Vampire in Atlantis

Serai, but he needn’t have bothered. She was perfectly calm, smiling out into the velvety blue darkness of twilight.
    “We’re willing to come with you peacefully,” she said. “We’d certainly hate for things to go badly.”
    Daniel held up his hands in the universal sign for “I surrender,” but he started laughing. He just couldn’t help it. He was still laughing as the very polite soldier—P-Ops according to the insignia on his black uniform—held a scanner up to Serai and then to him. As soon as he realized Daniel was a vampire, the soldier stepped quickly back and then motioned to one of his underlings to bring the silver stripcuffs. The silver was on the outside of the hard plastic cuffs so it wouldn’t burn him but would keep him restrained and helpless to break free of them.
    Or so it would have been, under usual circumstances. He had soul-melded with Serai, and he had tasted her Atlantean blood. Twice. For the first time since he’d been turned, the proximity to silver wasn’t hurting him.
    Not the slightest bit.
    Things weren’t going to go badly at all.

     
    Serai remained silent while the soldiers took her and Daniel to a large vehicle and politely escorted them inside. But when the men conferred outside the vehicle’s closed windows, evidently to gain privacy for their conversation, she took the opportunity to do the same.
    “They are far more civilized than I expected,” she said. “More like the king’s personal guard than invading soldiers. What is this force? What does the lettering ‘P-Ops’ on their jackets mean?”
    “Paranormal Operations. They’re a federal police force that deals with all things supernatural. That’s why they’re so nice to you. They must think you’re a plain vanilla human.”
    She tried on her most seductive smile and glanced at him through her lashes. “Plain vanilla? Really?”
    He blew out a long, slow breath and his eyes darkened. “Only you could get me hot when I’m handcuffed in a P-Ops transport. Let’s talk about what we do next, instead, maybe, sex kitten.”
    A thrill of pleasure tingled through her at his reaction, but she quickly stifled it for more urgent matters. “They want to take us to the center of the action, I would anticipate. Agreed?”
    “Agreed.” He stared out the window at the men, whose conversation seemed to be wrapping up. The one in charge was heading to the driver’s side of the vehicle.
    “That’s where we want to be, also agreed?”
    “Agreed.”
    “Then this is perfect. Saves wear on our boots.” She leaned back in the seat and folded her hands demurely in her lap, the picture of civility, prepared to unleash the full extent of her beautiful court manners on the young soldier.
    Gun or no gun, the poor man didn’t stand a chance.

Chapter 34
     

     
    Daniel watched the scenery fly by at five times the speed he and Serai had been traveling on foot, and tried not to laugh out loud as Serai, sitting up front in the passenger seat, charmed the soldier. He was a young guy, not that it mattered, with short hair, freckles that he probably hated, and ears that stuck out just a little bit. Daniel couldn’t imagine there was a straight human male alive, old or young, who could resist Serai when she was being enchanting. She’d already elicited the guy’s family details (mom and dad still alive, very proud of their boy Rob), pet’s name (Izzy the cat), and favorite hobby (an obscure sport by the unlikely name of cornhole).
    “You toss the small bags into holes in the wood, while drinking ale?” Serai tilted her head and smiled encouragingly at Rob, whose head almost visibly swelled.
    Daniel would have been a little annoyed by the whole thing if it weren’t so damn funny. At least, it was funny until he remembered the day he’d first met Serai, and she’d asked him a similar set of questions, with the exact same smile on her face.
    He, too, had been dazed that such a beauty was so interested in him.
    Hmmm. He scowled at the driver in the rearview mirror, in spite of the armed guard sitting next to him in the backseat. Rob continued on, blithely ignoring the angry vampire sitting behind him.
    Foolish young man. Very foolish.
    “Are you from England? Your accent is beautiful,” Rob stammered.
    “Thank you. I’m from all over Europe,” she replied, smiling shyly at him. “Do you enjoy traveling there?”
    “I’ve never been out of the country, except to Mexico—well, and Canada, ma’am,” he