Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis (16 page)

“
I’m sorry. I really don’t
know anything about genetics, certainly not enough to
understand.”

Aurora considered for a moment. “Do
you know anything about animal breeds?

“
Not much,” Alexis admitted.
“But a little, I guess. I can recognize certain breeds, if that’s
what you mean.”

“
The Doberman?”

Alexis shuttered. “Unfortunately, yes.
I had a very unpleasant experience with one.”

Aurora nodded. “As with others
originally bred to guard and kill on command, they have been bred
over generations to produce specific attributes—but along with
those desirable attributes, very undesirable attributes have also
surfaced.”

“
They turn on their
masters.”

“
They’ve been known to, or
to suddenly, for no apparent reason, attack and kill.”

Alexis was thoughtful. “Is that what
Adonis was talking about when he said the council had agreed to
consider outworlders?”

Aurora smiled wryly. “It is a sign of
desperation, but, we have come to realize that it is necessary that
we ‘pollute’ our race to save it.”

“
Selectively.”

Aurora nodded.

“
Not very flattering to
outworlders,” Alexis said dryly.

“
No. But the purity of our
race is important to us. Outworlders have bred as indiscriminately
as we. Though they have not erred as we did, breeding too closely,
they have begun to lose those traits specific to their race,
blurring, mixing. One day there will be only one race of
man.”

“
But that’s a good thing. No
more racial prejudice.”

Aurora smiled wryly. “If you believe
that will bring peace, then you do not know your fellow man well at
all. Mankind will always have prejudice for some reason or another.
It is because we are, essentially, herd animals, territorial, but
herd animals nevertheless. We are naturally inclined to gravitate
toward others of our kind. It gives us a sense of safety. Class
prejudice, or intelligence, or perhaps financial considerations
will replace old prejudice with new.”

Alexis frowned. “So, what you’re
saying is that no Atlantean, now, may breed with
another?”

“
A few are allowed, but the
vast majority are not. There were many who volunteered to yield
their place to a new generation, but it ceased to be a matter of
population control only long ago.

Thor has waited many years to find a
life mate, to be allowed a family. You cannot begin to conceive how
devastating it must be to him to find you, only to be denounced
before the council.

But, I realize it is more my fault
that this tragedy occurred than yours. Regardless of the law, I
should have discussed it with you in private first.”

Alexis felt, for several moments, that
she would be sick to her stomach. She covered her face with her
hands. It occurred to her that it would’ve been a kindness if
they’d just killed her on the spot, instead of allowing her to live
with such tortuous thoughts. Finally, she realized why it hurt so
much to realize what she’d done to Thor. She loved him.

She would have felt terrible if she
had hurt anyone.

She would not have felt
crushed.

Perhaps, after all, she should ask
that her memories be taken? It would give her peace. She might not
be able to avenge her father’s death, but if they took her
memories, that wouldn’t torture her either.

She looked up at Aurora. “Will you
take my memories and send me back, please?”

Aurora looked at her sadly. “Alas, we
cannot.”

“
Why!” Alexis cried. “You
said before that you could. I want you to! I don’t want to remember
anything! I don’t care anymore. I just want to forget and take my
chances in my own world!”

Aurora took her hand. “You do not
understand. The rebels have found you. You are only safe with us,
here. Only Thor can protect you and he could not do so if we sent
you away.”

Alexis gaped at her. “Rebels?” she
echoed.

“
I do not know how they
discovered your abilities, but they have.”

“
Rebels?” Alexis
repeated.

“
Did you think we were a
utopian society, that everyone would be content only to wait until
we had solved our many problems?” Aurora asked bitterly. “The
rebels have been growing in numbers. They have found a way to
prevent Thor’s detection, and if we do not find a way to stop them,
they will soon be strong enough to destroy Atlantis.”

“
But … but what would they
want with me?”

Aurora studied her a long moment. “You
broke Thor’s mind hold. No one in Atlantis could have done so. This
is the main reason we knew we must wed you to Thor, for his
off-spring must be strong enough to protect future generations. You
have no conception of how important you are to us … or to the
rebels.”

Chapter Ten

A week went by. Alexis remained with
Aurora and finally decided she had misunderstood Aurora when the
High Councilor had said Alexis must remain under Thor’s protection.
Or maybe Thor had refused to take her?

Or maybe he was too busy trying to
track down the rebels?

After a while Alexis began to wonder
if she, and Aurora, had completely misinterpreted Thor’s feelings.
Maybe he’d just been insulted, not hurt? Wouldn’t he have to care
about her to be hurt?

He would’ve had to have fallen in love
with her to be hurt.

But men didn’t experience love at
first sight—did they?

And they certainly hadn’t been
together long enough for it to be anything else.

Even if it was love at first sight,
that was really just lust, wasn’t it? No finer feelings involved,
nothing of a more permanent nature. Lust. Something people just
naturally got over once they’d sated themselves.

It should have been a happy
thought—the realization that she wasn’t a monster after all, who
had wounded someone unbearably—the realization that she, too, would
feel better after a while.

Somehow it didn’t.

She supposed that was because she had
failed to convince herself that what she felt for Thor was only
lust.

Alexis wasn’t certain whether fear or
hope was uppermost in her mind when Thor came for her at last. She
only knew that her heart felt like it would beat its way out of her
chest, that she was so breathless she was on the verge of
hyper-ventilating, that she would have far preferred it if she’d
been allowed to hide in Aurora’s apartment forever like the coward
she was.

