Vampire in Atlantis wop-7

by Alyssa Day

  A single tear escaped her lashes and ran slowly down her cheek, and he wanted to rip his tongue out of his mouth for shouting at her.

  “Don’t cry for me, Princess. Don’t ever waste your tears on me.”

  “But it’s all my fault,” she whispered. “I chose this life for you. I caused you to be a nightwalker, to suffer the bloodlust and the years and years of torment. All my fault. How you must hate me.”

  She fell to her knees and covered her face with her hands, but he could still hear her sobs, and the hard, blackened shell covering his heart cracked a little bit more.

  “No,” he said, lifting her into his arms. “Never, ever think that. You gave me the chance to live. To do something worthwhile with my life. It is not your fault that I failed so spectacularly.”

  She lifted her tearstained face to him. “But you’re not failing anymore. You aren’t. You’re making the world a better place now. You keep saying you’re a monster. Even a monster can be redeemed, Daniel. The gods themselves teach us that. Are you so arrogant that the precepts of the gods and their teachings about forgiveness do not apply to you?”

  He kissed the tears from her cheeks, one by one. “Forgiveness is a pretty concept, mi amara. But some things are too horrible to be forgiven. I have helped to take down some of the worst monsters in history, and still the scales are not balanced. When will I ever be able to do enough? When will I ever be able to live at peace with my past? Never. Only death will give me peace.”

  “Then you condemn me to live another life without you?” She put her arms around his neck and stared fiercely into his eyes. “Do you think I will allow that? Think again, blacksmith, before you try to defy a princess of Atlantis.”

  Her soft sniffle diminished the effect of her proud words, but he knew what she was trying to do for him, and his soul warmed with gratitude that she would even make the effort.

  “I can never deserve you,” he said solemnly.

  She flashed a beautiful smile, the tears still glittering on her lashes like miniature stars in the moonlight. “No? Well, you have the next thousand years or so to try, but not a day longer.”

  “There’s more,” he warned her, trying to make her understand before he began to believe her foolishness. Before he began to hope. “I am blood-bonded with Quinn. Ven’s wife’s sister Deirdre died because of me. Everyone I care about dies. You would do well to stay far away from me.”

  “This blood bond, was it to save Quinn’s life, as you did with me?”

  “Well, yes, but—”

  “And the other. Deirdre,” she said, persisting even though he could see the pain in her eyes and hear it in her voice. “Did you love her? How did she die?”

  “No. No, I didn’t love her. I tried to save her, but she’d lost so many years to torture and despair. She threw herself in front of a death meant for me in order to escape her pain,” he admitted.

  “I know that other women have been part of your life, but I don’t care. I can’t be jealous of them or angry with you for any friendship or solace you found when you believed me to be dead. I already lost you once,” she whispered. “I will not lose you again. Stop trying to make me leave you.”

  He cast around in his mind for something—anything—that he could say to convince her, but she wasn’t giving him time to think. She was so warm and soft in his arms, and her body against his made him want to take her, over and over again.

  She kissed him, and he forgot trying to be rational and stern and noble. Instead, he kissed her back, with everything his soul felt but his mind wouldn’t allow him to say.

  “Daniel,” she whispered, a long time later. “I’m feeling dizzy again.”

  He grinned. “I have that effect on you.”

  Her answering smile was faint. “Yes. No. I think—”

  Her eyes rolled back in her head, and she slumped against him. He caught her and gently placed her on the grass, hurriedly stuffing the backpack under her head. The damnable Emperor was taking its toll on her, and they were running out of time. She was growing weaker and weaker, and he was helpless to do anything to prevent it.

  He leaned over her to reach into the backpack for another bottle of water, and was relieved to discover that her pulse and breathing were both strong. It was temporary, then. A little rest would surely make her better.

  He felt the shift in air pressure even before he heard the shout. Somebody was coming in, and coming in fast. He rolled to the side and shot up, daggers in hands, to protect Serai from whatever new danger was attacking, but he was totally and completely unprepared for what he saw.

