But Quinn startled as he felt her fangs – seizing her hair and holding her motionless.
“Ariana!” Quinn gasped against her skin as he broke from her, holding them both back from biting each other now. “To exchange this kind of bite-lust is not an everyday thing for a Vampire! It will bind us close… closer than we should be right now with our magics influencing each other so strongly. We must stop. Please.”
It was hispleasethat made her pause as Ariana breathed hard against his wrist. Deep inside, everything within her craved him, lusted after him – but she suddenly realized they had no idea what reciprocal biting would do to her, or him. The thought sobered her enough to come partway back, even though the animal part of her still wanted to sink her teeth into him.
“What will it do?” She heaved, at last able to talk.
“I don’t know. Gods curse me, I don’t know.” Quinn heaved now as he moved to her lips, setting their foreheads together rather than leave himself tempted at her neck. As he did, Ariana felt a trickle of blood course down the side of her neck. The last points of Quinn’s fangs had pierced her; and though he turned his head towards the blood, inhaling, Quinn held himself back from tasting her now. “I want to know what our powers might do if we unleash our passions upon each other; but for your safety and mine, and for the safety of our Dark Haven, I dare not. So much of me wants to throw away all caution. You make me live again, Ariana… and I want you like I haven’t wanted anyone since I was alive. But it is to my own damnable detriment, if something goes wrong.”
“What do you mean? What could go wrong?” Ariana asked, still breathing hard as she moved her lips over his and he shuddered with desire though he still held her restrained.
“Power and abandon such as we have never felt could rise between us,” Quinn breathed in a darkly frustrated yet outrageously sexy way now as he pressed close, grinding against her hotly though he still kept them from kissing. Ariana was pinned by his luscious dominance, and it only made her hotter as Quinn’s lips moved over hers. “We could bite into one another so hard that one or the other could do tremendous damage. We could get lost in a loop of passion, fucking and drinking and drinking more as the fucking goes on and on, and one of us could bleed out from the endless cycle—”
But Quinn clammed up suddenly as a terrible sensation swept him. Through their bond, Ariana felt a dark pain rise up inside him now; a pain of the heart and soul as a crimson fire devoured his eyes. Suddenly, a memory filled Ariana – of a beautiful dark-haired Italianate Vampiress laughing as two younger Vampires, a man and a woman, pleasured each other on her massive black silk bed.
But something was disastrously wrong with the coupling; and as the vision flashed through Ariana suddenly from Quinn, she saw what it was. Locked in coitus, the couple brought each other in wave after wave of orgasm, their fangs locked into each other, wrist and neck. Biting, fucking, and coming over and over, they spilled blood from mortal wounds as they spasmed and devoured each other. Through it all, the dark-haired woman laughed, devouring carnal pleasure through her diabolical magics as the couple died.
Until each was finished by a swift stake through the heart by Quinn.
“Jesus!” Ariana’s blood ran cold as she gasped, pulling back as her ardor raced away. It left her staring at Quinn in surprise and horror as she realized he’d just shared a memory of his tyrannical old Master Emiliana DiClario with her. With a swift in-breath, Quinn released Ariana.
Staring at her like he’d gone insane.
“Forgive me.” He spoke at last as his long lashes blinked rapidly. “I did not mean to share that memory with you. Not tonight. Not ever.”
“Hey. I’m all right. But Christ… are you?” Ariana asked, from the recollection he had just so suddenly unleashed. Reaching up, she cradled Quinn’s beautiful face in her hands, knowing that in the throes of their passion, her power had read him like a book – showing her his darkest fears about their current situation. Though Emiliana was no longer in the picture, Quinn sat like a man stunned as Ariana cradled his face in her hands, his dark eyelashes blinking over and over as his onyx eyes stared. And then he gasped like a man waking from a coma.
As Ariana felt a solid wall of iron cast up between Quinn’s mind and hers.
“Forgive me.” He whispered again, even as he prevented her from seeing or feeling his thoughts now. He was blocking her from his memories, from all the dark things he’d done during his time with Emiliana that he would never share. Gazing up at him, feeling him become iron now, Ariana knew that Quinn would take those memories with him to his grave rather than burden someone else with them. It made something inside her crack wide open, as a deep compassion flowed out from her. She felt it pour into Quinn, moving through him in a loving wave and sweetly devouring that wall of iron like a beam of moonlight polishing it all away. But Quinn fought her now, with a heat that burned Ariana’s moonlight back.
Rising from the couch and firmly extending his hand.
“We should get you back to your rooms.” He spoke, his entire body deepening into that stone-cold place Ariana detested. “Your first meeting with Lucca to tour amongst the Summer Fae is tomorrow, and I think it would do you good right now to surround yourself with the Life of the Light rather than Vampires. If my energy is making you unstable, then it will be a good thing for you to spend time with the Fae. Until I can figure out how to stabilize our bond and no longer raise both our blood-cravings and other lusts, I am excusing you from all Meeting of the Havens-related parties, Ariana. We can’t have you be exposed to blood right now. Or me, when other Masters are around.”
“Won’t that make you look weak to the Masters, to not have me be at these pre-parties before the Meeting opens?” Ariana asked even as her pulse pounded. Taking Quinn’s hand, she rose as something needful poured through her – rushing to him and meeting Quinn’s iron wall as he battled it back now.
“It cannot be helped.” He said wryly, his dark eyes shining with agony as his brows knit, feeling her power still trying to get to him. “Our passions are uncontainable right now, Ariana. I’m not even certain I should be escorting you back to your rooms tonight, lest something happen between us.”
“But Iwantsomething to happen between us, Quinn.” Ariana breathed, aching as her energy ground hard inside her. “I wantyou. I want to talk about what’s going on between us, and why you’re stonewalling me from knowing anything about your past. And why it makes you so fearful of us being close.”
“I want you, too.” Quinn breathed as he held stone-cold demeanor, though he did raise her hand to kiss it. “But I need to rest, Ariana, after everything that’s happened tonight. After what I just shared…” Ariana knew it was Quinn’s way of saying he needed to be alone right now to process having dredged up a memory of Emiliana after her power provoked him. But as Quinn guided her to him now by their joined hands, making it dancelike as their bodies came together, his arms curled around her.
“You truly wish to know everything I am?” Gazing down at her, a wary hope was in his dark eyes.
“I do, Quinn. Everything good and terrible about you and your past.” Ariana breathed as she reached up, cupping his cheek. “Your old life with Emiliana wasn’t your choice; this life is – this good life you’re building now. Surrounded by people who see who you really are… and believe in you.”
“Beautiful Dark Fae,” Quinn breathed, amazement in his eyes as they seemed to shine suddenly. “You search out the truth in everyone, but you don’t even know what your true power is, do you?”
“What do you mean?” Ariana asked, confused but loving the way he looked at her.
“Acceptance.” He spoke as he gazed down at her. “You don’t just suss out the truth, Ariana, you never shy from it no matter what that truth brings. You confront what has been revealed, with hope and heart. And that is the hardest part about truth, which you make seem so easy. But it’s not easy for the rest of us. Not easy at all.”
And though Ariana felt Quinn’s passion roil now, he did not lean down to kiss her. Taking up her hand and placing it on his arm, he escorted her out of his rooms, back towards hers.
Holding his power like a wall of iron in the night.
CHAPTER 13 – STRINGS
