27. Love

27

LOVE

O ur Dark Fae group, plus Arturos, scheme late into the night about how we’re going to best the Vampire Council of Rome tomorrow evening. What we’ve come up with is a good plan; even I know, however, that it’s nearly impossible to pull off as I glance at Quinn and see the pensiveness in his dark onyx eyes. They still flow with Fae fire, brighter than the flames of the massive fireplace Arturos has lit in his villa’s main room downstairs to push back the chill of the late summer night. At last, Quinn sighs, and I feel exhaustion in him as Lucca’s and my sighs echo it.

“Friends. I must retire. Fatigue like I have not known in centuries takes me, and I must sleep for the oncoming day, to save what strength I have for tomorrow night.” Quinn rises from the tall armchair where he was holding court. Still dressed in his quilted maroon men’s dressing-gown, he looks like a Victorian gentleman as he finally heads to bed.

I second it, beat to my bones.

I rise with him from the settee where Lucca and I were cuddling, still in my long green silk robe from earlier. Lucca is in the grey trousers, white shirt, and grey vest he wore down to Rome; as I stand, he rises, as well.

The rest do, too; suddenly we’re all saying our goodnights. It’s brief, our plans set and the details worked out. Soon Quinn, Lucca, and I are heading back upstairs as the others find rooms as well, to rest for the oncoming day. As Lucca and I head into our shared suite, Quinn shuts the door behind us.

Then leans back on it—heaving a hard sigh as he plunks his head back on the door.

Quinn’s eyes are closed as I come to him, and I feel his sorrow as I press close and wrap my arms around him. He embraces me as a sad smile lifts his lips, though he does not open his eyes or kiss me. As Lucca steps to his shoulder, gripping it in support, Quinn heaves a barren laugh. Then something I’ve never felt from him seizes him.

Despair.

“We’re fucked. We’re so, so fucked.” Quinn is laughing now as that barrenness devours him. I feel it like a black hole, swallowing his energy.

Gone to the ancient universe.

“We’re not fucked, Quinn. We still have a chance at winning this,” Lucca says, brave, as he squeezes Quinn’s shoulder, shaking him as if to wake him from the dark place he’s fallen into.

“We don’t,” Quinn is short with Lucca now, though he’s not angry. “All three of us are exhausted by what’s happened in the past few days, Lucca, and every part of our new plan hinges on us finding some way to bolster and balance our energy as a trio. But the facts are this: I can’t take blood from either you or Ariana to bolster my Night. You both are too spent, and she’s lost far too much blood recently to survive another draining. You and Ariana could revel in each other to increase your Light, but that won’t do us any good because she can’t stabilize her Night without mine, and your combined Light would go ballistic before the Council without my power in the mix. Again, you will be too far away when we do our demonstration; though it’s not as far as you would have been, Ariana’s not holding enough of your Light inside her anymore to do our demonstration without you. And we dare not try again to store our magics inside her, because of how hers devoured yours last time. Please tell me you see another way around this… because I just don’t.”

I feel myself falling into despair as Quinn speaks, just like he is. As that empty void devours Quinn’s perpetual can-do attitude, I feel it draw me and Lucca in along with it. A terrible emptiness fills us all, and I feel how it could pull us down to something worse than the Night. I’ve nearly slipped over that edge of hopelessness when a detail about everything we’ve discussed in the past few hours hits me.

And everything inside me suddenly lights.

“Ariana? What went through you just now?” Quinn feels what just sparked inside me and opens his eyes, pausing as he glances down.

“There may be another way to build our trio’s power… before we go before the Council,” I say now as I come up with an idea to replace the plan my magic ruined.

Hope sparks inside Quinn, at last.

“Another way?” He stares hard at me. “Please fill us in, because I’m all ears just now.”

“Revelry.” I say to him, knowing that one word says it all.

And I see something magnificent light in Quinn’s eyes.

“Revelry.” His voice is soft, as my entire idea makes sense to him—and far more. All at once, Quinn’s agile mind is spinning down dozens of plans for the idea I came up with.

All of them potentially effective in replacing the power we’ve lost.

“Ariana, you’re a genius!” Quinn pushes away from the door as he whirls in thought. He squeezes my waist and kisses Lucca’s cheek, moving to a side-bar in our room to get out three crystal glasses and pour us all a stiff measure of whiskey.

