Warriors of Poseidon 01.5 - Wild Hearts in Atlantis

his marching orders, since the Council called Conlan back into closed session."
     
    He turned back to Bastien, who was still reeling, trying to process. "You remember that hot ranger you saved from that gang of bikers in Miami a couple of years ago? National Park Service chick? Smelled like a shapeshifter?"
     
    Bastien felt his insides shrivel up a little even as he nodded. "Kat Fiero? Yeah. Vague recollection."
     
    Vague recollection o f that day, twenty-one months and three weeks ago.
     
    "Vague recollection, my ass," Ven said, grinning. "It was the one time Mr. Even Keel got his smooth riled."
     
    Too late, Bastien realized he shouldn't have come up with her name so fast, because now everybody else in the room was staring at him. Curious. Considering. Maybe, in justice's case, mocking.
     
    At least he hadn't said anything really stupid.
     
    Like mentioning how the sunlight had kissed her tawny hair into spun gold.
     
    Or how the strength in her tall, perfectly shaped, curvy body had shot him into waking fantasies so explicit he'd had to leave the beachfront bar and walk directly into the ocean, fully clothed, in an attempt to cool down. After he'd battled his way through a half dozen or so vamps who'd thought to play with a beautiful shapeshifter caught on her own.
     
    Mr. Even Keel. If only they knew. The calm amiability he fought so hard to present to the world was a joke. Decades of battling the evil that stalked humankind had withered the Wild Hearts In Atlantis – Warriors of Poseidon 1.5
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    rationality within him. If they only knew how close he'd come to going full-on berserker after discovering what the vampires had done to the babies in that orphanage in Romania, they'd be afraid of him.
     
    Anyone sane should be afraid of what he'd turned into, after he'd been forced to clean up the mess.
     
    Babies turned vampire were an abomination, but his soul would never recover from what he'd been forced to do. Three cycles of purification in the Temple had not been enough. Nothing would ever be enough to cleanse the stain on his soul. A woman like Kat deserved better than the monster he'd become that day.
     
    "Yeah," he repeated, voice raspy. "I remember her. Mostly how you were hitting on her and she blew you off," he said, trying to turn the heat back on Ven.
     
    Ven grinned. "Yeah, she blew me and my attempts at charm back on our collective asses. Point is, there's a nest of shapeshifters in the Big Cypress National Preserve that's gone rogue, in defiance of the big-shot Florida alpha's edict that they ally with the vamps. We're hoping we can get them on our side. The Big Cypress group is panthers, and the alpha is a truly badass dude named Ethan."
     
    "And Kat?"
     
    "She's our way in, we hope. From what we hear, she's half human. Intel from Quinn."
     
    Bastien slowly nodded. Lady Riley's sister was one of the leaders of the human rebellion against vamp and shapeshifter domination, and she tended to have extremely good information. "That would make sense. Kat seemed… different. I could smell the big cat, feel its power under her skin, but it wasn't the same as your run-of-the-mill furball."
     
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    Justice whistled. "You felt her cat's power under her skin? What else did you feel? Just how hot is this chick?"
     
    Gut clenching, Bastien whirled to face justice and whipped the hockey puck across the room at him. Justice jerked his head to the side, and Bastien watched in horror as the puck buried itself in the wall next to the warrior's face.
     
    "What in the nine hells was that?" Denal whooped, then strode over to pull the puck out of the wall.
     
    It took him three tries.
     
    Bastien felt his face flush hot with shame. A good warrior never lost control. His years of training had drummed that into his brain every bit as much as the arts of sword play and battle strategy.
     
    What had come over him?
     
    An image of the curve of Kat's neck flashed into his mind.
     
    Oh, damn.
     
    He bowed to justice. "My deepest apologies, Lord Justice. I don't know… I—"
     
    Justice cut him off, voice gone a deadly calm. "If you were anyone else, I'd kill you for that. You've saved my ass enough times to earn a free shot. But watch yourself in the future, Bastien."
     
    Alaric glided noiselessly across the room to stand in front of Bastien and stare up into his eyes. The fierce green glow of the priest's gaze pierced heat