Vampire in Atlantis wop-7

by Alyssa Day

  Could be. Let’s go in carefully.

  Justice wasn’t sending anything on their mental channel but waves of static and random words like kill, murder, disembowel.

  Typical, in other words, but not really helpful.

  Ven touched down close to Justice while Conlan landed a good twenty paces away. Both of them drew their daggers and scanned the area, but there was no sign of anyone else around.

  “What happened to you, big guy?” Ven crouched down next to Justice and felt for a pulse, but it was only reflex. Obviously Justice was alive, if not exactly well. The fury glowing in his spring-green eyes was a bad sign for whoever had done this to him.

  “You said vampire. Can you elaborate? Try to calm down enough to think it at me. We can’t fix this if we don’t know what’s going on.”

  Conlan walked up, still scanning their surroundings but clearly having reached the same conclusion Ven had, that nobody was around.

  “Are you getting anything? All I can hear is dire threats of a slow, torturous death for whoever did this to him,” Conlan said, grinning.

  NOT FUNNY. WILL KILL HIM. KILL DANIEL.

  The grin faded from Conlan’s face, and Ven felt as sucker punched as Conlan looked.

  “Daniel? Are you sure? He did this to you? How is that even possible?” he asked Justice.

  NIGHTWALKER MAGE POWERS. KILL HIM.

  Ven rubbed his forehead, which was beginning to pound from the sheer volume of Justice’s anger. “Got it, you’re going to kill him, but in the meantime, could you hold it down? The only thing you’re killing right now is my head.”

  Justice’s lips twitched, and after that his fingers moved slightly.

  “It seems to be wearing off already,” Conlan said. “Hell of a spell, though. Immobilizing someone with Justice’s power takes a lot, and to sustain it from a distance is extremely difficult. If this is really Daniel’s work, he’s been hiding quite a bit of his capabilities from us.”

  He attacked her and drank her blood. He has hypnotized her, too, and she believes he is protecting her. We heard this from her own lips.

  “I can’t believe Daniel would compel Serai,” Ven said. “Did you see him with her? He had the same puppy-dog eyes you have with Riley.”

  Conlan glared at him. “I don’t want to hear it from you, who acts like a lovesick youngling every time Erin is near.”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever. We need to get Justice back to Atlantis. Alaric or one of the priests will be able to fix this,” Ven said, and then he remembered. “If Alaric has returned. This week is turning into a damn clusterfuck, isn’t it?”

  Conlan shot him a look of pure exasperation. “What time in our lives hasn’t been? Do high princes get vacations?”

  Ven called for the portal, then waited until its shimmering oval began to form before he started laughing. “Sorry, Your Highness. Welcome to your life.”

  Conlan just shook his head. “I’ll take Justice to the healers, and you keep looking for Daniel and Serai. We need to find out what happened, and if she’s safe, and I don’t trust myself to keep from just tearing his head off when I see him. At least you’ll give him a chance to tell his side of this.”

  Ven suddenly wanted to hit something. “If we’re suddenly having to worry about sides—with such a trusted ally and friend as Daniel—then things are getting worse.”

  Much worse, Justice sent. We are in dire straits, indeed.

  “Dire straits, clusterfuck, apoca-damn-lyptic times. Welcome to the fun house,” Ven muttered, as Conlan carried Justice through the portal. “It just keeps getting better and better.”

  After they’d vanished, he stood perfectly still and sent his senses out into the wind, calling out to the Atlantean princess who might possibly be in thrall to one of his best friends. Better and better.

  When she didn’t respond, and not even a hint of her presence came to him, he tried to seek out a hint of her trail. The use of Atlantean magic had a unique signature, and he should be able to spot it easily enough.

  Should be able to find it quickly.

  Should be . . . but couldn’t.

  Not a single trace.

  “Nightwalker mage plus ancient Atlantean princess trumps my magic every time, I’m guessing,” he said out loud, to any of the local wildlife who might be interested. “I’m going to need help.”

