“I admit, I am jealous that you bound Reginald. Intensely.” Heat moved through Adrian’s eyes though it was subtle, as he tucked his hands back in his trouser-pockets. “But it’s really not like I didn’t see it coming, Layla. Since August, actually, if I’m being truly honest with myself. I felt how much heat there was between the two of you at your entrance interview. And it was pretty hard to miss how Reginald’s watched you ever since then. And how you’ve watched him back.” As he spoke, Layla saw Adrian master his passion with a deep breath, the beast inside him settling.
“So why aren’t you pissed at me right now, if you noticed all that since August?” Layla lifted an eyebrow at him, feeling her Dragon coil up inside her, eyeing him warily like perhaps this was some sort of trick.
“Maybe I should be,” Adrian chuckled darkly, though his eyes were still clear of anger. “Maybe in another lifetime, if everything that’s happened recently hadn’t happened, I would be. But I realized something when I was being tortured by the Intercessoria last week, Layla. Something that’s… made me think a little harder about what your Binds mean, for all of us. Including me.”
“What do you mean?” Layla asked, crossing her arms. Though Adrian was being intensely reasonable tonight, she just didn’t trust it. He’d erupted on her too many times with his passionate jealousy, and too recently, for her to simply take a change like this at face value.
But as she stared him down, Adrian gave a rueful smile, something sad in his eyes now. “I’ve trained you to not trust me, haven’t I?”
“I admit, it’s hard to take what you say at face value sometimes, Adrian.” Layla breathed, though she kept her words gentle, not wanting to provoke a fight with him tonight. Her Dragon stirred in her veins with a far more peaceable attitude this evening, as if it agreed, simply watching the conversation but not heating to it. “You’ve fed me so many lies and half-truths these past months that I’ve had to wade through to figure out, and often from other people. And your emotions have been so catastrophic around me – and I admit, mine have been that way around you, too. Dusk was right when he said you and I spin each other’s magics up through our Bind, even though Dusk’s presence as part of it now has tempered our reaction somewhat.”
“Which is where Reginald comes in.” Adrian spoke softly, watching her.
“What?” Layla blinked, her arms coming unwound from their defensive posture, easing down to her sides as her brows knit.
Moving forward, Adrian slid his hands out of his pockets and corralled Layla around the waist. It was gentle rather than possessive, and Layla felt herself give in to him, stepping close to his body. Adrian didn’t move to kiss her, just reached up, caressing back one of her loose curls as his smile went slightly sad. “Did you know that the last time Heathren Merkami set Vampires on me during an Intercessoria interrogation, I nearly broke?”
“No. How so?” Layla lifted an eyebrow at him, though she was enjoying being cradled close to his warm body and didn’t pull away.
“Heathren brought six Vamps last time, when I was interrogated a few years ago, and I struggled hard against them.” Adrian continued, watching her with his steady gaze as he clasped his hands around her low back. “I was like a drowning man beneath their powers, and they would have broken me, except Heathren got pressure to release me at the eleventh hour. But this time—”
“This time, you could withstand more.” Layla blinked, understanding what he was telling her. “Because of our Bind… you were able to take far more of Heathren’s torture last week.”
“That bastard kept adding Vamps to drain me, but I just kept riding those waves, Layla.” Adrian nodded, his gaze intense on her though calm, the highly-aware version of Adrian that Layla saw leading Hotel Departmental meetings. “They sapped my energy, but not my will. I felt your rage, flowing through me and keeping me strong. I felt your defiance along with Dusk’s crystalline strength holding me grounded, letting me take my willpower straight from the earth itself. And all of a sudden, even delirious as I was, I realized we’re stronger together – able to borrow each other’s power through our Bind. And when you bound Reginald…”
“You felt it, didn’t you?” Layla breathed, wondering at this deep change in Adrian, impressed by it.
“Itfilledme with energy while I was healing.” Adrian spoke softly, shaking his head with a look of amazement on his face. “Deep power and control the likes of which I’ve never had before. I was entirely well within an hour, Layla. Reginald’s power made me well. Your… sex with him… healed me. And somewhere during that time, as I felt the two of you together, I realized that your gain is our gain. All of us.”
“So you’re really not mad?” Layla held her breath, wondering at this intensely reasonable Adrian standing before her. She could still feel desert passion in him, she could still feel his raging jealousy deep down, but she realized she could also feel the ocean flowing through him now – stabilizing his emotions just as it stabilized her power since Reginald’s Bind.
