Five times before this today, she’d welcomed vampire masters—all wise, all powerful, all showing her a surprising honor, warmth, and occasionally, humor. Sakamoto, she’d met before. The others—Jean-Luc Oubre, Raoul von Essen, Zegher Geert, and Phillip York—she’d been introduced to only today. But this was the first time she’d met one whom she’d known previously to be a bastard.
Was it possible that Cristoff, too, could make such a transformation? She knew Arturo deeply hoped so, or at least he had before Cristoff had gleefully stabbed her and become as terrifyingly powerful as Nerian.
Quinn took the vampire master’s outstretched hand. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Fabian.”
Warm eyes filled with relief as he pressed his lips to the back of her hand. “You have my unswerving loyalty, Healer. And my undying gratitude.” In his eyes, she saw an emotion that welled up from deep within his heart and he said quietly, “You gave us back our souls.”
Giving in to impulse, she squeezed his hand. “Stand before me, Fabian. You and your vampires.”
Still holding her hand, Fabian did, rising with vampire grace, but human speed. They stood eye to eye, she and Fabian. Leaning forward, she kissed his cheek.
“Friends,” she said. The unspoken qualifier hung in the air between them. Unless you prove otherwise.
Fabian grinned, leaned forward and kissed her on both cheeks in return. “My queen.”
Quinn laughed. “Just call me, Quinn. Sam will show you to the farmhouse where you’ll be safe from the sunbeams until dusk. It’s not far.”
Fabian dipped his head with a smile. “Healer…Quinn.”
As Fabian and his vampires turned to follow Sam, Arturo’s hand slid beneath her hair to cup the back of her neck. “Well done,” he said, for her ears only.
She cut him a glance. “I’m becoming a diplomat after all.”
He grinned at her, his eyes were infinitely soft. “You acted from your heart, cara. And you took measure of his. You saw past the face of a man you had reason to hate, to the truth of who he is now. And you responded to that person instead, to that soul. More, far more, you felt the pain of his regret and opened your heart to him, easing his pain, and in doing so, likely formed an alliance that will never break.”
“All that?” Though her words teased, her heart swelled from his praise.
“All that and more, I suspect.” He pulled her against his side.
As they walked back to the house, Quinn marveled anew at the situation she found herself in. They called her the Healer. They revered her for giving them back their souls. Yet all she’d really done was set in motion the crumbling of their world when she’d moved into D.C., accidentally triggering the destruction of the magic of Vamp City when her own cursed magic became tangled in it.
Then, again accidentally, she’d begun to initiate the healing of the vampires’ souls by attempting to renew the magic, the first time at Cristoff’s demand, the second time to save her brother. She felt as much Destroyer as Healer. Fortunately, they saw only the latter.
How was she either? She felt as if she were once more wearing glamour and they were all paying homage to a person who didn’t actually exist. The real woman, Quinn Lennox, was just a lab tech at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, just a normal woman, if a bit weird at times. She liked to run, was a halfway decent cook and a better baker, and enjoyed sports. Now they were calling her sorceress and Healer, treating her as if she were their savior.
“Another group arriving,” Sam called.
Arturo turned, then nodded, his hand on her shoulder.
“Who is it?” she asked. His vampire eyesight was so much better than her own, though she could see far better than usual thanks to the added light.
“Bram and his group.” He made a sound of surprise. “Grant and Sheridan Blackstone are with him.”
Quinn groaned.
Arturo squeezed her shoulder. “They’ve surely seen what Cristoff has in mind. No one wishes to live in a world of constant pain, even if they’ve been spared the actual suffering. And Cristoff may or may not have spared the Blackstone brothers.” He turned to her, his gaze as deep as the oceans and as turbulent as a storm-tossed sea. “I wish you would stay here, at Neo’s, when we go to war. The wolves will protect you.”
“You know I can’t do that. We’re going to need the packs on the front lines. And however little magic I possess now, I may still be able to help. If nothing else, they seem to believe that only you and I together will prevail. They need to know I’m behind you.”
