Halloween in Atlantis: Poseidon's Warriors Page 4

  She took her first full breath since she’d seen Sanchez and Williams on the floor and ran toward him. She wasn’t sure when or how the knowledge had settled into her bones, but she’d known Liam would help. Help her get care for her guys—help with everything.

  She might not be a damsel in distress, but everybody needed someone she could count on. It didn’t make any sense at all, but for the first time in forever, she finally felt like she’d found her someone.

  Before she could speak, Liam pulled her into his arms and held her close. “Are you hurt, mi bella? Please tell me you’re okay.”

  She felt the tremor in his big body, and she realized that he’d been afraid for her. Warmth swept through her and her throat started to hurt. She took a deep, shuddering breath, and realized that she was about half a second from crying all over him.

  So she pushed him away, to stand on her own two feet. That’s what Radcliffes did, after all. They were strong. Independent.

  Lonely, her traitorous heart whispered. But she didn’t have time for hearts. She had a party to run and criminals to find.

  “I’m fine. It’s Sanchez and Williams. Somebody knocked them out, and it looks like whoever did it rummaged through the costumes, which is weird. We made it clear on the invitation that there is no charge to wear a costume.”

  The corners of Liam’s mouth kicked up, but he still looked grim. “I doubt this is about Halloween costumes, Jaime. What are costumes but disguises? And now we know we have more than one culprit in the jewel theft.”

  Her eyes widened, but she immediately understood. “You think the thieves came for costumes to wear to make their escapes. They did this to my people so they wouldn’t recognize them and so can’t identify them, or would at least be out cold until the bad guys escape.”

  Liam checked the pulses of the two on the floor, and then he nodded. “Yes. And we have no way to know which costumes they stole, so they could be anywhere in that horde of people out there, with whatever else they have stolen from the palace.”

  “This is so frustrating,” Jaime groaned. “I want to smash something.”

  “I feel the same way. Maybe we should have saved some of your fruit,” Liam said ruefully. “This day, which started out in such a promising way, has turned into a mierde fest of the highest caliber.”

  A muscle clenched in his jaw, and Jaime wanted to reassure him, but then another—much worse—thought struck. He’d been so sure his brother wasn’t involved, before. But what if Denal had been right? She’d never met his family…

  “Liam? I don’t want to even bring this up, but when Denal was talking about your family, there seemed to be some pretty fierce hostility there. You don’t think—I mean, of course you don’t—but, well, is there anything--”

  He laughed, but it was a harsh and bitter sound. “No. I don’t want to talk about my family, but since you brought it up…Stealing crown jewels? Definitely not Dare’s style. But this? Knocking a couple of humans on the head to abscond with Halloween costumes for some undoubtedly wild-ass prank?” Liam grimaced. “This actually has Dare’s name written all over it.”

  “Dare?”

  “My idiot brother,” he said, biting off the words. Then he thought about what exactly he’d do if his family came between him and his mission, yet again…

  He didn’t realize he was swearing out loud until Jaime put a hand on his arm.

  “Hey. I don’t know what language you’re speaking—it’s not my classroom French, that’s for sure—but I just wanted to apologize for bringing up a sore subject. I’m sure your family isn’t involved, if they’re anything like you at all.”

  Liam stared down at her, and she was almost sure she saw something like shock in his eyes. “Thank you,” he finally said.

  “You’re welcome, but where is the medical team?”

  A cold wind whipped Jaime’s hair away from her face, and Alaric appeared.

  “The medical team is here,” he proclaimed.

  Something about Alaric made everything he said sound like a proclamation; an observation she was sure he wouldn’t appreciate.

  Before she could stick her foot in her mouth by saying it anyway, the ex-high priest waved his hands over the men. A dome-like flare of intense blue light spread over the two. Within seconds, they were both awake and sitting up.

  “What’s going on, Jaime?” Sanchez rubbed the back of his head. “I was having a strange dream…Wait. Those three people. A woman and two men. They came in and--”

  “They knocked us out,” Williams interrupted, outrage plain in his voice.