  No way could he search the caves and canyons and nooks and crannies of this area by himself in time to find Serai before, oh, next year or so. It was almost dawn, so Daniel would have to head for the darkness. He had time to go for reinforcements. He called the portal again.

  “Daniel, I hope you know what you’re doing,” he told the cool night air, and then he stepped through the portal. Time to go back to Atlantis and regroup.

  Chapter 26

  Daniel and Serai hiked steadily, making better progress than they had thus far, until nearly dawn, when he called for a break.

  “We’ll need to stop soon and find a place to rest.” He scanned the area for one of the many caves that would give him sufficient darkness to avoid the deadly rays of the sun.

  Serai kept hiking, not even slowing down. “I’m not tired.”

  “Nor am I, but unless you like your companions slightly flambéed, we need to get out of the sun.”

  She instantly stopped walking and whirled around. “I’m sorry, Daniel. I wasn’t thinking. I just—we’re so close, and I can feel the Emperor in my brain, pounding and pounding its call, and—”

  “I know. I’m sorry I can’t help you in the daylight. If you have changed your mind and want to call Conlan and Ven, you know I think it’s a good idea.”

  “No,” she said, not even hesitating. “I still don’t trust them.”

  “What about Reisen?”

  She shook her head. “I’ve tried several times to contact him to see if they’re well. If Melody survived. But he won’t answer me.”

  “Or he can’t answer you,” Daniel said grimly. “Neither option is good for us.”

  She put her hands on his shoulders and looked up at him with nothing but trust in her eyes. “We can do this. We can. We’ll rest for the day and find the Emperor tonight.”

  “If it’s still here to be found,” he said grimly. “We don’t know when they’re going to move it, Serai. We need to contact Ven and Conlan, now. Too much—too many lives—depend on us finding that stone for us to wait a single minute longer.”

  She sighed and moved away from him, saying nothing, but she raised her face to the sky and closed her eyes. A long moment later, she inhaled sharply and opened her eyes.

  “There’s no response. They’re gone.”

  “That’s impossible. They wouldn’t have just left, not with the Emperor lost and your life and those other women’s lives on the line. Try again.”

  She did, but then shook her head. This time she looked a little frightened. “They’re gone, Daniel. Either dead or gone back to Atlantis, or somewhere else that is far out of my range.”

  “What is your range?”

  She shrugged. “Perhaps a thousand miles, in current measurements? More or less.”

  “That’s pretty impressive. And you’re sure? Absolutely sure?”

  “Yes. There is nothing. It’s different from Reisen; I can feel his presence but he won’t answer or has his mental communication pathway shut to all messages, not just mine. But there is no trace of Conlan, Ven, or the Nereid at all.”

  Daniel put his arms around her and pulled her close, unable to resist comforting her.

  “I can call the portal, if you’re sure we need them,” she murmured, her breath warm against his neck.

  He tried very hard to concentrate on facts and the mission at hand, but the reality of her soft warmth against his body was knocking all of his brain cells out of his head as his blood rushed south.

  “Portal?” He kissed her cheek, and her nose, and her other cheek, before taking her mouth. Heat rushed through him, a conflagration so intense he almost thought he
had been caught in the sun, from her touch and the way she responded to him.

  “Sun. Need to get out of the open,” he managed, when he could make himself stop kissing her. “Can you call the portal from inside the cave?”

  “Of course,” she said. “Which cave?”

  “There.” He pointed to an opening that nature had carved into the face of the rock wall curving away from them on the left, and the rough stone footholds that the Sinagua had added centuries ago to nature’s handiwork. “Can you climb that?”

  She flashed a wicked grin at him. “Of course. Especially now, with your magical blood inside me.”

  He didn’t have time to think of any coherent response to that before she was racing across the ground and then almost flying up the stairs to the cave. At the top, she turned and looked at him, still standing where she’d left him.

  “Coming or not?”

  Drops of water splashed on his head, and he turned his face up to the sky, welcoming the first rain they’d had since beginning the quest. Morning showers didn’t last long in Sedona this time of year, he’d noticed, and he should take advantage of this one. He flew up to the cave, not bothering with the stairs, and immediately pulled the empty water bottles out of the pack, uncapped them, and set them on the ledge.

