A Kiss of Blood: A Vamp City Novel (27 page)

“Wish me luck,” she said, eyeing that swirling mass of color with no small amount of trepidation.

“Good luck, sorceress,” Kassius said quietly.

Quinn took a deep breath and stepped forward. The magic wasn’t going to renew itself. As she approached the swirling color, she felt the same tingling on her arms that she always felt near the places where the two worlds bled through. But the magic here was far stronger. And as she stepped within that mass of color, she felt it, thick and heavy, coating her skin, stinging her flesh, as it had the last time.

“Let’s get this over with,” she muttered, and opened the book to the necessary page.

But when she touched the page, the book stung her and she jerked back.
What the heck?
She tried again, felt the same sting, but forced herself to continue, writing,
I’m ready.
The moment she finished, she rubbed her fingertip against her jeans, easing the sting. She was beginning to think magic was a bitch. Especially in this place.

She watched the book, glad that the swirling colors of the Focus provided adequate light for her to see. And a moment later, writing appeared in place of her own.
Say these words as best you can.
What followed was an almost indecipherable string of syllables that barely resembled words at all.
Awwer lkjo weeje loiwer orqim coijwe olk aers owera pwid.
Quinn stared at them with disbelief and a sinking feeling in the center of her chest as she remembered how quickly and effortlessly Sheridan had whispered the words last time.

As new words continued to scroll across the page, the first of them began to disappear.

“Shit.” She began to sound them out, speaking them as quickly as she could. And as she spoke, the magic continued to dig at her, raking into her skin, burning, stealing her breath. And suddenly that cutting heat broke the surface of her flesh, pouring inside like a boiling syrup,
igniting.
The book fell from her hands, and she crashed to her knees.

Cara!
Arturo’s voice rang in her head.

Closer by, Kassius called to her. “Quinn?”

Her back arched with pain even as she felt the magic inside of her, even as she heard in her mind the words she must speak. Words nothing like the ones she’d been trying to sound out.

Forcing open her jaw, she repeated what she heard, a string of strange syllables that flew from her mouth as if she’d been born to them. The ground beneath her knees began to tremble, and she feared the sunbeams would break through again with Arturo, Micah, and Neo in the open.

Light flared up around her, light that appeared to be trapped within the Focus, blinding her. Thunder rumbled across the skies.

She could feel the power she sought there in the ground beneath her, but she couldn’t . . . quite . . . claim it. And without that power, she could not renew the magic of this world.

“Come to me!” she cried, then returned to the words that flew from her tongue in a torrent of unknowable sounds. It was a language she didn’t recognize. A language of magic calling to the forces of the earth.

The more she spoke, the harder she pulled at the magic, the more the pain burned and sliced at her until she was gasping for air between words, until sweat soaked her shirt and dampened her hair, until her eyes filled with dark tears and ran down her cheeks. She swiped at the tears, and her hand came away streaked with blood.

Quinn, you must stop. It is hurting you,
cara
. Come out of there!

“Sorceress, something’s wrong. Get out of there.”

But she ignored them both. She was here to renew the magic, and she
would not fail.
Zack’s life depended on it.

The storm rose up all around her, whipping her hair into her face, howling into her ears until she could barely hear her own screams.

So close. The magic was there, rising from the earth, inch by slow, painful inch. It was coming. She would succeed if she didn’t stop, if she didn’t quit. Sooner or later,
she would succeed.

The sweat rolled down her temples. Her head spun. Magic pressed against her chest until she could hardly breathe.

Quinn!
Arturo’s voice cut through the violence of the storm.
You will kill yourself,
cara
. Come out. Please.

“Can’t,” she gasped. “I’m so close.”

Failure wasn’t an option. Not when Zack’s life hung in the balance.

A
rturo flew off his horse and ran for the Focus, his vampire’s speed far faster than any beast’s. Unfortunately, his speed was of little use when he couldn’t breach the Focus walls.

Through the swirling colored lights, he saw Quinn on her knees, arched in agony, the blood running down her cheeks. He felt her pain, almost more than he could bear, because it was hers.

