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Not yet.
    Now he wanted to find her. Needed to find her. The Scarlet Ninja was suddenly the only mission he cared about. He’d wanted a challenge, hadn’t he? She was definitely that. How had a woman he hadn’t really even seen aroused him more with a brief brush of her lips than any tumble in the sheets had done in decades?
    He pulled himself up and, from a crouching position so as not to shout his presence to the world, scanned the grounds for the uniquely bending shadows that had signaled her presence inside the Tower. It took several long seconds, but he found her. She was running, and she was still shadowed.
    There was nothing magical or preternatural about her running speed, however, and he would easily catch up.
    Wouldn’t she be surprised at what she found when she finally stepped outside her magical shadows? He laughed and, channeling the power of Poseidon once again, threw himself off the roof and into the rain.
    This would have to be his last effort to travel as mist until he’d had rest and food. Exhaustion was pulling at him, amplified by the remnants of the drug still working itself out of his system. The transformation itself should help remove the drug, though, balancing out the drain on his magic as he changed forms yet again.
    He focused on the way the curving shadows moved through the grounds and toward the gate, barely perceptible in the drizzling rain. She moved so gracefully, almost dancing between one raindrop and the next. It couldn’t be just the light she was bending with her magic. Shifters had extremely powerful noses, and she’d been within scenting range. But clearly they hadn’t caught so much as a whiff—or the sound of her heartbeat, either. If he hadn’t known better, he might have thought she was a vampire.
    He did know better, though. More than two centuries spent fighting vamps had taught him how to recognize a vampire when he confronted one. She had a magic he hadn’t seen before, that was all.
    Maybe Fae, but even as he thought it denial rose to counter it. Not Fae, please not Fae.
    He hated the Fae.
    Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon 06
    Page 23 of 188
    There. She’d veered away from the loose grouping of guards near the gate and circled around, slipping through behind them even as Christophe watched. That easily, and she was gone.
    He wondered if it was always that simple for her. Decided it must be. After all, she was the Scarlet Ninja, celebrated throughout the United Kingdom. People in every pub he’d entered during the past few days had happily and drunkenly embellished rumors about this phantom who’d stolen millions of euros’
    worth of jewelry and art, but never been caught or so much as seen. People were speculating that he—and wouldn’t they be surprised to see just how much the Scarlet Ninja was not a man—was a descendant of the legendary Robin Hood. He gave an amount worth exactly half of every take to various charities and causes, accompanied only by his calling card: a shiny silver card embossed with the scarlet silhouette of a ninja.
    Distraction. If he kept thinking about her, he might forget to realize how much he was hurting.
    Exhaustion took on the form of physical pain, even for an Atlantean warrior, when he’d been living on pints and very little else, not even sleep, for days, and then overused his magic in pursuit of a phantom.
    Alaric would be furious. The thought cheered him up enough to keep him going for a little farther, just a bit . . . there.
    He’d caught her. The long, dark car pulled smoothly away from London’s hideous traffic and up to the curb just long enough for the back door to be opened ever so briefly, seemingly by whoever sat inside behind those dark-tinted windows. And if Christophe hadn’t been watching very, very closely, he never would have seen the flash of scarlet silk materialize before the door slammed shut and the car pulled back out into traffic. Not a chance the traffic cameras had caught a bit of her,