Layla felt Luke wrap his arms around her, pressing her close in his embrace. She heard him growl, then give a hard sob as he turned her head gently with one hand – pressing his lips to hers. His lips were warm and soft, full and good, and as Layla felt them, they were suddenly her life-line. As their lips touched, as their hearts opened, Luke’s lightning blasted the power of Reginald’s ocean back in an immense, sundering blitz. Layla felt Luke’s furious love jolt through her from his kiss; from his entire body wrapped around her in the bath. She gasped, seeing sky above the ocean now, feeling the rage of a dawn thunderstorm.
Smelling its power.
As that lightning blazed through her, it left a bright white in its wake; a furious clarity that evaporated the crushing blackness of the sea. As it blitzed through her body and mind, Layla felt it blast back Reginald’s ice and darkness, even the pit of insanity that was opening deep within Layla’s own self. Layla cried out beneath Luke’s kiss, the sensation erotic and immense. As he cried out also, pressing harder into their kiss as if he could devour her with his furious love, the blast repeated – devouring Reginald’s chill cold with striking hot power.
Layla shivered hard, but as that tremendous blast ran through her core again, it wasn’t pain or cold. Her body was ablaze from Luke’s power, her chest and heart pumping scalding blood now, her lungs heaving fast. As she cried out again beneath Luke’s kiss and he did the same, he gripped her hard, crushing her to his chest. She wound her arms up around his neck, trapping him as their kiss broke, as he bit his power into her neck now and she screamed in a vicious bliss as all that energy went blasting through her.
In a sudden rush, Layla’s animal mind took over. In a hot wave of passion, she was turning and Luke was ripping his wet shirt off over his head and Layla was hauling his trousers off in the bath. Need roared through her, hot white and scalding, and as Luke grasped her neck, hauling her hard into his kiss, sundering her with blast after blast of his furious lightning, Layla screamed into his mouth. She didn’t know how she’d wound up straddling him. She didn’t know whose hands were whose as they tore and raked at each other’s skin, kissing hard. But as he crushed her close and positioned himself fast, then thrust into her, the both of them cried out in a furious ecstasy as a blaze of lightning tore Layla to her core.
Fast and hard, furious and deep, Luke’s energy devoured her, blazing everything white inside her as they fucked in a scalding, furious lovemaking. Like a leviathan, her Dragon rose, commanding her body, commanding him, pouring through them both in a flooding wave of light and heat. She was wet, so wet despite the bath, and it was like silken coils thrusting through each other as she felt Luke’s Dragon respond. Crushing her like some enormous thing made of flashing light and thundering presence, his Dragon was white as staring into the world’s worst storm.
As Luke’s lightning surged through every part of Layla and her heat went pouring through them both, she suddenly came, roaring. She felt Luke spasm beneath her as he roared also, crushing her close and thrusting up deep into her, coming at the same time. As Layla fell down to his chest in the water, gasping, Luke sobbed like their lovemaking had reached in and ripped out his heart.
It was only then that Layla realized Dusk wasn’t in the bath anymore. Layla didn’t know when he and Adrian had left, but the bathroom was silent now, the door closed. As Luke’s hard, rageful sobs convulsed him beneath Layla’s body, her fingertips quietly stroked his chest. She kissed his neck, burying her nose in his good, clean scent, and he clutched her closer, shuddering as if their ecstasy was too painful to bear.
The terrible, contentious desire between them was too much; it had always been too much. And now as they held each other, in the silent bathroom as their heartbeats finally eased, Layla could feel the vast depth of their love, just like it had always been. As she cuddled into Luke’s embrace, he heaved a sigh, stroking her hair. She could feel deep surges of his power like a dying thunderstorm in her chest and pelvis, her own energy recovered with a hot roil of scales and fang.
The blackness inside her was banished, along with Reginald’s darkwater energy, and a scalding heat spread out to her limbs rather than a black emptiness now. Malaise took Layla in the aftermath. Her head fell against Luke’s shoulder, her lips pressed sweetly to his neck as her every muscle went lax in the water. His sculpted arms wound more closely around her, cuddling her to his lean body as he lay quietly now with his head back upon the tub’s headrest, still breathing hard from their furious passion. Too much lay unsaid between them with everything that had just happened; too many emotions roiled through Layla. But Luke’s incredible power had banished her chill and she could feel the heat of the bath at last.
