Before she blushed to find herself staring at him, and sipped her wine to cover it.
“Forgive me.” He spoke then, his quiet utterance almost too loud in the hushed solar. “My protection is wearing off from you. I didn’t mean to bespell you with my eyes just then.”
“No problem.” Ariana murmured, taking a deeper drink of her wine to cover her reaction to him, as her gaze flicked back to his. She tried to stop staring at him, failed, and tried harder. At last, she could remove her gaze from his.
Though it took a deep will for her to not look back.
“So. Why is a Master Vampire regaining the emotions of their youth a bad thing?” Ariana asked, returning to their previous conversation so she had something to do other than simply trying to resist staring at his utter beauty.
“Because a young Vampire is often a furious creature, Ariana.” Quinn spoke as he swirled his wine, sitting back in his chair and watching her alertly as they dove into the subject. “Young Vampires need the firm command of their Sire to help them resist their new bloodlust as the rising power of the Night flows through them. A Vampire has both the blossoming power of the Night, but also the mortal urges and passions still when they are young, and together they are a volatile combination. Thankfully, our mortal passions recede as we age – and the power of the Night grows. Most Dark Havens have a special wing or area for Vampires under ten years, who tend to be the least able to control themselves. A place where they can be among their own kind without temptation, and delve into activities of contemplation to manage their new powers of Night.”
“Do you have such an area?” Ariana asked, curious.
“We do.” Quinn nodded sagely. “But we have no young ones at the moment, and so all the Vampires you see around our Hotel are calm enough in their urges to manage themselves day-to-day. It is a requirement of our Hotel, that anyone who walks its halls be able to control their magic and any wanton lusts their power may provoke.”
“So Vampires become calmer and stronger as they age.” Ariana understood, pushing her plate away now as she finished, suddenly realizing so much about why the Vampires she’d met around the Hotel seemed deeply calm and collected. “And you are how old?”
“Older than I look. Younger than I would like.” Quinn quipped with a small smile now as his eyes sparkled with a sudden wit. But he and Ariana were both finished, and he rose suddenly, inviting her away from the table to a sitting-parlor in the catacombs. Containing indoor trees and fountains also, the parlor had Victorian couches and high-backed chairs in royal blue silk, with ornate Turkish rugs in dark blue, purple, and burgundy. The living area sported an ebony bar full of crystal decanters built into one alcove, and a massive marble fireplace crackling with a blaze. As Quinn raised a hand, sending his dark aura swirling to the vaults, the wrought-iron chandeliers with all their wealth of crystals suddenly turned low.
Until the fire’s blaze illuminated the room, as Quinn beckoned for Ariana to sit.
Making herself comfortable on one settee with her wine, Ariana felt a strange pang of loss that Quinn took a high-backed chair nearby rather than sit beside her. As they both sipped, he regarded her, then cupped his wine goblet in his hands.
“I am just over six hundred years old, Ariana, born here in Florence in the early 1400’s just before the Italian Renaissance and Sired soon after that.” Quinn spoke plainly now as he watched her by the firelight. “Though I am not a youngling anymore and have achieved Master’s status thanks to my rather unique powers, I am still considered young by my elders. Vampires are not generally considered to beelderuntil they have reached a thousand years. And have the power and restraint that goes along with it.”
“So you being younger than a thousand years old is a bad thing because the elder Masters see you as being more rash. Especially those on your Vampire Council.” Ariana understood, sipping her wine as she watched him.
“Indeed.” Quinn spoke with a pleased look now as she caught on. “Young Vampires, you see, are part of what give my kind a bad reputation. If a Master is not strong enough to contain them, a newly-Sired Vampire will often go rogue, engaging in killing sprees as their mortal passions and rising thirst collide inside them. Older Vampires calm as they lose their mortal urges; and it is seen as a desirable quality among our kind, to not be manipulated by one’s emotions anymore as our power grows.”
“So a Master who shows out-of-control emotions is seen as unstable, and considered dangerous like they were when they were young.” Ariana blinked, frowning now.
