24. Return

24

RETURN

Q uinn is a torrent of Night as his maelstrom of power seethes around us in the catacomb. Though Lucca is far away, it’s as if he’s standing with us, burning his furious love through us both in a last attempt to save Quinn from his doom. Quinn’s going Revenant, though, right now before us, as I see his beautiful face flicker out, lost to the madness of that whirling black energy. Flashes of red and gold are in it, as if the last of his old Summer Fae nature fights now to save him.

Quinn shrieks like a Revenant—insane with the power of the Night.

I give my everything in our trio now, with Arturos, to bring him back. Quinn’s power is still inside me and I use it along with Lucca’s, pouring the last shred of sanity and goodness he left within me back into him as he seethes, losing all touch with himself.

It works, but barely. As we wield our magnificent power, the Music of the Spheres harmonizing between us all now in a beautiful cacophony of dark angelic sound, Quinn begins to return. First his eyes appear in the madness of that swirling black maelstrom, then his beautiful, high cheeks. And then he’s solidifying, falling back through the Night of his unhinged power .

Naked as he crashes into my arms.

The Revenant is caught, roaring behind us in its Florentine Box as Quinn is returned to us. We’ve paid the price for these tremendous magics, though, as I shudder from blood loss and power drain, cuddling Quinn close and heaving hard breaths.

He’s heaving, too. I feel his heart pound in his naked chest as he grips me like a man trying to stay afloat from drowning.

And then he sobs.

Quinn shakes with the insane force of his sobs as he releases his emotions into my chest. I hold him, cradling him close and kissing his temple as he clutches me and cries. He roars into my neck now. It’s as if he’s clawing his way into my body, he’s pulled in that close.

Far away, I feel Lucca’s power beam with love for Quinn one last moment, before shutting off entirely. I’m worried about Lucca now, but I have to focus on Quinn. He screams then, sobbing even harder into my chest, gripping me and shuddering like he’s going to shake himself apart.

“I can’t! Emiliana, I can’t!” He is roaring, insanity still running rampant in him.

“Shh… she’s gone, Quinn! She’s dead. She can’t hurt you anymore…” I try to soothe him as tears fall from my eyes, knowing what he’s going through. The Revenant that’s ceased to scream inside its box watches us now with glowing red eyes. It knows what it did, as I somehow feel a diabolical smile lift inside its whirling darkness.

Pleased with its work.

“Emiliana’s gone, Quinn. You killed her. Remember?” Arturos is calm, soothing Quinn also and rubbing a kind palm over Quinn’s muscled back. I feel him pour a calming wave of his oceanic energy into Quinn not only via his touch now but also through our bond.

Arturos somehow part of it, ever since he bit me.

Arturos looks up at me with glowing blue eyes, brighter than they’ve ever been as oceanic tides swirl through them. It’s as if the ancient Siren-dragon he once was has awakened in him since he bonded to our trio via my blood; as I watch, his pupils and irises go vertically slitted, then return to normal, as a sensation of dark water filaments like flowing eels of pleasure curls all around me.

I’m not Arturos’, though, and he’s not mine; as he drags those tendrils away, I see in his eyes how much he wants to be.

I look back to Quinn—feeling him become stable finally as his energy ceases to whirl.

Quinn goes silent in my arms, then. As if his madness and sobbing never happened, he heaves the deepest breath then sits up, pulling out of my arms. For a moment, he just looks at me—as if no one’s home inside his eyes. But then I reach out, setting my palm to his heart.

It beats, thundering beneath my hand as he recognizes me.

“Ariana…!” Quinn’s word is a mere breath as he reaches up, cupping my hand to his heart. He stays that way for a long time; Arturos continues rubbing his back and at last he peers around, registering his longtime friend on his knees beside us.

“Arturos…” A light of understanding fills Quinn’s eyes. He sets his hand to his heart, feeling it beat for a long moment. Then, something inside him brightens like a blazing star. Crimson and gold fire flares around Quinn now, without a trace of darkness. It’s incredible as I see his true Summer Fae fire roar in him.