“Quinn!” His hands fisted, raised as if to beat on the pulsing energy, stopped only by the certain knowledge that touching that energy would send him, and any but a true sorcerer, flying backward. “It will kill you, Quinn! Come out!”

But she no longer even seemed to hear him. Her pain flayed him, her agony burned him alive. Her desperation clawed at him, her need to win this battle.

But at what cost?

“It is the curse that keeps you from succeeding,” he called. It had to be. It was the curse that attacked her, that had attacked her the first time she attempted to renew the magic. Neither of the Blackstone brothers had been bothered by it. They weren’t affected because they had no Levenach blood. Quinn alone possessed both Blackstone and Levenach blood.

That was the truth he’d finally figured out. Quinn alone.

“
Cara,
you must listen to me. The curse attacks you. The pull of the two magics will kill you. For nothing,
tesoro.
”

“It’s coming. I can feel it coming.”

Never had he met a more determined . . .
stubborn . . .
female. “You will die for nothing, Quinn. There is another way.”

A way that he would avoid at all costs. Except this, except her life.

He glanced over his shoulder to where Kassius sat, still mounted, watching him with fathomless eyes. Shoving his fists against his forehead, he turned back, struggling to find a way to reach her.

He could not let her die like this. He could not let her die.

T
he agony was beyond bearing, Quinn’s senses destroyed, her thoughts blown.
Save Zack
pounded through her head like a mantra.
Save Zack save Zack save Zack.

Cara.
Arturo’s voice sounded in her head. She’d thought she’d heard his voice in her ears, but couldn’t be certain.
I no longer believe Zack’s magic sickness is being caused by Vamp City’s crumbling magic. It is the Levenach Curse that is harming Zack.

She frowned. “How is the curse hurting Zack?” She barely whispered the words, but he seemed to hear. “He’s not a sorcerer.”

What if you are wrong,
bella?
We know that you possess both Blackstone and Levenach blood. What if your mother was the Blackstone, but it was your Lennox father from whom you inherited the curse? As did your brother. Then it is the curse that is killing him.

“You don’t know that,” she cried. “You can’t know!”

This time his voice came clearly to her ears, every damning word. “I believe it to be true. I have suspected as much since we met with Tarellia. Kassius saw the struggling power within you, one strand of which Zack shared. We believed the one strand to be the crumbling magic. But her revelation that one was the curse made it all too clear. You are the only one in whom the two magics have blended.”

The words pelted her like sleet, freezing her to the marrow of her bones. He’d known Zack was a Levenach since they met with Tarellia. He’d lied to her about the one thing that meant the most to her in the world.

The power she’d struggled so hard to hold on to slipped between her fingers as shock radiated across her mind. He’d told her over and over again that only by renewing the magic would she save Zack.

Though she’d lost her grip on the power, the pain still burned, still tore through her, ripping and cutting. But around her, the storm slowly died, the howl of the wind turned to an agonizing moan.

“Kassius.” The name left her lips on a gasp.

“I am here, sorceress.”

“The truth. For once, I need the damned truth.”

There was a moment’s silence, and she turned, blinking the blood from her eyes as she found him standing beside Arturo just outside the Focus, their faces garish masks of swirling colors reflecting the Focus’s glow. Arturo’s hands were fisted at his sides, frustration in every line of his face, his eyes ablaze in pain.

Kassius watched her with compassion. “Ax speaks the truth as far as we know it. When I bit you in Cristoff’s castle, I sensed a connection between you and your brother and two powers struggling within you, one of which also attacked your brother. Tarellia’s revelation that you possessed both Blackstone and Levenach magic explained much. As did a bit of research that revealed the historical basis of the name Lennox to be, in fact, Levenach. Your father is almost certainly a Levenach descendant. Renewing the magic of Vamp City should cure Zack’s magic sickness, Quinn, but doing so is not the only way to save him. And it’s not the way at all if it’s going to kill you.”

“We have to break the curse,” she gasped, understanding. “Destroy Escalla.” Her pained, furious gaze swung to Arturo. “You promised me you were through lying.”

