Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

"Stay behind that shield, no matter what happens."
     
    She nodded and then hugged her sister again and the two turned as one to focus on Caligula, who remained trapped. Reassured, Ven raised his sword and looked to his brother warriors. "Now!"
     
    He, Jack, and Justice sprang forward into the throngs of moaning and howling vamps and shifters. They weren't too incapacitated to fight back, however, and the battle was on. Slashing and slicing anything that moved to fight him, Ven fought his way through to where Daniel leaned over Quinn.
     
    But he was too late. Even as he plunged his silver-enhanced dagger into the heart of a wolf in full, snarling Were shape, he saw Daniel raise his wrist and slice into it with his fangs, then press it against Quinn's half-open mouth.
     
    "No!" Ven sprang toward them, but again he was too late. Quinn had raised her head and was clutching Daniel's wrist with both hands as she drank from his vein.
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    The traitorous bastard had completed the blood bond and would forever after have a connection with Quinn and power over her. Ven raised his sword, remembering a crucial fact. The blood bond was severed at the death of the vamp who'd created it.
     
    "I'm going to enjoy separating your head from your body," he snarled.
     
    Daniel raised his head, unspeakable weariness in his eyes. "She was dying, Ven. She had been weakened by the earlier battle and healing, and I must have taken too much blood. She was going to die if she didn't get a transfusion, and there's not exactly a hospital nearby."
     
    Ven saw the truth in Daniel's eyes, and slowly lowered his sword. Quinn finally released Daniel's wrist and stared up at Ven, tiny dots of blood on her lips. "Are we dead yet?"
     
    "No," he said. "But we may be in hell."
     
    Daniel fixed a bleak stare on Ven. "I am Spartan, warrior. We invented hell."
     
    Daniel stood and scooped Quinn up in his arms. "I am taking her to the surface, or at least as far as I can go before the sunlight stops me. Good luck with your quest, Atlantean."
     
    "If she dies, or if you hurt her in any way, I will track you down and stake you out for the sun," Ven said, grim promise in his tone.
     
    "She's going to despise me when she becomes fully aware," Daniel said bleakly. "Do you think facing the sun could possibly be any worse? Behind you on the left!"
     
    With that, Daniel shot up through the air and toward the ceiling, toward what Ven figured was a vamps-only exit. He turned to face the threat coming at him from the left, and plunged his sword into the vamp's mouth, nearly taking off the top of its skull. As it Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    slammed into the ground, he jerked his sword out of its mouth and then sliced it down to finish the job.
     
    Stepping back from the puddle of decomposing vamp, he immediately confirmed that Erin's shield was holding, then headed back into the fray. One down, a couple hundred to go.

Chapter 33
    Erin held her sister's cold, cold hand and sang. She sang of the past ten years' loss and pain and loneliness. She sang a battle song to rouse the fury of the Nereid's Heart and defeat the enemy.
     
    She sang of love—her love for her sister and the consuming love she finally admitted she felt for Ven. The ruby warmed against her body until she felt as though she held a living flame. It added its voice to hers and to Deirdre's—an ancient counterpoint to their living song. The immense power rose through her until she felt she could expand to fill the entire cavern with her body and her song.
     
    The reality of Ven fighting all of Caligula's minions, even with Jack and Justice, finally penetrated her ruby song-induced haze. She had to do something, and she had to do it now.
     
    She turned to her sister. "I seem to have acquired a talent for exploding vampires, but I am afraid to use it with you here. I don't know if I have the control to direct it at specific individuals."
     
    Deirdre clutched her hand. "If I must face permanent death to save you, I'm ready to do it. The things he put me through…" She shuddered. "I cannot face our father ever again, Erin."
     
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    The look on Erin's face must have given it away. "Daddy, too?" Deirdre asked, her face crumpling. "No, not Daddy, too."
     
    "I'm sorry, Deirdre. He thought you were dead, too. We thought they'd killed all of