“Renegade deeds?” Layla murmured, her blood high now as Heathren gripped her closer.
“Renegade deeds.” He whispered, easing his lips over hers. And then his fingers tightened upon her, pulling her into his kiss. He kissed her, hard and deep this time, as if by his mouth and lips and tongue he could explore every inch of her soul, and Layla let him. She kissed him back, devouring him, breathing him in, pressing their bodies hard together as a rush of that sharing roared through her. As they kissed, his lips so soft, his body so perfect, his manner so ferocious, Layla felt them cascade into each other. And in a rush just as quickly the other way, Heathren broke their kiss with a gasp.
Pushing her from him as he stumbled back.
“Enough!” He snapped, his voice curt like a silver blade, slicing through everything they’d shared. Layla keened as it cut her aura; her hand flew to her heart, her eyelashes flickering as if he’d actually cut her. Heaving hard breaths, Heathren stared at her like a man on fire, his silver-white eyes blazing. As Layla watched, his massive seven-layer wings surged out, devouring half the room with their enormously long, flowing filaments. They were still opal-dark, but their edges were so bright, like the shine of the moon on silver metal. Deep in their spread, Layla saw curls of etheric fire blaze.
So hot they could have melted the sun.
“Enough.” Heathren spoke more calmly now as he mastered himself, those amazing wings flowing back into his body and disappearing just as fast as they had emerged. “We are finished for tonight. You may stay in my rooms; I shall show you to them.”
“But—” Layla protested as she put a hand down to the white leather couch, still reeling.
“Do not oppose my decision, Layla Price. We are done here.” Heathren had mastered himself now, and stared her down with finality as he spoke. Giving her one last pointed glance, he turned, moving briskly towards her suitcase and purse by the apartment’s silver doors. Taking them up, he rolled her bag through the open living area to the arch he’d come through when Layla had first arrived. Surprised at the sudden change in him, Layla mastered herself also, stowing her ardor to the best of her ability. Following him, she left the fire and wine and their sharing behind. It was as if she could feel Heathren cooling with every step, as they walked back to the area that was his bedroom.
Cooling away from the beautiful depth they had shared.
Entering Heathren’s bedroom, Layla found it was just as lovely as the rest of the opulent penthouse apartment. The long, curved outer wall held floor-to-ceiling picture windows that looked out over the city of Lourden sparkling below. Behind the massive king-plus-sized bed of white ash wood was an entire wall of orchids and moss, beautifully arranged so the colors of the orchids formed swirling patterns like modern art upon the wall. Rolling her luggage to the bed, Heathren gave Layla a look as he set her red leather purse upon the soft white feather duvet.
“The bathroom is through there.” He spoke without emotion now, indicating what Layla could see was a large bathroom with a spa and sauna, decorated in cracked-glaze white tiles, silver accents, and orchid walls like the rest of the apartment. “You may luxuriate as you like; I have another bathroom I can use off the entrance hall. The bed is infused with angelic resonance – you may feel strange falling asleep tonight but don’t fight it, and your sleep will be pleasant. I wake with the sunrise, but I shall be quiet so you may sleep in as late as you wish.”
But as he moved towards the arched entrance, Layla felt a sudden intuition that needed addressing – before he was able to leave her. “Am I still going to train with you? To learn etheric magic?”
“We shall see.” He spoke quietly.
Heathren left without looking at her, only pressing a white panel in the wall and causing silver filaments to surge across the arch and firm into a set of filigreed silver doors like the apartment’s entrance. Layla suddenly wondered if he’d locked her in, but moving to the doors, she found handles there now and as she twisted one, the door opened like any normal one would. Pulling it shut, Layla breathed in the strangely impeccable silence of Heathren Merkami’s bedroom; as if the very walls held angelic magic that dulled all outside interruptions. Moving to the bed, she passed a hand over the feather duvet, feeling a silken texture even more luxurious than Siren-bedding.
Sinking to a seat on the bed, Layla suddenly felt very alone. As if Heathren had torn her last protection from her with his cutting of their auric connection, she felt like the unknown surrounded her now, licking in and seeking with dark tentacles. Brushing her hands over her arms, she shivered, then decided a bath was what she needed to wash off the day. Fetching out a cobalt silk robe from her luggage, Layla headed to Heathren’s bathroom.
