Read Legacy of Olympus (In the Gods' Secret Service) Online
Authors: Teri Gilbert
Tags: #Romance, #ebook
Legacy of Olympus (In the Gods' Secret Service) (25 page)
Eleni gripped the slender stem, tempted to snap it in two. Alec had been crazy with need after drinking the thick liquid. How would it affect her? With her already heightened sexuality, she couldn’t afford to be drugged. Zander watched her intently. She took a tiny sip. Heat immediately flowed through her veins and settled in her lower belly.
“Come on, finish. Master Mallaki will be here any second, and I don’t want him angry with me.”
Eleni allowed him to escort her back into the forum. When Zander glanced away, she dumped the contents of her glass onto a nearby palm, half-expecting it to go to seed immediately.
An alarm, not dissimilar to what a dozen foghorns might sound like, split the air. Everyone looked around and started talking at once. Eleni fought the urge to cover her ears with her hands.
Mallaki spoke into the mic. “Don’t panic. Everyone to the south balconies. We have visitors.”
Heart beating at a furious rate, Eleni rushed to Alec, and immediately spotted the anguish in the tightness of his mouth, the lone muscle twitching along his jaw. “Alec, do you think it’s Stephanos?” She didn’t know if Alec could actually hear her over the alarm, or if he had to read her lips, but he nodded.
“Yes. And the others.”
Fear for her dear friend and mentor coalesced, tightening her lungs, making it difficult to draw a breath. She leaned closer to Alec and planted a hand on his chest, drawing strength from the contact. “What is Mallaki planning to do?”
“I think we’re about to find out.” Alec’s gaze drifted beyond her.
She slowly turned, and her heart skipped a beat.
Half a dozen of Mallaki’s men and women stood beneath the balcony overhang staring at the ocean. A few held telescopes.
Then, without warning, the alarm went silent.
“Whatever they’re doing, the fact that Mallaki isn’t by your side worries me. They aren’t concerned with us anymore.”
“That gives us the advantage, Alec.”
“What do you propose we do? Pull weapons out of our asses? Even if I’d had them with me, my bow and arrow wouldn’t exactly have blended in with our evening attire.”
She begged to differ with his last comment. He would have looked suitably Greek with his bow slung over one shoulder.
But they had to do something, and fast. Alec was right. They had no weapons. She glanced behind her. The only thing in the room was the damn amplifier.
She couldn’t make out Mallaki’s words, but knew he was putting whatever plan he had into motion.
In unison, all the men and women shifted and faced the ocean.
A feeling of doom crept over her as she surveyed the horizon.
“I see them.” The grimness in Alec’s voice sent a chill down her spine.
“Where?”
She followed the direction of Alec’s arm. A black dot bobbed on the churning sea, which grew rougher by the minute. She took a few steps forward and gripped the cold marble railing.
“Would you like to see?” Mallaki said as he approached, handing her an ornate telescope.
The chill along her back heightened to icy fear as she lifted the piece to her eye. She panned the horizon until she found
The
Argon
, recognizing Stephanos’s ship instantly from the photo he’d kept behind his desk at Amalgamated.
She focused in on Stephanos, and a tiny pressure in her chest released. He looked exactly the same as he had before Mallaki’s attack on Amalgamated.
But he was heading into a trap.
Alec felt his skin start to tingle. The hair on his arms and along the side of his head began to rise as the low hum of unseen energy again pulsed rhythmically through the air.
What devious scheme had Mallaki come up with now? He wanted to beat the shit out of the man standing on the other side of Eleni, but couldn’t risk escalating the situation, though he really couldn’t imagine how it could get any worse.
He scanned the expanse of the Atlantic. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Then he noticed changes, changes most people wouldn’t be able discern; the slight shift in wind direction, the slight increase in humidity, the rise in barometric pressure.
He glanced at the people surrounding him. Were
they
responsible?
If he hadn’t seen the glacier shear off with his own eyes, he wouldn’t believe such a thing was possible.
He watched as the sea churned and waves lapped over the break wall near the marina. Clouds thickened, then darkened. A jagged bolt of lightning burst from the sky, striking the ocean below.
Cumulus clouds and immense thunderheads all concentrated within a radius of less than a mile? However unlikely, the strange conglomeration
had
formed and was heading in the direction of
The Argon
.
Alec glanced at Eleni again. She had turned over her eyepiece to Mallaki. She gripped the balcony railing with both hands, fear and anguish etched on her face.
His heart slammed against his chest. No matter how Stephanos navigated through the now treacherous waters, the strange formations followed, while the sea churned and bubbled, as if sitting on top of a bed of magma.
A particularly threatening thunderhead closed in on
The
Argon
at a rate of speed Alec had never heard of before, much less seen with his own eyes. In any other circumstances, he would have been impressed by the storm’s magnitude. However, now there was too much at stake.
A pitch-black thunderhead with an eerie greenish tinge hung low above the ship. Alec couldn’t help but admire its perfection, the towering column with a magnificent domed head.