Like suns going supernova—just like what I felt from Lucca before.

“Lucca…” Quinn says now, as that massive fire of Light surges around us. As I feel an echo of Lucca’s love beam through our faraway bond, something lights in Quinn’s eyes. Where they were just stunned before, they look beautifully determined now as he rubs his chest, then glances at me. “Lucca did this for us. He returned me with your power. He loves me. Still.”

“Still.” I nod, giving him a smile so wide now I feel like it’s going to fly right off my face. Quinn feels my love beam inside him. He smiles the most beautifully sad smile as he pulls me in.

To kiss me like it’s his very last breath .

It goes on for a long while. The Revenant’s caught, the danger’s over—and Quinn and I revel in it now as we come together, kissing without a care for anything else. We’re alive, and we outlasted the strongest Revenant we’ve ever faced, besides fighting Gold Eyes once before we knew what it was. I’m almost entirely sure it was playing us back then, just to make us come together in our power before it left us to get acquainted.

I wonder now, as Quinn and I kiss, whether Gold Eyes had anything to do with this episode tonight and the mad Revenant that all but destroyed us. It’s clear Quinn hadn’t planned on capturing anything quite this strong, as he breaks from our kiss and turns, gazing at the Revenant in its box. Thoughtful, Quinn scowls at it.

It roils slowly in the cage, watching him right back.

“That was quite a lot more than we bargained for.” A bite is in Quinn’s voice now, as his crimson and gold fire settles around us. It hasn’t burned anything, though, as I play my hand through that beautiful magic now, wondering how Quinn can still manifest it. It’s so pure, with none of his darkness in the mix, at least not that I can see. He turns to me, as if feeling my wonder. Then, Quinn admires his magic too, as if this is the first time he’s noticed what it’s doing, stroking a few fingers through that heavenly fire.

Marveling at it, as his dark eyes light.

“My Fae fire…” I feel deep inside how stunned Quinn is by its pure manifestation.

“I’ve never seen it like this, Quinn. What does it mean?” His fire curls around my fingertips with a luminous heat rather than burning, then dissipates.

“I don’t know.” As he frowns, a shimmer of his auric darkness returns, swirling through the fiery colors of his old Light. “Maybe it’s surging like this because of Lucca, and how he poured his love inside us just now during our emergency.”

“Maybe.” I am frowning also now, because something about that doesn’t feel right. With the deepest truth-reading part of my Dark Fae ability, I know it’s something else. But I can’t put my finger on it as Arturos runs a hand through that flickering Fae magic as well.

And hisses as it sizzles him—burning his fingertips from the power of its Light.

“A Fae’s fire does not burn himself or true mates,” Quinn says as Arturos retracts his hand, shaking it and manifesting water at his fingertips to heal himself.

“Forgive me.” Arturos glances at Quinn. “I couldn’t help myself. I know I’m not a true mate to you or Ariana, but I simply… felt compelled to touch it. I don’t know why.”

“It is beautiful.” I play my hand through Quinn’s old power again, entranced by it. “Even if I wasn’t bound to Quinn, I’d want to touch this. It’s like… watching the ancient dance of the cosmos, like suns being born from galaxies of stellar gasses. I love it.”

“Your power is no less impressive, Ariana, with its darkfire rainbows and flashes of silver and gold Light.” Quinn gives a chuckle now as I see some of his regular personality return, though he’s still sober. As he looks back to the Revenant in its cage, I feel something utterly black flash through him. It’s like a temptation to return to wherever he went as a Revenant.

And I know it’s not gone from him, even though we got him back tonight.

I have a feeling that temptation to go Revenant may never be gone from Quinn, as he at last pushes up to standing, albeit with my help. I’m still leaking blood from where Arturos bit me; Quinn lifts an eyebrow at it, holding out a hand to Arturos and receives a vial of the Hotel’s Vampire bite unguent. He dabs it liberally on my wounds with his fingertips, and the bites begin to close.

Quinn’s eyes are serious now, however, as he tucks me under his arm, then gazes around the catacomb.

