“An ancient Florentine Vampire relic.” Quinn spoke soberly as he worked, kneeling before Ariana now and painting her belly and thighs with sigils. “It is a fang from Orlando the Great, who conquered these lands tens of thousands of years ago, and stipulated that his bones be made into relics of magic upon his death. It has intense binding properties, and is appropriate for this ritual.”
“It looks enormous,” Ariana mused as she watched, “like what I saw your fangs become that day we fought at the Pitti Palace.”
“Both Fae and Vampires have what we call ashiftedappearance, Ariana.” Lucca spoke quietly now as he watched, his blue eyes darkly fascinated in the night. “When we are furious or fight, we take on more vicious characteristics that can include the lengthening of fangs from our teeth and talons from our fingertips, the sharpening of cheekbones and brows to a frightening severity, and the lengthening of the ears. And manifesting wings of etheric power from our spine. Though only the strongest Masters and Royals can generally do that, like Quinn and I. And you.”
As Quinn moved around behind Ariana now, sweeping her long red hair gently aside to begin decorating her shoulder-blades and back, her eyelashes fluttered, the sensation erotic. Quietly, Quinn’s blood-fang swirled down over her low back as she re-focused on the conversation. “All of us Royal in our original Fae power. So what does that have to do with the gold-eyed Revenant that’s been haunting me?”
As Quinn paused his work suddenly in the night, she saw Lucca and Quinn exchange a shocked glance.
“What gold-eyed Revenant, Ariana?” Quinn asked as he held immaculately still behind her.
“The one that’s been watching me. The one from the Pitti Palace that’s been provoking my magic.” Ariana spoke with a stunned lift of her eyebrows as she twisted to look at Quinn. “I just assumed you’d seen it through our bond, every time I’ve seen it. It’s showed up four times in the past few days, Quinn. I thought you knew, but were just keeping quiet about it.”
“I certainly didnotknow about it.” Quinn spoke with a dark shock as he moved back around to Ariana’s front now. His onyx eyes blazed as his energy whirled in the night, flooding the cemetery with raw power. “You’ve seen a golden-eyed Revenantfour timesin the past few days? And you say it’s the same one that attacked you at the Pitti Palace when Lucca and I first met you?”
“Yes. And I think it’s provoked my bloodlust each time.” Ariana nodded with a dark concern now at Quinn’s deep upset – and that he’d not seen any of those events in her mind with everything they now shared. “At first, it’s eyes were red when I saw it at the Pitti, but then they blazed gold when I screamed at it – I thought you saw. And after I talked with my parents about my true bloodlines, I saw it again. It was there when I freaked out at that blood-party, then on the bridge when I snapped and had to bite Lucca. And it was in my rooms tonight. When you and I were sleeping, I woke because I felt someone in the room. It spoke to me – and did something to burn off Lucca’s protection inside me.”
“And it kept me from feeling its presence, or seeing any memory of it in your mind through our Master’s Kiss.” Quinn spoke with a deep shock now as he went pale in the night.
“Goddess of the Woods! You’ve been haunted by the Gold Eyes, Ariana? Are you saying that’s the Revenant we fought the day we met?” Lucca was shocked also as he stared hard at Ariana, his power swirling as viciously as Quinn’s now in the darkness, or even more so.
“I mean, I guess so.” Ariana frowned deeply now, feeling something scared open inside her at both Quinn and Lucca’s reaction, wondering what in blazes was going on. “What is this gold-eyed Revenant? And why is it such bad news – other than how it’s been provoking me to lose my shit?”
“It’s an ancient Vampire legend, Ariana.” Quinn answered, darkness roaring through him now as he and Lucca shared a long look. “Vampire stories speak of a Revenant so old it was ancient when Vampires were young, descended from the Angelics that gave rise to us. This creature is spoken of with awe and caution, for it only appears to Vampires who have either the power to become great leaders of their age, or are destined for a very great fall. Whether the Gold Eyes orchestrates that rise or fall is unknown. Only that it appears to the very blessed… or the very cursed of our Lineage.”
“That creature has a history nearly as long in Fae culture as it does in Vampires tales, Ariana.” Lucca spoke with a dark sobriety, watching her intently. “Not only is it a harbinger of Vampire fate, but it has the same reputation among the Fae, and the Dark Fae before they were decimated. It is a demon in our folklore. Quinn, are you saying it’s real?”
