“Come on.” Adrian spoke gently as he cradled Dusk’s head close to his, in a gesture so brotherly that it broke Layla’s heart. “Tell us everything while we get dressed. Give Layla the run-down. Focus. We need you.”
Dusk nodded briskly as he pulled back from Adrian at last. As he straightened with a deep breath, Layla saw him gather his brisk nature as Head Concierge back around himself like a well-known cloak, palming his wavy hair back into perfection once more. His sapphire eyes glanced upon Layla, but Dusk didn’t apologize for anything he’d said or done. Honest to his bones, it included honesty with his emotions, and Dusk didn’t gainsay anything he’d voiced.
But he was focused again, and that was how they needed him. Though for the first time, Layla wondered how long that focus might last, feeling like there was a lot more hidden beneath Dusk than he showed, more than perhaps he’d even let Adrian see over the years. For the first time, she wondered how long they had.
Before their Crystal Dragon finally shattered.
CHAPTER 11 – STORM
Dusk was finally calm and Layla turned, reaching for her clothes where they had fallen on the floor of the crystal bath-house. They were nothing special, just skinny jeans, a grey v-neck and a charcoal wrap sweater with her tall fawn boots. Though they were splashed with wet now, her casual clothes were comforting, and it was everything Layla hadn’t known she needed. Dusk had brought clothing for Adrian also, trim grey slacks, a white shirt, and russet Oxfords, and he finally began speaking with his crisp no-bullshit Head Concierge attitude as Layla and Adrian pulled everything on.
“Your friends disappeared from the Waterfall Grotto around three hours ago, Layla, the place where I arranged their after-party.” Dusk spoke as he watched them dress. “Their Guards were flooded with the equivalent of magical roofies – it’s what Smoke Faunus magic does – but inundated with so much that we’re still not certain a few of them will wake from the infirmary without a Purifier brought in, a special type of healer. Rake, Jenna, Lars, and Amalia fought back; they were far enough from the initial smoke-flood that they only got mildly dosed. The Furies fought hard and so did Rake, but Jenna and Lars got cut up pretty bad; they’re still unconscious. Rake was cut up less; he was able to tell me what happened about an hour ago.”
“Cut up?” Layla spoke as she sat on a wet chaise and zipped up her tall boots. “With talons, by a Dragon?”
“No. Branch-whips, like you’d get being drug through a forest canopy. Smoke Faunus are vicious slashers with those long branch-like hands of theirs.” Dusk’s dark gaze spoke volumes. “There were eight who busted into the Grotto – none of them Hotel employees. They escaped with Charlie, Celia, and Arron, we think they had access to a Nexus Realm. Quindici took our resident Smoke Faunus Imogene Cereste into custody, he’s got her down in the Guardhall now and he and Rikyava have been interrogating her. But she asked for you, Layla. She won’t talk until she can talk directly to you.”
“Why me?” Layla frowned, trying to think through her fear. “Isn’t it Adrian she’d want to talk to, if this is Crimson Circle related?”
“We’re not entirely sure it is.” Dusk’s gaze was eloquent. “No one’s mentioned the Circle, though Quindici’s been adamant about asking on that point. Rake didn’t hear it mentioned during the fight, either.”
“Is it Hunter?” Layla’s gut dropped as she stood, facing Dusk fully dressed now.
“From everything we’ve seen so far, Hunter works alone, so I doubt it.” Dusk shook his head, a complex look on his face as he opened the crystal door to the bath-house and held it, gesturing Layla and Adrian out into the bright snowy morning. “It feels like Smoke Faunus retaliation for something. But gods if I can figure out what.”
“I don’t have any association with Smoke Faunus, and Imogene and I don’t really even know each other.” Layla glanced at Dusk as they stepped out onto the snowy path, their trio walking fast back towards the Hotel under a bright blue sky. “So why would Smoke Faunus take my friends?”
“I don’t know.” He glanced at her. “But maybe if she’ll talk to you, we can find out.”
They didn’t say anything more as they moved at a brisk trot through the snowy gardens, making it to the Hotel and walking fast through the Yuletide crowds. The Hotel was still raging with a new kind of party this morning, sensual breakfasts with decadent orgiastic events. But Layla had no time for any of it as she and Dusk headed quickly through it all.
