18. Blood

18

BLOOD

A s Quinn is staked by a Devilswood blade in Arturos’ hedge maze, his energy snuffing out fast, I raise my Dark Fae power. Midnight rainbows pour from me, scalding the night, as I grow small Fae fangs and bite my wrist, pressing it to Quinn’s mouth. I let the blood flow into his mouth as I try to force him to drink. Nothing happens, however, as I feel his life-force flicker like the last candle in the wind, his undying energy nearly gone after being stabbed in the heart by a Vampire-killing blade.

I feel Lucca try to send his magic through our bond, but it’s not enough, drained as he is also, and too far away. But then something deep inside Quinn seizes command; something in him just will not die. With a gasp, he grows fangs in a rush, sinking them into my flesh, deep.

To save himself from true death.

It hurts, bad. Without Quinn’s power to mesmerize away the pain tonight, everything in me screams to pull away as he grinds his fangs down hard into my wrist. He opens his bite marks wide, however, drinking me down now like he’s reviving from hell itself.

And he is, I know as I hold him, letting him drink his fill.

My power roars around me in a tirade of midnight rainbows as it pours into Quinn along with my blood, reviving him. His own power stored inside me goes with it; I can’t stop it as he takes and takes from me. I feel Quinn’s magic rush back to him as he drinks, my energy not having enough command over his to prevent his power from returning home.

It’s both good and bad; though I’m losing Quinn’s balance inside me, Lucca’s light burning me up more with every passing moment, I feel Quinn revive. Swallow by swallow, drop by drop, Quinn’s dark fire surges back even as I feel lightheaded, a bright star blazing inside my chest now from Lucca’s unbalanced light within me.

As the stars swim above me now, Quinn gasps. He drinks more gently now that he’s back from the brink, then stops, pulling his magic out of me. He cradles my wrist to his lips, using just enough energy to pour a thread of mesmerization into me through our bond so it doesn’t hurt.

I know he’s taken enough of my blood, magic, and his own power back from me to make it. He hasn’t drained enough of my power or lifeblood that I’ll expire, but I feel terrible now as I shake and shiver. Cold to my marrow yet burning deep inside, I shake like crazy, feeling fucking awful as Quinn slowly sits up.

And wraps an arm around me—as I feel like I might blaze apart.

“Quinn. Are you alright?” Arturos asks, as Quinn grips the stiletto of wood still embedded in his chest and slowly, deliberately, pulls the Devilswood stake out. Though more blood spills from the puncture wound, I watch it close now before my eyes.

Slowly, Quinn’s flesh knits until there is nothing but an ugly red scar upon his chest through the rip in his couture. That’s where it stops, however, as if he dares not use enough energy from me or himself to heal it completely. He feeds what energy he can back to me now through our bond, so I don’t pass out. I still feel terrible from donating that much blood and magic, though, dizzy and sick as my vision flickers in and out with my fast, thready pulse.

And Lucca’s power burns me deep within .

“I’ll live. Have you got the assassin? I want to question him,” Quinn says to Arturos now, though he does not rise from where he and I sit on the blood-soaked grass. I feel him try to push more of his dark power inside me to balance Lucca’s searing light, but it’s like Lucca’s power outshines Quinn’s now.

And will not let Quinn back in.

“Oh, I got the bastard.” Arturos nods, fury in his midnight blue gaze as his watery aura surges in wrath. His capsule is suddenly forming bonds, seizing around the Vampire assassin’s throat, torso, legs, and arms.

As Arturos draws him near, the man hisses, showing fang. He tries to struggle and use magic to break free, but Arturos’ magnificent power easily sluices his weak drives away. He’s clearly not a very strong Master, if he’s a Master at all. This is someone else’s underling, doing their dirty work for them. Someone from the Council and their allies, no doubt.

Sent to silence Quinn before he can become a problem.

As the man nears, he shuts up, closing his lips and raising his chin, defiant. Only I feel it as something terrible seethes inside Quinn. It’s so dark, even I’m afraid of it as he leaves off trying to refill his power inside me and addresses his near-assassin.

“You. Shadow. Tell me your name and the name of your Master, and you might just live.”

“I’ll tell you nothing,” the man says in defiance, as I understand from Quinn’s line of questioning that he doesn’t recognize this Vampire. “I’ll face my true death anyway, for failing to kill you tonight.”

“If you’re going to die anyway, might as well spill the beans.” Arturos cuts in, and though his words are glib, the dark, terrible tone in his voice is anything but.

“His Master is the golden ruffian of Monaco,” the Wanderer says now, making me startle. I had forgotten she was there in everything that had just happened.

“Florian.” Quinn’s tone is dark as his eyes flicker with a terrible fire now, though it’s far weaker than usual. “Then he did feel how compromised I was tonight. It’ll be all over Rome by sunup. If it isn’t already.”

