13. Alive

13

ALIVE

A t the front door of Lucca’s Livingtree, Quinn holds out a hand to the flowering vines, making them part with his magic to let him out. I feel him hurry into the evening glade, and think he might summon a carriage to return to the Hotel—but am surprised to feel him draw hard upon the full might of his Dark Haven suddenly.

As the fingers of one hand lengthen into massive Vampire-talons, Quinn rips a portal through space, then heaves it closed behind him. I feel him arrive back at the Hotel, though it’s distant as he materializes in his private rooms. He’s dashing out of his suite, blocking me off now from our connection to hide Lucca’s and my whereabouts as he deals with whatever emergency has taken the Hotel.

And Lucca and I are left behind in Valorhome—alone.

Quinn’s magic flashes out to the barest thread inside both Lucca and me now. Lucca breathes a hard sigh, cradling me in his arms where he still stands behind me, then kisses my hair. “And then there were two. Again.”

“He’ll be back,” I say. Worry surges through me, though, about why Devi sent such a desperate summons to Quinn, and what’s going on. I turn in Lucca’s arms, winding my hands up around his neck as he gazes down at me, his blue eyes still glowing with passion, though they’re darker now that Quinn’s gone.

“I know he’ll be back.” Lucca gives a deep chuckle, though it’s both wry and amused as he strokes a lock of my wild red hair back. “Quinn is a secretive creature, but just like he knows my tells, I know his. He wasn’t lying when he said he’s committed to this right now. It gives me ease… to know he feels the same way you and I do.”

“You know how I feel, do you?” I lift an eyebrow now, though it’s accompanied by a smile as Lucca pulls me in close with his strong hands. Memory of our sex a few days ago at the waterfall grotto is pouring through me as he winds me in tight and we both heat.

Deliciously.

“I do,” he says, then nuzzles my nose, renegade and sexy. “I feel it pouring through me via our bond.”

“And what exactly am I feeling?” I challenge him, getting sexy back now that Lucca and I are alone together. He notices it; his powerful hands knead my waist through my thin, silky gown as heat careens between us. I nearly forgot I’m still wearing the gossamer silk cherry-blossom gown I had on for the Revenant demonstration; Lucca reminds me of it now as he grinds his tall, hard body against me.

Making me feel how firm he is through his fine trousers and my thin gown.

He still has on his white and sky-blue doublet from the palace; now that I’m close, I see how elegant the embroidered vine-pattern is, the quilted silk of his jacket decadent, the high collar framing his sculpted face and chiseled jaw. As I stare up at him, mesmerized by his handsome cheekbones and level ash-blond brows, his blue eyes beaming, Lucca’s lips quirk. He raises an eyebrow at me and grinds himself closer.

A reminder of everything we’ve shared—that we could have more of now, even though Quinn’s gone.

“You’re feeling me, Ariana,” Lucca says as he gazes down at me with a bright blaze in his eyes, though dark passion is in them as well. “And I’m feeling you. It’s not just Quinn I desire in this trio building between us. You are the power that brings us together—you are the missing piece that makes this game work. I would be a fool to not tell you how that makes me feel. I love you, Ariana Summers. You don’t have to say it back, but my love has been building since the moment we met. When you were in my Livingtree before your trial, it was all I could do to not kiss you, nor do something idiotic like watch you while you slept. You should know I was up all that night, pacing. Only part of it was because I was worried about how your trial might go. The rest was because I already loved you, and was trying to justify it to myself…. When really, it needed no justification at all.”

“I feel the same,” I say as Lucca caresses my red hair back from my face. Though the energy rushing between us says it all, I inhale and voice what I’m feeling. “I didn’t know I loved you at first; I couldn’t justify feeling this way about anyone I had just met. It seemed bizarre; just a product of us being caught in an intense situation with that Revenant Gold Eyes and your father. But the more I looked at it, the more I realized true love exists. I’ve found it with both you and Quinn. And strangely enough, on the very same day.”

“You gave Quinn an ultimatum.” Lucca chuckles as something bright-dark and entirely sexy flashes through his blue eyes. “That he never makes you choose between him or me.”

“It was the truth. Still is.” I say with a smile.

