Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

Poseidon so weak that he chooses the likes of you? Not to mention that you send a little girl to do your dirty work.”
    Quinn tried to break free of the water shield protecting her, but it was designed as much to keep her in as to keep others out. Alaric knew her that well, at least.
    “I‟ll little girl your ass , you—”
    “Quinn,” Alaric said quietly. “His aim is to ignite your temper. Perhaps you might allow me the chance to assist you this one time?”
    “Fine, but you seem to be making a habit of it,” she shot back. “We can discuss that later, too.
    Be my guest.”
    The vampire threw back his head and laughed. “Having trouble keeping your humans in line, are you? You Atlanteans must be desperate.” He gestured toward Jack. “Working with shape-shifters, too, I see. This one stinks of the jungle, so I‟m guessing he‟s no wolf, although we didn‟t give him time to demonstrate his . . . furry side.”
    Alaric called power and negligently bounced an energy sphere in his right palm, smiling as the vampires other than the leader cringed away from him. “You‟d be another of Anubisa‟s minions? One wonders if she has a warehouse somewhere.”
    “Stupid Vampires R Us,” Quinn said, snickering.
    “I am Vonos, and I am the Primator,” the vampire said, his fangs lengthening as he seemed to lose a little bit of his deliberate calm.
    “Oh, yes. Another minion to replace Barrabas, after we . . . vetoed his political career,” Alaric replied, rolling the energy sphere around in his fingers.
    Vonos abruptly stood to his full height and lifted a leather-wrapped package that had evidently been on the coffin behind him. Holding it in the palm of one hand, he pulled the cord that tied the top of the package together and the edge of the leather wrappings fell open just a little.
    “I find that now I‟m bored with this conversation,” Vonos said.
    Before Alaric could react, Vonos aimed the top opening of the package toward the semicircle of vampires surrounding him. “You disobeyed us, and now you‟ll die. I‟ve always favored a scorched-earth policy myself.”
    A blinding yellow light burst from the package with the intensity of a sun flare, and Alaric threw up an energy shield around Jack and Denal and widened the water shield protecting Quinn to include himself. With the speed of light, the searing radiance struck all of the vampires other than Vonos. Any vampire in the path of the light exploded into sizzling drops of acid which rained down all throughout the room. Luckily, the shields surrounding Quinn and the Atlanteans held firm and they were untouched.
    Vonos whistled and then rewrapped the package and calmly surveyed the destruction. “For once, the rumors were not exaggerated. This gem can never fall into the wrong hands, now can it? I‟d say it‟s so hard to get good help these days, but I do so hate clichés. Lovely to meet you, Atlantean. I look forward to our next encounter. Oh, and thanks for the little toy.
    This group has kept it secret from our goddess for hundreds of years, which is fairly annoying, but what can you do?”
    He flashed a fang-filled smile of pure triumph at Alaric and held out the package as if to taunt him. “I believe your kind call it the Vampire‟s Bane? Fitting, isn‟t it?”
    With that, the vampire lifted his arms in the air, still holding tightly to the package, and vanished.
    A jolt of pure electricity raced through Alaric. If that were truly the fabled yellow diamond known as the Vampire‟s Bane, then it was one of the missing gems of the Trident. Conlan must know of this immediately.
    Behind Alaric, Quinn stumbled and fell against his back, and all thoughts of strategy and gems and magic fled. In an instant, he had her in his arms again, cradling her against him, careful not to jostle her injured arm. He called power and sent the force of the healing blue-green energy into and through her until her bone was mended and every bruise and scrape on her body, no matter how minor, was repaired.
    She opened her eyes as he withdrew the healing power from her. “That seems to be another habit of yours. I get broken, and you fix it. You‟re ruining my reputation as a tough rebel leader,” she murmured.
    “Ruined,” he repeated, his voice rough as he remembered another conversation at another time. “I can do no other than protect you and see you made whole, with all apologies to the state of your reputation.”
    Her dark eyes were enormous in her