Warriors of Poseidon 06 - Atlantis Betrayed

Beware my anger, nightwalker. You are not immortal, for all of your pretense.” Gideon called to the earth for power, but he was bricked away from too much of it for the surge he needed. Not that vampires had real life force to drain, in any case, but it would be satisfying to destroy this particular vampire.
    Not yet, though. He needed that sword.
    “I got it,” Telios admitted. “It’s not here, though. I almost got caught, getting away. Had to stash it. I’ll go back for it tonight. There are other vampires searching for it, or so I’ve heard. Shifters, too. What is it about that sword?”
    “Now, you fool. Get it now. I need that sword,” Gideon roared, his hands clenching at his side. Twice thwarted in one evening was twice too much for a Fae lord who had not been denied his will in centuries. There would not be a third time.
    “Bring it to me tonight. Or you will pay the price in pain.”
    “Why do you want it so much?” Telios’s eyes gleamed a deep red in the flickering torchlight. “What makes that sword so important to you?”
    Gideon hesitated. Perhaps, in his anger and frustration, he’d overplayed his hand. “I simply want it.
    There is nothing more important about it than any of my other treasures.”
    Telios nodded, but Gideon was almost certain he saw a flash of the vampire’s fangs, as if it dared smile at him.
    “All right then. Whatever you say. I’ll try to bring it to you tonight. The price has gone up, though. I want six.”
    Utter revulsion gripped Gideon at the thought of turning over six wood nymphs to Telios for his sadistic pleasure. Not, of course, that he’d ever intended to relinquish even the two the vampire had originally requested in the bargain. Telios’s death would solve that issue.
    “You will not try, you will succeed,” Gideon commanded. “Do not fail. Bring me that sword or else you will be very sorry. We will discuss payment later.” He opened the fabric of space again and stepped through, not noticing until after he’d reached his destination—Fairsby Manor—that Telios was dancing Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon 06
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    again, and the vampire seemed far too happy for one who had been threatened by an Unseelie Court prince.
    Gideon considered and discarded the idea of returning to Telios’s lair and teaching the vampire a lesson.
    Instead, he lashed out and smashed the lamp off the table in his study, but it was a pathetically feeble outlet for his fury. Once Telios delivered the sword, Gideon would kill him, anyway. Simply to give himself pleasure in a day that had held little. Once he had the Siren, the Unseelie Court queen would understand what the Fae must do in this conflict. It was their time again. Time for the Fae to rule over all of humanity and destroy any vampire or shifter who thought otherwise.
    It was Fae destiny. It was his destiny. He would be a god. If she were very, very lucky, he might make Fiona his goddess.

Chapter 20
    Fiona bumped her head on the roof of the car as she shimmied out of her gown.
    “I must be blessed beyond all men,” Christophe said. “This is twice so far this evening I’m getting you naked, and the night’s not even half over.”
    “A gentleman would turn his head,” she said, pulling her shirt over her head.
    He started laughing. “You’ve got the wrong guy, Princess. I don’t plan to ever miss a chance to see you without your clothes on.”
    She called the shadows and, bending light and dark to her will, disappeared from view.
    “That’s so unfair,” he growled.
    “Don’t mess with a ninja.”
    “You know, you could have done that in the museum if anybody walked in on us.”
    “And wouldn’t you have looked foolish standing there alone with your bits hanging out?”
    He grumbled something in that melodic language. She wanted to ask, but was afraid he’d say it was, indeed, Atlantean and they’d be back to that. She pulled on her underwear and jeans, tricky but not impossible in the backseat of the moving automobile, and finally dressed, she released the shadows and lowered the privacy glass and pushed her dress through to the front passenger seat. It landed in a heap with the bodice sitting upright.
    “Brilliant,” Sean said. “It looks like I was driving along, and my date melted right out of her dress.”
    “Better work on your conversational skills, friend,” Christophe advised. “You probably bored her to death.”
    Sean glared at Christophe then met