PRE-ORDER NOW OPEN! Dark Fae's Destiny: Vampire Masters of Italy #5 is coming Friday, September 6th!

Hey Vampire Masters of Italy fans!

I know you’ve been waiting to sink your teeth into the fifth and final book in the newly completed Vampire Masters of Italy series… and the wait is almost over.

Dark Fae’s Destiny: Vampire Masters of Italy #5 is coming to Amazon and Kindle Unlimited on Friday, September 6th!

Who doesn’t love an exclusive pre-release excerpt? Enjoy Chapter 1 of Dark Fae’s Destiny below, but please beware of spoilers if you have not yet read Dark Master’s Redemption.

Enjoy chapter one, and get ready for ALL THE FEELS!

XO Ava

SPOILER ALERT

IF YOU HAVE NOT READ BOOK FOUR, there are spoilers ahead!

Chapter 1 – GoodBYE

Quinn, Lucca, and I stand on the grand black and white promenade in Livorno, ready to say goodbye. The moon shines above us in the Twilight Realm; beneath a sky full of stars, the waves crash upon the rocky shore.

      The singing of countless Sirens fills the night. Because the person we honor this evening was one of them when he died. Returned from his un-death as a Vampire-Siren just a week ago, Arturos Morregain met his true death with a living heart, and blood beating through his veins. His kin welcome him now.

      As we commit his body to the ocean beneath the stars.

      Dressed in draping silk and seaweed fronds, with long strings of pearls over our chic clothing, we wear our finest for him tonight. My Dark Fae Master Quindici DaPonti, my Dark once-Summer Fae Prince Lucca Bellari, and I all hold hands now as we bow our heads for our fallen friend.

      Laid out on a bier of seaweed, pearls, and thousands of seashells stacked intricately to make a low bed, Arturos is dressed similarly for his final send-off. A beautiful crown of seashells and pearls, woven with silver, seaweed, and gold graces his brow.

      A massive pearl shines, luminous between his brows. His dark lashes will never open again, but it’s as if I can see his beautiful darkwater eyes shining with that pearl beneath the stars.

      The Siren music crests; far out in the ocean, I see a deep wave of Night magic with watery tentacles roil. The Vampire-Siren Queen Luliana Ouros waits in the deeps to take Arturos out to sea.

      Coiling through the water in her tremendous Siren-Dragon form, the Queen of the Dark Haven of the Deep is unique in her power. Though she is long dead, she can still become her dragon. Her scales and watery fins glimmer opal and black in the night, the same colors seething through her watery Night power as she waits for our ceremony.

      Quinn, Lucca, and I can’t dive beneath the sea like she can to visit the place she’s picked out for Arturos’ tomb. Thus, we say our goodbyes here on the shore before she takes him to those endless deeps.

      To lay entombed in a pearlescent shell of her magic beneath the sea.

      Forever.

      “We say goodbye to a dear friend tonight,” Quinn begins now, taking up our informal eulogy as the Siren song crests. “He was like a brother to me, really, though we never shared blood of any kind. Infuriating, upright, loyal; Arturos was everything I could have ever wished for in family. He strayed from his loyalty because of a deep loneliness in his heart, then gave his everything to make amends. Now, he shall be with his true family, evermore beneath the sea. Though his found family above the waves will miss him dearly.”

      We listen to the Siren-song surge, far out in the waves that crash upon the rocks. Arturos had been a Vampire, but he died a Siren; his people wait with Luliana now to take him home to have their own ceremony for him.

      As Quinn finishes, he takes one draping string of pearls and seaweed off from his neck, placing it upon Arturos. Clasped in his dead hands, Arturos’ heart is with him. Though torn from his chest in a terrible strike from the Gold Eyes, it has been saved to be entombed with him. Quinn wraps his pearl garland lovingly around that heart now.

      Kissing his fingertips, he places them upon that beautiful organ which has forever ceased to beat.

      “I didn’t know him long.” Lucca takes over our eulogy now as Quinn says goodbye. “But it was clear Arturos was a prince of his kind. Strong, thoughtful, bold, he never shied away from danger, always running towards it to save an ally or a friend. Long have the Morregains been Kings and Queens of the seas; now we return a lost monarch to them, as kingly a man as anyone could ever hope for. I forgive him his faults, and the loneliness that drove him to side with our enemy. Because he showed his true colors in the end. He died a savior, for all of us.”

      As the Siren-song in the waves crests again, full of sadness, boldness, and woe, Lucca repeats Quinn’s gesture with a garland of pearls from his neck. He doesn’t kiss his fingers, but gives Arturos’ shoulder a squeeze like warriors do when welcoming their brethren home.

      As Lucca finishes, I know it’s my turn. I don’t know what to say, even though I’ve rehearsed countless options for this moment in the past few days.

      “I loved Arturos,” I say now, baring my deepest, truth-telling heart as a low hum of the Music of the Spheres chimes inside me, moving all around me in the darkness. “Like Lucca, we didn’t know each other long… but something about him touched my heart right from the first. I could say he was noble, brave, etcetera. But what I really want to say is… I loved him and he loved me. Though we were never meant for each other.”

      Quinn glances over and squeezes my hand, then threads his fingers through mine. Through our Dark Fae bonds to one another, I can feel how much he loved Arturos also, though they were never lovers in truth.

      But Arturos and I could have been lovers; I feel that knowledge move through me now as those ephemeral harmonies of the Music stir me, and my Animante Dark Fae aura curls around me.

      Dark, oilslick rainbows with shimmers of silver and gold light, my power mourns for Arturos as much as I do. My Fae wings unfurl from my spine, cascading across the promenade and the sandy rocks nearby.

      “I want to let him go.” I gaze at his beautiful face, so somber yet still so impossibly handsome, even in death. “I want to set him free. And myself, somehow… though I don’t know how.”

      “Just say goodbye, from your heart.” Quinn’s voice is quiet to not break the sad peace of the moment. “Just say goodbye, Ariana… he will hear it. Wherever he is.”

      As Quinn speaks, I know he is right.

      My deepest truth-reading power sings, knowing this is how the final tale of mortals goes.

      “Goodbye,” I whisper, as waves crash all around me from the ocean and the singing of the Sirens sweeps my ears. My soul is filled with their song and our loss; blinking my lashes, I cry as my heart seizes for Arturos.

      It’s a beautiful moment; tender and sad. As Quinn squeezes my hand again, and Lucca does also on my other side, I know we’re finally ready. We stand back from the lovely bier of shells, pearls, and seaweed, and let Luliana sweep the ocean in. She does it in a slow, gentle tide; as Arturos floats up from the bier, her dark waters roll out, claiming him.

      The Siren-song goes with him. As Arturos’ last wave rolls out, I feel more than see dozens of Sirens shift into their massive water-dragons, then slip beneath the seas to follow Luliana. They’ll have their own ceremony beneath the waves, to honor a man who might have once been their king. But it leaves the shore empty now beneath the full moon.

