Had he? He’d been there, and someone had brought me away from that abattoir.
“My name is Alexandros.”
“A mouthful.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. “Alex will do.”
“And you?” Ree glanced at the Amazon.
“Anuata.”
“This is all very civilized,” Alex said. “But if we continue to stand here chatting, some nasty palace guards are going to come with big knives and chop us to shark chum.”
“I see.” Ree swallowed, trying to dissolve the knot fisting in her throat. She couldn’t tear her eyes off him. Handsome men had never particularly turned her on, but this one made her wet just thinking about what it would be like having his mouth on her ... having him deep inside her. She liked sex as much as the next woman. Maybe more, because she’d never equated sex with codes of morality. But she’d rarely found herself this eager to share her body with a total stranger. Let alone one she wasn’t even certain was human.
“We’ve got to get out of here,” Anuata said. “Either grab her and take her or kill her. Better yet, I’ll kill her for you.”
“Back off, bitch,” Ree warned. “You might get more than you bargained for.”
Without another word, the blue man moved forward and held out his hand. Ree hesitated. “Come,” he said. “If you stay here, they’ll kill you.”
Ree looked back to where the body of the Samoan floated. Death didn’t frighten her, but she’d seen enough of the struggle between the two men to guess how dangerous this Alex was. “What were you doing on the
Anastasiya
?”
“I could ask you the same thing.”
“I worked there. I was Varenkov’s personal chef.”
He arched a golden brow. “He must have hated your food.”
“Stop talking!” The tattooed bodybuilder stared at Ree with eyes that were almost human. “She’s going to get us all killed.”
Ree tried to make sense of what was happening. This was too real to be a dream, and she felt too alert to be drugged. But why wasn’t she able to pick up something from Alex’s aura? She was highly gifted at reading people, but with him ... it was as though there was a glass wall between them. And her utter lack of intuition was both terrifying and intriguing.
A cry of alarm sounded from the hallway.
“Didn’t I warn you?” the tattooed Anuata said. “In two
dyaks,
we’ll have a full platoon of armed guards here. I’m good, but I can’t hold off nine of them while you two play the beast with two backs.”
“Come with me,” Alex said, still holding out his hand. The green eyes held her mesmerized.
Trembling, Ree reached out. Her fingers touched his, and a jolt of energy that nearly brought her to her knees surged between them. His big hand tightened around hers, and he pulled her hard against him. Before she could protest, Alexandros threw her over his shoulder. “It will be faster this way.”
“Let me down!”
“
Vassu
protect us,” the Amazon muttered. “I still say we should kill her.”
“You don’t get to decide that, Anuata.”
“You’ll regret it.”
“Probably.”
“You’ll regret it if you don’t put me down!” Ree protested.
“Quiet,” Alexandros said. He launched himself through the water, swimming faster than Ree would have thought possible.
She heard a grinding sound, almost as if a stone had been slid aside, and he ducked his head and stepped into utter darkness. Ree heard Anuata right behind them. There was that scraping sound again, and then Anuata squeezed past them so close that her shoulders and side brushed against Ree.
“Put me down. Please,” she said.
But almost at once he was off, swimming again. Twice she felt the rough surface of stone rub against her shoulder, and once her heel was dragged over a jagged section. Ree squinted, trying to see light, but there was nothing but utter blackness.
They turned and twisted, sometimes swimming straight up and other times turning sharp corners or diving down. Once, Alexandros shifted her off his shoulder, and holding her by one wrist wiggled through a tight passageway, pulling her after him. She gave up trying to orient her sense of direction. They could have been swimming in circles for all she knew.
Abruptly, they slid down a fast-running channel of water into a cavern filled with blue, almost iridescent, light. There were waterfalls and pools, whirlpools, and glorious sculptures of pink and gold coral. Schools of fish, sea anemones, jellyfish of every size and color, and great oysters as large as hot tubs. The water here seemed warmer on Ree’s skin, and she hoped that they would slow their pace so that she could take in the wonders of this place, but instead, Anuata plunged headfirst into the largest of the whirlpools, and Alex turned and looked at her.
“If I lose you, you’ll never find your way out. Do you think you can put your arms around my neck and hold on?”
She nodded.
“I’m dead serious. If you aren’t strong enough, I might be able to tie you to—”
“I won’t let go,” she promised.
“Good enough.”