And the delicious heat of Luke’s skin, still smelling of lemonbalm and clean soap even though it held a tinge of ozone to it now.
“I thought I might accidentally kill you there for a moment…” Luke spoke at last.
“I thought I might accidentally kill you.” Layla responded, amazed her Dragon hadn’t taken a big bite out of him this time. Deep inside her veins, her drakaina coiled over with a lazy movement, opening one big golden eye – and then shutting it again. Apparently, now that his Dragon-magic was open, Luke was a worthy mate. Something about it made Layla sad, as she smoothed her fingers over his strong chest.
“I didn’t think we’d ever get to do this again.” Luke spoke as she traced his skin, pressing his lips softly to her forehead.
“I didn’t know we could.” Layla breathed. “Something’s changed since your Dragon opened.”
“Did you want to?” He asked, something in his voice too quiet. “You know, do this again?”
Layla paused, her hand pausing on his skin also. “I don’t know if wanting each other is the real issue, Luke.”
“I know.” He kissed her forehead again, gently, his hands smoothing over her back, mimicking the soothing patterns she was drawing on his chest. Inhaling a deep breath, he heaved a sigh, the same heartbreaking sound as before. “I know we’re bad together. Every part of me knows it. It doesn’t mean I’m not furious as hell at Adrian – even Dusk, much as I like him.”
“You don’t have to like Dusk and Adrian, Luke. Just accept that they’re a part of my life now.” Layla spoke softly. “Just as much as my Dragon is. Just as much as your Dragon is now a part of yours.”
“Part of me knows that.” Luke spoke with his eyes still closed. “But this world is so confusing, Layla. I don’t know what to think or feel. I have all this enormous energy inside me now, my emotions are changing, roiling even though I can feel the talisman working to contain them. I want to do more than fight now, I want to dance and sing and fuck and drink hard, and sometimes I feel like I’m going crazy. I have a hundred times the energy I’ve ever had, and suddenly I don’t even know if I need to exercise or if I want to study, or even if I want to be a doctor anymore. Part of me still loves healing people, saving them. But where do I fit in the human world now?”
Luke’s hard sigh held everything he didn’t know how to say right now, and Layla understood it to her marrow. As she watched a tear drip slowly from beneath his long, dark eyelashes, she lifted up, kissing him sweetly on the lips. He paused, then pressed into it, touching her gently as they kissed. When they at last pulled away, Luke’s eyes were open, and their emerald bleakness cored Layla to her depths.
“Who am I now, Layla?” He rasped as he reached out to touch her face, his dark brows knit.
“Who do you want to be, Luke?” She spoke softly, kissing his fingertips.
Luke inhaled, and Layla watched him think deeply about it. “Dusk thinks I can still be a healer somehow, maybe a doctor in the Twilight Realm. He’s helped me a lot, coming to terms with how this is going to change my life – how it alreadyischanging my life. His coaching, his information these past months… I don’t think I would have been able to help you just now if it hadn’t been for him.”
“Dusk is good like that.” Layla smiled softly, kissing Luke’s fingers again.
“He is.” Luke sighed, his hands stroking Layla’s neck now. They said nothing for a long while, Layla breathing against him in the silence of the bathroom as his hands continued stroking her. The afterglow of their energy was fading and as they gazed at each other in the bathroom’s light, Layla saw a deep sadness in Luke’s beautiful green eyes. Reaching up, she cupped his face in her hands and he turned his head, kissing her palm. With another deep sigh, he closed his eyes, resting his lips against her hand.
“I love you, you know.” He murmured at last, without opening his eyes. “Even through all this fucked-up shit.”
“I know.” Layla smiled sadly. “I love you, too. Through allourfucked-up shit.”
It made him laugh. It was a sudden, quiet chuckle, but Layla died inside to see that sweet quirk of his lips, something she had dearly missed. But then he sobered. And then his dark brows drew down in a tight frown.
“What about our friends?” He rasped as another tear slipped from his dark lashes. “If my magic isnullax… then their abduction is all my fault. Fucking hells. Fucking, fucking hells…”
