Page 65 of Light Fae's Love
My comment makes Quinn stop, though. He sits up, frowning as he gently displaces me until I sit beside him on the bed.
“What?” I ask, my eyebrows lifting. “What did I say?”
“Revelry.” Quinn blinks, his long dark lashes gorgeous as a strange look takes his face. He glances back at me, pinning me with his dark gaze. “You’re right, Ariana. Revelry is a Fae trait. I shouldn’t be drawing energy from you by reveling in our togetherness right now. But… I am.”
“You are?” I blink, befuddled, as I reach a hand out. Setting it to his chest, I feel his heart racing fast like mine now rather than the long, slow beats he has as a Vampire. It’s so fast, it feels like he’s alive. I blink as my gaze flicks to his.
Then Quinn traps my hand to his chest.
“It’s been beating like that for almost the entire past twenty-four hours,” Quinn says now as his serious gaze pins mine, honest. “Since I placed most of my energy in you and cut myself off from the Dark Haven of Florence… my heart has been beating like I’m alive again. A need to breathe consumes me now, too.”
“That shouldn’t be possible.” I shake my head, wondering what is going on. “Should it?”
“No. It shouldn’t,” he says as his dark brows draw down in a line. “It really shouldn’t—even with the bonds of energy you, me, and Lucca all share. I am dead, Ariana. I am a Vampire, a Master who has Sired other Masters of nearly my own strength over the years. They are dead, those I have Sired. So why am I not?”
Something inside me sings as Quinn says this latest phrase, as if everything about it rings true.
And my power blazes through the room—glorious.
“Are you not dead, Quinn?” I ask then, feeling the truth shine inside me suddenly.
“I fear…” He takes a breath as he stares down at me in wonder, holding my hand to his steady-beating chest. “Perhaps I am not.”
Silence takes us as the depth of Quinn’s revelation sinks in.
And something bright flows between our powers in the waning day.
“You’re a Vampire, though.” I reiterate, frowning.
“I know.” His eyes are wondering as he gazes down at me. “But somehow… being with you makes me live again.”
“Us being together doesn’t just make your heart beat… my power actually makes you alive?” I ask now, wondering what that means as we sit together on the bed. As the late afternoon light flashes out beyond the windows, evening falling once more, I feel its breath consume me. For the first time, however, the oncoming night does not strengthen Quinn like it once did.
He frowns more, as I feel something inside him dim for the first time in the twilight.
“Fae dim at eventide,” he says now, rubbing his chest as if his beating heart hurts.
“Maybe your Vampire power’s just so exhausted right now that your old Summer Fae Light feels stronger inside you,” I hedge, “and is dimming right now to the evening?”
“Perhaps.” Quinn is evasive as he takes a deep breath, then glances out the window. “If that is the case, it does not bode well for our demonstration before the Council tomorrow night. I must be able to summon my Vampire power at our showing, Ariana. If I cannot, our entire plan fails—and we do not return a Revenant by the power of Light and Night combined, making the Music of the Spheres sing for us like it needs to.”
“You will.” My words are decisive as I take his hand down from his chest and capture it between mine. “Your Vampire power will recover and you’ll be strong before the Council tomorrow night. I will do everything I can to ensure it.”
“Not if it drains you. Then our Music will never rise,” Quinn says now as he reaches out, brushing his fingertips over his fresh bite-marks on my neck. I’ve been bitten so much in the past twenty-four hours that I think, what’s a little more? as I feel a drip of fresh blood slide down my neck. Quinn smoothes his thumb over it, gathering it up.
Then puts his thumb in his mouth, closing his eyes as he sucks the last bit of my blood from it.
I feel him revel in the taste of my blood then, like ambrosia to him as so many tastes and scents cascade across my palate from our shared connection. I feel Quinn glorify in tasting me; it makes his old Fae power rise now in a shimmering heat all around us as he enjoys me like tasting the finest of wines.
It stops him as he opens his eyes. His gaze fixes on that hot mirage moving all around us now, then brings his thumb down from his lips. He pins me hard with his hot, umber-onyx gaze.
As something awakens in his eyes—with the truth.
“Ariana. I’m Summer Fae.”
“You mean you were Summer Fae?” I ask, breathless for some reason that Quinn has figured something important out about our current situation.
“No. I mean, I am Summer Fae. Somehow. Right now.” Quinn nods to that flame-bright aura still flickering around us, indicating it. I see all the wheels churn within him—then come to a grinding, abrupt halt as searing clarity takes his eyes. “I am Summer Fae. And Vampire. At the same time. Together.”