She locked her arms around him, and a heartbeat later, Alex dove into the maelstrom. They were instantly caught in the vortex and sucked down at an impossible speed. This water was icy cold and powerful, and the noise was deafening. It took every ounce of her willpower to hold on.
Again, Ree was swallowed by darkness, but this time, there was the pressure and roar of crashing waves all around her. She was afraid that she wouldn’t be able to breathe, but that fear was unfounded. The descent however was terrifying, and they seemed to be tumbling in space, even though she knew that they were surrounded by and constantly assaulted by salt water.
Time lost all meaning. She didn’t know if she’d been spinning for minutes or hours, when gradually she became aware that the currents were growing weaker. She opened her eyes to find a faint green light. The spinning stopped and they continued to drift downward, but now, she could see green, verdant walls on either side. The walls grew farther apart; the light grew brighter, and they hit a final whirlpool before tumbling over a wide waterfall and landed on a sandy seafloor.
“Are you all right?” Alex asked, peering at her face.
Ree rubbed her hands over her arms and legs. “I think so. Yes, I’m in one piece.” She looked around, but there was no sign of the tattooed Amazon woman.
“That was rough, but Anuata is certain we’ll be pursued. I’ve got to get you to a place of safety before they catch up with us.” He touched her cheek with the back of his hand. “You did well. You have courage.”
She took a step and stumbled. She felt lightheaded and nauseous. “Maybe not so well,” she admitted.
Alex slipped a strong arm around her and gathered her up in his arms. “It’s all right. I can carry you these last few meters. We’ll be going into darkness again, but only for a few minutes. When we reach the old city, you’ll feel better.”
Ree had always needed to be in control. Being carried like a child should have been shameful, but Alex was so strong. It was so easy to lie back against his broad chest and close her eyes ... so easy to let him take care of her.
“Trust me,” he murmured into her hair. “All we have to do is cross over the field of lava and we’ll be fine.”
CHAPTER 6
“L
ava? As in volcano?” Ree stiffened, and her eyes snapped open. “Okay.” She pushed against his chest. “Put me down. We’re not going any further into this nightmare without an explanation.”
“This isn’t the place, believe me,” Alex said as he lowered her feet to the sandy bottom.
She tried to gather her wits when all she wanted to do was to leap back into his arms. She must be on drugs. Sure, Alex was a hunk, but she’d never let personal feelings interfere with business. “That’s what you told me before.” She looked directly into his eyes. “Either tell me what’s happening and why, or we’re going to part company.”
His expression became skeptical. “And you have an alternative?”
“Maybe. I’m pretty good at taking care of myself.”
“But you aren’t stupid.” He waved a hand, encompassing the landscape, which had become increasingly desolate, almost like she imagined the surface of the moon. There were spiky outcrops of coral or rock that jutted up like chimneys and a bone white substance covering the seafloor that reminded her of snow. “This isn’t your element. You are ... or
were
human.”
“Were? I can assure you I’m very human.” Well, maybe not exactly. She would never have been chosen for training as a young child if there hadn’t been substantial differences in her makeup.
And then she honed in on the implication. “So you’re telling me that you’re something other than human?” Where the hell was she? And how could she get back to someplace she could understand—a place with sky and sea and land, all arranged in the right sequence? “No, you aren’t human, are you?” She steeled herself. “Are you going to tell me you’re some kind of space alien who just happened to land on Varenkov’s yacht?”
“The truth is going to be difficult for you to accept.”
“No kidding.” She rested balled fists on her hips. “After talking octopi, your Martian sidekick who looks as though she escaped from a Japanese martial arts’ flick, and discovering that I can breathe under water and swim like a fish? I can’t wait to hear it.”
“It would be better if you’d let me take you into sanctuary, and we had this conversation there.”
He glanced to the left, and Ree turned to see what he was looking at. Several enormous orange, black-striped, bioluminescent jellyfish bobbed there, gray and black tentacles drifting behind them. She’d never seen jellies so large, but she had seen something in the news about giant jellyfish that weighed as much as six hundred pounds invading the Japanese fishing grounds. These weren’t that big, but big enough. The umbrellas were at least five feet across and the dangling comet-like tail and tentacles three to four times as long.
Ree’s insides clenched. She hated jellyfish. Once, when she was young, her instructors had taken her and several classmates swimming in the Chesapeake Bay in late August, and she’d been badly stung. Those jellyfish had been the size of a man’s hand, and the poison had made her extremely sick for days.
