“I’m a Crystal Dragon, auntie, I’m already grounded.” Dusk chuckled sweetly, though Layla saw in his eyes how relieved he was that he hadn’t hurt Rachida.
“Still!” Shaking his face once more, she laughed, her hands falling from him to touch Layla’s shoulder. “You are lucky your mate was here. We all are. I am going to drain those bank accounts of yours dry to get this palace fixed.”
“Still more money than anyone has seen in their entire life.” Dusk chuckled with wit, though he frowned, glancing to Adrian. “Let’s head down. I’d like a snack, I’m fucking hungry, but I have things I need to tell you. All of you.” He continued, glancing around the group.
“Things, like what?” Adrian asked, frowning also.
“Things I’d rather not have the entire clan hear.” Dusk spoke, gripping Layla’s waist with his strong fingers as tension suddenly flooded him. “I was dreaming while I was in stasis. Dreams I need to tell you all as soon as possible.”
Layla knew Dusk could read people’s dreams, and often gained insight from his own dreams as he opened to the vibrations of the world while asleep. As Layla watched him now, she saw he had a perplexed look, as if his dreams in stasis had been challenging. But he didn’t seem frightened, only unsure, as if facing a decision he knew he needed to make but was afraid of the outcome. Though her Bind usually gave her insight into Dusk’s emotions, she couldn’t read him right now. As if he’d erected a crystal wall inside himself, Layla frowned as she realized she couldn’t glean his thoughts.
Dusk glanced at her, and the knowledge in his eyes made Layla realize he felt her prying into him. But he was keeping those thoughts private right now, and with a nod, Adrian gestured down the rubble pile. Everyone turned, making their way down with Adrian and Rachida’s winds to steady their progress. As they descended, Layla saw the Desert Dragon clan emerge. With smiles of relief, they gathered at the edge of the rubble, and the approximately three hundred people actually started clapping. Amazement was in their faces as they watched their Clan First and his Bound trio descend the destruction, having exhibited such formidable and complex magics today.
But there were a few who were not impressed, a group of ten or so Royal Wind-Warders who crossed their arms and scowled deeply as if today’s destruction were all Adrian’s fault. Layla knew who Adrian’s challengers would be if his power ever slipped. She saw it in the faces of those ten as she passed, in their hostile red-blue or sand-gold eyes. Some of the Moroccan and Mediterranean Desert clan did not consider Adrian being Bound to a Royal Crystal Dragon an asset.
Or Adrian being bound to a Royal Dragon Bind.
Moving beneath an undamaged arch at the edge of the orange tree plaza, Adrian ushered Dusk and Layla, Rachida and Emir into the formal dining hall of the Emerald Room, patterned in ornate emerald glass tiles and frescoes. On the other side of the Emerald Room was the quadrangle of the Blue Courtyard, where the infamous fountain-spring that fed the grounds of the palace lay. As they stepped through the Emerald Room and into one of the long outdoor halls of arched Moroccan columns adjacent to the Blue Courtyard, Layla felt herself take a relieved breath. The precious courtyard, the oldest part of the palace, was still intact, the large tiered fountain of blue tiles at its center with its wide square basin untouched by Dusk’s chaos.
Proceeding along the outdoor hall under shade now from the desert sun, they moved into an enclosed hall with chandeliers of silver filigree and Moroccan glass extending down its length. Fountains in the walls burbled along its length, potted jasmine trailing everywhere. Stepping to a set of massive ebony doors carved with Desert Dragons, Adrian pushed inward. The room was not one Layla had seen, but immediately knew whose it was. In the family wing, this room was obviously Dusk’s. Crystals lay everywhere, in every vaulted niche. Crystals sprouted up through the alabaster floor, grown in a hodgepodge of smoky quartz and citrine, red jasper and ruby. As Layla gazed around, she noticed no statues of Buddha or Kwan Yin like Dusk had at the Paris Hotel, but the suite was his all the same – his childhood room, the crystals grown in a riot like he’d been experimenting.
As Dusk glanced to where Layla was looking, he grinned. “This was my room as a kid. I kind of blasted apart the crystal atrium I usually sleep in when I’m here, but at least this room has a bunch of my stuff.”
As Dusk spoke, he proceeded to a set of ebony doors and threw them wide. Walking into an enormous closet with modern mahogany details, he flipped on a light. Crystal chandeliers brightened overhead, displaying row upon row of fine suits. But as Dusk walked into all that opulence, he passed it by, heading for a set of mahogany drawers in one corner. Hauling out a pair of jeans, he pulled them on commando. Zipping them up, they left a nice bulge in front, the soft, well-loved fabric fitting his strong thighs like a wet dream.
Layla stared as he took out a white v-neck shirt from the drawers. As he hauled it on over his head, she watched the muscles in his back and sculpted shoulders move, showing through the thin shirt as he stretched it. Clearly, the outfit had been worn by a younger, slightly less fit Dusk in the past, but the way everything pulled in his excellently fit state now was incredible. Layla gaped at him with her lips open as he turned – giving her a smoldering look.
“I can feel that, you know. Like firebrands searing all through my back and ass.” He chuckled, his devastatingly handsome sapphire eyes flashing a hot diamond as he teased her.
“Sorry.” Layla mumbled, though she really wasn’t. Her heart was pounding, her loins already spectacularly wet. When had Dusk gotten this handsome? He’d been fit as a god before, and panty-dropping gorgeous, but something about him was different now since his full Dragon-change. Layla couldn’t quite place it, but it was like he was giving off excellent pheromones now.