In the distance, a wolf howled. Closer by, a man shouted. “Gonzaga vamps have been spotted.”

“
Cara.
Hate me, if you must, but come, now. When you are safe, and well again, I will happily allow you to slam me against every tree and brick wall in Vamp City. But come. Please!”

She was in too much pain to move, but this battle was lost. And she would
not
go back to Cristoff.

She struggled toward the Focus’s wall. And then Arturo was sweeping her up, the wind flying through her hair as he ran. Darkness descended over her beaten, furious mind at last.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Q
uinn woke feeling as if she’d gone five rounds with a Mack truck. Her head hurt, her body ached, her soul cried out with frustration. For a moment, she couldn’t remember why.

And suddenly it all came rushing back. Standing in the swirling lights of the Focus, being flayed alive by the attacking magic.
The pain.
And for nothing. For nothing.

She’d failed. The power she’d needed to renew Vamp City’s magic had remained just out of reach, refusing to come to her call. The equinox was all but over.

Zack . . .

He was still suffering the magic illness, still in terrible danger.

He was a Levenach sorcerer.

If Arturo could be believed.

Her chest ached, her teeth clenched at the fury curling in her stomach. After all the times he’d promised never to betray her again, he’d lied to her,
used
her to save his world, making her believe that renewing the magic was the only way to save Zack.

She caught a whiff of almonds. Her eyes snapped open, and she found him sitting on the end of her bed, watching her with enigmatic eyes.

“Get out.”

He didn’t move. “I did not lie to you,
tesoro.
I did not tell you everything because I could not.”

She opened her mouth, then snapped it closed again. “I said,
get out.
”

“Renewing the magic of Vamp City should have been enough to save Zack.”

Dammit, she didn’t have to lie here and listen to this. Pushing herself to her feet, she winced at the pain, echoes of what she’d felt in the Focus, as if the magic still hadn’t let go of her.

Arturo thrust a coffee mug toward her. “Amanda sent this. It should rid your body of the effects of the magic. It will take the pain.”

She stared at him. As much as she’d like to refuse his offering, she could barely stand up straight from the sharp blades ripping at her insides. Taking the mug, she downed its contents in one long series of gulps, then threw it at his head.

He caught it, of course, his vampire reflexes a dozen times faster than any human’s. She briefly considered throwing
him
against the wall, but he wasn’t worth the effort it would cost her.

She started for the door of the tiny bedchamber, but Arturo rose, easily blocking her way. When she glared at him, he lifted his hand, his expression begging her to hear him out.

“None of us anticipated that the curse would cause the magic to attack you like it did,
cara.
It should have worked. Zack should have been healed. I would have let you both go.”

“You lied to me.”

“I withheld my suspicions, that is all.”

“Is it? Because you wanted to ensure I saved your precious hellhole of a world.”

“Because I wanted to ensure you saved my friends!”

She just glared at him. “You could have told me the truth.”

“Could I have? You told me yourself you did not know if Vamp City should be saved. If you’d known about Zack’s curse, can you honestly tell me you wouldn’t have considered going after Escalla instead of saving Vamp City?”

She opened her mouth to answer, then closed it again. Because she didn’t know what she would have done. If Zack hadn’t needed Vamp City saved, would she have tried to save it?

She just didn’t know.

Arturo crossed his arms over his chest. “This is why I did not tell you everything. I could not trust
you.
”

She looked at him in surprise, then scowled. “Get out of my way.”

He didn’t budge. “You are blind, Quinn. Blind to everything and everyone.”

“I am not. Now, move, or I’m going to move you myself.”

“You would have died in the Focus today if I hadn’t fought to make you come out.”

“That’s not true.”

“No? Look me in the eye and tell me you would have stopped trying to renew the magic when the pain became too much. That you would have given up at some point even if I hadn’t been there.”

She wouldn’t have. Of course not.

“You’d have committed suicide before you quit.”

“He’s my brother!”

“He is more than that,
tesoro,
” he said quietly. “He is your only reason for living.”

The words were a slap. The pain fueled her anger. “I don’t have to listen to this.” Lifting her hand, she pushed him away from the door to crash against the side wall.

