Vampire in Atlantis

protect Serai from whatever new danger was attacking, but he was totally and completely unprepared for what he saw.
    It was an Atlantean attacking them. A warrior with a long blue braid. A man he knew and had counted as an ally. Just before the sword swung in a deadly arc toward his head, Daniel had time to shout out his attacker’s name.
    “Justice! What the hell are you doing?”
    But then the battle was on, and Daniel saved his breath for the fight because, for some insane reason, Lord Justice of Atlantis was trying to kill him.

Chapter 23
     

     
    Upon regaining consciousness, Serai’s first thought was that she must be dreaming, because Daniel was battling an Atlantean warrior who was trying his best to kill him. This one had the classic Atlantean looks—tall, dark, and muscled. She might have even thought him handsome, if he weren’t wielding an enormous sword against the man she loved.
    Daniel deflected a vicious strike with his daggers and launched himself up into the sky, flipping over in midair above the warrior’s head and landing gracefully behind him. Daniel’s hand shot out and struck the attacker, hard, but with the hilt of his dagger, not the blade.
    Why would he do that? She didn’t want to distract Daniel, especially against such a deadly fighter, but she needed to know what was going on. She carefully sat up, fighting a wave of dizziness, and waited for a momentary lull.
    “Daniel? Who is this, and why is he attacking us?”
    Daniel flung himself to the side to avoid another thrust of that wickedly sharp-looking sword, but it sliced through his shirt. “Princess, meet Lord Justice, formerly of Atlantis.”
    “Formerly? What do you mean by that, vampire?” Justice said, pausing in his attempt to skewer Daniel. “We have not left Atlantis.”
    “I mean formerly, as in you’re going to be dead soon, if you don’t stop this right now and tell me why in the nine hells you’re attacking me,” Daniel growled.
    Justice swung his long braid, which looked almost blue in the moonlight, out of his way and took a ready stance with the sword held out and up in front of him. “Perhaps you should have thought of consequences when you attacked a princess of Atlantis. Now you will die for your presumption, and we shall happily be the ones to deliver the true death to you.”
    Serai pushed herself off the ground to stand up, trying to ignore how shaky she was. If they didn’t find the Emperor soon, she was afraid she wouldn’t last much longer.
    “This is making me very angry, Lord Justice,” she said, putting the full force of her position in her voice. “I am getting a little tired of people attacking Daniel. It was bad enough when danger came from our enemies, but first Jack, then Reisen, and now you. All allies, or so you claim, and yet you dare to attempt to harm the one person who is aiding me on my quest to retrieve the Emperor?”
    Justice tilted his head and stared at her for a long minute, his eyes narrowed, as if trying to comprehend her meaning. He finally shook his head, dismissing her. “You do not understand, my lady. He was attacking you. Clearly he has used his vampire powers to enthrall you.”
    Pure, clean, healthy rage burned through Serai, searing the last of her dizziness to ash. “Did you just dismiss me as a silly girl who has fallen for a vampire’s tricks?” She made sure to carefully enunciate each word. “You have just insulted the wrong Atlantean, youngling.”
    Daniel laughed, drawing Justice’s attention again. “You’re in trouble now, Justice. When she called Alaric and Conlan younglings, she really put them in their place.”
    Justice turned a shocked expression to Serai. “You did that? How did our brother react?”
    Serai raised an eyebrow. “Which one is your brother? Alaric or Conlan? You have a similar look around the eyes as Conlan, but the blue in your hair is pure Nereid. Though of course I have not seen a true Nereid for more than eleven thousand years.”
    Justice lowered the sword a few inches, relaxing his ready stance a bit. “You have met our kind? Truly? We had known you were one of the ancient ones, but we never thought—”
    Faintly, ever so faintly, Serai felt a touch of very old magic sing its way through the space surrounding the three of them. She shot a glance at Daniel and saw that his gaze had gone blank and somewhat unfocused. He was trying to access his nightwalker mage powers, she was sure of it, but he was so out of