“Layla.” Adrian’s voice was low with warning, though Layla could see him trying not to smile as his hand tightened upon hers at his sleeve.
“Control yourpet, Adrian Rhakvir.” Bastien was not smiling, power rising up around the Royal Siren now like a roaring tide. “Or I will control her for you.”
“She’s not my pet.” Adrian spoke, a warning growl in his own voice as his piercing eyes flashed gold now. “And your disrespect at this establishment will not be tolerated, Bastien Durant. You are banned from this Hotel. Collect your things and leave, immediately. I’ll not have your vicious hatred disturbing my guests, my employees, or my friends. And if you ever try to return, just watch how fast I have you skewered, by my own talons if need be. Or by Layla’s magic, ramming right up your ass.”
Bastien Durant trembled with fury. Setting his drink aside on a table in a precisely elegant gesture, he squared off with Adrian. Contempt filled his icy white gaze as an enormous grey-white energy surged up around him in a watery nimbus – full of barbs and strangling tentacles. “Have a care whom you threaten,cur. Or do you wish the full fury of the Crimson Circle to come raging down upon you? And upon those you love?”
Bastien Durant’s white gaze flicked from Adrian to Layla. In that instant, his hand whipped out, seizing her wrist, and suddenly Bastien’s mesmeric Siren-power was pummeling through Layla’s mind. His ocean roared like a supersonic boom through her head and she screamed, doubling over with both hands at her ears. It was louder than a bomb; louder than sanity. But the sound was inside her, and as Layla screamed again beneath the roar of an ocean gone mad, Adrian and Dusk shuddering as they felt the power also, she felt someone step in front of them.
Seizing Bastien’s hand and wrenching it from Layla’s wrist.
“Enough!” Reginald Durant’s voice was an icy roar as he stood before the trio protectively, murder flashing through his husky-blue eyes. A light seethed from Reginald like a watery white-gold forcefield, spreading out to protect Adrian, Layla, and Dusk from his brother’s power.
“Or you’ll what, little Siro?” Bastien snarled coldly, yanking his arm from Reginald’s grip. “Run away, like you have all these years? Where were you when Alexandre was torn apart by Blood Dragonsbrother? Or when Orlando was burned in battle? Or when Tempeste was killed on assignment with the Intercessoria? Oh yes, you were right herefucking for cash. You are a whore, Reginald Durant. Just like your Blood Dragon was, and just like this little piece of ass is here. If I pay enough, I can touch those whores, Reginald. I can fuck them for a fee – and I will, the moment I am head of this establishment and this young whelp you call your Hotel Head is properly disposed of. Permanently.”
Bastien’s hateful white gaze was fixed upon Reginald, and Layla saw all the worst things roil through his blistering eyes – of inflicting rape and torture and cruelty upon the people Reginald cared for. Of wrecking his revenge on his headstrong youngest brother until he was utterly cowed and penitent, submissive to their father’s cruel iron will. She saw that the elder Siren would never stop until everything Reginald cared for was utterly destroyed, and everything Adrian protected ripped apart to satisfy Bastien’s terrible wrath. She saw that Bastien would have no mercy, if he ever took over the Paris Hotel.
And he would do anything he had to, to break the dominance of Reginald Durant.
Reginald saw it also. And in that instant he reacted, the Head Courtier’s oceanic power suddenly expanding a hundredfold, screaming through the ballroom like a hurricane. As a roaring, furious power surged through the hall and a rush of seawater went crashing across the ballroom floor, Reginald’s Siren rose. A Dragon of the deep, Layla saw it emerge in her mind like a shimmering creature, flashing with gold scales and white filaments through the blackest ocean currents. As Reginald roared with rage, she saw the leviathan of his true self blossom up; the apex predator of the oceans, the beast that killed in the depths of the Marianas Trench.
And then she saw it take him.
A tremendous shudder wracked Reginald, every muscle in rigors as if his body was trying to tear itself apart. Standing tall, he tore open his tux jacket and shirt as his body began to ripple with light. Surging over his flesh, white and gold scales devoured Reginald’s torso, huge white filaments ripping up out of his spine in a wave and shredding his clothing. As Layla watched, Reginald transformed fast, his chest spreading, massive, his arms becoming tall as tree trunks, fantastic gold-white talons punching from his fingers and gouging deep into the parquet floor. Above her, his long neck was graceful as it arched, huge white spines lifting up to the ballroom’s vaults and shattering chandeliers as he roared, a long white and gold tail of spines and flowing fins coiling out behind him where legs had been.
“Layla! Get back!” Dusk roared nearby.
