CHAPTER 1 – WAR
As Layla Price strode through the opulent halls of the Red Letter Hotel Paris, her thoughts were on war. Though impressed at the Hotel’s transformation for the upcoming Litha Bonfire at midsummer solstice, the halls resplendent with flowers, she could hardly admire the sumptuous French Baroque Palace of Versailles this afternoon, nor its solstice decor. Moving briskly towards the Hotel Head’s office in the Administration Wing, summoned for yet another war-council by her Royal Dragons, Layla could feel the star-bright energy of the Bind pulling her towards her drakes as she moved down the halls.
Calling her forward into battle.
Wearing a burgundy lace cocktail dress and blush patent-leather heels, her sable curls pulled up in a chignon, Layla was comfortable in the midsummer heat of the Twilight Realm. Exquisite flower garlands wrapped around the Hotel’s columns; decadent blooms crowded the cupolas for the Litha Bonfire in two days’ time. Gilded braziers were ready to be lit, and bonfires had been set up in the gardens, the primary one right behind the Hotel. Gazing out a bank of windows, Layla saw the main edifice in the rose gardens waiting to burn – five stories tall and fashioned into a massive Desert Dragon raking talons at an unseen foe. Smiling, she noted her Royal Golden Siren and Hotel Head Reginald Durant’s intention.
That the largest fire of the night show their resistance against their enemy Hunter – when he came to attack them at last.
Turning in to the Hotel’s Administration Wing, Layla stepped quickly towards a glowing ember in her heart, joined by a bright coil of love. Her mate Adrian Rhakvir’s signature was ever-present inside her since they had re-Bound a week ago at Wahdi Atlamenta and he had been named the Desert Dragon King-Heir.Layla could feel him anywhere in the world now that they’d rejoined with the Star Bind, like they were standing in the same room together. It was like breathing golden fire through her entire body as Layla knocked on the Hotel Head’s office door with its ornate fleur-de-lis, then stepped inside.
Finding her Royal Dragon mates within.
This meeting wasn’t an official battle-planning session, only a progress update Layla had been summoned for just now through the Bind by Adrian. Layla and her men had been at it constantly this past week since Hunter had attacked the Hidden City of Petra and claimed many of their allies. As she entered the vaulted French Baroque office with its massive bay windows and sky-blue drapes, Layla admired how the office had been remodeled with oil paintings of krakens and sea-Dragons by the Hotel Head, her Royal Golden Siren Reginald Durant.
But it wasn’t Reginald who commanded her attention as she entered. Stepping away from the unlit fireplace, her primary mate Adrian Rhakvir came to greet Layla as she arrived. Dressed in a charcoal vest and trousers with a turquoise pocket square, the sleeves of his white shirt were rolled up to display his black, gold, and red Desert Dragon tattoos on his forearms. Adrian’s vivid Mediterranean-blue eyes pinned Layla with a sexy tension as he bent his tall, lean frame down to kiss her; his lips and dark stubble soft, his brush-cut hair the same as Layla ran her fingers through it. For a moment, everyone in the room disappeared as Adrian’s scorching cinnamon-jasmine winds devoured Layla, diving in through her lips as they rushed around her.
Rising with a hot growl in her throat, Layla’s Desert drakaina was just as eager to greet her primary mate. As Adrian wound Layla in his arms for a long moment, oblivious to everyone else, she kissed him back, passionately. Heat scorched her veins, lifting a wind of red, white, gold, and turquoise etheric fire in the room. Though it burned nothing, that wind swirled the drapes, flooding summer sunlight through the office as they kissed.
Until Adrian at last pulled away.
“Hi.” He breathed as he nuzzled her nose. “Glad you could make it.”
“Me, too.” Layla spoke as her heart hammered from his passionate welcome. “Give me more than five minutes’ warning next time though, huh?”
“Sure.” He answered as a small smile curled his lips.
