Quinn needed no second urging as he scooped Ariana up. Even as Archivolio manifested another massive lance of light, Quinn locked eyes with Lucca – draining everything Lucca had in a terrible rush as Lucca’s beautiful white-hot power flared to the max. As Quinn spread his dark aura in the night, Ariana felt it surge out, traveling miles in an instant – finding his Dark Haven of Florence. As a tremendous surge passed through him, Quinn alerted his Dark Haven of his predicament. As one, Ariana felt them flood their powers back down their bonds to him, giving him everything they had. With an enormous inhalation, Quinn drained their freely-given Vampire powers to the max, even as King Archivolio Bellari let his second lance fly.
As Quinn roared – and thrust himself and Ariana through space.
Ariana screamed as everything inside her was ripped apart, traveling through endless space from Quinn’s massive thrust of magic. Far more than broken bones and a lance of light through her chest, this was like a wrenching of everything she was, turning her insides out and her outsides in as she passed through a terrible nowhere space. Galaxies flashed by; stars burst behind her eyes as her body felt threaded through the eye of a needle and spat out far away. As Ariana erupted into pain so vast she couldn’t even scream, only spasmed over and over, she vaguely registered she was in an underground cavern.
An immense grotto of stone, ornate carvings, and silk.
She knew they were back at the Red Letter Hotel Florence, somehow. But as Quinn laid her out on a sculpted stone bier, Ariana’s vision faded along with consciousness. High above, she saw the night sky through a massive oculus. Stone tombs surrounded her, every vault ornately carved with Fae and Vampires, demons, and celestials. Royal blue silk drapes accentuated the space; even as Ariana faded out again, her broken body locked in torment from whatever Quinn had done to get them back, Quinn appeared above her. Stroking her damp hair back, a dark fear gripped him as he leaned over her.
“Ariana! Ariana, can you hear me?!”
Her body distant now, Ariana tried to nod but failed. With so much damage screaming through her, her magic was jangled and she wasn’t healing. Too many bones were broken; too many places were rent and scorched deep inside, no matter how her void tried to devour the night. As she faded again, Ariana felt herself leaving.
Slipping towards the endless stars above.
“Ariana! Stay with me!” Quinn growled in desperation as he gripped her face so she focused on him, pouring another wave of fire-dark magic inside her to haul her back. “I cannot heal you! Your magic is unstable, and I dare not risk drawing on my Vampires again, for healing you would drain every last iota of life from them! Lucca has been arrested, and our only recourse now is for you to take my Master’s Kiss. If we bond and I open my entire power to you, just mine… there is a chance you would survive. Ariana! I must have your permission – what say you?!”
But Ariana couldn’t say anything as another wave of darkness ripped through her, sending her into a seizure. Her broken body threw itself up from the bier as Quinn’s strong hands desperately kept her from heaving to the floor. But as she seized, Ariana could feel a broken rib thrust towards her heart every time her back slammed the stone. Quinn’s desperation roared; Ariana felt him sense her impending death as he held her from the brink. As Ariana seized upon the stone, finally thrusting that broken rib right into her heart, Quinn roared down like an eagle diving.
And locked his lips to hers – pouring himself into her like the darkest blaze of the Night.
Ariana’s lips locked to his, as she felt herself die. But a Vampire’s power had mastery over death – even as she felt herself leave, she felt Quinn’s power fill the void of her death like a blackwater tide. He was a maelstrom of fire and darkness as he roared inside her, through every artery, vein, and sinew. Even as she died, Ariana felt her heart repaired suddenly by Quinn’s tremendous power.
As he gave her his Master’s Kiss – bonding them completely.
The Vampire side of Ariana’s magic drank from Quinn’s tremendous power, and wounds healed, fast. Bones drew together and burned places cooled as a searing dark-light fire blazed through her; moon-white and flame-red, midnight-silver and sun-gold all at once. Ariana was hauled to Quinn as their twinned magics roared; her arms around him, he was pressed to her atop the bier now as they kissed. He ate at her lips as passion flooded him, and with the same passion, Ariana devoured him back, even though his fangs cut her. But as his darkness surged, opening her up to the fullest bliss of the Night, Ariana’s eyes flew open.
Fixing upon the moon and stars through the oculus high above.
As moonlight cascaded down, risen directly above now in the midnight sky, magic flooded Ariana. Arching, her alchemy with Quinn came to a pinnacle inside her as her power burst wide in the night – flooding out in a singing shockwave of sound and exploding marble and stone all around. Breaking from Quinn’s kiss, Ariana screamed as that dark-light maelstrom lit her up with a searing glow. And as Quinn roared from it also, his eyes blazing entirely red-gold, Ariana felt her power lock inside him. With another massive roar, Quinn’s seething black nimbus burst into flame all around them, a beautiful golden corona.
