by Alyssa Day
He laughed, and she almost fell over. Laughed? Reisen?
She stalked to the cavern’s opening and stared out into the sunlight of the beautiful, clear, Arizona morning, as it reflected off the glorious red rock surrounding them. As always, the sight of this tiny pocket of nature’s beauty, unspoiled by death or war or vampires and their evil plots, nearly brought her to her knees in gratitude that there were at least a few of these places left on earth.
“Nope,” she said. “No sign of the apocalypse. And yet Reisen just laughed. Is it some horrible bit of magic gone bad?”
Reisen crossed to stand beside her, still smiling. “You smiled, too,” he pointed out. “Which is almost as rare. So quit being such a smart ass and tell me who the Atlantean woman is that you’re hiding in this cave somewhere. Jack wouldn’t let me go seek her out.”
She suddenly realized just how very, very wrong and bad this could go. “Reisen,” she began slowly, casting around for a way to let him know that the Atlantean woman was with the vampire.
She’d been wrong. The apocalypse was on the way. Nothing good could come of this.
“I haven’t seen one of my people for almost a year now,” Reisen said, looking out at the view, his voice tense with barely suppressed excitement. He clenched and unclenched his hands, probably not even realizing he was doing it. “Did Conlan send her? Is she here to tell me I can go home?”
Quinn turned to her people and gave a hand signal, and they all headed out on patrol, giving her the room so she could talk with Reisen alone. She had no idea where Jack had gone. Probably off pouting somewhere, if tigers could ever be said to pout. Mostly, they just killed and ate whatever annoyed them.
“Reisen, I don’t know if Conlan sent her. I didn’t get the impression she was a royal emissary, but what do I know about Atlantean politics? All I know is she was in rough shape, and she and Daniel went to get some rest before they make with the explanations.”
He whirled around so fast she would have thought he had vampiric speed if she hadn’t seen Atlantean warriors in action before.
“Daniel? What in the name of Poseidon’s balls is that bloodsucker doing anywhere near an Atlantean woman?” He smashed his fist into the nearest wall so hard that chips of rock shattered and fell to the floor. “I’ll kill him. Where are they?”
She held up her hands, palms out, and stepped back so she was standing between the enraged warrior and the entrance to the short corridor that led to the room where Daniel and Serai were resting.
“Unstable and dangerous,” she muttered, sighing. “Why am I always right?”
“What are you talking about? Daniel? The vampire is unstable, too? I’ll kill him if he touches a hair on her head or a single drop of her blood.”
Reisen strode toward Quinn, not even slowing as she moved to block him. In one swift motion, he put his hands on either side of her waist and lifted her up and out of his way. She sighed. She really hated being short.
Luckily, she had other advantages in a fight.
“I’d advise you not to move,” she told him in her most pleasant voice, and he froze, hands still on her waist.
Smart man.
“You may notice my knife is pressing into your nuts, big guy. You might want those, in the future. I’ve noticed most men seem ridiculously fond of theirs,” she continued, smiling angelically up at him as she pressed a little harder with the hand holding the switchblade to his family jewels.
The color drained out of his face, and a look of horror replaced the fury in his eyes.
“I’d do what she says,” a cheerful voice added. “Have you met One-Nut Mikey? He didn’t listen and, well, you can figure out the rest.”
Quinn clenched her jaw shut against the laugh that threatened. Trust Mel to back her up and even embellish the story a little. Reisen turned his head slightly, careful not to jostle Quinn, and his eyes widened. Quinn couldn’t stop the laugh from escaping that time. Mel had that effect on people.
“Having to teach another little object lesson, Quinn?” Mel sang out, dropping her overstuffed backpack on the cavern floor and stretching her curvy body.
Reisen’s eyes widened even farther. Mel stretching was like catnip to men, and apparently Atlantean men were no exception.
“Are you ready to listen to me?” Quinn asked, drawing Reisen’s attention back to her and her pointy object lesson–giver.
He nodded. “Fine. Talk fast.”
