7. Caught

7

CAUGHT

A s Lucca and I ride back through Florence’s cobbled streets in the early evening, Fae frolic in the myriad fountains and lounge on wrought-iron balconies dripping with vines. Everyone is enjoying a reprieve as the day’s heat finally wanes; Lucca and I are still hot for each other, though, as we arrive at one of the Hotel’s entrance quadrangles, still sneaking glances and smiling from our earlier endeavor.

We dismount now beside gleaming Maseratis and Porsches of the Hotel’s elite patrons, keeping our steeds well away from the fierce-tempered manticores that pull the Hotel’s carriages. One of Quinn’s Vampire grooms in black takes our reins as we step up inside the Red Letter Hotel Florence’s vaulted porticos.

And the Vampiress Devina Scarlotti instantly greets us.

If Quinn has attitude, Devina has ten times that. Quinn’s Second in the Dark Haven of Florence and his Associate Head at the Hotel, Devina has more irritation than a person could shake a stick at, and all the elegant Italian beauty to go with it.

Throwing up her hands with her long crimson nails, she rolls her eyes as Lucca and I arrive. She hustles forward in her supermodel-chic raspberry silk cocktail dress and spiked black stilettos, flipping her immaculately curled dark brown hair back.

Taking me by the arm as she hauls me into the Hotel.

“There you are! Finally.” Devina huffs as she lifts a sculpted eyebrow at me. “Since when does it take you two hours to get back to the Hotel after Quinn summons you, when your Summer Fae lover can fly?”

“Since we were out for a nice country ride today, Devi, and wanted to finish it.” I quip back, though her correct insinuation that Lucca and I had sex today has me blushing hard now.

The reminder that Lucca and I just had our first lovemaking, however, makes me sneak a glance at him. He’s all smiles as he responds to Devi’s ire with his perfect princely manners. His blue eyes twinkle with a luscious, mischievous light, though, as he deftly liberates my arm from the Vampiress, escorting me himself as he nods us down a set of curved marble stairs into the Hotel’s underground.

Where we can both feel Quinn waiting for us—churning with impatience now.

“So what’s this issue Quinn needs us so urgently for, Devi?” Lucca asks as we come to a long hall of pastoral paintings in a nighttime Italian Renaissance style.

“Quinn will explain.” Brusque, Devi hustles us along the Gothic-Baroque halls of the Hotel with their beautiful details. Massive Italian Renaissance landscape paintings and luscious royal blue drapes dominate the stone walls; all down the vaulted hall, blue-gold torches burn without fuel, giving a strange light to the paintings in their vaulted alcoves.

Turning in to the hall that once contained the Bloodstone of Florence, I’m not surprised to see the Bloodstone has been cleared out after it shattered from the magical feat done by myself, Quinn, and Lucca a week ago.

Despite its current disrepair, the white and black hall is clean, the blasted black marble columns and pitted arches with their white gargoyle fountains surrounded by repair scaffolding. Though none of the myriad fountains spout blood, however, I still smell it in the air. For a moment, that smell raises a dark bloodlust inside me—before my newfound control from both Quinn and Lucca washes it away. I see now that a massive silver cage dominates the center of the hall; a handful of Vampires gather around it, some of Quinn’s best fighters.

Two familiar faces stand with them, the Lady Eiseth Pendragon and Arturos Morregain. I smile at Eiseth and Arturos; the British Mistress’ mist-grey eyes glow to see me as Arturos gives a kind but solemn nod.

As Lady Eiseth and I kiss cheeks, I note she wears no armor today, only a silver-grey velvet gown in Arthurian style, her white hair done up in ornate British Isles braids. Dressed in a casual navy vest and trousers with a white shirt and white silk pocket-square, Arturos welcomes me also with a brief kiss to either cheek.

I feel Lucca bristle now as we face Quinn, however. Our Master Vampire is dressed in a lovely charcoal grey Armani vest and trousers this evening, accented by a crimson pocket square and his gold-onyx rings and Rolex. Quinn didn’t mention that our meeting tonight would have witnesses, which is why Lucca is irate.

Especially not high-level Vampire ones.

“Quinn. Why are these Vampires here?” Lucca says now as he nods to Eiseth and Arturos.

“Lucca. I have invited some of our allies to be present for this evening’s demonstration.” Quinn is quiet, though we’re not out of earshot of the others. Vampires all have excellent hearing, and Quinn gives Lucca an elegantly calm gaze, though I can feel his displeasure at Lucca’s rudeness.

And our extreme tardiness tonight.

Quinn is a dark fire of sexiness to Lucca’s bright blaze, however, even dressed casually as he is tonight for whatever we’re doing. His high cheeks and jaw are chiseled to perfection, his appearance the epitome of tall, dark, and handsome in a gloriously Italian way. His dark eyes fringed with long lashes, Quinn’s straight dark brows are intense as he lifts one at Lucca. A flash of rivalry passes between them, Quinn’s dark Vampire energy flowing around me like a devouring sea.

As if he knows exactly what Lucca and I did today.

And why we’re so late.

