Page 13 of Tall, Dark & Horny

He nodded. “I don’t have one in the basement, but dragon shifters do exist and stay at The Abyss from time to time.”

I gawked at him, wondering if any of the guests I’d seen in the bar shared their body with a freaking dragon. “Like now?”

“Sorry, but no.” He shook his head with a laugh. “I can put in a call to an acquaintance of mine to see if he can swing by, but he likes to stick closer to home now that his son is in that curious stage where he likes to explore and get into all sorts of trouble. Safer to do on his own territory.”

He was talking about calling a man who could turn into a dragon as if it were the world's most normal thing. And maybe to him, it was. For me, it was mind-blowing, which was a good way to describe my night at The Abyss overall. Starting with the man at my side.

Adan’s steps were unhurried, matching mine with quiet ease. Even with my mind still whirling, I didn’t miss how his black dress shirt clung to his shoulders and arms as though it had been tailored to worship his powerful body. Or that his thighs had no business looking that good in those pants.

I’d just found out he was a demon, but instead of being panicked, all I felt was a humming sort of awareness that I didn’t want to define just yet. Luckily, I was saved from considering the reason for that by the elevator door sliding open.

I’d always loved discovering new places, wandering into hidden gems and sharing them with the world. But The Abyss wasn’t just a place I hadn’t visited before. It was somewhere I hadn’t even known was possible.

“Is it always this quiet?” I asked, my voice soft in the hush of the empty hallway.

Adan glanced back at me with a faint smile. “The entirety of the hotel, no. But this particular area doesn’t get much more foot traffic than the tenth floor since only a handful of employees are allowed to be here.”

There was a good chance he’d say I was an exception because I was his fated mate, but that was a topic I wasn’t ready to touch. So I just nodded and let him guide me farther down the hallway.

My sandals barely made a sound against the stone floor as I followed Adan down the corridor. The air was cool but not unwelcoming.

The farther we went, the more I noticed details I hadn’t caught before. The wall sconces shifted ever so subtly as we passed, the golden light softening when it fell on me, almost as though it was being filtered through warmth. I glanced over my shoulder, but the shadows behind us seemed unchanged. The floor gleamed without showing our reflections, and the walls bore faint carvings unlike anything I had ever seen. The closest I’d come in my travels was some old Viking runes in Scandinavia…but the ones here pulsed with energy, alive in a way no carving should be.

“What are these symbols?” I brushed my fingers lightly over the nearest one and felt a slight buzz against my fingertips.

“Wards,” Adan answered, moving closer with a satisfied gleam in his eyes that I didn’t understand. “This is one of my protective glyphs. Some guard against intrusion, others keep the building hidden from human eyes. Most respond only to me.”

“But I can see them.” I looked up at him.

He offered a faint smile. “I know.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that, so I stayed quiet, taking in the subtle, impossible changes around me.

A doorway on our left blinked—actually blinked—before dissolving into the wall. I stumbled to a halt. “Did that just…”

“It did,” he confirmed with a nod. “The Abyss adapts to its guests. Some rooms shift location based on energy or need.”

“And some freaking blink like an eye?”

My dismay made him chuckle as he pressed his palm against my lower back to lead me farther down the hallway.

We turned another corner, and a massive window came into view. This one revealed a night sky awash in stars. There were too many for me to count. They glittered in a deep violet sky, and the constellations were unfamiliar, as though they belonged to a different world altogether. It wasn’t even the oddest thing I had encountered tonight, but the sight made me stumble to a stop.

“Where is that?”

“A place the window remembers,” he murmured. “Sometimes, The Abyss shows you what you need to see.”

As I stared out at the stars, a tall woman in a long gray cloak passed us. Her silver hair tumbled in waves down her back, and her eyes glowed faintly gold when she looked at me. They weren’t hostile, just curious.

“Good evening, Lord Deville,” she said in a twinkling voice.

He inclined his head with a kind of reverence I’d seen the hotel staff give him. “Good evening, Mistress Elari.”

When she walked out of view, I gave him a sidelong glance. “Lord Deville, huh? You didn’t mention that title earlier.”

He smirked. “Would you have taken me seriously if I’d led with that?”

“Probably not,” I admitted. “But it explains the whole ‘demon royalty’ vibe you’ve got going on.”

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