A Kiss of Blood (Vamp City #2)(67)

After only a moment’s hesitation, Arturo stepped behind Quinn, wrapping his arms around her and pressing his cheek to her hair. “How’s this?”

Vintry nodded. “Fine. Better.” He thrust both of his hands through the bars. “Take my hands, sorceress. Be quick. I’ve not much time.”

Quinn did as he commanded, sliding her hands into his warm, bent ones.

The ancient fae closed his eyes. “Blackstone and Levenach, as you said,” he murmured. “Honor. Good, good. Strong. Binding. Healing. You have great power within you, sorceress. Power that Cristoff will desire once he discovers you possess it.” One eye opened, and he squinted at her. “You must not allow him to get it.”

Arturo pulled her closer. “Cristoff will never touch her again.”

Vintry turned that one eye on him, staring at him long and hard. “Untrue.”

Quinn jerked.

Arturo’s arm tightened. “I vow it,” he snarled.

“Yes, yes, yes. It is you who needs her power, Snake. You who needs it.” The old fae just closed his eyes again.

Quinn stared at him. Could he really see the future? Did he know that Cristoff would ultimately catch her? Dear God, was that really going to be her fate? She’d known it was likely from the moment she’d agreed to return to Vamp City. Still, she wouldn’t change anything, not if it saved Zack.

“My brother,” she began. “Is he somehow tied to my magic?”

“No. I sense nothing like that. Just the curse strangling your Blackstone magic.”

“Then why is he suffering magic sickness?” she murmured.

“Don’t know. I cannot tell you without seeing him for myself. Too late now.”

Arturo’s chin brushed her hair. “He’ll be fine once you renew the magic of Vamp City.”

For at least ten minutes they stood like that, Vintry silent, his eyes closed, holding her hands. Finally, he began to frown. “It is tangled, too tangled. I cannot free one from the other. Not entirely. The curse must be broken for that. Break the curse, and you will have the power you were born to, sorceress.”

“But the curse can’t be broken.”

That eye opened again, squinting at her. “Aye, it can. Destroy Escalla. So long as Escalla exists, the curse lives.”

Now it was Quinn’s turn to frown. “Escalla? You mean Cristoff’s sword?” She’d seen that jewel-hilted blade when Arturo first handed her over to that monster. Cristoff had taken her into his study, pulled the sword from a special case, and laid it in her hands. Then declared she had weak magic.

She turned to glance at Arturo, to question his previous statement that only the one who’d uttered the curse could break it. The Black Wizard who was long dead.

But he only shrugged as if he, too, were hearing this for the first time. And maybe he was. Besides, what difference did it make? If she could save Vamp City with her Blackstone magic, she and Zack were getting the hell out of here and never coming back. She had no need for magic in Australia. Or New Zealand.

All she’d ever wanted to be was normal.

Vintry opened his eyes. “I’ll set free as much of your Blackstone magic as I can, girl, but it’s not going to come easily. Or silently.”

Quinn narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

But he closed his eyes again and didn’t answer for another several minutes. Finally, he opened both eyes and dropped her hands. “It is done. Hold on to your hat, girl, your magic is about to explode.”

“What?”

“You have a few minutes. Maybe an hour. Now go!”

“What do you mean, explode?”

Arturo grabbed her arm. “We have to get out of here. Now.”

As he started to pull her down the hall, Quinn called back, “Thank you, Vintry!”

“Cleave one to the other. Only together will you prevail!”

Quinn ran for the stairs, Arturo close behind with the torch. At the top, she eased open the door, then slipped into the pantry, the vampire close behind. Arturo strode into the hallway, replacing the torch, then grabbed her hand. And dropped it as if it had burned him.

“Come,” he said in his best slave master’s voice, remembering himself as he strode into the kitchen, presumably to steal away through the back door.

But they’d taken only a couple of steps when a voice sounded behind them.

“And just where do you think you’re going?”

Quinn didn’t have to turn around to know who’d spoken. She recognized the voice.

Fabian.

At the sound of Fabian’s voice, Quinn dropped her gaze, fast, aware that if her eyes weren’t glowing yet, they might start at any moment. She had no idea what Vintry meant by her magic’s exploding, but whatever he meant, it couldn’t be good. Not in a place like this.

She could feel the energy beginning to flow beneath her skin, not burning like usual but building, like steam looking for a way out.

Arturo spun around, his manner take charge and colonel-like. “The sorceress has vanished. We are looking for her.”

“My men will search for her.” Fabian’s tone was sharp with annoyance and possessed more than a hint of cunning. The balance of power between the two of them had just shifted back into his hands, and he knew it.

Cold fingers curled around Quinn’s arm. Fabian’s fingers. “While they search, you two will join me. And feed me.” He jerked Quinn off her feet, yanking her against him, palming her breast through her shirt. “This time, however, I will join you. I will have my c**k inside of her.”