“Ooh, this one is feisty.” Mel took off her cap and shook out her short curls, which were blond with blue tips this week. She looked like a maniacal elf princess. The mischievous kind. You’d never guess she was a brilliant computer genius. The cropped shirt and low-rider jeans, combined with the hair and the skull jewelry, certainly wouldn’t give her away. “Can I have him?”
Reisen growled, and Quinn rolled her eyes at both of them. “Down, Melody. Be nice to the Atlantean warrior. You two have to go on a mission for me. Together.”
Melody, hacker extraordinaire and occasional thief, grinned and blew Reisen a kiss. “Oh, we’re going to have so much fun.”
“I’m not going anywhere with her,” Reisen said. “I need to have a serious conversation with the Atlantean woman. Now.”
“I’d like to meet the Atlantean woman, too. This place is better than a soap opera sometimes. Where’s Jack?” Mel said, dropping to sit cross-legged on the floor and taking an apple and her laptop out of her backpack. “Speaking of excitement, what is it this time, Quinn? What can I steal for our fearless leader?”
Quinn waited until Mel swallowed the bite of apple, so she didn’t need to do any Heimlich maneuvering. “I want you to steal a bank.”
Serai stirred, swimming back up through the layers of exhaustion to wakefulness. She felt like she hadn’t slept at all, but she had certain needs that were fast becoming urgent. Physical needs she hadn’t felt in so long she hadn’t even remembered how intense they could be. Her stomach also felt like a gaping, empty hole, and she realized she was hungry. Actually hungry.
“I can eat,” she said, bolting upright on the hard pallet.
Daniel, who’d apparently been sleeping on the floor next to her, shot up into the air, both hands clutching daggers. His hair was mussed, and after her initial surprise, she wanted to laugh. He looked so funny.
Also gorgeous. Hot, even, to use the current slang.
His hair had grown long, past his shoulders, and he kept it tied back with a piece of leather cord. It was still a deep black, but there were a few strands of pure silver mixed in with the silky darkness. His features had matured; all planes and angles. He was now a dangerous, deadly man where once she’d known a boy. The thought sent a thrill of adrenaline through her, and she ducked her head to hide her blush. He must have known many women in all that time; it wasn’t as if he’d be interested in an ignorant maiden. A really, really, really old maiden.
She didn’t have time to worry about it, though, her body reminded her. She needed privacy and certain facilities. Now.
“Daniel, I need some privacy—”
“Have I offended you?” He was at her side in an instant. “Damn it, I don’t know how to treat a gentle-bred lady anymore. Not that I ever did. Whatever I—”
Her face would surely catch fire from the heat. “No. I need . . . privacy. Facilities. To . . . wash my face.”
“Oh. Oh. Of course.” He jumped up and held his hand out to her. “Let’s find out how they’re dealing with that here.”
“And then food,” she said, brushing her wrinkled skirts down. “Food and drink and things I can taste. Oh, Daniel, after all these years, I want so badly to taste everything.”
His jaw clenched and he took a deep breath in through his nose, and then he simply nodded. “Got it,” he rasped out. “Taste. Everything. Come on.”
She blushed again, not exactly sure why, but her mention of tasting everything had affected him oddly.
One of Quinn’s people, a woman with startlingly red hair, was happy to show
Serai out a side passageway into the bright sunshine and to the environmentally friendly way the small camp was dealing with personal needs, and then they met up with Daniel, who’d waited as near to the entrance to the cavern as he could get without facing full daylight.
She’d almost forgotten. He looked so normal. But nightwalkers couldn’t walk in the sun without facing a hideous death by flames. On that horrible day when invaders had attacked Atlantis, the mage who’d helped her with Daniel had told her that much before he’d disappeared and taken Daniel away from her forever. Or so she’d thought. Here he was again, and she needed every ounce of self-possession to keep from throwing herself at him like the silly girl he must think she was.
She called on the haughty demeanor she’d seen so often in her former life and lifted her chin. “Now we may eat.”
His gaze dropped to her neck and she gasped so loudly that he raised an eyebrow.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t take that as an invitation to suck your delicious blood, sweetheart,” he said sardonically. “Let’s find you some food and figure out how to find that jewel of yours.”