Pheromones she wasreallyresponding to.
He chuckled as he approached her, with a lithe, almost catlike stalk. His eyes were hot with the echo of his Dragon as he corralled her in his arms, gripping her firmly around the back and neck. It was sexy and dangerous, an entirely new side to Dusk that Layla had never seen. His body thrummed with power as he held her. His energy scalded as he kissed her, soft and gentle, yet biting and forceful. Layla’s blood surged in her veins as she made a needful sound at his lips, and he chuckled deep in his chest, rolling that sound through her in a powerful wave. It was ecstasy. Layla melted into him until his strong arms were the only thing holding her up as he gripped her, kissing her on and on.
Someone cleared their throat by the closet doors. “If you two are quite finished?” Emir’s grating basso voice rumbled into the walk-in.
Breaking from Layla with a slow growl, letting his amazingly soft lips linger for a moment, Dusk turned murderous eyes to the doors. “Don’t interrupt, Emir.”
“Don’t treat me like your lackey, Egypt.” Emir’s voice was harder now, and as Layla glanced to him, she saw the wiry older Battle-Lord had crossed his arms, staring Dusk down with a hard commander’s edge in his black eyes. “You called a clan meeting and our time is valuable, especially with this much destruction today and with so many people injured. I could be healing the clan right now but I’m here waiting on you, and so is Rachida. Talk now. Do your kissing later.”
Emir Tousk was not a romantic. As he stared Dusk down, Layla felt the man’s impeccable battle-prowess. Emir had been Battle-Lord for the clan for over six hundred years. He’d been in plenty of combat situations, and the hard practicality of it showed in his posture now. Layla had thought Dusk would acquiesce to Emir with his commonly affable nature, but instead something in him bristled. Layla felt it like a wave of spikes that thrust all through the air, flashing toward Emir. With a snort, Emir threw a hand up, casting that wave away with a whirl of scalding wind.
But as his eyes sharpened on Dusk, their meaning was clear. “Strike me again, Egypt, and get more than you’re asking for.”
“You can’t fight me.” Dusk’s growl was not his own, and Layla blinked as she looked back to him. Something dark possessed Dusk’s eyes, making their bright sapphire viciously blue now, almost inhuman. Layla saw the edge of his beast’s madness showing through from earlier and she seized his face in her hands, making him look at her.
“Hey! Easy! Easy…”
She saw that snarl and fury blaze in Dusk’s eyes one more moment, before he gave a deep shiver. Inhaling, Dusk closed his eyes, pulling her close and setting their foreheads together. “I’m sorry. I just… I need to talk, Layla. Please? My Dragon is just going to keep raging until I do.”
“Of course. Probably sooner is way better than later.” Stepping back with a frown, Layla took Dusk’s hand. He came with as she stepped out of the walk-in and Emir moved back, letting them pass, though Layla saw his dark scowl of concern. As they returned to the room, Adrian and Rachida glanced over from where they talked near a citrine pillar. Adrian frowned, and Rachida’s copper eyebrows arched as they saw what Dusk wore, rather than his usual impeccable Italian suits. But no one said anything as they exited Dusk’s room, moving toward the family kitchen adjacent to the Blue Courtyard.
As they stepped into the kitchen’s vaulted reaches, good smells already issued out in profusion. Soukos was cooking up no fewer than fifteen Moroccan and Greek dishes at the enormous kitchen’s stove-spread, and sparing a glance for the company as they entered, he gave a relieved smile. Wearing an apron, he’d taken his shirt off and it showed his deliciously sculpted muscles as he turned back to his work. Moving over, Rachida gave her young paramour a sweet kiss, which he avidly returned. They shared a moment as everyone settled at the large family table in the kitchen. Appetizers were already upon it: dolmades, couscous salad, and grilled chicken skewers with tzatziki to tide them over until the real meal was ready. In classic Soukos style, he was cooking on every surface available – making a meal for hundreds so the whole clan could eat tonight if they wanted to after such a devastating day.
As everyone settled, Layla still holding Dusk’s hand while Adrian chose the head of the table, Rachida and Emir sat opposite. No one said anything as Soukos moved briskly about his work, his catering effortlessly efficient even though he had no fighting skills whatsoever. At last, Dusk heaved a deep breath, and Layla felt a tremor pass through him. Lifting his gaze to the table, his eyes were a pure, incredible blue as he finally began to speak.
“You all know I went crazy today. What you don’t know is why.” Speaking low, Dusk’s smooth baritone was resonant as he paused, then continued. “Because we love so much, Crystal Dragon rage also runs deep, especially when it has cause. My rage began surfacing when Layla Bound me back in October. But when I went full-Dragon for the first time at Yule, it consumed me. I didn’t just shatter that day into my beast – I blew up every wall I had against my own deepest darkness. While I was in stasis in my crystal sarcophagus, my darkness came pouring through me. Every doubt I ever had, every regret, every time I didn’t speak up when I should have. Every time I turned away from my history, my destiny, and my deepest desires. Well, those desires are here now and I can’t stop them. Over and over while I was in stasis, I dreamed of Egypt. Of my home, of my clan’s temples on the Upper Nile and the caverns beneath, calling to me. And through it all, I raged. I dreamed of blood on my father’s talons in battle. I dreamed of my mother slain, somewhere far away in the Czech Republic. I dreamed of my Crystal King’s eyes – and saw his madness was even greater than mine.”