“And here we are… forming the strangest threesome I could have imagined. Vampire, Fae, and Dark Fae,” Lucca says with a beautiful whimsy now, though it’s grounded in sensuality as he strokes my curls back again. “Who would have thought?”

“Plenty of people, apparently.” I feel darker now as my mind churns through all the problems we face with not just bigotry on both sides, but all the difficulties with Lucca’s father, not to mention the Vampire Council.

Lucca is all sex now as he corrals me close, though. He moves in and whispers his full, soft lips over mine, bringing me back to the moment. I fall into him, supported by his tall, firm body, as he whispers his fingertips over my bare shoulder-blades and spine above my gown.

Another reminder of our time together recently, encouraging me to take time again today.

It’s erotic, and heady as his bright rainbows cascade through me. As Lucca kisses my lips, reveling in touch and sensation, his power pours through me—encouraging me to revel in him as well. My power brightens tenfold to feel and taste him, every sensation heightened. Deep inside, a powerful flame catches fire, just like it did in the waterfall grotto.

I gasp—feeling my Summer Fae magic come alive.

I pull back from Lucca, rubbing my chest as I try to figure out what I’m feeling with my power. Deep inside, it’s not just like the burn of the sun, but like a mega-star ignited; like the cosmos’ hottest fire was just lit inside me, though it’s faraway still from us only kissing. Lucca gazes down at me with a subtle knowing, a beautiful smile on his face as I glance up. I see he understands what I’m feeling as that tiny supernova scorches me.

And I revel in his bright, loving gaze.

“This sensation inside me, like at the glade—” I begin.

“It’s your Royal Summer Fae magic, bound between us now. It blazes like a star going supernova deep inside you,” Lucca says with deep awareness as he strokes my collarbones. His other hand curls around my back, his fingertips stroking there, too. “Mine feels like that, when I love deeply or when I let myself go wild and rage. Like the brightest, most deadly star in the universe. About to explode from my power, when I let my strongest passions be felt.”

“It’s hotter when you stare at me like that.” I stare into Lucca’s bright, beautiful eyes, reveling in them. That fire blazes to the things I see in his mind now—Lucca wanting me in the most carnal way as we regard each other.

I blush hard as a wave of energy crests through me then, like the dance of the sun cascading over green fields. It’s blinding like sunlight shining off a river as I stare up into Lucca’s eyes and our bodies dance now with each other in slow movements, like trees or blades of grass flowing in a wind on a hot summer’s day. Erotic, our brightness is intense.

Though there’s still darkness to it—as if the power of passion holds court inside Lucca, rather than just the bright force of love.

“It gets hotter,” Lucca murmurs as he holds me, dancing to that ephemeral Fae movement, “when we indulge it like we did by the waterfalls. Revelry is a Fae thing, Ariana; it’s what makes us different from Vampires. When we revel in the motion of life, in the dance of it, in the power and blaze and fury of it… it makes us strong. There are so many more things I’d like you to experience with our power. If you want to.”

“I want to.” My body heats more at Lucca’s insinuation, that blaze searing now with white-gold heat and my moon-dark silver as I stare up into his eyes, dancing with him in this powerful sensation.

“Then let’s do it.” Lucca gives a deviant smile as he nuzzles my lips. “I might just explode if I get any hotter around you, Ariana Summers. All of this heat ought to go somewhere, don’t you think? Like… between your thighs? As you wrap your beautiful body all around me and fuck me into oblivion?”

I inhale, pleasantly shocked by Lucca’s manly tongue, as he grins at me like a ruffian. He’s been a prince for nearly six hundred years, though, and is probably used to talking like that in the bedroom when he wants to get some.

My thoughts about his entitled past, however, are banished to memories of our power and passion together. As he leans down, he sets his lips on mine, kissing me deeply. His lips are so soft, his kiss so decadent that I fall into him as that white-gold luminousness reaches a screaming point.

It can go so much brighter, I know from experience now as Lucca draws back, the promise of it shining in his eyes. White and blue and so many colors, they shine like the diamond rainbow of his aura as it dazzles the treehouse.

Eager to have our revelry again today .

“Come,” Lucca says as he takes my hand.