But then Layla’s Royal Golden Siren Reginald Durant was moving out from behind his stout desk to welcome her with a kiss also; just as loving, but brief. Tender but succinct, Reginald was in business mode today as his deep waters churned through their Bind. Dressed in an elegant tan vest and trousers with gold pinstripes, his long golden hair was clipped half-back, showing his sharply exquisite features as he smiled at her – tense.
As her Crystal Dragon King Dusk Arlohaim moved in next, Layla smiled. Wearing a slim midnight blue Italian suit, plus diamond cufflinks and a Rolex that brought out the bright diamond-sapphire of his eyes, light refracted through Dusk’s dark hair as he enjoyed his kiss. Standing near the fireplace, Layla’s best friend and Head of the Hotel Guard Rikyava Andersen nodded to Layla next. Fighter-statuesque with her long Swedish-blonde braid pulled over the shoulder of her crimson 1800’s Guardsman uniform, Rikyava was armed to the teeth with obsidian Dragon-killing blades that glimmered violet.
And as Layla finished greeting everyone, she saw who was making them all irate today in the Hotel Head’s office. The Master Vampire Barone Quindici DaPonti – who gave Layla an elegant nod from where he stood before Reginald’s desk.
“Layla. Good to see you.”
“Quinn.” Layla blinked as she returned to Adrian and he wrapped an arm around her. “I didn’t know you were coming to help with the battle.”
“Reginald asked for my help. So I’m here.” Tall and regal, Quindici DaPonti was an enigma; Layla still didn’t understand him even though she’d trusted him often enough. As he turned to her, his short waves of dark russet hair were expertly styled, his onyx eyes penetratingly intense, a flash of red-copper blazing in both as he stood in the sun’s rays. Dressed in a charcoal jacket and slacks with a black shirt, he wore a blood-crimson pocket square along with a plethora of gold men’s rings. A dark nimbus of power flowed around him, devouring the light. As Quinn glanced to Reginald, returned behind his desk, Reginald lifted a straight golden eyebrow at him. From the firm set of Reginald’s jaw, his eyes a frosty blue, Layla could tell her Royal Golden Siren wasn’t liking this discussion.
Whatever it was about.
“I asked for you to organize Guard reinforcements for the upcoming battle, Quinn.” Reginald spoke now, continuing their conversation from before Layla’s arrival. “Not bring your entire Dark Haven of Florence here like you did when you arrived last night.”
“My Dark Haven Vampires make up the bulk of the Florence Hotel’s Guard, Reginald.” Quinn addressed Reginald now, returning to what was apparently an argument between them. “I have arranged for a number of Guardsmen from other Hotels to arrive in the next few days before solstice, but on such short notice, you get what you get. My Florentine Vampires are tremendous fighters. Are you saying you would refuse our aid?”
“No, I’m not saying that.” Reginald spoke sharply. “But I’ve seen how your Guard operate.”
“Yeah,brutalis putting it elegantly.” Rikyava snorted as she crossed her arms, staring Quinn down.
“Are you saying my Vampires are toobrutalto have on your Hotel’s grounds?” Quindici spoke dangerously to both Rikyava and Reginald as his dark aura swirled around him. “Because you know I have my younger brethren well in hand, Aldo. They arenotRevenants.”
“I know, Quinn.” Reginald passed a hand over his eyes now in a gesture Layla had never seen from him, frustrated and irate. “It’s just that Rikyava and I are already receiving complaints from allies who have remained to fight that your Vampires are terrifying them almost to the point of abandoning the Hotel and going elsewhere to wait this out.”
“Some of them are my own Guard.” Rikyava spoke up again with a severe eyeball at Quinn.
“It’s not my fault your Paris allies lack courage. Or your Guard.” Quinn spoke with a cutting edge now as he glanced to Rikyava, a scathing tone in his voice before he looked back to Reginald. “Love is war, Aldo. The Florence Hotel has never allowed perfumed weaklings in its ranks.”
“Yet we at the Paris Hotel uphold thatlove is love, Quinn – not war.” Adrian spoke up now from where he and Layla stood. “The original tenets of the entire Hotel organization.”
