“How so?” Layla blinked, curious as she sipped her Old Fashioned, this area of Adrian and Dusk’s life something she’d not yet heard.
“Dusk began working at the Paris Hotel in his early twenties for personal reasons,” Adrian continued with a deep thoughtfulness. “But as soon as he got there, he recognized the access being an Owner could grant a person. Thirty years ago, when we were trying to get a line on Hunter after your birth, and the most recent murders, Dusk saw how we could infiltrate the upper echelons of society to search for information. Him at the subtle level in his position as Head Concierge, me at the upper levels as a Hotel Owner.”
Layla sobered as they spoke of their nemesis Hunter. The shadowy Royal Dragon Bind had haunted her, Dusk, and Adrian’s lives basically since each had been born. Layla knew Adrian’s long-ago fiancée had been killed by Hunter, as well as his mother more recently, along with countless girlfriends over the years. “Why didn’t Dusk simply buy his way into Hotel Ownership like you did? He’s wealthy enough.”
“You know Dusk has to keep a low profile to stay anonymous to his Crystal Dragon King Markus Ambrose in Prague,” Adrian spoke soberly. “Though Dusk’s Egyptian Crystal Dragon clan was fabulously wealthy, and he inherits it all since he’s the only one left, he can’t flaunt the kind of wealth it takes to become a Hotel Owner without being noticed by his King. But Head Concierge was a great position for Dusk to make connections, and as soon as I became an Owner and got appointed to Head of the Paris Hotel, Dusk brought me into the tight-knit group of allies he’d already been cultivating: Rikyava, Madame Voulouer, Amalia DuFane, Rake André. The Hotel Board didn’t like having me in their midst; they thought I was too much of a young renegade. But they wouldn’t oust me because Dusk had made us so many strong allies among the Paris Hotel staff.”
“Why did Dusk originally seek employment at the Paris Hotel back in his twenties?” Layla spoke, intrigued. “And why Paris? Isn’t there a Red Letter Hotel branch in Morocco?”
“That’s a long story, Layla.” Adrian spoke with a deep tension in him suddenly, sipping his drink as if it was too painful to tell. “One that Dusk really should share with you, not me. There are two Hotel branches in Morocco; one in Marrakesh and one at an ancient Roman city called Volubilis. But they’re controlled by Djinn clans we Desert Dragons have historical conflict with. Suffice to say, Dusk and I had connections in Paris and spent a lot of time there in our early twenties, so it was a natural place for him to stay. I’m half-Parisian through my mother’s clan, the European Desert Dragons. Paris has been my home-away since I was young, and Dusk’s also.”
“So when Dusk went to the Hotel in his early twenties, what were you doing, Adrian?” Layla tilted her head, tapping her bourbon glass with one finger. “We’ve never really talked about it.”
“I began building my empire around the world,” Adrian’s gaze held no bullshit as he watched her. “My father had a decent pile of money when he died and my mother had connections. I used them, and I was good at it. My twenties and thirties were in the Victorian Era and I made a number of smart investments – motorized vehicles, oil, aerospace, electricity, shipping. I invest in anyone who is making waves or has a clever idea, and I have a knack for picking winners. Recently, I’ve gotten in on the ground floor of companies like YouTube, PayPal, Tesla, SpaceX, and BitCoin.”
“Holy shit, Batman.” Layla blinked. She had known Adrian invested in tech to finance anything that could possibly outwit Hunter, but she hadn’t known he’d made a killing like that. Her estimation of his wealth suddenly went from the tens of billions to the hundreds of billions range.
“Ask me again why the Hotel’s Crimson Circle hated me.” Adrian gave her a knowing smile, though it was tight-edged. “I’m more wealthy than half of them, and know better what to do with my money than the other half. They’ve been routed now by the Intercessoria, but I’m still probably more wealthy than the three mysterious members left.”
“When do you sleep?” Layla joked, though she really was curious how he managed it all – especially during weeks like this when she hardly saw him touch a phone or a computer.
“I sleep when I’m with you.” Adrian’s aqua gaze darkened to a deep cerulean like the Mediterranean under the setting sun. It was breathtaking, and Layla’s breath was actually stolen for a moment. She felt herself blush as Adrian stroked her fingers. “Besides. I have people I trust managing a lot of it, especially now that I’m spending far more time with you. They know what to do when I’m not available.”
“But what’s it all for, Adrian? Even before you really knew about Hunter, why build such a fantastic empire?” Layla dug into his current sharing, deeply interested.
Sitting back, something moved in Adrian’s eyes as emotions cascaded through him, a brief spiced wind rising inside the jet as his Dragon roiled. “I really don’t know, Layla. Dragons have a history of amassing fabulous wealth just because they desire it. Human legends of a Dragon sleeping on a pile of gold are not far off, especially Crystal Dragons. If you asked Dusk, he’d say I was damaged from the fights my parents used to have when I was young. That I never had a stable home life, so I’m trying to make up for it with excessive financial stability. It may be true. But I don’t really care about money, Layla – I care about the access it gains me. I may never feel safe in the world, but with access, I feel like I have some chance at keeping those I love safe.”