“It’s not mine,” she pointed out, but he’d already turned his back to her, probably disgusted with her stupidity. Of course he wasn’t going to eat her. She’d just been alone and asleep, defenseless, really, with him, and he’d never shown any signs of going mad with bloodlust and attacking her.
A small voice in her head wondered why not.
He made a beckoning motion with his hand, and she followed sedately along, drawn as much by the sheer pleasure of watching him walk—oh, the man still had the loveliest backside she’d ever seen, even if it did make her cheeks hot to think it—as by the scent of grilled meat wafting through the cavern.
“Food,” she moaned, and suddenly sedate wasn’t good enough. She lifted her skirt and all but flew after Daniel, looking for the source of that wonderful aroma. After all, she hadn’t eaten in more than eleven thousand years.
Quinn stood in the main entrance to the cave, eyes closed and face lifted to the sun. She was lovely, in a scruffy, toothin way, and Serai’s stomach clenched again, this time at the idea that there was probably much more to Quinn’s relationship with Daniel than mere friendship. She’d seen how they were with each other.
Quinn must have heard them, and she turned to smile at Serai. “We have plenty to eat, and you must be hungry,” she said, pointing to a long metal table covered with plates and bowls. “Please help yourself.”
Serai returned her smile, almost in spite of herself, and queued up in line behind two of the guards she’d seen earlier. They nodded to her but didn’t speak, too busy filling up their own plates. She selected a plate and then stopped, stunned at the sight and smell of so much food.
Daniel stepped up next to her and looked at her empty plate. “Not fancy enough for your ladyship?”
She heard the mocking challenge in his tone but was too paralyzed to snap back at him. Instead, she shook her head, and when she spoke, her voice trembled a little.
“I don’t know what to try first. I haven’t touched actual food in more than eleven millennia, Daniel. I don’t . . . I don’t even know what I like or don’t like anymore. Will my stomach reject food? Do I dare try unfamiliar plants, like that green one? How do they make it transparent like that?”
The hard lines of his face softened, and he almost smiled.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t think,” he said softly. “Of course you haven’t. Why don’t you do what someone recuperating from an illness does? Try a little of a few different things and see how your system takes it.”
He raised one hand and brushed a tear from her cheek, making her feel a fool. She hadn’t even known she was crying, and over food, of all the stupid things to finally make her break down. Before she could apologize, or sink into the floor, or do any of a dozen other things she might have done, he poked one long finger at the clear green food.
“And this? Is Jell-O. I’m not sure that it’s really food at all,” he said in an overly loud whisper, making her wonder why everyone else started laughing.
She took his advice and chose a few tiny portions of the most recognizable foods. A bit of what clearly came from a game bird or domesticated fowl. Fresh fruit. A sliver of a luscious cake that she probably shouldn’t risk, but she couldn’t resist the rich, sugary aroma that rose up to tantalize her. She noticed that Daniel piled a plate high with nearly as much food as the human men had taken, which answered the question of whether or not the nightwalkers—vampires, they called them these days—still ate food or subsisted entirely on blood. Her neck tingled at the thought of Daniel biting her. She wasn’t sure if the sensation was from revulsion or desire.
He sat on the floor next to the small stool she’d chosen to sit on, crossing his long, elegant legs in front of him and resting his plate on his lap. He glanced at the contents of her plate and grinned up at her.
“Well? What will you try first?”
She bit her lip, wondering the same thing. Of course she should eat the fruit and meat first, that was only proper, but the sweet dessert tempted her so much.
“Go for it,” he advised, following her gaze. “One of the few benefits of being all grown up is that you can eat your dessert first.”
She laughed and was rewarded by his answering smile. Still, she hesitated until he leaned over, speared a bit of cake on his fork, and held it up to her lips. She was shocked by the intimacy of the gesture; only a courting or wedded couple would feed each other in Atlantis. Or so it had been thousands of years ago.