Then glances at Arturos—fire in his eyes.

“We need to take this thing home and regroup. Then decide what we are going to do before the Council, with our power as vastly weak as it is now, thanks to tonight.”

I understand what Quinn means, feeling both his and Lucca’s powers disastrously low inside me now. I’m not even feeling like I burn anymore from the power Lucca stored inside me, since we used all of our collective might to bring Quinn back from going Revenant. The Music of the Spheres possessed us as we unleashed our trio’s magics. It used all our power up, however, on Quinn—rather than on the Revenant we captured to demonstrate our might before the Council.

I wouldn’t have it any other way, though, as I wrap my arms around Quinn.

Never wanting to let him go.

“Ariana. I need to use our amulet to shrink the box.” Quinn gives a light chuckle, as his soft lips brush my forehead; for the first time, I notice he still has that glowing silver and amethyst Fae-amulet hanging around his neck, though the rest of his clothes and gear evaporated during his Revenant state.

“Right.” I squeeze him one last time, then reluctantly let go. With a solemn but amused chuckle, Quinn kisses my forehead once more, then lifts the amulet in his fingertips and faces the box. As he sets his intention, the amulet flashes bright, and the box shrinks down. As Quinn expected, the Revenant shrinks with it.

Though it gives a series of piercing shrieks as it minimizes with the box, as if irate about it.

Quinn ignores those shrieks, moving over to where the box sits on the stone catacomb floor and picking it up. It fits into the palm of his hand, and he stares at it a moment as I see that dark blankness return to his eyes. But then personality floods them again and he tosses the box up like a softball. He catches it, then gestures with it back the way we came in earlier.

“Let’s go. Because I want a long, hot bath after all this excitement tonight.”

I couldn’t have said it better, as I laugh and sling an arm around him. My heart rejoices as Arturos leads the way and Quinn and I follow, kissing on and off as we make our way back through the night. The bones around us cease to matter, and Quinn joins me in the back of the SUV as Arturos buckles into the driver’s seat.

Vampires on the street raise eyebrows at Quinn’s decidedly undressed state, but say nothing. We drive, and it’s not even midnight as we make it back to Arturos’ manor. Somehow, I would have thought it’d be later, after everything we went through. But then Arturos leaves us at our suite and I can’t wait to get into the bath.

To share it with Quinn all night—or however long before we make our way to bed.

Quinn heaves a sigh as he shuts the doors to our suite. He sets the Florentine Box on a velvet pad on the small breakfast table in our room, staring at it one last time as that haunted look comes over him again. I join him, gazing down at the tiny Revenant now swirling inside its small, miserable cage. Red eyes flash with pure malevolence at us.

And then it’s swirling lower, its black mist becoming still as if it went to sleep.

“It looks so small right now.”

“Don’t let that deceive you.” Quinn is decisive as he snugs me close, kissing my forehead. “For it is one of the strongest Revenants I’ve ever faced, save the day you and I met and we battled the Gold Eyes itself. This one is pure hate, Ariana. I wonder how Arturos did not know that when he received information from his sources and decided we should track it.”

“Maybe he didn’t know.” I lift my eyebrows at Quinn as he turns us from the table, leading us towards the open bathroom doors—and the deep, wide clawfoot bathtub I see enticing me within.

“Arturos can feel how strong Revenants are. Just like I can,” Quinn says as he escorts us to the bath, then leans down and turns the knobs, balancing the hot and cold flows of water. “I assume the informants he used for this matter were the same. The fact remains, however, that none of us could feel how strong this beast was when we entered the catacomb. Usually, a solo Revenant with that kind of strength, or a group of Revenants together, will leave a power imprint in the places they haunt. This one didn’t.”

“You had no idea how strong it was until it was upon us.” I understand, lifting my eyebrows as I begin to strip down, so ready for the bath that awaits us.

Quinn is more ready as he takes up a crystal phial from a mirrored, gilded tray beside the tub and pours in a measure of what smells like lavender and jasmine oil. It’s decadent, the smell that wafts up out of the bath as Quinn gives a pleased nod. He steps in, sinking down into the water with a deep sigh and closing his eyes.

