Anger flared in her. “It’s not your job to protect me, Nathan. Dammit, it’s not anyone’s job to protect me!”
As her voice rose, the prickling in her hands intensified. The buzzing in her veins grew deeper, a pulsating thrum that filled her ears.
She swung a furious look between Nathan and Zael. “I’m not made of glass. I’m not a child. I’m a grown woman, and I’m tired of being treated as if everyone else knows what’s best for me.”
She didn’t realize how strong the sensation of heat and energy had gotten in her hands until she noticed both Zael and Nathan staring at her. Only then did she look down at her palms.
At the fiery glow that emanated from their centers.
And in the midst of that ember-bright light was the outline of a crescent moon and teardrop.
The Atlantean mark.
“Holy hell,” Nathan gasped. His stormy eyes lifted to her gaze and he seemed speechless for a long moment, awestruck. “My God … Jordana.”
Zael’s response was less amazed than it was grim. “Son of a bitch.” He cocked his head, then shot a grave look at Jordana. “We delayed too long. They’re here.”
27
EVERY MUSCLE IN NATHAN’S BODY SNAPPED TO ATTENTION ON Zael’s warning.
There was no time to process the astonishing change he’d seen in Jordana. No opportunity to assess the newly arrived danger, or to catalog the numerous vulnerabilities of their surroundings in preparation for the battle to come.
“We cannot let Jordana be taken.” Zael looked to Nathan, gravity in his face and his words. As he spoke, Nathan noticed the leather thong looped around Zael’s wrist. The silvery emblem that dangled from the cord was lit with unearthly fire. “This crystal can transport her far from the queen’s reach, but I must take her now.”
Nathan gave the Atlantean warrior a nod. He looked at Jordana, his heart choking as though it were caught in a vise. “Go with him. I need to know you’re somewhere safe.”
“What about you?” Panic bled into her face, into the ice-blue eyes that had looked at him with so much pain and mistrust tonight. “Zael,” she said, an urgency—a clipped, regal demand—in her voice. “What about Nathan?”
The Atlantean shook his head in faint denial. “I’m sorry, Jordana. The crystal will only work for our kind. And besides, he can’t go where I must take you.”
His sword in one hand, Zael reached out for her with the other, the crystal’s light building.
“No. I’m not going anywhere. Don’t touch me, Zael.” Jordana snatched her hand away from him. She swung a tormented look on Nathan. “How could you think I would leave you behind only to save myself? Don’t you realize what that would do to me?”
Nathan cursed. If anything happened to her, it would be worse than any abuse he’d ever suffered. He would never forgive himself. “Jordana, I don’t matter. I want you to go—”
“Dammit, Nathan, don’t you realize that I love you?”
She had no sooner said the words than the air stirred outside the open French doors to the terrace.
In the blink of an eye, a pair of immense males materialized there. It was apparent they were soldiers. Obvious they had come for her, just as Zael said they would.
Each man held a long, gleaming blade much like the one Zael now raised in front of him, as he swiftly ushered Jordana behind him.
Nathan wasted no time waiting for the attack to come. He drew one of his guns and opened fire on the two Atlanteans.
The larger of the two, dark-haired and snarling, staggered back on his heels under the sudden barrage of bullets that ripped into his chest and skull. His companion, a copper-haired warrior with piercing, determined green eyes, took a couple of rounds in his torso before vanishing into thin air.
Nathan kept firing on the big male, blasting holes into the bastard until his tattered, unmoving weight tumbled right over the railing of the balcony.
Jordana’s scream jerked Nathan’s head around. The other soldier had reappeared farther inside the villa and was now bearing down on her and Zael.
Zael put his body between Jordana and their attacker, raising his blade as the other male’s sword came slashing toward him. The Atlantean weapons clashed in a screech of metal and a brief shower of blue and green sparks. Zael went down on one knee, driven low by the sudden, wrenching thrust of his opponent’s arm.
Nathan dropped his empty pistol. Using the speed of his Breed genetics, he flashed across the room and came up behind the copper-haired soldier. He grabbed the Atlantean’s head in both his hands and gave a violent twist. Vertebrae popped like firecrackers. The soldier let go of his blade and slumped to the floor in a lifeless heap.
As the body fell away, Zael opened his mouth in a shout of warning.
Too late.
Nathan felt a sharp length of ice impale his torso from behind.
The blade withdrew and he wheeled around on his heel, astonished to find the dark-haired Atlantean standing there. Blood was all over the soldier, but not a single bullet wound remained.
The immortal had come back from the gunfire and the fall. His gleaming sword was dripping, stained scarlet from the hole that now bled from Nathan’s back and abdomen.
The wound was bad, but it wouldn’t kill Nathan. It did, however, severely piss him off.
And before he could regroup and retaliate, Jordana’s terrified cry rent the air.
“Oh, my God. Nathan!” She lunged from behind Zael.
The dark-haired Atlantean’s hand shot out and grabbed hold of her, merciless, unrelenting. His long fingers wrapped tightly around her arm. Nathan saw that he wore a thong around his wrist similar to Zael’s. The crystal emblem affixed to it now began to throw off powerful, fiery light.