6. Return

6

RETURN

L ucca and I fall asleep, watched by the red eyes of Quinn’s Revenant. We’re hopeful now, though, knowing for sure Quinn’s still in there; cuddling on our bed just outside the Revenant’s enclosure this morning, Lucca and I kiss for real, as the sun rises over the city. Both of us were up at dawn, with more energy than we’ve had in a week. We have no intentions of seeing Master Ilyov today.

Lucca having already called Curio, to keep his father away.

We’re undisturbed as we go about our breakfast routine now, except for Quinn’s Revenant, watching us. Sometimes his eyes swirl red, and sometimes they flash black as he watches our normalcy; each return of those drowning onyx orbs gives us more strength, as we watch Quinn rediscover himself.

Lucca and I rediscover each other, too; we spend the day lounging and reveling in each other, as we revel in all the good things Quinn loves. We pour wine with breakfast; we kiss and touch on a chaise near the enclosure as we feed each other fruit and drink. We have coffee at noon, and even have Curio bring an old-time gramophone of the kind Quinn collects at the Red Letter Hotel Florence, so we can listen to music .

We dance to Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington, then spice things up with Harry Connick Jr. and 80s Michael Jackson. Lucca puts on Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis, Quinn’s favorite piece of classical music, and we cry as our hearts are swept up by that beautiful, intense work of art.

Diving into a tray of chocolates that are from the Red Letter Hotel Florence, we sit on the floor right by Quinn’s enclosure as we eat. The aphrodisiacs hit as we seize each other and kiss, sobbing our hearts out.

It’s a good sobbing, though; cleansing. Quinn’s dark eyes peer out from his Revenant, his roiling black energy swirling lower with each bit of normalcy he sees from us as we notice the heartbeat inside him strengthen, along with his breath.

By mid afternoon, Lucca and I cuddle up on a chaise beside Quinn’s enclosure in silk lounging robes. We nap, holding each other as Quinn watches us. I wake sometime later that evening, still held in Lucca’s arms.

To see a man of swirling night sitting right by us—watching us from inside the enclosure.

I startle at first, thinking it’s the Gold Eyes. Then I realize it’s Quinn, as I see his dark eyes regard me. Those black irises penetrate me, but they’re distant, still mostly lost in his Revenant state as his body still swirls with dark winds. He’s a long way from being Quinn, as those eyes regard me with no more love nor passion than a snake. But it’s a good start, as he begins to remember who he once was.

And all the things he used to love.

“Quinn. Hi,” I say, though I know he’s not quite home inside that swirling man-shape yet. The Revenant regards me, cocking its head like I just did something interesting as Lucca wakes.

He gives a long inhalation; it ends sharply as he notices Quinn sitting a few feet away, near our chaise. Lucca freezes, breathing softly like he’s afraid he might scare it. I stroke his hand draped over my waist.

“Talk to him. Tell him you’re here,” I encourage, so he’ll continue our normalcy from the day.

Lucca nods, but he pauses then. Through our bond, I feel he doesn’t quite know what to say. Because it still isn’t Quinn as it sits there, watching us. But the eyes aren’t insanely red anymore, and that’s something, as Lucca summons his voice.

“Quinn. I’ve missed you.” We both watch the creature. Its dark eyes shift to Lucca; I’m not sure if it understood his words, but there seems to be some recognition in its eyes now.

As Quinn watches his light Fae beloved—so long estranged.

“I hated you for years, you know,” Lucca says now as the creature regards him. As Lucca speaks, his heartbeat rises faster as the creature holds his gaze. But Quinn’s heartbeat has risen, also; I see it, swirling in concentric circles at his chest now, where his actual heart would be had he been human.

“It’s working. Keep going,” I say. I lay on the chaise and Lucca lays behind me, both of us watching Quinn in the deepening twilight.

“I hated you, and I missed you.” Lucca’s breath sighs on my neck now, his hand gripping my waist. “Yet through it all, through all the centuries of you being a Vampire, I still loved you. It wasn’t just you pining for me all those years. I was pining for you, too. Filling my empty heart with dalliances, hoping someday one of them might stick.”

