.

“I know. I felt it.” Lucca’s eyebrows rise, impressed. “You were thinking about how much it meant to you and to everyone here, to take back your home, an emotion from your truest heart. It called the Music up inside you, bolstered by the Dark Haven’s might. Helping us… against the Gold Eyes’ poisonous intent.”

“Find something like that, that works for you,” I say now, as I slowly rise and get ready to move on to the next sigil as per our agreement, so Lucca can rest as long as he can. “I know the Hotel was never your home, but there’s a reason you’re helping us take it back now. Find that reason and hold it in your heart as you work.”

Lucca nods, as I see him become very sober now, thinking about it. He helps me to the next Bloodsign, just beyond in the outer hall.

That hall is quiet now, since we already killed all the guards stationed in it. As we let Curio and the Dark Fae hold a perimeter ahead of us as much as possible, alert for more guards and Council warriors, Lucca helps me kneel by the next scalding Bloodsign. Holding my truest love for this place in my heart, I deactivate it, then do the next, and the next. I’ve done five when my magic fades. I sway in Lucca’s arms and he catches me.

Helping me down to a seat on the floor.

“My turn,” he breathes, as he kisses my brow, then my lips. Rising, Lucca goes to the next Vampire Bloodsign as the Dark Fae scout a corner nearby for any invasion.

Curio comes back to invigorate me with his fresh, wintery magic, as Lucca kneels before the next Bloodsign. I feel Lucca not know what to focus on in his heart. But it comes to him then, as he thinks, I just want to be with Quinn —and a deep love for Quinn and everything he is comes blazing from Lucca’s truest heart.

Inundated by that magic, the Music rises in him, flowing on the tide of all the Dark Fae now with us who love Quinn also, and Lucca touches the Bloodsign. It dissipates like it did for me, again with far less draining than before.

Lucca rises, shaking out his hands and giving me a wink. We move on, making our way through the long hall. We turn corner after corner as Lucca and I trade off deactivating Bloodsigns with our magic, holding our truest intentions in our hearts.

But then we hit a patch of Florian’s guards and Council Vampires, stationed at the entrance of the underground fencing hall where I once sparred with Quinn.

Battle takes us again.

Draining Lucca and me, and all our allies, further of magic—that we don’t have enough left to give.

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