Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

he'd left her, arms out, a shimmering shield of translucent light surrounding her. Two vampires were trying to get through it and they kept hurling themselves against the shield, which bounced them back over and over again. Either they weren't very bright, or they knew something he didn't about whether repeated force would weaken her shield or her strength.
     
    The immense force of a massive energy burst thrummed against his skin, and he looked up to see Alaric standing in front of Quinn and calling power. Ven grinned in spite of the blood dripping from his shoulder.
     
    "Oh, you're in trouble now, bloodsuckers! My man Alaric is going to fry some vampire ass." He laughed when he said it and the four new vampires heading for him paused Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    briefly, probably unused to prey who weren't quaking in their boots. "Come and get me, girls," he taunted them. "I don't bite. At least, not much."
     
    The vampires screamed out their rage, their hellish eyes glowing bloody red, and they dive-bombed him. Ven did a rolling dive to the floor and got underneath them, then leapt to his feet and slashed out with his sword, killing two of them before the other two even managed to turn around.
     
    A woman's high, piercing scream distracted him. He whipped his head to the side in time to see Erin fall to the ground. She still held her shield intact, but it had shrunk to cover her by mere inches. Four vampires now beat on the shield around her.
     
    A killing rage washed through him in a red tide of fury. He flashed away from the two vamps attacking him and barreled into the ones surrounding Erin. Slashing and stabbing, he made short work of the first two, but then a searing pain pierced his back.
    He looked down to see the tip of a dagger protruding from the left side of his abdomen, and forced himself to leap sideways away from the vamps, pushing off on legs suddenly gone numb. He smashed into the ground on his side, hard, and smacked his head on the concrete. Before he could attempt to reach around and pull the dagger out, the vamps were on him again. The largest of the three yanked Ven's hair and pulled his head up off the floor, baring his throat to strike.
     
    Another piercing female scream sliced through the battle noise, but this one came from the center of the room. A huge roaring noise—so fierce that the vamps attacking Ven cringed away from the sound—followed the scream. In the next moment, a familiar pressure swirled through the room, then rocketed up to an intensity that Ven had never felt before.
     
    None but Alaric could channel the elements with a power level even approaching that.
    Ven attempted another laugh, and stabbed his knife upward through the bottom of the neck of the vampire trying to bite him. "It's all over now," he began, and then the air in Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    the warehouse went supernova. A blinding blue-green light filled the room and seemed to sear right through the skin of the bloodsuckers, pinning him to the floor. Their skulls lit up like Halloween decorations, and the unearthly blue light sizzled out from behind their eye sockets and their open mouths. The hideous stink of burning vampire wafted over him and he rolled out from underneath them, swearing when the handle of the dagger still protruding from his side pounded into the floor and stabbed deeper into his flesh.
     
    He tried to push himself up, but was unable to fight his way through the pressure from the energy still crackling through the air. He shoved the smoking carcass of a dead vamp out of his way so he had a clear line of sight to Erin. She was crouching against the wall, somehow still holding her shield. The bodies of three or four vampires lay on the ground in front of her, flames licking over their clothes and skin.
     
    Something inside Ven's ears popped with a sudden release of pressure, and he tried to stand up again. This time nothing stopped him, and he ran toward Erin, scanning the room. Humans, shape-shifters, and Atlanteans alike were all down. A quick glance told him that many were wounded and some might be dead. Smoking heaps of bloodsucker littered the room, and Alaric was the only one standing, completely unharmed, blue flames surrounding him and licking at his clothes and hair. Whatever in the nine hells the priest had managed to do, Ven wanted to learn it. Soon.
     
    He reached Erin and crouched down, wincing