Heart Of Atlantis

it.”
    She pulled his shirt up and her heart jumped into her throat at the sight of the wound. “That’s not nothing. Fix it. Now.”
    Instead, he pulled her closer and kissed her so deeply that her knees buckled. His magic poured into her like a high-voltage current, and for a minute she was afraid she was going to have an orgasm right there on the roof surrounded by the Atlantean royal family and a whole lot of dead demons.
    “Now I will heal it,” Alaric said, when he finally released her.
    She blinked up at him, dazed, and he smiled that completely male, entirely self-satisfied smile again. It made her want to hit him.
    It made her want to kiss him again.
    She settled for neither. “You did slay an interdimensional demon for me, so I guess I’ll let you get away with this one.”
    His smile faded. “But Atlantis is not safe yet. Where is Anubisa?”
    As if on cue, Atlantis rocked like an earthquake had shattered its foundation, and Quinn fell against a stone pedestal and knocked off a marble statuette of a porpoise.
    With her head.
    “Ow,” she complained. “Why is it always my head?”
    “Hardest part on you?” Ven suggested, and she groaned.
    “Anubisa,” Alaric said, staring into the far distance at something only he could see. “By all the gods, Anubisa is going after the Trident.”
    Conlan, who was comforting Riley and Aidan, froze. “Alaric—”
    “I know,” Alaric said grimly, as he started running for the stairs. “If it falls into her hands, all of Atlantis is doomed.”
    Jack snarled, and Quinn wanted to do the same.
    Ven groaned. “Why can’t we ever catch a damn break?” He took off after Quinn and Alaric, and Justice and Jack followed close behind, silent and deadly.
    “We need to end this, once and for all,” Conlan said, matching pace with Alaric.
    Alaric nodded, the movement all the more striking since he was glowing again and tiny sparks arced from his motion. “I agree. Tonight we discover how to kill a goddess.”

Chapter 34
    Alaric hit the stairs running and shot through the palace like an arrow loosed from Artemis’s bow, wondering if even his newly increased power would be sufficient to defeat a vampire goddess.
    His heart ached at the idea of losing Quinn before he’d had a chance to live his life with her, but nothing mattered more than defeating Anubisa. If she managed to kill him—and the odds were against him—she’d use the Trident to destroy Atlantis and everyone in it.
    Quinn
could not
die. She would not die. If it took his life to save her, he’d gladly sacrifice it. But that was not the optimal choice.
    Dying was, as Ven would say, Plan B.
    He stopped twenty paces from the Trident’s chamber, caught Quinn’s arm, and used her momentum to swing her into an empty room.
    “You will stay here,” he commanded her.
    Before she could argue, he took her face in his hands and kissed her with every ounce of his longing and his love. His entire body shook with his passion, and he felt her tremble against his body.
    “If you are safe, I can survive this, I think,
mi amara
,” he said. “Please, just this one time, stay back.”
    Quinn’s eyes flashed and he could see on her very expressive face the internal battle she waged.
    “Fine.” She lifted her chin. “Fine. Go fight your magical battle, but you’d better remember that all you need to do is call me, and I’ll be there to back you up.”
    “I can never deserve you,” he said roughly, his muscles tensing up at the thought that he might not live to see her again.
    She grinned her perfect, irrepressible grin. “Killing Anubisa would go a long way toward changing
that.
”
    He laughed and headed for the most deadly, dangerous fight of his life.
    Conlan, Ven, Justice, and Jack caught up to him as he reached the door to the Trident’s chamber.
    “Jack, please stay back with Quinn and protect her,” Alaric asked, one warrior to another. “If I cannot . . . If I do not survive this, I will go to the afterlife knowing that you will be at her side.”
    Jack roared and ran back toward the doorway where Quinn stood, watching Alaric, her eyes enormous but dry.
    “Now?” Conlan asked.
    “Now,” Alaric agreed.
    They entered the chamber together, Justice and Ven right behind them. Alaric’s shoulders relaxed a fraction at the sight of Anubisa levitating near the Trident’s pedestal, where it still rested on its cushion. She hadn’t been able to take it, yet.
    “You cannot touch the tool of