“So?” Lucca asked.
Sitting back in his throne-like chair, Quinn tapped a finger on the chair’s arm as he frowned. As his power swirled around him in a deep nimbus of shadows, Ariana found herself watching it, seeing how the contours of the room became silver-dark through it as Quinn ruminated. Flickers of fire were in his aura now, and though Quinn had not raised his auric wings, his power was restless as his finger tapped. At last, he inhaled, then pinned Ariana with his gaze, then Lucca.
“I would like to offer you both a proposal tonight.” Quinn spoke quietly now as he regarded them. “And if it is a proposal that appeals to you, then we shall move forward.”
“A proposal?” Ariana asked, lifting an eyebrow at Quinn before she glanced at Lucca. But Lucca had sat back now, swirling his wine in a warily regal way as his piercing blue eyes pinned Quinn.
“Go on.” Lucca said.
“I propose we join forces from this moment on, officially.” Quinn spoke directly now as he stared at Lucca. “As you have long known, Lucca, I have a broader agenda among Vampire-kind to see my people rise to equality in the Twilight Realm, just as I know you have strong aims to lead a rebellion amongst your people and bring them into the modern world. Both are worthy goals; and for the first time, Ariana’s coming to us with her unique truth-evoking powers as a Dark Fae gives us both a chance to see those goals become reality. Ariana and I have discussed my plan at length, just after we bonded by my Master’s Kiss. But it is time to broach this plan to you, Lucca. Because if any of us are to succeed… I believe we need all three of us on-board.”
“Let me guess.” Lucca spoke with a knowing look now as he set his wine down with a precise movement. “You and I share Ariana, both her time and influence, as she opens to her new powers. We both use her to gradually convince my Fae and your Vampires that we should be leading our Lineages, eventually working up to getting me on the throne as Summer Fae King and you heading up your Vampire Council in Rome. Once we are, we rebuild trust between the Lineages and cease the hunting of Dark Fae on both sides. Everyone wins, and we have a fairy-tale peace in the land.”
“Essentially.” Quinn spoke with a darkly amused look now, his lips quirked in a wry smile. “Though there will be far more steps in-between, I should think.”
“I should think.” Lucca snorted as he took up his wine again, sipping though he was intrigued now as he watched Quinn. As he glanced to Ariana, she saw a sudden need in Lucca’s eyes, though he covered it well. Glancing back to Quinn, he cradled his wineglass in his fingertips. “Why, Quinn? After all these years… why give a damn suddenly about the Summer Fae, or me?”
“Because I never ceased giving a damn about you, Lucca. Or the Summer Fae.” Quinn spoke softly as his dark eyes held Lucca’s.
And Ariana felt it then, as Quinn’s dark energy gave a purposeful swirl towards Lucca. As Quinn’s powers rose in the night, they curled around Lucca now, and Ariana could feel it as his smooth dark aura stroked the bright rainbows shimmering off of Lucca. As their auras touched, Lucca slowly inhaled, taking a deep drink of his wine.
And then set it carefully aside – as he reigned in his bright auric power.
“You know I cannot go along with your plans blindly, Quinn.” Lucca spoke with a strange tone now as his blue eyes tightened. “You know how that’s gone in the past, when you plot and plan behind the scenes and don’t trust anyone to make decisions with you.”
“All I’m asking for is one step at a time.” Quinn spoke back softly, as if pleading with Lucca. “All I’m asking is that we simply join our aims as one right now… and see where it goes, Lucca.”
As Lucca stared Quinn down hard now, Ariana saw his bright energy whirl, something sharp and deadly in its intensity. “It’s not my decision. It’s Ariana’s.” Lucca spoke shortly now as he glanced to her, beautiful and tense all at once. “Ariana? Do you consent to working with both Quinn and I on our agendas for the Summer Fae and Vampires, so we can aid you and any Dark Fae who may be left out there, as my father insinuated three weeks ago? Or are we all just wasting our time here?”