“The Council is sure to be informed about it.” Arturos nods, his blue eyes so dark in the night they look black from rage. Currents surge around him now from his magic, seething like a maelstrom that swallows ships alive, pulling them down to their doom.

“It cannot be helped.” Quinn nods, though as he sighs, I feel how bone-tired he is. Even though he took some of his energy back from me, it was just enough to heal him from that deadly strike and nothing more.

Lucca’s light sears inside me now, Quinn’s darkness not enough to counter it. I feel what a shitshow we are in for when we have to face the Vampire Council. That time seems like sooner rather than later, based on what just happened. Vampires, it seems, love it when blood is in the water.

And Quinn’s blood is in the water now—along with the entire Dark Haven of Florence.

“Can you sense anything from the Council? Do they know of my predicament?” Quinn glances to the Wanderer now, though I feel how reticent he is to ask anything of her. With ancientness like hers comes unpredictability, I feel from him now through our connection. Though she has been nothing but pleasant tonight, like all Vampires, the Wanderer has a dark side.

And it isn’t pretty when it comes out, as Quinn must have seen before.

“Nothing that might be pertinent to you now.” She shrugs as if she doesn’t really care, watching a midnight flower as it blossoms beneath her fingertips. She strokes the petals, making them blossom under the full moon.

Then she causes them to wither, the dead petals and blossom dropping away from the desiccated stalk to her bare feet.

“The hour is late and I must wander.” She looks at me now, pinning me with her unfathomable, dark gaze. “Be cautious, child, for your lovers are not who they say they are, and the Golden Orbs is not your enemy. Provided you can use his machinations to your own advantage. Rather than his.”

With this cryptic piece of advice, she turns to Quinn next, nodding to him, then pinning Arturos with her formidable gaze. He quails before his Master, his blue eyes flinching as if she just read his very soul.

It seems Arturos’ decisions are his own, however, as she gives him a sad smile, then turns towards the Vampire assassin, still in his watery bonds. She is graceful as she picks up the Devilswood knife from the ground where Quinn discarded it. Extending it to the assassin, she pins him with her gaze.

“Take it. Kill yourself.”

He does. One moment, he’s held fast in Arturos’ bonds; the next, he’s using the entirety of his power to break one arm free, seizing the dagger and plunging it into his heart. His eyes bulge as all breath is driven from him; his undying life flickers out.

Arturos drops him to the ground as his blood stains the ground with Quinn’s.

Horror takes me as I see the Wanderer's capabilities. With one command, she made a Vampire drive a deadly knife right into his heart—a Vampire who wasn’t as strong a Master as Arturos or Quinn, but neither was he an underling to get the drop on Quinn like he did. As the Wanderer flickers out in a sigh of midnight mist, I know why Quinn is reticent to ask anything of her.

And why every other Master treats her with deep respect.

She is gone. We’re still there with the body, though, as light begins to rise on the margin of the sky. Arturos glances up at it, then nods to us. “I’m sure the party is long over. You two should come inside and get cleaned up; get some rest while you can. I’ll have my man Paulo come out here and get the body, then deliver it back to Florian with a warning about trying such stunts on my land.”

“Reasonable. The Council cannot fault you for that.” Quinn nods as he pushes to standing. I help him up, though both of us support each other since we’re still in a terrible state. Lucca feels far away, but his stored energy blazes inside me. I wonder how much he felt of all that happened just now, or if our trio’s psychic connection is too faded with the distance between us.

And Quinn’s and my weakness.

I feel a flicker of affirmation now, though, coming from Lucca far away. He can feel us and is relieved Quinn lives, though his connection is distant. I feel in his concentrated sending how weak he is also, missing most of his usual energy since he stored it inside me. A sudden thought comes from him. I will try to keep tabs on you as much as I can .

And then our connection flickers out, lost.

As dawn truly begins to rise now, Arturos hastens us back through the topiary maze and into the main house. Everyone is gone, only Arturos’ servants doing the last of the party cleanup, though I sense none of them are Vampires and will not fade during the light of day. They can continue their work, but Arturos needs to rest. I feel it, too, as I help Quinn up the grand stairs to the manor’s second level, then down the hall to an opulent guest suite made up for us.

I help Quinn into the grand four-post bed, getting him undressed and his blood sponged off before I strip and do the same. As I tumble into bed beside him, I’m grateful for Arturos’ sheets—a high thread count cotton that’s soft and silky as Quinn and I cuddle naked.

Quinn’s on his back with me tucked close to his side, curling around him like a monkey. His sigh is beyond exhausted as Arturos nods his goodbye and shuts the doors, moving off down the hall. I didn’t even realize I got naked in front of him. I’m that bone-tired.

As everything inside me yearns towards sleep.

Dawn rises, and I close my eyes. It feels like I’ve only been asleep for two minutes, though, when someone’s pounding on the doors. As Quinn groans and stirs, I come awake.

