“Luxor, Luxor.” Adrian chuckled in agreement as he watched her. “There’s no airstrip at Dusk’s homeland in the Twilight Realm, and human Jeeps are better in the desert than most Twilight methods of travel. Luxor is the closest airport.”
“Can’t Dusk and I ride on your back while you fly in as a Dragon or something?” Layla grinned as she combed out her sable curls with her fingers, re-pinning them at the side of her neck. She felt strangely elated now that she was more awake, as if the closer they got to Egypt, the more she was looking forward to the whole thing. It all felt like a fascinating adventure suddenly, as if she had stepped into some strange version of Raiders of the Lost Ark.
“No flying by Dragon Airways.” Adrian chuckled, his aqua eyes flashing humor. “Crystal Dragons protect their territory with intense wards, and other Lineages have a damn hard time getting in through the air or below-ground. So we go by Jeep, and once we arrive Dusk can help us get through the barrier, directly into their citadel on the Crystal Plateau.”
As Layla watched Adrian’s eyes sparkle with gold like the sun on the Mediterranean sea, she realized he was in high spirits also. Wearing beige linen slacks with russet Oxfords and his usual crisp white shirt with the sleeves rolled up and the collar open, he looked like he was going on holiday. His brush-cut black hair was sexily mussed and as she watched him, he grinned suddenly.
“What?”
“You just… look like you’re ready for an adventure.” Layla spoke as she exited the bathroom, straightening her outfit. She’d gone Egypt-appropriate today also, a cobalt blue jumpsuit of flare-legged pants with long flowy sleeves and a high collar, though with a nicely fitted waist and a woven cream belt. Rather than ostentatious jewelry, she wore her gold wrist cuff and matching torque from her Courtesan’s debut, plus some gold hoop earrings.
Picking up her red leather purse from the bed, Layla checked that she had the black fringed scarf she’d borrowed from Rachida, in case she got any flak for having her head uncovered in public. She’d be traveling with her men, and was also wearing a gold band on her left ring finger that matched one Adrian wore, just in case. Egypt was a fairly Islamic country, and Layla didn’t want to draw attention to herself. Fortunately, after living a few months at Riad Rhakvir, her tan was caramel, and it made her look her half-Moroccan heritage. In his white and beige, Adrian looked similar. And though his eyes and Layla’s would never blend in, their Egyptian accents practicing Arabic these past days were coming along, both he and she reasonably fluent, though Dusk spoke Egyptian Arabic best.
“I am ready for an adventure, actually.” Adrian smiled handsomely as he rose from the bed and came to her, netting her around the waist and giving her a sweet kiss. “I don’t know, I realized somewhere in the past three days that this isn’t just something I get to do for Dusk, it’s something I want to do. He’s never been home, Layla, ever. And we get to be here with him – experiencing it all with him as if for the first time.”
“I can hear you both talking about me!” Dusk’s rumbling chuckle reached them as he stepped through the open partition, leaning in the doorway with his hands tucked in his pants pockets. Annihilating as always, Dusk had gone for metro-chic today with slim midnight blue trousers, a black belt and sexy black collared shirt with a slim-fit midnight blue jacket. A black silk pocket square popped at his jacket, and he wore his black shoes without socks, chic dark sunglasses covering his eyes. Grinning at Layla, he showed beautifully white teeth in his darkly tanned, handsome face. But Dusk had taken a glamour today to hide his midnight-blue scales and golden Dragon-coloring, and Layla thought it a shame that he looked so human.
Though when he flicked down his sunglasses and peered at her over them, giving her the full force of his stunning sapphire eyes with a cheeky waggle of his dark eyebrows, Layla laughed.
“This is your doing, isn’t it?” She shook her head as she moved to him, seizing his lapels and giving him a little shake. “You’re so excited about this trip, you’re winding Adrian and me up through the Bind like it’s Christmas!”
“Can’t say I’m sorry.” Dusk chuckled, reaching out and corralling Layla around the waist, though he only gave her a brief kiss with Adrian looking on. “I just feel this crazy excitement in me today, bubbling up more and more the closer I get to home.”
“Clearly!” Layla laughed, shaking her head again. “I can feel it fizzing all through me like Pop Rocks and Coke. So do you know what you want to do once we get to Luxor?”
“I’ve arranged for us to rendezvous with my agent Yousry Haddad when we land, actually,” Adrian cut in, glancing from Layla to Dusk. “He’s got a crew to store your things from the jet for the month, Dusk, so all we need to take with us is personal luggage. Yousry will take us to our hotel, but then the afternoon is ours. We can do whatever you’d like.”
“I think I’d just like to wander the temples and the city, actually.” Dusk smiled, taking the shades off and tucking them into an inner pocket of his jacket. “It’s been a while since I was in Luxor, and I haven’t seen Yousry in ages. Layla, what about you?”
