Suddenly, Layla had a vision. At the height of their communal orgasm, Hunter’s eyes suddenly smote her mind. Beautiful like a dawn sky on fire, they blazed into her – rose, gold, blue, and so many other colors all at once. Suddenly the hands on her body weren’t Rhennic’s, they were Hunter’s, and the soft lips crying out by her cheek weren’t Adrian’s but Hunter’s also. Layla felt her body pressed to his; she felt him spasm so deep inside her. Locked in his arms and gripping him so close, she felt how it would be to have this completion with her enemy.
Loving him to the foundations of her being like she loved her other men.
As her drakaina roared, celebrating Hunter’s presence among them, Layla recoiled in horror. Something inside her lashed her drakaina away, punishing it for its instinctual attraction. As Layla cried out, spasming in Rhennic and Adrian’s arms with a pain that had nothing to do with sex now, she felt alarm replace the group’s eros.
In a single unified moment, Layla suddenly felt the joined roar of all her men flood her. From every direction it came, thundering all through her with the most impossibly enormous sound she’d ever heard. It was instinct; all of their instinct joined together in their own Bind now – roaring at how Hunter had somehow contacted Layla in their moment of glory. Layla’s entire body arched in pain as she screamed at what her men did suddenly with their combined power, now Bound to each other so deeply. With a roar that shuddered the foundations of the earth, their Dragons surrounded the vision of Hunter inside her and chased it out of her in a tremendous wave of light and heat – denying the presence of their enemy inside their mate.
Or inside their Bind.
Pain rioted through Layla as her mates chased Hunter out of her. Her vision burst with a light bright as suns as she spasmed like she was having a seizure now rather than orgasm. As Layla cried out, tears of pain streaming from her eyes rather than pleasure, Rhennic quickly pulled out of her, Adrian holding her close with concerned tenderness even as he worked hard to catch his breath. Dusk had come unwound fast from his own tryst, and was at her side in a trice. As Layla gripped her head, unleashing a barbaric scream at the confusion and pain and pleasure all still careening through her at the same time, it was Adrian and Dusk who held her. The bower shook with the overtones of her human fury and her drakaina’s wrath battling inside her.
And then her drakaina surged away – back to coiling up once more.
“What the hell just happened?!” Rhennic gasped, though it was only Dusk and Adrian touching Layla now, soothing her as her blistering heat surged away.
“Hunter. His presence came to us through the ether,” Fury spoke darkly as he stood by, panting and watching Layla with dark eyes as she finally succumbed to Dusk and Adrian’s cuddles. “He rode our openness at the height of orgasm, and came to Layla mind-to-mind during her eros. I felt it, mostly, but also saw some through my Dragon’s eyes. He… tried to invade her body. And mate with her from a distance.”
“What thefuck?!” Dusk was vicious as he cuddled Layla tenderly, turning to see Fury. “He can do that?”
“Hunter has very few boundaries as to the things he can and can’t do.” Fury returned just as darkly. “In any case, our conjoined Bind thrust him out – all our drakes came together as one to fight him off, in the moment our Binds to Layla were strengthened by our mutual climax. It’s a good thing her Dragon actually rose in that moment and our Binds to her opened, even briefly. If they hadn’t… I don’t think we’d have been able to drive him out of her.”
“There’s no room for a monster like Hunter in the Bind. Ever.” Adrian growled firmly as he held Layla close, kissing her gently as she heaved with sobs. As Adrian held her, Reginald drew close. Laying a hand to Layla’s wrist, he poured a soothing flow of oceanic energy through her until she could breathe more easily, and wasn’t shaking quite so hard. But wrath and confusion still stormed through her, along with a deep sensation of betrayal.
Betrayal from her own Dragon.
“Be calm, beloved,” Reginald murmured gently as he poured his soothing magics through her, moving in to set his forehead tenderly against hers and triple that calming flow. “Take my steadiness and come to calm. Can you tell us what happened just now? I felt a presence invade you, but my Dragon was in charge in that moment, as I believe all of ours were. I couldn’t see clearly what invaded you, though I felt it. Was it Hunter, as Fury saw through the ether with his drake?”
