Atlantis Unmasked by Alyssa Day

world.
    She paced, trying to outdistance her thoughts and escape the crushing waves of despair that weren’t even her own.
    It was all wrong. She never formed mental bonds like this—not like this. Not with someone she barely knew.
    Never before with a man . The memory of their last moment together before he’d disappeared—that kiss—burned across her mind like a wild lightning bolt riding tumultuous clouds.
    It shook her up, tossing her nerves into a tempest to match the surf that the winter storm sent slashing toward the shore.
    â€œIt won’t help, you know.”
    The deep voice came from nowhere and the shock of it nearly sent her flying over the edge. A strong hand shot out and caught her arm, jerking her back and away from a thirty-five-foot drop.
    She tried to wrench her arm free, whirling around with a high kick to smash the intruder’s face, but he blocked her kick and lifted her into his arms as easily as if she were a child, smiling down at her. The moonlight shadowed the distinctive bronze hair to black, but there was no way she’d ever mistake that face, even with water dripping from his drenched hair.
    Very, very few men could subdue her so easily. But then again, he was a seasoned and powerful warrior, and one of the last of the race of weretigers. More than two hundred fifty pounds of muscle in human form and twice that as a big cat.
    â€œI know it’s been a while, Grace, but that’s no way to say hello to an old friend,” he said, laughing a little. “Also, that old saying about not having enough sense to come in out of the rain comes to mind.”
    â€œJack! I thought you and Quinn were on a mission somewhere in—”
    Something in the way he narrowed his eyes stopped her from continuing. “Sorry. It’s just—”
    He lowered her to her feet and gave her a brief hug. “No details. Not here, Grace. Not out in the open.”
    Walking to the barrier she’d nearly tumbled over, he stared out at the sea. “I need to join Quinn, but I can’t tell even you any more about it. We have a lead we think is important regarding the . . . object we . . . lost . . . back in St. Louis.”
    She nodded. Vonos had stolen the gem the Atlanteans called the Vampire’s Bane: a rare yellow diamond that reportedly had the power to kill other vampires without harming the one who wielded it. Vonos already had way too much power as Primator. Now that he possessed a weapon of mass destruction that could kill his own kind, the heavyweight threat was very effectively making him many, many alliances with vamps who’d rather join up than die.
    â€œIt may be here?” Vonos quite famously owned a winter home in Florida near Daytona Beach; Undead People magazine had done a cover spread on “The Primator at Home.” She’d seen it at the checkout stand at the grocery store and promptly lost her appetite.
    Jack nodded, a muscle clenching in his jaw. “Apparently it’s some vamp macho thing to have a home in the sunniest place around. Shows you’re tougher than all the other bloodsuckers.”
    â€œWould he keep it here, though? Wouldn’t the Primus be safer? I heard that the place is a fortress.”
    He turned his face up to the rain, closing his eyes, for a moment, and then turned back to her, tension evident in the way he held his head and body. “It is. I hear they’ve beefed up security, too, after we broke in.”
    Grace blinked. “You broke into the Primus? What? With all those vamps? I heard it’s like the undead Fort Knox.”
    He shrugged. “You heard right. But we had a few advantages. Ask Quinn to tell you about it sometime.” But as soon as he said it, his mouth tightened and he shook his head. “On second thought, never mind.”
    â€œCome inside, at least,” she urged. “Let’s find dry clothes, make coffee, and talk. There are only a few of us