Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

suddenly froze, her hands going to her pockets. In one smooth motion, she pulled a knife out of one pocket and a gun out of the other, and crouched low. "Trouble," she called out, and everyone in the place went into attack and defend mode.
     
    Yet the trouble that floated down into the center of the room was no enemy, but rather an ally. Sort of. If you didn't count the whole death penalty threat thing.
     
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    Quinn's face went chalky white, and Erin noticed a faint trembling in her hands as she put the weapons away. "Alaric. You have a thing for dramatic entrances, don't you?"
    Quinn's voice was steady in spite of the obvious effect the priest's presence had made.
     
    Alaric touched down on the floor mere inches away from Quinn and stared down at her.
    Erin was shocked by the expression on his face. The planes and angles had hardened until he appeared to be a marble statue rather than flesh and blood—a statue with oceans of pain in his eyes. He stared at Quinn as a dying man might look at his last chance for salvation.
     
    Erin's gaze flew to Quinn, and she got another shock. Because Quinn was looking back at Alaric with the exact same expression on her face.
     
    The priest finally spoke, his voice rusty. "Quinn. I hope you are well."
     
    "I… I will be well when I know my sister is well," Quinn answered, her voice breaking on the words. "Why can't you heal her, Alaric? I know how powerful you are."
     
    "I have done everything I can, but it's not enough." A muscle clenched in his jaw and Erin felt an unexpected sympathy for the man. His failure to help Riley and the baby must be eating away at his soul—there wasn't even a trace of his usual arrogance in his voice or expression.
     
    "Actually, I may be able to help with that," Erin said, compelled to break the hideous tension between them. "There is a legend of a famous ruby that gem singers can apparently use to heal pregnant women and unborn babies. If we can find it, I can try to use it. Marie said she'd help me. The rumor is that it may be somewhere around Mount Rainier."
     
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    "That's quite a coincidence," Quinn said. "We just happen to be near Mount Rainier, and Caligula is probably underneath it. Now you're telling me this gem is there, too? I don't believe in coincidences."
     
    "I don't either, but it's actually not a coincidence at all, more of a cause-and-effect relationship, from what Marie told us," Erin explained. "Evidently the presence of the gem in this area called to any child with the latent gem singer Gift, so it was more likely that a gem singer would develop her talent near the Nereid's Heart than anywhere else in the world."
     
    "We've got reports of a tolling noise coming from the area around the mountain.
    Seismologists thought it was earthquake activity at first," Ven said. "But Marie said it very well could be the ruby coming to life, so to speak, after being hidden underground and inert for thousands of years."
     
    Jack suddenly made a deep, growling noise and leapt to stand next to Quinn. "I smell vampire."
     
    "That would be me," a voice called out from the area by the door, where two of Quinn's men were standing with pistols trained on Alexios and Brennan, who flanked a third man. The man in the center held up his hands. "Somebody needs to shoot me, quick, because you're going to be attacked in less than five minutes."
     
    As they came closer, Erin realized he was a vampire, even though a golden patina disguised his pale skin. He'd had the darkened complexion to go with his black hair, once.
     
    "Daniel, what the hell are you talking about?" Ven called out, as everybody in the room went into a blur of action and the sound of weapons being locked and loaded surrounded Erin. Alexios and Brennan strode forward with the man who must be Daniel keeping pace.
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    Erin's amber sang out with a deep, urgent song, but it was different from the discordant, crashing sound she usually heard in the presence of vampires. This had a haunting melody that sang of soul-deep loneliness and loss. "What are you?" she asked as he came nearer.
     
    He flashed a dark look at her that measured and dismissed her. "I am nothing you have ever encountered, gem singer. Be warned to stay far away from me and my kind, because you have the scent of Fae in your blood,