Atlantis Awakening (13 page)

Conlan stood up from where he'd been eating his breakfast next to Riley. “Enough, both of you,” he said, the words holding affection as much as command. “Don't make me pull rank.”

Marie glided across the Temple floor to the table and took a seat. “Perhaps all of you will remember that this is the home of the Goddess and you should behave accordingly,” she said. Her voice was gentle but there was the unmistakable whip of admonition underlying her words.

Erin grinned. Speak softly and carry a big Goddess stick.
Way to go, Marie.
She edged carefully around Ven, not quite sure he wasn't going to simply toss her over his shoulder and pull a caveman. “Sounds good to me, Marie. Why don't we all sit down and enjoy this wonderful food.”

She headed for the seat at the table farthest from Alaric and right between Alexios and Denal, figuring it would really tick Ven off. Something bitchy inside her chuckled at the idea. Served him right.

But before she could take a seat, he caught her from behind with one powerful arm around her waist and lifted her into another seat at the end of the table. He took the seat that blocked her from Alexios, lifted a platter of fruit and held it out to her. “Mango?”

“Don't think that what happened between us gives you any rights over me,” she said, careful to keep her voice low. “I will sit wherever I choose and do whatever I want.”

Deadly calm washed over his expression, belying the suddenly feral look in his eyes. “If you wish to force me to call battle challenge on my friends and brother warriors, feel free to push me in this matter. Be advised that battle challenge is almost always to the death, so choose carefully which of them you wish to see die.”

Pure shock slammed into her. He wasn't kidding. She could feel the heat of the banked rage burning out from him. If she continued to taunt him, he would hurt or maybe kill one of his friends over it. “What kind of monster are you?” she whispered, suddenly terrified.

“I am worse than any monster you have ever known, Erin,” he said bleakly. “The things I have done throughout the centuries would rot away at your mind if you knew of them. And apparently the soul-meld causes certain…possessive instincts…that I have never experienced before. I can't understand it or control it right now. Please don't challenge me until I can figure this out.”

She leaned away from him, not understanding how she could simultaneously feel terrified and yet safe and protected in his presence, when he'd just admitted to being a monster. It was a conundrum she had no time to explore, though, because Alaric and Marie were standing up at the head of the table and raising their hands for silence.

Marie spoke first. “Let us give thanks to the Goddess for this bounty before us and for returning our gem singer to her home. Thanks be to the Goddess!”

“Thanks be to the Goddess,” everyone replied, as Erin studied them. Conlan sat next to Riley, who was looking a little less rosy and well than she had the day before. Brennan and a warrior she did not recognize sat on the other side of Conlan. Alexios and Denal sat on her side of the table. Several women who must be maidens of the Temple fluttered around, serving drinks and carrying dishes, but none joined them at the table other than Marie.

Alaric spoke. “Thanks be to the Goddess, and praise Poseidon, who protects us all.”

“Praise Poseidon,” came the refrain, and then Alaric and Marie took their seats and everyone continued to eat. Erin discovered that she was ravenously hungry, in spite of feeling the emotional equivalent of shell shock, and filled her plate, studiously ignoring Ven except to murmur thanks when he passed a platter.

For several minutes there was little conversation as everyone ate, and then Conlan pushed his plate aside. One of the maidens hurried to remove his dishes, and he smiled and thanked her, which surprised Erin a little.
Not a lot of royal snobbery going on here,
she thought, remembering Ven with the woman who'd brought the clothes. Thinking of that reminded her to thank Riley.

“Riley,” she said, pitching her voice loudly enough to capture the woman's attention. “Thank you for sending the clothes. My stuff was getting a little ripe.”

Riley grinned. “It's the least I could do. That blue looks wonderful on you, by the way.”

Erin grinned, since she'd thought exactly the same thing herself. The sky-blue silk top mirrored her eyes, and she hadn't exactly hated the appreciative heat in Ven's eyes when he'd seen her in the top and jeans after she'd showered. Other than the lip gloss she'd had in her jacket pocket, her face was bare of makeup, but she never wore a lot, anyway.

Ven put a hand on her back, and the heat from his touch seared through the light fabric of her shirt. “Yeah, it does. Look wonderful, I mean,” he said into her ear. The touch of his breath made her shiver as if he'd stroked other, more intimate places, and she caught the quick flash of passion in his gaze.

Trying not to be obvious about it, she pulled away from his hand and sent a serious look down the table toward Conlan. “Okay, what are we here to discuss? I'm hoping you're on board with the alliance to help us fight Caligula.”

“Yes, we are definitely willing to work with your coven toward that end,” Conlan said. “It can't be coincidence that Caligula's base in the Pacific Northwest is the center of the increase in newly turned vampires.”