“ Our allies?” Lucca bites now as his blue eyes flash, never knowing when to not argue with Quinn. “These Vampires are your allies, Quinn, not mine. Very few people know of our trio just yet: what if they blab about us and it gets back to my father? It could devastate everything I’m trying to accomplish with my Summer Fae right now.”

“That will not happen, Lucca.” Quinn is condescendingly patient, as Devi crosses her arms and scoffs nearby, rolling her eyes. “Lady Eiseth and Arturos aided us the night our power exploded the Bloodstone—they know you were instrumental in creating our trio’s bond that night. Your Royal Summer Fae magic is potent; they can feel your power flowing through both Ariana and myself now. They are not idiots. They have kept our secret since that night, and I am certain will keep it as long as need be. Are you not?”

“I just…” Giving a low growl, Lucca combs a hand through his short ash-blond hair. He sets his hands on his hips, glancing at the Vampires. “Fine. But if I hear even a breath of talk in the Fae rumor-mill, I am coming straight to you.”

“Good thing Vampires don’t need to breathe,” Quinn says with wit now as he gestures back to the group.

It’s Lucca’s turn to roll his eyes, though we rejoin the waiting Vampires. As we do, I admire the contraption dominating the center of the hall. An ornate 1900s cage like something Houdini might have used, it’s massive, as big as one of the Hotel’s manticore carriages or bigger as I study it now. Pure silver bars on three sides are etched in a poisonously glowing red-violet script, blue velvet drapes drawn closed inside. The fourth wall is solid silver, like a vault door, glowing with that same dangerous crimson-violet sigildry and script .

A strange combination, like Vampire Bloodsigns and Faeanic sigils all at once.

Those elegant silver bars glint in the chandelier lights like steel or mercury, the whole thing like a lockbox as it stands so beautifully but solidly intimidating before us. I’m glad of its cage-like austerity as something behind the velvet drapes seethes, hammering against the drapes and shuddering the bars. The bars ring like chimes as the creature crashes into them, testing its prison.

And Quinn nods to his warriors, dressed in black like Catering staff, to open the drapes.

As those Vampires pull on four gilded cords with long tassels at the corners of the cage, the blue velvet is pulled back. We watch as a nasty dark smoke rushes up from the cage’s depths, hammering against the bars. Malevolent red eyes burn from that smoke, my breath catching as I realize Quinn has captured a Vampire Revenant—a kind of ancient, disembodied Vampire spirit. I hope the Revenant isn’t as savvy as Houdini as its gaze fixes upon me.

A gaze burning with hate.

“You’ve captured a Revenant, Quinn! Inside a Corinthian Box,” Lady Eiseth says with amazement now as she reaches out to the bars and the creature inside roils, trying to get to her.

“It is a cage of my modification.” Quinn watches the creature, though I can feel how pleased he is at what he’s accomplished. “I call it a Florentine Box. But yes.”

“Your runes are different from the classic Vampire Bloodsign style used on Revenant-capturing devices. Almost like they come from an old progenitor Fae language,” Eiseth says with curiosity as she glances at Quinn, confirming my suspicions that Quinn used Faeanic sigildry on this contraption as well as Vampire. “How long have you been working on this?”

“Since I had an… encounter with a strong Revenant last summer,” Quinn is evasive now, as if not wanting to mention something yet even to hi s close allies. “I was wary of it, and wanted a way to incarcerate it should we ever meet again. I’ve found a different use for the cage now.”

“Can you return this Revenant to its original nature by your trio’s magics, like you did the night of the Bloodstone event? Intentionally, rather than accidentally?” Arturos asks now as he glances at Quinn. The question is astute; our trio returned a lot of Vampire Revenants back to their human forms during the events of a week ago, though it was entirely by accident.

It’s still unknown if we can do it on purpose. Quinn simmers with intention as he glances at Lucca and me.

And I understand that’s why we’ve been summoned tonight—to find out.

“Moon and stars. Really, Quinn?” Lucca says, setting his hands on his hips and shaking his head. “You couldn’t just leave all that alone?”

“No. I couldn’t.” Quinn is brisk as he faces our group, his darkfire aura surging through the hall. “My friends. We are committed to Vampire equality, but we fight an uphill battle in the wider world. Vampire Revenants ruin our attempts at proving to the world our egalitarian nature. They rampage in the shadows, killing indiscriminately with their last ties to their humanity forgotten. Ancient Vampires who have lost their connection to their physical self and their sanity, they are bestial power with no rational thought left. They will always undo every inch of trust we gain in the Twilight Realm, a problem we have yet to solve. But now, I would offer a demonstration. Of a future that could be… if we are strong enough to accomplish it. Vampire, Fae, and Dark Fae—together.”

As Quinn glances with cunning at the pissed-off creature inside its box, I see the others note it thoughtfully. We’re all thinking what might be possible for Vampire and Fae society if Revenants no longer haunted the night.

Lucca’s incredulousness is the only searing counterpoint; as he gives a soft snort, Quinn gives him a nod, victorious. Because we all know it must have been a massive feat of magic on Quinn’s part to have arrested this creature long enough to get it into its box. As I glance at him, pleasure beams from his dark onyx eyes.