Though she bristled at Lucca’s uncouth phrasing, Ariana understood he was upset by Quinn tonight, though she didn’t know why. “I want to support both your aims, Lucca, Quinn, you know that. But Lucca’s also right,” Ariana said as she glanced at Quinn, “we all need to communicate openly and honestly if we’re going to aid each other. And right now, I need to know… that if I agree to help you both for this master plan, I would essentially… be dating both of you?”
“Is the idea so odious?” Quinn spoke to Ariana now as something carnal shone in his dark onyx eyes. “For when last we spoke about this just after our Master’s Kiss, Ariana, you admitted that you were feeling just as intensely for Lucca as you are for me. Our fates are interconnected; and though I don’t know how or why, it seems impossible for any of us to resist. Indeed, you have drawn secrets from both Lucca and I in the past few weeks that we never intended to divulge. And here we sit now over dinner, having the most civil conversation he and I have enjoyed in… what? At least two centuries?”
“At least that.” Lucca spoke with a subtle fire now as he drew a deep breath. Glancing to Ariana, his blue eyes were intensely vulnerable. “Ariana. If this plan does not appeal, please say so. If you don’t want to spend time with me, or be with me at all—”
“No! It’s not that.” Ariana interrupted as her magic rose fast, urging her to speak from her heart to stop Lucca’s worried direction. But as she stared at Lucca, seeing his blue eyes burn for her, Ariana suddenly had no words. Her lips fell open as a beautiful pull stretched between them, humming with a strange energy in the night like music.
As her magic moved for her now, a curl of dark rainbows flowed over the table, stroking Lucca’s fingertips. Inhaling sharply, Lucca’s eyes blazed daylight white as a diamond-light aura cascaded from him, pouring across the table to stroke her also. Ariana felt his power caress her lips as if he’d actually kissed her, and a shudder passed through her. The same shudder rolled through Lucca.
And through their bond, Ariana felt it strangely pass through Quinn.
“For we are connected, the three of us.” Quinn spoke softly at the head of the table now. “Can you both not feel it? Though you and I have our tense history, Lucca, Ariana is the key that bridges that gap. Created of both Vampire and Fae magic, she is the force that is able to unite us. Vampire, Fae, and Dark Fae – we are all not so very different. And if we three can master these separations that divide us… then do we not create hope for a greater unity among all our peoples?”
And as Quinn’s words flowed through Ariana like a sweet, dark river, she saw them pass through Lucca also. Lucca’s eyes burned like phosphorus as he stared at her, and Ariana saw him breathe out softly in the night as his aura curled all around her, humming with power.
As his ephemeral touch came at Ariana’s lips again, she felt how much Lucca desired her – as much as she wanted him. But it was all so strange as Ariana sat beside Quinn, knowing she was already bonded to him and that they had already started to become intimate. Closing his lips, Lucca watched Ariana with a beautiful need.
And then glanced at Quinn – holding Quinn’s gaze with a disastrously bright fire in his eyes.
“I’m in if Ariana is. Because you’re right, Quinn, she is the element that brings us together. But not without her say-so. She is not a pawn in anyone’s game – and neither am I. Ariana?”
Hesitating, Ariana glanced at them both now, as they turned to watch her. “I mean… how are you so calm about this? Aren’t you both supposed to be… I don’t know. In a testosterone pissing contest over me or something?”
“Love is stranger than fiction, Ariana. It doesn’t often happen the way it does in human-world romance novels.” Quinn spoke softly as he watched her with a wry sadness. As he glanced to Lucca, Ariana saw how they gazed at each other with such a terrible, ruined longing and bitter fury. It broke her heart suddenly as she saw that raw tenderness – and something came crashing home for her. The truth rang inside her like a bell as she inhaled, blinking as a shudder of dark rainbows cascaded off her.
“My god! You two used to be lovers!” She breathed as she glanced between them.
“That was long ago.” Quinn whispered now as his gaze remained pinned to Lucca. “But from great love can be born such wrath.”
