Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

drift."
     
    "This is going to affect our timetable for rejoining the world of the landwalkers," Ven said grimly. "Atlantis will be needed far sooner than we'd planned if this continues."
     
    "They don't deserve our help," Christophe sneered. "Why protect the sheep who welcomed the wolves into their herd? Do you know there are clubs where humans go to voluntarily get bitten by a vamp? What kind of madness is that? If they want to die so badly, let them."
     
    "And then what?" The force of Alaric's fury was a tangible thing. "Once they have turned more and more humans, even witches, to join the ranks of the undead? Then what?
    The entire surface of the earth will eventually belong only to those who can never face the sun."
     
    Erin suddenly laughed, a shrill, sharp sound that held no humor. "Yeah, you do the math. If two vampires are on trains traveling in opposite directions, and each of them turn two humans, who then each turn two more humans, and so on and so forth, which train full of the walking dead will get to St. Louis first?"
     
    Ven's eyebrows shot up. "What are you talking about? What trains?"
     
    Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    She laughed again, but despair stared blindly at him from behind her eyes. "Nothing. It's a child's math problem, it's… nothing. I think Quinn's not the only one who needs to rest."
     
    Ven shoved his chair back and stood. "We all need to rest. Alaric, we will gather our wounded in one room so you can open a portal."
     
    Alaric shook his head. "I am too drained from the events of this night and the healings. I tried earlier to open a portal and was unable to call it to me. I must rest for at least twelve hours, perhaps more, before I even try again. And Alexios and Brennan are far too badly wounded to be moved, let alone dropped into the ocean to attempt to make the water crossing. We must stay here this night and trust to the witches' warding."
     
    Gennae bristled a little. "We will post guards, as well. Between the guards and the warding, we will be safe. Also, dawn will be here in less than an hour, and the sun means the vampires have to go back to their holes for the day."
     
    Ven watched Erin droop in her chair, barely able to remain upright, and came to a swift decision. "You will all stay here and rest and heal until you can open a portal, Alaric. I'm taking Erin away to someplace safe. Someplace nobody but me knows about, so there's no chance of any traitor revealing its location."
     
    "Far away from Caligula, I would hope," Gennae said.
     
    Erin's head jerked up, and he saw the fire in her eyes as she prepared to argue the point.
     
    "No," he said. "Quite the opposite. We'll go where they'd never expect. We're heading right for him."
     
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Chapter 19
    Point Success, elevation 14,158 feet, Mount Rainier
     
    Caligula crouched on the balls of his feet, knees bent, and surveyed the predawn landscape from one of the highest points on what he had come to think of as his mountain. "It amuses me to think that this spot is named Point Success," he told her, "when so much of my own success has been plotted here. Perhaps when the world has turned, I will rename this entire mountain in my honor. Mount Caligula. I would enjoy that, I think."
     
    Deirdre did not respond, not that he'd expected her to. After the first hour, her broken cries had become wearisome, and he'd caught her mind in his, allowing her to experience all of the pain and terror but not to vocalize any of it.
     
    She trembled, naked and bruised, on the snow in front of him. But when he lifted her chin to drink in her surrender, it was not fear he saw in her eyes, but hate.
     
    He smiled. "Fear, hate, it all means the same to me, my love," he said, tracing the edge of one bleeding cheek with his fingertip. "The darkness of violent emotions pleases me well, regardless of their source."
     
    He cast a measuring glance at the sky. Perhaps twenty minutes, no more, until the sun rose. He was ancient enough to countenance some of the day's light upon his skin, but she would burn and die, and he would never risk her. Twenty minutes, though, was long enough for the dessert he'd planned.
     
    He caught her around her waist with one arm and pulled her to him until her delicious ass nestled against his groin, then slammed his cock into her with one hard thrust, feeling something inside of her tear at his brutal entry.