“Yes!” Layla gasped, though she was finally calming now under Reginald’s steady floes. “Fury was right. As we all hit our height and my drakaina rose from our passion, I had a vision of Hunter… in Rhennic’s place. Physically.”
“Sweet Jesus.” Rhennic cursed, with the blackest growl Layla had ever heard. “I will tear him apart when next we meet, for all the countless lines he’s crossed.”
“I will do far more than that.” Adrian spoke just as darkly, though his body was still gentle as he cuddled Layla. “I swear to god I will.”
“Your drakaina rose briefly with our drakes when Hunter’s invasion came,” Dusk spoke quietly as he lifted her chin to look into her eyes. “Did she help us chase him out of you?”
“In a way.” But even to Dusk, Layla couldn’t admit what was truly so fucked up about the entire episode. Seeing them all watch her, she wanted to run away; she wanted to go hide and scream out her anguish rather than tell any of them the truth. Because the horrible truth was that when Hunter had thrust that vision of him inside her during the height of their passion, Layla had liked it. Her drakaina had wanted it. Even her human self had enjoyed the feel of him in her arms and deep inside her; so beautiful and strong and certain. For a moment, she had been lost in those eyes; she had felt complete in his arms.
And that was the one thing she could never, ever tell any of them.
Wiping away hard tears of rage and misery at the sudden shattering of their beautiful vacation, Layla pulled out of Dusk and Adrian’s arms. They let her go as she hauled herself naked out of the pool and strode quickly to the soaring treehouse and through the common room. Swiping thick curtains of silver filaments closed around her bedroom rotunda, Layla shut herself away from everyone. Collapsing on her bed with its silky Siren sheets, she sobbed – full of wrath and frustration and vivid anger at her own body and her drakaina.
Still feeling how much both wanted Hunter.
It was a long while before she heard a knock on the beams of her door. Pushing up and hauling the duvet up around her nakedness, Layla wiped tears from her cheeks. Taking deep breaths, she got ahold of herself enough to say, “Come in.”
It was Adrian who entered through the silvery fabric, thankfully with his jeans back on though he was still shirtless. Closing the partition quietly behind himself, his beautiful aqua gaze never left Layla’s as he came to the bed and hunkered before her. Lacing his long fingers, he regarded her with a terrible gaze for a long moment.
And then reached into a pocket of his jeans, pulling out a small white cube.
No bigger than a dice, Layla knew what it was instantly. An Intercessoria teleportation cube, it glowed with etheric luminescence, the small white cube scrawling through with tiny golden glyphs and script as Layla watched. As Adrian held it out, Layla opened her hand. Quietly, he set the white cube in her palm, watching her with a haunted gaze.
“This is the quickest way to get to Heathren Merkami, no matter where he is in the Twilight Realm or human world.” Adrian spoke, holding Layla’s gaze with a terrible solemnity, like a battle-commander. It was a look Layla had seen on Adrian before, commanding board meetings at the Red Letter Hotel Paris – a look that brokered no bullshit, and wouldn’t accept any, either.
“You want me to go to Heathren.” Layla breathed, understanding what Adrian was telling her. “You want me to go right now, so I can have his protection.”
“I don’t want you to go, but I know you need to. Immediately.” Adrian breathed back with that terrible look still. “This problem of Hunter being able to use the ether to get to you – none of us can combat that, Layla. Fury has the most experience with etheric magic, but even he admitted outside just now that he doesn’t have enough control over it to stop Hunter’s invasion if he tries for more, or teach you to block against it. Though I want us to all have this vacation… I think you need to see Heathren, at once. You don’t have time to delay, Layla. Not just because a Fallen Ephilohim might be able to help you find someone to teach you etheric magic, but because Heathren is strong enough to protect you from etheric invasion. Which is something none of the rest of us can do.”
“You forced Hunter out just now. All of you, when he… invaded me.” Layla hitched a breath, bargaining with Adrian even though she knew her argument was already lost.
