Of Blood and Passion (44 page)

Arturo nodded, not quite sure how to process the loss. “He knew.” Arturo turned to Quinn. “He said, just before he died, ‘And the one does know’.”

Finely arched brows knit. “The curse could only be broken by Escalla drinking the heart blood and the power of the one.”

“The one who stole the power in the first place,” Arturo said. “Cristoff. It was a diabolical provision, for what were the chances of the same vampire stabbing a sorcerer for power, then sacrificing himself?”

“Yet the two minds of Cristoff managed just that,” Quinn said. “When he stabbed me, I’m pretty certain that we both saw that vision, the two wizards uttering the curse. Cristoff knew what it took to break the curse and to destroy Escalla. When the good Cristoff finally broke free, he used that knowledge to end it.”

Kassius joined them and Quinn hugged him. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

“Ax,” Micah said quietly, and nodded behind him.

Arturo turned to find every vampire, every wolf, every Slava, and fae, on one knee watching them. Quinn glanced at him in confusion. A confusion which cleared when Fabian, directly in front of them, called out loudly, “I pledge fealty to the Healer and her Snake.”

“The Healer and her Vampire, please,” Quinn replied with a laugh. “Or better yet, just Quinn and Arturo.”

Fabian grinned. “To Quinn and Arturo!”

All throughout the gathering, the shout went up. “To Quinn and Arturo!”

As Quinn turned to him, her eyes filled with wonder, Arturo felt a pride in her he could barely contain and a love that filled him beyond imagining. As their gazes met, she smiled at him, a smile that had him almost lifting off his feet.

Do you have any idea how much I love you?
he asked her.

Almost as much as I love you?

He stared at her, startled by the sound of her voice in his head.
Marry me.

Now it was her turn to stare.

His heart tightened with chagrin. “That was too soon.”

But to his amazement, she took his face in her hands. “Not too soon.” She searched his eyes, her own filled with wonder. “Marriage? Are you sure? As a potentially powerful sorceress, there’s no telling how long you might be stuck with me.”

His hands gripped her waist. “
Potentially
powerful? You just created a
world
.” His arms slid around her and he pulled her close. “I pray you live forever.” It was his turn to search her face, her expression, for sign of her answer. “You don’t have to stay here. It wasn’t fair of me to ask you to live the life of a vampire, unable to walk in real sunshine.”

Her smile, filled with such tenderness, sent his heart soaring. “I once asked Amanda why she’d given up her life for Sam. She said, ‘He is my life.’ At the time, I didn’t understand. But I do, now, perfectly. Where I live doesn’t matter, Turo. Whether it’s in real sunshine or my magical sun, D.C. or V.C., all that matters is that I live my life with you.” Quinn lifted an eyebrow. “For now, though, we’re staying right here. This is
my
world, now.” Her smile turned wickedly mischievous. “And I’m making some changes.”

Joy surged through him, a joy he’d never believed possible. And he began to laugh.

Epilogue

“W
e should be up and running by the end of the week,” Amanda told Quinn and Arturo as she showed them around the brand new Vamp City Hospital, previously known as Neo’s basement. “Bram’s insisting we can’t open without a decent supply of antibiotics and pain killers, though I really think the antibiotics will be unnecessary with healers and vampires working here. I’ve yet to find a bacteria that can’t be quickly overcome by a vampire bite. The pain killers are a different matter since we may run across other Levenachs who can’t be enthralled.”

Quinn poked her head into one of the newly appointed examining rooms, impressed by how much it looked like any doctor’s office in the real world, complete with overhead fluorescent lights. Neo’s now had a number of generators.

It had been two months since the sun rose on Vamp City and the changes wrought in that short time Quinn found nothing short of astounding. Then again, when vampires put their minds to something, they could accomplish it amazingly fast. And to her immense gratitude and delight, they’d set their sights on making her world exactly what she wanted it to be—a utopia not just for the vampires who lived here, and those who were arriving by the legions, but also for the wolves and Slavas, the Traders and fae, most of whom had no way to leave. Only the Rippers continued to be problematic.

