Page 51 of Light Fae's Love

“Hmm…” Devi is silent a long moment. “I will gather all the Hotel’s Devilsbane Serum I can find on such short notice. Since when, though, does a Summer Fae Prince know so much about Vampire healing?”

“Since a Summer Fae Prince lost his first and deepest love to the Vampires,” I say, sober, “and wanted to know how to keep protecting him, as was my solemn charge long ago in the Darkwatch.”

“Bullshit. You love him, bright Fae,” Devina says, and I feel like I can almost see her smile.

“I love him,” I say back, my voice soft. “And I love Ariana, too. I love them both. And they’re both going to die in Rome if I don’t do something. Find Lady Eiseth; keep her there for me. Alleno and I will be there in half an hour.”

“Quickly.” Devi responds, as I hear a sound like she turned away from the phone. “For dawn is rising soon and Eiseth Pendragon must sleep when it does.”

“We’ll be there as fast as we can.”

With that promise, I hang up the phone as a whirring of wings comes from above.

And my enormous tawny owl settles to the balcony, giving a soft hoot to take us where we need to go.

20

COUNCIL

Rome in the Twilight Realm is a city that never left history. Though Florence has modernized to some degree, Rome has lost none of its ancient world splendor as Quinn and I drive slowly through its cobbled streets, heading towards the Vampire Council’s citadel. A city within the city, the Council’s holdings are at the very center of Rome where the human-world Colosseum, Foro Romano, and other buildings of antiquity have been made into a heritage site.

Here, everything is ancient in the settling twilight, as we drive through in the one modern thing all Vampires seem to love—sports cars. Every signpost, wall, and building around us, however, is more than a thousand years old, sometimes tens of thousands, everything preserved by magic. As if every colonnade, aqueduct, and lintel were just built yesterday, the red Roman brick, shining white marble and limestone, mottled granite full of quartz, and red clay roof tiles have never seen decay.

Even though the people in this city are dead—Vampires emerging from every shop, apartment building, and house as they throw doors wide.

Taking over the night.

This was once a Fae city, but it was lost during the War of Rome that cost Quinn his Fae life and Lucca his lover six hundred years ago. That was only the latest in an age-old battle between the Vampires and Fae, however, over this hotly contested territory. Because ages ago, the Ascendants who later gave rise to both Vampires and Fae fell to earth here, settling here and calling this place their home.

The place that later became Rome—powerful in both the human world and the Twilight Realm, from the energy of the Ascendants who once claimed it.

Those ancient angelic beings are long gone, but the energy of this city is no less now as Quinn and I drive through it in all its evening glory. As Vampires in stunning couture walk the streets, or drive them, Quinn and I turn into the massive colonnades that mark the extensive city center. It’s just like how ancient Rome would have been in the human world, had it never fallen.

It seems like a human nation’s capital now as I see Vampire security in black tactical gear and specialized, dark-shimmering kevlar on every corner, holding weapons. Their guns are military-issue rifles and handguns; I glance at Quinn as we stop at a checkpoint and he rolls down his window, two guards with earbuds stepping forward to inspect us.

“Be calm, Ariana,” Quinn says as he hands a document from his wallet to the guards. It shimmers with black, diseased-looking runes, something written in Bloodsigns as the Vampire guards look it over.

Then stare at me, lifting their eyebrows.

“Master DaPonti. Please proceed with your Kissed Dark Fae to Council Hall Six. They are ready for you,” one says in a burly basso voice as big as what he probably benches with all those massive muscles beneath his tight black gear.

“Thank you.” Quinn gives a gracious nod and the Vampire guards step back, waving him on through the checkpoint. A terrible sensation shreds my insides then, and makes me feel like all my skin is boiling off. I didn’t even see the magical security barrier until we pass through it; it shimmers with a black oilslick darkness in the evening air.

We’re through security now, though, as Quinn turns into a parking garage which might be the most modern thing here. Even this is built to resemble an ancient forum hall, however. Quinn finds a spot amongst the most decadent and expensive sports cars in the world, cutting the engine and stepping out.

He holds my door for me as I climb out—and marvel at the scene before me.

Beyond the parking garage spreads the most enormous greensward, gargantuan Roman buildings rising around it in the night. As Quinn and I leave the parking garage, heading out into the green area with me escorted on his arm, I see how the grandeur of ancient Rome has been preserved here in the city center. The Fae’s deep influence is present also, however, as Quinn and I undertake what must be the last part of our journey to the Council’s hall tonight.

Though everything is traditionally Roman in design, the buildings that rise all around us with their massive colonnades and gargantuan triangular lintels are somewhat Fae in their delicate details. Strong in their foundations yet whimsical in their decor, these buildings seem to hum with ancient power that is neither Vampire nor Fae, but both as we traverse the park grounds.

Grown for the beauty of the night, the walking mall has fantastical fountains and well-trimmed topiaries and night-blooming flowers growing in a riot throughout the space. A feeling of peace pervades the ancientness here, as if Vampires love serenity as much as Fae do. Many who are out tonight in their finest couture sit quietly, luxuriating near the cascade of a fountain, or read on backlit tablets on a bench in the flowers, another modern invention Vampires don’t shy from.

Whether their couture is from the 1500s, the 1700s, modern runway, or even all the way back to ancient Roman times, the Vampires here are dressed in their very best. I get the sense that most of them are dignitaries and workers who keep the citadel running, the day-to-day managers of the Lineage, though their Vampire Council does the ruling. To run an entire Lineage while holding this massive capital takes people, though.

Those people are here, as we head towards our destination.

Quinn nods to a few who glance up at us. Most either don’t seem to know him, or don’t care as we move through, however. A few who know who he is give a deferential nod, though it’s quite different from at the party last night where the highest echelons of Council society were in attendance.