Warriors of Poseidon 01.5 - Wild Hearts in Atlantis

settled in from your journey," she said, wondering what kind of travel arrangements it took to get from a lost continent buried under the ocean somewhere to a nature preserve fifty miles west of Miami. She, glanced at his hand, which steadily dripped blood. "We can take care of that, too."
     
    He nodded and glanced to the left and right of her, then almost imperceptibly signaled.
    Two men she hadn't noticed earlier stepped toward them, picking their way through the dazed and wobbly humans and shapeshifters. Both had the warrior look to them, although one was some sort of goth punk version, with all that blue hair and the sword sticking up behind him. The other looked like somebody's kid brother.
     
    A kid brother who'd seen a lot of battle, she silently amended as she got a look at his eyes.
     
    Then she realized something else, as Bastien slapped the knife down on a table. Not one of the three acted like her little share-the-peace trick had affected them for more than an instant.
     
    Which meant they were even more dangerous than she'd thought.
     
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Chapter Four
    Bastien was glad Kat's Jeep was open to the night air. If he'd been forced to ride in the car, trapped with the scent of her, for more than five minutes, he might have been driven to desperate measures. Like jumping out and taking his chances with a face plant on the dirt road.
     
    Or asking her to stop the car so he could rip the clothes off her luscious body.
     
    Desperate measures.
     
    But the humid weight of the swamp air and the dense greenery surrounding them served to distract him enough that he could keep his hands—including the one she'd so competently bandaged with the first-aid kit in her backpack—to himself. At least temporarily.
     
    Why did this woman affect him so much? And how was he going to carry out his duties to Atlantis if he didn't get over it? His duty was to protect humans—all humans. But he would gladly have channeled the forbidden element of fire itself and incinerated the bar and everyone in it if it had meant protecting Kat. He wanted to carry her back to his home in Atlantis and never, ever let her anywhere near danger again.
     
    A shapeshifter in Atlantis. Ha. Alaric would lose his freaking mind. And Poseidon… oh, his vengeance would be beyond my ability to imagine.
     
    "Where did your friends go?" Her voice broke into his whirling thoughts. Friendly but impersonal. Probably trying to make small talk.
     
    "I sent them to talk to a few contacts we have with the human population of the area,"
    he replied. Then he realized what he'd said and backtracked. She was half-human.
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    Maybe she thought of herself as human? "I'm sorry, I know you're… I mean, since you work with the panthers and your father was the alpha, we thought—"
     
    He shoved a hand through his hair and sighed. Again.
     
    She laughed. Like the woman herself, Kat's laugh was sultry and full-bodied. Rich and warm, with an undertone of sex.
     
    Oh, damn. Poseidon, please help your humble warrior here. Because I'm falling down a black pit of lust-induced stupidity.
     
    He clenched his jaw and stared straight ahead, determined not to look at her again until the Jeep stopped.
     
    "What is that noise?"
     
    "What noise?" he countered, senses flaring.
     
    "That weird… well, it's almost like a bubbling sound," she said, sounding perplexed.
    "Like when a pot boils?"
     
    He heard it as soon as she said it, the noise he'd ignored before. The noise he'd caused. He'd unconsciously channeled the churning of his frenzied emotions into the nearest source of water. Muttering a few choice words in ancient Atlantean, he drew in a deep breath and sent cooling energy out to the edges of the swamp to stop it from boiling, hoping the change in temperature hadn't lasted long enough to seriously damage any of the nature preserve's flora or fauna.
     
    As the boiling noise stopped, he notice her staring at him, her golden eyes narrowed.
    "You did that, didn't you? I could feel some kind of energy surge from you."
     
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    "You could feel it? What do you mean?" None but an Atlantean, some of the most powerful vampires, or a few of the witches who dabbled in the black arts could feel an Atlantean channel the elements. "Are you a witch? You're surely no vampire. I can