Atlantis Unmasked Page 22

  Alexios nodded grimly. “My thanks to your doctor friend. It could have been worse.”

  “Alaric?” Bastien asked.

  “Unreachable. Quinn.” It was enough of an explanation. Everybody knew about Alaric and Quinn. A shadow crossed Bastien’s face, but he said nothing further.

  “It can always be worse,” Sam said, answering Alexios’s earlier comment. “Anybody gonna fill me in?”

  Blue wandered over to Ethan, sniffing curiously, and gave a tentative bark. Ethan looked down at the dog and made a growling sound that rumbled up from his chest, and Blue quickly backed off and hid behind Sam. Sam patted his dog’s head and shot a keen glance at Ethan. “Maybe start with the panther.”

  Alexios made the introductions and then told Sam what they’d learned. Sam listened intently, never once interrupting, until Alexios had finished. Then he nodded.

  “Matches up with what my friend the doc said. This Prevacek is a piece of work. Old-school Russian mafia turned vamp. Took a liking to hot weather and moved over here for good in the 1700s. Big, bad, and thoroughly nasty. Has political aspirations, too. Wants to get into the Primus, but doesn’t have the buy-in ready. Interesting part is that Vonos is throwing a big ball for the press and the high-society types in a couple of days. Might be something to check out.”

  “Sounds like Prevacek is running his own game. Either that or he lied to those idiots about why he wanted them to come after our so-called theater group,” Alexios said. “I gotta tell you, I hate coincidences. And we are definitely going to find a way to get into that ball.”

  “I, too, am no fan of coincidences,” Bastien said. “However, as you yourself have more than likely realized, this attack does not fit either of the two parallel patterns. You and your ‘theater troupe’ are neither a fringe group of human society—”

  “Unless your acting is really, really bad,” Ethan put in.

  “Funny man. It’s not too late for me to kick your kitty-cat ass,” Alexios advised him.

  Ethan made a “bring it” gesture, and Bastien sighed. “Nor, as I was saying, was this an attack made to look like an accident.”

  “They always like this?” Sam asked Bastien.

  “They just met. But there was a little problem with Ethan’s alpha call, Grace’s response, and something about ancestry and consorts,” Bastien explained.

  Sam threw up his hands, clearly disgusted. “Stop, already. I can’t deal with this on no sleep and not enough coffee. Don’t want to know; don’t care. So let’s say that this Prevacek is offering up a little bit of dead theater troupe to Vonos as some kind of twisted proof of his initiative and loyalty. What’s he gonna think when he realizes none of them came back?”

  “We could send Eddie in with a story,” Bastien said doubtfully.

  Ethan and Alexios made simultaneous snorting noises, then glared at each other.

  “Eddie hasn’t got the brains the gods gave a—oh, hey. Shifter,” Alexios said.

  “I’d have to agree with that,” Ethan said. “He must have some Atlantean DNA in his background.”

  Sam rolled his eyes. “Enough, already, children. What are we going to do next?”

  Chapter 21

  Grace walked into the kitchen and introduced Kat to Michelle, still seething about Alexios’s high-handedness. The two shook hands, the ranger’s blond Amazon height a striking contrast to Michelle’s petite darkness.

  Michelle hugged Grace. “I’m so glad to see you again. It was a rough night. We’ve lost all but two of the recruits, too.”

  “Sam filled me in while you were dropping off your stuff in your room. You may as well go right back and get it, because you’re leaving,” Grace said. “It’s too dangerous here.”

  “Danger is my middle name,” Michelle said. “Actually, I wish danger were my middle name. My actual middle name is horrible beyond the admitting of it. Michelle Danger sounds rather brilliant, doesn’t it?”

  “You realize you people are all crazy, don’t you?” Kat said, not really phrasing it as a question. “Do you have any hot tea?”

  “Crazy like a fox,” Grace said.

  “Panthers eat foxes,” Kat pointed out.

  “Really? That’s disgusting,” Michelle said, making a face. “Bushy tail and all? And yes, we have tea. Real tea, not that nasty tea bag stuff.”

  “Thanks. And no, we don’t really eat foxes,” Kat said, rolling her eyes. “I’m more of a cheeseburger-and-fries kind of gal. But I don’t think you can talk, considering you Brits invented that barbaric sport you call riding to the hounds. I’d love just once to jump into the middle of that as a panther. Scare a few stuffy old men, wouldn’t I?”

  “Maybe we could talk about what we’re going to do now and leave refighting the Revolutionary War for later,” Grace said. “Only two recruits left, and I need to get both of them out of here. Boy, won’t Quinn and Jack be proud when they get back from wherever they’ve gone off to?” She clutched her head in her hands and moaned.

  “Who cares whether they’ll be proud?” Kat shrugged. “You’re the woman on the ground, so to speak.”

  “It was a rhetorical question,” Grace said flatly.

  “Well, here’s one that isn’t. What are you going to do with the remaining two?”