  It was an Atlantean attacking them. A warrior with a long blue braid. A man he knew and had counted as an ally. Just before the sword swung in a deadly arc toward his head, Daniel had time to shout out his attacker’s name.

  “Justice! What the hell are you doing?”

  But then the battle was on, and Daniel saved his breath for the fight because, for some insane reason, Lord Justice of Atlantis was trying to kill him.

  Chapter 23

  Upon regaining consciousness, Serai’s first thought was that she must be dreaming, because Daniel was battling an Atlantean warrior who was trying his best to kill him. This one had the classic Atlantean looks—tall, dark, and muscled. She might have even thought him handsome, if he weren’t wielding an enormous sword against the man she loved.

  Daniel deflected a vicious strike with his daggers and launched himself up into the sky, flipping over in midair above the warrior’s head and landing gracefully behind him. Daniel’s hand shot out and struck the attacker, hard, but with the hilt of his dagger, not the blade.

  Why would he do that? She didn’t want to distract Daniel, especially against such a deadly fighter, but she needed to know what was going on. She carefully sat up, fighting a wave of dizziness, and waited for a momentary lull.

  “Daniel? Who is this, and why is he attacking us?”

  Daniel flung himself to the side to avoid another thrust of that wickedly sharp-looking sword, but it sliced through his shirt. “Princess, meet Lord Justice, formerly of Atlantis.”

  “Formerly? What do you mean by that, vampire?” Justice said, pausing in his attempt to skewer Daniel. “We have not left Atlantis.”

  “I mean formerly, as in you’re going to be dead soon, if you don’t stop this right now and tell me why in the nine hells you’re attacking me,” Daniel growled.

  Justice swung his long braid, which looked almost blue in the moonlight, out of his way and took a ready stance with the sword held out and up in front of him. “Perhaps you should have thought of consequences when you attacked a princess of Atlantis. Now you will die for your presumption, and we shall happily be the ones to deliver the true death to you.”

  Serai pushed herself off the ground to stand up, trying to ignore how shaky she was. If they didn’t find the Emperor soon, she was afraid she wouldn’t last much longer.

  “This is making me very angry, Lord Justice,” she said, putting the full force of her position in her voice. “I am getting a little tired of people attacking Daniel. It was bad enough when danger came from our enemies, but first Jack, then Reisen, and now you. All allies, or so you claim, and yet you dare to attempt to harm the one person who is aiding me on my quest to retrieve the Emperor?”

  Justice tilted his head and stared at her for a long minute, his eyes narrowed, as if trying to comprehend her meaning. He finally shook his head, dismissing her. “You do not understand, my lady. He was attacking you. Clearly he has used his vampire powers to enthrall you.”

  Pure, clean, healthy rage burned through Serai, searing the last of her dizziness to ash. “Did you just dismiss me as a silly girl who has fallen for a vampire’s tricks?” She made sure to carefully enunciate each word. “You have just insulted the wrong Atlantean, youngling.”

  Daniel laughed, drawing Justice’s attention again. “You’re in trouble now, Justice. When she called Alaric and Conlan younglings, she really put them in their pl
ace.”

  Justice turned a shocked expression to Serai. “You did that? How did our brother react?”

  Serai raised an eyebrow. “Which one is your brother? Alaric or Conlan? You have a similar look around the eyes as Conlan, but the blue in your hair is pure Nereid. Though of course I have not seen a true Nereid for more than eleven thousand years.”

  Justice lowered the sword a few inches, relaxing his ready stance a bit. “You have met our kind? Truly? We had known you were one of the ancient ones, but we never thought—”

  Faintly, ever so faintly, Serai felt a touch of very old magic sing its way through the space surrounding the three of them. She shot a glance at Daniel and saw that his gaze had gone blank and somewhat unfocused. He was trying to access his nightwalker mage powers, she was sure of it, but he was so out of practice that it probably would take some time.

  She would provide a distraction, then.