      As the waves splash and crash naturally now, devoid of any Siren presence.

      We listen for a long while, silent. As if the Siren-song and the simple ceremony have laved our souls, Quinn, Lucca, and I heave a deep breath now, finished saying goodbye.

      We’re about to turn from the shore and head to our car to drive back to the Red Letter Hotel Florence here in the Twilight Realm when a small, white, defiant flower pops up through a crack in the black and white stone causeway.

      Another comes next to it, then another next to that. Suddenly, the entire causeway and the rocks before us blossom with endless flowers and vines in the night.

      I know the touch of Arturos’ Sire the Wanderer, as I see that heady cascade of night-blooming flowers surge in a riot all around us. They have devoured the ornate stone railing of the quay; Quinn, Lucca, and I are brushing flowers off our attire now as we step out from ropes of vines to not be overtaken.

      It’s only then I see the Wanderer, standing beside us beneath the moonlight. Clad only in her night-blooming flowers and vines, she stares up at the sky as her willowy frame hovers above the ground, her feet standing only upon her gossamer flower petals, rather than the earth.

      She shines beneath the moon like a goddess. I know that is nearly what she is, as her long moon-white hair shimmers, moving in a wind of her ancient magic.

      For her power came from a true Ascendant who was her father, and another who was her mother, after they Fell to earth. I don’t know quite what that makes her, but the progeny of celestials carries an unfathomable power that runs through her veins; though for millennia, she’s been masquerading as a Vampire.

      She glances at us; the light of endless stars is in her gaze, along with the moon. She looks back up at it, then out over the water.

      Heaving a sigh.

      “I never meant for him to feel so alone,” the Wanderer says as she watches where Arturos went, the Vampiric progeny of her quasi-celestial Bloodline. “He never wished to be a Vampire; though I would have made him something else, this was what he became when I saved him from certain death all those years ago. Even back then, he was sad in his heart. He never recovered from the pain he had endured in his living youth. Evermore he blamed me… though he was never anything towards me but kind.”

      “He was the son of kings. That comes with its own sadness, along with nobility.” Quinn’s voice is soft as he watches the water, though I can feel a thrill of astonishment move all through him now that the Wanderer has come to us.

      The very person we need to talk to—that we had no clue how to summon.

      “Nobility never interested me.” The Wanderer turns her head, pinning Quinn with her shining dark eyes. “Arturos’ true heart did. Which he of the Golden Orbs has forevermore slain.”

      “The Gold Eyes is your father. The Descendant Staphylogenes.” I watch her. “Why did you not tell us?”

      “The Golden Orbs is many things,” she says, sad but sharp now as her ethereal eyes penetrate mine. “But there is one thing he has not; he has not a heart. And to me, that is the greatest tragedy of all. Because of the ruination that now drives him.”

      “Ruination?” Lucca is gentle, trying not to offend her or make her whisper away. “Does he mean to ruin this world with his plans for us?”

      “I do not know.” It’s a simple answer as she looks at him next. A deep wind stirs from her power as she takes in Lucca, watching him like he’s done something interesting. She glances at Quinn, then at me again—holding our gazes a long moment before speaking once more.

      “My father was not always the way he is now,” she says, finally using the term that connects her to her sire, though the way she says it is as if a vast bitterness lies upon her tongue. “For once he was glorious and golden, the power of the sun to my mother’s luminous rainbows, pouring forth upon the earth. I was the only child of their loins after they Fell to earth and became incarnate. I carried not the sun but the moon in my veins, however; it made my father hate me. To him, I was impure, tainted by the creation of the body I had entered. He sought a way to fix me, to make me glorious like him and golden, with the beautiful daylight rainbows of my mother.”

      We listen to the Wanderer’s tale, enrapt as it comes spilling out. Quinn, Lucca, and I don’t hardly dare breathe for fear she’ll cease speaking and leave in the way she does.

      Wandering away forever and never giving us what we seek.

      A way to end her father, the Descendant Staphylogenes—at last.

      “He tormented me.” She is fierce now as she gazes at us—and I see the side of her power that is brutal and cold, Night in its manifestation, as it boils around us, pushing up flowers in a riot. “He used the Music of the Spheres to batter me day and night, trying to hone and shape me to his desires. For he wished I become as he was, and my mother, and be beautiful in the Light with them. But I would not. My mortal body had already taken its chosen shape upon this earth; I was not a Descended Ascendant like them, but a mortal child, though I was borne of their angelic loins. My chosen form would not change, nor would my powers. And when the Music could not change me, wielded from my father’s new mortal shape, he undertook a desperate measure. He ripped his beating heart from his chest and committed it to the land, to use the entire earth and all the vast beauty it contained to heal me. I was not broken, however, and I did not need to be healed. Thus, in his final, desperate measure to change me, he instead changed himself. He tore himself asunder that day. And he became the black, tormented, heartless creature he is now… though it took many millennia for him to change shape permanently.”

      “Into his smoke-dark Revenant with the gold eyes,” I say as I watch the Wanderer, amazed and horrified by her story.

      “Indeed.” She glances at me, her gaze devouring me, deep. “For the beautiful heart that was given to him as a mortal in his human shape when he Fell was something he did not treasure. He did not know its power; celestials have heart and will, love, mind, and soul all wrapped up together in their endless ways. He lost that all-encompassing, endless Light when he tore his heart from his body and committed it to the land, to use the earth’s power to alter me to his wishes. Only then did my mother see what I saw in him. That he had been altered from his sublime, celestial state the moment he Fell to earth and began to delve so deep into the debauchery of the flesh. Which I have forevermore resisted…”

      “By wandering.” I understand now, as my deepest truth-reading power sings within me. “That’s why you never stay in one place, why you never form relationships and get close to people, much less let them get close to you. You’re afraid of becoming like him; of losing your celestial nature by getting too close to energies that are physical and of the flesh. That’s why you never became close with those you Sired. Or anyone else, for that matter.”

      “I wander,” The Wanderer says simply as she gazes at me. “I take in the endless moon and stars, and remember the people I came from. Distant through they are.”

      “And eschew your physicality,” Lucca says as he releases a growl now. “Making all those you Sire, like Arturos, think you don’t care about them. Because you don’t. Because you never let yourself get close enough to love them.”

      She sighs, and it’s the saddest sound. Where I think she might lash out in ire at Lucca for his harsh words, she doesn’t. She only stares out at the water where Arturos went.

      As a single, shimmering tear drips down her cheek.

      “I must go,” she says, turning away.

      “Wait.” Daring to reach out, Quinn snags her by the wrist.

      The look she gives him could shatter daggers.

      “Tell us how to stop your father,” Quinn says as he stares her down. He doesn’t relinquish his grip on her wrist, though her fierce power makes night-blooming flowers push up all through the skin of his hand now as he winces.