But when she reached for the doorknob, he flew back and spun her around, gripping her shoulders hard, his nose inches from her own, furious eyes staring into her own.

“Zack is all you care about. Your world is so damn narrow, Quinn, that if it does not involve Zack, it does not matter. Kassius risked his life to rescue you from Cristoff’s prison. Amanda Morris and Neo have helped both you and Zack, plus they devote their lives to saving the captured humans. When the magic fails, they will die, Quinn. As will Sam and Rinaldo and Bram and dozens of others who
do not deserve to die.
But you give them no thought. They do not matter to you. None of them matters to you.”

“What about the humans who will be saved if Vamp City dies? Humans who haven’t been caught yet but will be in the coming days and weeks and months, not to mention the ones who are already here.
You
give
them
no thought!”

“There you are wrong,
cara mia.
I do give them thought. When you renew the magic, most of the vampires will reclaim their consciences and their souls. The barbarity will end. Some vampires will continue to feed and abuse humans—it has been so since the dawn of time. But the majority of Emoras will not.”

He gripped her chin, and she tried to jerk away, but he held her fast, forcing her to meet his gaze. “You rail at me for lying to you, yet you lie to yourself. Your concern is not for the captives, Quinn. To some extent, yes. You are not without heart. But your primary concern is and has always been Zack, even at the cost of your own life. Have you ever stopped to ask yourself why?”

“He’s my brother.” She glared at him, the ache in her chest spreading.

“Have you considered what it would do to him if you died trying to save him? Have you ever considered
his
pain? You may think of yourself as devoted and courageous, but you protect yourself, Quinn, above all others, above anything and everything else. And everyone else be damned. Even Zack.”

“Go to Hell.” She jerked free of his hold, refusing to listen to this anymore. But when she would have focused the energy to once more push him away from the door, she couldn’t. She couldn’t even see clearly through the sheen of tears now blurring her eyesight.

He was full of bullshit. Nothing he said even made sense! But that spreading ache in her chest intensified.

She turned her back on him, needing to get away, but there was nowhere to go.

“
Cara.
”

“Go away.” She swiped at the tears that were starting to leak out of the corners of her eyes. “You’re wrong. I’m not protecting myself. I’m protecting
him.
It’s the one thing I can do, the one thing I can give him.”

“Can you not simply love him?” he asked softly. “Is that not enough?”

The pain in her chest intensified, the tears falling freely now. “He has so many people who love him. So many that he loves back.”

“And you have no one else.”

His words sliced her to the bone with their truth. She reached out a hand for the wall, curling her other arm across her stomach as the pain spread, as the terrible, aching loneliness she’d lived with a lifetime ripped through her, clawing at her heart. Zack loved her, she knew that. But she’d never been his whole world. And he was, and had always been, hers.

A gentle hand caressed her hair. A soft voice murmured in her ear. “You are not alone anymore,
carissima.
”

He was wrong. She’d never felt more alone in her life. She didn’t push him away, but neither did she turn and slide into his arms as the softest core of her longed to do. That way would only lead to more pain.

His finger twisted around a lock of her hair. “You push others away, do you know this?” he asked quietly. “Both Mukdalla and Amanda have attempted to befriend you, but you’ve rebuffed their efforts.”

Quinn brushed at the tears that refused to cease. “I have not.”

“You protect yourself, Quinn.” He stroked her hair. “Understandably so. You have known too much betrayal in your young life. The mother who abandoned you by dying, the father who brought a woman into your life who could not love you, then sided with that shrew against you. The friends, the
best
friend, who abandoned you at the first sign of your differentness. It is surprising,
tesoro,
that you are as capable of love as you are, as starved as you were of your parents’ affection. And you are capable of great love. It shines within you every time you look at your brother.”

Quinn squeezed her eyes closed, trying to deny his words and failing. From the day Owen shunned her, after being best friends for most of their lives, she’d ceased to allow anyone to get close. Her subsequent friendships, even her relationships, had remained casual and superficial. The only one who’d truly gotten past her shields was the vampire at her back right now. A mistake.

