Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis (5 page)

“
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 be 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.

Thor surfaced beside her.

She stared at him, gasping for
air.

He seemed barely winded.

He reached for her, grasping both of
her arms and pulling her flush against him. They were almost nose
to nose.

Alexis didn’t think, couldn’t. She
looked down at his hard, unyielding mouth, remembering that she’d
wondered how it would feel on hers, lifted her eyes to his in
unconscious supplication.

As if he could not help himself, he
lowered his mouth to hers.

Heat rushed through her with the
first, tentative brush of his lips against hers. Alexis caught her
breath, confused by the flood of desire that rushed through her as
his mouth closed over hers. A strange weakness followed in the
flood path, her body going into meltdown in response to his
nearness.

Abruptly, Alexis kneed him.
Unfortunately, he was much taller than her and she missed his
groin. Then, too, the water slowed her movements so that the blow
would not have been very effective even if she’d connected with her
goal.

Nevertheless, Thor was so surprised at
the attack, he released her.

Alexis knew she was too weak to have a
chance. She tried anyway, slinging a handful of water in his face
as she whirled to flee.

He caught her before she’d managed two
strokes, jerking her around to face him. When she saw his hand
coming toward her face, her first thought was that he was going to
shove her under and hold her there until she stopped
struggling.

Instead, as his hand covered her face,
darkness fell and consciousness vanished.

* * * *

Alexis stared at the beams
crisscrossing the darkened ceiling for several moments before her
memory came flooding back. When it did, she jerked bolt upright,
looking around quickly for a possible escape.

The chamber she awoke in this time was
far smaller than the coliseum, but still large for a room. Like
Adonis’ home, it was filled with unimaginable treasures. Unlike
Adonis’ home, which had been fairly spartan, this room had the
cluttered, homey feel of someone who has lived long and accumulated
many cherished belongings.

Aurora sat in a chair, studying her.
She was the only other occupant of the room.

“
You cannot
escape.”

It seemed like a dare.

Aurora’s expression became a mixture
of amusement and sympathy. “I suppose it must sound like a
challenge, and I do not doubt that you are a most resourceful young
woman, but it is not … humanly possible.”

Alexis merely stared at her for
several moments, wondering which part of the statement to dispute
first. Finally, she said, “Humanly?”

Aurora smiled faintly. “I am not sure
I could explain it to your … satisfaction.”

“
I have a reasonably good
understanding.”

Aurora nodded. “I do not doubt your
intelligence. It is merely that you have not yet accepted that this
is real, and not a figment of your imagination.”

“
It isn’t something easy to
accept, you have to admit.”

“
Readily. If we were not the
stuff of myth and fables, it might be easier, but I doubt even
then….” She shrugged.

Alexis shivered, chaffing her arms
unconsciously.

Aurora nodded toward the end of the
chaise where Alexis sat. “There is a robe there if you would feel
more comfortable.”

Alexis grabbed it up gratefully. She
discovered it was something like a toga, opening at the neck rather
than in front, and pulled it over her head. “You still didn’t
answer my question.”

“
We are human, but not as
you are human.”

“
I hadn’t noticed,” Alexis
murmured dryly.

Irritation crossed Aurora’s features,
but after a moment, she seemed to shrug it off. “Long ago we
realized that we possessed many ‘gifts’ that other races, or
tribes, if you will, did not. Or, more accurately, I suppose, we
had stronger gifts than others. We--cultivated them.”

“
The telepathy?”

“
Among other
things.”

“
You want me to believe that
you’re actually from Atlantis? THE Atlantis? The one there’s been
so many stories about?”

Aurora chuckled. “It matters not to me
whether you believe or not. This is Atalantium, the only Atlantis,
if you prefer, that ever existed.”

“
But … but,” Alexis
struggled for words. “That was thousands of years ago, before
Christ, even … before Plato. I may not know much about history, but
I do know that much.”

“
Time means little to
us.”

Alexis studied her a long moment. “So
everybody here is thousands of years old? You’re … immortals or
something?”

Again Aurora chuckled. “Not immortal.
Some older than others. We are a very long lived people—live many
times your lifetimes--but I do not think you understood what I said
when I told you time means little to us. It is not a barrier to
us.”

“
Not a barrier?” Alexis said
thoughtfully. “Time travel? You’re saying you time
travel?”

“
Time walk. Atlantis is
hundreds, not thousands of years old. We are hundreds, not
thousands--though I am the oldest surviving Atlantean.”

It actually made sense--in an insane
sort of way. No wonder the Atlanteans had seemed so advanced
compared to everyone else in the ancient world. They had simply
time walked, learned what they needed, or taken what they wanted,
collected the best from whatever age they pleased.

Aurora nodded. “We are very
learned--value knowledge—but all of our technology is not borrowed,
nor all our very own.”

“
But you’re human? Not
aliens?”

“
We are human. We are
genetically enhanced human beings. Which is why I said you could
not escape. WE can come and go. No human lacking our gift to shift
would be able to leave Atlantis. We have few boats because we
really have no need of them. And even if you could manage to take
one, or fashion a boat, you would not be able to survive the
corridor which connects us to the sea, or the pressure so far
beneath the sea.”

Alexis’ eyes narrowed. “You had me
going for a little bit there. I suppose you thought I wasn’t clear
headed enough to notice, but I can see the sky. I know this must be
an island.”

Aurora uttered a deep sigh. “It is an
illusion. We shut ourselves off from the rest of humanity long ago,
because our gifts, our technology, were looked upon as witchcraft,
sorcery. As much as we were admired and, even occasionally
worshipped, we were also feared and hated. We had thought when we
chose to build our civilization before the time of ‘modern’ man,
that we would be safe, and able to live peacefully. For a time we
were, because only we possessed the ability to travel great
distances quickly. But ancient man caught up with us when they
began to roam the world. Many came--to destroy, to take, to wipe us
from the face of history. We finally realized that we would either
have to give up those things we took such joy of, or live apart
from those who were different from us, because we would have no
peace otherwise.