Then the skies opened up and a deluge began, covering everything, including them. Though the air around them was warm, the rain was icy cold and stung as it took tiny bites from his exposed skin.
Alec could make out the frightened cries of fishermen who’d minutes ago been trolling quietly along the shore. He watched helplessly as they fought the unexpected storm and tried to head to safety.
Lightning danced between the clouds in a brilliant display of nature’s power. Only nature didn’t have anything to do with this.
The people controlling the elements stood transfixed, totally engrossed in the havoc they were wreaking, while others stood with their mouths cracked open, twisted smiles, eyes gleaming, a sort of horrifying mixture of exultation and delight written on their faces.
Mallaki gestured toward the sea and the water retreated, as if some unseen creature were siphoning it away. Alec had witnessed that phenomenon before. In the footage taken on the shore of Indonesia, just after a major earthquake.
His heart beat in slow, sickening strokes, and the horror of it nearly drove him to his knees.
Mallaki and his people were creating a tsunami.
Someone touched her arm and that was enough to snap her awareness away from the deplorable events playing out before her. Eleni swiped her rain-soaked hair from her eyes and turned on shaky legs to find Alec standing beside her. She’d been watching the horrifying tableau unfold, then found herself unable to move, unable to tear her eyes away from the mesmerizing scene. She’d never heard Alec approach.
He gripped her arms. “You’ve got to get inside.”
“I’m not leaving.”
Alec gave her a little shake and dragged her away from the group. “Mallaki is drowning
The Argon
.”
His words acted like a slap across the face, bringing her into the harsh reality. “Then we have to stop him.”
“At this rate, Stephanos and the others will wash up onshore a mile or so from here.” He paused, searching her face. “They’ll need help.”
“You have to go to them.” She swallowed. “Heal their injuries.”
“Yes.” He dragged out the s, as if it were truly painful for him to say. “I’ll need a diversion.”
She nodded and glanced toward Mallaki, still too occupied with his operation to notice the two of them. “I’ll take care of Mallaki. You take care of the others.”
Alec lowered his head, planted a firm kiss on her lips, then pinned her with his steely gaze. “I will be back, with the others. Then you and I will leave, together.”
“I’m going to hold you to that promise.” She leaned up, brushed her lips against his again, then turned, unable to watch him walk away. She’d give him a few minutes, then put her own plan into motion.
Alec jogged, quickly navigating his way through the labyrinth of hallways, ready to take on anyone who got in his way. But the place was empty. Everyone must be occupied with the intruders.
He exited the mansion via the lowest level, completely out of sight of those engaged in destroying Stephanos’s beloved ship. Hunching his shoulders against the assault of rain, sleet, hail, and wind, he made his way toward the area he knew Stephanos’s ship would succumb and the survivors, if any, would come ashore.
Out of the corner of his vision, he saw something flying toward him. He dodged to the left. Pain erupted on the side of his face as something hard struck him. Stars danced before his eyes, then darkness took over.
Over the roar of the wind, Eleni heard a triumphant, uniform cry as a waterspout formed and rose into the sky. Swiping the water from her eyes, she spotted Stephanos’s vessel, being tossed around in the ocean like a toy in the bathtub of an angry child.
Her stomach plummeted as something dark and massive appeared on the horizon. Her mouth dropped open and she shuddered. The tidal wave was enormous.
She raced toward Mallaki, whose gaze remained fixed on the sea beyond her. “No.” She shoved at his chest. “Stop.” It took her several tries before his eyes widened in a combination of disbelief and anger.
She braced herself for his wrath. She didn’t have to wait long.
Mallaki grabbed her by the upper arms and squeezed brutally hard, bringing tears of pain to her eyes. “You dare interrupt me?”
She squirmed and lashed out at him. “Don’t do this.” Rain changed to hail, and the wind blasted the pea-size chunks of frozen water against them, the shards of ice tearing at her delicate skin. “Please, I’ll do anything you want. Just stop.”
“Your pleas are too late.” Mallaki relaxed his grip.
Eleni returned her attention to the sea in time to see the fifty-foot wave crash over the top of
The Argon
.
“Master Mallaki.”
Eleni faced the slender, slightly effeminate man heading in their direction. His hands waved and twitched as he approached. “I just had a vision.”
Eleni’s stomach clenched at the hint of smile creeping along the man’s face.
“Yes?” Mallaki sounded impatient.
The man was so excited he could hardly get out the words. “Alec Androulakis is dead. Struck by a piece of debris as he fled your hospitality.”
A dull roar started somewhere deep in Eleni’s ears and flowed into her head, obliterating everyone and everything around her. She felt herself fall backward, vaguely hearing Mallaki barking orders as the world faded away.
Alec groaned and tried for the third time to open his eyes. Water lapped at his head, and he seemed to be lying on a patch of coarse ground. His whole body felt as if it were on fire, even though he was soaked to the skin. He moved, and pain jarred through every bone.