Before Lucca lays into him for real.

“Are you saying you want to catch all the Revenants of the world and return them to their physical selves and sanity, Quinn? That’s basically impossible. There must be tens of thousands of them, all around the globe!”

“Patience, Lucca. We are not there yet,” Quinn says with amiable peace. “It is an intriguing thought, though, no? That perhaps one day Revenants would no longer hunt Fae, Vampire, or anyone else in the dark places of the night?”

“Still, the Summer Fae Prince is right—such a thing would be a massive undertaking,” Arturos says now as he glances at Quinn. “Are you hoping to win favor on the Council by this?”

“Perhaps,” Quinn says, as his dark eyes glow. “Perhaps, however, I think that returned Revenants might join their ancient power to our Dark Havens. Seven of those returned at the Bloodstone event have remained here in Florence and intend to blood-oath to me, though we have not consummated those bonds yet, since they are not ready for such an undertaking. Eiseth, two returned to your own Dark Haven from whence they came of old. And one was a Vampire-Siren… wasn’t she, Arturos?”

“She was,” Arturos says with a quiet frown now, as something dark churns inside his deep, oceanic energy. “Luliana Ouros has taken off around the globe, but she had many things to say about something called the Dark Haven of the Deeps that existed long ago. An ancient Vampire-Siren Dark Haven I did not know about.”

“Ancient secrets and ancient powers which are now available to bolster our Dark Havens, if we cultivate them,” Quinn says with deep cunning.

“Enemies as well.” Lady Eiseth lifts an eyebrow at Quinn. “Your spontaneous feat not only bolstered our Dark Havens, Quinn, but also our enemies’ power. At least ten of those Revenants returned at the Bloodstone event returned to Dark Havens we are not fond of. ”

“True.” Quinn’s gaze is measured now as he glances back to the Revenant in the cage and laces his fingers behind his back, watching it. “We are egalitarian and kind, however, and many of those who went mad long ago became Revenant because they were tortured or experienced trauma. I have spoken with those who have joined my Dark Haven, and they are grateful to blood-oath to a Haven run as well as ours. My thought is that the ratio we have seen will continue—that two-thirds of those liberated from their Revenant state will choose to become part of the egalitarian Dark Havens of our allies. While only one-third will return to places of cruelty and horror run by our enemies.”

“A deep gamble, Quinn.” Arturos frowns as he takes it all in. “We still don’t know how someone stuffed all those Revenants into the Bloodstone that night, nor where the rest that got away went, or whom they went home to. They were being wielded as a mass force, with a very strong Master behind them. Dangerous magic. And a very dangerous enemy, to have so cleverly gotten such a mass of Revenants inside your halls, past your copious warding.”

“The Bloodstone was a Trojan Horse.” I realize as everyone looks at me. “Primed to go off if any powerful magic was unleashed at the event.”

“Essentially.” Quinn answers with a knowing look. “You and I triggered the Bloodstone’s nasty surprise when I drank from it and my magic resonated with yours, Ariana, creating the Music of the Spheres and causing the Bloodstone to ring like a bell that night and explode, setting the Revenants free. But none of us have figured out how someone committed all those Revenants into it, or when. It could have been done long ago, an event meant for one of my predecessors in the Dark Haven of Florence.”

“I doubt it,” Arturos says again, as his oceanic gaze pins Quinn. “From the wagering happening that night, Quinn, someone knew a trigger was going to be pulled on you. A big one.”

“And we need to find out who.” Quinn nods with a violent flash in his dark onyx eyes. “For now, we have a demonstration to engage. To find out if Lucca’s, Ariana’s, and my power can reawaken a caught Revenant—on purpose this time, rather than during an intense moment of battle and desperate magic. Ariana: your wrist, please.”

“Why?” I am hesitant as I blink at Quinn.

Quinn turns to me, lifting an eyebrow in theatrical style. “Because I was draining the Bloodstone the night our power resonated and went wild, and I assume I need to drain blood again for us to begin. Lucca, will you hold her steady, please?”

“Be careful, Quinn,” Lucca says. He is harsh now as he takes up a strong stance behind me, wrapping his arms around me with a gentle firmness as I hesitantly extend my arm.

“As careful as I can be.” Quinn holds my eyes with gravitas as he unbuttons my silk cuff and gently rolls up my sleeve. His hands are decadently hot-cold as he curls my wrist into his fingers and holds my gaze, pushing a lightly mesmeric energy through me so there will not be pain.

I feel him go to a calm place deep inside, watching as his power level rises like a flowing tide of darkness and crimson fire in the hall. As he takes a moment to gather his magic, I draw a deep breath to steady myself.

As if he feels me become steady, Quinn glances up, pinning me with his eyes. They’re like black holes as they hold me; as I fall into them, a blaze rises inside me. It’s like the corona of the sun flaring in the darkness of the universe as I am devoured by Quinn’s gaze.

And then he strikes—biting hard into my wrist.