  The two of them climbed to their feet, and Jaime was relieved to see how steady they were—as if nothing had happened to them at all.

  “Thank you so much. You’re a miracle worker,” she told Alaric.

  He merely raised an eyebrow before turning back to the men. “Tell us everything.”

  But they didn’t have much to say. The three people had come in wearing masks of dead American presidents, which Sanchez and Williams hadn’t thought much about, since this was a costume party.

  “Two Washingtons and a Lincoln, I’m guessing,” Jaime said, spotting the discarded masks on the floor on top of a pile of discarded costumes.

  Sanchez scowled. “Yeah. Then the big guy pulls a stick, like a police baton, out of somewhere and knocks Williams out. I tried to help, but the woman got behind me somehow, and next thing I knew, pow.”

  “Pow, indeed,” said Alaric, looking scarier than ever.

  Both Williams and Sanchez backed away from Alaric—slowly—and turned to Jaime. “Anyway, we’re fine, boss. We’ll get back to work now and get these guests in costumes in no time.”

  Sanchez held out his hand to Alaric, looking only slightly nervous. “Thanks, man.”

  Alaric was silent for a long moment. Just when Jaime was starting to get nervous, he shook Sanchez’s hand. “You are very welcome.”

  Williams added his thanks, and the two men headed to the front area to set up.

  “In all these people, we’ll never find them. We don’t even know what costumes they took.”

  Jaime started to smile. “That’s not exactly true.”

  “What did you mean by ‘that’s not exactly true’? Do you have a way to figure out which costumes are missing?” Liam’s hand went to the hilt of his dagger, and she had no doubt that if the thieves showed up now, they were going to regret it for a very long time.

  Costumes. Right. She nodded. “Of course. I have them all inventoried by type and size, since I rented them from the best costume shop in Chicago. We just need to hang up these on the floor, and I’ll easily be able to see what’s gone.”

  Liam grabbed her shoulders and kissed her, right there in front of Alaric and her staff. A toe-tingling kind of kiss.

  “Liam, you can’t just--”

  “Yes I can,” he said, a purely male look of satisfaction on his gorgeous face.

  “Perhaps we could save the displays of personal affection for a later time,” Alaric said coldly. “And discover the culprits now?”

  Jaime could feel her face heating up, but Liam just grinned. The man must have nerves of steel.

  “Got it. I’ll be sure to remind you that you said that the next time I see you kissing Quinn in the garden,” Liam said.

  Alaric bared his teeth in a grimace, and Jaime decided it was time to intervene.

  “Here’s what we do. Although it would be better if I had some help…”

  Just then, the tent flap opened and five men and women hurried into the tent. “Lady Quinn sent us, my lord,” one of them told Alaric, bowing deeply. “We’re here to help in any way we can.”

  Alaric pointed at Liam, who took charge. “Perfect. Thanks. Jaime will tell you what we need. I’m going to assign guards to this tent and to the visitor docks. I’ve already asked for extra guards at the palace, and especially at the doors of the family wings.”

  “Please thank Quinn, er, Lady Quinn, for the help, Alaric—um, your Lord
liness,” Jaime said, perfectly polite but distracted by the task of searching the forms on her tablet for the costume inventory. “Okay. Here it is. Let’s get everything hung back up; you can tell by size and type of costume where they go.”

  The Atlanteans set to work swiftly and efficiently, and within minutes, they had their answer.

  “A princess, a pirate, and a ninja are missing,” Jaime announced. “We just have to look for those. And I can show you exactly what those costumes look like, because we have the identical ones here in many different sizes.”

  Liam blew out a breath. “Sure. No problem. Except on my way here, I saw hundreds of people in costume, and I’m sure there were multiple princesses and at least two pirates. Even with the details of what colors they are, it’s going to be hard to find them I didn’t see any ninjas, though, which is probably good. Ninja costumes are fairly generic, right? That one will be tougher to single out.”