      “You do not stop him,” she says as she stares at Quinn, then Lucca, and me. “You cannot stop him.”

      “Tell us how to free ourselves from him, then.” Quinn pushes as he pins her with his gaze. His Mentale Dark Fae energy rises in a black tidal wave all around him in the darkness. Flickers of gold and crimson fire blister the Wanderer’s white flowers from his hand and wrist, burning them off his body as soon as they grow.

      She seems impressed by it. Staring at his unmaking of her flowers, she watches the phenomenon of someone resisting her power. Then she glances at me.

      Pinning me with her dark gaze beneath the starlight.

      “The weakness of my father’s heart lies beneath your feet. Ask my mother how to find it, for I cannot; she has gone back to the city of sunlight, water, and stone that she loved much when she was still in physical form, before my father twisted her into his darkness. The rainbows upon the water call to her; the endless stars in the vast night sky call to me. Farewell.”

      With that, she waves a hand—causing all her beautiful vines and flowers upon the shore to die. As they wither to desiccated ropes and dead leaves upon the quay, she takes us all in one last moment.

      Then wanders away, surrounded by a wind of magic and darkness in the night.

All content copyright Dragonlight Publishing LLC 2024. All rights reserved. No portion of this content may be reproduced without the author’s written permission.

PRE-ORDER NOW OPEN! Light Fae's Love: Vampire Masters of Italy #3

Ahhh! It’s almost here!

I am SO excited to share the PRE-ORDER IS NOW OPEN for Light Fae’s Love: Vampire Masters of Italy #3!

Official release date is Friday, November 17th, 2023.

If you’ve been anticipating the release of book three in the Vampire Masters of Italy series, it will have been worth the wait. This is the best one yet!

Several months ago, my vision for this series changed. In preparation for the third book, I rewrote the language of the first two books, Dark Master’s Kiss and Dark Fae’s Rise, to deliver the entire series in the first-person POV.

You’ll now enjoy the narrative as told by Ariana, Quinn, and Lucca—I hope you love it!

(If you’d like to update your Kindle copy of the first two books, read more on my blog here.)

Are you ready for the heat?!

Click below to pre-order Light Fae’s Love: Vampire Masters of Italy #3, and thanks so much for reading!

XO Ava

Enjoy the NEW VERSIONS of Vampire Masters of Italy Books 1 & 2

Hey lovely readers!

We have really exciting news to share about the Vampire Masters of Italy series!

I originally wrote the first two books of this series in the third-person POV, but I've known for some time that I wanted to shift the story into a first-person POV, he-said / she-said experience for my readers. There is something so intimate about enjoying the story from each character’s perspective—to know their thoughts as the story unfolds.

I’ve been working on the re-writes for both books, and guess what?! They are ready for you to enjoy!

The NEW versions are now published on Amazon, KU, and paperback. If you previously downloaded these ebooks, you can easily receive an updated version.

Click here for instructions from Amazon on how to update your ebook.

It will be worthwhile to read them again for a completely different experience! 🔥 We really hope you enjoy the story from Ariana, Quinn, and Lucca's perspective! Thanks for reading!

xo Ava

---

*Revised!* Dark Master’s Kiss: Vampire Masters of Italy # 1

Excerpt from Chapter 6 - Truth

Made of wrought-iron and glass, the Glass Bar is like a haven in the sky as we walk upon glass that looks down on mid-air. It is beautifully disorienting; I feel Ariana’s pulse speed with delight as we pass the main art déco glass bar and head up yet another set of glass stairs to a further lounge above.

Made of wrought-iron and glass like the level below, this upper floor is accented by potted palms and walls of orchids of my selection. Private royal blue padded booths are shrouded in greenery here; as I gesture to a booth reserved for me as Hotel Head, unclipping a blue velvet rope, Ariana slides into the curved blue silk bench.

I’m not thinking straight as I watch that movement—wanting her to move like that in my bed as we heave together all night. As a bartender in a smart black vest and tie rushes up, one of my Vampires named Julio, I’m not thinking about my usual, more refined drink orders. I ask for a dirty martini—the drink I get when I’m going to fuck long and hard all night. The man blinks at me, knowing what that drink means; I cover my lapse in judgement by raising my eyebrows at Ariana.

“Boulevardier, please.” She says to Julio, and he nods with a quick smile—though the look he gives me could core diamonds. I don’t fuck guests, and Ariana is our guest—and my Vampires know that. As Julio leaves us, I slide in to the bench opposite Ariana.

Though I want nothing more than to slide in next to her and lay her down on that padded bench as we’re suddenly very alone in our heady sky-nook.

NEW EXCERPT! Dark Master's Kiss Chapter Two!

Hello lovelies!

I am very excited to bring you CHAPTER TWO of Dark Master’s Kiss: Vampire Masters of Italy #1 today!

Please enjoy this second chapter below, where Quinn and Ariana have a heart-to-heart about her options as a newcomer to the Twilight Realm.

And if you’d like to read CHAPTER ONE, you can find that here.

Release date for this series is still TBA, but I anticipate having the first book out sometime later this spring.

Happy February, and get ready for the heat!

XO Ava

**********

CHAPTER 2 – FAE

Ariana woke to the quiet sounds of someone nearby, a fine china teacup clinking as it was set upon a saucer. As her eyelashes flickered open, she found she was in an unfamiliar bed, a sumptuous affair of tall ebony bedposts and luscious cobalt silk in a massive suite. There was a canopy above, but daylight streamed into the room, a warm morning breeze from open wrought-iron and crystal windows fanning the heavy drapes of her bed. Stirring, Ariana found her body no longer hurt like it had.

And then she remembered the battle at the Pitti Palace against the black smoke creature – and her blast of silver-gold light that had harmed it.

A sinking sensation filled Ariana as she stared up at the beautiful canopy, seeing an intricate pattern of roses and brambles embroidered in gold upon the cobalt silk and wondering if she had gone insane, or if she’d had a seizure and just collapsed and imagined it all. For a moment, Ariana gazed around the Florentine Renaissance room, marveling at it. Everything was gilded and ornately carved, enormous paintings of Florentine masters upon the walls. The theme of the room seemed to be roses and brambles, for every painting featured Renaissance women being spied upon as they bathed at a waterfall near a rose garden, or devils condemning wretched sinners into bramble-patches as the heavens rained fire. 

But the decor of the room was royally done, creating a calming environment despite the intensity of the art. Even as Ariana decided she was never going to leave this bed, wherever she was now, someone in the room noticed she was awake. Rising from a lounging-chaise where he’d been reading near a cold fireplace, a tall man set a leather-bound book and a gilded china teacup aside as he moved elegantly to her bedside with a calm smile.

The Barone Quindici DaPonti – Ariana realized as she stared up at his handsome face.