But all around Layla, Reginald’s muscles bunched and lengthened into enormous coils as bones snapped and grew. His body surrounded her, serpentine like an enormous boa constrictor, trapping her. White fangs as long as Layla’s forearm showed in his enormous maw. White scales streaked his muzzle with ribbons of gold since their Bind, flowing into long whiskers and corkscrewing horns like a Japanese sea-dragon. His enormous head was long with angled grace, cunning eyes of gold-white fire roiling with grey storms and sunlight. Trapped with him, Layla saw his transformation become complete. As he breathed above her, his enormous chest heaving like a bellows, the talons of his forelegs punctured into the floor on either side of her and his coils wrapped around her body, his eyes suddenly focused.
Piercing her to the quick.
Layla gasped, terrified, exhilarated; standing very still with the beast. Guards with black spears ringed them in the flowing seawater, surrounding Reginald; Rikyava with blood-red eyes, her body set in a rigid tension as she held her own spear steady. Reginald’s sinuous form looped around Layla as if in protection, and as he lowered his massive muzzle, he watched her with cunning mist-gold eyes. Sliding his snout over her chest, he inhaled her scent. Layla shivered at the touch of those impossibly smooth scales as coils bunched around her; securing her. His body was massive, his tail coiling around the room, barbed white filaments and gossamer fins breathing in a wave-like motion from his spine.
Those scaled lips eased over Layla’s collarbones and neck, smelling her. Long white and gold slits in his neck rippled with gossamer fins; the gills that had saved Layla’s life in Italy, though thin nostrils in his snout allowed an icy-warm breath to pass over her. A fang brushed her and she shivered. Her breath came fast from fear and delight – one part terrified he was going to eat her, the other part knowing he was merely making the acquaintance of his Bound mate.
She made a move to raise her arms. The creature above her snorted with a hard ripple of his body and flash of his eyes – as if it wasn’t entirely a man anymore.
“Layla…” Adrian’s voice came very soft through the shocked hall, Owners being quickly hustled out by Guards as silently as could be managed, though Dusk, Rikyava, Adrian, and all the Guards with black spears remained. “Don’t move. Sirens aren’t known for having much human memory during their first few changes. He feels you’re his partner; he smells what you are, but he doesn’t remember. Go slow.”
Layla kept still, watching the enormous thing above her coil and contract, seeing its intelligent eyes. The Siren’s head descended again, his lips and elegant jaw brushing her skin once more. Turning his head, Layla saw the side-view of his face, just like she’d seen it in the water before. Though he had changed utterly, certain features of Reginald’s were the same. Golden ridges created straight brows over his cunning eyes. That angle where his jaw met his neck, so stern and striking, was entirely his. High cheekbones, cuttingly fierce and angular, held Reginald’s moody yet arresting attitude. The appearance of smooth lips covered in white-gold scales were utterly his.
As he smelled her, he shifted, the muscled swath of his body pressing Layla’s legs apart. She couldn’t fight it as an enormous coil settled between her thighs; sliding up against her groin and parting her legs. She shuddered, unable to stop it. A pleasured gasp came from her and the Siren’s head rose to her face – snuffling her with those massive fangs at her mouth.
It slid its muscled coil up against her again and Layla cried out, her eyelashes fluttering as pleasure shuddered through her. As if it knew how Adrian had teased her already tonight with his magics, the Siren did him one better now, sliding that thick, tremendous coil slowly between her legs. Layla’s skin heated with a flavor of orange peels and bourbon and the Siren inhaled, taking her scent deep into its muscled lungs like a forge-bellows. It breathed out over her face and Layla inhaled the sea; sweet and fresh.
Raising her arms slowly, Layla settled one hand to the beast’s ridged cheek and the other to its long, muscled neck. It gave a snort as she touched it, white spines rippling all along its back and coiling tail. Undulations moved its body as it breathed, washes of ocean sunlight refracting through its scales. Stroking that impossibly smooth skin, Layla shivered as it adjusted its muscled drape, laying down along her belly and hips. She felt swallowed by the creature as it settled around her, yet cradled by it also. That coil pressed up against her groin again, slipping along her and Layla shuddered, breathing hard.
The Siren’s lips turned up at the corners of its long, blocky snout. It was such a cruel, calculating smile that Layla laughed suddenly. Reginald was still in there somewhere, teasing her with his powerful new body.
But even as she had that thought, a harsh voice cut through her reverie. “Disgusting. She would fuck it as a human, even though his power would rip her apart.”
The massive creature that was Reginald’s Siren gave a furious snort. As if remembering why it had shifted in the first place, that enormous head lifted, swinging around to face Bastien. Safe and dry behind a barrier of his own power, Bastien stood his ground in human form, staring Reginald down with contempt upon his austere face.
As if recalling that it had an enemy to murder, Layla saw no mercy in Reginald’s Siren-blue eyes as he swung around to face his brother, bristling like a viper.
And there was no mercy in Bastien’s gaze as he bristled back – powering up into his own shift with a furious roar.
CHAPTER 28 – BEAST
