Atlantium Trilogy I: Bride of Atlantis (4 page)

He reached for her.

Alexis scrambled to the other side of
the bed, watching him warily.

He caught the sheets, giving them a
jerk that would have brought her flying across the bed toward him,
except that she hadn’t expected that move and he only succeeded in
snatching the cover from her hands, leaving her bare once
more.

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 considering 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.