Resignation and pride filled his eyes in equal measure as he took her hand and tucked it against his heart. “Not behind me, tesoro. Beside me. The Healer and the Snake, though perhaps we can come up with a better name for me? I find myself less than delighted with the term.”
Quinn smiled. “What shall we call you then? The Lion? The Bear?”
“Perhaps just the Healer and her vampire?”
“My vampire?”
His eyes ignited with a fervent fire and an emotion that nearly took her breath away. “Always.”
An answering emotion bloomed inside of her so strong, so overpowering, that she felt as if her chest might burst from the strength of it. She hadn’t wanted this, had struggled against it, but she knew now that the battle for her heart was lost.
She’d fallen head over heels in love with a vampire.
Chapter 43
“Let’s get inside before the sunbeams break through again,” Quinn said to Arturo. Micah had walked out to meet Bram and she was confident the wolves would let them through without any trouble.
But as she turned back toward the house, her hands exploded in a burst of pain. Damn Cristoff for creating a pain world! If he succeeded in making it stick, she might suffer like this for the rest of her life. They all might, except for Cristoff’s chosen few.
All around her, the others—vampires, wolves, and Slavas, alike—began shouting, crying out, dropping whatever they’d been holding.
Arturo grabbed her hand and she screamed, his touch like fire.
Snatching his hand back, he apologized profusely. “I thought I might be able to help you carry the pain.”
“No,” she gasped.
“I am sorry, bella. So very sorry.”
“It won’t last.” She hoped.
Suddenly the real world flashed in and out, then in again and stayed. Once more, the worlds had merged on the D.C. side. A street suddenly appeared right where they were standing and if not for Arturo’s vampiric speed, they’d have been crushed as two vehicles, two ambulances, slammed together in a horrendous crunch that was echoed elsewhere, over and over and over.
The street looked like a war zone, or the aftermath of a massive genocide. In the grass, all around, lay shroud-covered bodies. The victims that had fallen from the upper stories earlier.
Dear God.
Now those who attempted to help were dying, too, the drivers of the rescue vehicles suddenly unable to touch their steering wheels and losing control. Across the street, in front of a line of row houses, a group of close to a dozen people stood screaming, holding their hands out from their sides. As Quinn watched, a car suddenly jumped the curb and plowed right into them.
“Oh, God.” Quinn lifted her burning hands in front of her face, not wanting to see. There had been children among them!
Arturo lifted Quinn and deposited her in the entryway of an apartment building, relatively safe from runaway cars. “I have to try to help those I can.”
“Yes. Go.”
Micah joined him and a moment later they were lifting away the car as if it were made of cardboard. Kassius, Bram, and some of the other vampires were pulling people from vehicles, trying to save them.
The screams of hundreds, of thousands, pummeled Quinn’s ears and tore at her heart. This had to end! Cristoff had to be stopped.
With a sudden, dizzying flash, the worlds separated again and Quinn found herself standing near Neo’s
back door, the pain in her hands quickly fading to nothing.
Back by the stables, Bram gave a frustrated yell. “I almost had him breathing again!”
Suddenly the ground began to rumble, an earthquake worse than any they’d felt before. Instantly, vampires flashed past her, into the house, seeking safety.
Quinn remained outside, Grant coming to stand beside her on one side, Mukdalla and Lily on the other as sunbeams erupted everywhere. Quinn felt herself pulled through one, back into the real world, back into the scene of chaos and carnage she’d just left, though one now lit by the afternoon sun in a sky once more blue. It was somehow worse seeing it this way. From the Vamp City side, she’d almost been able to believe the real world hadn’t been affected. That it was all just Cristoff’s malevolent magic. But seeing the blood and bodies in the bright sunshine, she could no longer doubt that both worlds were suffering, now. The real world by far the most.
Stunned, she turned stiffly toward the nearest column of shadows and walked back into the red twilight world of Vamp City. This time she was careful to dodge the sunbeams, though it was difficult to do. Rarely could she find a path three feet wide between them and often the path became blocked altogether. Finally, she gave up and stood still until the sunbeams disappeared again, praying Vamp City didn’t disappear with them.
