Page 63 of Light Fae's Love
Though it gives a series of piercing shrieks as it minimizes with the box, as if irate about it.
Quinn ignores those shrieks, moving over to where the box sits on the stone catacomb floor and picking it up. It fits into the palm of his hand, and he stares at it a moment as I see that dark blankness return to his eyes. But then personality floods them again and he tosses the box up like a softball. He catches it, then gestures with it back the way we came in earlier.
“Let’s go. Because I want a long, hot bath after all this excitement tonight.”
I couldn’t have said it better, as I laugh and sling an arm around him. My heart rejoices as Arturos leads the way and Quinn and I follow, kissing on and off as we make our way back through the night. The bones around us cease to matter, and Quinn joins me in the back of the SUV as Arturos buckles into the driver’s seat.
Vampires on the street raise eyebrows at Quinn’s decidedly undressed state, but say nothing. We drive, and it’s not even midnight as we make it back to Arturos’ manor. Somehow, I would have thought it’d be later, after everything we went through. But then Arturos leaves us at our suite and I can’t wait to get into the bath.
To share it with Quinn all night—or however long before we make our way to bed.
Quinn heaves a sigh as he shuts the doors to our suite. He sets the Florentine Box on a velvet pad on the small breakfast table in our room, staring at it one last time as that haunted look comes over him again. I join him, gazing down at the tiny Revenant now swirling inside its small, miserable cage. Red eyes flash with pure malevolence at us.
And then it’s swirling lower, its black mist becoming still as if it went to sleep.
“It looks so small right now.”
“Don’t let that deceive you.” Quinn is decisive as he snugs me close, kissing my forehead. “For it is one of the strongest Revenants I’ve ever faced, save the day you and I met and we battled the Gold Eyes itself. This one is pure hate, Ariana. I wonder how Arturos did not know that when he received information from his sources and decided we should track it.”
“Maybe he didn’t know.” I lift my eyebrows at Quinn as he turns us from the table, leading us towards the open bathroom doors—and the deep, wide clawfoot bathtub I see enticing me within.
“Arturos can feel how strong Revenants are. Just like I can,” Quinn says as he escorts us to the bath, then leans down and turns the knobs, balancing the hot and cold flows of water. “I assume the informants he used for this matter were the same. The fact remains, however, that none of us could feel how strong this beast was when we entered the catacomb. Usually, a solo Revenant with that kind of strength, or a group of Revenants together, will leave a power imprint in the places they haunt. This one didn’t.”
“You had no idea how strong it was until it was upon us.” I understand, lifting my eyebrows as I begin to strip down, so ready for the bath that awaits us.
Quinn is more ready as he takes up a crystal phial from a mirrored, gilded tray beside the tub and pours in a measure of what smells like lavender and jasmine oil. It’s decadent, the smell that wafts up out of the bath as Quinn gives a pleased nod. He steps in, sinking down into the water with a deep sigh and closing his eyes.
“No. I did not know how strong that beast was until it was upon us. If I had, I never would have chosen it for our hunt. Never in a million years.” He says now, with his eyes closed in the bath.
His stillness in the tub gives me a moment to enjoy watching Quinn’s marble perfection as I undress, then step over the rim of the tub into the bath with him. The bathtub is gargantuan, big enough for us to lie side-by-side; I settle on my hip in the filling water next to Quinn now, not knowing if he needs space.
But his dark eyelashes flicker open as he feels me arrive. A slow smile curls his lips, that haunted look leaving him as he sits up, reaching for me. He pulls me in through the water now, cradling me close to his chest. We kiss as the filling water thunders and the decadent scents of jasmine and lavender waft up with the steam. All at once, the night feels blessed as we luxuriate with each other, in defiance of the danger that went before.
And still surrounds us, with everything we must face in two days with the Council.
“Are you alright?” I ask Quinn now as I pull back, sitting sideways in his lap in the deepening water as he cradles me.
“No.” Quinn is quiet as he brushes a lock of my damp hair back from my face. “I will keep going, though, for you and for Lucca. That is what I can do right now, when everything is so wrong. For the both of you are so right, for me. I will hold to that, like a beacon of light inside me when I am temped to go back to the dark.”
“You are tempted to go back there, aren’t you?” I ask as I put my hand to his heart and feel it spark into steady beats for me. “That utterly dark place I felt in you when you went Revenant, just for a minute. It was… alluring. Wasn’t it?”
“It was.” Quinn nods as he inhales a deep breath. Vampires don’t need to breathe, but Quinn always seems to when he’s with me. He says nothing more, but I can feel a temptation to go back to that dark place like a cancer within him now. Different from what I thought I saw in Arturos earlier, this is like a black void, swallowing Quinn as it tempts him to return to its brink.
I know that sensation. Because that’s what my magic feels like, too, when it’s roaring in its deepest darkness inside me. We don’t talk about it more now, though I know we’ll need to. Now is the time for celebrating as we press close and kiss, though both of us are exhausted to our bones. As Quinn sinks lower on the angled back of the bath, I press up with my hands on his chest, straddling him. Despite how exhausted we both are, he’s hard.
I sink down onto him—needing this as we rock together in the night.
As we move together, gliding in and out in the oil-scented bath, time loses meaning. We’re too tired to be rushed, too tired to reach climax as he holds my hips with his strong hands and I move upon him, rocking and sighing in a slow rhythm. I’ve lost a lot of blood today; my head spins with the heat and the steam and the motion. But Quinn holds me steady as I tense upon him and move, taking him deep inside me and releasing him.
He sighs, and there’s so much more to it as he reaches up, cradling my face with one hand. I trap his hand to my cheek and Quinn hitches a deep breath.
That ends in a sob as he shudders beneath me.
It’s not a shudder of climax, but it is a release, as a deep flare of his old Summer Fae fire spills out around him now, flooding over us both in the bath and spilling out over the rim. It’s warm, but just like before, it doesn’t burn me; I know it’s because I’m his true mate now as I run a hand through it, marveling at the thousands of colors in his power, just like I saw earlier.
Quinn holds me to him, trapping me upon himself with both hands now as he grinds slowly, deeply up into me. As he finally adds power to our heat, as if that flare of old fire healed him, I gasp, feeling him fill me.
So hard and thick, so full, he stretches me now as I arch back and take him. I rock with him, pulling him in; Quinn growls beneath me and gasps. As he reaches orgasm, I do also, both of our powers spilling through us as living fire braids with dark rainbows in the night. There’s light in it also, Lucca’s diamond-light, as it careens over us, then quiets like an ancient sea. As I sink down upon him, Quinn cradles me to his chest, slipping out.