Vampire in Atlantis

sac.”
    Ven started laughing. “Oh, are we going to be great friends or what? Also, please don’t call me Highness, Lady Serai. Just Ven.”
    He crossed to her, extending his hand, and she took it almost without meaning to, because she was so surprised by his reaction. He bowed over her hand, but he was still chuckling. When he straightened, he grinned at Daniel and then lightly punched him on the shoulder.
    “You’re in big trouble now, aren’t you, my friend?”
    Daniel pressed his lips together, but she could see the answering grin trying to escape. “I had considered that thought,” he said, flashing an amused glance at Serai.
    “You presume too much, vampire,” Conlan said. An edge of menace turned his words to daggers, meant to wound or warn.
    Serai was unimpressed.
    Apparently, so was Daniel. “You might want to think again, if you’re going to tell me what I may or may not presume to do, Atlantean,” Daniel said.
    Serai thought for a moment and then raised her hands, palms up, and called to small spheres of energy to manifest in each; a clear visual warning that she was not defenseless. She waited until she had the attention of all three of them, after Daniel and Conlan stopped the ridiculous male posturing.
    “I need no one, least of all a child of a prince, to tell me what I may do. You lost all right to give advice on my future when you abandoned me to my crystal prison in order to claim your human woman, Prince Conlan,” she said.
    Conlan’s eyes widened, and his mouth fell open a little. Not used to anyone speaking up to him, perhaps. Too bad for him.
    She inclined her head as another memory surfaced. “My congratulations on your marriage and the birth of your heir. I trust both mother and son are well.”
    “Yes, they are very well, and Riley is anxious to meet you. If—if that would be acceptable to you,” he said stiffly, probably suddenly realizing exactly how awkward that meeting would be.
    Hello, my wife, meet the woman who was meant to be my wife. Let’s all have a glass of wine and discuss.
    She smiled at the thought and allowed the energy spheres to vanish.
    “Good you have a sense of humor. You’re going to need it,” Ven said. “But we’re on the clock here. Do you want to tell us what happened? How the stasis pod exploded?”
    He glanced at Conlan, and they appeared to have a mental conversation. Ven nodded and turned toward Serai, taking her hands. Daniel tensed and stepped closer, but made no other move. She could feel how much he trusted at least the younger prince and, if not trusted, exactly, still respected Conlan.
    “We have some very bad news,” Ven said, no trace of his smile remaining. “Delia—she died. Some sort of malfunction in the Emperor’s power, and—”
    She cut him off and pulled her hands from his. “I know. I felt her die. More will die if I don’t find the Emperor soon; I know this, too. Is that what you came to tell me? Surely your brother didn’t come to apologize to me after all this time.”
    “I apologized to you, Serai,” Conlan said, stepping closer, his gaze searing into her. “You were asleep, of course, but how else was I to do it? We have had our finest minds trying to solve the problem of the stasis pods so that we could release you and the others, but apparently the Emperor has been malfunctioning for quite some time, unknown to us.”
    “How is that possible? How is possible that the king-to-be of Atlantis can be unaware that the six surviving citizens of Atlantean ancient civilization were in danger of dying horribly, trapped in crystal cages? Trapped for thousands of years beyond what we were originally told; for millennia past what we were promised.”
    Conlan threw his hands in the air, frustration written all over his face. “How could I know what you were originally promised? All records of the event are lost.”
    Serai had started pacing, but then she whirled around in shock to face him. “Lost? Lost? In an underwater city trapped under its own prison—an all-encompassing dome? Where , pray tell me, O High Prince Conlan, where could those scrolls possibly have gone?”
    She turned to Ven and tilted her head, pasting a polite expression of inquiry on her face. “Did giant fish swim by and steal them? Did the people get tired of ordinary food and eat them?”
    Ven made a choking kind of noise, and she rolled her eyes and turned back to his brother.
    “Did the children of Atlantis decide to use them to wipe