Warriors of Poseidon 04 - Atlantis Unmasked

“Permit me to offer you this cloak so you do not catch a chill, lovely huntress.” His voice was heat and light and music, inviting her to dance closer and closer to the flames, and the contradiction of his icy blue eyes offered her everything she‟d ever wanted or needed.
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    Except she didn‟t want or need any of it. Not love, not passion. Only revenge. Only justice. Now he was ticking her off, but she knew enough not to let him see it.
     
    “Your offer is far too generous, Your Highness. You know of course that I cannot accept gifts of any kind from you without incurring a debt I may not be able or willing to pay. It seems a little unfair that you‟d start off a conversation under truce and parlay by trying to trick me.”
     
    His seductive smile vanished, turning into a friendly grin. Both expressions deceptive, no doubt. “Well, as you humans say, it was worth a try.” He dropped the cloak and it turned to sparkles of light and vanished before it ever touched the sand. “You have my word I will try no other tricks .”
     
    “Then I must ask for my bow to be returned to me.”
     
    He tilted his head to indicate the pile of her clothes that she‟d left on the beach. Her bow lay on top of them.
     
    “And the arrows?”
     
    “I had no use for your quiver. It remains in your vehicle.”
     
    She strode over to her towel and small pile of clothes and quickly dried off and pulled the dark blue sweatshirt and shorts over her swimsuit, then slung her bow over her shoulder. He, of course, managed to repress any chivalrous tendencies to look away and watched her dress with an expression of sincere appreciation on his elegantly sculpted face.
     
    “You‟re an athlete, of course. The daughters of Diana always have been. I do love the play of finely toned muscles under silken skin,” he mused, almost to himself.
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    “I‟m a fighter,” she said flatly. “I‟m assuming that‟s why you wanted to talk about alliances? Although I thought you Fae were like Switzerland.”
     
    “Neutral. Yes. We always have been. Yet the vampires have encroached upon and are near to breaking ancient treaties. If they succeed in this quest to enslave both shape-shifters and humans, we of the Fae will be . . . unhappy.”
     
    “Outnumbered, you mean.”
     
    “Perhaps. Surely at least . . . disadvantaged. We prefer to keep numbers in balance, as Nature herself prefers balance in all things.”
     
    She thought about that for a moment. Nodded. “Makes sense. What do you want from us? I thought humans were beneath your notice, no offense.”
     
    “Surely you yourself do not claim to be strictly human?” He pointedly glanced out at the cold water and then down at her bow.
     
    She shrugged. “I think of it as human plus .” She gestured toward the path to the public parking lot at the far end of the beach. She‟d feel at least somewhat better in reach of her arrows, regardless of their uselessness against him. It was a comfort thing.
     
    Steel-tipped arrows as safety blanket. She needed a shrink. The laugh tried to escape and came out as a strangled chuckle. She shook her head and started walking.
     
    The Fae prince fell in beside her, his long legs easily matching her stride. He glanced at her, lifting one eyebrow. “This situation amuses you?”
     
    Suddenly she stumbled as the memory of Robert‟s face flashed into her mind. His smile as he‟d walked away from her on that terrible day. As he‟d walked toward his death.
    She shook her head. “Your Highness, nothing amuses me anymore.”
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    He was silent for several moments as they crossed the beach. Finally, he nodded to himself, as if reaching some internal decision.
     
    “Then let us talk of unamusing things. Of vampires and shape-shifters. Of alliances and Atlanteans. It is now time for the Fae to assert our place in your world before there is no longer any possibility of so doing.”
     
    He stopped walking and was somehow instantly standing in front of her, though she hadn‟t seen him move. He stood tall and proud, with all the arrogance of his race and his house, and the quality of the light surrounding him changed, deepening and turning to liquid silver as it caressed his moon-silk hair and glittered in the depths of his eyes.
    The sea grasses whispered their secrets