Beyond the tall windows of the villa, dawn is rising. It’s still twenty minutes or so away, but the horizon has become lighter, the stars disappearing from the cerulean sky. I feel Quinn’s energy strengthen now as he gazes out those tall windows and sips his whiskey.

Reveling in both .

“A Dark Fae’s power is revelry, in addition to devouring,” Lucca says now. He takes a whiskey and sips it also, standing next to Quinn and gazing out the window with him. “Reveling in the dawn has always made me feel stronger. We know you have that magic now, Quinn, and Ariana does, too. Maybe we can use that to refill your Night.”

“It needs to be something far more than reveling in the beauty of a sunrise, Lucca.” Quinn gives a small chuckle, then smiles for the first time all day.

My energy soars to see it.

“There she is…” Quinn feels what just happened, his dark gaze snapping to me. His onyx eyes burn with his Summer Fae fire as he feels what I’m feeling.

Joy, that one of our trio was happy.

“That’s the key.” Quinn’s voice is quiet as we share the same thought. “Joy. Between us all.”

“It’s not just any revelry that makes us strong.” I come to him, placing my hand in his as I take up a glass of whiskey and we clink in a toast. “It’s seeing and feeling each other so happy that refills us.”

“A Dark Fae revels in life, and is also master over death,” Quinn says, taking the whiskey glass from my fingers before I can taste it. He’s stepped in close, slipping his hands up around me and nuzzling my neck as his heart pounds in his chest. “You are right, Ariana. Always, the nature of our trio’s magic has been a thing of lust and eros, of passion and pleasure rather than a thing of terror or dominance. I was an idiot to think Lucca forcing his magic inside you was the right approach. Now that I know we are all Dark Fae… I know that encouraging our magics to dwell inside each other, and increase from our happiness as a trio, is a better idea. To refill what we have lost, for all of us.”

“Encouraging?” I look up at Quinn, not understanding what he’s getting at, though it sounds like the right approach.

“Fucking.” The tiniest smile haunts Lucca’s lips as he comes to us. As he wraps an arm around me and Quinn, his blue eyes darken with heat. “He means fucking, Ariana. All three of us, right now.”

“A threesome. Right now. To increase our power.” My eyebrows lift as I give a long, slow blink.

“For we are all Dark Fae,” Quinn says, nodding at us. “Fae revel to increase their power. If we were to revel in a thing we have all wanted so very badly, but which has been interrupted, we might increase our power. And our bond—to the point that Lucca allowing you to hold his Light would be a thing of glory rather than pain. It could be done, and perhaps even from a distance.”

I stand amazed as Quinn’s plan sinks in.

Before the deepest, brightest star lights within me.

“I’m in. I am so, so in.” Everything inside me beams with joy. As a sudden sensation like a corona-flare from the sun blazes deep inside me, it reaches Quinn and Lucca through our bond. But as that massive light and heat rolls us, it’s also dark with passion at everything I’m looking forward to. I see it hit Lucca and Quinn like a love-bomb.

Tremendous in its power, as it rocks them where they stand.

“Gods, that sensation…!” Lucca inhales as his grip tightens on me and Quinn. “What did you just do, Ariana? That makes everything feel so… good ?”

“I don’t know.” It’s as if that blaze has softened everything inside me. I feel delicious now as I melt into my men’s arms and they grip close around me.

Heat rising between us all, with the promise of what’s to come.

“Come,” Quinn says, his decadent voice in my ear as I feel his heart pound. “Let us explore this. For I am not showing up before the Council empty-handed tomorrow night. We will do this… until we’ve tried everything we can to make our Summons before them a success.”

I couldn’t agree more, as everything grips deep inside me. Then Quinn kisses my neck and I forget dire things.

To focus on pleasure instead .

As the tremendous bright-dark star of my magic lights within me, Quinn floods what’s left of his deep Vampire eros through our trio. One moment I’m simply eager at the prospect of a threesome with my two bound men; the next, I’m shuddering with desire, heaving hard breaths as Quinn flares his incredible passion through us.

As that dark Vampire eros takes me, I arch with pleasure. He heaves me up with his hands under my butt so my legs lock around his waist, then strides us over to the bed, with Lucca right behind. As Quinn throws me down on the bed, I’m shocked by the bare passion I see raging in his eyes. I raise up to my knees—and Lucca darts in before me now, crawling onto the bed with me.

