Or her raging fantasies about him and Lucca both, as she tried to go about her day.
As Ariana catalogued in the mid-afternoon now, wearing a little black dress of silk lace and holding her tablet, gazing up at a stern Renaissance Vampire lord, she saw he’d been painted with long fingers that ended in vicious Vampiric nails. Devoured by the sensual cruelty of those hands, she wondered what it might feel like for Quinn to caress her with nails like that; then shook her head, realizing she’d slipped into a fugue-state again.
But she’d finished cataloguing this hall now; turning to a set of crystal double-doors beside her, Ariana entered the Apiary Massage Solar to catalogue its art next. Far above, a lovely Gothic dome spread with wrought-iron like the Notre Dame de Paris. Crystal glittered above, as Ariana admired crests of ancient houses done in stained glass all around. Inhaling the scent of lavender rising from thousands of bushes planted in tiers around the hall, she admired the beautifully shaded wisteria-terraces that dotted the hall with their white massage tables.
Thousands of iridescent green bees flitted through the lavender and wisteria; as Ariana entered, ten settled to her chest, drinking oils and sweat from her skin. But though her heartbeat sped, she knew Emerald Bees had no stingers. Used in all the Hotel’s massage solars, the touch of their feet was a gentle relaxant, and dozens of massages were in progress throughout the hall, aided by the bee-relaxant.
As Ariana inhaled, the sunlit atrium and the heady calm all around her made her feel serene. Little green bees settled all over her now, but she couldn’t feel them anymore as the soothing agent in their feet kicked in. The late afternoon became a pleasant dream as she smiled, glancing around to dozens of Greco-Roman statues throughout the hall that needed cataloguing.
Moving to the closest one, Ariana listened to the drone of bees and the sighs of people receiving massages as she inhaled the scent of lavender. Every part of her felt deliciously blissed in the warm, lovely hall. It reminded her of the Palace of Light and Ariana drifted, feeling again how hale the palace had made her feel. As if Fae brightness was precisely what she needed to counter the rising Vampiric darkness in her veins, Ariana suddenly thought of Lucca. Pausing with her tablet idle in her hands, a deep fugue swept her.
As she thought about seeing Lucca at breakfast – and in her dreams last night.
Standing beneath the sunlit atrium, Ariana could practically feel Lucca’s bright ferocity as she inhaled the lavender all around, green bees settling upon her skin. But as Lucca’s intense blue gaze flooded her with power and light, Ariana suddenly thought of Quinn and his contrasting darkness. Her night with Quinn surged up inside her as his onyx eyes rose in her mind. She drowned in them; his touch was all around her in the late afternoon.
So intense her vision flared dark – as passion replaced it.
Ariana’s hands were on the crystal doors of the solar, but she didn’t remember opening them. Time flashed as she made her way down the halls of the Hotel in an enormous fugue now, not knowing where she was going. She didn’t have her tablet; she didn’t know where she’d left it as every scent around her was heightened in an impossible array of flavors, all rolling over her tongue at once.
Every color in the late afternoon was startling, and Ariana blinked to find her vision tinged with shadows. The sun was setting; it hadn’t even been close when she’d entered the solar. Part of her knew she had truly lost significant time now, far more than ever before – but touch and pleasure and taste overwhelmed her again and she reeled so hard she had to set a hand to one of Quinn’s massive pastoral paintings upon the wall to not collapse.
Ariana didn’t recognize the hall she was in; it was one she hadn’t been in yet. But the painting she’d stumbled on featured an orgy, and she found herself staring at it as she realized there wasn’t just fucking in the scene but biting also – Vampires draining their victims in a heady scene of sex, lust, and power.
Suddenly, the sound of sex sharpened her ears through the Hotel’s evening halls. In an animal trance, Ariana shuddered at it even as she tracked towards it like a predator now. As she moved through a set of crystal doors into a massive garden hall full of statuary and columns, topped by a crystal atrium that looked out upon the evening’s blue-white glow, she suddenly smelled sex and lust.
And blood.