As she blinked, the fiercely elegant Barone regarded her back. Wearing a dark crimson slim-cut Italian suit with a black shirt, tie, and pocket square, he was utter elegance as he came to sit at Ariana’s bedside in a high-backed chair. Regarding her with a frown upon his straight dark eyebrows, his onyx eyes were pensive, gold rings shining upon his fingers and a gold Rolex upon his wrist with onyx cufflinks. Exquisitely tall and lean but somehow strong, Ariana’s mystery Barone had a beautiful elegance as he crossed one knee over the other, showing maroon argyle socks and shiny black shoes. His short waves of dark russet hair were expertly styled, his high cheekbones and defined jaw beautifully intense. As a glimmer of sunlight found him from the open windows, Ariana saw a fiery crimson shine in his dark onyx eyes, and deep russet highlights in his rich dark hair. 

“Your fever’s broken, finally.” He spoke in his lusciously smooth, sonorous baritone as Ariana stared at him. Suddenly, she felt like she wanted to wrap herself in that delicious voice and never leave as her tall, dark, mystery Barone watched her. Handsome and deeply elegant, his subtle allure seemed to curl through the room as Ariana shivered.

But not from fear.

“I was sick, at the palace?” Frowning, Ariana set her hands to the bed and pushed up. She was stiff from whatever had happened; but as she settled against the richly brocaded silk pillows, propped up by the headrest, the Barone poured her a glass of water from an ornate copper pitcher, extending it. Accepting the glass, Ariana drank, feeling her stiffness abate. Gazing at her, the Barone’s eyes were a dark, smooth onyx as he waited. 

“You were ill, yes.” He spoke as she finished. “How are you feeling now? Any pain still?”

“Not much.” Ariana spoke honestly, feeling quite a lot better. “How long have I been here? And am I at the Pitti?”

“No, you’re at the Red Letter Hotel Florence, actually. And you’ve been here under my care for three days. I am Head of this Hotel.” Her host the Barone Quindici DaPonti spoke soberly now in a calm, no-frills manner. “And may I ask… your real name, Ms. Summers?”

“My real name?” Ariana spoke confusedly. “What do you mean? Ariana Summers is my real name.”

“I see.” Quindici spoke quietly now as he sat back in his gilded chair, lacing his long white hands around one knee. Cocking his head, his gaze was penetrating as he watched her, as if still not believing what she’d said. As she watched him back, she saw a flash of red in his dark onyx eyes. “And are you really the acclaimed new Associate Curator from Robar, Fisk, & Lund?”

“Yes.” Ariana continued with a bit more heat now, incensed at his doubt but still confused about just what was going on. “My name is Ariana Summers. I’m from the United States and have a PhD in Art History with a specialization in curation and authentication, and have been working for Robar, Fisk, & Lund for three years. So just who the hell are you, Barone DaPonti?”

“I am who I say I am.” He chuckled quietly now, though he still watched her with a piercing intensity. “My name is Barone Quindici DaPonti and I was born here in Italy. I run this fine establishment and donate frequently to the Pitti Palace’s restoration from my extensive collection of human-world antiques.”

“Human-world… what?” Ariana blinked at his strange statement.

“You heard me.” He spoke very softly now, watching her intensely. “You are no longer in the human realm, Ms. Ariana Summers. You are in the Fae Realm, what we call the Twilight Realm, and you got here by manifesting a rift between worlds, before I brought you to my Hotel by manticore carriage, I believe you recall that part. You were in and out of a fever these past three days, waking a little for broth and water, but delirious. You expended quite a lot of your life-force fighting that Vampire Revenant back at the Palace of Light. As far as I can surmise, your magic opened up suddenly for an unknown reason, causing a reaction in time and space that formed a rift between our Realms – something that is vastly rare. But opening that rift and fighting off a Revenant took far more out of you than you have right now with such newly-opened magics. It nearly killed you. Though… it was formidable.” 

“The fuck?” Ariana whispered with her heart in her throat now as she heard him speak nonsense. “What are you talking about?”

“I’m talking about magic, Ms. Summers.” Her host Quindici DaPonti spoke soberly as he sat back in his chair, his gaze dire as it pinned her like an eagles’ talons. “You have it, I have it, and you are currently sitting in a world of it, though you are still recuperating in bed from overusing yours.”

“Magic?” Ariana spoke softly, holding the man’s gaze as a terrible faintness sluiced all through her. “Tell me you’re joking.”

“Do I look like I’m joking?” Quindici spoke quietly now as he raised one cuttingly beautiful dark eyebrow at her. “Hear my words and know them as true. You are a creature of magic. And nothing you do will ever change that.”

This last was said to her with a strange lilt to his voice, as if the Barone Quindici DaPonti had sung the phrase of a song right into Ariana’s mind. Suddenly, his dark onyx eyes seemed drowning as she stared into them, the red intensely bright like summer fields on fire as the room around him seemed to darken with a shadowy nimbus. All at once, his pale skin seemed luminous where he sat in the flickers of morning sun coming in the windows, his wavy hair a luscious combination of deep chestnut with copper highlights and dark ebony shadows. His beauty was overwhelming as Ariana stared at him.

As his words pressed into her mind.

“I have magic?” Ariana breathed again as she tried to process what he was telling her. But even though his mind-messages told her to absorb his words calmly, her heart suddenly gripped, her breath frozen as she stared at him. “And I used my magic back at the Pitti Palace? What does that mean? I’m some kind of… fairy princess or something?”

“Not exactly.” He chuckled now, smooth and elegant though his eyebrows knit, his gaze curious as if feeling her battle against his suggestions. “As far as I can tell, you are a Summer Fae, and did not know you were until your magic spontaneously opened back in the human world for what reasons we know not just yet. It caused a rift – joining the human realm to the Twilight one. But your dark-bright magic is far more than a regular Summer Fae. Which is why the Summer King wishes you dead… now that he knows about you.”

“Wait. Hold on. Back up.” Ariana spoke tensely now as she reached up, rubbing her temples and trying to process. “You’re saying… I’m a fairy? And that I came through from my world to some… fairy-realm when I was in that hall.”

“Essentially.” He spoke with elegant wit now, watching her. “But fairies are not like the human stories. And the fae-realm, known as the Twilight Realm to those of us who live here, has far more creatures in it than you could ever imagine.” 

“So we’re in the fae realm right now?” Ariana blinked around at the opulent room. “But… everything looks so normal! I mean, if a bit ornate.”

“Much about the Twilight Realm is similar to your world, and much is different.” Quindici DaPonti spoke with deep patience now. “But it does not change the fact that if you leave these walls, you will be caught and put to death by the Summer Fae King. Prince Lucca Bellari had to tell his father about the battle in the palace, for the King’s guards had already become alert to a Dark Fae’s signature in the halls, not to mention a Vampire Revenant. The Summer Fae Prince fought long and hard these past days to have you pardoned since your magic is new and you have no idea what to do with it yet, but his father was against it. It seems the King wishes to make an example of you, under Summer Fae Court law. If you even so much as step foot beyond these walls, you will be imprisoned and killed, though the King has agreed it may be a merciful death.”

