Warriors of Poseidon 04 - Atlantis Unmasked

he headed for the center of the courtyard. “Any of them. All of them. Tell them to bring it on. I‟ve got some tension to alleviate.”
     
    Grace knew a little about predators. She‟d been training, studying, and fighting for ten long years, ever since she‟d surrendered her dream of Olympic gold. She‟d faced vampires and all shapes and sizes of shifters, from wolf to panther to bear. She‟d even fought alongside Jack, whose ferocity in tiger form was truly stupendous.
     
    But she‟d never seen anything like Alexios.
     
    If a poem could dance off the pages of a book and wield daggers and a sword, the sight of it might come close to describing Alexios in motion. His every step was calculated grace and elegance; never a misstep or wasted movement. He‟d spent the first hour sparring against every single new recruit they had, leaving them all gasping for breath, battered and bruised, and lost in admiration.
     
    Then he‟d started to take on the experienced men and women, egging them into the sparring ring with nothing more than a sardonic glance as challenge. For the past hour, he‟d taken them on two and three at a time. Never using any special Atlantean powers or magical tricks, although she was well aware he had those in his arsenal.
     
    Simply fighting with hands and feet and wooden practice weapons, he had taken on and defeated every man and woman under Grace‟s command, experienced fighters and Atlantis Unmasked - Warriors of Poseidon 04
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    rank newbies alike. All but Sam, who‟d just sat there with his dog, watching. When Alexios had turned to him, Sam had shaken his head, grinning, and refused to play.
     
    She‟d stood and watched Alexios for every single minute of those bouts, unable to tear herself away although surely there were plenty of things that needed doing. His shirtless torso gleamed in the reddish-orange glow of sunset, the tanned skin tight over his muscled chest, abs, and arms. Even his back was a work of art, with muscles so defined that she caught herself wondering if her tongue could trace the intriguing curves and dips of delineation. She‟d never seen so many scars on a man, though. Not just his face, although the left side was badly damaged. But the many gouges, slashes, and crookedly healed wounds on his shoulders, chest, stomach, and back told her the story of some of what he‟d been through.
     
    An odd tattoo rode high on his left bicep, a circle through a triangle with what looked like an arrow piercing both. She glanced at her own tattoo, forced upon her by the Fae. No, Alexios‟s wasn‟t an arrow. A trident, perhaps? It seemed likely.
     
    Alaric, the Atlantean priest, was a healer. Certainly he‟d healed Alexios over the years.
    Probably many times. And she‟d seen for herself what happened when Alaric took it in his mind to heal somebody. Look what he‟d done for Michelle when that vamp had ripped out her throat. There wasn‟t a mark left to show that Michelle had nearly died; to hear her talk, Alaric was a cross between David Beckham and Gandhi.
     
    Frankly, the priest nearly scared the pants off Grace. There was something about him.
    Something so dark and deep that she didn‟t think any light could ever penetrate far enough to touch it.
     
    Not the point, though. The point was that if Alexios looked like this, even after he‟d been healed who knew how many times, what kind of unimaginable battles had he fought in his lifetime? She couldn‟t even imagine it—couldn‟t imagine having the courage and Atlantis Unmasked - Warriors of Poseidon 04
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    endurance to go back to the fight, year after year, decade after decade, century after century, only to suffer so much.
     
    No, she couldn‟t imagine it. Didn‟t want to. Because that was the problem, wasn‟t it?
    She‟d spent most of the past three days trailing after Alexios like a star struck bimbo, instead of the tough and smart rebel commander she was supposed to be.
     
    Maybe if she just slept with him, she could get him out of her system. That was her new plan, anyway. Yeah, that should do it. Either that or make her so sex-crazed she‟d never climb back out of his bed.
     
    Disgusted with herself, she shook her head to clear it of any and all fantasies involving Alexios and caramel syrup. She spun around on her heel to head for her office and smacked headfirst into the chest she‟d just been lusting after.
     
    “Damnit! I wish you‟d quit sneaking up on me,”