And a tirade of Vampire Revenants poured from its depths.
CHAPTER 26 – REVENANT
As Vampire Revenants came pouring from the Bloodstone, Quinn was suddenly back at Ariana’s side. A sea of cursed Night, they boiled out of the sundered effigy in a tirade of seething black smoke, screaming like nails down a blackboard as she stood frozen in terror. The Music ceased as ice seized her veins – a dozen Revenants surrounded her and Quinn, hemming them in now. All around, the Masters shot their powers to the max, drawing on any underlings who had come with them to the Hotel this week.
As everyone raised shields against the real demons tonight.
As the cursed ones swarmed the hall, Ariana came back-to-back with Quinn, hands up and ready to fight with her magic. But her heart froze as the smoke-black creatures turned their burning red eyes upon her. Hate surged from them; fear smote her like quicksand towing her under as their tentacles of darkness shot out and their devouring natures swarmed in, trying to take her.
But as Quinn seized her hand, throwing up a massive shield of roaring black fire all around them, Ariana could suddenly breathe again. As his fortitude rose high inside her, Lucca’s strength blazing through them also where he stood unaffected someplace far away, Quinn’s command came like thunder through her mind.Ariana! Fear is a Revenant’s power. They devour your mind with terror, then attack when you are weak. This is the event we were waiting for. And though it is different than I suspected, battle is upon us. Gird your mind! Let Lucca’s power and mine blaze through you now – and we will win this night.
As Ariana’s hand spasmed in Quinn’s, she saw the Revenants swarm. Trying to break through the Masters’ shields with their infernal minds and talons of Night, dozens of Revenants seethed through the hall with more issuing out of the Bloodstone every moment.
The Masters formed groups now, protecting each other with their magic as if they knew standing alone was not enough against these nightmare terrors. Arturos, Lady Eiseth, Devi, and Curio rallied lesser Masters to them, while the German Master stood with the Spanish duo. And though the Winter Fae Master stood stalwartly alone as everyone raised their energy with hurricane force, snarling and shifting into frightening visages, every Master in the hall faced off with the Revenants.
To fight – or die trying.
But no group had as many surrounding them as Ariana and Quinn. Alone inside their ring of Night, they faced off with thirty Revenants now – a wall of seething power hemming them in beyond Quinn’s burning shield. Red eyes were everywhere; but even as they stared at Ariana, trying to devour her mind by fear, she felt Lucca fight back, hard.
Like a blazing comet, he ripped both of his silver-gold longknives from his boot-sheaths where he was far away, in a clearing with waterfalls flowing all around. Slamming the twin knives hard together before him, they blazed out into a massive longsword made of magic now, the blade burning white-hot as the hilt seared a sun-bright gold.
As Lucca slammed the point of that sword into the ground, Ariana felt him revel hard in the beauty of the stars above him, the quiet of the glade, and the thundering of water all around. As he did, his energy came pouring through Ariana and Quinn, his massive wings of pure light scorching.
Lucca’s wings devoured the nighttime field where he was, and light seared all through Ariana; darkness joined it with fire as Quinn roared a terrible battle-cry behind her. As Quinn’s nimbus surged with a sun’s flame now, as hot as Lucca’s, Ariana felt their twin blaze fill her. Like a harpy, she screamed as vivid rainbows and gold flooded from her. Her magic and Quinn’s rushed up into a funnel as their ferocious wings joined with Lucca’s through the bond.
And exploded into the Revenants – hammering them back.
Ariana downloaded everything she needed to know from Lucca and Quinn about fighting with her magic in that moment. A rush and roar of movement came as she used what her parents had taught her with the knowledge she received now from her men. Her body was in motion as her hands flashed through complex Faeanic sigils – roaring and blasting Revenants all around as she and Quinn fought in a tight dance. They were liquid motion; they were the true power of Dark Fae, Summer Fae, and Master Vampire combined as Ariana felt Lucca dance with them also, doing battle in his ravine of waterfalls as he made sigils just like theirs.