As Amanda walked them down the hallway, showing them examining rooms and surgery centers, one after the other, Arturo began to frown.

“I thought we’d agreed on no new mortals for the time being. All this for Octavia’s dozen Levenach sorcerers?”

Quinn smiled. “Are you forgetting about her school?”

He looked at her warily. “Her school for the dozen.”

Quinn’s smile turned into a laugh. “That’s just phase one, training the trainers.” She slid her arm through his. “Oh, Vampire, you have no idea the plans she’s making.”

Amanda nodded sagely. “When you consider how many Levenachs accidentally walked in on sunbeams in D.C. alone, there must be thousands worldwide. All of them are coming into their power, all without a clue what’s happening to them.”

“Thousands of wild sorcerers. That’s a disaster waiting to happen,” Arturo muttered.

Quinn had to agree. Fortunately, there were those who possessed the ability to see the magic in others. A team of vampires and sorcerers had been assembled to start hunting them down, to try to coax them into studying with Octavia.

“How did your call for staff go?” Quinn asked Amanda. She and Arturo had spent most of the past week traveling between the real world and Sakamoto’s, where they would live, for now. Though Arturo could have claimed Cristoff’s castle for his own, he’d agreed that the memories there were too horrific. For both of them.

“I have nine vampires and three fae who’ve committed to helping staff the hospital,” Amanda told her. “All but one have healing skills. The last is Bram who, while not technically a healer, has mad surgical skills and tremendous hospital experience. He’ll continue to work nights at G.W. Hospital in D.C., but he’ll spend his days with us.”

“I notice you still haven’t convinced Neo to add more electricity upstairs.”

Amanda smiled ruefully. “No. Despite growing up in the late twentieth century, he’s taken a liking to what he calls the more natural way of life of the nineteenth. Mukdalla and Sam both prefer it, as well, so the generators will remain hooked up to the kitchen and hospital only.”

“Most of the vampires agree with Neo,” Arturo said. “Micah and I are exceptions.”

Amanda smiled. “From what I hear, you two always have been.”

As his dark eyes, as warm as the sun, crinkled at the corners, Quinn kissed his cheek. “Truth.”

He met her gaze, his own filled with such love that her heart swelled almost beyond bearing.

With a smile, Quinn turned back to Amanda and gave her a quick hug. “We need to get going, but come visit us, please? We’re installing a media room at Sakamoto’s complete with a small theater-sized screen. We’ll be holding monthly movie nights for the Slavas and wolves, and anyone else who wants to attend.”

The smile that bloomed across Amanda’s face was one of pure delight. “With popcorn and soda?”

Quinn laughed. “I was thinking appetizers and wine, but sure. We’ll serve whatever you want.”

They said goodbye to Amanda and headed upstairs where the sun shone brightly through the windows. In the kitchen, they found Neo and Mukdalla chatting with Zack and Lily.

Quinn smiled when she saw her brother and his fiancée. “I didn’t know you two were here.”

Zack gave Quinn a quick hug. “We just stopped by.”

“Actually, we didn’t
just
stop by,” Lily admitted. She turned to Mukdalla with a smile. “Octavia would like for you to consider running her school for Levenach sorcerers.”

Mukdalla’s mouth dropped. “
Running
it?” Her hand went to her chest. “Me?”

Lily reached for her. “You don’t have to say yes. But you’d be wonderful. You could hire whomever you want to do the work, but we’re going to need someone with organizational skills, someone used to dealing with scared humans. We expect a lot of the students coming to us to be pretty dazed and confused at first.”

“Wait,” Quinn said, turning to Lily. “You’re using a lot of
us’es
and
we’s
. Are you telling me that you and Zack are going to stay and help run the school, too? I thought you were going to program computer games.”

Zack grinned, for a moment looking twenty-two again for the first time since they’d stumbled into Vamp City. “Anyone can be a programmer, Sis. We have a chance to help build
Hogwarts.
For real.”

