Essence of Quinn Parts 3 & 4: Papa IV Era & The Main Event - Fate Breaker (MxM)

Drifting

As it turned out? Secondo lost his shit with Quinn and Air anyway.

They made it back to the lair, had a thorough and almost as bloody round two of what had happened in the crypt and then cleaned themselves up. Somehow, miraculously, they managed to make it to the chapel for the summoning on time. Quinn, Air and Earth were the ghouls that had been selected to donate blood for the summoning circle.

Secondo's eyes roamed over both of them as they approached the others who were setting up near the circle. He took in their bruised and bloodied appearance and scowled. Either Quinn or Air hadn't shielded their thoughts about what they'd been doing well enough because Secondo snapped.

It didn't happen often, but just lately he'd been under a lot of stress with the security threats to the Abbey and they must have caught him at exactly the wrong moment. Quinn felt the surge of anger first before Secondo started berating them in Italian. Unfortunately, both of them spoke and understood that language well after being around the Emerituses for so long.

"You had one fucking job to do today! How can I take your blood for the ritual now? How much have you lost already?" he said, grabbing Air and pointing to the scabbed over mark on his neck.

Air whined and Quinn, ever the brave but stupid one, tried to justify it.

"It is barely a scratch, Secondo. We will be fine."

Secondo's eyes flicked to the almost identical mark under Quinn's jaw which hadn't healed as fully yet. He'd tried to heal it as best he could but his magics didn't work as well on himself as they did on others.

"Just a scratch?" Secondo snapped. "That does not look like just a scratch to me! I will not risk your health over this!" Air's hand subconsciously went to cover the mark. Earth was standing behind Secondo and the look of absolute glee on his face pissed Quinn right off. Quinn snarled at him and Secondo's eyes flashed in temper. "Fire? Water? Will you act as replacements?" The two ghouls nodded warily and Secondo turned his attention back to Quinn and Air. "You can stay for the ritual and at least do your fucking jobs. I do not need this today from you! I will not tolerate your fucking sex life interfering with your duties!"

Air looked down at his boots guiltily and Quinn tried sending quintessential magic to Secondo to calm him down. He sighed heavily and frowned.

"We are sorry, Secondo," Air said sheepishly. "It won't happen again."

Earth snorted a laugh and Secondo whipped around to face him. His smirk dropped.

"Do not push me today! Any of you! We need to focus. I need this summoning to go smoothly so that we can get back to the task at hand. Is it too much to ask for a little bit of professionalism?"

It was Earth's turn to look guilty and he shook his head.

"No, Secondo. Of course it isn't. My apologies."

Quinn let his magic work in the background and Secondo took a deep breath, managing to compose himself.

"Where is Shay? He is supposed to be here by now," he muttered under his breath.

The ghouls all looked at each other and carried on what they were doing in silence. Seren collected the blood needed and left it to one side in the glass jars that they used for ritual bloodletting.

They were in the Abbey's main summoning chapel so the ready made circle would be ready to go once the blood had been poured into the pre-cut channels. This circle was only used for summonings coming from the Council buildings so no adjustments to the symbols were necessary.

A few minutes later, Shay rushed in looking flustered.

"Apologies. I was delayed," he said to Secondo who grunted and waved him over. "Shall we begin?"