Finally, it was over, but Quinn remained where she was, in shock.
Lily came to stand beside her. “Are you all right, Quinn? Do you want to sit down?”
“No. To both questions.” Slowly she turned to Lily. “I knew it was real. I knew it was happening on both sides, but…”
Lily took her hand and squeezed it. Quinn clung to her friend’s hand, the woman whom she’d once thought of as her future sister-in-law.
Vampires began to join them—Arturo and Micah, Kassius, Bram, Lukas, and Neo. A strong arm went around her waist, but she barely noticed.
“Look at the sky,” someone said.
“It’s getting worse.”
Above them, the red lines ran every which way, three times as many as there had been before.
“His attempts to form his world are hastening the destruction of Vamp City,” Kassius murmured. “If he fails, most of us will die. If he succeeds, most of us will long for death.”
“He’s close to forming it,” Quinn told them.
Arturo’s hand gently squeezed her waist. “Are you inferring this from the growing length of time the worlds are remaining together? Or do you know in some other way?”
“I felt his euphoria, his satisfaction, then his frustration when the worlds parted again. But his frustration wasn’t deep.” She turned and met his gaze, though it was an effort to move. She felt…heavy, as if everything she’d just seen weighed on her shoulders, pressing her into the ground. “I think he knows what went wrong and knows how to fix it so that the worlds never part again.”
“We have to concur, sorceress.” Davu and Dera, Sakamoto’s werecat twins, strode into their midst, joining their discussion. “We just had a vision. The next time Cristoff merges the two worlds, they will not part again. His pain world will be complete and we will all be trapped within it—humans, vampires, mortals and immortals alike. D.C. and V.C. joined, at last, in misery.”
Quinn stared at the two of them, her pulse accelerating. “You told me you never see visions more than an hour before they happen.”
Davu’s mouth compressed, his eyes tightening with unhappiness. “That is correct.”
Shit. Quinn whirled toward Arturo. “We have less than an hour to stop him. We can’t wait until dusk.”
Bram gaped at them. “We can’t mobilize in daylight! If the sunbeams breakthrough again, we’re all dead.”
Micah shrugged. “Better dead than slave to a madman.”
Lukas nodded. “I agree.”
Arturo met her gaze, his eyes as grave as she’d ever seen them. “We leave at once.”
“Another group arrives!” Sam yelled.
“More vampires?” Quinn asked. Maybe one of the two kovenas who’d declined to mobilize against Cristoff had changed their minds.
Arturo’s hand gripped her shoulder, suddenly, flexing, as the rest of his body turned strangely still. She couldn’t see that far, so glanced at him worriedly until she saw the small smile begin to lift the corners of his mouth.
The wolves parted suddenly to reveal a small group of people, men and women alike, dressed more like western settlers than warriors, except for the two males and one female on horseback bringing up the rear. At their head, strode a woman of confident bearing. Beside her a powerful-looking man with a crimson face and a shock of shaggy red hair.
Chapter 44
“Zack.” Quinn stared at him, relief that he was whole, and alive, making her legs weak.
Beside her, Lily moved first, racing forward.
Zack froze in his tracks. “Lily?”
Even from a distance, Quinn heard his voice and the wonder that thickened it. The incoming group stopped. The entire yard went silent, all apparently aware they watched a miracle unfolding.
Tears burned Quinn’s eyes. Arturo’s arm went around her shoulders as he pulled her close, understanding.
Zack stared at the woman running toward him, unable to move. His feet turned to lead. His heart began to thud, his mind stunned as he watched the tears running down her cheeks, as if she were almost as glad to see him as he was to see her. His arms opened of their own accord even as he told himself he was reading too much into her enthusiasm. She’d probably just stop in front of him and smile at him. But even if that was all she did, his world would be complete. She was alive, alive, alive! The word thudded in his head with the pounding rhythm of his heart.
Lily was safe.
