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Ash was still in bed, not quite awake, but no longer sleeping when his phone rang Assu stupid, he answered it without even looking at the nurocery store What do you want tonight?"

You on a platterHe forced hiht "I really don&039;t eatI need"

"Oh coht of asomeone out of house and ho you live on besides beer and if you say wine, I will hurt you"

He smiled in spite of hi I want"

"You like frustrating me, don&039;t you? Fine, I&039;ll make falafel and humus-you&039;re Greek You&039;ll live with it, like it, and you&039;re going to eat soht"

What was it with Tory and food? She was almost as bad as Simi How could a woman that skinny eat all the time? He tossed his phone down, then rolled onto his back and covered his eyes with his arht before hunting Dai was brewing here in New Orleans, but he couldn&039;t figure it out

Stryker was plotting so He could feel it

But he didn&039;t want to think about Stryker right now either Letting his thoughts drift, they calasses and set into the face of theon the planet

Soteria

Before he could stop hi forward over her face as she leaned over him for a kissHis cock hardened instantly

Unable to stand it, he reached down to move himself so that it didn&039;t hurt

"You want a hand with that?"

Moving his arm, his eyes flew open to find Artemis in bed with him which instantly killed his peaceful mood "No"

She pouted "Oh c&039;o to waste, are you?"

He rolled over to give her his back "I&039;d rather masturbate"

She punched at his shoulder "You&039;re in one of those et so sullen witharound him when it was his natural state in her presence? Well that, and severely pissed off

"What do you want, Artie? It&039;s not like you to pop into my bed and you know better than to coet past Alexion anyway?"

"He&039;s too preoccupied with his wife to notice ain later At least make the bastard wander around the shores of the Isle of the Dead for a while

"So why are you here, Artie?"

"You want me here"

Yeah, like an alien rectal probe up ure that?"

"Since you can&039;t see it because it would impact your future, you toldhappened involving the Atlantean remains"

And she&039;d already failed to tell him about the diary which could have been disastrous for him if it&039;d been one from Ryssa&039;s twenties "And?"

"Well I just had those people arrested in Greece for excavating without a license Say thank you, Artemis"

Ash turned his head to look at her She was literally si with pride over what she&039;d done "What people?"

"You know, that pathetic-looking archaeologist that ? Her people They&039;d uncovered the site and were pulling things out of the water yesterday by the handfuls Found all kinds of things I kno upset you get when people do that, so I had the authorities go arrest them and confiscate the artifacts"

"Did you happen to have anyone beaten up while you were at it?"

"Why would I do that?"

He scoffed as he rubbed his forehead "You see soreen eyes on him "You are in such a foul mood I don&039;t like to see you beaten either"

He&039;d seen the gleam of sexual satisfaction one ti punished to believe that She lovedhim bleed It was the only time she felt more powerful than he and it ht now

"Whatever you say, Artie"

"Then roll over and satisfy h his black hair, turning it blond "You can&039;t get a headache"

"Sure I can I have a hundred twenty pound one rubbing on me even as I speak"

She slapped at his bare back "You&039;re such an asshole" She bit hi, Ash rubbed at the spot At least she hadn&039;t torn his skin out This tihed as he realized those would be friends of Tory&039;s He better get up and go deal with it Tory would be furious and scared for thelanced up to see his half-sister, Satara, standing in the doorway of his office Because they&039;d had different mothers Satara had been spared the Apollite curse of death that Stryker bore, but then again, since their father had given her to Artemis to be a permanent servant to the bitch, he wasn&039;t sure which of them had the worse life

Today, Satara&039;s hair was coal black like his and she wore a tight, red leather dress that clung to every deep curve of her body

"What brings you here, sister?"

"Auntie Artemis, of course You said to always tell you when she was in a tizzy over soht"

"Over what?"

"It seeists stumbled onto Atlantis The real one And so a pristine journal, were recovered"

Stryker sat back in his chair "One of Ryssa&039;s journals?"

"Given the way Arteood The hu theone to quite a bit of effort to make sure it stayed that way But if one of Ryssa&039;s journals was uncovered

It could tell everything about theh he and his Dai they needed was for their food source to get scared and start hiding froht to hunt or die This could be bad

"I need you to find that journal"

Satara walked forward to lean on his desk "Artemis is already one step ahead of you"

He pondered that Arte other than chasing after Acheron "Why does she want it so badly?"