Those scorching-hot scents pummeled Ariana as she entered this new atrium and staggered, setting a hand to a column as she stared at some kind of decadent showing happening among the statuary. Lush greenery and lion’s head fountains ringed the space, as some kind of display happened for a group of forty or so Vampire guests.
Moving in, Ariana saw the throng enjoying wine and small bites as they watched beautiful Courtiers and Courtesans of the Hotel devour each other on velvet chaises flanked by greenery. Mid-act, the couples and trios were half-dressed in sheer silk lace that had been mostly ripped away in their ardor. As Ariana watched, breathless, every part of her tracked hard to the Vampires in those couplings, already with fangs deep in their partners. Crimson blood trickled down throats, wrists, and thighs.
And it was suddenly all Ariana could see as she stood there, riveted.
The sounds of sucking and fucking raged through her as she shook with a tremor. The sugar-sweet, metallic scent of blood careened through her, inescapable. As the showing hit a spike in ardor, the participants gasping and pushing each other hard with their magics, a bronze gong sounded.
As the gong was rung from an iron frame between orange and purple bird-of-paradise plants, Ariana suddenly saw the lion’s head fountains ringing the space cease burbling with water. But as one snarling fountain of a full-body lion at the center of the garden began flowing again, a sick sensation filled her – sick and eager. Because as a jet pouring from the lion’s mouth suddenly flowed to life, it wasn’t water spouting out.
It was blood jetting into the basin.
As if it had just decimated prey, the lion’s white stone paws and lips became coated with blood, the basin filling with it as an eager energy swirled through the Masters. Clapping began, everyone receiving crystal chalices now from servers to take a cup of blood spilling from all the fountains in the hall.
Reeling as her vision blazed crimson, Ariana’s senses flooded with the scent and sight of so much blood. As a wave of power boiled from her, uncontrollable, that rainbow-dark flood shimmered hard with gold and silver magic – making guests nearby gasp. As a number of Masters suddenly turned to her, staring with their mouths agape at Ariana’s vast eros, she felt someone step quickly to her side.
Smoothing an oceanic wave through her and calming her lust back.
As a sluice of dark power washed through Ariana, she blinked – realizing she was staring up into the dark blue eyes of Quinn’s friend and ally the Master Vampire-Siren Arturos Morregain. As Arturos flooded his power through Ariana again, it took her a moment before she realized they were standing behind a column near the doors now. It was as far from the blood as Arturos could get her; as Ariana finally registered her surroundings, she saw they were alone in their quiet alcove.
Nearby, Quinn’s ally the Master Vampire Lady Eiseth Pendragon of the British Isles glanced their way, registering what was happening; with a heady shimmer, her mist-grey aura swirled as she deftly corralled the Masters staring at Ariana into conversation. Relief filled Ariana as she watched Eiseth laugh, tossing her ornate white braids elegantly and holding court in her midnight-blue Arthurian silk gown and bright silver armor. Ariana felt how Eiseth drew all eyes away from her now as Arturos steadied her power from raging.
And found herself grateful for Quinn’s two strongest allies – though she didn’t see any other friendly faces in the hall.
“Ariana. Come back, now. Come on back.” Arturos breathed as he set a hand to her cheek and curled one around her waist, his strong hands warm despite being a Vampire-Dragon of the oceans. But even as he spoke, Arturos’ thumb strayed to Ariana’s lips as if even he couldn’t quite resist the massive eros that had just poured out of her. As he touched her lips, Ariana felt a strange sensation behind them. As his thumb lifted her upper lip, she inhaled to feel him press one of her canines.
Long and needle-sharp now.
As Ariana’s lips fell open, realizing she had grown fangs, Arturos’ dark blue eyes regarded her, intense. “Easy, Ariana. You’re manifesting a strong Vampire need right now – bloodlust. Does Quinn know you’re having bloodlust, and that it’s heightening this hard?”
“I… I don’t know.” Ariana breathed, in shock at what had just happened. Shuddering as she finally had rational thoughts again, she felt her canines recede with a sliding sensation as Arturos watched her intently. As his hand eased from her lips, he still held her by the waist – his dark tides pouring through her as he maintained contact.