“Some Fae King wants to kill me? Why?” Ariana breathed incredulously now. “And that blond man fighting with you was a Fae Prince?”

“The Summer Fae Prince Lucca Bellari, yes.” Her host spoke patiently now, compassion and directness in his dark onyx eyes. “You have amnesty here at the Red Letter Hotel Florence, for now. But the Summer Fae King Incentio Bellari has already put an edict out that should you step foot outside this Hotel, any Summer Fae may hunt you. You must understand that most of Florence and the surrounding countryside are entirely Summer Fae territory in the Twilight Realm, except for this Hotel and our ancient Vampire Dark Haven. The King has already set a guard all around the Hotel to watch for your escape. If you try to go beyond these walls, you will be caught and put to death. And if you try to return to the human world, you will be caught by the Intercessoria, the Twilight Realm’s magical police force. And put to death by them, for endangering humans with your powerful new magics.”

“So I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t?” Ariana spoke with her heart screaming in her chest now with anguish. “Either I leave this Hotel and have this Summer Fae King hunt me, or try to return home and have some magical police force hunt me? Well, how long does magic last? How long will it make me a fugitive and prevent me from returning home?”

“Forever.” Her host answered, watching her with a deep frankness. “Magic does not disappear once it has been opened. You will be always on the run from one law or another. You must understand, Ariana,” her host Quindici spoke with a deep gravitas now, “your magical imprint is tremendously unique – and the Summer Fae Prince felt it also. You are not just Summer Fae, but that plus Vampire powers – a tremendously rare kind of Fae called an Unseelie, or Dark Fae. If my instincts and the Summer Prince’s are right, you are a Summer Court Dark Fae, one of the strongest Fae-types out there. A young woman with tremendous magic… that might even rival the King’s someday.”

“So you’re telling me my magic could rival this King’s. Bring him down so my head’s no longer on the chopping-block?” Ariana’s breath caught as hope suddenly flared in her, making her feel something sear inside her like a fiercely sunny day, though still weak. 

“Patience.” Her host spoke languidly now with an almost elegantly bloodthirsty quirk of his full lips, as he watched Ariana. “You will not live to see tomorrow if you act rashly. There is hope that if your powers grow, you will gain your freedom. But that is far away, and a massively difficult task.”

“But you’re saying it’s possible.” Ariana returned, even as her hope strained. 

“Perhaps.” Her host nodded. “But you cannot count on your magic growing strong enough to challenge the Summer Fae King anytime soon. You must face your choices as they are now: to either beg myself and the other Vampires who run this Hotel for amnesty, though it will deeply strain our already tenuous relationship with the Summer Fae Court, or flee and face the consequences. Neither is an easy choice. And your life is not guaranteed either way.”

“Ohmigod. You’re a Vampire?” Ariana blinked, her head truly whirling now.

“Did you think I was a Pixie?” He spoke softly now with a glimmer of handsome crimson in his dark eyes as his full lips curled up. As he smiled, he widened it slightly – and Ariana saw fangs pierce down from his incisors, though they were far smaller than what she’d seen in the hall during the fight. As he let his smile slip away, he suddenly came to a deep stillness, so deep that Ariana could feel a cool breath of graves sighing from him. As he regarded her with flat onyx eyes now, beautiful as a marble statue and terrible as the darkness itself, she saw a deep swirl of shadows all around him.

Seething through the room and devouring the light.

“You’re a Vampire.” Ariana breathed quietly now as she digested this information about her host. Drawing a deep breath, she swallowed, leaning back against the pillows. 

“A Master Vampire.” Quindici spoke simply, as he regarded her with his dark onyx eyes. But something about a Vampire sitting with her in the morning sun suddenly made Ariana blink.

“How are you sitting here with me during the day?”

“I have the power to daywalk,” he answered, not perturbed in the least by her question as his dark eyes pinned her. “It is a unique Vampire gift, and happens rarely. I can walk in the day and sleep when I wish to, rather than when my fading blood calls me to like other Vampires. But we will discuss my situation later. For now, I have a problem plaguing me, Ms. Ariana Summers, and so do you.”

“It seems I have a lot of problems right now,” she snorted. “What’s yours?”

Her biting answer received a quirk of Quindici’s full lips and a flash of amusement in his eyes, before he spoke again. “Our mutual problem is that your Summer Fae King, Incentio Bellari, has stationed his Brightwatch all around my establishment for the past three days, waiting for you. And it’s scaring off my clientele.”

With a blink, Ariana realized the depth of the political situation, when the Summer Fae Prince had sent her here to save her. “Your Vampires and the Summer Fae of Florence are now at odds because I came here.”

“Indeed.” Quindici nodded sagely now. “For thousands of years, my Vampire Dark Haven of Florence has occupied this area. And when the Summer Fae Court were kicked out of their homelands in Rome six hundred years ago due to the War of Rome, my people allowed yours to take up residence in Florence and let your King have a new high seat here – known as the Treaty of the Light and the Night.”

“A treaty between Summer Fae and Vampires.” Ariana spoke. “Appropriate.”

“Though our peoples have never really gotten along,” Quindici continued soberly, “this treaty has been the cornerstone of our mutual tolerance in this area of the world. Though the Summer Fae King still treats Vampires as little more than dangerous animals, it is not so – we are a highly civilized people who have adapted well to the modern age. For thousands of years, my people have had our Dark Haven here in this city. The Red Letter Hotel Florence is the primary income for my Dark Haven. And your King’s Brightwatch are scaring that income off.”

“Because of me.” Ariana spoke quietly.

“I do not blame you for this predicament,” Quindici spoke gently as he nodded, though his gaze was still piercing. “Your situation is unique, and I deeply support the downtrodden and displaced. But it harms my Vampires, and my Hotel, to have the Brightwatch swarming around waiting for you to come out so they can arrest you. Which is where we come to the problem of your amnesty here.”

“You can’t let me stay.” Ariana swallowed hard, feeling her stomach drop.

“I can,” Quindici spoke softly now, his onyx gaze boring into her as his dark power suddenly swirled more purposefully around the room, a subtle mirage of shadows in the bright morning. “But as long as you are here, an unclaimed Dark Summer Fae with no master over your developing magic, your King will hold his standoff before my doors. But if you were claimed… he would have no jurisdiction over you. And would thus need to remove his men from outside my palace.”

“What do you mean, claimed?” Ariana spoke, shivering now as she watched him.

“You could be claimed,” Quindici spoke back with a dire glint in his eyes, “if you were blood-sworn to a Master Vampire – taking his Master’s Kiss and binding you to his service. The contract would make you mine instead of your King’s – and thus, free of the Fae King’s edicts and laws. And blood-oathed to me.”

