A Blood Seduction (Vamp City #1)(91)

"They're all dead?"

"Yes. Neither Ivan nor his guards will carry tales to Cristoff of our hand in your escape. We need to go." He pulled away, curving his arm around her shoulder as he stepped to her side and started for the two horses that stood docilely now between Kassius's and Zack's mounts.

Her stomach clenched, and she forced herself to look up at her brother, dreading the fear and horror she'd see on his face. Instead, she found him, inexplicably, grinning at her. "That was f**king amazing, sis. Like something out of X-men."

Tears began to run down her cheeks, unbidden.

Zack's grin died, his brows lowering into a frown. "What's the matter, Quinn? Are you still in pain?"

Quinn swiped at the tears fiercely. "I never wanted you to see me like that. I never wanted you to know."

His frown deepened. "That you were a superhero?"

A watery laugh escaped her throat. "That I was so weird."

Zack gave her a brotherly roll of his eyes. "You're not weird, Quinn. You're my sister."

Such simple words. And the fear that she'd lived with for longer than she could remember, the fear that he, too, might turn from her in disgust, slipped away as if it had never been. She brushed the tears from her cheeks. "I love you, Zack."

Arturo squeezed her shoulder. "We need to go, cara. Others could come." He helped her onto her horse and mounted his own, then urged all into a gallop. As they ate up the ground, something ahead caught her eye. It almost looked like . . . a Shimmer. It had the same flowing rainbowlike colors of water mist.

She stared at it, stunned. Of course. The Shimmers of D.C. were the Boundary Circle of the magical Vamp City, shimmers only she could see.

When they were but a few yards from the wall of moving color, Arturo pulled up and dismounted. Turning to her, he pulled her down and into his arms, his dark eyes intense and serious. "This is it, tessoro."

As she stared into his rugged, handsome face, something clenched inside her, a fist of unhappiness. She would probably never see him again. Lifting her hand, she stroked his cool cheek, allowing herself to drown in that deep gaze one last time. "You'll be okay?"

"Of course. All will be as it is meant to be." He brushed a stray lock back from her face. "You'll be safe now."

"I'll miss you, Vampire."

His mouth kicked up on one side. "Will you? I doubt that. Though I will, of a certainty, miss you." He kissed her, his cool lips moving over hers, caressing, sipping, warming. Slowly, he pulled away, then began unbuttoning the front of her dress. "You'll draw too much attention in this where you're going."

Quinn was suddenly glad she'd left her clothes on underneath and began unbuttoning the buttons from the other direction. When they were done, she stepped out of the dress.

Arturo's gaze locked on hers, regret in his eyes. "Be happy." Then he released her and took her hand. "You must be touching me to go through." Just as the Slavas had to touch her as they escaped through the sunbeam. "But I cannot follow."

As Arturo led her to the wall, Zack close behind, the air began to crackle around her, popping and fizzing, lifting the hair on her arms.

"You feel it," Arturo said with surprise.

"I do. And I see it. I'm wondering if I could pass through on my own."

He cocked his head. "It would be a good thing to know. Try, cara."

"It won't hurt me if I fail?"

"No. It should not."

He released her, and she turned toward the wall. If the magic sucked her through as that first sunbeam had, she'd immediately come back for Zack if Arturo didn't send him through himself. But as she reached out to the Shimmer, her fingers encountered a rubbery surface. A split second later, she was sitting on her butt in the dirt.

Arturo chuckled. "Question answered."

Quinn rose, dusted off her pants, and met Arturo's amusement with a disgruntled look. He pulled her into his arms and kissed her thoroughly one last time, then pulled away, tenderness in his eyes. "I shall miss you, Quinn."

Feeling a rush of tenderness for him in return, she kissed his cheek. "And I you." She turned to see Kassius waiting with the horses and lifted her hand. "Thank you."

He nodded gravely.

Arturo motioned her over. "Give me your hands, both of you." When she and Zack had done so, Arturo lifted their joined hands to the front, urging them to step forward.

This time, the wall embraced her, dancing over her flesh like tiny ions, tickling coolly. And then she was through, stepping into the bright sunshine, Arturo's hand no longer in hers. Zack was beside her, squinting against the brightness as the deafening noise of their world bombarded ears grown accustomed to quiet.

"We did it," Zack breathed. "Fuck me, but we're out of there."

Quinn turned back, still able to see the Shimmer, but nothing on the other side. No one.

"Good-bye, Arturo," she said quietly, then took Zack's hand and started home.

"She believes you've freed her," Kassius commented, as they rode through the Nod a short while later, pretending to search for the sorceress like the rest of Cristoff's men.

Arturo shrugged. "She believes many things . . . that I cannot leave Vamp City, that she and her brother should stay in the area, and that I have no way to follow her if she does leave."