Atlantis Unleashed (8 page)

The object. Liam.

Memories of her office wavered in the back of her/their mind, misty behind the curtain of the vision. She looked down at the object, to see that she held an enormous sapphire that glowed as if tiny universes sparked to life inside it.

The sight of her/their hands drew her gaze away from the jewel. Rings adorned every finger and silver bracelets chimed like bells on her wrists as she moved her slender hands. Pale white hands that weren't tanned or scarred with the remnants of countless scrapes from countless digs.

Hands definitely not her own.

Keely looked around the sunlit room, marveling at the exotic strangeness of it. Marble columns in corners were decorated with inlaid gems and a glittering copper-like metal. A bed large enough to fit ten people graced the center of the room, hung with sheer silk draperies in white, blue, and crystalline green. The room was open to a balcony that looked out on a city of crystal and marble towers and spires.

Then, beyond, a . . . dome. She/they knew the dome. It shielded the Seven Isles from the depths of the ocean. The Seven Isles.

Atlantis.

She dropped the gem from suddenly nerveless fingers, and a whisper of cold air sliced through the room to materialize before her as a man. Tall and outrageously handsome, his masculine beauty shivered a thrill of dark desire through her. He caught the sapphire before it touched the mosaic floor, then held it out to her. It caught the light and radiated sparkling shimmers of light from its heart. “It is unusual for you to be so clumsy,
mi amara
. Especially on such an important day. We crown our new king today.”

As if his words opened the gate to her other senses, she became aware of the distant sounds of many, many people shouting and calling out. Not in anger, but with a celebratory tone. The scent of roasting meat wafted through the room, unexpectedly making her stomach rumble a bit.

The man grinned, his eyes lighting up with wicked humor. “We must do something about your hunger, love, although it is other hungers I had hoped to satisfy before we must leave.”

Keely felt her cheeks warm, but she smiled at him, a bystander inside someone else's body. “There is not time. You crown the new king, my love. As high priest to Poseidon, it is your duty and honor.”

He bent to press a kiss to her lips, and she caught her breath at the melting heat that swirled through her body. “It is my joy. As it will be your joy, I know, to gift this small complement to the Star of Artemis to his queen. Even as the Star itself is said to heal a warrior's fractured mind, this has the power to soothe a wounded heart.”

“But what will heal the wounded heart of a kingdom that must remain buried beneath the sea?”

His brows drew together as his expression turned grim. “Not even Poseidon will venture an opinion on that. The seven gems of the Trident were scattered to every far corner of the earth before the Cataclysm. Until they are returned to their rightful setting, Atlantis cannot rise. The magic will turn against itself and the dome will be destroyed.

Keely gasped, the man/her husband's words drumming a dire threat through the room. For an instant, Keely was positive that his words held great significance for her own time, but the realization faded as her host's mind wrestled for control of its own consciousness and Keely's own scientific mind perked up at the idea of gemstones with powers.

He grasped her shoulders lightly. “You must never speak of this, for none but the king and I, and now you, know the truth of the Trident. If it were to be widely known, our populace would lose all hope.”

She instantly thought of a dozen questions, and when better to ask them? Searching her host's mind for the knowledge she knew was there, she formed the name on her lips. His name. “Nereus.”

As if the name held power, her host body's consciousness took command of Keely's speech. “Nereus, my love, my life. I wish them every happiness that we have enjoyed.”

As the man took her into his arms, his black eyes began to glow with a blue-green flame in the exact centers of his pupils. “As do I, Zelia, my wife. As do I.”

Keely lifted her face to receive his kiss, and when she closed her eyes, the world swirled down to black.

“Dr. McDermott! Keely!” Someone was shouting at her, the sound muffled by the ocean waves rippling across the surface of the dome. The dome . . . Atlantis.

Keely opened her eyes to the sight of Liam's face framed by the shabby ceiling tiles in her office. Shocked to full awareness of where—and
who
—she had been, she stared into the dark eyes of the man who'd put her through it. “You look just like him.”

Liam's arms tightened around her, and she realized that he held her in the air, cradled like a child. Her face burned with embarrassment. “Put me down, Atlantean. Now.”

With obvious reluctance he lowered her until her feet touched the floor. “Are you well?”

“As if you cared, you bastard. Do you have any idea—” She cut off in midsentence, a horrible thought crossing her mind. George. If he saw . . . all of her years of careful hiding . . .

Keely frantically scanned the room and was enormously relieved to see that George was gone. Unless he'd gone to find the people from the funny farm.

That would be bad.

She returned her fury to the man who deserved it. “Do you have any idea what it does to me to touch ancient objects with no preparation?”

She took slow, deep breaths to try to prevent the reaction, but it was hitting her hard. Her entire body shook so fiercely that she could barely stand, but when Liam reached out to steady her, she flinched away from him. “Take your damn sapphire, too.”

She threw it at him, and he caught it with the same preternatural speed and reflexes that the man in her vision had demonstrated. “Nereus. You look just like him,” she repeated bitterly. “Too bad you're not a gentleman like he was.”

The Atlantean flinched back as though she'd struck him, then leaned toward her. “Did you say Nereus? You actually saw Nereus? There were rumors, but . . . that memory would have been embedded in the gem more than eight thousand years ago.”