Ariana’s breath ceased. Her heart stopped with a hard thud in her chest before racing on, her entire world reeling as she stared at the Master Vampire Quindici DaPonti, seeing what he hinted at. Her first option of claiming asylum here at the Red Letter Hotel Florence would fail eventually, due to the pressure of the Summer Fae King upon the Vampires. Her second option of escaping was also likely to fail, considering the intensity with which the King now pursued her as a rogue power. But now, the Master Vampire before her provided her a third option – to take his Vampire’s kiss and become oath-bound to him.

And everything that went with it – whatever that entailed.

All content copyright Ava Ward 2021. All rights reserved. No portion of this content may be reproduced without the author’s written permission.

NEW EXCERPT! Dark Master's Kiss: Vampire Masters of Italy #1

I have been writing like crazy this winter, and am pleased today to bring you the first chapter of Dark Master’s Kiss: Vampire Masters of Italy #1!

Woo-hoo!

A scintillating, dangerous rollercoaster of a story set in Florence, Italy in the Twilight Realm, this story has been brewing in my mind for more than two years, and I’m so excited to be bringing it out now!

It involves Vampires, Summer Fae, and Dark Fae as the heroine Ariana Summers discovers the Twilight Realm and her own Dark Fae magic – and two beautifully sexy men, the Master Vampire Quindici DaPonti and the Summer Fae Prince Lucca Bellari, to help her discover her power in the Twilight Realm.

Please enjoy CHAPTER ONE from the first book below.

And if you’d like to read CHAPTER TWO, you can find that here.

I’ll be in touch soon with more info on release dates for this series – six books that will all come out in 2021.

Enjoy the excerpt, and get ready for the heat!

XO Ava

*********

CHAPTER 1 – STOLEN

Art was more reliable than people, Ariana Summers mused as she glanced over a Renaissance painting by the Italian master Raphael. People could lie about their motives and hide their truth, but art never did. As Ariana tapped through a few notes on her tablet and lowered her chic reading glasses to peer at the painting more closely, she saw the poplar base was the right kind of wood and the egg tempera  was the correct paint to be original. But though this painting was recorded by the donor as being a true Raphael , it was unlike any works of Raphael’s that Ariana had ever seen. A depiction of Vision of a Knight, it was done with a fantastically dark demon looming over the sleeping knight and a luminous, almost fae-like being on the other side, a wilder version of the original.

That had seemed at once like it was fake.

But unlike people, when art was false, there were always tells; as Ariana frowned and leaned closer, noting Raphael’s trademark brushstrokes, she tucked a lock of her red hair back into its loose side-twist. Putting on white silk gloves, she slid her fingertips over the painting, feeling for imperfections in the wood. Turning it over, she inspected every inch of the piece, looking for signs of modern work, though she couldn’t find any. Wearing a slim charcoal pantsuit with a white silk shirt, the gold torque around her neck was classy, a matching bracelet on her wrist. Making her final assessment with an astounded shake of her head, Ariana turned on her grey lace stilettos to the Director of Florence’s Pitti Palace waiting beside her.

“Strangely enough, Direttore Voglio, this one’s actually a Raphael.” She spoke, putting her glasses up on her head and removing her gloves. “I’ve never seen anything like it, but it looks like an alternate version of Vision of a Knight. While the version in London depicts two women thought to be Pleasure and Virtue standing over a man, this has men who are clearly of demonic or angelic persuasion standing over a female knight – though if you ask me, this darker man looks like a vampire in modern lore, while that one looks like a fairy. It’s a very odd but unique donation to your auction, and since it has never been seen before, will fetch quite a lot. Your donor has very fine taste, and is extremely generous to donate this for the Pitti Palace’s upkeep.”

“Thank you, Ms. Summers. We will put this in the auction, then.” The director, a balding man with a nice smile and alert brown eyes spoke in a brisk Italian accent. Hired from the international Antiquities Authentication and Curation firm Robar, Fisk, & Lund, Ariana could tell the director of the Pitti was more of an architectural restorationist than an art hound as he smiled at her in relief. Standing in a drawing-room behind a formal parlor of the Pitti Palace in Florence where the exclusive invite-only antiquities auction was about to begin, he smiled at the item in question. “The donor of this piece often contributes to our restoration auctions here at the Pitti, and has donated many period-original items over the years. Still, we were happy to have you look at this one since it was so very odd.”

“Of course.” Despite her fatigue from having flown in from an auction in Cairo the day before, and Singapore the day before that, Ariana smiled at the palace’s director. “Your donor must be very generous.”

“He is.” The man smiled with pleasure now. “We are very lucky to have the Barone Quindici DaPonti donate to our cause as often as he does. Though he forbids us from erecting a plaque anywhere to thank him for his generosity.”

“It would mar the beauty of this palace you are trying to so painstakingly restore, Direttore Voglio. Which we cannot have.”

Turning, Ariana blinked at the beautifully smooth, sexy voice that had interrupted the Pitti Palace’s Director. Only approved individuals were allowed back here during the auction; but though the Palace’s security guards in their black Italian suits glanced at the man who now entered the ornate Italian Renaissance room, they kept their beefy hands crossed.

As for the man who approached, he was nothing short of exquisite. Ariana’s russet eyebrows shot to the ceiling as he arrived, and she was suddenly acutely aware of how she must look from five days of back-to-back international flights. Though Ariana was a professional with her slim grey suits and stiletto heels, her wild waves of long red hair always managed to make her look more renegade than she intended, even when they were mostly constrained like this afternoon. Smoky makeup accentuated her bright emerald eyes, but her look had been managed hastily on the plane.

And this guy looked like he demanded perfection from everyone around him. 

Wearing a slim black Armani suit with a dark red silk pocket square, the man was exquisitely tall with nice shoulders, a lean waist, and elegant height. Wavy short dark hair had been perfectly styled back from his forehead, showing gold and auburn hi-lights as he passed beneath the overhead spotlights. With straight dark eyebrows and almost viciously high cheekbones above his perfectly cut jaw, he might have looked severe except for his sensually full lips and his piercing delight as he took in Ariana. As he clasped hands with the Pitti Palace’s Director, Ariana saw he wore a plain gold Rolex with gold and onyx men’s rings on his long white fingers, cufflinks to match. The stones in his ensemble matched his dark onyx eyes – as he looked back to Ariana, she found herself falling into those eyes, deep. With cordial manners, he lifted her hand before she had even known he’d done so.

And bent, leaving the softest kiss upon her skin.

“Ms. Ariana Summers.” He spoke in his silken, luscious baritone. “Your reputation precedes you, and it is an excellent reputation indeed. I am honored to have my donation to the auction today be evaluated by the rising star of Robar, Fisk, & Lund.”

