Warriors of Poseidon 01.5 - Wild Hearts in Atlantis

enthralled mistress, shifter or no?
    Wouldn't I pretty much just lie there?"
     
    She ignored Bastien's roar of protest, didn't allow herself to even glance at him. "Let him go, and I promise to play all the dirty games you like, vampire."
     
    Staring straight at him, eyes open and alert, she thrust waves of peace and calm at Organos with everything she had. Futile, perhaps, but she had to try. Something in her head snapped at the force of it, and she felt blood trickle from one nostril.
     
    Organos never even blinked. He stepped back a pace from Bastien, clearly wary only of the fallen warrior and not of anything she had done, then flicked a considering look her way. "You will play my games regardless of your volition, whore. What makes you think I do not prefer it to be while you are in thrall to my whim? I know of your so-called gift,"
    he sneered. "Even should you wish it, you would be unable to defy me. And such trifles do not work against my kind."
     
    Hopelessness and terror threatened to overwhelm her. A life of mindless zombie-like servitude to a vampire loomed worse than death and, for a moment, her courage deserted her. As she tried to force words past the lump of pure horror lodged in her Wild Hearts In Atlantis – Warriors of Poseidon 1.5
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    throat, she felt the first whispers of calm smooth out the edges of her fear, as her gift made its appearance.
     
    No! Not now! I cannot afford calm! What I need is rage!
     
    She clenched her hands into fists, driving her fingernails into her palms until they bled, fighting with every ounce of her will against her gift. Against her curse.
     
    Prayed to the goddess of all shapeshifters for a boon.
     
    For a miracle.
     
    Bastien made some slight movement, nearly imperceptible, but Organos hissed and turned his focus to him, losing interest in her. She was beneath his notice, and she knew it.
     
    Not quite a shapeshifter. Not quite human. Not quite good enough for anything. Where was her miracle?
     
    THEY ALWAYS CALL UPON ME WHEN IN NEED OF A MIRACLE, THE
    DESCENDANTS OF MY SEED, DO THEY NOT?
     
    The voice in her head was bored and mocking, but some glimmer of warmth and amusement swirled through her mind with it.
     
    Who are you, and what are you doing in my head? She glanced down at Bastien, but his gaze was locked on Organos. And it wasn't Bastien's voice. No, it was someone more… more…
     
    YES. MORE. AND MORE AND MORE AND MORE. I AM POSEIDON, GREAT
    GRANDDAUGHTER CROSSED WITH BEAST.
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    Kat tried to think, but it was too much. Organos was going to kill Bastien any moment, and somebody was hijacking her brain. Some… some…
     
    Oh. My. God. Are you—
     
    YES. I AM YOUR GOD AND THE GOD OF ALL ATLANTEANS. I AM POSEIDON, RULER OF THE SEA. AND YOU ARE OF MINE AND YOUR CO URA GE INTERESTS
    ME. LET US SEE HOW YOU DO WITHOUT THE IMPEDIMENT OF YOUR GIFT.
     
    The voice—the presence—withdrew, but something in Kat snapped. Organos wouldn't lay a single claw on Bastien. No more would she put up with this worthless half-life.
     
    No more! Rage, clean and icy pure, shot through her in a torrent of fire and roaring fury.
    The cat within her, so long imprisoned by her human side's unnatural calm, bellowed its defiance.
     
    Kat clenched her teeth against making any audible sound as she watched Organos slowly raise the sword again, taking his sweet time about it, toying with Bastien before he murdered him.
     
    But the panther inside Kat had no patience left in it. It crashed its way through her, cracking bones and contorting flesh as it leaped for its prey. In mid-leap, a feat so difficult that only the most powerful shifters could accomplish it, Kat changed fully from human to cat, lunging for the vampire's bared neck.
     
    Even as she flew through the air, claws extended, she saw Bastien launch himself at Organos. She raised one mighty paw in the air, glorying at the freedom and power of this new body, and smashed her paw down on the vampire's neck, ripping his head nearly off of his body.
     
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    Even as she fell, rolling, to the ground, she saw Bastien plunge his dagger into Organos's heart. She screamed a feral cry of rage and triumph, shooting up to a crouch in front of the vampire, ready to rend and tear.
     
    Bastien threw himself on her and pushed her back, as Organos dissolved into a flood of acidic