Page 73 of Dark Master's Redemption

I feel them shift and sing now, diving and swooping with incredible harmonies that just don’t exist in a world devoid of magic. Arturos warned me there are many Realms one can traverse, and to avoid any with darker vibrations, since they’re the Realms of Demons and other infernal creatures we Twilight folk rarely mess with.

I feel those darker, more vicious Realms now as I search for a realm of magic from my current position in the human world. The sensation of the Twilight Realm is uplifting, though, just like its name—given because of its beautiful margin of light around the twilight night sky.

I feel it then, as I think about it; as I see that beautiful nimbus of light give way to the dawn in the Twilight Realm, I know I’ve got a lock on its vibration at last. As I fix on the correct Realm, our destination blazes bright in my mind’s eye, like I’m already there.

The massive Gothic hall where the Bloodstone event happened—where all this mess started in the first place.

“I’m there,” I say quietly to Lucca and Curio, not moving or opening my eyes so I can maintain my trance.

“Now open your magic, like Arturos said.” Lucca’s voice is just as soft as he stands near me, watching me but not touching me, lest he interrupt my trance. “Send it to that place, across Realms.”

“Hold on,” I say, as I ready both myself and my group for anything.

As I open my magic at last, I feel it pour through that ephemeral barrier between worlds like pouring liquid through a sieve. The image of the black and white hall with its towering black marble vaults and checkerboard floor is bright in my mind; I feel little resistance as my power passes into it now, opening the portal between worlds.

But there’s something wrong with our destination. Too late, I see it, even as my Dark Fae magic ripples open the spontaneous portal, depositing us right into the middle of the vaulted underground hall.

Massive wards on the white and black floor—that flare with magic the moment we arrive.

Too late, I understand the hall was booby-trapped from anyone trying to cross into it—either by crossing Realms or simply bursting into the hall via the doors. As Florian’s guards and an entire cadre of black-clad Societas Sanguinis Vampires from the Council flood into the hall now, rushing to us in a hurricane of violet-black magic, a fight is on our hands.

We form a tight ball, everyone lengthening silver Faeanic spears festooned with sigils for battle, again courtesy of Lucca and his intense stash of equipment in the human realm for his own revolution. As we clash now with the Council’s Vampires and Florian’s guards in the black and white hall, I don’t have time to think anymore. I move on instinct, hurling massive strikes of magic with my auric wings as I write sigils in the air for wreck, ruin, and banishment.

The rest of our Dark Fae resonate with me now through our newly bound magic, as I dance through battle-strikes with my spear, just like my mother and father taught me long ago. We smite our enemies, and they fall away from us now like chaff.

In a few minutes, our enemies guarding this hall are gone. We’ve lost only one person; most of our group just have scratches or a deep wound or two, from the incredible rejuvenation we were all leant last night from Lucca’s, Quinn’s, and my sex.

Magic shared now, between all of us.

Curio spreads his wintery winds through our group now, healing as many of the less formidable wounds as he can with his magic. Working together, Lucca and Alleno join him, using ancient Darkwatch healing abilities as they take care of some of the deeper wounds.

Getting everyone ready to move out—and go find Quinn.

“They’ve got wards on the halls. Probably have them on all the corridors, as well.” Alleno glances around. Nasty crimson and dark violet Vampire Bloodsigns simmer everywhere through the black vaulted hall with its white flowering mosses and pale gargoyle fountains—that we’ll have to cross to get to the outer halls beyond.

“Florian’s taking no chances that supporters of Quinn’s could get in here and take this place back,” Curio says as he sets his jaw, glancing around. “Be prepared to find wards like these everywhere once we go inside the Hotel proper. These aren’t Florian’s make, either; this is Council warding, through and through. The Vampire Council is giving Florian everything he asks for right now. Prepare to meet a lot more of their fighters in the halls, as we take this place back.”

“We’ll be ready.” Lucca’s blue gaze is steely, as Alleno echoes him with a dire nod.

Approaching one of those Vampire Bloodsigns on the floor beyond where our group was fighting, I crouch now, observing it. I don’t touch it, but feel called to it somehow, as I whisper my fingers over it through the air. Like liquid lava churning with darkness, it flares beneath my auric touch. As my Animante Dark Fae energy curls across it, it sears a terrible gold color now.

I pale as my heart drops out from under me—knowing whose handiwork this is.

“The Gold Eyes.” I watch that sigil disappear into nothing after my aura touched it. But even though my power cleared it, I feel a deep drain now, when I just felt so full of energy. Sapped, though not as bad as I might have been had I not been bonded to Quinn’s Dark Haven, I stumble and nearly fall right onto a different sigil as Lucca swoops in, hauling me up with his hands beneath my arms.

“The Gold Eyes?” He lifts an eyebrow at me as he cradles me close, then scowls at the warding all around. “Are you telling me the Gold Eyes was responsible for all this?”

“Somehow, yes.” I shake my head, because I don’t get it, exactly. “I don’t get the sense he was here, personally; I think he influenced whoever did all this sigildry, somehow, causing it to be imbued with his magic. This isn’t Ascendent-level sigil work; he influenced a normal Vampire to do this. Probably someone under his thrall, like Arturos was, to create this trap for us.”

“Another one of his little tests. To see how strong we’ve become.” Lucca snorts as a terrible smile twists his lips. “That bastard. It sapped your magic, Ariana, the moment you touched it. Then dissipating only after its terrible deed was done—making our most formidable Dark Fae weak… just when we need her to be strong.”

“So if we want to sneak into the Hotel’s halls without being discovered, taking our enemy by surprise… we have to pay the Gold Eyes’ price,” Alleno growls now as he gets it, too. “Fucking hells. I had a feeling stealing back in to take this place would not be easy. Now I know why.”

“Unless any of you can discharge this warding,” I say as I glance at them, “then I’ll have to do it. Or we’re going to be flooded with fighting like we were just now, at every corner. Rather than being able to get to Quinn and have a coordinated attack to take back the Hotel.”

As Lucca, Alleno, and Curio glance at each other now, I see they’re game to try. None of the other Dark Fae are strong enough in their magic to approach this kind of cursing; though Lucca steps forward first to try his hand, Curio moves quickly past him, kneeling down to take a look.

“I’ve got the magic with the most Night in it. Let me try.” Curio examines the sigil-work, perusing those scalding Vampire Bloodsigns. But as he whispers his winter winds over one, trying to coax it to dissipate, he gets nothing but zapped—so strong it throws him backwards into Lucca and Alleno, who catch him as they all fall to a hard seat on the floor.

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