  “I saw a ninja,” Alaric said, frowning. “However, I find the custom of appropriating another culture’s manner of clothing for entertainment to be distasteful. Also, the ninja asked me for candy.”

  “Did you blast him?” Jaime asked, momentarily diverted.

  “No. I did not blast him. He was a child,” Alaric said.

  “Probably not our culprit, then,” Liam pointed out, and Jaime had to clamp her mouth shut to avoid laughing. Alaric probably would have no problem blasting her. “The big question is this: How do we isolate our princess, pirate, and ninja from the herd?”

  Jaime only had to think about it for ten seconds before it hit her: “We have a costume contest! But only princesses, pirates, and ninjas are eligible.”

  8

  Liam’s shoulders slumped. The stress was clearly getting to Jaime. “A costume contest?”

  “I know, it sounds ridiculous, but listen: we announce that the top three prizes go to a princess, a pirate, and a ninja. See?”

  “No. I don’t see.”

  She grabbed his arm. “The thieves aren’t going to show up for the prizes, so we’ll be able to more easily find them in the crowd. The costumes make perfect sense; don’t you think?”

  Alaric narrowed his eyes. “No. Explain. Now.”

  “Well, if they stole more jewels, which we don’t know yet--”

  “Which you don’t know yet,” Alaric told her, which ticked Liam off.

  “Look,” he said, before Alaric could annoy him again. “If you know something, you need to tell us.”

  Jaime’s smile was brilliant. “There’s an us? Let’s definitely make time to talk.”

  Alaric’s warning growl snapped the stupid smile right off Liam’s face.

  “Princesses and pirates wear and carry jewels,” Jaime explained in a rush. “And a ninja has a face mask to help hide his identity. They’re perfect.”

  “Well, let’s go make it unperfect,” Liam said.

  “Agreed,” Alaric said. “I’ll inform the guards of the plan.”

  With that, the priest sliced one hand through the air, which opened up a straight line in the fabric of the back of the tent, and then he exited through it.

  “I’ll have to pay for that plus the missing costumes,” Jaime muttered, looking hopeless.

  Seconds later, though, the tent fabric wove itself back together, good as new.

  You’re welcome, said Alaric’s disembodied voice on the Atlantean shared mental pathway.

  Jaime jumped. “Did he just put his voice in my head? That’s so creepy.”

  Liam’s interest sharpened. “You heard that?”

  “Yes. Didn’t you?”

  “Only Atlanteans, or those who share the Atlantean gene, can communicate via the mental pathway,” he told her.

  Do you hear me, too, or was it just him?

  Her eyes widened. “You can do it, too? That’s wild. I wonder if I can do it. Let’s remember to figure it all out once we find our thieves, okay?”

  “Deal.”

  The first party goers in need of costumes entered the tent then so, after Jaime made sure that Sanchez and Williams were following the system she’d set in place, Liam took her hand and they followed the music to the temporary stage that had been set up just outside the palace gardens.

  The Atlantis orchestra was playing one of its original compositions, and the group around the stage was one part appreciative listeners and dancers, and one part crazed musical scholars. The discovery that Atlantis actually exist and had maintained a separate civilization for more than eleven thousand years had been news of mammoth proportions to academics of all kinds. Every day, more and more researchers applied for permission to come and study—historians, archaeologists, and anthropologists had been first, but linguists, musical theorists, and literature professors hadn’t been far behind.

  “Oh, Liam, that’s so beautiful,” Jaime said, sighing. “I feel like I could happily spend the next ten years doing nothing but sitting here listening to this music. If only--"

  Suddenly—impossibly—Liam wanted to ask her to dance. To feel her head nestled against his shoulder; to waltz with her across the floor until their problems and even the world itself fell away beneath the sound of the music and the beating of his heart.

  Every muscle in his body tensed at the realization that he was falling, and falling hard, for this woman. He’d only had a handful of conversations with her during the weeks she’d been in Atlantis, but her courage, resourcefulness, and ability to retain her sense of humor under intense pressure intrigued and impressed him. She was beautiful, hells, let’s be honest.

