Vampire in Atlantis

went, was a barnacle that bit you in the nuts.
    He turned to the rest of them. “Back to the war room, I’m afraid, after we dine. Atlantis must rise, and soon, and now we need to plan for every possible reaction and outcome.”
    Keely shook her head. “Have you heard the saying ‘God laughs when man plans’?”
    He nodded ruefully. “I’ve gone one better. I’ve heard a god laugh when he learned my plans.”
    Keely’s eyes widened, and then she laughed. “I’m never going to get used to this place, am I?”
    “We certainly hope you do,” Justice said smugly. “We will never let you leave.”
    This time Keely smacked Justice on the back of the head, and everybody laughed as they headed into the palace to eat. Conlan didn’t begrudge them a moment of lightness in a long line of crises. He’d been ruling Atlantis long enough to know that they must take their moments of peace when they could. They never lasted long.

Chapter 9
     

     

The cavern
     
    Daniel crouched in place, clinging to the ceiling of the cavern, not even bothering to try to appear remotely human. So the rebels feared him. They should fear him. He’d run into the sunlight after Serai, only falling back to the healing darkness of the cave when Jack, of all people, had shoved his burning body out of the sun’s deadly reach. Then, his body still smoking, enraged by the pain but most of all by his own helplessness— yet again— to help the woman he loved, Daniel had systematically destroyed everything he could get his hands on.
    The two men who’d rushed in to try to stop him would regret that act of foolishness for a very long time. Quinn had finally thrown her hands up in disgust and left him to what she’d termed his “childish temper tantrum.”
    He had a shameful feeling she might have been right, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered but getting to Serai. He knew she was safe; Jack had followed her and was standing guard near her in tiger form, which probably made Serai feel safer than she would have felt had a man unknown to her offered to do so.
    It figured. Daniel had spent his entire life in love with a woman who felt safer with a wild jungle cat than with a person. There was a lesson in there somewhere, but he’d be damned if he could figure out what it was.
    He laughed humorlessly and dropped down to land on the floor. He’d be damned anyway. Didn’t the religious folk say vampires had no souls? His brief hope that he’d found salvation had been as foolish as it had been short-lived. He’d found a woman who wanted nothing to do with him—who believed him capable of amputating a man’s hand in a simple fight.
    Well. Of course he was capable of just that, but he wouldn’t . . . he didn’t . . . at least, not to allies. That would have to be good enough. The only thing keeping him from descending into irretrievable madness was that she’d refused to speak to Reisen, too. Once Quinn had followed Serai and explained about Reisen’s hand, Serai had, according to Quinn, shot a withering look at Reisen and demanded by what right he had attacked her companion.
    Reisen had pleaded with her to hear his side, but Serai had ignored him as if he didn’t exist and asked Quinn for a little peace. Quinn had agreed, Jack had volunteered, Serai had asked for him to resume tiger form, and all of that had happened nearly two hours ago.
    The longest two hours of Daniel’s life.
    Quinn walked back into the cavern and stood, hands on hips, and shot a challenging stare at Daniel. “So? Who’s cleaning up this mess? I liked that cake, too.”
    He looked around the area and realized that bits and pieces of food, drinks, and the table and chairs lay everywhere. One table leg was embedded in the ceiling. He didn’t actually remember doing that. He’d always been good at repressing bad memories and making them disappear, but as for the detritus of a destroyed meal, he was as useless as . . . No.
    Making things disappear. A long-buried memory of nightwalker guild magic surfaced, and he chased it to its source. One of the darker lessons of the guild. When the bloodlust conquered reason, the evidence of murder must be made to disappear.
    Humans with wooden stakes had outnumbered the nightwalkers then, too.
    He closed his eyes and called on powers he hadn’t used in a very, very long time. As Serai had reminded him, once he had been a master mage in the Nightwalker Guild. Some little bit of that magic should remain, even though he