“Are you mad at me?” Dusk cocked his head, his lips curled up at the edges in amusement.
“Yes. No. Hell, I don’t know.” Layla growled, her Dragon jubilant inside her though her mind was still trying to come to grips with the fact that Dusk had just thrown a potentially lethal bolt of energy at her. She threw up her hands in exasperation, though she was smiling now as she shook her head. “You seriously just tried to kill me, Dusk!”
“There was a chance it wouldn’t have harmed you. It was more of a stunning-strike than a killing one.” He lifted an eyebrow like a devil – a ridiculously handsome devil Layla still wanted to pounce with every inch of her body.
“Damn you.” Layla shook her head again, though she was smiling now as she headed for the stairs. They’d achieved their aims: she’d cast a shield. She was so done with training tonight and wanted the softness of her bed at whatever ungodly hour it now was. Dusk trotted up, gaining her side. Grinning at her, he lifted a dark eyebrow as they started up the corkscrewing stairwell.
“That was a great shield, Layla.”
“Fuck off.”
“I mean it. You didn’t just turn my lance away, you blasted my strike apart. It takes a lot of energy to make my blows shatter into real crystals, I hope you know.”
“So?” Layla sassed, still not knowing what exactly to make of it. She was tired; her body hurt. Her Dragon still wanted sex, but all Layla wanted now was to be done for the night.
“So.” Reaching out, Dusk stopped Layla’s ascent with a hand to her arm. She paused, feeling her energy leap to his again, even though he was solidly back behind a new shield-wall and she was contained by her hamsa-cuff.
But his face was serious, imposing his lesson. “You have power, Layla. Maybe you don’t know what to do with it yet, but you executed on instinct what it takes other Dragons weeks to learn. Not only did you learn shielding in one night, you did it with so much panache that you exploded a strike from a far older and more powerful Dragon –withyour talisman on. And with apersonalward, something that’s learned only on instinct and is different for each Dragon. That’s more impressive than you know. If you were on Rikyava’s Guard, she’d fast-track you for combat. Ask her yourself – she’ll tell you the same thing. You have power, Layla. And even if you don’t know what to do with it yet, your Dragon does.”
Layla stood there, wanting to believe him yet not believing it. But Dusk was so serious in his intensity that Layla began to ponder it. What if her Dragon did have power? The power of not just passion and sex, but the ability to hone her fury into battle. Her beast roiled inside her as if eager to try, and though Layla had only ever taken self-defense classes, the adrenaline she’d gotten just now from warding off that strike had been exhilarating. She’d always been an adrenaline aficionado; roller coasters, downhill skiing, skydiving. Hell, even her relationships with Luke and Gavin had been adrenaline highs – fighting one minute, fucking the next.
Her beast rolled over eagerly as she thought about it. And though Layla had never willingly put herself in a combat situation, she suddenly wondered if she might just like it.
“I need to get some sleep.” Layla started back up the stairs. “Not everybody is a stress junkie like you are, Dusk.”
“I’m not a stress junkie, I just never quit. There’s a difference.” He smiled at her, lurid and lovely.
“Are you seriously saying you have energy forsexright now?” Layla laughed, feeling something inside her slither restlessly at the idea.
“Maybe.” He was renegade, grinning as they ascended the top landing. The sapphire door was still glowing with red sigils as they approached, and Layla saw the two Guards idling outside. They glanced up as Layla and Dusk arrived. She could barely hear Lorio’s sharp whistle, but she saw him beckon. Rikyava stepped out from one of the training halls, her face a relieved smile. Setting her palm to the sapphire door, Rikyava’s lips moved in an incantation. A shockwave of energy went through the door again, except this one flared the sigils from red to a searing white before they faded to blue. The crack appeared in the sapphire like magic and the two halves of the door sighed back into the wall.
“Whew! You guys were in there a long time! I was beginning to wor—what in the actual fuck?!” Rikyava blinked, scenting the air. Her violet eyes went wide as Layla and Dusk exited the chamber, her gaze taking in Dusk’s new appearance. “You… you both…”
“Smell like each other? Yeah. So that happened in the past few hours.” Dusk’s smile was wry, something careful in his eyes as he faced Rikyava. Layla suddenly remembered the two were lovers as she saw a long scowl devour Rikyava’s lovely face.
“He’s bound to you.” Her tone was icy as she turned to stare at Layla. “Him and Adrian. Both.”
“It was an accident, Rikyava—” Dusk protested, but the Guardswoman cut him off.
“Accident my ass.” Her eyes whipped from Layla back to Dusk. “Was this your plan? Take her down there and touch the cuff so she wouldbindyou? Make her life more impossible than it already is? Way to go, asshole. You’ve just wonboss of the yearaward. Jesus!”
“Rikyava, it’s ok—” Layla protested, realizing that the ferocious Blood Dragon was actually taking her side rather than Dusk’s. She had thought because Rikyava and Dusk were lovers that Rikyava would have been pissed at her. But instead, the Head Guardswoman’s fury was boiling up at Dusk. Rikyava held up a palm to Layla, then faced Dusk, thunderclouds building in her eyes as they began to turn a stormy red.
“How could you, Dusk?”
“Rikyava, it really was an accident.” Dusk looked chagrined. “I didn’t know the cuff would bind me to Layla when I helped her take it off.”
“Good thing you and Adrian did your research when you went hunting that thing. Good thing arcane artifacts never have strangesurprises.” Rikyava’s eyes were a deep red now, fury in the set of her stern jaw and the narrowing of her eyes above her high Swedish cheekbones.
“You helped Adrian find my cuff? You never told me that.” Layla turned to Dusk, her eyebrows raised at this new tidbit.
“I did.” Dusk sighed, his humor gone. He looked as tired as Layla felt now as he passed a hand over his lips, then rubbed his cheek. “We’d researched the Hamsa Bind along with a number of other talismans for you, ever since Mimi’s funeral. And though the Hamsa Bind was the most promising one, I’d told Adrian under no circumstances would I let him Bind you with that thing. But he got swept up in the moment at the gallery. I swear, that wasn’t how we’d planned it. We can talk about it later.”
“Wewilltalk about it later.” Layla spoke, making it plain with her glance.
“You’re really going to let this slide, Layla?” Rikyava turned incredulous eyes to her. “What they both did to you? Tricking you,trappingyou into relationships with them?”
“I believe Dusk when he says he didn’t plan this, Rikyava,” Layla returned, exhausted to her bones and not wanting to stay here arguing about a bruised sense of honor she didn’t really feel. “Adrian has his own machinations to answer for. And he will.”