As he leads me up the winding silver stairs, I realize he’s not taking me to the guest bedroom. We continue up and further up, circling around the inside of the trunk, passing reading rooms and sitting-areas, guest bedrooms and ornate bathrooms, each more Fae than the last. It leaves me wondering if the tree really is that big, or if the interior has been enchanted somehow to seem bigger than it is. As Lucca gains the pinnacle, ascending through a lattice-woven basket of beautiful vines and flowers, I see we’ve come to the top.

And I gasp in wonder—looking out over the top of the world.

It’s an astounding view as I gaze in a three-sixty all around. At the far top of the trunk, the last slender limbs of silver bark have grown up around an enormous vaulted penthouse space—Lucca’s private bedroom. Ornate silver, blue, and white embroidered drapes hang from the lattice-worked alcoves, beautiful domes and sitting-niches interspersed with tall shelves of books that somehow don’t obstruct the view, only enhance it. Through those immense latticed vaults, I see the forest below, stretching for miles under the hot Florentine evening.

On the horizon, ravines cut the land with rolling hills beyond. Nearby, all is the deep peace of the silver forest, however, as the open lattices permit a late breeze with the sound of birdsong. I turn now, seeing a beautiful silver stone and wood bathing area to one side, a mirror pool cascading in an infinity-edge balcony over the summer forest. Breathless with delight, I don’t miss the massive silver wood bed to one side, its footing and beautiful canopy made of the tree’s sculpted wood.

The rest cascading in silver-blue bedding and drapes I long to fall into.

“Lucca, it’s beautiful! Do you spend a lot of time here?” I say as I gaze around. I still have no clue what Lucca’s rooms in the Palace of Light look like. This is the first actual glimpse I’m getting of how he keeps any kind of personal space.

And it’s beautifully serene—saying so much about him.

“As much as I can.” Lucca guides me inside now, the floor made of ultra-soft flowering vines rather than wood. It’s like walking on rose petals as I cross with Lucca to the bathing area with its infinity-edge overlook. Soft and decadent, the silver-white flowers blossoming from those vines aren’t crushed by my weight. I can’t wait to take off my high-heeled slippers and walk upon it. As if reading my mind, Lucca bends with a knowing look.

Going down on one knee and setting my hand on his strong shoulder—taking off my shoe.

I feel like the strangest version of Cinderella as Lucca slides his beautiful touch over my ankle. As he gently lifts my foot to slide off my shoe, my breath catches, my heart racing as I steady myself on his shoulder. Lucca’s broad back is delicious beneath his doublet as he deftly removes my slipper and his strong fingers stroke my ankle. He’s definitely done this before as he looks slyly up.

And strokes his fingertips slowly up the back of my bare calf.

The sensation is decadent as he continues his sexy, purposeful glide up behind my knee, massaging. His blue eyes are cunning as he watches me, sliding his fingers higher up the back of my thigh in a similar but oh-so-different replay of what we did at the grotto.

His arm is all the way up under my skirt now and I gasp, rocking as he grips the back of my thigh. It’s way up high, so close he grazes me; thin Fae skirts are no match for Lucca’s ardor as he pulls me to him. I stumble and brace against him as he grips the back of my upper thigh hard. His other hand slides up to lift my skirts.

So he can kiss right between my thighs.

He kneads and kisses me now, as he works in deeper between my thighs. I’m already parting for him as he slides his other hand up beneath my gossamer Fae underwear, massaging my ass. Still off-balance, I’m supported on Lucca’s amazing shoulders as he kneads me. He holds me by the backs of my thighs, pulling me close.

And eases his lips over me through my underwear.

“What do you want, Ariana?” He says, his lips stroking me with only the thin gossamer fabric between. My hands are in his hair, combing through its ash-blond decadence as he holds me up from falling. “Do you want me to taste you?”

“Yes! Gods, yes.” I rock with heady passion as Lucca kneads the backs of my thighs. His smile is wicked as he nuzzles in against me, inhaling my scent. He reaches out with his tongue now, licking deliciously over me with the thin silk still in between, making me gasp and shudder with delight.

