Suddenly, loud noises were erupting. The chant was broken, but she still could not move. People were falling. A loud, close shot numbed her ears. The Priest was falling back, blood erupting from a sudden hole in his chest spattering her white shift. The knife was falling - falling toward her. Jessica tried to move but could not.
Strong arms snatched her off the stone Altar and cradled her close to an equally strong chest. Jessica looked into the most clear aquamarine eyes she had ever seen. No, she had seen them before, but could not remember where.
Somehow, she was safe. Whenever she saw those eyes, she was safe. Jessica felt drawn to him. He kissed her, and his lips lingered on hers. Her head was spinning again. She looked at the strong arms that held her, the large hands covered with blood, and Jessica looked back into those eyes.
“So much blood.� her voice was raspy, and weak, from the strong liquid her captors forced down her throat.
“You’re okay. It isn’t your blood. You’re safe,â€� Xerxes told her, with a soft smile down into her face.
Jessica saw he was bleeding from a slice on the right biceps “You’re hurt,â€� she whispered and gently touched the wound, her fingers red with his blood.
“It isn’t serious,â€� he said, his voice husky with emotion. His lips touched hers once more to kiss her in a deeper, more demanding manner. Xerxes knew sweet response, and her arm weakly went around his neck, drawing him closer.
It was starting to rain heavily, the lightning was worsening, and the wind had returned. She was suddenly cold and trembling. The rain making the sheer white shift they had dressed her in transparent. Xerxes wrapped a heavy blanket around her, reminding her drugged memory of another time and place. Those wonderful strong arms carried her away from danger, placed in a car seat, and buckled her in.
His lips touched hers, longer this time, arousing emotions deep inside her. Jessica touched his face as his mouth held hers. She didn’t want him to leave her, she felt so safe now, but the storm was getting worse, and her head hurt so badly from that stuff they made her drink. He started the car and they drove away from the place of death. She didn’t know to where, and now she didn’t care, she just did not want him to leave her. Jessica looked at him, he was so handsome, and she smiled at him, and managed to say “Thank you. Don’t leave me…â€� before she passed out.
Xerxes’ heart told him now was the time to take Jessica to Atlantis, while she was grateful to him for saving her. He first had to consider the security of his domain, and the retrieval of the artifacts was paramount. If he took her too soon, he would also need to extract Pericles and his team, and that would mean he would lose track of the all-important artifacts. With great reluctance and a breaking heart, Xerxes placed his future wife safely in the seat of her jeep, just outside her hotel where the sheriff would soon find her. With one last kiss on her soft lips, Xerxes realized she was regaining consciousness, her eyes fluttered open. “I love you, Jessica,” he whispered softly to her.
Xerxes climbed into his Porsche, drove back into West Palm Beach, and boarded his private yacht-sub to return to Atlantis and the problems there. Hurricane Ingraine would take a turn back into the Gulf of Mexico shortly as he had ordered his six research ships to direct her. She had entered the state over the Everglades and would exit the same way, causing a minimum of damage to the state’s residence.
Chapter Twelve
“Ms. Carter!â€� Jessica heard someone calling her from a great distance, but she floated in a dark void, her stomach rolling. It wasn’t the voice in her mind, and for the first time in her life, her heart longed to hear the voice of her rescuer. She groaned and a gut-wrenching, undeniable urge overcame her.
“Jessica!� Now a more familiar voice called.
“Bruce?” she managed to open her eyes. Only to close them again against the brightness of the lights, followed the same horrid urge.
“The lights!� she exclaimed.
“Someone turn them down,” the Sheriff commanded. “What happened?â€� Sheriff Flagler asked Jessica in a more fatherly tone after she regained her composure.
Bruce had alerted them to her kidnapping immediately, but they there were few clues as to where the men had taken her, or which direction they had gone. Bruce did not mention seeing the man with the strange aquamarine eyes, or the Marines running after him. Now Bruce stood back, and allowed Jessica to tell her story. He would tell her what he saw later.
Ms. Simon related, in detail, seeing the tall blonde man. She had gotten a good look at the car, but because of the rain could not get the tag number. She recounted Captain Curtis and his squad giving chase, this Captain Curtis confirmed, but he also reported his failure to find Ms. Carter. Ms. Simon tried to follow the truck, but whoever had taken Jessica was aware of her presence, and disabled her car. She also reported her two missed shots. Not how they missed. She knew no one would have believed her and blamed the weather conditions on her missed shots.
Jessica related the experience to Sheriff Flagler and several of his deputies slowly, explaining she remembered little, still feeling the effects of her the horrid drug they forced down her. Her voice was raspy, and raw, her stomach rolling from the horrid drink and from dispelling it. She explained her rescuer was a faceless blur. She only remembered a last second reprieve from death. Someone shot the priest, and the man snatched her from the Altar before the knife could kill her.
“He wrapped me in a blanket and buckled me into a car. I passed out after that,” Jessica whispered. Jessica felt they didn’t need to know about all the facts, whereas she remembered aquamarine eyes, blonde hair, a handsome face, and tender lips on hers and knew she always would.
