Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

finished for him. "That's getting to be quite a list."
     
    "Works for me, since I'm planning—" The faint scratching sound alerted him before his eyes could find its source. "Erin, shield!"
     
    Ven bent his knees into a fighting stance and raised his sword. The scratching turned into the scrambling of claws on rock, and it was coming from overhead. "We've got company, and I'm guessing vamp," he called out. "Watch out from the roof."
     
    A hissing sound and foul smell like noxious air escaping a tire was his only warning before two vamps attacked him from above. He twisted and plunged his sword into the neck of one of them as the other smashed a fist into the side of his head, bouncing his poor abused skull off yet another wall.
     
    He swore a blue streak in Atlantean as he wrenched his sword sideways and down, crudely but effectively slicing the head of vamp number one from its body. Vamp number two hissed at the sight, then leapt at Ven. He pulled his sword up into the ready position, but before the vamp ever made it to him, a bolt of sizzling energy zapped it right in the middle of its forehead. The silvery-blue energy shot through all the vamp's limbs and into its skull, illuminating it from inside like a bizarre, anatomically correct piece of modern art. Bloodsuckers by Damien Hirst.
     
    Then it exploded into a pile of smoking slime, and he barely jumped back out of the way in time to avoid getting splattered with decomposing vamp.
     
    "Hey! If you're going to use the Wilding to explode vamps, I'm entirely in agreement with that plan. But give a man a chance to get out of the line of fire, so to speak," he said, turning to face Erin.
     
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    She stood, mouth hanging open, with her hands still raised. As he watched her, she slowly blinked once, then finally lowered her hands. "What? That was… oh, wow. Wow.
    What just happened? Did I really do that? I had no idea…"
     
    As her voice trailed off, he shot a glance farther down the descending tunnel, to see if more vamps or maybe a few shifters were hot on their buddies' trail. Her witch light, amazingly, still hung in the air. "We need to get going. I have a feeling that those vamps may have been reacting to you busting through their warding, which means more will be on the way when they don't come back and report."
     
    He carefully studied her for signs of shock, but other than the slightly stunned expression in her eyes, she seemed fine. More than fine, considering the fierce look of joy that slowly lit up her face. "I exploded a vampire, Ven. I called the Wilding and exploded a vampire. Do you know what that means?"
     
    "I should be careful never to get on your bad side?"
     
    She ignored his feeble attempt at humor and raised her arms until a silvery-blue translucent glow covered her entire body. "I can destroy them, Ven. I can destroy them all."
     
    He grabbed her arms, noticing and filing away the slight zap of electrical shock that sizzled up his hands to his shoulders from touching her. "You're not invulnerable, Erin, and a master vamp has defenses and powers these baby vamps never dreamed of.
    Also, if you throw some kind of shock wave, you run the risk of harming your sister. So, yeah, it's great that you're Super Wilding Witch now. But be careful."
     
    She stared at him, remote and unyielding, reminding him again of the Goddess she'd become at the Nereid Temple. "Lead on, Lord Vengeance," she said in a voice that was subtly deeper and vaster than her own. "Your concerns are noted."
     
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    Not knowing what else to do, sure that an army of shifters and vamps was swarming up the tunnel toward them at that very moment, Ven did as she asked and led on. His concerns might be noted, he thought. But they damn sure weren’t relieved. He could finally admit that he'd fallen in love with a witch. But he wasn't at all prepared to be in love with a goddess.

Chapter 30
    Erin followed Ven down farther and farther into the dark heart of the mountain, feeling oddly as though she were no longer alone in her own skin. She was more—was other.
    She sensed the presence of the Nereid Goddess, who would serve as midwife to the birth of Erin's true gem singer Gift.
     
    She wasn't sure how she knew this to be true, but didn't question the knowledge. She followed Ven, who would defend her to the ninth level of hell, and walked with the