  “I’ll be glad to take them wherever you need me to,” Michelle told Grace. “I’d rather stay with you, but as long as you have Alexios, I won’t worry about you as much.

  “Here we go again. Everybody trying to protect me. I’m supposed to be the one who takes care of everyone else,” Grace said.

  “Hey, these Atlanteans are handy in a fight,” Kat said. “Don’t underestimate the power of teamwork. We’re all better off fighting this fight together, because the bad guys—even the vampires—are learning that very lesson.”

  Alexios showed up in the kitchen doorway, looking a little sheepish around the edges. “I’m sorry about that.”

  Part of her wanted to make an issue of demanding a long apology on the spot, in front of witnesses, but mostly she just didn’t want to hear it. Because every time he did something kind and gracious, or something protective and cherishing, it made it harder and harder for her to contemplate life after he left.

  “No worries,” she finally said. “Michelle has offered to take our last two recruits off to another training area. Any ideas?”

  “Yes, in fact. Brennan is in Yellowstone with a friend of mine. They’re setting up a joint command—Pack and human. I think that would be an excellent place for them.”

  Kat looked up. “Pack? Are you talking about wolves? Because I’ve got to tell you, I’m not a fan. It seems like the shifters who most consistently take the vampires’ side are wolves.”

  “Perhaps. But Lucas is a friend and very definitely on our side. Sam already has one of Tiny’s men lined up to go with them to Yellowstone, though. Michelle doesn’t need to go. However, I agree she needs to be somewhere safe, and Bastien and Ethan have a proposition for her.”

  Michelle took a long sip of her tea, then carefully placed the mug on the table and folded her hands in front of her. “I do happen to be sitting right here. Perhaps someone could ask Michelle directly if they have a proposition for Michelle. After all, my name is Michelle Danger.”

  Alexios looked puzzled. “I thought your name was Michelle Nichols.”

  Grace couldn’t help herself. She burst out laughing.

  Sam crowded into the kitchen behind Alexios. “What’s funny? Also, and far more important, do you have any coffee made?”

  Grace tilted her head toward the fresh pot on the counter. “Help yourself. What’s going on?”

  Sam took a moment to pour himself a mug of coffee before he leaned a hip against the counter and responded. “We think Vonos is planning something big, possibly something that’s going to happen at this fancy-schmancy ball of his.”

  He filled her in on what they’d learned after she and Kat had left the courtyard. “So, turns out this ball is day after tomorrow.”<
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  Alexios and Grace exchanged a long look. “Interesting timing,” she said.

  “Well, you know what they say about the Fae,” he replied. “They never lie, but they never tell the truth.”

  Bastien appeared and ducked his head under the doorway so he could fit his tall form into the room, which was rapidly becoming crowded. “Who never tells the truth?”

  Alexios sketched out the details of Rhys na Garanwyn and his proposed meeting the following evening.

  Bastien whistled, long and low. “The elves? I must admit I did not see that coming. I wonder what catastrophic thinking is driving this on the part of the Seelie Court.”

  “High House, Seelie Court,” Alexios reminded him. “That’s never good.”

  “My mum met an elf once,” Michelle mused. “Very nearly left my dad over him. Can’t trust those Fae buggers.”

  Grace leaned forward and brushed the curls back from Michelle’s ear. “Nope. Not pointy. Too bad. Would have explained a lot. Anyway, you can’t trust them, but you can’t offend them, either,” Grace said. “They usually don’t bother with us, since we live our lives so far beneath their exalted presence for them to notice us. And when they do, well—” She shook her head. “It’s never good.”

  Alexios casually crossed the room until he was standing next to Grace. Her pulse reacted to his presence like a trip-hammer, but she tried to portray nonchalant indifference. More and more fuzzy memories of how she’d acted under the influence of the alpha call kept coming back, and the humiliation factor was off the charts. She felt like she could never face him again, but he kept seeking her out.

  Beg a man to fuck you in public, and that kind of thing is going to happen, said the dark, gleeful voice in her mind. Grace told the voice to shut the hell up.

  Michelle looked up at Bastien, who towered over the room. “I understand you have an offer for me.”

  “Yes, we do. We’d like to set up a three-way alliance at Big Cyprus, with human, Atlantean, and shifter members all at the table. From what Grace and Alexios tell us, you would be a perfect choice to spearhead the effort. I understand you have no pressing need to return to London?”

  Michelle looked down at the table for a moment, twisting her hands together. Then she smiled at Bastien. “Actually, I don’t have any need to return to London, pressing or otherwise, and I think I would be perfect for that position. How lovely of you to offer it to me.”

  Kat was nodding. “It’s vital that we find out how panthers are being enthralled. The shifters have always been immune to this type of mind control, but something new is going on. Something deadly for all of us. The sooner we can work together in a coordinated effort, the better.”

  “It’s settled, then,” Michelle said. “Now, if you’ll all excuse us, Grace and I need a moment alone to say good-bye.”