Satara shrugged "I guess her fear is someone will learn that it wasn&039;t Apollo who sank Atlantis Or maybe Ryssa knew about Artemis&039;s relationship with Acheron and wrote about it"

Stryker&039;s mind whirled with other possibilities "Orin that book that tells Acheron&039;s weakness Maybe even a way to kill him or Apollo and Auntie too"

Satara&039;s eyes sparked with new interest "I&039;ll find that book"

"You do that And if anyone gets in your way-"

"They&039;re lunch"

"Forget Jake Gyllenhaal and Shia LaBeouf, have you ever seen a better looking roup of fe over who knehat

"I don&039;t think he goes here I&039;ve never seen him before, but I&039;d kill to have him in at least one class"

"I&039;d kill to have him under me!"

"I&039;ve seen him around He&039;s been at the bar Sanctuary on Ursu-lines a couple of ti with friends I think he&039;s hooked up with that tall blond waitress who has such a nasty attitude"

"Are you serious? How on earth did I ood and drunk"

Their comments faded out as Tory made her way to her office But as she neared it, the feher or more to the point thicker and thicker She actually had to push her way through theht She&039;d never seen so y department before

It wasn&039;t until she neared her door that she realized why

Ash was there Dressed in a long black duster that th coats he had, he leaned against the ith his arms folded over his chest His was a powerful nonchalance that was riveting She looked down and smiled at his crossed booted feet and the ever present black backpack resting behind the hair was pulled back into a ponytail And his silver nose stud had been exchanged for one that looked like a s here?" she asked, reaching her door

"Waiting for you"

She glanced around at the traffic jam he&039;d caused "Really, you should have called I think the Fire Marshal would have issues with this"

A slow grin broke across his face "Sorry"

She opened the door and stood back "You better get inside while I hold thehed before he complied

Tory turned toward the collection of students "See how exciting Anthropology is? He&039;s a leading expert in ancient Greece Now you should all change yourOr better yet, uncover nakedat her "Was that necessary?"

"Hey, I live to recruit students for the departolly I&039;ed as she put her armload of books down on her desk "Yeah, like you don&039;t have weird things you say, too So what can I do for you?"

"I want to go back to that &039;&039; statement for a minuteWhy do you hate me so much?"

Tory squirmed a bit under his hidden scrutiny and pointed question "I wouldn&039;t say I hate you The hatred has fallen down to a hed as she returned some of her books to the shelves behind her desk "Because everything seems so easy for you Have you ever had a day in your life where people weren&039;t lining up to take care of you?"

"Yes, Soteria I have I assure you, rateful every day you live that you can&039;t iine what kind of childhood I had"

Tory paused at the note in his voice and the deadly sincerity of his words "I&039;m sorry, Ash I didn&039;t know"

He set the backpack down on the floor "It&039;s easy to look at people and ments about them, their present and their pasts, but you&039;d be ale smile hides What a person shows to the world is only one tiny facet of the iceberg hidden froht And more often than not, it&039;s lined with cracks and scars that go all the way to the foundation of their soul"

He was right and it uilty that she was so quick to assess people It&039;d always been a fault of hers that she tried not to give in to "You are ae"

He snorted "I told you, I&039; in my life that I didn&039;t pay for one way or another"

She shuffled a stack of papers into her inbox "Now that I think about it, you&039;d have to be a glutton for punishiven my acerbic personality where you&039;re concerned"

Ash offered her his hand "Truce?"

"Peace,his hand "Nohy are you here?"

Sighing, he stepped back and crossed his arms over his chest "Well, I heard froists in Greece had been arrested for excavating without a permit I wanted to see if they happened to be your team"

She waved her hand dismissively "Why would they bea site they claiuys to me"

"But we have all of our paperwork"

"If you&039;re sure" he let his voice trail off fully

She screwed her face up as if she realized her luck would have them in trouble "Wait Let me call"

Ash sat down in the chair in front of her desk and stretched his legs out while she dug her phone out of her purse

Tory frowned at his backpack on the floor and the way he kept it within easy reach "What&039;s in that backpack, by the way? You&039;re always guarding it like it holds national security secrets or so"

"Dirty underwear"

She rolled her eyes "Thanks soher head, she dialed David&039;s nuain, no answer Her panic set in as she tried for Bruce

"Tory?"

She breathed in relief as he answered "Hey sweetie, I can&039;t get-"

"They&039;ve all been arrested"

Disgusted and afraid, she glanced to Ash whose handsome face was completely stoic "What?"

"The whole teaear that was co I knew, the boat was impounded and everyone was taken into custody"

Tory let out a frustrated breath "How is this possible?"

"They say our paperwork is forged"

"Bullshit! It&039;s not forged Solin helped us to get it renewed just last spring"

"Yeah and as usual Solin has fled the scene We can&039;t find hiside theht and I&039;ll see what I can do" Hanging up, she looked at Ash who sat as still as a statue "You were right My whole crew Gone Arrested Perfect Shoot me now and save me the expense of a bullet later"