Heart Of Atlantis

friend’s.
    “Thanks for the help,” Justice told Alaric. “We were afraid we were done for.”
    Together, the four of them walked around Anubisa’s body to stare at the Trident, now resting silently on its cushion but still glowing with barely contained power.
    Ven whistled. “I can’t believe you used that thing without getting blown up.”
    “Nor can I,” Alaric confessed.
    “Do you think Poseidon even knows Atlantis has risen?” Conlan asked.
    A tiny sound alerted them to movement far too late for any of them to do anything about it, and the bolt of black magic smashed them all to the floor, face-first.
    “He won’t know until you are all dead,” Anubisa shrieked.
    Alaric raised his head to see a creature from a nightmare—all bones and melted flesh—hovering behind them, prepared to fire a death blow of magic, and Alaric called to magic that would not answer.
    He’d burned out his powers wielding the Trident, and now his mistake would cost them all their lives.
    No. Not Quinn
. He reached deep inside himself for a reserve that he couldn’t have guessed he had, and he came up swinging a sword of pure silver light. From seemingly out of nowhere, a small form came running across the floor toward Anubisa at the exact same time, firing bullet after bullet into the vampire.
    “I think
not
,” Quinn shouted.
    When Anubisa whipped her head toward Quinn, Alaric’s blade sliced in an arc of flashing silver fire, and the vampire goddess’s head flew through the air.
    Anubisa’s body, separated from her head, melted into a spiral of oily black smoke and then disappeared.
    Alaric strode over to Quinn, who dropped the gun on the floor in a clatter of metal on marble.
    “Your excellent distraction saved our lives,” Alaric said, and then he lifted her into his arms and kissed the very breath out of her.
    “I think it was your magic that saved our lives, and all of Atlantis,” she replied, when she could talk again.
    “We all did it,” Alaric said, looking around the room. “Together.”
    Conlan walked over to Anubisa’s head, which was slowly disintegrating against the wall. “If I were one of my ancestors, I’d display this on a pike on the castle walls.”
    “She’d deserve it,” Justice snarled.
    “But who wants to look at her ugly mug?” Ven said. “I’m going to go find my woman, if we’re done fighting demons and vampires and any freaking other thing that might want a piece of us.”
    “Your woman?” Erin said, entering the room. “Really? We’ve been looking for you for half an hour.” She looked around the room. “Why are you here? Taking a break?”
    “They killed a vampire,” Riley said, walking into the room holding Aidan.
    “To be fair, it was
the
vampire. Anubisa is finally dead. And we killed a demon and all his brothers, too,” Ven said, pulling Erin into his arms.
    Keely ran into the room and headed straight for Justice. “Don’t you ever, ever do that again.”
    “Do what?”
    “Nearly die. I could
feel
it,” she said, before kissing him.
    “It wasn’t on purpose. But now we feel like we can sleep without tainted dreams again,” Justice told Keely. “We can’t believe she’s finally dead.”
    “Who’s cleaning this up?” Erin wanted to know, gesturing to the two oily black stains on the floor, which were all that was left of Anubisa’s head and body.
    “Since when is Alaric super-light-up man?” Keely asked.
    “Later,” Quinn promised. “Do we still have more vampires to kill?”
    Keely shook her head, her red hair flying. “Nope. Anubisa must have been controlling them, because just about the time you must have been killing her, the rest of them melted and vanished. All of them. The only live vampire left on Atlantis is Daniel, and trust me, he killed his share of Anubisa’s minions.”
    “He, too, has a special reason to hate her,” Alaric said.
    “Past tense,” Quinn pointed out. “He
had
a special reason, because the wicked vampire goddess is dead!”
    Alaric caught her when she leapt into his arms, and he turned and headed out.
    “Don’t call me, and don’t knock on our door for at least twenty-four hours,” he called back over his shoulder.
    “You said ‘our’ door,” Quinn said, smiling.
    “You don’t think you’re getting away from me now, do you? After I saw you with that sword? I’m thinking hedge trimmer for a new job. You’d be great in a floppy hat,” Alaric said, laughing down at her.
    As they left the