  “Luckily they have wide mouths. They should fill easily enough,” he said. “Thankfully it’s finally raining. We were out of water.”

  Serai looked at him, then up at the sky, and then down at the water bottles. Then she leaned against the wall of the cave and started laughing.

  “Are you losing touch with reality?” he asked cautiously. “I know you’re exhausted, and this is very difficult, and the burden on you—”

  “Daniel. You just told me you’re thankful it started raining.”

  “Yes.”

  “You just told me, one of Poseidon’s own, that you’re thankful it started raining, since we were out of water.”

  He was starting to understand, and feeling like an idiot, when she apparently decided he needed visual illustrations. She waved a hand, and a shimmering silver curtain of pounding rain surrounded them—inside of the cave.

  Serai gracefully leaned down to take one of the bottles, held it up to the indoor waterfall, and then, once it was full, handed it to Daniel.

  “Taste this.”

  He drank deeply, and it was the best, purest, sweetest water he’d ever tasted. “Not bad” was all he’d admit, but she laughed at him. Together they filled the rest of the bottles, and then Serai waved her hand once more, and the indoor rain stopped, magically leaving the cave completely dry.

  “Water is the one thing—the only thing I can think of, to be candid—that we don’t need to worry about,” she said, but her smile faded quickly. “I’ll call the portal, and we’ll find out just what Conlan knew or didn’t know about the Nereid’s attack.”

  She raised her hands and softly sang out to call to the portal’s magic, but this time the portal didn’t respond right away.

  “Maybe it doesn’t like caves?”

  “That has nothing to do with it. I’m so weak, perhaps . . . I’ll try again.” She called again, but still there was no response, so she tried again.

  And again.

  And again.

  Nothing.

  The first pale rays of sun were beginning to glow in the air outside, lightening the darkness in the cave, so Daniel could see very clearly when the blood drained out of Serai’s face.

  “It’s a test,” she whispered. “It’s a test, and I have to pass it or we all die.”

  “Serai, that can’t be true. Why would you be forced to face a test when you’re fresh out of sacrificing millennia of your life for Atlantis?”

  She slowly slid down the wall until she collapsed into a ball on the cave floor. “It doesn’t matter what I did before. All that matters is now. The portal—it only ignores a call if assistance is refused.”

  “No. Ven and the guys said the portal is capricious. Maybe this is some sort of practical joke, and if you try later—”

  She shook her head. “You don’t understand. I could hear it—hear her—in my head. The spirit of the portal. She refused to allow the portal to open. Told me I must face this test alone, with no aid from Atlantis.”

  He crouched down beside her and took her into his arms. “Never,” he said fiercely. “You will never be alone so long as I draw breath. The portal will have to kill me to take you away from me, and let me tell you, I’m very hard to kill, even for a magic doorway.”

  She smiled, only a little, but it was a smile, and even so much courage was enough to take his breath away.

  “I need to kiss you now. I need to be inside you. Now. Please,” he said roughly, and he didn’t give her time to answer before he claimed her mouth in a kiss that held every ounce of his desperation that she would live, must live, no matter what obstacle.

  “Yes, Daniel,” she said, when he finally allowed her space to breathe. “Yes, I want you, too. I need you, too.”

  Serai held out her arms, aware in a place deeper than mere consciousness that she’d accepted more than just a kiss. More than just his body into hers. If they made love again, she was in very real danger of reaching the soul-meld with this man, and he would be bound to her for eternity. Exactly as she hoped. Perhaps not in his plans, however, since he kept telling her she would be better off without him. Was that just a pretty way to say he didn’t want to spend very much time with her?

  She closed her eyes, refusing even to consider it. She might not live through another day; worry for the future could certainly wait until later. For now, she had this man in her arms, kissing her, ravishing her with his deep, dangerous kisses.

  He was hers, for now. She could think about always later.

