Heart Of Atlantis

“You are amazing.”
    “I know,” he said smugly. “You had nine orgasms.”
    He started walking again, leaving her standing there in shock, face flaming hot, scanning the area for anyone who might have heard. Nobody seemed to be openly mocking her, so she ran after him and punched him in the arm, hard.
    “That’s the kind of thing you don’t talk about in public,” she whispered.
    “Why not? It was the best night of my life. Had I the time, I would hire the youngling with the gliding apparatus to paint a sign extolling your virtues and fly it over Atlantis,” he said solemnly, but the edge of his mouth quirked up, and she realized he was teasing her. Trying to take the edge off her worry.
    That, alone, was enough to make her nearly fall over.
    Sex, playfulness, teasing, and jokes. From High Priest Warrior Man. It would be the best day of her life if the vampires didn’t attack.
    Please, please, please, don’t let the vampires attack.
    Alaric paused to speak to several warriors, but Quinn saw Riley strolling around the garden fountain, carrying Aidan, and she ran across the grass toward her and started talking before she even reached her sister. “Riley! We’ve got to get you somewhere safe. It may be nothing, but we’re a little worried—”
    Quinn’s words fell off into a horrible gurgle when the sharp edge of a very shiny sword suddenly appeared between Riley’s breasts, barely missing the baby who lay sleeping against her shoulder. Quinn’s sister’s eyes opened very, very wide and she held Aidan out to Quinn.
    “Take him. Love him. Raise him,” she whispered, and then she fell to the ground.
    “I think not. I’ll take that baby,” Anubisa said, appearing as if by magic from where she was hiding behind Riley. The vampire snatched the child from Quinn’s hands with preternatural speed and flew up into the air.
    Alaric screamed vengeance from behind Quinn, but he couldn’t attack without risking Anubisa harming the baby.
    “Now you will see what my wrath costs, Quinn Dawson,” Anubisa said, and, terrifyingly, she didn’t sound the slightest bit crazy.
    “What did you do?” Quinn asked, falling to her feet next to her sister. “What did you do? I’ll kill you!”
    “I think not. I played the poor madwoman for your Ptolemy, in order to assess the extent of his power, but he’s disappeared from this dimension, hasn’t he? Would you care to tell me what happened to him?” Anubisa floated just out of Quinn’s reach, holding the baby in front of her, wearing a long white dress that looked like a shroud and would prove to be prophetic, if Quinn had anything to do with it.
    Quinn rocked back and forth on the ground, devastated with grief, as she dimly heard people running toward 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.