Vampire in Atlantis

about trifling little things like banking laws or international monetary regulations.”
    “Smithson is here?” Quinn asked.
    “Right here at Sedona National Bank, which is apparently a front for all kinds of bad and wrong.”
    The woman with the computer raised her hand.
    “Melody, you don’t have to raise your hand,” Quinn said patiently, as if she’d said it many times before.
    “Oh, sure, I’m sitting in on a meeting with the rebel leader, scary tiger man, and possible Area 51 man in black over in the corner,” Melody said, indicating Quinn, Jack, and Alaric in turn, before pointing at Daniel. “Plus let’s not forget terrifying vampire dude who blows up defenseless chocolate cakes. You think I’m not going to be a little extra polite?”
    Serai looked at Daniel. “You destroyed the cake? I loved that cake.”
    Daniel glared at Melody. “Can we move on?”
    Her black-rimmed eyes widened. “Um, sure. We found out that the records of all the consortium dudes are on an encrypted laptop that Smithson keeps in a safe-deposit box in his own bank, because, duh, he, like, runs the place.”
    Serai tilted her head, clearly fascinated by Melody’s outrageous appearance and manner of speaking. “Duh?”
    “It’s goth chick for ‘of course, as you all realize,’” Melody said, grinning. “You’re not from around here, are you?”
    “You have no idea,” Serai said, flashing a genuine smile that made something in Daniel’s chest tighten.
    Alaric straightened and pinned Serai with a flat gaze. “Yes. About that. You need to go back.”
    Serai raised her chin. “I think you are the last person to tell me what I need to be doing, youngling.”
    Reisen made a choking sound, and Daniel tried not to laugh. He wondered when the last time was that somebody had dared to defy the high priest of Atlantis—or call him youngling, which, as far as Daniel understood, meant something like “wet behind the ears child.”
    Alaric stood frozen for a long moment, and then he covered his eyes with one hand and shook his head, muttering to himself. Finally the priest took a deep breath and tried again. “You don’t understand. The Emperor is operating incorrectly. You may be in danger.”
    Serai put her hands on her hips. “Really? I might be in danger? You mean, apart from the bit where the fluctuation in the Emperor’s power nearly killed me in the stasis pod, so I had to escape? Or the part where someone is trying to wield the gem’s magic and sent me into seizures as I came through the portal? No, wait—maybe the fact that if I can’t find the Emperor and retrieve it before whoever has it tries again, the power fluctuations that already almost killed me could kill all of us?”
    She was shouting by the time she reached the end, and everyone stared at her in shock.
    Finally, Melody raised her hand again. “So, Atlantis has an emperor? That’s cool. I always thought Napoleon was the bomb. Who has him? Can I meet him?”
    Quinn sighed. “You’d never know she was the smartest hacker ever to turn down an offer from the CIA’s elite computer squad, would you?”
    Before anybody could respond, June came running in, out of breath and holding her arm, which was bent at an impossible angle. Tears ran freely down the woman’s face, but her voice was perfectly steady. “We’re under attack, Quinn. Vampires. A lot of them. Three of us are already dead.”
    Daniel yanked Serai out of range of the entrance and placed her, back to the wall, in the farthest corner from danger, as the others rushed out of the cave.
    “Stay here,” he commanded.
    “You don’t get to tell me what to do, either, Nightwalker,” she snapped.
    “I can’t protect you if—”
    “I didn’t ask you to protect me,” she said, cutting him off. Then with a rush of power that smashed through the space between them, in a few short seconds she again shimmered into the shape of a saber-toothed tiger. When he started to speak, she snarled at him and shouldered him out of her way before springing across the floor to follow the others.
    Daniel swore steadily in a long-dead language as he raced after her. He was going to slaughter anyone—vampire or otherwise—who dared to get anywhere near her. And when this was over, he was going to throw her over his shoulder, take her somewhere safe, lock her up, and maybe invest in some catnip.

     
    Serai stumbled a little as she bounded across the floor, and hoped Daniel hadn’t seen it. If he