“Deeply so.” Quinn spoke with a glint in his eyes as he watched her. “You can see why my outburst tonight over you would be looked down upon in Vampire society, Ariana. It tells other Vampires that I am still…immaturein my control of myself, and thus my control of my Dark Haven.”
“But you seem to have so much control, over your… emotions, and magic.” Ariana frowned, perplexed. “At least, normally.”
“I do.” Quinn spoke plainly now, though his gaze was penetrating. “I have had deep control over my emotions and my Vampiric needs and abilities for centuries, Ariana. Vampires are able to drink sustenance from many sources rather than just blood. As we age, many of us gain the ability to drink from passions, lusts, fears, or simply from the body’s natural chi. And though our bloodlust never quite goes away, we have far better control over it as we age. So that we are no longer a menace, and do not need to kill those we drink from. Engaging in… consensualcontractswith those we enjoy, instead.”
“Like I saw tonight.” Ariana spoke, considering it as she swirled her wine. “Like drinking milk from the cow rather than butchering it for meat.”
“I liken it more to a fruit tree. ” Quinn smiled now with a chuckle. “One does not chop a fruit tree down to claim the harvest. One simply takes from what is ripely given. And then allows the tree to rest until new fruit is ripe.”
The way Quinn spoke about fruit and ripeness suddenly had Ariana’s heart pounding in her veins. He was simply that sexy, sitting there with the upper portion of his shirt still undone and his dark onyx eyes watching her as his creamy white skin glowed in the firelight. Ariana suddenly had the thought that he knew damn well how immensely fetching he was. As she had that thought, he smiled.
His smile more darkly pleased than before.
“I normally have excellent control, Ariana, over both my hungers and my passions,” Quinn spoke calmly now as he watched her, swirling his wine. “I am able to drink energy from many sources; fear, joy, heartache, lust, rage, and so on. I can sip chi from a person like the finest of wines, though I still drink blood on occasion. Some elder Vampires gain the ability to drink from the earth’s energies, and I am experimenting with that now,” he spoke as he waved a hand at the waterfalls. “I have found the kinetic energy of moving water particularly easy to siphon. And since I have the power to daywalk, the sun’s light is also a source I can drink, though I must be careful of its burn. Moonlight gives me more power, generally, and is far more tolerable.”
“You sound almost Fae, being able to drink moonlight.” Ariana chuckled now as she sipped her wine, deeply intrigued to be hearing so much about a Lineage her parents had only ever told her about in the starkest terms.
“Actually, because Fae and Vampires are not so far apart in our origins, we have very similar powers, Ariana.” Quinn spoke now with an alert look as he set his wine aside and laced his long fingers. “And like Curio and Arturos, I have retained much of my original Lineage abilities after I was Sired into the Life of the Night. For once upon a time, I was Fae… and some of that power resides with me still.”
“You were Fae?” Ariana blinked, her mouth falling open as she stared at him. “What kind?”
“Summer Fae, like you.” He spoke with a small smile, though it was haunted. “But that was eons ago, and it is a long story. Suffice it to say that Fae and Vampires are far more similar than they are different, Ariana, it is why Dark Fae are even possible. You are a rare thing in this world, perhaps even the last of your kind, as no one I know has even seen any other Dark Fae in centuries. Not only am I sympathetic to your plight for my own personal reasons, I believe in not judging someone by the deeds of their forbearers. Just as I believe the Summer Fae King and my Vampire Council are wrong to want you dead based on Dark Fae they’ve encountered in the past.”
“But you want to use me. Against your Vampire Council, don’t you?” Ariana spoke now, digging for the truth of Quinn’s agenda. They’d skated around it for two days now; and as Quinn watched her with a deep, intense calm in his dark onyx eyes, Ariana knew she was right.
Quinn did want to give her a chance in this strange new world she had entered, surrounded by powerful foes, he did believe in her right to live free as a Dark Fae in the world. But he also wanted her to be his pawn in a deep game of Vampire politics that Ariana knew nothing about yet. And it was this not knowing that set her on-edge now as he watched her.