She still wore the sheer white garment with the washed out bloody handprints, a physical reminder that the man who had rescued her was real, and not a hallucination. Jessica clutched the blanket around herself, the yet wet shift revealed a little too much of her naked form beneath. It was then she noted the bloodstain on her fingertips, and staring for a moment at the blood, knew to whom it belonged, Jessica stifled a sob.
Jessica warned Sheriff Flagler to expect to find several bodies when he went to investigate the area where she they had taken her.
A paramedic in the building checked her out after Captain Curtis found her still wrapped in a heavy blanket inside her jeep and before Sheriff Flagler took her statement. Whatever they had made her drink was almost out of her system and few aftereffects remained except it made her throat raw and she threw up several times.
She took off the heavy girdle and golden necklace deciding to keep them herself for all the risk and trouble she had gone through. Jessica caught sight of her face in a mirror and laughed at the picture she presented. Sure, the Sheriff would not have believed a word she said, except the truth was too evident.
Luckily, her room was intact; Sheriff Flagler checked it out first. Making sure her locks were sound, and he left her with a radio should she need further assistance.
“I’ll be okay.â€� Jessica assured him. “It’s my own fault,â€� she presented the nine millimeter pistol she had been assigned. “I know how to use it, but I really didn’t think I would be attacked in the middle of a hurricane, so I left in my room.â€�
“It is a little out of the ordinary.� Sheriff Flagler agreed with a sincere fatherly smile.
“Seems to fit my lifestyle lately.” she shrugged. “You’d better go, the backside of the eye wall is about to hit.” Jessica frowned, a perplexed look in her eyes. She remembered the violent weather that fit the battle, fought to save her. “You know I don’t think I’ve ever known a hurricane eye to stay put so long before. In fact, I think it has reversed and started back west.â€� Although the eye wall went over where the Aztecs had taken her, it changed course before the backside hit the area where the hotel was. “God,” she said to the Sheriff, “This is the weirdest hurricane…”
“You may be c
orrect, Ms. Carter,” Sheriff Flagler left her to rest.
Jessica saw Bruce standing obscurely in the back of the crowd that gathered around her, a little sly smile on his lips, now he moved toward her, staying in her room when the others were gone.
“What do you have to say about all this?� She asked him after all the official company left.
“You look like an escaped clown,� he laughed, and wanted nothing more than to hold her, but knew she would never allow it. There too, was more to her story than she had disclosed. Now a new look came into her beautiful warm brown eyes too. Bruce was sure she would never admit it but Jessica now wore the unmistakable look of love. Jessica punched him in the arm, then laughed, “I know, but what do you know about this?�
“Not much.� Bruce said, but with a knowing smile.
“More than you’re telling,â€� Jessica said.
“Not much, but,â€� he paused for effect, “I did see a strange man leave here in a black Porsche chasing after those men who took you and Captain Curtis and his squad was hot on his tail,â€� Bruce said. “I was going to get the Sheriff, for all the good it would have done. Ms. FBI took two shots at him. She didn’t miss either,â€� Bruce smiled. “I have a feeling it was a good thing the bullets bounced off the car.â€�
“What do you mean, bounced off?� Jessica asked quizzically.
“Just that - the bullets bounced off,� Bruce said with a smile. “When they did it was like they hit a blue charged field.� He could see this information had unnerved Jessica a bit.
Jessica looked intrigued, “What did this man look like?�
Bruce described him, “Sound like anyone you know?�
“No, not really,â€� Jessica lied and she knew Bruce didn’t believe her.
“Jessica, this thing is getting weird. Be careful! Somehow, I feel you’re still in danger, I’m not, but you are. Get some rest. I’ll see you in the morning, the storm’s going to break.â€� Bruce went back to his room.
Jessica removed the strange clothes they had dressed her in, took a bath, and changed into comfortable jeans and a shirt. She didn’t add the jewelry to the list of artifacts. They weren’t part of the dig and she definitely decided to keep them as souvenirs of her harrowing adventure. She then settled in for the bad side of the storm, which never hit. Jamming a chair under the doorknob, she felt moderately safer. She got herself comfortable on the bed with her sandwiches and a coke. Her stomach had settled and now demanded food. She longed to call her parents but knew she would never get the call to go through in this weather. If by some miracle she did get through, they would only worry anyway.
Now those strange maps really intrigued her. She felt they held the answers to this mystery. Drawing out the maps, she started going over them. She logged the other events into her diary in her laptop. As soon as the seas calmed down from this storm, she was going diving and to see what this map would reveal.
Some of the experiences she didn’t tell the Sheriff, she simply explained she was not sure who had saved her. She thought she had seen Captain Curtis, which was possible and probable, but because of the drug, she was not sure. Bruce only told the Sheriff that he had seen the men kidnap her. Between what Bruce told her and what she experienced, Jessica had serious doubts about exactly who Captain Curtis and his six Marines were. Still she trusted him and his men. On several different occasions, other than the cave-in and now this one, they had saved her life, along with the man with the aquamarine eyes.
