Page 51 of Dark Master's Redemption

“I recall.” I feel entranced staring at the elegant woman, though she’s done nothing to mesmerize me in any way. Still, a feeling of understanding passes between us, as I feel us resonate with our powers. She steps in front of Arturos now, staring me down as that power simmers between us.

Forming strange cords and bonds that I can see now, shimmering through the air.

“You have called me, and I came,” she says, as her silvery alto voice breathes through the midnight air. Her blue-white eyes pin me, drowning me in their endless depths as she speaks. “Though you are not my Master, and I have not your Kiss upon me…still, you have called me up from my sojourn to the fathomless deeps. To be here, by your side, in your hour of need. A call I could not resist. And a resonance I do not want to.”

As she speaks, a strange thrill passes through me. Because here is one of the once-Revenants from the Bloodstone ceremony, returned by the Music’s power. She’s come to find me, because she feels a connection to me.

Calling her to my side in my darkest hour.

21

TROY

It’s late when I return to the upstairs guest suite after my talk with my parents, to think about everything they’ve said. I had thought I would open the door to see only Quinn slumbering in bed; as I get there, however, I’m surprised to find a gathering of people in our rooms.

I stop short now as I find Devi and Curio in the suite, plus Arturos, and one of the returned Revenants from the Bloodstone event, a Vampire-Siren woman named Luliana Ouros. Shocked into a standstill, I suddenly feel Quinn and Lucca again through our bonds. I had been so focused on my conversation with my parents, I’d almost entirely tuned them out.

Something big moves through Quinn’s energy, as he glances at me from where he stands near the bed in a maroon silk men’s robe. Something just as big moves through Lucca’s aura as he lands with a light jump on the balcony outside from his walk.

As Lucca pushes in through the balcony doors with Alleno behind him, I see a fluttering of enormous tawny wings outside. I’m stunned to realize Lucca’s barn owl Altenni is here somehow; as Lucca halts with the same shock I feel, however, quickly surveying how many of Quinn’s associates are in the room, his gaze finds mine.

We both step into the room; as I shut the suite’s main door behind me, Lucca does the same with the balcony doors. It’s a tense minute, as we both wonder if we should be on our guard right now with Arturos and the Vampire-Siren woman.

But as Quinn’s dark gaze pins mine, he nods at Lucca to stand down; a wave of his dark aura pours through both of us.

On fire with excitement.

I haven’t felt such eagerness from Quinn in a long while; I move to his side now, wondering what’s going on. It’s got him worked up, but in a good way.

As I arrive near the bed where Quinn’s standing, Lucca comes to stand at his other side. Devi and Curio make way for us, though I can tell it takes everything Devi has to leave Quinn’s side, even for the briefest moment.

Quinn seems on good terms with them again, however, as he kisses my lips. His dark eyes sparkle as he waves a hand at the Vampire-Siren woman standing before him with Arturos. “Luliana, please forgive the interruption. Now that the other two members of my bound trio are here, could you please elaborate on what you just told me?”

The Vampire-Siren woman’s eyes stray to me, holding me with her ancientness, before they go to Lucca. She watches him with the same gravitas before looking back at me.

“You,” she says to me now, curious. “I feel you… calling to me. Deep inside my soul.”

“Calling to you?” I ask, entranced by this woman’s deep, mystical manner. Like Arturos, she’s a Vampire, but holds a vast amount of her old Siren power within her. It makes her ten times more mesmerizing than either a Siren or a Vampire alone, as she stares me down again.

“I was lost for a long time in my Revenant state,” she says, as her eyes stray to Quinn now. “But you three called to me; you pulled me out of that place by the power of your love, and your Music. Returned to myself, I was freed from that dark emptiness I had been lost in. Yet I still felt your tremendous, loving Music; like it was a beacon for me to come home to. I have been feeling it ever since.”

“Luliana left the Red Letter Hotel Florence a few weeks ago, to dive back into the Twilight Realm’s oceans and find solace, so she could repair her mind and body after being returned from her Revenance.” Arturos explains now as he and the Vampire-Siren woman glance at each other. She nods for him to continue. “Even though she went far around the world, however, she kept feeling herself pulled back here, to Florence. So she came, only to discover the Red Letter Hotel and Dark Haven had been taken. She followed that beacon inside her and made her way here, through a lost portal in the ocean, just off Sicily. To find you three.”

“You call me; all of you.” She gazes at us, though I can’t tell if it’s perplexed or mystical, as her ancient eyes peruse us. “Your Music that returned me calls me still. I find myself… compelled to help you now. Though we share no proper Master’s Kiss or other mystical bond.”

“Compelled against your will?” Quinn asks pointedly as his brows furrow.

“No.” The slightest smile touches her lips now, like an echo of a dream. “Compelled like the hummingbird is compelled to follow the sun when the seasons change and winter comes, so she can live closer to the warmth. Thus do I travel, to be where it is warm. Where there is Music… and love.”

I blink at her powerful statement as Lucca inhales. Quinn stares at Luliana with a deep thoughtfulness, as his mind churns through myriad possibilities for what she’s just told us.

His heart celebrating.

“My trio and I are in great peril, from many avenues.” Quinn is serious as he watches her. “I do not wish you to involve yourself in something you do not wish to be involved in, helping us.”

“Your concern is a product of your love.” She waves a hand, dismissing him with gracious imperiousness. “I am not concerned. Arturos tells me your woes with the Vampire Council are deep. The Council is young and rash, believing their power is most formidable. There are greater things out there to fight, however, rather than warring amongst ourselves. Things I have encountered, when my eyes were red and I was lost in nightmares. Things with gold eyes… and empty hearts.”

“You knew the Gold Eyes while you were a Revenant?” Quinn asks, shocked as we all wait with bated breath for Luliana’s answer.

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