Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

at the pain from his side. He put a hand back and yanked the dagger out by its hilt, tossed it across the floor, and pulled her into his arms. "Are you all right? Did they hurt you? Are you wounded?"
     
    She pulled back and put her hand on his side, where blood was streaming down. "I'm fine. I'm not hurt. What happened to you? You're bleeding. A lot."
     
    He shook his head. "It's nothing. Don't worry about it. If they had harmed you—" He left the rest of the sentence unspoken, not sure how to say "my universe would have ended" without freaking her out.
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    He was freaking out his own damn self, with the intensity of the rage that swept through him at the thought of them hurting her. He covered the wound on his side with his hand, and they stood and faced the room.
     
    "Right now we need to help everyone else," he said.
     
    She nodded, although her face was white with exhaustion. They stepped around the disintegrating mess of dead vampire on the floor and made it two or three steps before she grabbed his hand and stopped. "The gems, Ven. I can try to use the gems to sing healing for you."
     
    "No! You're too exhausted, and the healing would drain even more of your strength. I'm fine, this is just a scratch."
     
    She glared at him. "I think we need to have that conversation about you telling me what to do sooner rather than later," she said. "But not right now."
     
    With that, she placed one hand on the entry wound and one hand on the exit wound, opened her mouth, and began to sing. Before Ven could protest, the delicate notes of her song washed over and through him in a glaze of silver light. A burning heat centered within him in the path the dagger had taken, and he somehow knew the notes of her song were calling to the molecules of his skin to knit themselves together, to heal his torn flesh.
     
    She stopped singing, sighing with weariness. As her song trailed off, the sensation of heat penetrating his skin did, too. He look down at his side and was unsurprised to see the flesh sealed back together, the gaping wound gone, and nothing but a thin pink line remaining where the dagger had pierced him.
     
    "Now I'll go help everybody else," she said. But before he could utter a word, her eyes rolled back in her head and she collapsed. He caught her before she could hit the Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    ground and lifted her in his arms, then turned and started toward Alaric, who had dropped to the ground and was cradling Quinn on his lap.
     
    Quinn's limp body looked lifeless, and the rage in Alaric's eyes promised a screaming death by torture to those who had engineered the attack. Ven's arms tightened around Erin, and he made a grim vow to the gods, speaking the words aloud to underscore his vow. "I swear on my own life and on my honor as a Warrior of Poseidon that Caligula will not survive to hurt any under my protection again."
     
    Erin fought her way to consciousness, but lay still without opening her eyes, wondering why she ached so badly in every part of her body. Pain danced behind her eyelids, pirouetting through her brain, a macabre ballet of agony. The hangover of magic use was all too familiar. The level of intensity was not.
     
    Intensity, The battle.
     
    Her eyes flew open. "Ven," she croaked out. Her vocal cords burned as if she'd swallowed a fire-sword. She struggled to sit up, and in an instant Ven was kneeling beside her.
     
    "I'm here, mi amara. How are you feeling?"
     
    "I feel like a boulder smashed into me," she admitted. "But other than a massive magic hangover, I think I'm fine. And you?" Suddenly frantic, she pulled his shirt aside to see his wound. "Did I do it? Are you healed?"
     
    He showed her the healing flesh that was the only sign of the vicious stabbing, and she collapsed back against the cushions in relief. He bent and pressed a quick, hard kiss to her lips. "Thank Poseidon you are well," he said, his voice rough. "And yes, as you see, your singing healed me, but we need to talk about this propensity you have to put yourself in danger. The healing drains too much of your energy."
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    She mustered up a weary smile. "Add it to the list of things we need to talk about, then."
     
    Reassured that Ven was fine, Erin finally looked around the room and recognized the gathering room in the Circle of Light headquarters.