Page 54 of Dark Master's Redemption

But Quinn’s people want to re-commit to him, and fight this war we’re embroiled in with the Vampire Council; intense loyalty flows to us on every side now as Quinn sees that all are ready. Even the most injured have been carried out here tonight, to be in the circle with us. They sit on the grass, supported by one or two of their fellows.

And wait, for night to truly fall.

As it finally begins to get dark, stars popping out high above, my parents move around, lighting torches at the perimeter. But the fire doesn’t disturb the darkness; it only enhances it, as Quinn becomes illuminated now by his natural element.

Standing at the center of the ring, wearing only a white dress shirt and black slacks, the collar of his shirt open to the breeze and his sleeves rolled up, Quinn is picturesque in the night. Lit by fire, surrounded by darkness and his people, a glorious blaze comes from him now as it shines in his dark eyes, knowing everyone’s ready.

He looks at Lucca and me, near him inside the ring.

“Be ready for anything,” he says.

We nod.

Beyond our ring of power, another ceremony is being prepared as darkness descends. I take a moment now to glance over at Luliana Ouros near the edge of the field, preparing to pull the Gold Eyes’ Bloodsigns out of Arturos.

As she and he stand on the grass, a horse trough of water waits nearby. Seashells surround Arturos, as many as could be found on a day’s notice. He’s naked in the evening wind; I see him shiver as Luliana paints intricate sigils on his body now with some kind of strange pearlescent substance.

It’s something of Siren origin, as he waits patiently for her to finish. As she finally crowns him with a braided band of seaweed and shells, then slips the same around his ankles, wrists, and binds one around his neck, I feel her ceremony come to readiness.

Standing in his circle, Quinn waits for her to finish. Because we’re going to need both Luliana’s Night and Arturos’ to join this power we’re building, since they are the only two actual Vampires here this evening.

As Luliana finishes binding the seaweed around Arturos’ neck and steps back, she nods to Quinn. He nods back and both of them turn.

Opening their respective ceremonies at once.

Quinn raises his hands, and the Night comes roaring from him. His darkest energy was always powerful; but something in it is more so, now that he’s come back from being a Revenant.

Dark like death, but blazing with gold and crimson fire as it surges in a maelstrom around him, Quinn’s magic contains massive swathes of flame that boil through his darker Night as he raises his magic to its fullest. As he pushes his power as far as it can go, gargantuan wings of Night seethe from his back in a dire spread that devours the field; surrounding everyone, those incredible wings bring them into his circle.

I shudder as a dark ecstasy takes me now; Quinn’s unleashing all his vast eros tonight, along with his power, to re-bond his people. Every part of his dark Master’s nature, every last iota of pleasure he feels in everything he’s built with his Dark Haven of Florence, surges through him now, vibrant in the night.

Even though we’re in exile here, Florence is Florence; the two cities are linked between the human world and the Twilight Realm. I feel Quinn revel in his home now, as the night wind sweeps us. Even though we’re on the outskirts of the ancient city, vast pleasure breathes through Quinn from his hundreds of years of living, loving, and losing here.

But all of that has only made him stronger; Quinn’s spirit rises through his power now, as the Dark Fae shiver from that power devouring them. Lucca and I do, too, as Quinn’s magnificent Night takes us.

Indomitable.

Beyond our circle, Luliana has raised her power also, for Arturos’ ceremony. Like a dark oceanic tide, her magic stays tightly contained around what she’s doing, so she doesn’t interrupt Quinn’s bond with his people.

I feel it, though, as a vast, watery energy like the ancient Marianas Trench pulls at me via my strange bond to Arturos. I look, and see she’s sealed herself and Arturos inside a watery barrier, though I can still see them through its rippling, shimmering surface.

Dark with Night, yet somehow shining with opalescent splendor like the sun hitting the waves, Luliana’s power is beautiful as it rises. Not only that, but I feel how expert her control is as she shoots a hundred watery tentacles of Night at Arturos now, heaving him into the horse trough with a hard splash.

I feel it as Arturos is submerged; his home is under the water, even though an instinct inside him fights Luliana’s coils now, hating to be trapped. I feel how she’s draining him, however, pulling out his very lifeblood through those tentacles of darkness as they wrap around him.

They squeeze him like a boa constrictor with her leviathan might until at last, Arturos gives up struggling. Undone by her magnificent magic, he can’t struggle anymore—a scream of terror goes off inside him now, his actual cry swallowed by the water, as Luliana masters him.

I feel his terrible draining as the ancient Vampire-Siren Queen uses the sigils she wrote on him with her own mystical power, plus the water, to drain the Gold Eyes’ Bloodsigns out of him with his own blood. The trough water is a terrible color in the night now; as I shudder at what’s happening, Lucca inhales, setting his jaw as he feels it through me.

But it’s Quinn it affects most, as he also feels Arturos through our bond. Despite what he’s said, Quinn gives a terrible growl, his eyes molten as he feels someone he still cares about being tortured like that.

Arturos’ screams have turned to shrieks under the water now, as Luliana drains him; all of our trio feel how vastly painful the process is, like a thousand knives sliding into our flesh and digging in, over and over.

It was Arturos’ choice, however, to be taken by the Gold Eyes—Quinn turns back to his own people now, resuming his ceremony as his wave of fiery darkness seethes in the night. Receiving his cue to get started, his people join hands now in their wide ring.

My parents, Alleno, and Bello, wait on the outside of the circle to hold our perimeter of magic strong tonight; Lucca and I remain inside with Altenni, since we are as much a part of Quinn’s Dark Haven as anyone else he’s bonded.

Curio and Devi stand as part of the ring with Quinn’s other Dark Fae, needing to re-Kiss to him. At last, Quinn reaches down, lifting a silver bowl from the grass, along with a plain silver knife. Normally, the Master’s Kiss objects would be Vampire ceremonial items; these are merely kitchen utensils from my mother’s herb-crafting, all we had available on such short notice.

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