Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

She lay on the burgundy striped couch farthest from the windows, and several men and women she recognized as being part of Quinn's group were lying on pallets on the floor and on the other couches in the room.
     
    Justice leaned up against one wall, streaks of dark red blood staining his blue hair. His shirt was unbuttoned, and bandaging encircled his chest. Alaric, Quinn, the tiger, and the rest of the Atlanteans were nowhere to be seen.
     
    "It's Justice badly injured? And the others? Quinn? Are they—"
     
    Ven shook his head and his eyes darkened. "Justice is the least injured. Quinn nearly died; she took a knife thrust in her lungs. Brennan and Alexios were badly injured, as well."
     
    She struggled to stand up, forcing her bruised and battered body to cooperate. "Let me up! I can help them. I can sing—"
     
    "Shh," he soothed, gently pushing her back against the cushions. "Alaric has healed them all, as much as he could before even his energy faltered. That trick he pulled off nearly killed him, I think, but he won't admit it. He saw Quinn fall and went ballistic. Your friend Gennae said that somehow he pulled magic from every witch in the city and channeled it along with his own in order to send that destructo-bolt of lightning through the warehouse. It was powerful enough to incinerate every vampire in a two-block radius on contact. We found piles of melting vampire slime all around the building.
    Clearly they were sending reinforcements."
     
    "What about your friend? Daniel? Was he destroyed as well?"
    Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    Ven shook his head. "I'm not sure I'd call him a friend. Seems like a friend could have warned us earlier or warded off that attack completely. To answer your question, I don't know. The last I saw, he was hitting the ground with my bullet in his gut. It seems unlikely that he could have gotten away."
     
    A flash of something grim crossed his expression, and Erin impulsively reached out for his hand. "It's not your fault. He asked you to shoot him. He must have known the danger he was in."
     
    His dark eyes iced over, and he pulled his hand from hers and stood up. "I feel no guilt for the death of a vampire. It has been our sworn duty for more than eleven thousand years to destroy their kind. If you are sure you are well, I need to go find Jack and ask if he will help me search for Christophe and Denal. I need their assistance to transport our wounded to Atlantis."
     
    She nodded and watched him walk away, thinking that whether he admitted it or not, he almost certainly regretted causing the death of even a single ally when the world seemed filled with enemies.
     
    A familiar tingle of magic flickered at the edge of her consciousness, and she turned to see Gennae crossing the room toward her, her arms full of blankets. A young novice witch followed her with a tray of cups and mugs. Gennae nodded at Erin, then distributed the blankets, taking time to be sure her patients were comfortable. She and the novice handed out cups and mugs to any who were awake, and then Gennae carried a steaming mug over to Erin.
     
    "Drink this, child." She handed the fragrant tea to Erin and sat on the edge of the couch near Erin's feet. "Are you well? That warrior seems to have appointed himself your personal bodyguard and would scarcely let me get near you."
     
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    Indignation furrowed her brow. "As if I would hurt you. All he kept saying was, 'We have traitors, lady, and I don't know if you're one of them.' That Alaric person finally had to tell them that he'd scanned me, and I was no traitor. The nerve of them both!"
     
    Erin swallowed a brief glimmer of amusement at the idea of Gennae facing up against Ven and Alaric. She'd never known a witch stronger than Gennae. But then again, Ven had said that Alaric pulled power from all the witches in Seattle…
     
    "Did it affect you?" She knew the question was impertinent, but she suddenly needed to know. "When Alaric pulled power from the witches, did he pull yours as well?"
     
    "No, I shielded. But I certainly felt it." Anger and then a trace of bewilderment flashed across Gennae's normally expressionless face. "I have only felt power like that once before, many years ago, from a wizard who was channeling death magic at the time.
    The power this Atlantean called was free of any taint of the dark, though. It was crystalline in its purity, and