They were one in the night as Lucca’s power came through Ariana and Quinn both now. Moving in synch, they roared and blasted Revenants with Summer Fae sigils and cascades of power, creating massive drives of magic as they whirled and thrust. The Music sang all through Ariana now as she danced with that power; mighty and wild, her teeth became barbaric fangs and her hands grew vicious silver-gold talons that she used to rake energy harder through the Revenants as she gouged and slashed.
Rainbows of fire shot from Quinn’s hands now, blazing with Lucca’s light even as Lucca struggled to maintain his position in their trio. The Music roared through Quinn with demonic harmonies and it sang through Lucca like bright choirs as it whirled and melded their trio as one.
Ariana didn’t even know how many pairs of red eyes surrounded them now; she and Quinn and Lucca were simply motion and fire in the night as they blazed and fought. All around, the Revenants had begun to shrink back, and Ariana felt a righteous joy sing in her heart at their retreat.
But suddenly, she felt the Revenants yoked into one force by a single mind. She felt a command surge through them, dominating and terrible as a voice smote the night.Take them down at any cost, that mind told the Revenants – and Ariana felt the midnight terrors surge. Every Revenant in the hall left off fighting other Masters to join in taking down Ariana and Quinn.
As a thousand spears of Night rushed in.
Lucca screamed on the other side of their connection as Quinn roared like a demon and thrust his wings of fire up hard – curling them protectively around himself and Ariana as that solid wall of Night crashed in. Ariana and Quinn were suddenly trapped in a fiery dome of blazing Light and Night both as Lucca poured his all into Quinn, bolstering Quinn’s protective shield and holding the Revenants off.
But even that power wasn’t enough. As Quinn wrapped his arms protectively around Ariana now, she felt him shudder with pain as wave after wave of Revenants hammered into that barrier – sucking and seething all over it as he tried to hold them off. Ariana felt the Music surge through her, pouring her own energy into Quinn to hold that sea of darkness back.
But as Revenants swarmed all over Quinn’s fire and smoke barrier, she could feel them leeching waves of energy from her very bones now as they drained away Quinn’s power like a tornado of demonic bloodlust. It was like standing inside a hurricane as Ariana screamed – thrusting every last bit of energy she had left into Quinn to hold that vortex off.
As the sound of cruel laughter smote her, echoing through her ears, Ariana felt a vortex of Night open up inside her. As if whomever had summoned this tirade of Revenants wanted her to use that utterly black power on them, Ariana felt herself slipping into that dark place even as she fought it. Struggling to hold on to her brightness, her love and Light, she suddenly knew to her bones that she wouldn’t be able to make it if this maelstrom kept up.
Because she was still unbalanced – missing that last bit of Lucca’s Light to stabilize her.
But as Quinn screamed in agony, black rents slashing open all over his chest and down both forearms now from the power he was trying to master, he was suddenly thrust to his knees. As he struggled to hold the barrier, Ariana felt her Light guttering out, succumbing to the blackest magic within her.
Hammered to her knees also now, she clutched Quinn as he shuddered with a near-seizure, the both of them drained nearly to death from the darkness swarming all over them. Beyond the barrier, Ariana could feel a midnight ocean, seething mist, scarlet wrath, and furious frost blasting the Revenants. But even Arturos, Eiseth, Devi, and Curio supporting Quinn now was not going to be enough to halt this tirade. Revenants were simply that strong, mad Vampires thousands of years old with no sanity left.
Only devouring.
Far away in his valley of waterfalls, however, Lucca stood stalwart. He was not in the vicinity of the terrors now smiting fear into everyone as they strove to take Quinn and Ariana down. She felt him grasp the problem of Ariana’s waning Light and that strange dark vortex whirling up inside her. And as she felt him understand it was live-or-die tonight, Ariana felt Lucca decide to give his life.
For her – and for Quinn.