  But she was also something more.

  The something more was what had him tangled up in knots. Once they caught these damned thieves, he was going to drag Jaime off somewhere private and explore every bit of the powerful attraction between them.

  The orchestra finished its set, and Liam leapt up on the stage to have a word with the director. Jaime followed him by way of the steps, and when she reached him, he put the microphone in her hands.

  “This is your party, so maybe it should come from you,” he said into her ear, so the mike didn’t pick up his words.

  She took a deep breath and nodded and then, right before his eyes, transformed back into perfect professional party planner mode.

  “Happy Halloween, everyone!” She gestured at the garden and palace with a flourish. “We’re so pleased to welcome you to Atlantis.”

  Everyone cheered. Liam scanned the crowd for any pirates, princesses, or ninjas, and he found them. Lots of them. He could see at least five princesses from here. Plenty of superheroes, too, which was entertaining, given that so many of Poseidon’s sworn warriors—far more badass than any superhero--were in attendance, as well.

  “I’d kick that bat guy’s ass,” he told Jaime, who gave him a puzzled look, shushed him, and turned back to the waiting crowd.

  “King Conlan and Queen Riley will be here soon to welcome you officially, and until then, we’d love for you to all relax, enjoy the wonderful food and drink, and the lovely music. But first, we have a surprise!”

  When everyone applauded, Jaime put a surreptitious hand over the top of the mike. “Here we go. Are your guards in place to look for any pirates, etc., who might start running in the opposite direction?”

  Liam opened his mind to find Alaric on the mental pathway:

  We’re ready to go—everything all set.

  Two seconds later, Alaric replied with a single word:

  Go.

  Jaime looked a question at him, and Liam nodded. They were ready.

  “Okay, everyone. This is so exciting! We’re having a surprise mini-costume contest in addition to the overall costume contest later this evening. Judges from Atlantis have been casting their ballots in secret and we have three winners: a pirate, a ninja, and a princess!”

  There was more applause, but mostly everyone was turning to look at everyone else, and some of the people in variations of those costumes started heading for the stage. Nobody was stupid enough to scream “yo
u’ll never catch me” and start running, unfortunately.

  It was always easier when the criminals were stupid.

  Ven’s voice came through on the pathway:

  We’ve got one of them. Found a ninja hiding in a speedboat at the guest dock. He’s spilling the beans on the other two, under Denal’s gentle questioning. Hey, Liam, Dare is here, too.

  Liam felt like Ven had just punched him in the gut. His brother was involved. His entire future just swirled down the drain. Before he could even think of how to respond, Ven came through again:

  Sorry, I should have clarified. Dare helped us find this one and is going to assist in the search for the others.

  Jaime glanced at him, and her eyes widened with real alarm. “Liam, are you okay? You look--"

  “I’m fine,” he said. “Family stuff. Tell you later.”

  Because, much to his surprise, he realized he actually did want to tell her about his family, and his childhood, and his life. He wanted to talk to her for hours and listen to her for days and hold her in his arms for…

  This time, it was his own voice he heard in his mind:

  Where in the nine hells did that come from? Hold her forever? Time to get your head back in the game, dumbass.

  “They’ve got one of them,” he told Jaime. “I need to go help find the others. You stay here and do this, and I’ll find someone to help.”

  He scanned the crowd again, this time looking for familiar faces, and was relieved to spot Erin, Ven’s wife, standing at the edge of the dance floor and looking amused.

  He leaned over to speak into Jaime’s microphone. “Erin Connors, will you please report to the stage?”

  Erin raised an eyebrow, but gamely cooperated with his request. When she’d climbed the stairs to the steps, he bowed.

  “Lady Erin, my apologies, but we need your help. Will you please assist Jaime with the costume contest while I go help Ven and the others track down our missing…friends?”

  Erin was a whole lot of personality and attitude packaged in a small package—and she was a witch. The magical kind. He didn’t know her well, but everyone he knew was half in love with her. Only half, because Ven wasn’t called the King’s Vengeance for nothing.