“It’s because it’s still full.” Dusk spoke quietly as his fingers stroked hers. “The battle between my clan and the Tunisians was never cleaned up, Layla. There was no one left to do it. I’ve heard through the grapevine that King Markus never sent anyone in to clean up the dead either, because he believes a curse lies on the Crystal Plateau now. He’s tried to tunnel into the Thin Ways that connect to my home, but he’s not been able to. No one can. Those who try to tunnel into my people’s ancient citadel and its wealth… end up dead. Badly. Like Indiana Jones-style dead.”
“Shit.” Layla breathed, though Adrian didn’t react, as if he knew the story already. “So your entire clan is still there? Their bones are still on the battlefield?”
“And the Tunisians.” Dusk spoke with a nod. “Their bones are probably fully crystallized by now, but still. I’m not certain what energy I’ll find when I arrive. And it keeps me up at night.”
“Crystal Dragons tend to linger in the earth they die on,” Adrian supplied softly, glancing to Layla. “Their spirits and magic don’t precisely move on until their bones are either returned to the earth or used to make something new.”
“Make something new?” Layla blinked and frowned. “What do you mean?”
“We can use the bones of our dead to make new places,” Dusk smiled softly. “A temple, a bathhouse, even an entire city if there are enough dead. Many of the anomalous places in the world were created from a Crystal Dragon charnel-pile, because we’re one of the few shape-shifting Lineages that don’t shift back into human when we die. Our Dragon-bones are enormous and become crystallized in death, like granite or purer gemstones. Ever wonder where the black granite came from that’s inside the pyramids and makes up a number of monoliths around Egypt?”
“It’s Crystal Dragon bones.” Layla spoke wonderingly, amazed.
“It is.” Dusk gave a quiet nod. “A lot of granite in the human world does actually come from normal quarries, but some of it – and most of it in the Twilight Realm – is from Crystal Dragon dead, their bones resurrected into buildings and monoliths. Those Dragons were laid to rest by their kin. My kin haven’t been laid to rest yet. And it worries me… that they might be angry.”
“With you or with your King, for not putting them to rest?” Layla spoke, feeling like it was King Markus’ responsibility to take care of his people’s dead, rather than put that on a six-year-old survivor of an inter-clan war.
“With everyone.” Dusk spoke knowingly back. “Ghost stories don’t just exist in the human world, Layla, we have them here in the Twilight Realm, too. And Crystal Dragon ghost stories are some of the scariest. We learned early on to respect our dead. Because if we didn’t – they had a tendency to come after us. And everyone we love.”
A breeze stirred the night, fluttering palm fronds high above, and Layla shivered. Thinking about ghosts haunting Dusk’s homeland was not helping her feel any better with how fast everything was changing, and how different their lives would soon be. Burbling softly all around them in the moonlit darkness, the fountain’s water felt chill to Layla now rather than warm. She didn’t know if it was just the desert night cooling off or if it was fear at everything they might soon face once they set out to call Dusk’s clan back together. But she felt the first stirrings of a black pit deep inside her, something she hadn’t felt since she’d bound Rhennic at Yule. Rhennic’s bright, steady energy in their Bind kept her dark void-emptiness mostly at bay now, but as a black energy stirred inside her at everything Dusk had said tonight, Layla shivered again.
Putting an arm around her, Adrian glanced over. “I think it’s time we got out of the wet. Anybody up for a nightcap in my rooms where we can get dry and discuss this further? I don’t think I’ll be heading back to the clan party, all things considered.”
“I could use a drink. Maybe some dinner, too. I didn’t get a lot in the kitchens earlier.” Pushing up to standing, Dusk held out a hand to help Layla up as Adrian rose and boosted her from behind. Their sudden combined efforts ended up launching Layla into Dusk’s solid body as she came up out of the shallow water of the fountain. Dusk caught her to his firm chest with a masculine strength, and the suddenness of being pressed up against all that hard, sexy muscle suddenly made Layla’s energy do a quick one-eighty – flaring her Dragon’s heat and banishing the black void of worry inside her.
It was like a furious roil of wildfire pouring through her veins and Layla gasped, having not felt her Dragon come so fiercely to attention in a while. As Dusk pulled her close, gripping her around the waist with his solid, warm hands and pressing her to his deliciously wet jeans and thin t-shirt, he growled in a sub-basso roll that rumbled all the way through her.
“Layla…” Dusk breathed at her lips with a slow, dark pleasure as he nuzzled her nose. “I can feel your Dragon rioting all through me. How can this conversation possibly make you think about sex right now?”