As Quinn’s Revenant watches us, its presence seems to intensify. Its gaze fixed on Lucca, I see a real glimmer of recognition in those dark eyes.

As it waits for Lucca’s confession to come tumbling out.

“You were everything to me, Valerio.” Lucca’s voice is soft now as he strokes my waist, as if touching me right now gives him confidence. “You were my night, my stars, and my moon. You were my brother in arms, my comrade, and my warrior in bed. You were the one I was supposed to follow, that I had to be so careful not to fall in love with. Yet I could not. I loved you from the moment I first laid eyes on you, my Prince. So blazing, like a tempest inside a firestorm. You were darkly unholy in your wrath even as a Fae, though you always held the most beautiful Light.”

Something inside Quinn stirs. I see it then as the creature seems to inhale, personality coming to its eyes at last. It shifts its posture. Moving down to lounge along the floor, propped up by one elbow, it assumes a pose very much like Quinn.

Lucca and I catch our breath, watching it in the night.

It does nothing else. Like a marble statue of swirling black mist, it moves no more. And yet, even something about that ancient, marble-like stillness is so Quinn that it makes my heart grip. Lucca feels it. He kisses my neck, his soft lips whispering over my skin. The creature surges up with attention as Lucca kisses me there.

Coming right to us and standing before the enclosure’s barrier in the night.

“Quinn!” Lucca almost sits up, but I trap his hand to my waist to restrain him.

“No. Just keep going,” I say, certain to my bones what’s happening. “He wants to see us. He wants to watch us be intimate. He wants to remember how it feels to be with us…”

As Lucca nods, I feel his lips whisper over my neck again. He kisses me for real now, working his way up my skin as we recline on the chaise. I see Quinn’s eyes watch those kisses. As Lucca gets to a certain spot, kneading my waist with his hand, his lips press my jugular.

Quinn’s Revenant comes to full attention. Something inside him is riveted at the thought of blood; as Lucca kisses me there again, slower, Quinn’s lips fall open. Swirling black magic gives way now as two fangs pierce down.

Blinding white in that mouth of darkness.

It stands there, watching us with fangs showing as we continue. As Lucca kisses me again over my jugular, Quinn’s Revenant shudders. I feel Lucca shift visage now. Both Vampires and Fae can grow fangs; a Fae’s fangs are smaller and more bestial rather than a Vampire’s, but the two Lineages are distant cousins, and both have them.

The tips of Lucca’s Fae fangs press my neck now; everything inside me shivers as I clench deep inside. I’m hot and eager now, aroused and breathing hard as I lay there, trapped to Lucca’s almost-bite. Quinn’s Revenant gives a dark, needful shudder in response. As Lucca holds me there, one moment from being pierced by his bite and drawing blood, he slips a hand down.

Gathering my robe up—and sliding his hand in.

I breathe hard as Lucca holds me trapped by his near-bite, and rubs me with his hand. I watch as Quinn’s eyes sear into us; following Lucca’s hand, his look is ravenous as Lucca slips the thin silk aside now so Quinn can see what we’re doing.

Sliding his hand down, Lucca pulls my leg back over his hip so Quinn has an excellent view of me in the night. As Lucca massages me, I’m wet, throbbing below now as I breathe hard.

My heart thunders like a trapped thing as my frantic pulse beats in my neck. Lucca slips his hand down, finding my wet opening, then eases two fingers up inside me. I know what he’s doing. He’s taking me like Quinn would; slow, dominant, in control of every motion.

Holding me captive in the best possible way.

I writhe now as Lucca takes me with his fingers. I buck and mewl as he holds me there, nearly pierced by his Fae-fangs as he rubs me with his fingers, then dives deep inside again.

He plunges into me, finding a good rhythm before doing it all over again. Lucca’s practiced; he’s a master of this art. I see it flare Quinn like wildfire now as starbursts of red and gold fire ignite throughout his swirling darkness.