Lighting the night on fire as Ariana scorched with moonlit beauty.
Diving back down, Quinn heaved with Ariana as they kissed. As she pushed up from the bier, locking her arms around him, fangs thrust down from her canines. Piercing Quinn, she drank his blood now as he drank from the cut he had given her – and power locked inside them both as their moon-fire was exchanged with blood in the Night. Power roared through Ariana as she took Quinn’s all from his kiss. With a cry, he struggled; then succumbed, devouring her back harder as a raging flood of dark-light energy opened up between them. Heaving in waves, their bodies were one as Ariana arched up into him upon the stone bier.
And Quinn pressed down, taking as deeply as she took from him.
Ariana’s body was healed fast as Quinn ripped her ruined gown away; a preternatural power filled her as she shredded his suit and shirt from his shoulders and tore his trousers open with her bare hands. She didn’t even get a chance to see him as they pressed together hard, eating at each other like animals. An inferno of power, there was no coldness left in Quinn as he thrust Ariana down to the stone, both of them naked now. There was no marble austerity any longer as she locked her legs up around his lean hips.
And he thrust inside her – filling her with the power of the Night.
Crying out, Ariana broke their kiss as Quinn gasped atop her. Pressing their foreheads together, he thrust again – and the sensation was so full and hard, dark-bright and wild, that Ariana screamed now with passion. As massive wings blazed from Quinn, made of pure black-light and waves of simmering golden fire, ringing with unearthly sound in the night, he began to fuck her, hard and fast and deep. He made it last as he dove down upon her, kissing her with an abandon she had never thought possible from the stone-cold Master of Florence. And yet, he was so hot in her grip, so hot inside her, that something in Ariana seared wide open.
Reveling in him – as her entire power unfurled to the night at last.
Moon-silver and sun-gold, blazing with dark-bright rainbows, Ariana’s power unfurled in an enormous wave from her back, spilling over the stone and curling across the floor of the catacomb as Quinn fucked her. Surging through the room, Ariana’s wings were like a waterfall of moonlit rainbows and silver-gold fire as Quinn gasped and fucked her harder, deeper to feel her power’s touch spill over him. Music sang between them now with unearthly, diabolically angelic harmonies – ringing the entire grotto and deep inside their bodies as both surrendered to their passion burning through the night. Giving in, Ariana flooded with dark-fire from Quinn’s insanely strong body and deep heat thundering into her again and again. As she gripped him close, arching and surging and crying out for more, they were nothing but magic, nothing but music and the Night as they twisted together in a spiraling oneness, their massive wings of magic braiding together all through the catacomb.
Uniting their powers – as both came hard with ecstasy in the night.
Collapsing upon the stone bier, Ariana heaved exhausted breaths as Quinn gasped atop her after their explosion of sex and magic. As their twinned energies gradually settled in the depths of the night, the grotto ceasing to ring and their heartbeats pounding as one in blissful exhaustion, Ariana ran her fingers though his luscious dark hair. She reveled in the feel of him still inside her, above her, and all around her; still filled with the power of the moon and the wildness of the Night, and the strength of the man cradling her as both their hearts gradually quieted. As Quinn nuzzled her with his full, soft lips, a deep sigh of contentment left him, and Ariana felt her heart soar. Wrapping her arms around him, she could feel every muscle in his stark back and well-made shoulders as she reveled in his beautiful body. Braced on his forearms, Quinn didn’t crush her as they lay together, only cradled her with his tall, exquisite form as they breathed in the afterglow.
Drowsing beneath the moon and stars – in bliss.
Opening her eyes at last, Ariana stared up at the midnight sky. With an inhalation, Quinn felt her change and pushed up, rolling to one hip as she finally came up to a seat on the stone. Her ruined dress was beneath her, Quinn’s shredded Armani suit cast to the floor; as Ariana glanced down at the carnage of such fine fabrics, she felt a shock that she had done that. As she glanced at Quinn, a ring of fire still burned in his dark onyx eyes; reaching out, he took her hand. Pressing her hand to his cheek, he turned his head and kissed her palm as he closed his eyes.
As his power and Ariana’s stirred in a slow roil in the night – twined together now from his dark Master’s Kiss.
“Quindici DaPonti… what did you just do to me?” Ariana breathed, amazed at everything that had just happened.