I revel in the sensation as he breathes over me again, licking along the edge of my underwear and holding me in his firm grip. He has me by the ass now, massaging me and letting me know how strong he is. Like Quinn, Lucca has a preternatural strength. Still smiling wickedly, he teases his tongue beneath my thin underwear now, licking once over me.

As I cry out—my passion and magic skyrocketing.

Lucca wraps an arm around my waist now, crushing me close as he noses my underwear aside. He delves in, supporting me with his strength as I shudder and buck to his licking. His insistence is like an animal, that I succumb to him; I do, coming apart in his arms as he takes me and curls over me with his tongue again and again.

But his tongue isn’t enough, even with his adeptness. With an animal growl, he thrusts two fingers in now like he did at the waterfalls, holding me up with his hand splayed at my low back and his arm around my ass. I shudder and buck from his pleasure, fighting to get away from it, but I can’t. I place my hands on his shoulders, crying out as he pushes me harder, faster, deeper.

Making me come from his overwhelming passion.

With wicked delight, Lucca shoves his fingers into me as hard as he can now as I come, licking over me like a maniac to make me come again. As he does it a third time, just so I fall apart in his arms and scream for him, digging my fingernails into his broad shoulders as my dark rainbows explode around us, he pushes to his feet. In a lithe movement, he scoops me into his arms so he can take me to bed. Before we can get there, however, Quinn abruptly floods our trio’s connection open wide.

To pour a wrathful thought into us both in the oncoming night.

You two must get back here immediately. I see Quinn’s dark onyx gaze flash with fire somewhere beneath the Florence Hotel. We have a matter of dire urgency, and I cannot speak of it via mind-communique. Do not delay. Get back here at once.

I set a hand to my chest, gasping—feeling the Vampire side of my magic return in a rush. As my glow with Lucca flashes out and the last rays of the sun fade from the evening sky, I feel Quinn rush up inside me and Lucca like a thunderstorm. It’s a thunderstorm full of ash and flame, as he opens his connection to both of us wide.

And impresses the emergency of this situation now—genuine danger, rather than just a plot of his that he needs us for tonight.

“Lucca, we need to—” I try to say with urgency now. I’m still gasping and flustered, though, by the furious prelude sex Lucca just unleashed on me.

“I know. Let’s go,” Lucca says. He’s on it, though I can feel how his aura darkens at not just whatever danger Quinn is facing without us, but also because our second lovemaking got so disastrously interrupted.

There’s no delaying tonight, though, as Quinn’s urgency ratchets up to a frenzy inside us now. I’ve never felt Quinn this riled before, except when our lives were in danger from the Summer Fae King, and when the Bloodstone exploded and those Vampire Revenants came pouring out.

This is just as much of an emergency as Lucca keeps me in his arms, striding to a vaulted balcony of the Livingtree like I weigh nothing.

Nothing will stop Lucca from making me finish enjoying what we started, though. He raises his magics in a furiously passionate wind around me and all through me now; as he carries me to the balcony, he resumes making his energy delve into me.

His auric power is like a thick, hard phallus now since his hands are busy carrying me; he takes me over and over in an extended fucking as he strides to a silver-white railing on the wide balcony, overlooking the forest. His face is pure joy as I shudder and buck in his arms, undone and crying out from such tremendous pleasure as my lips breathe hard at his neck.

It’s only as the Livingtree lowers the balcony rail, making it an egress, that I realize we’re not headed down to a carriage but out into the night. As the evening’s gloaming takes the Twilight sky, I see how high up we are. Unable to stop from looking down hundreds of feet to the silver forest below, terror grips me and I freeze.

As Lucca strides right to the edge of the balcony and I eep , he gives an amused smile. He pushes his pleasure inside me again, harder, and his auric fucking rolls me now; taking my fear, his pleasure spreads it out into the world’s most decadent adrenaline rush as he banishes my terror and I shudder near climax again.

Lucca pushes his power into me one last time, thrusting hard and deep. I feel not just any phallus now, but his glorious, hard cock fucking me. I scream out his name at the top of his treehouse as I come for him, unraveling into boneless delight as my orgasm goes on and on.

Only then does Lucca launch up into the air, spreading his massive wings of light to the blue evening sky. I soar with him as we go to save our Master Vampire.

From what may be a fate worse than death.