“I can’t say I’m not going to punch Reginald in his haughty face once we’re alone together sometime.” Adrian chuckled, his eyes flashing with dark humor and a hint of rage now. “The bastard deserves it for the way he’s manipulated all of us this past month. But even I can see it was done for a reason – to push your power, to make it grow quickly. Dusk and I have talked about it, and I know this is the right course for me to try and support you, even though Reginald and I have a very tense history. So I’m willing to give this a shot, for all our sakes.”
“Are you sure?” Layla lifted an eyebrow at him, realizing that Adrian was now speaking words to her almost exactly like she had spoken with Dusk in the crystal bath-house. “Because this intensely calculating Adrian sounds a lot more like Dusk than your usual.”
“At the moment.” He chuckled, something dark moving through his eyes as he cradled her closer in his arms. “I can’t promise I won’t flip my shit about it sometime when I’m feeling less magnanimous. I can’t say I’ll help you find time alone with the Siren, Layla. But I want you in my arms; in my life. Spending so much time away from you, interrogated by the Intercessoria and not knowing if I was going to come out of it alive this time… it made my priorities clear. You. You are my priority. And I don’t want you to be afraid of me, Layla. I want you to be able to trust me, to talk to me about what’s going on with you. To trust me to give you straight answers and keep my shit together when we talk. I want to try. I really do.”
“So this is what Adrian Rhakvir’s like when he’s calm.” Layla spoke with a soft smile, gripping him closer at his waist.
“I don’t want to be a bastard with you, Layla,” he spoke with a wry but gentle smile, nuzzling her nose. “I want to be a good partner. I want to beyourpartner… not someone estranged from your life because he’s just a jealous fireball all the time.”
“I want to trust what you’re saying,” Layla breathed, pulling back slightly so she could see Adrian’s eyes. “I want to trust this change I’m starting to feel in you. And I saw how reasonable you can be after you and Dusk saved my life back in October.”
“Dusk is my brother,” Adrian spoke with a wry smile. “And though he and I have been contentious for years, we also trust each other deeply, Layla. There’s no one I trust more in this world. And even though that Bind stung, it was easier for me to accept. But Reginald… Reginald is my enemy, Layla. And though that one is far harder to accept, I’m willing to try, for all our sakes.”
“Is Reginald your enemy because of him, or because of you?” Layla asked, wondering if this was the reason Dusk had been cagey about her new Bind to the Royal Siren. Because Adrian had a past with Reginald that neither man had told her about yet.
“Because of him.” Adrian spoke, winding Layla closer in his arms. “Reginald hates my guts. I don’t have any reason to hate him, except he’s always been a dick to me, trying to undermine me as Hotel Head every time I turn around. Like he did when he pulled that fast one on us at Samhain, moving you into the Assignations department. But while I understand his anger towards me, I don’t think he’ll ever understand my position, Layla. His Bind to you gives us power, but…”
“You worry that he’s going to try and steal me away from you,” Layla breathed, understanding at last. “In a way Dusk never would.”
“Yes.” Adrian’s gaze was so vulnerable that Layla reached up, cradling his face in her hands.
“That’s never going to happen, Adrian.” She spoke firmly, her Dragon rising in her veins with a roar of heat, making him understand. “You are my mate. You. Dusk and Reginald are bound to me also, and I love Dusk deeply, and Reginald… well, he’s Reginald… but you are the Drake of my heart. I see you and everything inside me smiles, Adrian. Everything. You stir my passions in a way I can’t describe – and I love it. I loveyou. The Binds make it complicated, but… I want you in my life. And I’m not going to take no for an answer.”
“I would never say no to this, Layla,” Adrian murmured, his lips curling up in a soft smile as joy beamed from every part of him. “Never.”
And then he was kissing her, slow and deep as their energies whirled, bursting with golden flame. Adrian’s aqua and crimson coils surrounded Layla’s, playing with her power as they kissed. Tightening around her, Layla was trapped inside Adrian’s coils, feeling them slide in a muscled play of sensuality all around her. A large, thick coil slid between her legs as if she rode a massive serpent – smooth spines brushing up between her thighs, slipping over her most delicate places. Layla arched in Adrian’s arms, shuddering with heat, and Adrian broke their kiss, chuckling at her ear, low and devious.
