Ariana felt how much his massive power kept every sound and scent in the hall away from her now. Just as Lady Eiseth kept the attention of the Masters, Arturos kept Ariana safe from the blood and sex by his deep oceanic presence.
But Arturos’ perfection drowned Ariana suddenly, instead of blood. Beautiful yet masculine, he wore a white collared shirt rolled up at the elbows with a grey pinstriped vest and trousers, his simple but elegant clothes highlighting his immense perfection.
His dark blue eyes were the color of the deepest oceans; as Ariana watched, they seemed to shift with ancient light. His chiseled features were even more impossibly handsome than Quinn’s, his short dark hair modern, his eyebrows level as he watched her. A men’s cuff of grey-black pearls and platinum clasped his left wrist. As Ariana’s gaze came back to his, she realized she felt how deeply his energy sighed all around her.
Massive in its darkwater tides.
“You’re calming my bloodlust.” She breathed as she gazed up at him. “You’re blocking me from the sex in the hall, and the blood.”
“Yes. My power has that ability. Both my Vampire and Siren sides.” Arturos spoke as he watched her, his massive nimbus of power still surging quietly around her. But as she recalled what she had just witnessed, her power heated all over again. With a rush, she swayed – dark fantasies of biting Arturos, or of having him bite her and spill blood as they fucked and drank devouring her. The image was replaced by Quinn, biting her and fucking her deep as Ariana shuddered, rainbow-dark power surging off her again and being swallowed into Arturos’ living sea.
Corralling Ariana around the waist and drawing her close to him now, Arturos made her cry out softly. But though passion sparked in his eyes, his touch was cool as he used his nearness to pour a deep balm all the way through her. As her dark fantasies eased, Ariana found herself grateful; gasping as she gazed up at Arturos, he gave her a deeply concerned look back. But she could breathe and think again as his magic rushed all through her now, powerful yet subtle.
Controlling her furious magic.
“Ariana! What is going on? Why are you here at the Blood Showing?”
Quinn was suddenly beside them as Ariana glanced over, blushing hard to be discovered in Arturos’ arms. But Arturos was a gentleman as he released Ariana to Quinn, depositing her kindly but firmly into her Master’s arms.
“I think her bloodlust called her here, Quinn, from somewhere else in the Hotel.” Arturos spoke quietly as he nodded at Ariana. “She was in a fugue-state from the blood-unveiling when I found her, but her power had already flared and most of the Masters felt it.”
“My god! I had no idea your bloodlust was flaring like this.” As Quinn pulled her in, his dark eyes vastly concerned as he brushed his knuckles over her cheek, Ariana felt Arturos pull his seas back.
But as he did, Ariana suddenly breathed hard in shock, staring at the blood again. It was vivid once more as Arturos’ power pulled away – and Quinn’s energy wasn’t enough to contain her. As Ariana’s magic rebelled, even higher than before from Quinn’s dark energy roaring through their touch, the smell of blood all through the atrium came crashing back.
A sweet copper-iron scent that set everything inside her trembling violently now with need.
Red boiled through Ariana’s vision, her gaze darkening to the deepest night as she focused on Masters dipping their chalices in the blood-fountains. It was fresh; Ariana could smell the heat with a dark scent like sex – as if all that blood had been drained from willing donors at the height of ecstasy. Masters sipped from their chalices, their powers rushing out in an erotic tirade as the showing blazed to its height, the participants erupting into orgasm from the darkly heady energy careening through the hall.
It heightened the ambrosia as Ariana smelled chocolate and liqueurs and custom wines, the Florentine Dark Haven’s specialties circulating. Turning in Quinn’s arms, she growled like an animal as fangs pierced down from her canines again, her vision pulsing with her heartbeat. As his corded muscles tightened hard around her, she struggled, trying to get to the blood. Quinn’s embrace was like iron as he crooned by her ear, his dark nimbus of power pouring all through her at his touch.
But even as he corralled her, holding her back from getting to the blood, the Masters glanced to her again. Even Eiseth’s magic couldn’t stop them from feeling Ariana’s enormous lust now as she felt Arturos’ deep sea flow violently around her and Quinn both – containing their situation.
But Ariana could feel how hard not just her bloodlust was rising now, but Quinn’s also as he struggled to wrangle her. Affected by Ariana’s sudden surge, Quinn was having trouble containing not just her but himself also; deep inside, Ariana could feel a strong push-pull between herself and Quinn as she fought his Master’s Kiss.
As a group of Masters wandered by with fresh chalices, Ariana pressed back into Quinn with a growl, sliding one hand up behind his neck as she trapped his hands to her waist. Grinding upon him now, her power curled around him like it would devour him whole, as that strangely dark singing she’d experienced last night with him rose once more, manifesting in the air. Quinn’s hands spasmed upon her as a sound left him; a dark, needful sound, like he might snap and throw her down right then and there.
To fuck her and drink from her in front of allies and enemies alike.
“Ariana! Be still.” Arturos’ command was brisk as he stepped in fast. Raising his magics in a tight sea, Arturos thrust his bare wrist up before Ariana’s lips. He’d removed the pearl talisman from his wrist, and the scent of darkwater oceans boiled off him now, inundating. Rolled beneath those midnight waves, Ariana gasped as she scented his wrist.
Even as her lips strained – wanting to bite him and drink the ancient sea from his blood.
Sliding a hand up, Quinn gripped her throat, sensual and hard. As Ariana writhed, crying out and trying to get to Arturos, her Master held her back. Quinn had control of himself again thanks to Arturos’ intervention; as Ariana looked up, Arturos’ dark blue eyes stared down, flaring ancient power all through her. As Quinn massaged her throat, holding her back firmly from biting Arturos, Ariana felt his darkfire magic flare inside her at last.
Finally recovered from whatever battle had taken place between them.
“Ariana, we need to escort you out.” Quinn murmured at her ear now. “Are you ready?”
Ariana couldn’t speak, only nod as her fugue devoured her, all her senses trained upon Arturos’ ancient sea waved so enticingly before her lips while Quinn’s blazing darkfire held her back. Though that strange humming music between her and Quinn had ceased, her black rainbows were spawning out with a pulsatile rhythm now; all around, Masters watched with an intrigued silence as Ariana’s power went wild. She could feel both allies and enemies deeply evaluating if this display made Quinn strong or weak; if having such a powerful Dark Fae explode like this in his Dark Haven made him a dominant Master or one to be overthrown.
But the fact was that Quinn had not been the one to wrangle Ariana’s power tonight; even as her fugue flowed in and out, Ariana felt Arturos take her hand and guide her out of the hall as Quinn stayed with her, her body tucked close.
They had almost made it out when something at the edge of Ariana’s vision made her turn. As her red-tinged vision darkened, she saw a black shadow curl around the central lion-fountain in the night. Like a leviathan, it seethed all through the fountain as it watched her, its gold eyes calculating as they maintained an utter stillness to its smoke’s wrathful coiling. And as those eyes burned a terrible bright gold suddenly, Ariana inhaled.
Recognizing the Vampire Revenant that had accosted her in the Pitti Palace.
At her inhalation, both Quinn and Arturos looked to the lion fountain. But the Revenant was gone, swirled out so suddenly that Ariana wondered if she had imagined it. As Quinn’s dark power searched her thoughts, she felt his confusion, wondering what she had seen.