“Oh, it is real.” Quinn spoke back, his gaze dire as he glanced to Lucca, his dark nimbus of power boiling all around him. “It is very real. I first met it last summer… and it’s been haunting me ever since. And now, apparently, Ariana.”
“Youmet the Gold Eyes?!” Lucca stared at Quinn incredulously now as his power gave a fierce whirl in the night. “And it’s been stalking you? And you didn’t think to mention that, Quinn, when we were forming our plans?!”
“I didn’t know if I could trust anyone with that information yet.” Quinn spoke almost apologetically now as he heaved a tired sigh. As Lucca blazed furiously at Quinn, Ariana glanced between them – worried not just about the Revenant now, but about Lucca’s reaction to this latest secret of Quinn’s.
“I met it accidentally, I think.” Quinn continued as Lucca stared at him in wrathful shock. “Unless it wanted to be met… which could have been the case. Last summer, I was involved in helping friends at the Red Letter Hotel Paris defeat a powerful Royal Dragon named Hunter. Hunter had trapped Revenants into guarding underground passages called the Thin Ways for him. I was working with the Crystal Dragon King Dusk Arlohaim, who freed a number of Revenants from Hunter by using resonance magic. But one of those freed was the Gold Eyes.”
“Are you sure it was ever trapped to begin with?” Lucca breathed hard now as he stared at Quinn, furious. “Or was it just playing you?”
“It might have been. Its mind was impossible to read.” Quinn spoke quietly as he weathered Lucca’s anger. “I think perhaps it was already free, though it claimed to have been freed by Dusk’s magic. It made a pact with Dusk to liberate a Revenant army for it in exchange for its help against Hunter. I think it acquired a force of some three hundred… Revenants all returned to their right minds by Dusk, though not to their original bodies. And as the Dragons retrieved something they needed to fight Hunter, I had opportunity to speak with the Gold Eyes.”
“What did it say?” Lucca asked, truly boiling now as he glowered at Quinn.
“It had a deal for me.” Quinn spoke as his gaze flicked quietly from Lucca to Ariana. “Or a warning. It said it was aware of my movements among Vampire society to bring us into a better age. It had been following my pursuits and was interested in my cause. But it said I had toprove my flame-born Lightbefore it would grant me its help.”
“Prove your flame-born Light?” Lucca threw up a hand now at Quinn in a very Italianate gesture of wrath. “What, like it wants you to figure out how to go back to being a Summer Fae, or regain your Light by becoming a Dark Fae?! But both are impossible, Quinn! Meanwhile, this Gold Eyes is stalking us the entire time and messing with our powers. Fucking hells! Damn you for keeping this from me! Damn you…!”
And as Lucca growled fiercely now, staring Quinn down, Quinn heaved a sigh. As Lucca’s power raged, Ariana shivered from his sudden disastrous intensity swirling all around her. It did not bode well for their aims as he boiled, furious to his marrow that Quinn had kept such important information from him during their negotiations.
And as a calculating coldness came into Quinn’s eyes now, Ariana saw all their aims breaking in the night. With a shock, she wondered if the Gold Eyes had wanted this very outcome as their barely-formed trio fractured, hard. She wondered if it was playing them; orchestrating their downfall by making their budding connections go deeply sour.
As Quinn lifted an eyebrow at Lucca, Lucca snarled at him. Ariana saw Lucca’s magic suddenly course with blades of dark magic as he seethed at Quinn, something his power had never done before.
As Quinn held his gaze levelly back, simmering with scalding red fire in the night.
CHAPTER 23 – POWER
As Lucca and Quinn stood stock-still in the night, one seething with fury and the other deeply cold with wrath, Ariana felt her powers suddenly blossom up hard in the Fae cemetery. As if her magic couldn’t stand the tense face-off when they were supposed to be working on a common goal, her energy roared out around her in a surge of black rainbows. As searing gold and silver sliced through those midnight waves, Quinn and Lucca’s attention returned to her. Staring them both down, Ariana crossed her arms in a hip-hard stance, as her power boiled from her like something alive.
Enraged.
