Anubisa smiled, delicately stepping over the body of a fallen shape-shifter. 'You are my first, Barrabas. My oldest child, my precious one. Of course I would come when you called.'
Her eyes glowed red, and she parted her lips to show Barrabas a mouth crowded with razor-sharp fangs. Punishing, ripping, and tearing fangs.
Conlan knew all about those fangs, would have shuddered if his body hadn't been held in a vise grip of power.
Barrabas swayed, trapped hypnotically in his master's deadly pull. 'Yes, your first, my goddess.'
She gracefully lifted a hand to touch him, ripped the shirt from his body. 'Then
'
Gave Conlan hope. If rage overwhelmed her, there was a chance he could defeat her. If Riley still lived—and he refused to believe that she did not—Poseidon would find a way to heal her.
Barrabas shrieked, and the sound pierced Conlan's skull. He jerked his gaze back to the vamps in time to see Anubisa lift her head from Barrabas's shoulder.
What was left of Barrabas's shoulder.
A chunk of it was in her mouth.
She smiled at him again, blood and pieces of flesh trapped in her fangs. 'You have failed me. Worse, you tried to deceive me, fool.'
She flicked out a hand, ripped his pants from him. The vampire knelt naked and bleeding in front of her, sobbing and shrieking in a hideous cacophony of pleading and apology.
'We have to set an example, don't we, my dear?' she murmured, voice almost gentle. Then she curled her hand into a claw and it shot out toward Barrabas's groin.
A tortured shriek beyond any Conlan had ever heard since leaving her lair ricocheted through the room, and he watched in utter horror as she opened her fingers to show Barrabas the bloody spectacle of his own balls in her hand.
'Yes,' she repeated, delicately sucking the meat out of her hand. 'We have to set an example.'
As Barrabas fell over, still screaming, her hand shot forward again.
This time, she came back with his heart. Barrabas never uttered another sound.
Riley felt consciousness coming back to her in ripples, as muted waves of sound and light washed into her mind. Conlan's horror, unshielded, nearly made her vomit, but some instinct told her to play dead.
She damn near was, if the pain crashing through her head was any clue.
She opened her heart and her mind, opened her
Utter silence flooded her brain. She'd failed.
She traded humility for defiance.
Still silence. Hopelessness devastated her. If even the god who'd marked her deserted her, what hope did she have against the goddess of death?
She nearly shuddered in relief, remembering at the last second to remain perfectly still.
With that, his thundering presence was gone from her mind. But something hard and sharp was poking her in the butt.
She felt the unmistakable shape of the Trident warming beneath her bent and broken body, filling her with heat and light and healing. With a single, silent blast, every injury was repaired, and she was filled with a sense of enormous power.
The mark on her shoulder burned, reminding her of her duty.
With one smooth motion, she grasped the shaft of the Trident and jumped to her feet. 'Hey, bitch! Wanna play?'
Anubisa, hand full of some disgustingly bloody-looking thing, swung her attention to Riley, hissing. Conlan stood in the center of the room, muscles quivering, clearly unable to move.
'You're not dead yet, little whore? And you think to play with the toys of the gods? Oh, please. This might be fun,' Anubisa said, voice purring with smug superiority.
Riley took a deep breath and pointed the Trident at her. 'Hell, I don't even know how to work this thing, but let's go with modified light-saber,' she muttered.
Then she screamed out her own defiance. 'Take this, you evil, ugly, bloodsucking fiend!'
And she called on the power with everything in her.
The Trident sang with a sweet, clear sound of soaring power, and it vibrated in her hands. As Anubisa's expression changed from a sneer to shocked surprise, a silvery torrent of pure energy shot out of the point of the Trident and arrowed directly into the vampire goddess, blasting her off her feet.
The shock wave of power spread through the room, and Conlan broke free of whatever magic had held him and ran to Riley. 'You're alive! Thank the gods,
He grasped the shaft of the Trident with his hands over Riley's and they aimed it at Anubisa again, as she tried to stand up.
'Die, you foul hell spawn!' Conlan roared.
'Stay away from my boyfriend!' Riley yelled.
This time, the powerful surge of energy shot into Anubisa and lifted her up into the air, smashing her into the ceiling and holding her there. Her head fell back and her mouth opened, and the energy poured through her mouth and nose and eyes, and then—with a thunderclap of sound—she disintegrated.
The stream of energy shut off like a faucet, and Riley and Conlan fell against each other. He put his hands on her face, turning it back and forth. 'You're not hurt? How are you not hurt? I saw—'
'Poseidon. He healed me with the Trident,' she said, laughing and sobbing at the same time.
They both thought it at the same time. 'The others!'
They ran to Alaric and Quinn first, and Riley dropped to her knees next to her sister, crying harder at the sight of Quinn lying in such a huge pool of blood. Conlan yanked the sword out of their bodies, then knelt beside Riley, putting his hands over hers on the Trident again.
They both focused, channeled the power again. Watched as the healing silvery-green light spread over Alaric and Quinn. Saw the color come back to their faces. Heard the gasps of air sucked into their lungs.
Quinn opened her eyes. 'Riley?'
'You're going to be fine, Quinn. Everybody is going to be fine.'
Chapter 39
Conlan and Riley blinked at the light as they walked out of the door and into the bright sunshine. Quinn and Alaric, Jack, back in human form, and the rest of the Seven and the shape-shifters followed them into the bright noontime sun. Reisen came last, cradling his wounded arm, with Micah. The Trident had healed him, but Poseidon had not gifted him with the return of his hand.