  “Why are you referring to yourself in the plural?” She called to the water magic and formed two apple-sized spheres of water and light, which she casually began to juggle from hand to hand. A bit of fun to distract children, but perhaps it also worked on those who were mentally unstable. A man who referred to himself as “we” would fit in that category.

  He watched her with great concentration, a look of joy and fascination on his face. “I have not seen the mummer’s balls of waterlight since I was a child,” he said. “My mother’s sister came to visit me once . . . It is a Nereid magic, I had heard.”

  Serai noticed Daniel raising his hands, his eyes closed tightly, and knew she had to keep the warrior distracted for just a little while longer.

  She tossed one of the spheres toward Justice, who instinctively raised his free hand to catch it, lowering his sword hand even further. He laughed when the sphere splashed and dissolved against his fingers.

  “Daniel did not attack me, Lord Justice,” she said softly, in a sing-song cadence, riding her own magic on the waves of Daniel’s gentle persuasive push, but it was too much, too soon, and Justice’s face hardened.

  “We saw him. He attacked you, and you fell.”

  She took a step toward him. “No. I was dizzy from the magical fluctuations of the Emperor. A witch is attempting to use it for her own ends, and the backlash is harming me and the other maidens. Daniel has been protecting me and supporting me as we seek it.”

  Justice looked doubtful, but she took another step toward him. “Is it not your duty to protect me, as a Warrior of Poseidon?”

  “Yes, of course, my lady, but—”

  “Then you must allow me to continue my quest, and allow Daniel to help me do so. If I don’t find the Emperor, I may die. All of the maidens still in stasis may die.”

  He hesitated, but then shook his head and raised his sword again, this time in a defensive position, but still aimed at Daniel. “We cannot take the chance that you have been misled by the vampire’s magic. We will all wait here for Conlan’s return.”

  “I’m sorry, Justice, but we’re out of time, my friend,” Daniel said. He sliced one hand through the air, chanting under his breath, and Justice froze in place, as still as one of the statues in the palace atrium, nothing but his eyes moving.

  The look in those eyes promised a slow and brutal death to his assailant when the immobilizing magic wore off, however.

  “Everything she told you was the truth, Justice, but we just don’t have the time to wait. Serai is growing weaker every minute. If we don’t find that Emperor soon, it could be very bad.”

  Daniel raised his hands into the air, and Justice’s immobilized body turned sideways and then floated down gently to the grass. The strain from using the magic was plain on Daniel’s face, and Serai automatically sent her own magic flowing through the air to support his, not thinking of the cost to her strength.

  She staggered a little, and Daniel ran to her and caught her before she fell.

  “We must move, now,” she whispered. “It’s growing worse, Daniel. I don’t know how much longer I can go on.”

  “Can we try to fly again?”

  A wave of panic rushed through her at the idea, and she stumbled again as her knees went weak.

  Daniel nodded grimly. “I see the answer is no,” he said. “We’ll hike faster. I’ll carry you if I need to.”

  “Conlan and Ven will find you,” Daniel told Justice. “They should be back soon. You can contact them through your telepathy thing, I’m guessing?”

  “Yes, he should be able to do so,” Serai answered, since Justice obviously could not. “We need to go now, Daniel. Please.”

  “I’m sorry,” Daniel told Justice, and then they set off again, he all but carrying her as they walked toward the resonance of the Emperor’s power, shining like a beacon in her mind.

  They hiked in silence for perhaps twenty minutes, until they reached an obstruction on the path. She put her arm around Daniel’s waist, and he flinched a little.

  She pulled her hand back and stared down, uncomprehending, at the dark wetness on her fingers where they’d grasped his waist.

  “You’re injured? This is blood?” She pulled him around to face her and pushed his shirt away from his skin before he could protest. A slender gash in his side steadily dripped blood, and his shirt and the tops of his pants were drenched.

  “How did I not see this?”

  He grinned at her, but his face was strained. “It’s dark. Tough to see blood in the dark.”