“It’s been a while.” Layla breathed back, shaking now from the tremendous energy her drakaina was pouring through her, gold and bright and hot with passion – unconsummated for months while Dusk was in stasis. She wasn’t cold anymore in her sodden gown, but blistering as curls of steam rose up off her skin in the night. “You were in your sarcophagus a long while, remember?”
“Your energy is spilling out all over the place, Layla,” Adrian agreed with a hot growl as he stepped close to her back, caressing his soft lips over her neck and inhaling her spiced bourbon-orange scent as his arms wound around her from behind. As the Bind flared between them all from Layla’s eros, it wasn’t just Dusk responding to the Bind’s passion, but Adrian also. “God, it’s like you never bound Reginald… fuck, that’s good…”
“Blame Dusk.” Layla gasped as she was flooded with sensual heat from both her men, holding her close in the waters of the fountain. Caught between them, she could feel their drake’s energies surging through her now like molten wind and smelted diamonds. “He’s got… more pheromones or something since his stasis. I can’t… my drakaina isn’t… I mean, I’m not exactly thinking straight here.”
“Maybe we should move inside?” Dusk gave a sexy growl as he massaged his hands into Layla’s waist, glancing over her to Adrian. “Talk this out?”
“I think that’s a good idea.” Adrian spoke hotly as his lips grazed Layla’s neck again, though she felt him trying to wrangle his Dragon back so they could all think straight about the situation. “Let’s stop by the kitchens to get some dinner before heading to my rooms. Maybe some coffee and a bite to eat will help us settle so we can continue this discussion about Egypt and figure out how to best go about it.”
“What about the clan, Adrian?” Dusk frowned, though something in him was still decadently alert with the hot tension rioting from Layla, a sub-basso rumble trickling off his body and shuddering the pool as if he couldn’t quite contain his Dragon’s arousal.
“They can entertain themselves tonight.” Adrian spoke firmly, as Layla felt him working hard to plan their next move. “This takes precedence. There’s no way we’re sending you to Egypt without fully talking all this through and coming up with a game plan. Come on. Let’s get out of these wet clothes and have a bite to eat, and we’ll take it from there.”
But as Adrian kissed Layla’s neck, taking her hand and leading her out of the pool, his energy rioted in a wave of hot jasmine-musk scent, surging all around her with a delicious sensation of coils and barbs. Layla swayed, and behind her now, Dusk caught her, the deep passion between her and Dusk stretching like hot, sensual candy as he growled into her neck.
Layla’s eyelashes fluttered; her knees buckled and she couldn’t stand. Stepping back into the pool, Adrian gripped her waist and lifted her up over the rim of the fountain, pulling her close to his body as Dusk slowly let her go. Layla could feel Dusk and Adrian’s magics both coiling around her, the energy of one subtly contesting the energy of the other. But where once they might have fought over her, it was different tonight, as if Layla’s heat and their response was creating a sexy game between them all.
A game of hot, delicious passion – as if both were eager to have her, at the same time.
Corralled close to Adrian, Layla opened her eyes, watching Dusk step gracefully out of the pool. Passion burned in Dusk’s eyes, making their sapphire a bright white-blue beneath the moon. The danger lurking behind them now as his Dragon watched her was fucking sexy as hell. Layla couldn’t get a breath as Adrian held her, his lips warm by her ear as her gaze was pinned to Dusk’s.
Dusk gave a sub-basso chuckle as he stepped from the pool, hot murder in his eyes. Layla could almost feel the dark, viciously sexy thoughts he was thinking, thoughts influenced by the danger of his Dragon. As she let Adrian pull her away, back to the kitchens with Dusk following, she could still feel heat rioting between them all as Adrian and Dusk’s energies subtly fought over her, trapping her between their coils.
As they stepped through the vaulted ingress of the kitchens, they saw Soukos cleaning up alone. The young Greek glanced up as they entered and a hot flush immediately took his caramel cheeks, feeling the energy surging between Layla and her men. He shuddered from head to heels as their trio stepped into the kitchen, Dusk heading to a spread of leftovers on the side-board and starting to assemble a big silver tray of food and drink.
“My First…!” Soukos’ voice was breathy as he gazed at them all with rapturous eyes, a deep need trembling his entire body. The young man actually licked his lips, his gaze riveted to their trio. Layla knew her Bind-passion could be felt by others; months ago it had been a problem at the Red Letter Hotel Paris before she had bound her Royal Siren Reginald Durant. But now, it was as if the Bind was just as potent as it had been then, surging and twisting, hot and delicious with a smelted golden coil through Layla and her lovers.
And Soukos wanted it. Stepping forward shakily as if compelled, he exhaled a shuddering breath, his dark brown eyes burning with heat.