Alaric nodded. “He is clearly consolidating his power, perhaps seeking to expand his territory to encompass that which Barrabas left.”

The warrior that Erin didn't recognize lifted his head and she was surprised to see power glowing in his eyes. “Why in the hells do we need to work with the witches? They're not powerful enough to be a help or they would have done something about Caligula ten years ago when he attacked them the first time.”

Erin's heart stuttered at the callous mention of her family's murder, and it seemed to attract his attention, because he swung his gaze to her. “Sure, maybe Ven found some pretty little witch to scratch his itch for a while, but that doesn't mean we have to include her in our plans.”

Beside her, Ven leapt to his feet and roared out a challenge, then launched himself over the table in one mighty leap, knocking the warrior backward, chair and all, as they both crashed to the ground.

Erin shot out of her chair and rounded the table with some idea of intervening, but the sight of them stopped her cold. Ven had one large hand wrapped around the other man's throat and was crouched on top of him, snarling in a low, animalistic rage.

“If you ever mention her, look at her, or even think of her in a disrespectful way again, Christophe, I
will
kill you.”

Christophe tried to speak, but could only manage choking noises.

Ven bared his teeth in a terrifying parody of a smile. “Give me a reason. Just one word. Give me a reason to call battle challenge right here.”

Christophe's eyes glowed with fury, then the flames in them banked and he held up his hands in a gesture of surrender. Ven glared down at him for another long second, then shoved up and off of the fallen warrior. When he raised his head, he caught Erin in his gaze, and she inhaled sharply at the single-minded focus in his gaze.

Trapped again, she stood, frozen, as he stalked toward her. It never even occurred to her to try to resist him as he swept her into his arms and strode up the steps to the Temple doorway. Immediately outside the doorway, he turned right and put her down, backing her up against the marble wall, and slammed his hands against the wall on either side of her.

She tried to push words past the breath caught in her throat. “Ven? What—”

But he simply shook his head and caught her words with his mouth. Caught her lips in a demanding, passionate kiss. She couldn't help it, she twined her arms around his neck and kissed him back, unable to resist his claim of possession.

Not sure she wanted to try.

He kissed her with skill and hunger until her knees weakened, and she would have fallen if she hadn't been clinging to him, but he was careful never to touch her body. Finally, he wrenched his head away from hers and stood, panting, with his head hanging down. “I'm sorry, Erin. I know an apology isn't enough, but it's all I've got right now.”

“What just happened?” she asked, her own voice shaky.

He lifted his head and stared into her eyes. “What just happened is that I very nearly fucked you right here up against the wall. All I've been able to think of every second of this day is pounding my cock into your body until you scream for me.”

Heat and razor-sharp desire burned through her at his crude words, and she shivered. “Ven, this can't—we can't keep going like this. This is too distracting, when we need to go after Caligula.”

He laughed, disbelief evident on his face. “Caligula? Are you insane? You're not going anywhere near Caligula. Fuck free will. You're never leaving Atlantis again.”

After that kiss that had rocked her foundation, Ven backed away from her and pointed to the doorway, unspeaking, his breath still coming in harsh, rasping noises. She hesitated, then ran for the door and escaped inside to the relative safety of the Temple and the people inside. Conlan stopped on his way out the door and stared down at her with that face so like his brother's, but with compassion in his eyes. “Don't be afraid of him, gem singer. He would give his life for you.”

Alaric brushed by her on the other side. “Why am I the only one concerned by that fact?” he muttered, then continued to swoop out the door like some marauding grim reaper.

She put her hands on her hips, feigning a steadiness she was far from feeling. “He just told me I'm never leaving Atlantis. If he thinks he can keep me here against my will, then
he's
the one who should be afraid.”

Conlan grinned and unexpectedly leaned forward to press a brief kiss on her forehead. “I could never have wished for a more worthy mate for my brother, little witch.”

Her mouth fell open, but before she could form a single response, he was gone, following Alaric out the doorway. Somebody immediately started shouting at somebody else, and she didn't want to hear it. She walked away from the noise and toward the table, head held high. The room was now empty except for Riley and Marie, so the warriors must have made their escape through a back entrance.

Riley didn't stand, but held out a hand to indicate the chair across from her. “Please join me while the boys beat on each other for a while,” she said wearily, but with a smile.

Marie came up beside Erin with a silver carafe. “More coffee?” she offered, as if this were a normal ladies' brunch and Ven hadn't nearly killed Christophe on the floor near where she stood.

Erin shrugged. “When in Atlantis, I guess,” she said. “Yes, I'd love more coffee, please. And maybe some chocolate-covered Valium?”

Marie smiled, poured the coffee, mentioned duties, and glided off in that serene, swanlike way she had. Erin watched her disappear down a corridor, then turned to face Riley. She could feel the heat of the flush burning her cheeks, but tried to ignore it. “So, you're going to marry Conlan. Is he much like his brother?”