Catching flame, those fires flare all along his man-shape as he watches us in the night. As they do, I feel a fire blaze throughout the connection we share, dormant since Quinn was turned Revenant, but not lost.

It fills me with joy as I feel the real Quinn finally with us, feeling everything we’re doing with our graphic display upon the couch. As all that incredible joy surges up through me, I’m cresting now. I arch, crying out. As Lucca dives his fingers deep inside me, working that spot so I come harder, longer, I scream.

As everything inside me grips with bliss.

All my limbs shudder as I come; I’m boneless as I orgasm so hard to Lucca’s decadent, deviant touch and Quinn’s dark fire racing all through me. Since Lucca’s Fae-fangs are still at my neck, I get grazed by their icepick-sharp delight. Lucca doesn’t drink me, not like Quinn would, but he licks his lips now, tasting my blood like an animal.

Two slow drops slide down my neck; I watch Quinn’s dark Revenant shudder all through its entire being at my orgasm and my blood that was spilled just now. Suddenly, a man is spilling out from all that dark, writhing smoke.

Naked as he falls to the floor—and the dark smoke rolls back.

Joy spikes inside me, and I feel it in Lucca as well, as we see the real Quinn spill to the floor from his Revenant state. But he’s not back all the way; dark smoke still boils around him, seething over his flesh-and-bone body like it wants to retake it. Not only that, but Quinn’s translucent somehow, deep inside. Something about him hasn’t solidified yet; I trap Lucca to me with a hand behind his neck, keeping him from rising as my heart thunders from that orgasm and also from seeing Quinn.

Because my deepest truth-reading instinct tells me we can’t go to Quinn yet. He has to find his own way back from this darkness.

And remember why he’s still so very bright.

“More,” I breathe. Lucca gets what I’m feeling and nods behind me.

“I want to fuck you, Ariana.” Lucca’s lips whisper over my bite and Quinn’s gaze snaps to it in his prone state. His eyes are his now, onyx and red-gold as fire blazes through his irises in the night.

“Do it.” I hold him to me as we watch Quinn lay motionless on the floor, black smoke crawling all over him with his body still insubstantial, deep inside. Quinn’s in there, fighting to get all the way back. I see his dark eyes burn with fire now, imploring me to help him.

And give him something worth coming back for .

“Fuck me, Lucca,” I say now, as I promise Quinn through our bond we’ll do it. “Make it hard and make it last. Let him see us; let him feel you deep inside me. Let him remember all the things he could do with us. Bring him back—for good, this time.”

Lucca nods, then locks his mouth over my bite. He moves his robe aside fast, hauling my hips back now and thrusting his fingers up inside me again, but he doesn’t drink. He just licks his tongue over my bite, giving me pain and pleasure all at once and making me gasp as he hauls my hips back. Pressing against my opening, his strong cock is demanding now, ready.

As he takes me—thrusting hard inside me as he sucks from my bite.

Lucca roughs my clit with his fingertips as he fucks me, doing it completely exposed now, so it’s a grand visual for Quinn. As Lucca works me, and fucks me hard without any princely grace in it now, he lifts my leg up high. He changes our position so he can fuck me deeper, ravenous.

Equally ravenous, Quinn watches, fire flaming in his eyes as his body begins to shiver and shake from the power of what we’re doing. It’s like he’s shaking himself awake as Lucca grips me hard now, angling me up atop him and lifting my leg so Quinn has the best view possible of Lucca’s strong cock thrusting in and out of me.

I see Quinn begin to shudder awake as he jerks now, writhing on the floor as Lucca pounds into me. As Lucca holds me one breath back from coming, I cry out in orgasmic frustration, and Quinn cries out, too. The sound he makes is inhuman, still haunted with that nails-down-a-blackboard Revenant shriek.

But I hear a human voice beneath it—and that’s all I need to fuck Lucca harder.

Quinn’s body is solidifying as Lucca and I fuck like wild animals now, me pushing back in fast waves against him as he thrusts viciously up into me. Deep within, Quinn’s heart beats hard in time with mine, and Lucca’s. Our trio is still joined in our magics and flesh, despite everything Quinn’s been through in his Revenant state.