Their entire walk, Adrian received astonished stares and provoked tirades of whispers and open mouths. Everyone knew the ex-Hotel Head, everyone knew he was a fugitive, and everyone was gaping as their trio gained the south wing and headed down the subterranean stairs to the Guardhall.
But they plowed through it all, down to Rikyava’s domain, which was bustling like a kicked-up hornet’s nest from the sudden emergency. Even though they startled to see Adrian, Guardsmen nodded to their trio as they passed, some saluting Adrian with a hand to the heart and a fierce clack of their bootheels. As Layla, Adrian, and Dusk marched through the Guard’s catacombs and past the storehouses of weaponry, Layla saw arcane silver blades inscripted with runes being distributed to all hands.
“Silver?” She asked Dusk as they headed to the magical fight-halls. “Isn’t that for werewolves?”
“It works against various types of deep-forest fae.” Dusk answered, as he glanced at her with dark eyes. “Silver is caustic to Smoke Faunus. It won’t kill them unless you stab the heart or decapitate them, but it gives them a nasty burn and makes them heal slow.”
Reaching the end of the catacombs, Dusk gestured to a reinforced magical fight-hall to the right and Layla and Adrian pushed in through the rose quartz shielded door. What Layla saw inside made her stop with a sudden shock. On one wall of the quartz chamber, chains had been attached to a depression. From those chains dangled the Smoke Faunus Courtesan who normally ran their daily publicbacchanaliosorgy, Imogene Cereste.
Badly brutalized, scratches from knives ripped across Imogene’s long, slender arms with their silver-bark mottling, weeping a silver sap-like blood. Her beautifully haunting face was bruised as if she’d been hit, her full red lips swollen. Silver sap-tears rolled down her high cheeks, her dark eyes mostly closed and her long eyelashes fluttering with exhaustion. Her cascades of silver hair were tangled around her corkscrewing ram’s horns like she’d been yanked around, more silver sap streaking down her shaggy legs and hooves.
No fewer than thirty Guards in crimson lingered in the hall, leaning against the walls, straddling chairs and watching. All had an assortment of runic silver weapons bristling about their persons, some even holding long silver spears covered in runes. Wearing her Guard uniform, Rikyava stood ten feet from the chained Imogene, her arms crossed and a furious wrath on her lovely face. Her eyes had bled to a bloody crimson, drips of blood leaking down her cheeks as a nimbus of blood-droplets whirled around her.
Rikyava’s Blood Dragon magic, raised to such catastrophic heights she couldn’t contain it.
The entire scene flooded Layla with horror. She didn’t know what Imogene had done to merit such abuse – she was a treasured Courtesan of the Hotel family. But even as she took in the scene, Layla saw none of the interrogation had been done by the Guard. Before the chained Smoke Faunus, Quindici DaPonti stood with a wrathful stillness, dressed in his vest and shirtsleeves from the ball. His sleeves were rolled to his elbows, his hands and forearms splattered in silver sap. In his left hand, he held a sickled knife covered in runes. The handle was leather but the blade was pure silver, and as he crossed his arms, setting the point of the knife against his chin, Layla saw his skin sizzle.
Quindici didn’t move, staring at the bound Smoke Faunus and tapping the silver blade coldly against his burning skin.
“Jesus.” Adrian swore softly as their trio moved into the hall, shutting the door. Rikyava glanced over as a number of Guards turned, the Head Guardswoman’s gaze going from wrath to surprise at seeing Adrian. Rikyava said nothing as Layla, Adrian, and Dusk moved into the hall, though her bleak red eyes said it all. Her Guardsmen and women were similarly hard, parting for Layla, Dusk, and their former Hotel Head as they moved forward to access the spectacle.
“What’s her crime?” Adrian spoke softly as he stepped abreast of the Vampire. “Please tell me it merits this kind of severity, Quinn.”
“Poisoning.” Quindici answered coolly. “Betrayal of Hotel Guests. Betrayal of Hotel Employees. Associate to Abduction. Associate to Murder.”
“Murder?” Adrian growled softly. “Has someone died from the attack?”