“Barone DaPonti.” Ariana recalled his title, even as she also noted he had hardly any accent to his perfect English. His looks were drowningly Italian, however; the epitome of tall, dark & handsome as he brushed his thumb over the back of her hand. As he stared her down, Ariana felt a deep heat flush inside her. His touch was cool, almost astonishingly so – but as that deep heat flooded Ariana, she saw him catch his breath. His dark eyes sparked with a fierce passion as his touch upon her hand suddenly warmed ten degrees in an instant. As that fierce wave of heat and light rushed through Ariana, she reeled, seeing starbursts even as she cursed herself for skipping lunch earlier. 

But this seemed like far more than her usual forgetting to eat as she reeled from the man’s touch. In her peripheral vision, it suddenly seemed as if a dark nimbus devoured the drawing room; like a massive sea, it boiled all around her, swallowing the lights cast down upon the auction pieces like some wrathful god. As Ariana saw it, she startled; and as she watched that black nimbus boil through the room, she saw it flash with crimson and gold fire. 

Coming from the Barone.

Startling backwards, Ariana jerked her hand away from the Barone’s – now scalding upon her skin as he stared at her with his drowning black eyes. Her heart raced, impossibly fast as if her very blood leapt to him and he’d somehow provoked this massive flush all through her. Reaching up and rubbing her neck, she slowly backed away.

Allured, yet somehow terrified of him.

“Ms. Summers? Are you well?” Direttore Voglio asked as he frowned at her reaction to his best donor. Blinking, Ariana found herself released from the Barone DaPonti’s gaze as she glanced to the Director. 

“Forgive me, Direttore, it’s been a long few days. I think I simply forgot to eat today. Is there anything…?” She asked apologetically, though that strange sunlight heat still blazed through her, making her feel more alive than usual, electric.

“Of course.” The palace director smiled, gesturing to a side door. “We have a catering spread through there for our staff working the auction tonight. A ladies’ bathroom is across the hall beyond, if you’d like to freshen up. The auction will begin in twenty minutes – please make yourself comfortable now that you are finished with your work. We are very lucky to have you.”

“Thank you. Barone DaPonti, if you will excuse me.” Ariana smiled to them both now, though she felt a strange resurgence of that reeling sensation as she glanced to the Barone. But though he gave a gentlemanly nod, he stood with almost marble perfection as his dark eyes watched her. A sensation like graves sighed from him now; and Ariana shivered, feeling that dark nimbus around him as she continued to see it in the air. Setting a hand to her temple, she worried she was getting a migraine or having a pre-seizure, seeing things like this.

And as the Barone watched her with a subtly piercing gaze, he moved a step closer. 

“Ms. Summers, would you like an escort to find a bite before the auction?” 

“No, that won’t be necessary, thank you.” She spoke briskly, though as she turned, she had to clutch the nearest table in her disastrous fugue. Seeing it, both the Italian guards moved forward with alarm, but the Barone was the first to reach Ariana. As her vision blanked out, his hands shot in fast, catching her. But he clutched her close to his perfectly-sculpted frame now; as Ariana gazed up into his dark eyes, she saw them flare with a ring of crimson-gold. Drawing a short breath, she suddenly felt as if the entire universe had dropped away as she stared into that ring of fire around the Barone’s drowning dark eyes. It was like watching the corona of the sun during a total solar eclipse; as Ariana saw it, the lights in the drawing room seemed to dazzle her with a thousand colors. A high whine hit her ears, her vision blazing white. When the room returned, Ariana found herself still in his arms.

Staring up into the dark eyes of the Barone.

Inhaling swiftly, she backed away from him – even as something deep inside her screamed to be closer. Using the tables for support where the auction pieces waited, she actually held out a hand to ward the Barone off as she backed towards the side door. She hadn’t meant to make such a rude gesture to a wealthy donor, but it was like she had to ward him away. Brightness still blazed inside Ariana and darkness surged around the Barone as she made it to the door. A vast aura of darkness and burning roiled from him as he stood watching her with his strangely knowing black eyes. 

Ariana knew no one else in the room could see it as her back hit the door. Her heart thundered as she entered an unrestored royal suite with mildewing green velvet drapes and a moth-eaten bed with only a few dusty floor-candelabra. A lush spread of food and drinks waited on tables for the Palace staff. But Ariana barely saw it as she untangled her wild red hair from her jewelry in a nervous twitch. She could still feel the Barone’s dark aura boiling all around her, not to mention that searing light inside her. Taking a door marked Toilette, Ariana came into a new section of the palace.

And blinked, shocked by the hall she had stepped into. 

The door she’d come through led into a long hall, and as Ariana gazed left, she saw the indoor marble colonnades of the Pitti Palace. But as she glanced right, that hall morphed into colonnades that were open to the sky, with greenery all around and ornately gilded fountains spouting from the white marble walls. Past a glimmering seam of white, it all seemed intensely real – as if two worlds existed simultaneously and she had somehow stepped into both at once. Though the marble hall of the Pitti was regal, the other side was insanely beautiful, ornate with details that existed nowhere else in the palace. As Ariana stared at the colonnaded hall, astounded by its fae-like opulence, she saw something materialize in a fountain grotto directly across from her. 

Like a demon of the otherworld, a mist of darkness suddenly swirled up from the shadows inside the fountain-grotto, overhung with purple wisteria. Writhing up into a menacing swirl of black smoke that darkened the late summer afternoon and the ornate fae-hall, Ariana felt a chill pass all through her from that menacing black void. As she watched, it grew, filling the grotto as her entire body became riveted with fear. Eyes manifested inside that seething black mass.

Red eyes – that wanted to devour her and give nothing back.

Her breath froze. Her heart hit panic mode, thundering so hard she thought it might pound her apart. Ariana’s hands were clammy, terror rooting her to the marble beneath her stilettos as she stared into those vast red eyes. They were endless, full of death and destruction; and as she stared into its gaze, she saw her life reduced to nothing compared to its own ancient malevolence. As it whirled, eager to have her fear it, she felt something lance out from its mind with its terrible black smoke.

And thrust deep into hers.

Come to me… and we shall devour your dark summer wind, together…

As Ariana screamed at the thing’s intrusion, she felt something slam out from her in a tremendous wave – hammering the thing back out of her head. It was like a wave of silver and gold sunlight, starlight, and moonlight all at once as it seared the creature – and Ariana saw a massive wave of light blaze from her entire body, shot through with dark rainbows. A scream boiled out of her at the creature; a sudden roar of power coming from her mouth. And as she roared, the thing roared back, screeching like nails on a blackboard all through her mind.

As its red eyes blazed gold – insane to their depths. 

As that scream left Ariana, two individuals suddenly rushed in at opposite ends of the hall, skidding to a stop with wide eyes – one in the real Pitti Palace, the other in the fae-side of the hall. One was the Barone Quindici DaPonti, staring at her from the Pitti’s hall, while the other man was just as intensely elegant; beautiful even as his lips fell open and he stared at Ariana in amazement. As searingly light as the Barone was darkly elegant, a blistering energy roared from the tall, blond man at the fae end of the hall as Ariana clutched her head.