To his surprise, his joy, she didn’t stop in front of him. Instead, she ran right into his arms, her slender body plowing into his, her arms reaching up to encircle his neck, and before he knew what he was doing, he’d lifted her like she weighed nothing and was twirling her around, his cheek pressed against her damp one. She smelled so good, felt so damn right in his arms. Alive. Alive. Without a doubt, this was the most perfect moment of his life.
“You’re okay,” she breathed against his ear. He should probably let her go, but he didn’t want to, he didn’t want this moment to end.
“I was going to rescue you,” he whispered. “But you didn’t need me.”
She pulled back and he set her down, thinking she wanted to move away, that being in his arms must feel kind of awkward to her.
But instead of stepping back, she kept her arms hooked around his neck, forcing him to lean forward a little, which was more than okay with him. She stared at him and she was so damn beautiful with tears spiking her lashes and her eyes sparkling and glowing like the prettiest gems.
“You goof,” she said with a laugh that sent bubbles fizzing all through his chest. “I’ve always needed you. You’re the only one I’ve ever wanted.”
Zack stilled, staring at her with confusion. “Me? Why would the most beautiful girl in the world want me?”
“Oh, Zack. Don’t you know how much I love you? How much I’ve always loved you?”
He just stared at her, because he couldn’t have heard her right. Or maybe he had, but she didn’t mean…
He felt a nudge at his shoulder.
“This would be the time to kiss her, man,” Jason said quietly behind him.
Zack stared down into that shining face and knew that was all he wanted to do…all he’d ever wanted. Still stunned that this was happening, he bent even lower as Lily raised up on tiptoe. As their lips touched, as Lily’s fingers slid into his hair and tears ran down her cheeks, as his heart flipped end over end, he knew this was the most perfect moment in his life.
Quinn stepped forward slowly, not wanting to break the spell, but needing her own reunion with her beloved brother.
She came to a stop a dozen feet behind Lily, Arturo at her side, as she waited for her brother and his girlfriend to com
e up for air. Finally, Zack lifted his head and glanced up. The moment he saw her, she knew from his shock that he’d thought her dead. He stared at her for a full four seconds, utterly stunned. Then he released Lily and strode forward, pulling Quinn into his arms and hugging her almost too tight.
When he finally pulled back, his gaze searched her face, his eyes joyous and confused, the shadows of grief still lingering. “I thought he’d killed you.” His voice broke on the last and she heard the same devastation she’d felt when she thought he was dead. How could she have ever believed he didn’t love her as much as she loved him?
Pain lanced his eyes. “I fucked up, Quinn. I shouldn’t have gone after her with just Jason. He almost died. You almost died.” His eyes tightened. “I heard Cristoff stole your power.”
Quinn shrugged. “You did what you had to do.” She gripped her brothers rock-hard shoulders. “We’ve both made rash decisions based on emotion. I could have saved Vamp City—I had the chance—but I put you first again and now Rinaldo is dead.”
Zack’s face fell. “Rinaldo, too?”
Quinn pressed her hand to his blazing hot cheek. “Not your fault. That one was on me.” She wrapped her arms around his neck and he pulled her against him a second time, hugging her tight.
“I needed to save her,” he said against her hair. “I needed to not be a fuck-up.”
“You’ve never been a fuck-up. And I do understand the tendency to act first and think second. It apparently runs in the family.”
“Being fuck-ups?”
Quinn pulled back with a laugh. “I prefer to call it being devastatingly loyal to the ones we love.”
Zack’s mouth twisted ruefully, then he turned back and held out his hand to Lily who took it without hesitation. Zack pulled her close against him and faced Quinn. “Do we stand a chance of taking that asshole Cristoff down?”
“We might.” Quinn’s gaze moved between the two of them then locked on her brother. “Our goal is to kill Cristoff, of course.” Though they hadn’t discussed this with the other vampire masters, phase two of the plan was still to find a way to destroy Escalla and break the Levenach curse. And if that happened… “It’s possible you could come into some kind of…power.”
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