  Everyone filed out of the kitchen. Alexios hesitated for a moment, then bent and pressed a kiss to the top of Grace’s head. “I’ll be right outside,” he said.

  She nodded, unable to respond, and watched him leave the room. Finally, she smiled at Michelle, ready to say good-bye.

  “All right, spill it,” Michelle said. “What happened between you two while I was gone?”

  Grace hesitated for less than a minute, then she gave in and told Michelle all of it: Leaning on his strength after the battle. The intensity of the soul-meld. What had happened when she’d been intoxicated by the power of the alpha call.

  Her face was burning hot enough to melt copper by the time she finished. Michelle stared at Grace, her eyes wide and lips twitching.

  “If you laugh at me,” Grace threatened, not quite knowing what the “or else” would be.

  Michelle nodded, then put her head down on her arms on the table and burst into peals of laughter. “Oh, dear. I would have given enormous amounts of money to have seen that. Serious, reserved Grace humping her Atlantean in the hallway.” That set her off again, and she laughed until she was breathless.

  “It’s so wonderful to have a best friend I can confide in,” Grace said through her teeth.

  “Oh, honey, don’t get—”

  “My knickers in a twist, right. Easy for you to say. You weren’t babbling on and on about kitties and boobs and fucking.” It was Grace’s turn to put her head down on the table. “How am I ever going to face him again?”

  Michelle reached over and smacked Grace’s arm. “You really are an idiot, aren’t you? Are you kidding? The way that man looks at you? It was probably his wildest fantasy come true that you were saying those things and acting like that. He’s some kind of hero for not having a go at you right there on the spot.”

  Grace reluctantly laughed. “That’s pretty much exactly what he said. ‘He. Ro. Ic.’ ”

  “And so he was,” Michelle said. “But tonight you’ll be alone together, and he doesn’t have to be. All he has to be is a man, and you certainly deserve him.”

  “But he’s going to leave me.”

  “You don’t know that. And even if he does, who cares? Live for today for once.”

  “But what if—”

  “No,” Michelle said firmly. “No ‘what if.’ Only do it. Take something for yourself for once. Take a chance. Shave your legs.”

  Grace grinned. “Okay, maybe just this once.”

  Grace stretched, slowly waking from a long nap. The room was dark, so the 8:00 glowing on her clock told her that she’d slept clear through the day and into the evening. She’d been exhausted and weak, and her injury had been hurting, so, for the first time in the past decade, she’d handed over all control to others and simply gone to bed.

  Before he’d left, Ethan had made a call and told them a truck would be there soon to load up everything from the armory and take it to Big Cypress for safekeeping. Tiny and Sam had figured out a plan to deconstruct all of the temporary improvements that the “theater troupe” had made to the fort, so that it would be left pristine, with no damage whatsoever to the historical structure.

  The blood had merely soaked into the grass, after all, and any that stained the concrete was simply carrying on a long-standing tradition for this fort.

  After multiple good-byes, Michelle had climbed into the passenger seat of the helicopter as if she’d been riding in them all of her life instead of being a “chopper virgin,” as she’d confided just before embarking. She’d have a great time; Michelle always did. If only she could teach Grace the secret of not taking the world, the war, and herself so seriously.

  If only.

  And Alexios . . . well, he’d been everywhere. Watching over her. Making sure she wasn’t overtiring herself. Catching her off guard, sometimes, with those flashes of heat in his eyes that told her he was remembering the things she’d said and done that morning.

  For the first time, though, she didn’t feel embarrassed. Instead, she stretched again, luxuriously, in her warm sheets and allowed herself to feel . . . anticipation.

  Delicious, tingling anticipation.

  Her nipples peaked just from the thought of him and her body grew warm, readying itself for him. She had the desire and the motivation. She even had the bed and the readiness.

  All she needed was to find her Atlantean.

  Her Atlantean. She wondered where the possessive pronoun had come from, but allowed herself to enjoy it. Cherish it as one would cherish a jewel lovingly loaned by a true friend. It would have to be returned, eventually, but until then . . .

  Her Atlantean. If only it could be true.

  No. No time for wistfulness or denial now. She threw the blanket back and, still dressed, pulled on her shoes and jacket and went to find Alexios.

  Chapter 22

  Alexios soared over the ruffled lace of the cresting waves and enjoyed the utter freedom of flying as a sparkling shimmer of mist higher and higher into the night sky. Away from responsibility and duty. Away from all of the humans who needed him—and the one human who didn’t.

  The Warrior’s Creed, burned into his brain through constant
recitation as a youngling at the academy, marched in exacting precision through his mind.

  We will wait. And watch. And protect.

  And serve as first warning on the eve of humanity’s destruction.

  Then, and only then, Atlantis will rise.

  For we are the Warriors of Poseidon, and the mark of the Trident we bear serves as witness to our sacred duty to safeguard mankind.

  It was a duty Alexios held sacred. But for all of his life, Alexios had waited and watched and protected. He was tired of waiting. Tired of watching.