Blitzing with pain now from the blast of power that had left her. 

As Ariana collapsed to her knees, keening with pain in a vicious silver-gold maelstrom, she vaguely saw the Barone DaPonti and the unknown man rush into the hall – coming together in front of her and blocking her off from the creature. Tall and well-built, the Barone’s darker, intense beauty seemed to flow with raging night as he faced off with the creature, while the blond was as searingly vicious but sun-bright with power. As both men faced down the creature, the Barone raised hands. 

Seething now with a terrible black menace. 

As he did, the man with short white-blond hair ripped enormous gold-silver longknives from sheaths in his boots as he roared at the black creature also – light and fire flaming all along the lengths of those vicious blades as he shone, terribly bright. Wearing an embroidered sky blue doublet and charcoal breeches tucked into tall chestnut boots tooled with vines, the newcomer looked like a warrior-prince as he snarled, facing off with the smoke-creature as a vicious battle commenced in the hall. Barely conscious from the pain ripping through her, Ariana reeled as the Barone and the blond lord battled the smoke thing. Roaring and whirling as the black thing shot out thousands of smoke-tentacles to trap and skewer them, the dark-light duo fought like banshees through the fae-bright hall.

Before crashing back to the Pitti Palace’s marble colonnades. 

Down on her knees at the seam of light that bridged both halls, Ariana watched as terror and exhilaration filled her. Like fire and darkness, wind and light, both men careened into the creature over and over, blazing it with dark power and bright, raking it with blades and talons and fangs. As Ariana gasped, fighting to remain conscious, she realized the Barone had actually manifested dark talons on his fingers, roaring with vicious fangs now as his eyes blazed with crimson-black darkness. Likewise, the blond had grown enormous wings of dragonfly-light from his back and shoulders, his eyes blazing with gold-white menace as he and the Barone fought like twin stars now, one hot-bright and the other deadly-dark. The smoke creature was gradually being beaten back; with one last heave of blades and a roaring slash of talons, the two men bested it, making it scream with nails-on-a-chalkboard sound inside Ariana’s mind. 

As it whirled out – disappearing from the hall.

“What have you done, Vampire?!” The blond man turned upon the Barone as the creature vanished, menacing the Barone with his shining blades and tremendous wings of light. “Letting one of your Revenant brethren into the Palace of Light is forbidden, Quindici!” 

“I did no such thing, Lucca, as you know very well!” The Barone DaPonti snarled back as his talons suddenly retracted into this long white hands and he swiped an irate Italianate gesture at the blond man, sharp fangs receding from his upper incisors. “Your precious palace is a warren of sub-basements and under-passages for them to haunt, idiot Fae!”

“They should have been kept out by my father’s wards!” The blond snarled again, though it seemed more to himself now as he blinked around the merged hall – and saw Ariana collapsed at the seam. Rushing to her, he came to his knees; but at his touch, light blazed all through her.

Her pain roaring like it might rip her apart. 

The Barone rushed in as she screamed, falling to his knees and curling her into his strong arms. As a cool wind poured through her, calming that bright power back, Ariana gulped air, fighting to not pass out. As the blond lord touched her hesitantly now, his straight ash-blond brows knit, that power inside Ariana became tinged with gold and silver both, a darker blaze like she languished beneath a summer midnight moon. As a vision of the night sky full of endless stars spread all through her, she heard both men gasp. Staring at her as she blazed with silver-white moonlight now in addition to gold-light glory, lighting up the entire hall, she saw them stare at each other.

Astounded.

“She’s Unseelie – a Dark Fae! Sweet Levennia of the Woods, Quinn! Where in blazes did you find her?” The blond man whispered as his bright eyes fixed upon her.

“I didn’t find her; she’s an artifact authenticator in the human world. She was assessing a donation I had for auction at the Pitti Palace tonight.” The Barone returned, tender but perplexed as he gazed first in one of Ariana’s eyes, then the other. “I didn’t think her energy was anything other than human, until I felt it surge. I think she created this rift between worlds, spontaneously.”

“Powerful magic. We need to get her out of here.” The blond man spoke urgently now as his warm fingers caressed her face, pouring a steadying power through her now rather than his former blaze. “My father will kill her if he finds her here. Come. Quickly.”

But as the tall white-haired man hefted Ariana up from the ground, she lost her contact with the Barone. Pain went blazing through her again – creating a terrible spiral of burning all through through her. As Ariana screamed, the Barone moved in, clamping his long white fingers upon her wrist and pouring a soothing flow of darkness through her again. That starlight and moonlight sensation inside Ariana returned, now that both men touched her.

And as they glanced at each other now, the blond gave a quick nod down the ornate fae-hall. 

“Hurry, Quinn. This way.”

As they raced down the hall, leaving the normal Pitti Palace behind, the Barone kept his hand on Ariana’s wrist. A commotion like guards followed as they took turn after twisting turn; pushing fast through halls both ornate and strange. Ariana was flickering in and out of consciousness from whatever energy had left her; as they broke into a colonnaded courtyard with what looked like dragonfly-wing domes far above, she felt herself whisked up into a carriage.

As the blond lord laid her upon a bench of light blue velvet, the Barone heaved up into the carriage beside her, still pouring his soothing powers through her. As the lord touched her cheeks with his sunlight-warm hands, his beautiful eyes appeared above. No longer flooded with light, his eyes were summer blue, as lovely as the noon sky – and Ariana lost herself as she stared into them. Staring back, his full lips had fallen open, his cuttingly high cheekbones handsome and exquisitely beautiful. Something passed between them like a lance of energy; as Ariana caught her breath, the dark-haired man sluiced it back. 

And agony came into the lord’s blue eyes as his ash-blond eyebrows tightened.

“Take her to the Florence Hotel, Quinn. It is the only place a Dark Fae might be safe, for a short while at least.” He spoke quickly as he looked at the Barone. “If any harm befalls her… I swear, I will rip your corpse from this world and banish you to the four winds myself.”

“Lucca.” The Barone Quindici DaPonti spoke with dark intensity as he regarded the lord with his fiercely onyx and crimson eyes. “You’re a fool if you think I’ll let anything happen to a Dark Fae, especially one this strong. Back away. And leave her to me.”

“Bastardo.” The lord growled. But though his eyes flashed a terrible sun-hot gold, they left his rival. Glancing to Ariana, agony was in his every motion as he backed quickly out of the carriage, slamming the door and pounding the side with a strong hand, snarling up at the driver to take them away. As a whip cracked, the carriage lurched and some beast like a lion roared. And then they were pulling away, rushing out through rows of colonnaded archways topped by dragonfly wings.

Stolen away into the city of Florence – that wasn’t entirely Florence anymore.

All content copyright Ava Ward 2021. All rights reserved. No portion of this content may be reproduced without the author’s written permission.