Alexis grabbed a pillow and launched it at his head.
He dodged it.
She grabbed more, throwing them at him one after another in a barrage. He knocked them aside. Finally, she managed to smack him in the face with one. She was on the point of throwing the last, but decided to keep it, and hugged it to her bare breasts instead. She looked around to see if she could find something heavier to launch in his direction, but, unfortunately, he was standing on the side of the bed where the bowl of fruit resided.
He frowned at her. “This is childish.”
“Childish!” Alexis echoed. “Look, buddy, I don’t know you….”
“I am called Thor!”
“Oh! Well that just makes all the difference in the world. I suppose now that I know you I should just stop being childish and allow you to drag me off and murder me.”
His face tightened with anger. “It is your people who murder for pleasure. We do not.”
Alexis kept her distance. “Mine? Are you trying to tell me you’re some sort of alien, or something? Because I’m just about ready to believe it. I feel like I fell off the boat and landed on Mars.”
“Don’t be absurd. I am as human as you are.”
“I take leave to doubt that!”
“I will not argue with you,” he said stiffly, obviously offended.
Alexis didn’t care. Sure he’d looked good enough to eat while she was under the influence—whatever the hell that influence had been—but he also looked big enough, and mad enough, to break her in half. She wasn’t about to let him get hold of her if she could help it. “Good! You wouldn’t win.”
She thought for several moments that he would lose his grip on his temper. Her heart executed a little tap dance of anxiety.
“I am the guardian. Come with me. Now!” he ordered, holding his hand out imperiously.
“Is this supposed to mean something to me? Because it doesn’t. I haven’t a clue what the hell you’re talking about and I’m not going anywhere with you. And I’m especially not going any damn where without my damn clothes!”
He lowered his hand, studied her with a perplexed look on his face for several moments. “You have a foul tongue.”
“Baby, you ain’t heard nuthin’ yet! My father was a construction worker. You come near me and I’ll give you a rundown of my vocabulary. And, if you touch me you’re going to draw back a nub.”
He stared at her, hard.
Alexis felt a peculiar fluttering sensation in her head, almost like an annoying fly was buzzing around her. Unconsciously, she swatted at it.
His brows rose, an expression of surprise bordering on amazement crossing his stern features.
“What?” Alexis demanded, feeling uneasiness creep up her spine as it occurred to her to wonder if there was something she’d rather not know about standing behind her. She wasn’t about to fall for that one, though.
He said nothing. After a moment he moved to the wardrobe Adonis had pulled his ‘headset’ from.
“Don’t think for one moment I’m walking out of here wearing nothing but that head thingy!”
He pulled a scrap of cloth from the wardrobe and turned to her. “You are not allowed a band. You are an outworlder.”
“Well, duh! I feel like I just fell down the rabbit hole! Anyway, I just told you I didn’t want a damned headband, didn’t I?”
He gritted his teeth, apparently fighting another round with his temper, but finally moved back to the bed, stone-faced now, holding the scrap of cloth out.
Alexis looked down at it. “I don’t suppose you have another one of those so I can cover both cheeks?” she asked, exquisitely polite.
His expression became puzzled.
“That is not big enough to cover everything I want to cover.”
“It is all that is available.”
Alexis pursed her lips. “What happened to the clothes I was wearing?”
Thor appeared to think about it. “Adonis destroyed them.”
Alexis gasped in outrage. “My beautiful gown! That … that bastard!”
Thor frowned. “His parents were wed.”
“Never mind,” Alexis said, reaching to snatch the minute scrap of cloth from his hands.
She wasn’t fast enough. He grasped her arm, hauling her across the bed towards him. Before she could react, he placed his free hand across her forehead.
Actually, his hand was the size of a dinner plate. It covered her whole face. What the hell did he think he was doing, she thought angrily, feeling a strange weakness wash over her.
Slowly, she wilted onto the bed, staring up at him in confusion.
He smiled triumphantly, dropped the scrap of cloth to the bed, hoisted her up and tossed her over his shoulder. The last thought Alexis had as she felt herself being carried from the room was that he had a really nice ass.
She reached down and patted it, discovering it was everything she’d hoped for, firm and round. He came to an abrupt halt.
Nice, she thought as darkness swam up to meet her.
* * * *
The room Alexis found herself in when she woke abruptly was cavernous. She couldn’t seem to move, nothing but her eyes, in any event. It was almost as if she was strapped tightly to whatever it was she rested on. She looked around, wondering where she was now, and more to the point, why she was here.
What she saw rather reminded her of a stadium, or maybe an indoor theater. She appeared to be on a raised platform in the center.
There were between fifteen and twenty rows of bleachers and all were full almost to the point of overflowing with people ranging in age from perhaps twenty to sixty. It looked like a town meeting. No one, however, appeared to be making a sound, let alone talking.
It was very, very odd, even compared to the oddities she’d already been subjected to. She might almost have believed they were nothing but mannequins, except for the fact that she could see movements among them.
Gritting her teeth with effort, she managed to roll her head so that she could see further.
