Page 26 of Dark Master's Redemption

“The Hotel has been taken, Quinn,” Devi says with a terrible wrath now as her blood-dark aura surges around her, scarlet like her Scarlet Fae origins but black and terrible in its knife-like fury. “The Council sent a significant number of their Societas Sanguinis in against us, in addition to a number of Council Masters who came to make sure we fell. I felt a brief missive from Pisa that they have been taken as well, before their minds were cut off from ours. Both Dark Havens have fallen this night. What you see here is everyone we have left. All the others were captured by the Council’s formidable mind-snares. I fear they have been broken to the Council’s will, being turned over as we speak to another Master to Kiss this entire Dark Haven and make it theirs. Though I do not know who that Master is.”

“It could be anyone on the Council,” Quinn says now as he gazes around the last of his fighters. “I’m sure they all hate me now, after we killed a few of them with that disastrous demonstration. Any of them would be glad to take this Dark Haven over. And twist the knife in my gut… to make it sting just that much deeper as I fall.”

“That will not happen.” Lucca’s gaze is intense now as he peruses the people who are left.

And I see a sudden light come into my Cuorante Dark Fae’s blue eyes.

“Devi. How many of these Vampires are actually Dark Fae that Quinn’s Made?” Lucca turns to Devina, glancing between her and Alleno, who has stepped to her side. I remember that Devina and Alleno have been secret lovers for gods-know-how-long, though they don’t cuddle each other but stand solid beside each other like warriors.

“All of them.” Devi turns to Quinn. “Congratulations, Quinn. You have an army of Dark Fae at your command. We need to regain our bonds to you, so you can wield us once more, but there you have it. You’ve been Making Dark Fae for centuries from the Summer Fae and other Fae you willingly turned over the years. None of us became Vampires. We’ve just been hiding it really, really well, as we discovered what we are.”

“All Mentale Dark Fae.” Quinn breathes with a glimmer of hope now as he glances around our group. I see how there are only about thirty fighters here, however, holed up in Florence’s underground. If Quinn had been Making Dark Fae from Fae Lineages he brought into his Dark Haven all along, there should be dozens more. I understand that with him, as I feel his hope flicker.

As it gutters, threatening to go out.

“Were the rest of the Dark Fae captured?” He pins Devi with his gaze once more.

“No. We got them out,” she says with a wicked twist to her lips now, as she nods with subtle cunning at Alleno.

“Those Dark Fae who weren’t fighters, who were Courtiers and Courtesans, or in other staff positions at the Hotel, we got out through the Underground early, before the attack,” Alleno says, nodding at the far wall of the tomb where a hidden staircase ascends by magic to the Fae cemetery above. “We got them to Bello Bellissimo, our Dark Fae trafficker; he got everyone across Realms to the human world, to our Dark Fae safe house on the other side of Florence. Some six dozen Dark Fae, in all. Though your Vampires were all captured in the fight. None would flee early, even those who were weak fighters. Something about true Night in their veins, I suppose.”

“Vampires never shy from death. It’s in their nature,” Quinn says, as I feel a deep knowledge of why the Vampires didn’t run move through him. Rousing himself, he heaves a hard sigh, as both relief and wrath take him. At least the Dark Fae were spared being turned over to whatever Council Master Vampire will rule Florence’s Dark Haven next.

Though the Vampires were not.

“We abandon no one.” Dark fire blazes in Quinn’s eyes, gazing around our group with determination and rage. “No Vampire or Dark Fae who has ever been Sired, Made, or Kissed by me shall ever be abandoned to the torment of another Master, not while breath remains in my lungs and blood beats in my heart. We will get everyone back. Even if I die trying, I swear it.”

I know Quinn is as good as his oath, as everyone in our circle silently nods. As Lucca grips my hand, I feel a sweet balm flow into me from his blazing, righteous heart. He’s just as determined to see things through with all of this, even though it’s not his battle.

Because Quinn is a part of us, a part of the very fiber of Lucca’s and my being as we both firm our resolve now—to join Quinn in getting his entire Dark Haven back, or die with him. The Dark Haven of Florence and the Hotel that goes with it are the epicenter of Quinn’s heart.

And I fear he may be truly lost to us, if we lose this place and all the people in it.

But even as we firm our resolve to fight whoever has taken Florence’s Dark Haven, a terrible sound rings through the underground like a cacophonous bell. That sound isn’t the Music, but it’s deafening, as all of us clap our hands to our ears, except Quinn, who weathers it.

I have a brief understanding from him that this is some kind of magical warning system he put in place throughout the underground in case of an emergency long ago. And then a voice is flooding through that terrible sound.

A smooth, laughing tenor voice that chills me—to my very bones.

“To my most beloved and dearly deviant Quindici,” the Master of Monaco, Florian Delano’s voice is smooth like butter over honey as he addresses Quinn. As it drips with sarcasm and disdain, I don’t miss the condescending and sexual way Quinn’s nemesis on the Council of Rome has addressed him.

As he uses Quinn’s own magical warning system now, to deliver Quinn a message.

“Tonight, I have taken over management of your Dark Haven of Florence.” Florian’s unctuous voice continues, as I practically see his gloating smile at his announcement. “I know you’re here, somewhere. Though your wards on the underground in Florence prevent us from tracing you right now, it is only a matter of time before my people and all the vast resources the Council have given us to annex your Dark Haven break them. Your wards will fall; the last of your fighters will be discovered. I will take Florence completely, and then I shall make your people suffer. You know the flavor of my suffering, Quinn; indeed, you endured it countless times over the centuries at Emiliana’s behest, to continue her alliance with the Dark Haven of Monaco. For every day that passes, another one of your Vampires will be acquired, to face the same suffering as you once did at my hands. I will take pleasure in ruining them all, until you give yourself up. For that is what you will do, Quinn, before any of your people come to true death from the devious pleasure I can create in them. And they will come to me, again and again, because of my power, as you did of old. You have seven days until I extinguish the first batch. Then seven more until I kill off the second, and so forth. Au revoir.”

As the cacophonous sound shuts off with a snap, I’m left with a deafening ring in my ears. Even that cannot mask Quinn’s furious snarl, as he raises his power in a hurricane of dark fire around us.

His eyes flicker deathly red to his Revenant state.

As the fae blaze in them dies.

11

UNHOLY

“Quinn!” I seize Quinn’s face, making him look at me as he begins to go Revenant. Florian Delano’s announcement he has captured the Dark Haven of Florence pushes Quinn too far; as I come to his front, Lucca steps to Quinn’s back, wrapping strong arms around him and putting his lips by Quinn’s ear.

As crimson death devours Quinn’s eyes now, I see his form flicker. I pour my love into him then, through our bonds; Lucca takes my cue and does the same. Our brightness rushes into Quinn, countering his Revenant’s devouring as he churns in an all-consuming wrath.

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