All she’d ever wanted was for him to be safe. And happy. Part of her wished he’d find that happiness in California, a continent away from anything to do with vampires, though she was learning that vampires, in particular Rippers, could be anywhere. There was no place that was truly safe. It was here that Zack had found his strength, both physical and emotional. It was here, he’d come into his sorcerer’s power, helped defeat a monster, and discovered that the girl he’d loved for years had loved him in return. For years.

He was happy, in love, and he appeared to have found a calling. For now.

“Will you be teaching?” she asked her brother.

“Who knows? We have to be students first. Octavia still has a ton to teach us. But we’ll help her set up the school and find her students.” To no one’s great surprise, the Levenachs were the only humans who could enter and leave the new V.C. at will.

Lily nodded. “I can see their energy—the faint glow of a Levenach. I can help William and Maxwell identify them.”

Quinn hadn’t met William, Maxwell, and William’s wife, Ana Lucia, until after the Great Battle, as it was coming to be called. But they, too, had become instant friends, especially Ana Lucia.

“The new sorcerers are probably everywhere,” Zack said. “And terrified. You know how that feels, Sis, when weird stuff happens and everyone looks at you like you’re a freak. We don’t want anyone to suffer who doesn’t have to. People, especially in D.C., have already suffered too much.”

There were still hundreds missing, hundreds more dead from what officials were calling a terrorist attack. It amazed Quinn how adept humans were at seeing only what they wanted to see. She read the occasional speculation on-line that aliens were to blame, but for the most part, chemical weapons and hallucinogenics were being blamed for the strange things people claimed to have seen, and the numbers who’d ‘jumped’ to their deaths.

“I’m glad you want to help,” Quinn told her brother sincerely.

Davu strode into the kitchen, Dera close behind. “The same band of Rippers who pillaged the market two days ago will attempt to hit it again tonight.”

Dera nodded. “They’ll be stopped by Emoras again, led by Neo and Micah.”

Neo gave a resigned sigh. “I guess we’ll be staking out the market again tonight.”

“Yes you will,” Mukdalla said. “The market’s grand opening is tomorrow and every Slava in the city will probably be there. I’ve heard
everything
they’ve asked for will be available for sale, and at reasonable Vamp City prices.” Which meant a fraction of what they cost in the real world. Most of the Slavas had been in V.C. for decades, some more than a hundred years. Real world prices would give them a heart attack.

Quinn’s first proclamation, after creating her world, was to officially emancipate all slaves. There would be no slavery in
her
Vamp City. Of course, in reality, the Slavas were ideally suited to being the primary food source and household labor for the vampires. And they couldn’t leave for fear of suffering sudden death when their immortal bodies became mortal again. But now, instead of mere chattel, they’d become valuable, and empowered. Because now the Slavas could work for and/or feed, whomever they chose. And if they weren’t being treated or paid well enough, they were free to leave and find other employment.

So far, the vampires had been bending over backward to please them. She suspected that many, if not most, of the Emoras were ashamed of the way the Slavas had suffered and were more than happy to find ways to make it up to them, including building and furnishing brand new Slava cottages complete with soaking tubs and hot water.

Micah walked in the back door followed by Lukas and his fiancée, Elizabeth. The first thing Lukas had apparently done after Quinn saved V.C. was leave to find Elizabeth and talk her into spending the rest of her life with him, now that he could walk with her in the sun in at least one world. Quinn liked the woman, a school teacher, immensely and had learned that Micah had been keeping an eye on her while Lukas was trapped in V.C.

Quinn smiled. Her list of genuine friends was growing nicely. It was hard not to be open, and happy with the world, when she was so much in love.

“Savin’s pack and the Herewoods are feuding again,” Micah announced.

“Not that we expected that truce to last,” Lukas muttered.

“Hi, Quinn,” Elizabeth said with a smile and handed her a small bunch of wildflowers.