Vampire in Atlantis

who pretended not to notice, or perhaps really didn’t notice, since he was practically inhaling Serai with his eyes.
    But Serai ignored him, her gaze fixed on Alaric, her face becomimg pale and bloodless. “You.”
    Alaric took a step forward. “Princess. How are you here? What—”
    “Stay away from me, or I will hurt you,” she said, her voice only trembling a little.
    Daniel stepped between them at the same time that Quinn caught Alaric’s arm with her hand.
    “She must return to Atlantis,” the priest said, flinching a little at the contact but not pulling away.
    “I will never again listen to an Atlantean who tells me what I must do,” Serai said, raising her chin.
    Daniel aimed a flat stare at the priest. “Alaric. You’ll need to go through me to get to her, so please choose which part of your pretty face you want to get smashed in first.”
    Quinn glared at Daniel. “That’s not really helping. You either, Alaric. Can we discuss what we’re here for and then you can have a private meeting about Atlantean issues? I really don’t have time for this right now.”
    She twined her fingers through Alaric’s, pulling him back, and the dark look the priest shot at her would have stopped most people in their tracks. Quinn only smiled and shook her head.
    “You know better than that,” she whispered so softly that Daniel was sure most of the people in the room couldn’t hear her. “The only thing about you that scares me is your absence, Alaric.”
    The priest stood frozen for a long moment and then inclined his head and moved back to his place by the wall. “We will have this talk, though, Princess Serai, vampire or no.”
    “I’m no princess, Alaric, but yes, we will talk. You don’t scare me, however, so you can stop trying.”
    She was lying; Daniel could hear her heartbeat racing. The priest scared her, and Daniel had to fight hard against the rising red tide of fury demanding that he attack Alaric. Neutralize the threat to Serai.
    Reisen surprised everyone by stepping into the silence. “I need to talk to you, too, Lady Serai.”
    “I think not,” Daniel said, baring his fangs at the Atlantean, who showed no signs of being intimidated. Maybe once you’d had your hand torn off by a vampire, you didn’t much fear the one who’d saved your miserable life.
    “Daniel,” Reisen said, nodding stiffly.
    “Reisen. Long time, no have-to-save-your-ass. Or is that long time, no see? I always get these human sayings confused.”
    Quinn rolled her eyes. “Really? We’re going to do this now?”
    “I believe it is an imbalance in the male brain,” Serai said regally. “They name it testosterone in this time. In mine, we merely called it stupidity.”
    Quinn burst out laughing, and even Alaric cracked a smile, which made Daniel almost fall over.
    “Either works,” Jack said as he entered the cave behind Daniel and Serai. He touched Serai on the arm. “You okay, kitten?”
    “Tiger-skin rug. On my floor,” Daniel said, but with no heat. He couldn’t resent Jack’s concern. Beneath all that tiger fur, Jack was a warrior who took his job of protecting others seriously. Daniel inclined his head to Jack in thanks for being with Serai during the afternoon hours when he could not, and Jack punched him in the shoulder.
    Serai stared at them both like they were lunatics.
    “It’s a guy thing,” Jack said, shrugging. “He knows now that I’m pissed off about Quinn; I know he’s pissed off about you. It’s all good.”
    “Certainly that would make perfect sense, if the world were upside down. However, I choose to ignore rather than debate your logic and simply respond that I am well,” Serai said. “Thank you for your assistance today.”
    Jack grinned. “Tigers love nothing more than a nap in the sun. Throw in a beautiful woman for company, and it’s the cherry on the cake.”
    Daniel narrowed his eyes, but Jack just laughed and walked farther into the cave and leaned against the wall between Reisen and Alaric.
    “If we’re done posturing, maybe we could get this meeting started so we can move on,” Quinn said. “Jack?”
    Jack nodded. “Okay, here’s what we’ve found out so far. Banker named Smithson seems to be the head of a massive consortium of investment bankers throughout the world. They’re bored with playing with their money, stepping on Third World countries, draining old people’s pensions, and the like. They want to dance with the big boys and never worry