She was certain when Aurora herself
escorted her out, that she felt very much like a death row inmate
going to his execution. She could not have dreaded death more than
she dreaded a confrontation with Thor. In fact, she spent some
minutes praying to a god she’d never believed in that he would
prove his existence and strike her dead on the spot.

He didn’t oblige her.

Thor bowed, but he did not offer his
arm. Alexis didn’t dare look at him. She found that she had
absolutely no desire to learn what she might see if she looked in
his eyes.

Coward! She chastised
herself.

He was far too polite.

Alexis wanted to cry, but she realized
she had indulged her weaknesses far too much already. If she hadn’t
spent so much time consumed by herself; her sorrow; her
homesickness; her feelings; she might have spared some thought for
the troubles, and feelings, of others. She might have actually come
to understand the Atlanteans a little better. She might not have
hurt people who had only shown her kindness.

Aurora had spoken only of hurting
Thor, but Alexis realized that she had also hurt Aurora.

If only SHE could go back in time! If
only she could undo what she’d done!

But then, Aurora had said even
Atlanteans, who could time walk, could not change the
past.

So, she only had the
future.

It looked bleak.

If Thor had acted as if she was some
sort of freak, she would never have gotten over it and it occurred
to her that Aurora was most likely right. Thor wouldn’t get over it
either.

She took a deep, fortifying breath.
Her father had always said, ‘Change the things you can. Don’t waste
your time trying to change the things you can’t.’

She had been given a band. She at last
had the privacy to find a way to escape.

* * * *

A week of polite silence was enough to
have Alexis climbing the walls. It might not have been so bad if
Moira had been able to carry on a civilized conversation, but to be
trapped in a house with a man who always seemed to look through
her, not at her, was more than Alexis could bear.

She began going for longer and longer
walks. Thor, naturally, accompanied her. Try as she might, she
simply could not shake him. Apparently, he was determined to
protect her from the perceived threat of a group of rebels, no
matter how much he despised her now.

Alexis was just as determined to find
a way to escape. She was rapidly reaching a point where she was
desperate enough to consider trying to swim out.

No matter what she’d been told, she
knew there had to be some sort of transportation that would allow
her to escape.

Nothing, she knew, short of a
submarine would do it.

She would never be able to hold her
breath long enough to make it down the entrance tunnel, much less
to reach the surface afterwards.

It was one of those things her father
had warned her about—a brick wall.

Thor still slept with her—but he
slept.

Alexis finally began to wonder if all
those times before, when he had snuggled close, it had been nothing
more than insurance—that she would be there when he woke, or
perhaps so that he could be certain he would be warned if there was
any threat to her.

In desperation, she decided to seduce
him.

She was willing, by now, to do
anything to shake Thor from his frozen shell, even risk humiliation
and rejection.

She prepared herself for ‘battle’ with
the greatest of care, bathing in water scented with jasmine,
combing her hair until it shone with health. It was difficult to
decide what to wear, if anything.

She finally decided on nothing. There
was no point in having clothing that would have to be gotten rid
of.

She had ‘lived’ in her band since
Aurora had given it to her, wearing it even as she slept. She
debated with herself on whether it would be better to wear it, or
leave it off. If she left it off, she was almost certain to give
her plans away. If she wore it, then Thor would not be able to know
how much she truly cared for him, how deeply sorry she was for
wounding him, how much she wished she could take it
back.

Finally, she decided to wear it. She
didn’t want to risk giving her scheme away, and it wasn’t likely
that Thor would ‘listen’ or believe she loved him even if she
thought it very, very hard, not after what she’d done.

He might never completely forgive her
for her ugly prejudice, but if Aurora was right and he did love
her, then she should still be able to reach him, to find a measure
of forgiveness that would allow them something.

Having finished her preparations, she
lay down on the bed on top of the covers, waiting. After a few
minutes, it occurred to her that that might be a little too
obvious. He might, or might not, take the bait. She pulled the
covers back and crawled under them, lying on her back. Time passed.
It occurred to her that she wasn’t exactly displaying herself in a
very sexy manner. Maybe on her side? She rolled over, trying to
envision the sight that would greet Thor as he slipped into bed
beside her—her back, her bare ass. Would that be a turn on? She
flipped over—full frontal view. She shifted several times, trying
to get comfortable, trying to pose herself in a way that looked
sexy, yet not contrived. Would a person sleep like this?

She flopped onto her back, spread her
legs, put her arms over her head, her hands tucked under the
pillow—spread eagle.

Hmm. She felt fairly certain this
would be man’s interpretation of sexy, if not hers, but it seemed a
little blatant to be construed as unaffected.

She was on the point of changing
positions again when the door opened.

She froze, trying to pretend she was
asleep.

She held her breath, trying to
regulate her erratic breathing, which she knew could in no way be
interpreted as sleep.

He climbed in beside her. He reached
for her, his palm landing flat on her belly. The muscles in her
belly tensed, despite her best efforts to play
‘unconscious’.

He paused. She could FEEL his
confusion.

He lifted his hand again, lay down on
his back beside her, folding his arms under his head.

Damn it! Alexis thought. I KNEW I
should have been lying on my side! I could have wiggled my ass
against his cock then. Bet that would’ve gotten a rise out of
him!