“You are not alone anymore, Quinn. Within this safe house are many who have not shunned you despite your power. Who, in fact, care about you very much. Micah, Kassius, and Neo are all taken with you, much to my frustration. Mukdalla and Amanda both like you. They offer friendship, but you must open yourself to accept it.”

“You make it sound so easy.”

He stroked her hair. “It is. Wish for them to be your friends, and let them see the wish, and it will be so.”

She pushed away from the wall and dried her cheeks, then forced herself to turn around and face him. He watched her with eyes soft as mink.

“You should have told me everything, Vampire. How can you ever expect me to trust you?”

“I am sorry,
bella,
but I had no choice. If you had been able to renew the magic, Zack would have lived. My friends would have lived. You would remain safe.” His mouth tightened. “If you had chosen to hie off to steal Escalla instead . . .”

“You really think I’d have done that?”

“If you had decided it was the better course—that Zack’s chance of survival was better that way, or that letting Vamp City die was the right thing to do—yes. I think you’d have done it. You proved that you have the heart and the stubbornness to do whatever you think must be done, no matter the risk to yourself, when you returned to Vamp City for your brother after making a clean escape.”

With his thumb, he wiped a tear that still clung to her bottom lashes, his eyes sad, and soft as a summer breeze. “You are my weakness,
amore mio.
You may not put your own safety first, but I must. I cannot help my need to protect you any more than you can help your own to protect your brother.”

Quinn met his eyes, the ache in her chest easing beneath his tender gaze. As angry as he made her sometimes, he’d shown her more affection than anyone in her life except, perhaps, the mother who’d given birth to her—a woman she had no memories of.

“Do you think Cristoff might destroy Escalla voluntarily if it’s the only way to save Vamp City?”

“Possibly, though that sword is his prized possession.” He played with another lock of her hair. “The only way he will ever destroy it is if he is utterly convinced doing so is the only way.”

“Which means he’d first have to have possession of me.” He’d force her to succeed in every way he could think of, and she had no doubt that sadistic monster would use pain, torture, and God only knew what else. Only once he was utterly unable to compel her might he consider destroying his precious sword.

Arturo’s eyes darkened, his mouth hardening, his grip gentle yet firm when he grasped her jaw. “Promise me you will not even think about giving yourself up to him like that, Quinn. It would kill your brother to know what you suffered to save him. It would kill me.”

“We’ll find another way.”

“Yes.” The tension appeared to flow out of him, and he tipped his forehead to hers. “Yes, we will find another way.”

His hand slid to the back of her neck, and he exerted just enough pressure to have her closing those last few inches between them, bringing their mouths together in a sweet, drugging kiss. The future loomed, dark and ominous, and time was undoubtedly short. But she needed his touch, she needed the soul-deep intimacy she’d only ever found in his arms.

Her fingers went to the buttons of his shirt, and he made a sound in his throat of agreement, of need. They undressed one another with unhurried movements, the passion that was always present between them simmering at a low burn as he laid her down, half-beneath him, and caressed her body with long, tender strokes.

She slid her hands over his strong shoulders, kissing his jaw, his chin, pressing her lips against the strong cords of his neck. For long, long minutes, they touched one another, kissed one another, reveling in the feel of flesh on flesh. His hand slid between her legs, making her gasp with pleasure and open to him. As she spread her thighs, welcoming him, he rolled onto her fully. Catching her gaze, he entered her slowly, lovingly, completely.

Being with him was
right
as being with a man had never been right before. Yet there was still so much between them.

When their passion was spent, Arturo rolled to his side and tucked her against him, holding her close. Exhaustion pulled at her. She’d slept so little since returning to Vamp City. That and the Focus had worn her out.

Arturo’s hand, warm as the summer sun, stroked her arm, her hip, as gentle as a whisper. His lips pressed against her hair.

“Sleep,
cara.
”

“We have to find Escalla.”

“First you must sleep.”

And held in the gentle warmth of his arms, she did.

Q
uinn awakened in the bed alone, feeling almost rested as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes and sat up. The room was dark but for the dim light from the oil lamps that lined the hallway and filtered beneath her door.