Riley laughed. “I wondered when you'd get around to asking that. Two peas in a pod, except really sexy peas in an underwater pod, to stretch a metaphor.”

“He pulls this ‘I'm the warrior, you do as I say' stuff on you, too?”

Riley rolled her eyes. “Let's just say that he tries and leave it at that. In their defense, it's bred in their genes and then trained into them for years, Erin. For centuries after that, they live for nothing but to protect and defend humanity. Once you recognize you're dealing with a warrior you learn to make certain concessions.”

Erin tried to wrap her mind around the idea. “So you're saying that you let Conlan get away with this?”

“Are you kidding? If I gave him an inch, he'd have me locked in my room ‘for my own safety.'” Riley flashed a very wicked grin. “You have to stand up to him, Erin. No matter what your hormones might be telling you.”

Erin's face heated up again. “Um, about that. This is kind of personal, but do you and Conlan—” She paused, unable to think of a delicate way to ask the question.

“Go at each other like bunnies?” Riley asked drily.

The burst of laughter escaped before Erin could stop it. “I was going to say have some sort of runaway flash fire raging between you, but the bunnies thing works.”

“I figured a little laughter might relieve the tension,” Riley said, reaching for her glass of juice. “Has he told you about the soul-meld?”

“No, but Marie mentioned it. What exactly does that mean? And don't tell me that Ven will explain it, or I may have to take your pastries hostage,” she threatened, only half joking.

Riley put her hands up to cover the plate. “Touch my baklava and somebody gets hurt,” she warned, grinning.

“Okay, okay. Your pastry's safe from me, since you're eating for two. But, seriously, I need to know what this soul-meld is about.”

The smile faded from Riley's face, and she nodded. “You deserve the truth, especially considering the way Ven's acting about you.” She glanced up at the doorway, but it remained empty, although they could still hear the faint sounds of the three men arguing outside.

“The soul-meld is an ancient legacy that apparently very rarely happened around here in the past few thousand years. As the legend goes, certain Atlanteans have the capacity to reach a higher, almost divine level of connection with the person they fall in love with. When this happens, the doors to their souls fall open and each can travel inside of the other.” Riley paused and bit her lip, then continued. “It's a connection far more intense than anything else could ever be, and intimacy with someone you're soul-melded with will rock your socks off.”

Erin stared at the other woman, her mind racing frantically. “But I'm not Atlantean. Well, maybe one-one-thousandth or something.”

“Same here,” returned Riley. “Apparently only one of the pair needs to be pure Atlantean. In fact, Alaric has a few theories about some of us humans having DNA from the Atlantean ancients who left Atlantis just before the Cataclysm. It would make sense, in my case, because of my emotional empathy. My sister has the same talent.”

Erin shook her head, relief sweeping through her. “No, that doesn't make sense. I don't have a drop of emotional empathy.”

Riley leaned forward and touched her hand. “But you are a witch, Erin,” she said patiently. “What do you think the proportion of witches is in the general population?”

“I don't know. Fewer than one percent?”

“Way fewer. Fewer than point zero one percent, to be exact. My sister is…well, she knows this kind of thing. From what we're learning from the Fae and from what Alaric has learned from the scrolls in Poseidon's Temple, it seems that the witches are descended from the ancient Atlanteans.” Riley leaned back in her chair and sipped some more of her juice. “Throw in your gem singer Gift, and you're almost certainly descended from Atlantis.”

Erin rubbed her temples, where a fierce headache was beginning to form. “Okay, let's assume for the moment that I am some kind of great great great to the nth power granddaughter of some old Atlantean couple. And let's assume the bunny thing, too,” she said, ducking her head and staring into her coffee cup rather than look at Riley. “But Ven said free will. So just because we might have done the soul-meld thing once doesn't mean we're stuck together, does it?”

Silence. When she glanced up at Riley, the other woman's expression was troubled. “Nooo,” she said, drawing out the word. “But I guess, considering the bond I have with Conlan, it's hard for me to understand why you'd ever want to leave Ven if you truly have reached the soul-meld with him.”

“Because I'm not a possession. I don't mean to offend you, and I'm not saying that you are. But maybe Conlan is more of a modern thinker than his brother. Ven is a cross between some marauding Viking lord and…and a pirate! Or a big, hairy caveman. And I'm not about to be his captive or his wench or his, um, cavewoman…” She trailed off, running out of righteous indignation at about the same time the ridiculous nature of the whole thing hit her.

Riley was clearly having a hard time not laughing, from the way she was biting her lower lip.

“Oh, just laugh at me. I sound like an idiot,” Erin admitted, smiling ruefully. “Cavewoman, for the Goddess's sake.”

