Warriors of Poseidon 06 - Atlantis Betrayed

shifters.”
    Quicker than thought, he leapt into the street and grabbed one of the enthralled marching men by the shoulders and hauled him up onto the sidewalk. The rest of the mob never even broke stride. In fact, none of them seemed to even see him do it, as if they were blind to anything but their purpose, whatever that might be.
    “What are you doing?”
    “Marching. Marching. Marching,” the shifter said in a singsongy voice.
    “Yes, I can see that. But why?” Christophe’s eyes glowed hot with power and Fiona realized he was trying to break the enthrallment.
    The shifter started shaking, as if caught in the throes of a fierce internal conflict, and then he slumped and fell to his knees. “Experiment,” he said hoarsely, staring up at Christophe. “Telios said we were an experiment. What did he do to us? Why—where am I?”
    “You’re going to be all right now,” Christophe said, helping the shifter lean back against the wall. “Just rest for a few minutes and try to remember what else Telios told you. Was he holding anything when he talked to you?”
    The shifter clutched his head in his hands, his face screwed up with pain or effort. “A sword. He was holding a sword, and the blue stone on its hilt was glowing like it was lit up from within. But why?
    Why—what?” He cried out. “It hurts to try to remember. The rest is blank.”
    “Do you know where you were? This is important. I need to know where Telios was when he talked to you,” Christophe said.
    “Please,” Fiona added. “We must stop him from doing this to any more of your people.”
    The shifter shook his head back and forth. “I don’t know. I just don’t know. It’s like there’s a big block between me and the memory.” He clutched his head again. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I just want to go home.”
    “We need to get out of here,” Christophe said. “He isn’t going to remember any more.”
    “I’ll call Sean.” But she’d no sooner pulled her phone out of her purse than she saw Sean angling the car into a space at the next cross street.
    “I swear that boy is psychic.”
    Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon 06
    Page 159 of 188
    “Or he could have heard the sirens,” Christophe pointed out, as the sound approached, shrieking its urgency.
    They ran for the car.
    “This is bad,” Sean said, as he accelerated away. “Really bad. The radio news says Telios is claiming responsibility and that the shifters who aren’t enthralled are screaming for war. The prime minister is calling in the army, and it looks like London might become a battleground. Again.”
    “So it’s Telios,” Fiona said. “The shifter was telling the truth. That answers one question.”
    “Does it?” Christophe shook his head. “If I’m Unseelie Court and I want to stir things up, I do something pretty awful to one side and make it look like the other side’s at fault. Boom. Instant war. Then the humans call in the mobs with torches and pitchforks—”
    “The army with missiles and tanks,” Sean said.
    “Yes, or that. The Fae retreat to the Summer Lands until the dust settles and there you go. No more vampire or shifter problem.”
    “Holy hell.” Sean whistled. “Pardon me, Lady F, but holy hell. That’s devious. That’s bloody brilliant.”
    “Fae aren’t known for their stupidity,” Christophe said dryly. “Avarice, lust, and greed, yes. Stupidity, no.”
    “But we’ll all be caught in the cross fire,” Fiona said. “Humans, and all of the shifters who don’t want war. Even the vampires, and we know there are some who just want to live out their existences in peace. It’s not fair to any of them.”
    “This war is on the ground, too. No time to put the children on trains,” Christophe said, his gaze far away.
    She shivered. “Were you here then? World War Two?”
    He turned to look at her almost as if he’d forgotten she was there. “For part of it. We were in France a lot, helping with the Resistance. Germany used shape-shifters against farmers. It was a slaughter.” His face hardened. “Never again. I will never let that happen again. We have to find that sword and stop this.”
    Sean switched the radio back on, and the announcer’s voice rang out in the oppressive silence in the car.
    “The prime minister has announced that she and other heads of state will be meeting within the next few hours by teleconference to discuss the increasingly dangerous threat from the supernatural