She saw then that there was a row of stone chairs that resembled thrones near where she lay. In the chairs sat six of the oldest people Alexis had ever seen in her life. Slightly behind them, in a thrown raised higher than those in front, sat a creature that easily looked twice the age of the ancients in front of her.
Thankfully, they all wore long, white robes.
Neither Thor nor Adonis had seemed greatly taken with clothing. She’d feared no one around here wore them.
That thought set off warning bells. She discovered when she managed to look down at herself that she was still as naked as the day she was born, and lying on something like a chaise at the edge of the center platform, in plain view of absolutely everyone.
She was going to kill Thor when she got her hands on him.
She found, to her immense relief, that she could move if she concentrated hard.
She moved one leg over the other, crossing them, bringing her knee up far enough that her sex was no longer in blatant view, then moved an arm across her breasts.
If she’d had hair like Rapunzel, she’d have felt worlds better.
She’d had these ‘exposure’ nightmares before, but as bizarre as they generally were, this one took the cake.
She had dreamed once that she was shopping and discovered she had no clothes on. She’d dreamed she had gone to school and discovered she’d lost her clothes somewhere between there and home. This was the first time she’d dreamed she had decided to go to a political meeting stark naked.
Feeling slightly less exposed, she became aware for the first time of a loud buzzing noise. Doubtless that was what was making her head throb like it would explode.
She was tempted to massage the ache in her temples, but decided her head didn’t hurt badly enough to uncover her breasts.
“You have released her, Guardian?”
The voice echoed inside the deathly silent room, making Alexis jerk in surprise.
Without conside
ring that it was nigh impossible to move, Alexis whirled toward the sound as easily as if she had not been struggling for the past ten minutes only to move her body by inches. She saw that it was the most ancient of the group on the dais who’d spoken aloud.
Thor stepped forward, bowed slightly. “Nay, High Councilor. She has broken the hold.”
A collective gasp seemed to rise and move around the great room like a wave. The creature—Alexis couldn’t tell to save her life whether it was male or female, for even its voice didn’t give her a clue—turned to stare at Alexis for long moments in something akin to amazement.
Behind her, Alexis heard a murmur, of many voices, but low, strangely quiet for such an enormous group.
Adonis stepped forward.
“Speak,” the High Councilor admonished. “The mind talk causes her pain.”
Adonis glanced toward Alexis.
“I wish to keep her as my mate,” he said finally.
Alexis’ jaw dropped. Just like that? Was she supposed to have a say in this?
The High Councilor turned to look at her. “You may.”
Alexis stared at the Councilor in surprise. “May what?”
The High Councilor looked annoyed, glanced at the others on the platform, then looked at Alexis. “You asked if you might have a say in the decision. Speak.”
“I didn’t….” Alexis stopped. Everything about this place was absolutely bizarre. It couldn’t be—could it? “You read minds?”
“We converse.” The High Counselor hesitated. “Your people call it telepathy.”
Alexis’ thoughts went chaotic. Foremost in her mind was her earlier encounter with Thor. She turned a horrified gaze upon him, wondering if he could read her mind too, and if he had—trying frantically to recall exactly what had gone through her mind then. Unfortunately, she could remember far more than she wanted to.
It seemed to her that if they were going to release her from her inhibitions, they might at least have had the courtesy to make her forget what she was thinking while under the influence.
He did not so much as glance in her direction, but he blushed.
Alexis felt the blood rush to her cheeks until they were lit up like a neon sign. She covered her face with her hands. Just kill me now, she thought. I’m going to die of embarrassment anyway, or worse, live.
With a tremendous effort, she pushed the memories to the back of her mind, striving for composure. She looked at the one Thor had called the High Counselor. “Why?”
“We cannot be heard by your kind if we only converse telepathically. Sound carries. No one, without telepathy, can hear thoughts.”
“So … you all just decided one day to go telepathic?”
The creature looked amused. “Something like that. I am called Aurora.”
Alexis flushed beat red, realizing … she blocked that thought.
Aurora’s brows lifted. “You are not like the rest of your kind.”
Alexis didn’t like the sound of that.
“This was merely a comment, not a judgment.”
“I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but I find your reading my mind very rude.”
Aurora looked displeased. “You are an outworlder, an intruder here. Our right to protect ourselves supersedes your right to privacy.”
Alexis’ lips tightened. “Fine! Give me my damn clothes and I’ll leave! I’ve got unfinished business I need to take care of anyway. And MY kind don’t walk around naked. And that … that watchdog of yours dragged me here without so much as a scrap of cloth to cover me!”
Alexis felt a massive wave of anger and disbelief roll over her. She knew, somehow, that it was the reaction of the entire crowd to her little speech. The problem was, she wasn’t entirely certain which part of it had offended everybody. Maybe all of it?
She turned to find Thor glaring at her. She glared back at him.
He decided to ignore her.
She sniffed contemptuously and returned her attention to the High Counselor.
“Thor is the Guardian!” Aurora pronounced imperiously.
“Yeah, so he said.”
“Enough!”