  Daniel’s strong arms wrapped around her and pulled her up off the floor so quickly that they almost levitated before he realized what he was doing and dropped back down to land on his feet, but she was still held so high and tightly in his arms that her toes didn’t touch the ground. He tightened one arm around her waist and used the other to reach up and grasp her braid, twisting it around his hand and pulling her head back so he had free access to her neck.

  “Must resist,” he growled against her skin, and she felt his tongue touch her neck and then the slight scrape of his teeth, and she froze into perfect stillness as she realized exactly what he was resisting.

  “Must not bite you, your blood is so delicious, so sweet and addictive,” he murmured, kissing his way up the side of her neck and then gently biting her earlobe as she wiggled in his arms, fighting to get closer, to feel more, to bask in the sheer sensation of being in his arms.

  Now that she knew what lovemaking truly was, she wanted more and more and more of it.

  “I may be a wanton,” she admitted, and was surprised when he laughed.

  “I really, really hope so,” he said fervently, and then he lifted her even higher, so her legs automatically wrapped around his waist, and he walked with her until her back rested against the cave wall. He kissed her again, deeper, darker, until her entire world swirled around her in a haze of sensual delight.

  “Thank you, mi amara,” he whispered, his lips only a breath from her ear. “Thank you for returning to me.”

  Daniel fought against the competing pulls of desire and bloodlust, both driving him to take her, take her, take her. He’d taken her virginity only a short while ago, and she must still be sore from that encounter. He had no right to push her to further sexual activity so soon. But the way she kissed him drove him insane. Her lips were so soft and sweet, and her passion inflamed him and drove him to the edge of madness. His body was so hard and ready, and his cock pushed forward, nudging against her sweet softness like a heat-seeking missile.

  He had to laugh at himself for the thought. Now there was an analogy that an ancient Atlantean maiden would not appreciate.

  “Daniel, why are you smiling? Why aren’t you kissing me?” She twined her fingers
in his hair and pulled his head back to hers, and the sweet taste of her mouth told him more than her words.

  Told him she was his.

  “Mine, do you hear me? I will never, ever let you go,” he told her, desire and need and possession all tangling up to darken his voice. “Don’t ever think of that Atlantean man who would be better for you. If he even dares to think about touching you, I’ll kill him.”

  She pulled away a little and laughed up at him. “Daniel. You do realize you’re threatening a figment of your own imagination, right? All I have ever wanted is you. You’re the one who keeps pushing me off on this paragon of Atlantean manhood who exists only in your own mind.”

  His fangs descended and he scowled. “Never. Do you hear me? Never. You’re mine. Say it.”

  Her smile faded and she stared into his eyes for a very long time, an eternity, before she finally nodded. “Yes. I’m yours. But you’re mine, as well, mi amaro. Say it,” she demanded, every inch the haughty Atlantean princess he’d once dreamed of in his lonely apprentice’s bed.

  “Yes. Yours. Always,” he growled. “I need to fuck you now.”

  She gasped, and her eyes darkened, and he hesitated, but she lifted her face to his in acceptance and he wanted to shout and roar his need and possession to the universe. To eternity. Instead, he released her for only long enough to strip out of his clothes and then tear hers from her body, only barely managing to be careful enough not to shred them into pieces in his urgency.

  He took her mouth again, so as not to drive his fangs into her skin. He needed all of it. Her body. Her blood. Her surrender. “Now.”

  “Yes. Now.” Serai put her arms around his neck, and he lifted her again, directly onto his erection, slowly but inexorably pushing into her silky wet heat.

  “Oh, oh,” she cried out, making little noises as he leaned her back against the cave wall, her legs wrapped around him again, but this time nothing between them but the cool dawn air.

  “Gods, you’re so wet for me, Serai, you’re so hot and wet for me. I’m losing my mind here.” He thrust farther, farther, until his cock was so far inside her that he couldn’t push any deeper. Then he stood still, giving her time to adjust to his invasion, but he couldn’t help but bend down to capture one ripe pink nipple with his mouth.