They both burst into giggles, and laughed so hard Erin actually felt tears rolling down her cheeks. A tingle of sensation warned her just before she felt Ven's hands on her shoulders. She looked up to see him staring down at her, unsmiling.

“Perhaps you would care to share the joke? I could use some humor right about now,” he said.

Conlan did a sort of flashing thing across the table and lifted Riley up and into his arms, bending his head to kiss her in a “don't care that we're in public, can't wait to get you home and naked” kind of way that filled Erin with a powerful sense of longing.

Alaric rounded the table more slowly and took up a position at the end. “We need to talk.”

Conlan gently helped Riley, who looked a little stunned, back into her seat. When Riley blinked up at her, Erin mouthed the word “bunnies” and it set them both off again, peals of laughter ringing out.

When Erin could catch her breath, Ven was seated beside her, one hand twined in her hair as if he needed the contact. She chanced a quick look at his face, but it was as forbidding as it had been before, so she decided to ignore the hair touching and turned toward Alaric. “Sorry about that. Private joke. Okay, what is the plan and when do we leave?”

Ven's voice was quiet, but filled with harsh command. “
We
don't leave. You're not going anywhere. Caligula is after you, for whatever reason, and you're not going anywhere near him until after we neutralize him and his entire blood pride.”

She yanked her head away from his hand and stood up. “Don't give me orders. Caligula has my sister, and I am most definitely going after him. For one thing, I am a pretty strong witch. I'll be able to help neutralize any witches he has working for him.”

He raised his voice, but only said one word. “No.”

She ignored him and went on. “The second reason is obvious. He wants me. Use me as bait.”

Ven stood up and yanked her around to face him, fury raging in his eyes. “There is no fucking way you are putting yourself in danger, do you hear me? If I have to personally chain you to my bed, I'll do it to keep you away from that monster.”

She tried to pull away, but his grip was too powerful, so she settled for kicking him in the shin. “Who is the monster? You told me you were! And just because you want to fuck me doesn't mean you have the right to keep me prisoner, chained to your bed or otherwise, you sick pervert!”

The tense silence that fell over the room reminded her that the two of them weren't alone, and she groaned, waves of mortification washing over her.

Conlan's voice sliced through the tension. “Put her down, Ven. Now. You have no right, as she says. Not this way, brother.”

Ven actually snarled at his brother and prince, but he released his grip on Erin's shoulders and she staggered away from him. “How dare you talk to me of rights?” He shot the words at Conlan. “You know the power of the soul-meld. Think back to how you were with Riley when you first met and she was in danger.”

Alaric raised his hands, palms up, identical glowing blue balls of power shimmering on them. “I will gladly blast you up against the wall if you need to be taught a lesson in free will,” he said.

“Try it, priest,” Ven growled. “You're pathetic. You had Quinn in your arms and you let her go, and now you suffer every day because of it. Don't think I'll make your foolish mistakes.”

Alaric's eyes glowed a fierce emerald green, and he hurled the balls of power at Ven, almost faster than Erin's eyes could track.

Almost.

She flung herself forward, between Ven and Alaric, and raised a shield more quickly than she'd ever done. The glowing spheres bounced off her shield and winked out of existence, and she lowered her hands and released her shield. “I don't need your help either, Alaric, so back off.”

Ignoring Ven and the priest, she turned to Conlan and bowed. “Your Highness, you told me to ask for any favor. Well, I don't want the crown jewels or my own beachfront Atlantean cottage or even the new car behind door number three. All I ask is that you send some of your warriors to help me rescue my sister and destroy Caligula.”

She drew a deep breath and tried to stop her knees and hands from shaking. “If you can't do that, then I ask only that you send me home and leave me alone. Because if you reward me for helping your wife and child by letting your brother keep me prisoner, well…” She paused, trying to think of an elegant way to put it, but came up empty. “Well, that's a pretty crappy way for a future king to act.”

“Guess she told you, your princeliness,” came a mocking voice from near the Temple doorway.

Erin whirled around to see Justice standing there, leaning against the wall, ever-present sword rising over his shoulder.

He leapt lightly down the stairs and strode toward them. “There's something else you might want to know before you go getting all kingly one way or another,” he added, steering clear of Ven to head toward Conlan. Once there, he stopped and looked at each of them in turn, going for the dramatic pause, probably.

But Erin didn't have the energy to appreciate his showmanship, because something entirely unexpected was happening to her. The amber on her fingers had started shrieking out a shrill warning to her from the moment Justice began to walk toward them. Now it was so loud that it nearly drowned out his words, screaming at her of danger and threat and dark, powerful evil.

She pointed a finger at Justice and pronounced the sentence she'd trained for ten long years to carry out. Tried on a little formal speak of her own. “Death magic. You stink of death magic, Atlantean, and it's my sworn duty to kill you.”