As Lucca presses into me from the front with need like an animal in his dark blue eyes, I startle backward, only to find Quinn on his knees behind me now. Both men trap me close, pinned between their sexy, hard bodies as we understand what we all want.

And are about to make that dream come true.

As Lucca devours my lips, I revel in his oh-so-soft ones eating at me, needful as his hands grip my waist. Quinn wraps his arms around me from behind now, sliding a hand down to massage between my legs as he kisses the side of my neck, biting gently but not breaking the skin.

As they both touch me, I’m reminded that Lucca and Quinn were lovers in the past—with or without a woman between them. I’m aware now, however, that they may have done this with dozens of women, maybe hundreds, before Quinn was turned into a Vampire.

As Quinn massages his hand over me, rubbing deep through my thin silk robe, I’m reminded of the fact that I’m the newbie—not understanding how sex with two partners works. Quinn finds that place, massaging his fingers over and around my clit, making me flare with fire and shudder against him as I writhe.

Unable to catch my breath now between kisses with Lucca, as my heart hammers.

“I’ve never done this before…” I say as Lucca presses close, his ex quisite hardness pressing against my hip through his breeches as Quinn presses close to my back, hard also through his quilted dressing-gown. I’m melting now with both men’s hands on me, gripping and needful, Quinn rubbing me deep as Lucca grips and massages my waist. Lucca reaches around to haul me closer to him by my ass now as he eats his kisses into the other side of my neck, matching Quinn step for step in this dance.

“We’ll be careful with you.” Lucca’s breath is at my ear, as he bites and kisses deep into the hollow of my shoulder now.

Working his way down.

“It’s like a dance, Ariana.” Quinn’s voice is at my ear also as he nuzzles my earlobe, then sucks it. “Lucca and I will lead this dance, but if anything is ever too much for you, or too much to even think about, simply use your safe word you told me before, stone . We shall stop immediately and give you all the time you need to talk, or regroup, or halt altogether.”

“We need to do this, though. To bolster all our magics and store Lucca’s Light inside me.” I protest, though everything feels too good now, my body like a willow branch between them as they press and move, rubbing themselves upon me.

And making me aching and wet, needing them.

“Safety first,” Quinn says now, even as he runs his lips down my neck from my ear, biting at my inner shoulder in a mirror to Lucca that makes me writhe. “Physical, psychological, and emotional safety are more important than power. My old Master taught me that… because she never cared about anyone’s safety. And we all lived in fear of her.”

Quinn says no more about his terrible past under Emiliana DiClario; molding to my back, he shuts that part of his mind up tight so I don’t accidentally discover any of his old memories, like I have a few times now with my magic.

As he floods another wave of eros through me, Quinn is a pillar of intent now, trapping me with his body and pressing me deeply to Lucca. I feel their need, then—Lucca so firm and hot as he presses against my groin and belly, Quinn hot-cool and hard like marble as he presses against my rear through my thin silk.

I can’t wait to find out what they both feel like inside me; at once, a flood of deliciously heady scenes comes to me, of how many ways two men and a woman can couple. It rolls me with delight as I reach up a hand, trapping Quinn to me. I’m not sure if the memories are Lucca’s or Quinn’s as they flood me, making me pant as everything inside me blazes.

A throbbing pounds between my thighs. I reach up, trapping Lucca to me now, as well; he growls as he moves his kisses back to my lips, devouring me.

As memories flood all of us of how it can be.

“I want that…” I say as hands undress me now, pulling my thin silk aside and undoing my sash. Quinn and Lucca strip also as we kiss, moving together in a more instant rhythm. As Quinn sheds his dressing-gown, his body hot-cool and silken like marble behind me, Lucca strips away his Fae-silk shirt and vest, ripping open his trousers and shucking them fast as he bares his glorious body before me.

As they press close again, both men slide their hands up my thighs under my draping robe, slipping their fingers down my shoulders and arms to shuck it off me as they grip my waist and thighs, and my ass.

And rubbing between my legs—as we’re all naked together.

“You want what?” Quinn’s voice drips with eager darkness as he takes the reins now, never one to let a deliciously dominant scenario out of his grip.

“Tell us, Ariana,” Lucca says with an all-male smile as he tosses my silk robe away beside the bed. That smile lights everything inside him with a scalding-bright, yet deliciously dark, pleasure as he teases me about what’s coming.

