Atlantis Rising

That damned bear and its pink ribbon.

Riley sank down on the sand near the water and gave in to the tears.

When a fresh wave of grief flooded his mind, Conlan raised his head, scenting the air.

She's near. She? I don't know how I know, but, yeah, it's a she. Maybe a few miles from here?

He started walking, sped up.

Began to run. Flashed into molecules of pure water with the preternatural speed of his kind.

Must find her.

Need, inexplicable but intense. Primal determination.

Must find her now.

Riley heaved in a shaky breath, trying to surface from the currents of sorrow threatening to drag her under. Dina would go to jail.

Please, God, watch out for Dina.

Riley looked up at the impervious moon again and laughed bitterly. Although, why do I bother? It's not like the hundreds of prayers I've sent up before have made a difference. The baby is the worst of it. If she even lives, she's going to a foster home.

Riley thought of a baby she'd just placed with a foster home; one of the better ones. Mrs. Graham loved all of her kids, but had a special affinity for the broken ones. The baby had peered up into Riley's face as she'd handed his twitching, crack-addicted body over to his new caregiver. His tiny fingers had furled and unfurled like sea anemones searching for a sunlight that might never come.

She rubbed her arms, shivering. Mrs. Graham was at max capacity. Riley didn't have anybody available who was as good. Dina's baby probably would be raised in an even worse form of the culture of violence and poverty that had shaped both Dina and Morris.

If the baby even lives.

Riley almost physically shoved the thought to the back of her mind. She couldn't go there. Not now.

Not when she was so close to the edge of sanity.

Put it in the box, Riley. Think about it tomorrow.

Even as she clenched her jaws to stop the scream clawing its way out of her throat, some weird sixth sense picked up the danger. She caught a glimpse of them out of the corner of her eye, creeping across the sand, flickering in and out of sight in the shadows cast by the clouds.

Three of them. She jumped up into a crouch, ready to run, scanning the area for a way to escape.

Stunned that—for the merest split second—she'd felt too hopeless to even try to save herself.

Chapter 4

Conlan swirled through the air faster than he'd ever moved, arrowing his focus to use the droplets of water in the sea air as a prism, until he could see the outline of her shape.

Score a point for Atlantean vision.

Shadows caught at the moonlight, obscuring her face. All he could see was a slender form, huddled on the beach. The impact of her grief magnified—trebled—when he saw her shoulders shudder.

She was definitely the source of the emotional grenade that had smashed into his defenses. No army. No vamp mind-control conspiracy.

One lone human female. And she was projecting emotion.

She was aknasha. Empath.

Stunned, disbelieving, he sent a tentative mind probe to her. Her mind clamped on to his probe, the energy of her thoughts rearing up, defensive. As if she sensed danger.

She thought he was a predator. He bared his teeth, nearly smiling. He'd been called worse.

He tried to shut down his mental shields, but she lashed out at him. Defense turned to offense—seeking to discern what the hell he was.

Get out of my mind! Defiance. Courage.

Pure, heated emotion.

And, buried way down deep: a tendril of fear.

His logic tried to make sense of the impossible. Not even Atlanteans could project emotion into the mind probe anymore. And yet she did. On a level so intense, so visceral, that his warrior senses nearly missed the threat to her.

There were three of them. They planned to hurt her. He swore viciously under his breath in the ancient tongue.

They were going to die.

He moved even faster.

Riley lifted her head, suddenly aware of a threat far greater than the three who stalked her. Something— someone—she almost felt him inside of her.

'Great. Either we've got vamps with new mind-control powers, or that damn sixth sense of mine picks now to go haywire,' she muttered, even as she pushed herself up off the beach and started walking. Fast.

Maybe she'd been wrong. Maybe they were just three guys out for a walk on the beach.

Yeah, and I'm Goldilocks.

'Hold up there, babe. We want to have a little talk with you,' one of them called out in a thick voice. The others laughed, and the menace in their laughter sent a curl of fear shivering up Riley's spine.

The air around her thickened, seemed to swirl with a darker black, as if an opposing force gathered itself, threatened.

But it didn't threaten her.

The dark caressed her as it passed, then built into an ominous cloud behind her. She kept walking, faster, nearly jogging now, glancing back over her shoulder. The men had stopped, openmouthed.

'What the hell is that?' one of them said, rubbing his arms. His belly hung low over his belt and his greasy hair was combed over his balding scalp. An angry-looking red scar snaked up out of his collar to the side of his neck. He caught her looking at him and leered at her. 'Yeah, you're anxious to get a piece of me, aren't you, chickie? Guess you're not as tough as the other one.'

The men put their heads down, driving their way through the shadows of the barrier, and stumbled after her.

She shuddered. Started to run. The unseen threat in the air around her escalated.

Nothing human could do that. It was an intangible presence—but a very tangible threat.

Oh, no. Somebody please help me. It's a damn vampire. Or a shape-shifter. I never should have broken curfew.

The sand seemed to mock her, catching her ankles, making her stumble. She heard her pursuers thundering closer and closer.

She shoved the panic away. Remember what you tell your clients. It's rape— horrible, soul deadening, but you'll be alive. It's not murder. It's only temporary. Nothing matters but staying alive. You can survive this.

An inhumanly vicious roar sounded through her head—no, it wasn't just in her head. She heard it. She lurched to a stop, glancing behind at her pursuers.

The bastards behind her stopped, too. 'What the hell was that, Red? You said none of those fucking werewolves hung out around here,' one of them whined.

Riley shook her head, trapped. Bones turned to liquid. She forced herself to keep moving.

Better to risk being lunch for an unseen vampire than victim of a gang bang. Too early for shape-shifters.

'Guess rapists these days aren't up on lunar phases,' she said, hysteria threatening to overwhelm her.

The roar came again, stopping her in her tracks. Terror whipped through her. Nothing human made that