  A wave of dizziness swept through her again, and she realized she’d been supporting him with her magic, unknowingly, since the battle with Justice. It was weakening her even more, and with that compounded by the Emperor’s magical drain, she was barely standing upright. She shut down the flow of her own magic to Daniel, but it was too late. She’d lost too much of her energy during the confrontation with Justice.

  “We’re in trouble,” she said softly. “Serious trouble.”

  “You might be right,” he said, abruptly sitting down, hard, on the rocky ground. “Oh, yeah. We’re in trouble.”

  * * *

  Daniel stared stupidly at his legs, which wouldn’t function anymore. He felt a sudden loss, almost as if—almost as if—

  “You. You were pouring magic into my spell back there,” he said, feeling like a damn fool for not realizing it before.

  “I thought you needed the help,” she said wearily, dropping down to sit next to him. “It has been so long since you used your mage powers, and it felt like you needed the support.”

  He wanted to berate her for weakening herself to help him, but he couldn’t say or do anything that might upset her. Not now. Not when they were in so much trouble and might not survive it.

  “Thank you,” he said instead.

  She smiled. “You are very welcome. Now what do we do?”

  He dug around in the pack until he found the last bottle of water. “You drink this, and I figure out what we can do until Conlan and Ven get back. Maybe if—”

  “Daniel.”

  “—if we call him. Can’t you reach out on that mental calling channel? We can—”

  “Daniel,” she interrupted again, this time putting a hand over his mouth. “You need to drink, too. I know this much of nightwalkers. Healing a wound is a simple matter if you have blood.”

  Bleak, black despair swamped his vision, and he couldn’t bear to look at her. “I cannot. Please, don’t ask me to do this.”

  She grasped his shoulders, forcing him to see her. “I need you to do it, for me, Daniel. I need you to drink my blood so you can be strong enough to help me.”

  She took a deep breath, before she continued. “And I need for you to give me some of your blood, too.”

  He jumped up, wanting to run away. Wanting to kill somebody. He was good at killing.

  He was terrible at everything else.

  “You don’t know what you’re asking,” he said. “More of my blood? In you? We’d strengthen the blood bond, at the very least. And as for the rest, can you even bea
r to suffer a nightwalker’s bite? I know the venom can be poisonous to your kind.”

  Ven had told him, on one of their beer-drinking nights. A vampire’s bite had nearly killed Brennan once, apparently. Just a single bite.

  “I’m immune,” Serai said quietly. “Your mentor bit me that day, Daniel. I never wanted you to know, because I knew you’d blame yourself, but it’s relevant now.”

  Daniel roared out his agony to the night skies and then crouched down on the ground next to her. “I am sorry beyond the telling of it,” he growled. “If he were still alive, I’d kill him now. Slowly and painfully.”

  She shook her head. “It’s not important. He woke up disoriented from the noise of battle above and released me almost as soon as he bit me. But it was enough for me to learn that I am immune to the nightwalker bite.”

  “If I were to do this thing, I would truly be the monster you claim I am not,” Daniel said, wondering why he was even considering it. But the ache in his side and his rapidly growing weakness gave him reason enough. He’d been avoiding feeding for so long—only taking the least he possibly needed to survive—and now he was paying for it. The wound was deep enough and wide enough that it had drained far too much of his blood.

  “If we’re not strong enough to succeed in this mission, I will die.” She took his hands in hers. “Surely with that on one side of the scales, exchanging blood is not so dire.”

  “It only sounds bad if you say it fast,” Daniel said, mocking himself for the fool he was. He was going to do this horrible, monstrous thing, and use pretty speeches to excuse it.

  “We are two halves of this quest; two halves of a whole that was split apart unfairly so many years ago, Daniel. Our destiny is together, not apart. If you can strengthen me and I you, then there is no bad in it.”

  Serai tilted her face up to his and pressed her lips to his, as if to convince him of the truth of her words. He couldn’t let her, but yet . . . what she said had merit.