“You know.” Heathren spoke as his intense silver gaze held hers, something cutting in it now. “I can feel lies in people’s hearts, Layla, and darkness in their souls. You fear me. Tell me why, or else we will not be able to proceed, because you will not trust me. Begin.”
“You’re intelligent, voraciously so, and it intimidates me.” Layla began bluntly, her tongue loosened by the wine and also knowing she could be brutally honest with the Archangel and he could take it. He wasn’t like her men, whom Layla felt an impulse to protect as she interacted with them. Heathren was a beautiful creature, but like Rake, he wasn’t hers.
And she could be as honest as she wanted to be with him.
“Good. What else?” He prodded her, staring at her with his intimidating silver-white gaze.
“Your sense of humor is cruel, and at times I feel a terrible, cutting energy from you, and your wings.” She continued as Heathren watched her. “You’ve tortured Adrian more times than I can count; I don’t even know how badly. I want to hate you, yet I find myself unable to because you have such a righteousness about law and justice. As much as I hate it, you’re fair, which makes me unable to despise you. And you’ve saved my life.”
“Good. Go on.” Heathren murmured as he sipped his wine.
“I never know if you’re good or bad,” Layla spoke with a frown of confusion now, something deeply conflicted stirring inside her as she regarded the Fallen Ephilohim. “I feel both in you – sometimes a terrible brightness and sometimes a beautiful darkness. You remind me of a Master Vampire, and I don’t know if you’re going to suck my soul or stick a blade through me… or pierce me with your seven-layer wings, and tear me apart to the entire universe.”
“I could do all those things and more, Layla,” Heathren spoke quietly, watching her as he set his wine aside on the glass coffee table. “What else do you fear about me? What is it that lies deeper than worries of being harmed by my hands?”
“I fear that your loyalty to the law would make you take my men from me someday,” Layla breathed, knowing she was getting deep into it now. “That one or all of them might run afoul of the law somehow, and you would have no mercy in slaying them.”
“It is possible, I will not deny it.” Heathren spoke with compassion in his gaze, his voice gentle. “There are no words with which I can allay that particular fear. I believe very strongly in justice. And do not hesitate to serve it if the evidence is undeniable as to a person’s guilt.”
“Hence, our deal about Hunter.” Layla spoke plainly.
“Indeed.” Settling back on his hands upon the white rug and stretching his long legs out towards the fire, Heathren gave her a very deep look now. It was a look that made his pale silver eyes blaze by the fire’s light – as if he were reading her soul right to its core. Layla felt his magic move through her for the second time since she’d arrived, so gentle it was indescribable, yet she shuddered to feel it as if it laid her naked all through her body. With no smile now, Heathren spoke again. “And yet, this fear about your men is not your deepest fear concerning me. Tell me… what do you truly fear to be so close in my presence, Layla Price?”
“I fear your beauty.” Layla spoke suddenly, as if her Dragon had hijacked her mouth, though it hadn’t. “I fear falling into it. Falling into you… never to escape.”
“I see.” Heathren’s words were soft as he gazed at her, something darkly complex in his gaze now. “You understand what an Archangel is then, even a Fallen one. We are the highest form of creature to the ether’s most basic state – which is love.True love, in its purest form. I do not need to compel a person to make them love me. I do not need to sway them. I need simply remove the veils I place around myself to live life here in the physical realms. You see some of it when I unfurl my wings. The beauty of true love can smite a heart that holds dark secrets; burn it up in fires too hot for most people to handle. An Archangel’s beauty is purifying and terrible. And from that dire mirror… there is no escape.”
“Is that what I will see… will feel from you when we go into the ether together?” Layla asked, terror gripping her suddenly as her hand clenched too hard on her wine glass.
“Yes.” Heathren spoke simply, though his gaze was compassionate now. “But I will do my best to guide you with care, Layla. I have made promises both to you and your men that I would keep you as safe as possible while you are here with me. It is up to you. Decide to trust me despite your fears… or walk away, and return to your men as you are.”
Taking a deep drink of wine, Layla firmed her resolve. Downing the rest and setting her glass aside on the coffee table, she faced Heathren squarely. “I won’t run from this. I will face my fears and figure out how to bring my Dragon back. No matter how dark those fears get.”
“Or how bright.” Heathren didn’t elaborate as he turned to face her fully. “Very well. We start now. Take a deep breath, Layla, and we will begin our training in etheric magic. Are you ready?”
“I’m ready.” Layla spoke more solidly than she felt. Turning to Heathren, she stared him down, trying to become steady. “Let’s do this.”
“Very well.” He spoke, the slightest smile curling his beautiful lips.
CHAPTER 14 – TRUST
Layla wasn’t sure how her training in etheric magic was to begin, but as Heathren rose from his seat by the fire and stepped behind her on the white sheepskin rug, her alarm bells started ringing. She was moving to rise when he swiftly flowed to a seat behind her on the rug, enfolding her in his embrace. Layla drew a quick breath as his long arms wrapped around her, his legs also. As he moved his body in very close to hers, maneuvering his legs so he was in a cross-legged seat around her, she stiffened in his arms.
“What is happening?” Layla spoke uncertainly, feeling awkward despite a sudden raging attraction that flooded her. Heathren’s body was beautifully warm and strong and Layla’s attraction made her even more stiff as he curled her into him.
“Cross your legs and sit up straight.” Heathren spoke calmly by her ear as he arranged himself with her held close. “Our first step is to simply learn to breathe together, Layla… loosening our boundaries so we may begin to find trust with each other.”
“Oh-kay.” Layla spoke, trying her best to remain calm as she adjusted into a cross-legged seat, sitting tall with her hands resting on her knees – with Heathren’s body all around her. Adjusting his posture, Heathren was so tall he could wrap his legs entirely under hers, supporting her knees with his. As his long arms came close around her, his hands settling gently atop hers, Layla was able to lean back on him where she sat, his chin above the crown of her head. Her sunglasses were in the way, though, but before Layla could reach up to adjust them, Heathren did. His hands were infinitely gentle as they took her sunglasses down and then arranged her hair neatly over her shoulder.
His touch was gentle in a way Layla hadn’t expected, and as Heathren began to breathe deep and slow behind her, Layla felt her opinion of him changing. As he breathed, she felt her body begin to relax to his deep rhythm, until she at last closed her eyes. Before her, the fire’s light flickered through her eyelids, and Layla was aware that all the other lights in the apartment had somehow become doused. Night had fallen, and there was only the fire warm before her, and her own body, gently inebriated from the wine they’d consumed at dinner.
And the Archangel, warm at her back.
Heathren’s body was firm and strong as he held his relaxed seat. His body was lean but in no way gaunt like Layla had thought earlier, and as he breathed, Layla could feel the muscles of his chest expand and ease as he sat like a throne behind her. Cradling and supporting her, his posture allowed her to relax deeply even as she sat up tall. As he breathed, Layla felt her own breath synch to his just like she’d done this past week with Rake André, though she didn’t feel Heathren’s breath diving into her body at all.
As they sat together, just breathing, Layla lost time. The fire was warm and so was Heathren, and something about the gentle firmness with which he held her allowed her to simply relax and keep going. As her body sank into his, she felt her mind drift. She felt her body expand deeply, even as she fell back into him. As she drifted, almost on the verge of sleep she was so relaxed, she suddenly felt a gentle call. She didn’t know where it had come from, but like a hand stroking down a cat’s back, she was suddenly unwinding.
Her body easing open as a warm, glowing sensation filled her.