“Are they dangerous?” she asked, trying to keep her tone light. The exercise had been a prelude to lessons on the
cnidarians’
biological makeup and life cycles, and since she had a photographic memory, pieces of her teacher’s lesson came back to her.
Ancient denizens of the seas, mostly made up of water, but extremely efficient in survival. What appeared to be tentacles were lined with stinging, sticky structures, some of which would entangle prey, paralyze it with toxin, and hold it fast until the jelly could devour it.
Jellyfish, she remembered, had no hearts, and that had haunted her fever-racked nightmares. The idea still made her uneasy. Gooseflesh rose on the back of her neck as she stared at the beautiful creatures.
“Very dangerous.” Alex gestured to the right, and Ree saw perhaps a dozen more. “Their stings are deadly to any other species but Lemorians,” Alex said. “No antidote.”
“Lemorians. And you and the Amazon woman aren’t Lemorians?” Another jellyfish, more salmon-colored than orange, drifted into sight. This one, if possible, was ten feet from one end of the umbrella to the other, and its dangling tentacles were deep crimson while the center trailing comet flashed a sickly violet light.
“Actually, Anuata is a Lemorian. But, I’m not. And neither are you. Which means those things”—he nodded toward the nearest cluster of jellyfish—“could be unpleasant for us.”
She held up her hand. “I thought we’d already established that I’m human.”
“Do you want the truth, Ree?”
She wasn’t sure she did, but she nodded. What was there about this man that radiated sensuality? Just being near him made her uncertain of everything she’d ever known and believed.
“All right.” A jade flame flickered in the depths of those beautiful eyes, and his voice deepened to a husky timbre. “The truth is that I’m an Atlantean.”
“As in from Atlantis?” She shivered and forced a small sound of amusement. It wasn’t possible—was it? And yet ... “I suppose that isn’t so strange,” she admitted. “Since we’re under water, and I haven’t drowned yet.”
A muscle twitched in the sinewy column of his throat, and she thought again how much she wanted to run her fingers over his neck and chest ... to tangle her fingers in that golden hair and feel the controlled power beneath those faintly blue scales. Blue scales? Had she lost all reason? Where had she gotten that notion from? Alex wasn’t blue. And his flawless skin was bronzed from the sun and wind. No, not totally flawless. A few scars marked his chest and magnificent thighs and legs, but they only added to his sense of virile mystique. He looked like some ancient Greek warrior come to life from a marble statue.
“I’d love to continue this conversation with you”—Alex said—“but our friends over there are hungry. I’d rather not end up paralyzed and eaten alive by anything. So, come with me willingly, or stay here and take your chances.” Again, he offered her his hand. “Your choice, Ree.”
“An Atlantean?” Her mind raced to keep up with the pounding of her heart against her ribs.
He nodded.
Stop it! Stop thinking of having sex with him and concentrate on finding out what’s going on!
“What were you doing on Varenkov’s boat?” she demanded sharply.
“Your employer is a very nasty piece of work.”
Alex wasn’t telling her anything that she didn’t already know.
“He’s responsible for wholesale destruction of some of the most fertile sections of the oceans, and he profits from the slaughter of fur seals, dolphins, and endangered whales. I was sent there to put an end to his career.”
Her eyes widened. “You went to the
Anastasiya
to kill Varenkov?” Of all the explanations he could have given her, this was the most far out—and made the most sense.
Alex, whatever else he is, is an assassin. How could I have missed it?
“And I would have completed the mission if you hadn’t been on deck. You weren’t supposed to be there, Ree. I don’t make war on civilians. I feel responsible for what happened to you. That’s why I couldn’t leave you there.”
“Couldn’t leave me to die?”
“Technically, you were already dead. Or, as good as. But I thought I could save you ... at a price.”
“And the price?”
“Complicated.” He glanced over her shoulder. “Another score or so have joined the pack. Can we elaborate on this later?”
A look confirmed what Alex had just told her. “All right,” she said. “I don’t trust you, but ... as you said, I don’t really have a better option at the moment.”
“Hold on to my back again. Your swimming is better than it was, but you haven’t recovered your full strength.”
“And you know this
how
?” She didn’t trust herself to be that close to him. The thoughts that rose in her mind were all possibilities, but they really didn’t seem appropriate when they were attempting to keep from being sucked up by monstrous jellyfish.
“Stop arguing, woman. I’m losing patience with you. Just do as I say.”
