Warriors of Poseidon 05 - Atlantis Redeemed

unknown, rumored to be the regional head of all things vampire in this part of the country. He likes to wear disguises and dark glasses, so nobody is really sure what he looks like.”
    “After what your Atlantean buddies have done to the vamp leaders they’ve encountered recently, it’s no wonder he’s in hiding,” Rick said.
    Tiernan’s heart did an odd stutter at the mention of the Atlanteans. She’d never told Rick, or anybody else, the full story. That she’d passed out at that awful party in Boston and woken up under the dome of the lost continent itself.
    Atlantis.
    Brennan. The star, for far too many nights lately, of the most blatantly sexual dreams she’d ever had.
    The image of his wild, almost feral, ice-green eyes staring down at her, while his muscular arms held her to his hard, hot body, burned through her memory, making her shiver. That face that belonged on a magazine cover—beautifully sculpted masculine features framed by thick waves of long black hair. He’d been crazed, with power or passion or . . . something. He’d been crazed, and then he’d been gone.
    She still wondered about that. About him.
    “You still there?”
    She blinked. She’d almost forgotten Rick was still on the line. “You’re right. Speaking of which, I’d better get out of this car before I look suspicious. Later.”
    Tiernan grabbed her leather backpack and fake press credentials, put on her slightly ditzy “Tracy Baum” smile, and stepped out of the car. She took a deep breath and raised her mental shields as she straightened up to her full height, keeping the ditzy smile pasted on her face.
    The smile was part of her cover. The shields were part of her sanity. The last thing she needed was to be overwhelmed by crashing pain from a hotel full of lying neuroscientists. Her job was simple: all she had to do was work her way through one lying neuroscientist at a time.
    All that could matter was the job. The mission. The facts that had to come out—the story that Atlantis Redeemed – Warriors of Poseidon 05
    Page 16 of 232
    had to come out. The truth, as they said, would set her free.
    Pulitzer.
    Pulitzer.
    Save the damn world and earn a Pulitzer.
    If she repeated it often enough, like a litany, maybe the truth would be forced out. For Susannah’s sake.
    As she pulled her single carry-on bag from the backseat, she tried to create a visual focus in her mind. The headline. Front page, above the fold:
    SCIENTISTS’ EVIL PLOT FOILED: SHAPE-SHIFTERS AND HUMANS SAVED
    But the image of her success kept fading. Wavering. Replaced by a pair of ice-green eyes.
    Slamming the car door shut, she wondered where in the hell the valet was. Maybe hiding behind the long hedge that bordered the hotel, sneaking a smoke. Maybe grabbing a quick bite to eat. She shot a considering glance at the vampmobile again, and felt the edges of her lips quirk up into a twisted grimace of a smile.
    Maybe becoming a quick bite to eat.
    She never saw the knife until it was taut against her throat.
    “Scream and die,” a low voice murmured against her ear, and then suddenly she was flying or leaping, moving with a speed and at a height mere humans couldn’t attain, over the hedge and into the inky darkness behind it. The lights from the hotel barely shimmered through the tall thickness of the hedge. When their feet hit the ground and her captor released her, Tiernan stumbled, disoriented, and the edge of the blade cut sharply into the side of her neck. She hissed at the biting pain, and the knife wielder yanked the weapon away, swearing viciously under his breath.
    “I am sorry to have hurt you, but speed and discretion were needed.”
    She put her hand to her wounded neck, felt the wetness, knew she’d see the blood if there were any light. “Great. Sure. What’s a little bleeding neck wound between friends?”
    Maybe sarcasm wasn’t the best idea, considering the guy had superspeed and a very sharp knife. But a dangerous combination of fear and anger boiled out of her as defiance. “I’m guessing you’re not the valet. So who the hell are you, and what do you want with me?”
    He inhaled deeply, so close to her that she felt the rush of his breath when he exhaled. “What I want at the moment has more to do with that bleeding wound and my desire to lick it clean Atlantis Redeemed – Warriors of Poseidon 05
    Page 17 of 232
    than my actual objective. Perhaps you would agree to a temporary truce so that your anger and my hunger do