“Come, Ms. Price.” With an effete gesture, Dusk Arlohaim extended his arm. “It is time to start your first day in Concierge Services.”
CHAPTER 22 – HIVE
Layla’s first day as a Concierge was complete overwhelm. Even so, she weathered it well under Dusk’s brisk but firm tutelage. As he’d said, their first item of business was a tour of the entire Hotel, including numerous rooms and halls that didn’t exist in the human-world Palace of Versailles. The highlights had been a mud room the size of an olympic swimming pool occupied by elderly ladies having a naked mud fight, followed by a vaulted crystal aviary of exotic bird-people trilling a concert to guests receiving erotic massages. Opulence soared through everything in a cunning mix of European excess and more naturalistic Twilight sensibilities – nothing banal or drab at the Red Letter Hotel Paris.
Dusk was brisk and professional throughout, his sexual persona put away now that he was on-duty as Head Concierge. Clasping hands of guests, he had a peck on the cheek and a rakish laugh for everyone. Excellently on-point, he introduced Layla to each individual by name and quizzed her on details after every person, taxing even her formidable memorization skills to the max. By the end of the day, she was already learning six new languages from the Twilight Realm, all of which Dusk spoke fluently and with great panache, and had learned greeting customs from twenty different Lineages.
At the end of the afternoon, they were back at the main Concierge desk, an enormous edifice of carven mahogany that extended out in a semi-circle from underneath the grand staircase near the main ingress. Writhing with carvings of fanciful and sexual creatures, the desk was situated near the mermaid octopus fountain, in a notable location right near the Palace’s main entrance. Seven other Concierge desks existed throughout the Hotel’s acreage – two in garden outbuildings – but this was where Dusk held court, in the fabulously opulent center of it all.
As the central hub for Concierge Services, one of the primary tasks of the main desk was to maintain the schedule of classes and events – over a hundred of which happened daily throughout the grounds. With a severe glance, Dusk informed Layla that she was to memorize thoroughly the schedule of every weekday and weekend, the descriptions of each class, and to start visiting them so she could give guests details. She set to, pulling up schedules on surprisingly normal flat-screen monitors at the desk, though they operated from a wall of amethyst crystals that functioned as the Hotel’s computing system.
But most importantly, it was at the main Concierge Services desk where Assignations were arranged, private trysts with Courtesans or Courtiers for evenings of ecstasy and mind-blowing enjoyment. For her first day, Layla was not allowed to interface with guests, only to shadow Dusk as he interacted effortlessly with numerous Twilight folk as well as humans. Switching languages on a dime, soothing people’s fears about their fetishes with a kind smile, Dusk clasped hands and made impeccable suggestions for Assignations based on a person’s tastes and intentions for their stay. And through it all, Layla saw not one irate face. Instantly disarming, effortlessly charming, Dusk Arlohaim was the man everyone knew.
And he loved every minute of it.
Layla found herself grinning, watching him work. It was clear that Dusk had a formidable mind, and she wondered if the trouble Rikyava hinted at with him only happened when he was devoid of interesting things to do. Some people were like that – you had to keep them busy or they would make endless trouble. Layla had a feeling Dusk was one of these, and being the center of attention as he problem-solved was his cocaine. He never tired, he rarely took a break even for a sip of water, and soon it was nine o’clock at night before he finally looked up at the windows.
“The sun’s gone down!” Turning his bright blue eyes to Layla, standing behind him at the desk and pouring through the schedule, he gave her a sharp look. “Why didn’t you tell me we worked all the way through dinner?”
“And lunch,” Layla chuckled. Her feet were killing her after the extensive tour and standing all day in her strappy heels, but it had been worth it. Rather than tired she felt exhilarated, something about either Dusk’s presence or the atmosphere of the Hotel enlivening. In fact, she was wondering if there wasn’t an exercise class she could drop in on before bed, when Dusk suddenly gave her a dazzling smile.
“That’s it, then,” he spoke brusquely, as if he was still going a hundred miles a minute inside his head. “Go get some dinner. There should be something in your rooms, or the dining room where the party was yesterday – it always has an all-night spread for those who work the midnight shift.” But Layla was still grinning at him and Dusk cocked his head, grinning back. “What?”
“You get a high from this, don’t you?” Layla spoke, amused.
“Don’t you?” He lifted a knowing eyebrow at her with a rakish grin. “Intense situations stimulate you, Ms. Price. I can feel it, thrumming through your body just as much as it flares through mine. We’re two of a kind, and I can feel you’ll do well in this position. Some people thrive on fast energy, some get drained by it. You’re one of the former, like me.”
“You’re not wrong.” Layla nodded, crossing her arms as she leaned back against the wall of amethyst.