I love it, and can’t get enough as I’m left bared between them.

“All of it!” I gasp now as we’re left naked together in the massive bed. Lucca is jutting up hard and full before me, his cock massive; behind me, Quinn presses his rock-hard length against my ass, sliding its cool velvet against me.

I reach down now. I can’t help myself; I have to take hold of Lucca’s enormous cock and grip his scalding heat in my hand. Diamond-bright glory blazes in his eyes as I grip him; I pull him slowly as I rub my thumb over his tip, already wet with anticipation.

Lucca thrusts in my hand, forcing himself closer to me as his scalding body presses hard against my front. Quinn is diabolically cold-hot as he holds my hips with his strong hands, forcing me forward upon Lucca as he rubs against my rear, silken and decadent.

As if they share the same thought then, Quinn and Lucca reach down, Lucca liberating himself from my hand as they both move their hard lengths in between my thighs. As Lucca’s strong cock and Quinn’s marble-hard length both slide between my wet thighs now, I succumb. Pleasure floods through me as I grip Lucca’s shoulders and arch hard, pushing back on Quinn even as I press forward to take Lucca. Quinn wrangles me by the hair now, holding me prisoner in that deep, excellent rush.

As he makes me wait for it with the most beautiful, diabolical anticipation.

“Not yet,” Quinn says, growling at my ear as he grazes me with his fangs now, making my pulse spike. “You’re not ready for us to do that yet, Ariana…”

“But you will be.” Lucca moves down now, kissing my bare chest and the tops of my breasts as something dark moves inside him.

As Lucca’s position changes, Quinn wraps his arms around me, moving his silky lips up and down the side of my neck and scraping me decadently with his fangs as he promises other things. Quinn still slides between my thighs from behind, but I lose contact with Lucca in front as he changes position.

I mewl in distress to lose both men seeking me at the same time. Lucca makes up for it, though, wrapping a firm arm around my waist and sliding two fingers over me in a circle—then pushing up deep as he thrusts a wave of his diamond-light power inside me at the same time. It’s an echo of what he did to me in his Livingtree; I blaze with glory as he works his fingers inside me now, licking at my breast with his agile tongue.

As Lucca’s power and fingers fuck me, I buck and revel, loving it. He sucks at my breast now, licking around my nipple and sucking at it hard, pulling and scraping it with his teeth. His fingers work me in a deep, instant rhythm as he licks and whirls his tongue, pulling and sucking at my nipple to match the rhythm of his fingers.

Our tempo heats as he takes me harder with his mouth and fingers; then gripping me around the waist, he holds me still as he fucks me, making me a prisoner to his delicious pleasure. Quinn holds me captive with his iron strength, one hand locked to my hip as he wrangles me by my hair, my body trapped against his. I can’t escape Lucca’s pleasure as that heat inside me burns brighter, like a dark star now. It rises deep within; I clench and gasp as Lucca’s fingers fuck me fast, faster to his biting, sucking delight.

As he sucks hard now, pulling my nipple and breast as far into his mouth as he can get, he thrusts his fingers up inside me with true power. I buck and clench, and Quinn yanks hard on my hair, forcing me to arch back as he opens his mouth wide on my neck, letting his fangs press on my skin. Captured, taken, almost pierced by my two men, I feel that deep heat rise fast, flooding me.

I come to the bright-dark pleasure my men give me.

With a roar, I spasm between them, and haul Lucca’s fingers up deep into my core.

“And that’s just the beginning…”

Quinn breathes with dark promise at my neck as he slides his lips and the tips of his fangs along my skin. Gasping, I nod as his fingers come unwound from my hair, giving me respite and letting me collapse between them. Both men hold me now, sharing warmth and breath, heaving together as we rest a moment in my afterglow. I feel how that cresting of my power flows through Quinn and Lucca both now—bolstering our magic as we revel in the joy we just created between us as a true trio.

But there’s so much more we can do, so much more power to generate, as Lucca’s fingers slide in and out of me in a gentle rhythm now, tracing lazy circles around my opening before delving back in.

It makes me shudder as Quinn grips me.

Then heaves me up, turning me towards himself.

“My turn,” Quinn says, as he mesmerizes me with his beautiful black eyes.

And I know we’re all going to go so much higher, with our dark Master in charge now.