Alexis shrugged, trying to hide her uneasiness, wishing she hadn’t allowed her nervousness to lead her into openly aggressive behavior.
Aurora turned to Adonis. “I must deny your request.”
Adonis seemed to struggle with his own anger. “Why? It is obvious she carries latent genes of the race. Few, even among us, could have broken the hold.” He threw Thor a smug glance.
Thor ignored him.
“You have broken the first law. You cannot be rewarded for having done so, regardless of the circumstances. If she had chosen you, it might have been considered after a suitable punishment. But she has denied you,” one of the elders in front of Aurora intoned in a voice that crackled with disuse.
Alexis felt a pang of guilt at the look Adonis threw her. He’d saved her life. She didn’t want to appear ungrateful and was sorry that she obviously had.
But the fact remained that she did not want to stay, even if they wanted her to. That snake she’d married thought he’d gotten away with murder—a double murder. She wasn’t about to allow him to enjoy the life he’d deprived her father of, to reap the rewards of the years and years of hard labor her father had put in just so he could retire in comfort.
Almost as one, the elders turned to look at her. On their faces she saw varying degrees of sympathy. Aurora spoke.
“Alas, as worthy as your cause is, it is not so simple. In our society, you would have the right to exact vengeance upon the one who murdered your father. But we cannot allow you to simply leave. If you are determined upon this course, you must submit to memory drain.”
Alexis’ jaw dropped, a sense of horror washing over her. She didn’t like the sound of that, at all. “Exactly what are we talking about here?”
“We cannot allow you to take your memories of us with you. They must be erased.”
Alexis forgot all about being naked. She leapt to her feet, furious, horrified. “No way in hell are you touching my brain!”
The counselors looked unmoved by her outburst.
“It is the law,” they intoned in unison.
“Well, you can just take your damned laws and stuff them!”
Aurora looked at Thor. He strode toward Alexis purposefully.
Alexis leapt over the chaise, dancing just out of his reach, glancing behind her to make sure no one else was sneaking up on her blind side.
The crowd seemed frozen to their seats in shock.
Adonis had made no move in her direction either, but his expression was one of amusement.
The elders looked neither shocked nor amused, but remained seated. Alexis doubted they would be much of a threat anyway and focused on Thor.
Thor wore an expression that was a mixture of surprise, discomfort and irritation.
“Halt!”
Alexis stuck her tongue out at him, daring him to come after her.
He lunged.
This time Alexis was prepared for his amazing speed. She leapt into the air, catching him square across the jaw with a butterfly kick.
No one was more stunned than she that it actually worked.
Chapter Three
Alexis was racing toward the edge of the platform almost before she landed. Reaching the edge in three strides, she leapt from the dais and ran along the walkway that surrounded the platform, heading toward the nearest exit. She hoped it was an exit.
She’d almost reached her goal when a woman sprang from one of the lower benches, landing in front of her and effectively blocking her path.
She was probably the most beautiful creature Alexis had ever seen in her life.
It gave Alexis a perverse kind of pleasure when she executed a perfect flying kick, felling the woman on the spot. Without pausing, she leapt over the woman’s prone form and raced down a long, shadowy corridor.
These people lived near the water. She knew there had to b
e a boat somewhere.
She heard the pounding of footsteps behind her before she was halfway down the corridor … too heavy for the woman, undoubtedly Thor. She’d hoped for a longer head start, but the sound kicked her adrenaline up several notches and she ran faster, so fast she slammed into the wall when the corridor took an abrupt turn.
She barely broke stride, but she could hear the footsteps coming closer. Ignoring the pain in her arm and shoulder, she picked up speed once more, flying through the open doorway at the end of the corridor so fast the wind whistling past her ears almost deafened her to pursuit.
She needed to stop and get her bearings.
She didn’t dare.
It was morning now, she saw, still early, but bright enough she could see at a glance that she was on the rise she’d seen when she and Adonis approached the city. With only a slight pause, she struck off toward the waterfront.
She reached the water’s edge in minutes.
The coliseum, thankfully, stood only a few blocks from her objective.
A pier appeared in the semi-dark of early morning gloom, but she could see no boats. She veered to her right, hoping, certain, she would see a boat of some description if she followed the shoreline.
Her pursuer, however, was rapidly gaining on her now. She forced herself to run faster, but he seemed to gain on her anyway.
No boat suddenly appeared to help her escape.
Thor—she knew it had to be him—would catch her if she continued to race along the shoreline, and before many minutes passed.
She raced down the next pier she came to and dove into the water, swimming for all she was worth.
When she at last spared a glance back, she saw Thor standing on the end of the pier. As she watched, his loincloth disappeared, his legs melded together and iridescent scales replaced skin, a fin appearing where his feet had been.
She whirled and swam as fast as she could as she saw him dive off the end of the pier, but she knew it was hopeless.
Her brief freedom was a lost cause.
She felt a hand grasp her ankle, jerking her to a halt so abruptly that she went under. She kicked out, connected with something, felt the grip loosen and pushed herself to the surface.
Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis Page 3
