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

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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.