“So tell me.” Dusk eyed her, settling a hip casually to inner curve of the enormous desk and crossing his own arms, unconsciously mimicking her posture. “What did you feel coming at you today? Let’s ignore the hustle and bustle of all the memorization and new languages, and focus on the sensations behind it. What did youfeeltoday from our guests?”
Layla blinked, considering it. It wasn’t a normal question after the first day of a new job, but she was quickly learning that things around here just weren’t normal. “I felt excitement,” she spoke at last. “The guests are generally thrilled to be here, eager to relax and unwind. There’s almost a playfulness from some of them, especially the regulars who were making an Assignation appointment with their favorite Courtier or Courtesan.”
“Good.” Dusk nodded, his summer-blue gaze piercing her as the chandelier lights lowered through the now-hushing hall. The ballrooms had intimate chamber-music concerts tonight, and the soothing sounds of strings, harps, and strange flutes filled the emptying grand entrance. Guards were still moving about in their red livery, giving sharp nods to Dusk as they passed, and Catering staff moved by in elegant server’s attire with silver trays hefted to their shoulders or rolled along on carts. Those were the only staff members who had uniforms, Layla had noticed, even the Gardeners allowed to wear stylish yoga-clothing while out trimming the topiaries.
“You’ve come to the essence of what the Hotel is,” Dusk continued, his gaze piercing her with a new lesson. “Our fine establishment – every Hotel branch – is a place where peace reigns; a place to unwind, to become pure in one’s needs and have them fulfilled. We have very strict policies about in-fighting here. Many Twilight Lineages are at constant war with each other, like the Montagues and Capulets of Shakespeare, or the Hatfields and McCoys of the American Civil War. For members of these warring clans, the Hotel is a place of sanctuary. Such a thing is taken very seriously and almost everyone feels a weight lifted when they arrive – knowing that should they meet even their bitterest enemy in the hall, they may simply nod and pass by.”
Layla absorbed that, realizing that the Red Letter Hotel was far more than she’d originally thought. From her initial conversation with Adrian, she’d thought it was a bordello, a place of sinful urges and their fulfillment. And while that was also the case – she’d heard some extremely scandalous sexual appetites discussed at the Concierge desk today, which Dusk handled with effortless grace – the Hotel was proving a much more interesting place than Layla had thought.
“So is the Hotel a politics-free zone?”
“No.” Dusk gave a low chuckle. “It’s a business, and as a business, political and clan-meetings may happen on its grounds, though they must remain peaceful. The Hotel has very strict policies against clan feuding on the premises. Or risk being banned – not only the person who disobeyed, but their entire clan. Clans get very upset when one of their own breaks Hotel policy. The person who broke our rules often doesn’t live long.”
“I can imagine.” Layla’s eyebrows climbed her forehead. Her thoughts turned to Adrian and how he’d used the Hotel to have a meeting about her protection under the Magna Dicta. “What about my entrance interview? Does the Hotel have any policies about… what Adrian brought up?”
Dusk gave a knowing chuckle, something sly and warning in his blue eyes. “Technically, Adrian’sconcernwith you is a matter of the High Court. He should have aired his intentions at the High Courthall in Rome, not in a private business behind closed doors, all his witnesses shushed to secrecy. Our mutual friend broke someverystrict Twilight Realm laws, though he’s not exactly broken any Hotel ones, since you are fully qualified for your position here. But if you learn anything about Adrian, know that he is a renegade in every sense of the word. Which is why he makes waves in the Twilight community. Constantly.”
Layla sighed, thinking about her encounter with Adrian the night before. It put her in a bad mood and Dusk seemed to feel it, his arms coming unfurled as he stepped over. He almost reached out to her, then hesitated. Something uncertain flashed through his eyes as he watched her.
“You pine for him,” Dusk spoke compassionately. “I can feel it, vibrating all through you.”
“Adrian’s an asshole.” Layla growled, feeing how much she wanted him, and how much she also just wanted to be furious at him.
“You think so?” Dusk’s smile quirked, amused.
“I just can’t figure him out, Dusk.” Layla growled again, exasperated.
With a soft chuckle, Dusk came to stand next to her, leaning back on the amethyst wall at her side. “Adrian’s a complicated man. He has a lot of enemies and it’s made him cagey. Some might call it paranoid, though to me it seems prudent. But he does nothing by the rules, Layla. Not Twilight Realm rules, not Hotel policy rules, not even the rules of the human world. He’s a sandstorm that bites over your skin – impulsive, rash, and compelling. Royal Dragons are a force of nature, especially those who hail from the Desert clans. And they’re a force to be reckoned with, like a tornado in the Sahara.”