Feeling strangely like all the world had disappeared – even though the view over the rooftops of Lourden twinkled beyond the windows.
CHAPTER 15 – DREAM
When Layla finally fell asleep in Heathren’s soft bed, she fell deep. After a bath to wash off the day, she went to bed and snuggled in under the duvet, the Archangel’s sheets like feathers and silk upon her skin. She’d tossed and turned, the room unfamiliar and her heart hurting in the silence, missing her Bound men. But as a persistent falling sensation swept her, she realized whatever magic Heathren’s bedroom contained was trying to pull her under. At last, Layla succumbed to it.
Diving deep into dreams.
Layla felt like she’d hardly closed her eyes when she was suddenly floating in the vast space of the universe. Stars surrounded her in the void, empty yet full of presence. It was the same place she’d reached in Rake’s meditations at the Dreaming Canyon, and Layla found herself strangely awake though she knew she slept. All the same, it felt like the most aware dream she’d ever had – and as she turned in the void, gazing at its endlessness, she wondered if this was what lucid dreaming was.
As she had that thought, she suddenlytraveled. Layla had no other words for it as her entire consciousness zoomed forward through the void as if she’d catapulted it with her thoughts. Stars rushed by; the patterns of a wormhole surrounded her just like in sci-fi movies. But she had no more time to linger upon that impression as she was all at once arriving upon a sprawling veranda.
Made of light white wood and spreading out endlessly to both sides, the veranda had a serene view out over a vast lawn to a tree-line ahead. To either side of Layla stretched chaise lounges of pure white foam over frames of soft light wood. Gentleness breathed around her, and though Layla saw no sun, the sky was a serene blue overhead like a clear summer morning. As she lay upon one chaise, astounded to have come through her dream tosomewhere, a presence suddenly approached.
Beautiful and tall, it was a man who came towards her. Wearing a long white robe that draped over his incredibly tall, lean body, his hands were long and slender as they opened to her in welcome – and enormous. Gazing up from her chaise, Layla kept looking up and up to find his face above the high collar of his shimmering white robe. He was easily thirteen feet tall, her shocked mind told her, as she finally found his handsome jaw, full lips, high cheekbones, and kind face.
His eyes were the purest sky-blue she’d ever seen, twinkling with humor and pleasure that she had come. Layla could feel his thoughts in her mind, his gladness she had arrived, though he spoke no words. He was like the Crystal Dragon Norbu Gyatso as he beamed at her with his very blue eyes.
Blue eyes that swept Layla away with their beautiful delight.
But just as she was about to open her lips and speak to him, she suddenly felt herself being ripped away from that luminous space.Abruptly, her entire consciousness was being torn backwards out of that serene place and hurtled back through the universe once more. This time, the force that hauled her was strong. The tall man’s face opened in surprise as she was torn backwards, and Layla saw his lips part to tell her something before she was gone. But the force now pulling Layla thrust her out of the endless veranda before the man could tell her his message.
Rushing back through the universe, Layla was aware someone was pulling her through the void now, rather than her own mind catapulting her through it. Someone wanted her to come; someone was calling her through the ether. As she hurtled through space, Layla found herself thrust into another place as her disorientation cleared.
A ruined castle – devoured by nature.
It was beautiful. Other than the Chartres Cathedral in the Twilight Realm, Layla had never seen a space so lovely. Once a sprawling fortress, it was a palace hall she’d arrived at, that soared so high she felt truly dwarfed by its massive reaches. Hundreds of feet above, the stone vaults had tumbled, trees massive as redwoods rising up from a mossy carpet to create a new roof through which Layla could see glimmers of sunlight. Sunlight struck down in beams to the moss-covered floor, illuminating little white star-shaped flowers that flowed through the moss like a starry sky upon the earth. Frescoes of Dragons adorned the walls, blasted-out with entire sections missing; some only a talon, some with a coiled tail in struggle with another.
Some only snarling jaws and eyes with the impression of a massive battlefield behind.