Daniel’s dark eyes held a challenge and something else. Admiration? Desire? A tingle of almost savage glee raced through her, and she leaned forward to allow him to place the cake in her mouth.
I’m not in Atlantis anymore.
She closed her lips around the fork and moaned with pure, hedonistic joy at the sugary explosion of taste in her mouth. Oh, by all the gods and goddesses, this was surely the most wonderful pastry she’d ever tasted. She opened her eyes to see that Daniel’s had gone dark and wild, and even she, with her limited knowledge of men, knew a moment of very feminine triumph.
He wanted her. In that moment, no matter what else or who else entangled him, he wanted her.
“If you make a noise like that again, Serai, I’m not responsible for what I do to you,” he murmured, his voice a rasp of steel over velvet, and suddenly parts of her body that had felt nothing for millennia warmed and tingled in an entirely fascinating way.
As he slowly drew the fork back, she parted her lips to release it, and gained another small victory when he inhaled sharply. His face had gone hard and predatory, and she suddenly knew that had they been alone, he would have pounced on her. She wasn’t quite sure if she would have fled or pounced right back. Something about the way he was looking at her, as though she herself were a bit of sugary cake that he wanted to taste, made her think pounce.
Definitely pounce.
A wave of warmth started around the vicinity of her toes, heading north, and she enjoyed it far too much.
“I hope you like the chicken,” one of the women guards said to her. “That’s my mama’s special recipe. I’m June, by the way.”
Serai tried a bite of chicken and smiled at June, delighted simply to be awake; sitting, eating, and having an actual conversation. If only people knew how wondrous it was to do such ordinary things. “I like it very much. Please thank your mother for me and tell her it is wonderful.”
A hint of sadness crossed the woman’s face. “Thank you, honey, but Mama is up in heaven with the angels. She got in the way of a vampire.”
Daniel stopped eating and rested his fork on his plate, then respectfully nodded his head to June. “I am sorry for your loss.”
Serai was impressed with the woman’s dignified demeanor. Not a hint of anger toward Daniel showed in her expression or manner.
“I thank you for that, but you should know that I don’t blame you for what happened to my mama any more
than I blame Jack for what happened to my uncle or, for that matter, blame Quinn for what humans have done wrong in the world,” June said with quiet dignity. “There’s just no accounting for evil and meanness, and we can’t judge a species by a few bad apples.”
“You are truly wise, Lady June,” Serai said, handing her plate to Daniel and standing up to curtsy to the woman and give honor to those she had lost. “May the oceans of your ancestors bless and protect you and your family.”
June wiped tears from her cheeks and enfolded Serai in a huge hug.
“Oh, bless your heart, honey.” She patted Serai’s back and then let her go before pointing at Daniel. “You take care of this nice girl or you’ll be hearing from me, young man.”
Daniel nodded gravely, although Serai saw a hint of a smile playing around his lips, probably at being called “young man” by this youngling who’d only lived a handful of decades. “I promise I will.”
June bustled off, and Serai resumed her seat and her exploration of the fruit that was so like and yet unlike Atlantean blushberries. She held the large, ripe, red fruit up and raised an eyebrow.
“Strawberry,” Daniel said. “How’s your stomach doing?”
“So far, so good.” She took a bite of the strawberry, almost humming with happiness as the fruit’s sweet and tart taste exploded on her tongue. Just for a short while, sitting here and eating what was quite like a picnic back home, she could almost forget the danger she and the others faced. She could almost be an ordinary woman, not a freak conjured by magic and the dictates of an ancient society’s breeding program. Right at that moment, she thought she would be perfectly happy to never, ever step foot in Atlantis again.
Naturally, that’s when the Atlantean warrior raced into the cave and, taking in the room at a glance, leapt across the floor toward Daniel, drawing a lethal-looking sword as he came.
“If you hurt her, I will end you, vampire,” the warrior shouted.
Faster than thought itself, Daniel was up and off the floor, blocking Serai from the madman. Daniel had drawn his daggers, but she’d seen sword against daggers when Atlantis was attacked, and she never wanted to see it again. Especially not when Daniel was the one with only the daggers.