“Safety your parents could never give you.” It was a ballsy comment, but Layla knew it was true.
Adrian smiled ruefully as he looked down at their twined fingers. “I loved my mother and father. But in a lot of ways, I was abandoned when I was young, just as much as Dusk. Orphaned right in the middle of two people who were supposed to protect me. As much as I hate to admit it, Dusk was my protection all those years. We fought like banshees, true, but when my parents laid into each other, it was him who took me out to the desert to get away. He would stand as witness while I went ballistic, creating roaring sand-funnels out in the dunes. We bicker, we fight, sometimes we hate each other for a year or two – but in a lot of ways, Dusk’s my truest friend and always has been. It kills me that he’s in a bad way right now.”
“I didn’t intend for any of this to happen, Adrian. I didn’t intend for him to get hurt in all of this. With the Bind; with Hunter.” Layla spoke quietly.
“I know. It’s not your fault.” Adrian spoke back. Leaning back in his chair, he took a breath, his gaze piercing. A hot curl of cinnamon wafted off his skin as his Dragon suddenly roiled. “For years, Hunter has been stalking you, me, and Dusk. Like he’s played a long-con with the world as the hidden pinnacle of both the White Chalice and the Red Letter Hotel, Hunter played a long-con impersonating my cousin Adam to delve into Dusk’s and my secrets. When he was Adam, Hunter learned things about me and Dusk that we’ll never be able to know. He can predict our moves; he knew Dusk would throw himself in front of that nullax-lance to save you at Chartres. He may not know everything, but Hunter knows enough to understand how to tear us down.”
“What are you saying?” Layla spoke, wondering where this was going.
“What I’m saying is,” Adrian locked her squarely in his gaze, “thatyou’rethe wild card, Layla.Youare the one thing Hunter can’t predict. He knows Dusk, he knows me, he’s stalked my clan and Dusk’s and my allies. But other than making a few attempts to manipulate you, Hunter knows very little about you. He doesn’t know how you affect Dusk and me. He doesn’t know how your Bind has changed our magic.”
“Our magic.” Layla sat with that thought, feeling the truth in Adrian’s words. “My Bind on you, Dusk, Reginald, and Rhennic creates something new with all our magics.”
“It’s not just with Dusk, Layla.” Adrian’s gaze was penetrating as he stared deep into her. “I can feel my magic being influenced by you and all the other men you’ve Bound. It’s subtle but it’s there, like an orchestra beneath my fingertips, ready to play.”
Adrian’s eyes closed. Breathing deeply, he sat back in his chair, and Layla felt a wave of power roll out from him, so thick she could practically touch it. It had a solid feel, very much like the crystal defensive walls Dusk could create. With a slow exhalation, Adrian let the effect dissipate, but Layla’s eyes widened, having seen etheric crimson-aqua fire-crystals manifest in the air just before the wall dissolved.
“Holy shit.” She blinked, astounded. “I’m guessing you couldn’t do that before I bound Dusk?”
“No.” Adrian opened his eyes. “I shouldn’t be able to manifest crystals of any kind; that’s a Crystal Dragon ability. But since Dusk went into his cocoon, I’ve been feeling odd urges to do it, so I started practicing to see if I could. I can’t make Dusk’s kind of crystals, but I can make my own – which should be impossible. And it’s not just Dusk’s power I can use now. I’ve been able to make a shield-wall of water-fire power drawing on Reginald’s abilities, and one of lightning and fire from Rhennic’s. I’m working on bringing all four powers together, but haven’t been able to just yet. But what I can do so far is an interesting start.”
“And you think it’s not just you. You think we’re all acquiring the ability to use some mad mix of our magics through the Bind?” Layla took a deep drink of her Old Fashioned, then set her glass down, twisting it on the tabletop as she thought about the implications of what Adrian was saying.
“Precisely.” Adrian leaned forward, intense. “And I don’t think Hunter expected that, Layla. He knew you had power. That’s why he took your talisman away; so you’d have to find him so he could teach you how to use your abilities. But down in that cavern, you already knew how to use your power – in the way Dusk and I know how to use ours. You exhibited fighting abilities it would have taken any other Dragon a hundred years to master. Because I have them. And Dusk does.”
“My power learned how to fight from yours and Dusk’s.” Layla spoke, understanding. “And now your power is learning how to shield with a crystal wall from Dusk, and a water-wall from Reginald. And a lightning wall from Rhennic.”
“Exactly.” Adrian spoke with a renegade light in his fierce aqua eyes now. “My magic is beginning to assimilate all the ways Dusk and the others can wield their magics – and combining it with the brutal force of yours. And if I’m experiencing this, then I believeall of uswill be able to draw on each other’s powers, eventually. If that’s the case, then we as a group are something Hunter never suspected. But we need to find out how far this power-merging goes.”
“We need to find some way to test it,” Layla spoke as she sat back, “to see if there are limitations. Proximity, time factors. Maybe even emotional factors.”