She shivered and tried to make it to her chair, but he caught her and lifted her gently onto the battered old couch in her office. Before she could protest, he'd whipped his jacket off and placed it around her trembling shoulders.

“What can I do, my lady?” he asked her, crouching down before her. “What helps in this situation? Be assured you will have my utmost apologies, but they must hold until we have secured your well-being.”

She blinked, bemused by his sudden concern. “I don't . . . well, tea. Actually, some hot tea with lots of sugar would help. George can—” She looked around, remembering that George was gone. “Where did he go?”

Liam's mouth flattened into a grim line. “He ran like a scared rabbit when you collapsed. I assumed he wanted to go in search of an authority figure or for medical assistance. I was compelled to prevent that.”

She was instantly alert. “What did you do?”

“I did him no permanent harm, my lady. He is merely resting, and his memories are somewhat altered. It is a small talent that I possess.” He gestured with one hand, and she whipped her head around to see George lying flat out on the floor behind her desk, passed out cold, his skin bearing an alarming resemblance to the stark white of his shirt.

“You're sure he's all right? We need to call—”

“I swear to you on my life and honor, and we will call for assistance for him in a few minutes.”

She subsided, since he was clearly able to stop her from going for help and George's complexion did seem to be pinking up. A couple of minutes later, after the trembling subsided enough for her to be sure she was thinking coherently, she went after the facts. “You picked an interesting way to try to persuade me to accompany you.”

He raised his head in an arrogant gesture that made her suspect he really did have a high priest in his bloodline. “You have been chosen as one of only five human scientists to be allowed into Atlantis while we prepare to make the announcement of our existence to the world. Do you really need persuasion, Dr. McDermott?”

She stared at him for a long moment, knowing there was no way she could turn him down.
Atlantis.
What archaeologist wouldn't drop everything to be among the first to explore its wonders? She'd give everything she owned for the opportunity, just as she'd always done. Sacrificed friendships and relationships for the thrill of the quest. The excitement of the discovery.

If she'd do that, maybe risking her job by ignoring her boss, for the Lupercale, what wouldn't she do for Atlantis?

There was no doubt that it existed. Not after that vision. Or at least it had existed, thousands of years ago. Keely's visions had never, ever been wrong.

Still, believing it was there to be found today was a leap in both faith and logic. The former was no strength of hers; the latter told her to stay put and escort Liam to the door.

But . . .
Atlantis
. The mere thought of it caused her jet-lag-induced exhaustion to vanish. Even the chance it was something more than a fantasy-fevered dream of every archaeologist, historian, and scholar in the world was worth pursuing. She knew she'd made her decision the moment she'd seen those crystal spires.

Still, it ticked her off to give in so easily, especially after he'd knocked her sideways with that trick with the sapphire. “I'll give you my decision in forty-eight hours,” she said firmly.

A gleam of amusement lit his dark eyes. “Unfortunately, I need your decision in the next forty-eight seconds, or I'll have to wipe your memory clean of this encounter and go on to the next archaeologist on my list. A man by the name of Lloyd, I believe. He does not have your Gift, but . . .” He left the threat hanging, unspoken, in the air.

Outrage flooded Keely, burning out the last remnants of residual shock. Dr. Lloyd was always one of the first to make patronizing comments about her “female intuition,” usually from the front row of the audience whenever she was presenting a paper at a society meeting.

Usually while he stared at her breasts.

No
way
was he getting his skanky hands on a single speck of Atlantean dirt. She put her hands on her hips and glared at Liam. “Lloyd? He couldn't excavate his way out of a paper bag! His theories on . . .” Her voice trailed off as his lips quirked in a smile he was unable to entirely suppress.

He'd been playing her all along.

“Right.
Nice
. Not very high priestly, but effective. Very well, Mr. Liam. I'm all yours. I just need to gather my gear and handle some personal things.”

He shook his head. “As to your personal affairs, you will give me a list, and any tasks you need to accomplish will be handled by one of our stewards. All the gear you need is already prepared, and I'm assuming this bag on the floor contains your own tools?”

“How did you—”

He bent down and lifted her heavy bag as if it weighed nothing. Probably with muscles like that, it didn't. “Your graduate assistant was very helpful,” he said.

Keely glared at him. “I just bet she was, once she got a load of you.”

A wicked smile flashed across his face, and his resemblance to the high priest from her vision grew even stronger. “I believe the term was ‘total hottie.' Perhaps you could explain it to me on our journey?”

“Figure it out yourself,” she muttered, snatching up her gloves and pulling them on, then taking a last look around her office. “I'm on vacation, anyway, so nobody will miss me for a while. Lead on, McHottie.”

He lifted one eyebrow. “I beg your pardon?”

“Yeah. You
should
beg my pardon,” she said, but there wasn't much bite to it. As she followed Liam out the door, Keely wondered what exactly she'd gotten herself into, but she couldn't suppress a shiver of excitement. Atlantis. She'd seen it herself, and her visions had never, ever been wrong.

The adventure of a lifetime, and it was all hers. She nearly laughed out loud, imagining the expressions on the faces of the countless shrinks her parents had dragged her to see.