Warriors of Poseidon 01 - Atlantis Rising

Riley's hair, a brief touch more for his comfort than hers, and stood to follow Alaric.
     
    He caught the priest on the other side of the path as Alaric began to shimmer into mist.
    "Stop," he commanded. "Where in the nine hells do you think you're going? What just happened?"
     
    Alaric reverted to corporeal form and whirled around to face him. "You want to know what happened?" he asked, wild fury in his voice, desperation dark in the harsh lines of his face.
     
    "You want to know what happened!" With two steps, he was right up in Conlan's face.
     
    "I'll tell you what happened, my prince," Alaric continued, rasping out the words. "What happened was I sent my healing energy inside Quinn. Inside that human. And she grabbed hold of me."
     
    He shoved a hand through his hair and laughed a little wildly, eyes flaring green and hot.
     
    Savage.
     
    "She dug her mental claws into my balls, is what happened. I healed her, and she destroyed something in me. Shredded it."
     
    "What—" Conlan never got the question out.
     
    Atlantis Rising – Warriors of Poseidon 01
    Page 172 of 351
    "My control," Alaric snarled. "The absolutely rock-hard control that I've spent centuries perfecting. Your little girlfriend's sister reached out with her emotions, or her witchy empath nature, or what the hell ever, and all I wanted to do was fuck her."
     
    Conlan moved back half a step at the ferocity in the priest's voice and dropped his hands to his dagger handles. For an instant, icy death menaced in the air between them.
     
    Alaric laughed, bitter again. "Oh, you don't need your blades. In spite of the fact that I wanted her more than I've wanted anything in my life, I won't touch her. Although, even now, my mind tortures me with images of pounding into her body, right there on the ground in the mess of her own blood, fucking and fucking her until I drive myself into her soul." Alaric viciously kicked at a tree and shards of bark flew into the air, then disintegrated in the green energy bolts he shot at them.
     
    This was new and dangerous territory, and Conlan attempted to proceed with caution.
    "Alaric, you must—"
     
    "Yes. I must. I must never succumb to any lusts, or my power is ended. Certainly, I would be of no further use to you or to Atlantis. No use to the jealous bastard of a sea god whom I serve," the priest said flatly, his voice suddenly devoid of the rage and passion that had infused it moments before.
     
    "I must get away from her," he continued. "Now. From this place. I am ruined for this day, in any event. This… this energy drain has voided any hope I had of re-scrying for the Trident until I recover. I will meet you back at Ven's safe house tonight."
     
    Conlan grasped his friend's shoulders, shaken by the blasphemy he'd never heard from him before. "Alaric, know that your use to me and to Atlantis goes far beyond the powers you gained from Poseidon. Your wise counsel has served me well for centuries, and I will need you when I ascend to the throne."
    Atlantis Rising – Warriors of Poseidon 01
    Page 173 of 351
    Alaric stared over Conlan's shoulder toward Riley and her sister. "These empaths. They signal a treacherous difference in our ways, Conlan. I can sense it. Change is coming.
    Peril that comes from within our very souls."
     
    With that, he took two running steps and leapt into the air, transforming into sparkling mist that quickly vanished.
     
    Conlan watched the air into which Alaric had disappeared for a long moment, considering his parting words.
     
    But Alaric had been wrong. Change wasn't coming.
     
    It's already here.

Chapter 20
    Twenty minutes later, Conlan stood with Ven, grimly contemplating the pile of bodies they and the rest of the Seven had pulled behind the deadfall of trees. Centuries of serving as a warrior had yet to inure him to the foul stink of death, and his stomach growled an urge to reject its contents. He scrubbed at his hands with leaves, then realized the futility of the effort and called water from the surrounding leaves and a tiny stream some hundred yards away to cleanse his hands.
     
    The mist became fluid in the cupped bowl of his hands and he washed the blood from hands and forearms, wondering how Reisen and his remaining warriors had escaped undetected after surviving this carnage. They must have been spattered with gore.
     
    Except, of course, when they traveled as mist. Which may have explained why Riley no longer detected them. He'd have to test his