“No. I did not know how strong that beast was until it was upon us. If I had, I never would have chosen it for our hunt. Never in a million years.” He says now, with his eyes closed in the bath.

His stillness in the tub gives me a moment to enjoy watching Quinn’s marble perfection as I undress, then step over the rim of the tub into the bath with him. The bathtub is gargantuan, big enough for us to lie side-by-side; I settle on my hip in the filling water next to Quinn now, not knowing if he needs space.

But his dark eyelashes flicker open as he feels me arrive. A slow smile curls his lips, that haunted look leaving him as he sits up, reaching for me. He pulls me in through the water now, cradling me close to his chest. We kiss as the filling water thunders and the decadent scents of jasmine and lavender waft up with the steam. All at once, the night feels blessed as we luxuriate with each other, in defiance of the danger that went before.

And still surrounds us, with everything we must face in two days with the Council.

“Are you alright?” I ask Quinn now as I pull back, sitting sideways in his lap in the deepening water as he cradles me.

“No.” Quinn is quiet as he brushes a lock of my damp hair back from my face. “I will keep going, though, for you and for Lucca. That is what I can do right now, when everything is so wrong. For the both of you are so right, for me. I will hold to that, like a beacon of light inside me when I am temped to go back to the dark.”

“You are tempted to go back there, aren’t you?” I ask as I put my hand to his heart and feel it spark into steady beats for me. “That utterly dark place I felt in you when you went Revenant, just for a minute. It was… alluring. Wasn’t it?”

“It was.” Quinn nods as he inhales a deep breath. Vampires don’t need to breathe, but Quinn always seems to when he’s with me. He says nothing more, but I can feel a temptation to go back to that dark place like a cancer within him now. Different from what I thought I saw in Arturos earlier, this is like a black void, swallowing Quinn as it tempts him to return to its brink.

I know that sensation. Because that’s what my magic feels like, too, when it’s roaring in its deepest darkness inside me. We don’t talk about it more now, though I know we’ll need to. Now is the time for celebrating as we press close and kiss, though both of us are exhausted to our bones. As Quinn sinks lower on the angled back of the bath, I press up with my hands on his chest, straddling him. Despite how exhausted we both are, he’s hard.

I sink down onto him—needing this as we rock together in the night.

As we move together, gliding in and out in the oil-scented bath, time loses meaning. We’re too tired to be rushed, too tired to reach climax as he holds my hips with his strong hands and I move upon him, rocking and sighing in a slow rhythm. I’ve lost a lot of blood today; my head spins with the heat and the steam and the motion. But Quinn holds me steady as I tense upon him and move, taking him deep inside me and releasing him.

He sighs, and there’s so much more to it as he reaches up, cradling my face with one hand. I trap his hand to my cheek and Quinn hitches a deep breath.

That ends in a sob as he shudders beneath me.

It’s not a shudder of climax, but it is a release, as a deep flare of his old Summer Fae fire spills out around him now, flooding over us both in the bath and spilling out over the rim. It’s warm, but just like before, it doesn’t burn me; I know it’s because I’m his true mate now as I run a hand through it, marveling at the thousands of colors in his power, just like I saw earlier.

Quinn holds me to him, trapping me upon himself with both hands now as he grinds slowly, deeply up into me. As he finally adds power to our heat, as if that flare of old fire healed him, I gasp, feeling him fill me.

So hard and thick, so full, he stretches me now as I arch back and take him. I rock with him, pulling him in; Quinn growls beneath me and gasps. As he reaches orgasm, I do also, both of our powers spilling through us as living fire braids with dark rainbows in the night. There’s light in it also, Lucca’s diamond-light, as it careens over us, then quiets like an ancient sea. As I sink down upon him, Quinn cradles me to his chest, slipping out.

We hold each other; me curling close to his side in the bath as he lies on his back.

The silence is endless as our twin powers ebb and flow through the darkness, braiding with Lucca’s, too.

Somewhere far out in our exhausted night.