She hated giving in, but on the other hand, he did swim like the devil. Reluctantly, she did as he asked, and he began to move through the water like some sort of jet-propelled watercraft. When she looked over her shoulder, she saw that the jellies were following.
But not for long. They hadn’t gone more than a short distance when Ree began to see columns of steam rising from the ocean floor and the water temperature grew noticeably warmer. What had Alex said about a lava field? This didn’t look like lava, but ...
“Stop,” Alex said. “You’re giving me a headache. Do you never stop talking?”
“I didn’t say a word.”
“You were thinking,” he said.
“What? You read minds, too?”
“Something like that.”
“Fine. I won’t think. I’ll just cling to your back like a barnacle and not think a single thought.” Immediately, she began to wonder if he’d also picked up on the other thoughts she’d been having ... the ones that had to do with—
“Ordinarily, I’d be only too happy to take you up on that offer,” he said. “But just now, I’ve got more important things on my plate.”
Ree felt her cheeks and throat grow hot. “You have a wonderful imagination.”
He laughed. “You’re an extraordinary woman, Ree O’ Connor. Don’t betray your own nature to play games.”
“I don’t know what you’re insinuating,” she lied.
“I think we’re two of a kind.”
“And that means?”
“What we want, we’re not afraid to reach for.”
A geyser of molten lava shot up from the ocean floor only a few hundred feet away. Sparks and burning debris showered the water, sizzling and steaming. Ree buried her face in Alex’s back as the wave of heat washed against her skin. “Does it get worse?” she ventured.
“Afraid so.” He began to swim faster, and when Ree next ventured a look, she saw that vast sections of the seabed were running with rivers of fire. “It’s best if you sleep now.”
“Sleep? Are you crazy?” But she found her eyelids were heavy, and an unexplained drowsiness seeped over her. Suddenly, it seemed impossible to lift her head. Instead, she inhaled the clean-male scent of Alex’s body and let the rhythmic movement of his muscles lull her into a twilight state of nothingness. She hardly noticed when she slipped from his back and he gathered her in his arms and began to swim with her cradled against his chest once more.
Even without the woman to worry about, crossing the lava field would have been a tricky maneuver. With her, it wasn’t a feat Alexandros wanted to repeat anytime soon. It had taken all of his strength to keep up a barrier against the intense heat from the flow that would protect them both while maintaining the illusion that would keep Ree asleep. Had she seen what they had to pass through, he wasn’t certain if she would have panicked. He didn’t think so, but he couldn’t take that chance. He had to reach sanctuary in the Old City, and he had to do it before ’Enakai’s troops caught up with them.
The first shattered blocks of the sunken road beckoned to him like a fresh salt breeze. Here, he was able to put the mossy stones between him and the seafloor. The current brought cool water and the first glimpse of schools of fish and living sea grass and kelp.
He let Ree sleep. There was no guarantee that the Lemorians weren’t here ahead of him. If they were, he might have to do the unthinkable—kill her quickly and painlessly while she was wrapped in deep slumber to prevent her from falling into their hands. It was a decision he hoped he wouldn’t need to make. He’d already risked too much to save her life.
He wanted her. And he was used to having what he wanted.
As a human, she had been forbidden to him. As a human, she should have been repugnant to him. Humans were a lesser species, inferior in every way to Atlanteans. . . weak, stupid, and without an understanding of the things that were important in life.
It had been such a simple step. He’d seen her die, partially because of an error on his part, and he’d felt pity for her. Instead of letting his folly be, he’d abandoned the Russian and carried the woman into the sea, intending to save her life.
He hadn’t realized how important she would become to him or how deeply he would desire her. And he hadn’t intended to compound his mistake by becoming entangled with the Lemorians.
One misstep and Ree’s life was changed forever. Not only her life but that of Anuata. Neither of them could ever go back to what they had known. The enormity of what he’d done weighed heavily on his soul. He’d been the first to warn his brothers against becoming involved with human females, and now he’d broken the same law.
And for the first time, he wondered if they’d all been wrong—if it wasn’t their weaknesses at fault, but a bad law. What if everything he’d believed about the human race was wrong? What if Atlanteans and humans were far closer than anyone realized? Hadn’t they once been one race?
But whatever his doubts, there would be a price to pay. He’d be neck-deep in trouble when he returned to Atlantis, and he’d be lucky if he didn’t spend the next several hundred years entombed in a coral prison or buried beneath tons of pack ice in the Antarctic.