Warriors of Poseidon 06 - Atlantis Betrayed

were planning a marathon battle of some video game after lunch,” Christophe informed her, leaning over to kiss the top of her breast. “I think we can safely skip that.”
    “But Hopkins—”
    “Let Hopkins get his own date.” He pulled her over and on top of him and proceeded to make love to her thoroughly for the next couple of hours, until they were lying in a tangle of rumpled sheets and bliss.
    She traced a finger around the curves and lines of the tattoo on the upper left side of his back. “What does this mean?”
    “That’s the mark signifying my oath as a warrior. Poseidon brands us with it when we’ve completed our training to be a Warrior of Poseidon. A sort of graduation gift.”
    She caught the bitterness underneath the sarcasm. “You don’t like it?”
    “Would you want to be branded?” He sat up, pushing his dark hair away from his face. “It implies ownership. I have never wanted to be owned.”
    “What does it mean? The circle and the triangle and this symbol?”
    Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon 06
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    “It’s a symbol representing our duty. Poseidon’s Trident bisects the circle representing all the peoples of the world. The triangle is for the pyramid of knowledge. All of Poseidon’s warriors wear this mark as a sort of proof of service. It means we’ve sworn an oath to serve Poseidon and accepted the responsibility of protecting humanity.”
    “But you don’t? Want the responsibility of protecting us from our own stupidity, I’m guessing?”
    He glanced at her, clearly surprised. “You are very perceptive for a ninja, Princess. Let’s just say I never did, before I met you. Now I’m starting to enjoy the job.”
    She punched him lightly in the shoulder. “I’m not a job.”
    “No, you, my beauty, are a privilege and a fantasy. I fear I might wake up from this dream and be bereft of your presence.”
    “Bereft. Nice. Poetic, even,” she said. “Did you know an eft is a kind of salamander, like a newt? Witches in the old days—or the poor women who were accused of being witches, at least—used to boil their tails in potions.”
    He started laughing. “Wonderful. I try to be romantic for the first time in my life, and you start talking about lizards. My poor ego may die a hideous death.”
    “But you’re not,” she said, serious now. “You’re not a romantic. You’re a warrior.”
    “Does that bother you?” His eyes cooled to green ice, but she recognized it for one of his many self-protective techniques.
    “No. I’m still dealing with the fact that I killed those two vampires. I used blessed water to deliberately harm them and it caused their death. That was me. I am now a murderer.” Her hands started to shake and she clenched them together.
    “They were vampires.”
    “Vampires have rights as citizens now.”
    “They were trying to murder you. All of us. Self-defense and defense of others is still permitted, even in the screwed up new world you landwalkers are creating,” he said, rolling over to sit up and stare down at her. “Don’t ever think that you are bad or wrong for preventing them from killing Sean or yourself.”
    “You scared me a little,” she admitted. “I’d heard you say the word—warrior. But I didn’t have context. I didn’t know how to believe it. Out there you were deadly beyond anything I’ve ever seen. So many of them and you were everywhere with your blades and your magic.”
    “Are you still afraid of me?” His eyes were shuttered again, and his jaw clenched as if against her response.
    “Did I just act like I was afraid of you? When I had my lips around your penis, for example?” He stretched blissfully in reaction to her question, and she laughed but then grew serious again. “No, oddly enough, Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon 06
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    you make me feel safe. You have so much danger inside you, but you put your own life on the line for me and Sean. There’s no way he killed six vampires, either, is there?”
    “Let him think it, Fiona. He needs to be a white knight, especially after you threw yourself into the fray to save him.” Christophe lifted her hand to his lips and pressed a lingering kiss into her palm. “He’s not the one who swore an oath, after all, which makes his courage all the more impressive.”
    “Do you want to tell me the words? The oath. I’d like to hear it, if it’s not too private.”
    “The language is archaic. If you didn’t