What she did remember, the Sheriff and Ms. Simon would not have believed. She wasn’t sure she believed it. Perhaps it was the stuff they made her drink. Nevertheless, those eyes haunted her and the same voice, Xerxes Kallias from before this event. For the first time in her life, Jessica knew the empty feeling of loss and the new feeling of sexual arousal. She remembered the feel of his strong arms as he lifted her to safety. His lips on hers and the aroused feeling the last time he kissed her. No man had ever produced that sensation in her, yet the feelings, as the strange eyes seemed vaguely recognizable. Briefly, she thought of Bruce and wondered if that was what he felt for her. If it was, she was sad for him, as she could not return that feeling. She knew that for sure now. Finally, exhaustion took her, and she fell into a dreamless sleep for the first night in many.
She woke while it was still dark. She had fallen asleep with her clothes on, only the light from her laptop showed the power was out. When she swung her feet off the bed, the floor was wet. Oh great! She thought. To be expected. After experiencing enough weather emergencies in her life, she didn’t panic in just about any type of weather. She saved her work on the laptop and shut it down dash grateful she had invested in the long-life battery. Jessica grabbed her flashlight and gathered up her other things into her one bag. Checking the weather alert radio, she found the worst of the storm had passed. She was correct in thinking the storm had turned west. Jessica peeked through the window, which had clear storm shutters on it, and she saw the rain was down to a light drizzle. This area was between feeder bands; the winds were still about forty knots. Not too bad, she thought. She could deal with that. Just in case she picked up the nine millimeter and had it in her free right hand, and cocked. Cautiously, she opened the door, and saw Captain Curtis at the other end of the walk. She called out to him. He came running.
“Are you okay, Ms. Carter?� Captain Curtis asked anxiously.
“Yes. Listen, ah, was it you and your squad that, ah, saved me last night?� Jessica asked in an unsure manner, however she was more sure than she was ready to admit.
Captain Curtis looked at her quizzically, “You really don’t remember anything, Ms. Carter?â€� He asked without answering her question.
“Very little, and you know, It’s time you called me Jessica.â€� Jessica smiled a knowing smile.
“Yes ma’am, I mean, Jessica, call me Perry.â€� Pericles danced around the same subject with her.
“Perry?� Jessica asked with a questioning look.
“Shortened version of Pericles,� he explained with a self-conscious smile.
“Okay?� Jessica said quizzically. “Hercules?� she laughed.
“My father liked Greek mythology,� Pericles explained.
“So do I, how does your fiancée feel about it?� Jessica laughed.
“She calls me Perry,� he explained.
“Will there be a Pericles Jr.?� Jessica laughed.
“I doubt I’d name a son that, in this world,â€� he said seriously.
“I hope I get to meet your future wife,� she smiled.
“I think you will, the wedding is Saturday, will you attend?� Pericles invited.
“Thank you, I would love to, where?â€� Jessica asked, a little surprised it would be in the area. “I didn’t think you were from around here.”
“I’ll give you directions later,â€� Perry told her, and again didn’t answer her question.
“You headed to the dig? Bruce said he would be along a bit later,� Jessica said.
“Yes, come on, I’ll drive you. The General has made it clear if you’re attacked again, my squad is going to be in the brig,â€� Perry laughed, yet he was serious.
“It’s not your fault.â€� Jessica checked and put the safety on the nine millimeter, then holstered the weapon, feeling much safer with Perry.
“Don’t even try to convince the General,” Perry said. “What happened to you, anyway?â€� Perry asked, knowing what had happened, hoping she didn’t remember too much.
“You wouldn’t believe it.â€� Jessica sighed, watching Perry’s reactions to gauge them.
“Something about some nutcase cults from Aztec land,� Perry said.
“About right. I’d just like
to know who got me out of there. I don’t think I’ll ever forget those eyes, I think I’ve seen them before but I can’t seem to remember where.â€� Pericles watched her carefully, a faraway look had come across her face, and she touched her lips wistfully.
“Do you think anything will be left of our dig?� he asked her, changing the subject, making a mental note to mention her reaction to Xerxes; he remembered seeing his Atlantian Lord kiss her several times.
“No! It’s gone, I’m not so sure we were meant to find it in the first place.â€�
“I think you were,� Perry told her, and looked at her in a knowing manner.
“Perry, you know something I should know?� she looked at him quizzically.
“No, ma’am,â€� Pericles said a little too quickly, as a little too proper Marine.
“According to the General, I may have to start wearing a uniform again myself, which should be interesting. I think you’ll outrank me,â€� Jessica smirked.
“So you’re what, a Lieutenant?â€� Pericles guessed.
“Yes, just a reservist,� Jessica said in a demure, falsetto voice and then laughed.
“They will up your rank,� Pericles assured her.
“We’ll see,â€� Jessica said with some uncertainty.
The Captain parked the jeep and the General was already there. “Ms. Carter, I have some bad news.�
“To be expected,� she and Captain Curtis saluted. Technically she was activated, if not yet in uniform. “With the sink hole, the earthquake, and all the water - it had to happen sir - the lake has reclaimed its own. There might be a possibility of excavating it, but I doubt it. We should be thankful for what we have found, which is incredibly extensive. It should keep our scientists busy for a good while.�
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