Vampire in Atlantis

Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.”
    The voice that shattered the silence, transmitted by some kind of electronic device, carried a weight of authority and command that didn’t bode well for their plans.
    “This is Colonel Brig St. Ives of the federal P-Ops Division speaking. We have you surrounded, and we have captured your vampire associates, twelve in total. Please come out, sending Mr. Smithson out first, and nobody will get hurt.”
    An even dozen had been all the members of his blood pride on this mission with him. This could be a slight problem.
    “Whoops,” Ian said, grinning and almost jumping out of his skin with adrenaline and a sick kind of excitement. “Wonder if they’d accept parts of him? His spleen might be around here somewhere.”
    Ivy pulled her son closer, her wild eyes fixed on Nicholas as if he were her savior instead of her killer. In spite of everything, he wanted to do just that. Save her. Protect her. Try again later. Forget the damn King stone and everything it might be able to do.
    He focused on Ivy so intently that he missed it when Phil, who’d apparently been feigning unconsciousness, made his break, and by the time he realized the man was running out the entrance, it was too late to bother.
    “Thank goodness you’re here,” Phil screamed. “I’m a hostage, I’m here, help me, help me—”
    An explosion of gunfire cut off the rest of Phil’s plea for help, and Ivy screamed. Nicholas flashed over to the cave entrance and peered out into the gathering dusk, only to see Phil’s nearly disintegrated body.
    “Interesting interpretation of ‘nobody will get hurt,’” Nicholas said. “Maybe we should rethink our options.”
    Ivy picked up the Emperor and smiled, a wild glee darkening her eyes. “They’re wrong if they think nobody will get hurt. They’re a danger to my son. I’m going to bring them a world of hurt.”
    Nicholas bared his fangs and snarled his agreement, and then he smiled. “You, beautiful witch, are my kind of woman.”

Chapter 33
     

     
    Daniel shot out of the cave like a bat out of the worst of the nine hells the second the sun finally hid behind the horizon. Now that he and Serai were connected by the soul-meld and the vortex magic, he could feel the Emperor almost as intensely as she could.
    Which meant he could leave her safely behind while he went after it.
    Unfortunately, she had no intention of letting him do anything of the kind. By the time he turned around, she was already down the carved stone side of the cliff and standing on the ground, hands on her hips, staring up at him.
    “You can forget that idea right now,” she informed him.
    “Did the soul-meld give you psychic powers? And if so, can you snoop in everybody’s brain or just mine?” He landed next to her and stared her down with his fiercest glare.
    Also unfortunately, she wasn’t intimidated in the least.
    “You know, you’re kind of sexy when you scowl like that,” she said, flashing a seductive smile, and then blinking innocently when he growled at her.
    “Oh, I’m sorry. Was that meant to frighten me into staying here, cowering in the corner like a good little princess?”
    He shook his head and gave it up as a lost cause. “I’ve been around long enough to know defeat when it smacks me in the face. Let’s go. We need to find out why the army or P-Ops or who-the-hells-ever is heading in the same direction as the Emperor.”
    “I have never believed in coincidence,” she said, braiding her hair back from her face.
    “Neither have I.”
    She bent to retrieve the backpack and he stopped her. “No need for it now. If we succeed, we can stop back and retrieve it if we need to hike out of here. Do you think you could be up for flying—no pun intended—if we have to do it to escape?”
    She frowned but then nodded slowly. “You know, I have your magic inside me now, as well as my own. That should surely sustain me long enough to fly away from danger with the Emperor. And I have no time to harbor childish fears.”
    “It’s not childish, mi amara , but I respect your courage,” he said. “It’s time to go, and we need to go fast.”
    She threw her arms around him and kissed him, and then the unmistakable sound of a gun being cocked shattered the early evening stillness.
    “Going fast shouldn’t be a problem, sir,” a voice said. “Stand down and be prepared to surrender, or it will go very badly for you.”
    Daniel cast a quick, reassuring glance at