As Quinn jerks and spasms on the floor, rolling around and gripping his chest now like he’s in pain, I feel it. Our connection races back all the way, as Lucca fucks me so hard we both have to keep an iron grip now to hold ourselves back from orgasm until we awaken Quinn completely.

I feel it as pain devours Quinn deep inside; I cry out as it devours me, too, and Lucca. Because being locked inside his Revenant state has been agony, both mentally and physically, for Quinn.

Lucca almost loses his rhythm as that terrible pain swamps us, but I thrust my hips back, taking him furiously now and making sure we don’t stop. Because I feel Quinn feeding from our energy, our love, and the power of our joining. I feel everything he is, reveling and feeding through our connection as we finally blaze with our trio’s true magic in the night.

As Lucca grips his hands into my hips, fucking me as hard and deep as he can get, I’m undone. Lucca’s power, and my pleasure, and Quinn’s agony roar through me as my body shudders and jerks just like Quinn’s.

It’s Lucca’s turn now to keep this thing going; with a roar, he does, powering through the tremendous magic that’s taking us. Because the Music careens between us now, seething like a live thing all through us as Lucca and I give our everything to get Quinn back.

Power screams through me; pain and ecstasy like I’ve never known become joined as Lucca and I fuck, and Quinn’s connection to us roars back open from our sex.

I focus on that connection now; as the Music screams all around us, I harness my intention like a lance to make the brightest light I can imagine. Flaring it like a beacon, I hurl it into Quinn.

And ask him with all my heart and soul to come back.

As Lucca and I come, Quinn floods down through that connection, back to us. With a roar that shakes the foundations of the Moon Dome, Quinn’s body solidifies on the icy floor as Lucca and I hit our peak. As we orgasm, tremendous wings of dark magic blaze from Quinn’s spine. Lucca and I blaze with our Fae wings, too, screaming with one of the most powerful orgasms I’ve ever experienced .

Quinn’s sea of darkness rolls back, as Lucca and I blaze with Light. Quinn does also now; his wings heave with pure fire roaring all through them, his Summer Fae light returned in a rush as Lucca’s and mine also peak.

But Quinn’s terrible roar arches him like a bow now upon the icy floor, in an agony and ecstasy all at once. As that sound devours the otherworld , I see the Music form a tremendous sigil, shining through from that ephemeral world to ours.

It’s entirely void of the Gold Eyes’ taint. This sigil is only ours as it shines so furious and bright now, scalding through the otherworld into our own.

I don’t know what that sigil means, but a feeling of completion fills me then. As the barrier around Quinn’s enclosure snaps out, as if knowing what it contains is no longer a threat, Lucca and I collapse from the might of our mutual orgasm and the incredible magic we worked just now.

Quinn’s massive wings of fire and darkness snap out. He thuds to the floor like a marionette with its strings cut.

But Lucca and I are there—cuddling and kissing him as we welcome him back.

We can’t walk from everything we just did, but we’ve crawled to Quinn as quickly as our shaking limbs could carry us. Cuddling around him, we surround him with our warmth as Quinn shakes and shivers, entirely himself now upon the floor of ice.

His body is scalding, even as it is horribly cold, like he’s in the grips of a deadly fever from everything that just happened. Quinn’s eyes are shut, and he draws deep, ragged breaths as Lucca and I hold him, his heart pounding like a mad thing.

But he’s not mad anymore, as we kiss him, drawing him close between us as Lucca drags a large silk blanket down from a chaise nearby. As we bundle up together, still kissing him, I feel our hearts fill with resolve that we’ll never let him go again.

As I glance at Lucca, we share a sudden thought through our wide- open bond. We won’t touch the Music again—not if it means losing Quinn a second time.

Lucca and I silently nod to each other.

And then we’re back with Quinn.

Bundling us all up off the smooth, icy floor with the blanket, so we can lie together and cuddle longer.