Heart of Atlantis

her.

“Your Atlanteans are mine now,” Anubisa cackled. “I could kill you, but I think it will hurt you much more if I leave you alive to watch.”

“You have need,” whispered a familiar deep voice behind Quinn, and when she frantically nodded, the portal appeared—in the sky over the top of Anubisa’s head, and a familiar shape came soaring out. A quarter ton of tiger, with a small Japanese woman riding on his back, flew through the air and crashed into Anubisa, who dropped the baby. Quinn sprinted for Aidan and caught him on the way down in a perfect football hold. The baby blinked up at her and then started screaming for his mother, and Quinn wanted to scream, too.

Anubisa, currently on the ground, lying flat on her face underneath the enormous tiger, screamed, too.

The only ones who didn’t scream were Alaric and Noriko, who both bent down to examine Riley. Their gazes met over her body.

“You’re too late,” Anubisa hissed, and then she vanished, and Jack fell over with a thump.

“I am never too late,” Noriko said, placing her hands in the air about an inch above Riley’s chest. Alaric added his supercharged new magic to hers, and together they formed a blue-green shield above and around Riley’s body. Long seconds passed, and then Riley coughed and sat up, looking around like she’d just woken up from a very bad dream.

“She was still alive, only hanging on by a thread, but her kami—her spirit—is very strong,” Noriko said, rising to her feet and holding out a hand to Riley.

“Konbanwa, Riley-san,” Noriko said. “You will need to rest.”

Riley stared up at the ex–portal spirit/Japanese woman combo as Quinn stared at them both, tears running down her face. “And you are?”

“It’s complicated,” Quinn broke in. “For now, let’s get you and the baby to a safe place before Conlan finds out about this.”

But they were far too late for that. Conlan hit them at top speed, nearly bowling over Alaric, about two seconds later.

“What in the nine hells happened to my wife?” he roared.

Quinn made a face at Riley, faking a nonchalance she was worlds away from feeling.

“Your Atlantean is overprotective, too? This is going to be a very long night.”

Riley blinked, dazed, and touched her shirt, and her fingers came away soaked with blood. “What happened?”

“We will tell you on the way,” Alaric said. “Now move.”

Chapter 32

Quinn knew that Alaric wanted nothing more than to sweep her up and deposit her someplace safe, but he could feel from the soul-meld, burning brightly between them, that she’d try to kill him if he even attempted it. Not to mention that she was currently wrapping her arms around an enormous tiger.

“Jack, you came. You came,” she repeated.

The tiger licked the side of her head in one giant slurp, and Alaric glared at them.

Please tell Jack that I will punch him in the head as soon as I am able to make him human again.

“You can punch anybody you want, as soon as we defeat the vampires,” Quinn said.

Jack turned his enormous shaggy head toward Alaric, and she could have sworn that the beast was laughing at him.

“Now, Quinn,” Alaric said. “We need to get Riley to safety, and I think if you would stay with your sister and the child, you could—”

Quinn stood, one hand still on Jack’s head, and glared at him. “This is what I do, Alaric, and you know that about me. I fight.”

“Fight later, if you please, but now we should run,” Noriko said, bowing to both of them.

“Alaric,” Conlan shouted, as he swept his wife and child into his arms and started running.

“Already doing it,” Alaric replied, before briefly closing his eyes.

Before he’d even opened them again, an overpowering wave of fear buffeted Quinn. The people all around them blasted her with the powerful emotion as they turned to look at Alaric, either nod or bow to him, and then began herding their children toward the nearest available buildings.

“I sent out a warning,” Alaric said. “They will arm themselves and protect their families. My concern is that, other than ceremonial pieces and the odd family heirloom, none but the warriors keep weapons.”

Quinn dodged to get out of the way of a woman running with one child by the hand and a baby in her other arm. The woman’s emotions were a mixture of fear and determination. She’d fight hard for her children—of that Quinn had no doubt.

“Well, they haven’t had to protect themselves for a long time,” Quinn said. “But they’ll do their best. Are we on the way to find weapons for ourselves?”

Alaric simply nodded and sped up his pace, until they were practically running.

“Wherever Anubisa disappeared to, I have a bad feeling she didn’t go far,” Quinn said, shivering as goose bumps rose on her arms.

“Evil is never far enough away,” Noriko said, keeping pace next to Quinn. The former portal spirit glanced at Alaric. “So you did find a measure of peace, and the soul-meld. I am pleased for you.”

Jack, who was padding along between them, snarled, and Quinn rolled her eyes.

“Arigato,” Quinn said. “I don’t want to know how you know that, though. And you? Have you found peace? Also, would you have any idea what the current portal spirit is up to? He has been kidnapping people left and right and sending them wherever he feels like sending them.”

“He?” Noriko shook her head. “No, I have no idea. But Poseidon has much control over our actions. It is he who released me from my bond.”

“And Jack?”

Jack’s ears flicked back, but he didn’t look at Quinn.

“Nothing has changed, unfortunately,” Noriko said, but she did briefly touch Jack’s head.

“We don’t have time for this now,” Conlan said, pointing up. “That doesn’t look like anything good.”

They all looked up to find swarms of darkness covering the twilit sky. A blinding burst of pure, primal terror flooded Quinn, and she couldn’t breathe for a moment, until she realized most of it was coming from the Atlanteans who were still outdoors. Of course they wouldn’t have seen vampires before. Their fear tasted like acid in Quinn’s mouth—there was nothing more primal than the loathing and terror of creatures who wanted to drain your blood, and these were attacking in such masses as to block out the first sunset the Atlanteans had seen in eleven millennia.

“She’s back, and she has reinforcements,” Quinn shouted, slamming shut her emotional shields so she could survive the massive amount of terror pounding her brain. “Run!”

Seconds later, the swarm of vampires hit Atlantis like a plague of locusts, attacking everyone in sight. Alaric turned and walked backward, hurling energy spheres as he moved. Wherever one of his deadly little balls landed, vampires screamed and died.

But most of the screaming and dying was happening to the Atlanteans and their guests. Quinn flinched as three of the bloodsuckers attacked a man and ripped him apart.

The palace finally rose up in front of them and she raced Jack indoors. Once inside the palace, Conlan stopped running and let Riley walk on her own.

“I’m taking her to the safest place in the palace,” Conlan said. “Our rooms are warded and defensible.”

“Take Noriko,” Quinn advised. “She has a killer force field. She can help protect Riley and the baby.”

Conlan nodded, and they sped away. Quinn headed down a corridor after Alaric.

“The armory is this way. How are you with a sword?”

She rolled her eyes. “Not all that great. I don’t have much practice with boiling oil or cannonballs,