“I haven’t ever been to Luxor.” She glanced at Adrian, still feeling excited. “I had a guided tour to Cairo, but the Nile tours between Cairo and Luxor weren’t sailing then. I really only got to do tourist stuff near Cairo like the great pyramids, the sphinx, shopping, riding camels – you know.”
“Well, you’re with two Dragons now,” Adrian smiled at her, something sexily deviant in his gaze, “and Luxor is riddled with hidden places run by Twilight folk. Like when you were at Manarola, Luxor is what’s known as acrossover city. It’s deeply interwoven with the Twilight Realm and has gateways everywhere. Paris and Julis are separate, mirror-cities to each other, but Cairo and Luxor are both mazes of intertwining – growing wild through both Realms simultaneously.”
“Most places in Egypt are like that, actually,” Dusk spoke with a sparkle in his eyes. “It’s why the human Egyptian culture developed such fantastic god-lore with so many mythical beasts. Because they actually had contact with the Twilight Realm, constantly.”
Just then, Layla felt the jet begin to angle down sharply for landing, and she reached out, gripping Adrian’s arm in a sudden panic. He held her steady as Dusk rumbled a comforting flow through her, and as Adrian nodded to the main cabin, they all went to the table and buckled in. Layla had a death-grip on Adrian’s hand as she watched the curved loops of the Upper Nile sparkle beyond the window, with broad vistas of greensward near the river and desert beyond. Her other hand clutched Dusk’s arm as they bumped to a fairly gentle landing on the tarmac of Luxor’s small airport at the edge of the city.
Beyond the jet, Layla could see the broad swath of the city, unmarred by mirage so early in the spring but vibrant with plenty of greenbelts, irrigated from the Nile. As they taxied to a berth and Adrian’s French co-pilot opened the doors, Layla felt a warm breeze curl in, the mid-February morning clear and in the upper eighties rather than the vicious hundreds it would become by summer. Riad Rhakvir was in the Moroccan desert, but its environs were moderated by magic that kept the palace lush and green, not to mention a regular temperature with pleasant scents. But Luxor was a normal human city, a cacophony of vivid smells hitting Layla like a battering ram as she stepped down the jet’s stairs.
As per Adrian’s usual, a sleek black Bentley sedan waited for them on the tarmac beside the jet. An Egyptian man in a slim black Armani suit with gold jewelry leaned up against the Bentley. As they descended the jet, he flashed a hundred-megawatt smile, giving a bright laugh. Tall and ferociously sexy, he removed expensive mirrored shades, showing stunning blue-green eyes in his darkly tanned face, his glossy curls pulled half-back. Moving forward with open arms, he embraced Adrian like a brother, laughing like a wild man. As a smile blossomed over Layla’s face at the greeting, the man shared an equally jubilant embrace with Dusk.
“My lads!” The man spoke in a resonant tenor, laughing brightly as his eyes sparkled. “Welcome back to Luxor! Such a long time it’s been! And who is this stunning creature you have brought Yousry, eh? A thousand and one nights could not quench such a lust as every man must feel for her, no?”
Layla found herself blushing at once as Yousry moved forward, taking up her hand and pressing it with a grinning kiss. Lean and quick, bubbling with good energy, Layla could tell Yousry was going to be a very fun guide for their stay.
As he grinned at Layla, Adrian spoke introductions. “Yousry Haddad, meet Layla Price, my mate.”
“The Dragon Bind!” Yousry’s stunning eyes went wide as he grinned even wider. “A cruel temptress for Yousry, that she is not of my Lineage! And she is your mate, Adrian? Such a fate of winds you have.”
“Are you a Dragon?” Layla asked, not quite able to pinpoint just what Yousry was, though with those stunning eyes, he was clearly magical.
“Ah, my beauty, no!” He grinned, giving an elegantly strange wave of one hand. “The winds call me, and to the winds I go. I am a Rogue Djinn, and go where the desert blows me.”
“Rogue Djinn are generally unaligned with any clan, aren’t they?” Layla asked, finding it incredible that Adrian had a Djinn as a close friend. Generally Desert Dragons and Djinns were at constant war with each other, or in very unreliable truces.
“Yes, quite so. Rogue Djinn are the way-knowers of the dunes, and travel where we wish,” Yousry smiled cleverly, taking up Layla’s hand and kissing it again. “My Lineage are soothsayers, story-tellers, and wind-readers, sweet beauty. We are able to tell those in other Djinn clans how their fates align and share the tales of the winds. Thus, we are permitted to travel where we will in any territory, as our people did of old.”
“Yousry is one of my most trusted operatives for the greater portion of my business ventures, Layla,” Adrian smiled at her, as if enjoying showing her this side of himself at last. “Because of his wind-reading abilities, he has incredible instincts for business management, and has even schooled me a time or two on selecting good investments. Many times when I’m on my phone, I’m corresponding with him.”
