Warriors of Poseidon 06 - Atlantis Betrayed

mated to the alpha female must be exhausting, especially with Lucinda’s obvious power, but there was no need to vent his anger all over Christophe.
    “Not yet,” Evan replied, a dull red light glowing in his pupils. “I’m sure you will before you leave. I don’t like sorcerers.”
    “Neither do I, fur face. Not a sorcerer. Deal with it.”
    Fiona sighed. “Really? Is everything about proving who possesses the bigger man parts?”
    Lucinda roared with laughter. “Man parts? Oh, that is priceless, human. Now tell me what you need while I’m still amused.”
    “We are trying to find out information about the theft of Vanquish,” Fiona said. “Anything you might know could help us out, and we’d really appreciate it.”
    The alpha stared at Fiona in disbelief. “Anything we might know? You’d appreciate it? You dare ask us of Vanquish when it contains the Siren?”
    Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon 06
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    Evan growled, deep in his throat, and Christophe got a sudden impression of predators stalking squealing prey. He smiled, a simple baring of his teeth, and Evan subsided. Wolves weren’t the only predators who hunted in the night.
    “Have you heard the rumors of what that gem can do?” Lucinda snarled the words. “Enthrall my kind, perhaps permanently. What kind of a death wish do you have to come in here and tell me you’re looking for it?”
    “That’s one of the reasons we’re after it,” Christophe said. “We in Atlantis don’t want it to fall into vampire hands any more than you do. If you know Lucas, then you know about our mission.”
    “Protect humanity, noble sacrifices, whatever.” Lucinda shrugged. “Nothing to do with me or mine. I have heard nothing of the ones who took it, but if I do, they will regret the day they first conceived the idea. This Scarlet Ninja is already a dead man, though he doesn’t know it yet. If, to compound his transgression, he is working with the vampire Telios, we will make sure his death takes hours. Perhaps days.”
    Christophe very carefully did not so much as glance at Fiona.
    Lucinda planted her hands on the table and leaned forward, all crouching, feral fury. “If you discover anything, you will tell me about it. Immediately. You can consider yourselves emissaries of the wolves from here on out.”
    Fiona shook her head. “With all due respect—”
    “Anyone who uses that phrase is generally going to be quite disrespectful, I’ve found,” Evan said.
    “I don’t intend to be. I simply want to say that we all want the same thing—the Siren off the market. It’s an Atlantean gem and belongs to them. We’re going to find it and restore it to its original place of honor. A strictly ceremonial thing, of course. Since there are no shifters in Atlantis to be enthralled, you have nothing to worry about.” Fiona smiled and nodded as if everything were now solved.
    “Princess, life isn’t like one of your books. You can’t tie everything up neatly with a bow all the time,”
    Christophe said, casting a resigned look at Lucinda. “Now we’re in trouble?”
    “Now you’re in trouble.”
    The first wave of shifters came at them hard, fast, and low. Christophe barely had time to pull his daggers again before they were on him, but they ignored him and went for Fiona first. There were far too many, and they were far too fast.
    Christophe shot out of his chair so fast it flew through the air and smashed into the wall behind him, but Evan dove for his legs and knocked him flat against the table so hard Christophe’s head bounced off the wood. The two shifters in the front wave of the mob coming after Fiona grabbed her and yanked her away before Christophe could reach for her. He roared out his fury and denial, and the sound took shape into a glowing ball of forbidden fire, the flames as scarlet as Fiona’s costume.
    Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon 06
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    Flames licked the edge of the table and Christophe took advantage of the distraction to slam his elbow back into Evan’s face. The shifter howled as the force of the blow caught him in the nose and mouth and flung him back and off Christophe.
    Lucinda jumped up, the predatory grin on her face fading into a scowl at her mate’s pain.
    “Release her, or I’ll burn this whole damn place and everyone in it to the ground,” Christophe snarled, standing his ground. The shifters who held Fiona could kill her before he could reach her, which