Geary swallowed at that deep, dry tone. "You are joking, aren't you?"
He shook his head.
She looked at Arik, who duplicated the gesture. Nervous and suddenly uncertain, she looked back at Zebulon. "You're twenty-five thousand years old?"
"Well, if you're looking for precision, twenty-seven thousand, five hundred, and forty-two, but really does it matter?"
Geary felt her jaw drop. There was no way he could be that old. "That would put you at having been born during the Aurignacian Period."
"Not quite; that predates me by a few hundred years. But I'm close to it."
She could barely comprehend what he was saying as she ran through her ancient, ancient history. "And that would make you-"
"A Cro-Mag," he said with a smirk, "so yeah, when you call me a barbaric caveman, I am. Literally.
Hell, I even knew a couple of Neanderthals who once kicked my ass all over what is now Toledo, Spain.
But here's the fun part. Your boyfriend over there is even older than I am and he's considered a baby by his family."
And given the ludicrousness of those statements, the most screwed-up thought of all went through her head. "You were both around during the time of Atlantis."
That was how Arik had known about her necklace. How he'd known about the site.
Oh God, it was true.
They were...
She couldn't even complete the thought. She couldn't.
Trieg moved forward to touch her sympathetically on the shoulder. "It's a bit of a stunner when you first hear about it. You should have seen my face the night I met Artemis. A bit of advice to you, love. Go with it. And on that note I need to be patrolling. Good night to you all."
Yeah, sure, let the man with flashing fangs go back to his life. Why not? She had nothing better to do than be stalked by the deadly duo who wanted her dead.
And Mr. Freakzoid Neanderthal Cro-Mag man.
Speaking of the devil, Zebulon was watching her with an amused smirk that she dearly wanted to wipe off his face.
Arik was the only one who seemed to appreciate the seriousness of all this .
Zebulon turned his attention to Arik. "So, bud, how long do I have to watch for the Dolophoni?"
Arik let out a tired breath before he answered. "I'll be gone from this world in two weeks... if they don't kill me first."
Zebulon nodded. "You honestly think they're going to let you go home?"
Her anger was mirrored in Arik's eyes. "Not really. I figure I'm basically dead one way or another."
"Good," Zebulon said drily. "You're not as stupid as I thought you were. My only advice is for you to keep them off my streets and out of the public's eye. I don't like cleaning up these kinds of messes."
Arik looked even less amused than she felt. "I'm not exactly the Tidy Bowl man myself."
"Then we have an understanding. Keep the riffraff off my turf or I mop the floor with all of you."
"I'll do my best."
Zebulon inclined his head before he literally melted into nothing.
Geary was torn between outrage, hurt, and fear. Part of her wanted to slap Arik for dragging her into this while another wanted to run as far away as she could. What won out was her sarcasm. "Thanks so much for the date. Had a blast. Really, we must do this again sometime. I really like these near-death experiences we have whenever we're together. They're very invigorating."
He reached to touch her again. "Geary-"
"Don't touch me," she snapped as she pulled away from him. "Don't you dare."
Arik withdrew his hand reluctantly. He understood her anger and she was fully entitled to it. Funny how he hadn't considered how all this would affect her before he'd come here. Honestly, he hadn't cared.
But now it was different. Now he cared in ways he hadn't been able to imagine before.
And he'd only been with her for a short time. What would it be like after they'd spent more time together?
What had he been thinking when he made his bargain with Hades? How could he have offered her up so easily?
It was such a selfish thing to do, and now that he could feel, he understood exactly how selfish it was.
And he regretted it with every part of himself. She deserved so much better than what he'd done to her.
She deserved so much better than him. What he'd done was wrong. He knew that now, but he couldn't change it.
Geary shook her head. "I just don't understand this. You lied to me about who you were. Why?"
Arik swallowed as he heard the pain in her voice. It was so intense that he felt it himself. "Why? What would you have said had I come to you and told you that I was a god from your sleep who wanted to meet you in the flesh? Would you have welcomed me in or would you have called the authorities on me?"
"It is ludicrous," she admitted.
"Yes," he said, trying to make her understand why he needed to be near her. "You can't imagine the world I was born into, Geary. There's no laughter there, no joy or happiness, and then one night I accidentally found you. You who laugh at the warmth of the sun when it touches your skin. You who have... what was it you called it once? A choco-gasm from eating a Hershey's Kiss-whatever that is.
You feel things on a level most people never imagine. In all the centuries I've lived, I've never known anyone like you. And for two weeks I just wanted to be with you. To feel you, human to human, and to understand this world that is so vivid through your eyes."
Geary didn't know what to think. No one had ever spoken so passionately to her, never mind been so passionate about her. What should she say to that?
"I just wanted to know what it was like to be human, Megeara. Just for a little while. To touch you as a man and to hear the real sound of your voice as you said my name, and not the voice that was distorted
by your dreams." He reached for her hesitantly and took her hand into his. "You can't imagine how good this feels when you've never known a gentle touch on your flesh."
Something inside her melted at the sincerity of his tone. The sincerity in those pale blue eyes. He meant every word he spoke. "So you're not dying?"
He shook his head. "Not in the sense that you use the word, no. But I will have to go back to my world and most likely die there. Apparently coming here pissed off some serious people who have no intention of letting me live after this."
"Then why did you come here if you knew they were going to kill you for it?"
"Honestly, I didn't know that at the time, but even if I had, I doubt it would have changed my mind. I would still have come for you."
How could he say that and mean it? How could seeing her be worth his life? "You're insane, aren't you?"
"Only when it comes to you."
Geary closed her eyes as she let everything that had happened over the last few minutes sink in. It was awful. She felt as if something had turned her inside out. She no longer knew what to believe in. She no longer knew what was real and what wasn't.
Instinctively she reached for the necklace-she needed to feel something solid to help ground her. But the instant she touched it, her heart stopped as their earlier discussion went through her mind. "You know where Atlantis is." It was a statement.
He nodded.
Disbelief washed through her as every part of his presence in her world hit her. "Then my father was right. It did exist. Right here. Right where he said it was."
Again Arik nodded to confirm her words. "You were swimming over its harbor this afternoon when you found the box. You were right there, Geary. You really touched it."
Tears actually came to her eyes at the thought of her completing her task. Of her holding in her hand one of the keys to her promise. "Was I really?"
"Yes. You were right, Megeara. And so was your father."
She covered her mouth with her hand as she took a step back. It was one thing to suspect but an entirely different one to know.
"Then we're there," she said with a giddy laugh. "We've found it."
But Arik didn't mirror her joy. He was tense and serious as he eyed her with warning. "That's the good news for you. The question is do you want to know the bad?"
Not really. She'd rather savor the good stuff. At least for a second or two. But there was no use in delaying the inevitable. As the old nursery fable went, one could never outrun trouble. There was no place far enough to avoid it. "Oh sure, what could be worse than what happened here tonight?"
He shrugged. "I don't know. Does the fact that the goddess Artemis blew up your boat today top that or not?"
Geary blinked as those words sank in. Honestly, in all her wild imaginings, that one had somehow eluded her. She much preferred the thought of Arik as an arms dealer or assassin.
"Excuse me?" she asked, hoping he might have been playing with her.
"You heard me correctly. Artemis is one of many who want you to stay away from Atlantis."
"And what did I do to earn this privilege?"
"Basically the same thing you did tonight," a deep male voice said from behind her. "You were meddling in a place you didn't belong."
Geary turned at the foreign voice, then stiffened at the sight of the rest of the people who'd attacked Arik in her dream.
Oh. Shit.