To see Arturos slipping into the room, dressed in a quilted blue men’s robe two centuries out of date .

“Ariana! Rouse Quinn. Quickly!” Arturos says, as he hustles to the closet, pulling out a long green silk robe for me, and a maroon quilted men’s robe for Quinn.

“Why? What’s happening?” My head is full of cotton as I struggle to sit up, Quinn’s arm is like lead where it holds me to him in the sheets. He’s still asleep in his bone-deep exhaustion; I’m little better as I shake him.

Finally getting him to blink awake, though he stares up at the ceiling, vacant.

“Ariana.” Quinn finally comes to, pushing up as he scowls and glances to Arturos. “Arturos. What is it?”

“A Summons for the Council. On the porch. I have wards up to prevent their messengers ever coming inside.”

“I’m up.” Quinn is out of bed like lightning. It’s far slower than his usual emergency response, however, as he slips into the men’s robe Arturos offers.

I’m up also, receiving my green robe from Arturos and drawing it on, though everything inside me burns. It’s fatigue and Lucca’s power, and my muscles protesting from too little blood and oxygen, as I reel from standing up too fast. Quinn shoots a hand out to steady me, but because of his fatigue, Arturos is faster. I nod my thanks as my vision clears.

Arturos releases me, then gestures at the door.

“Now. Hurry.”

As we make our way out the door into the hall, as fast as Quinn can manage, I see steel in his gaze. Though he accepts an arm from Arturos and me to help him down the stairs, he releases Arturos’ arm as he heads towards the front door, setting my hand on his arm instead. It makes it so he escorts me, rather than the other way around. I understand his reasoning; we need to look strong before representatives of the Council, even if we feel like shit. It’s one thing for them to hear a rumor we were weak tonight.

Quite another for them to see it.

Arturos waits for Quinn’s nod, then opens the door with a flourish. He gestures us outside and Quinn goes, me on his arm. Arturos follows as we approach three individuals standing on the porch. Though they were facing the rising sun, its rays not quite reaching us yet from above the topiary hedge beside the manor, the sky is light now.

As I wonder if these three Vampires can daywalk.

Arturos has ducked behind the door frame, lingering in the shadows. It is clear he can’t much tolerate the touch of the sun, though Quinn and I stand boldly in the rising light. Smoke rises from the three Council emissaries now as they turn towards us, however. The same Vampires from before—the lean, grey-haired man, the 1950s brunette, and the bee-woman—they lift their hands in unison again, as if giving some sort of demonic sermon.

And the Council’s voice is pouring from them, as dawn rises and banishes the night.

Master Quindici DaPonti of Florence, we welcome your arrival in Rome, as we bid you. Attend our Council chambers one hour after sunset tonight, and we shall discuss your upcoming challenge—to return a Revenant to their sanity and flesh before us, and prove your worth to attain your Sire’s seat in our esteemed Council. Fail to show tonight, and be damned. That is all.

With that, the sun’s light rises above the topiary hedge. As those rays of sunlight touch the three Vampires standing on the porch, they catch fire. None of them struggle or fight it, though I see despair in all three’s eyes as they lower their hands and close their mouths, finished with the Council’s message. They burn, flesh from bones, falling to ash upon Arturos’ white front porch. Grisly, the scene is beyond horrible as the Council proves what they can do to any Vampire they wish.

Even ones that did their bidding well, but were sent to prove a point to someone else.

As Quinn takes a deep breath in the rising dawn and I shudder, I feel his heart beat. It gives a terrible thud and then another as he watches those three piles of ash blow away to the morning wind. It’s awful, as he escorts me back inside. We close the door on the sun, and Arturos steps back out from where he watched the entire thing in the shadows.

Safe from the deadly sunlight.

“Are you alright, Quinn?” Arturos asks, concerned.

“No.” Slowly, Quinn shakes his head. “The Council knows I’m weak from everything they’ve orchestrated by their previous Summons and also Florian’s failed attempt on my life. They want to speed this whole thing up by starting it tonight, in the hopes I will simply fail and can be quietly gotten rid of.”

“They have another thing coming, though, with your Dark Fae and Summer Fae prince bound to you,” Arturos says, confident now, as if bolstering our courage for what lies ahead.

As Quinn and I glance at each other, though, I feel how that confidence is not inside us. It’s not in Lucca, either, as I feel a wisp of dark worry reach me from our connection, so far away. As if all the cards have been stacked against us, we’re gambling for our lives now as our plan threatens to crumble to ash, just like those three Vampires on the porch.

Because what Arturos doesn’t know is that we don’t have enough of Quinn’s energy inside me now to balance Lucca’s and do our Revenant re-awakening demonstration before the Council. I’m not even sure we have enough of Quinn’s energy to catch a Revenant in the first place, as he glances at me with sober, dark eyes.

More afraid of what we are soon to face than I’ve ever seen him.