"Yes, you do. It's the Nereus thing. Where having great sex, combined with the soul-meld, turns you into an Atlantean super-magician human lightbulb."
"I don't think Keely said anything about the quality of the sex," he said doubtfully, but she couldn't really read his expression while he was the Atlantean equivalent of the Human Torch.
She blinked. "Are you saying it wasn't great sex?"
"It was undoubtedly the most spectacular sex in the history of the planet, but I think we have other things to discuss right now." He raised his arms in the air and actual sparks flew off his skin in an arc of iridescent shimmer.
She whistled, long and low. "That's actually really freaking cool, but I'm guessing you don't want to hear that right now?"
"You guess right," he said.
"Maybe we should ask for help?"
"Who would we ask?" He shrugged and more sparks flew. "People generally come to me with magical problems."
He stood up and walked toward her, and she stared at him, utterly fascinated in spite of everything. It really was Alaric, but he was incandescent with pure, shining light. He reached out as if to touch her, but she backed away from him.
"No way, buddy. Don't touch me until we figure this out. You might electrocute me, which would totally ruin my day. Or, worse, it would send some kind of energy beam through me like when you, um, healed me earlier, and I'm not going to try making love to a glowing light stick just yet."
He laughed, and the resonant sensuality of it sent shivers down her spine.
"Speaking of glowing light sticks," he said, gesturing.
She couldn't believe it. He was naked, a fact she'd tried to overlook, what with the glowing, and his very erect penis was glowing, too. It was actually kind of cool, as far as magic went, and she suddenly threw caution to the Atlantean winds, leaned forward, and licked the tip of his jutting erection, just for the fun of watching his response.
He arched his back and groaned, and then he quickly stepped away. "The sensation is far too intense like this. I don't think I could bear it," he said.
Naturally, that was like laying down a challenge, so she jumped out of bed, knelt at his feet, and took as much as she could of his erection into her mouth. He yelled hoarsely and then pulled away from her, and a stream of shining semen arced through the air.
"Now that," she said, pointing, "is kind of astonishing. Those sparkly vampires in the kids' movies have nothing on you."
He closed his eyes and took deep breaths, and Quinn was fascinated by the swirls and galaxies of lights dancing over his skin. It was as if constellations had decided to take up residence on his body. She'd never seen anything like it, ever.
When he finally opened his eyes, she was astonished to see that the constellations of stars had spread to his eyes, which glowed hot emerald green and silver.
"I don't know about movies, mi amara, but what effect might this have on our children?"
She sat down so abruptly that she missed the bed and landed on the cold floor, on her naked butt. Scrambling up, she ran to the bathroom and closed and locked the door, and then wrapped herself in a towel and sat on yet another edge of yet another tub. The parallels to her situation the day before didn't escape her.
So. Here she was. Ex-rebel leader, current soul-melded girlfriend to the high priest of Atlantis, and possibly pregnant with a sparkling half-Atlantean baby. She suddenly wanted to throw up again, which made her think of morning sickness, which made it worse.
"You can't be pregnant now, Quinn," Alaric said from the other side of the door. "We must petition Poseidon to allow us to have children."
She glared at the door. "What about free will?"
"I think the light effect is fading, but the magical high is not," he said, ignoring her question. "I do not wish to create a distraction when Atlantis breaks the surface of the waves."
"What time is it? Shouldn't we be near the surface by now?" She pulled on a robe and flung open the door. "Did I sleep through the whole thing?"
Alaric was still glowing but not as much. Or maybe that was simply wishful thinking. The first radiance of magically created dawn was beginning to shine through his windows, and a quick glance out showed her that the tower of light from the temple was still going strong.
"We are still rising," Alaric said. "I can feel it."
She took a deep breath and walked over to him, wanting to put her arms around him--her glowing darling--but not quite ready to be incinerated. "We'll figure it out. Hey, we can always work it into our new job plans. Give the Naked Cowboy a run for his money. You can be the Glowing Gardener."
He glared at her, or at least she thought he did, since magical sparks shot out of his eyes like lasers.
She started laughing. "You know, this is actually really cool. You're going to be quite a hit with fourteen-year-old boys who love video games."
"You are having far too much fun with this, when I am concerned I may actually explode from an excess of power flooding through my body." He swung around and touched her with a single finger, as if to test the connection.
She screamed, and he leapt away from her.
"Quinn, I'm so sorry, where are you hurt?"
She couldn't help it. She started laughing. "Sorry. I thought somebody needed to break the tension."
His mouth actually fell open a little. She'd succeeded in fooling the most powerful man in Atlantis. The small success made her grin, at least until he raised one hand and pointed a finger at her. A ribbon of glowing silver-blue light arrowed out from his finger and sped across the room toward her, swirled around her until it wrapped her up tight, and then inexorably, inch by inch, pulled her toward him.
"Oh, I am going to make you pay for this," she warned him.
Judging by the insufferably smug grin on his glowing face, he wasn't very concerned. "You deserve it," he told her, and then he released the energy, pulled her into his arms, and kissed the breath out of her. The energy flooding his body added an extra punch to the sensation, increasing the sensual power of his kisses until she was sure she'd drown in a wave of heat and passion.
"Stop right now," she finally managed to say, and he reluctantly released her. "We need to figure this out."
She walked over to an ornately carved wooden table and poured him a glass of water from the blue-and-white porcelain pitcher. "Drink this and think mundane, non-magical thoughts."
He raised an eyebrow at her high-handedness, but he drank the water. Either that or the non-magical thinking must have worked, because he started to dim, little by little, until he was almost back to his normal self, only glowing a little around the edges. He promptly grabbed her and kissed her again, and this time when she finally pulled away, breathless again, he pointed silently at her hands.
Which were also glowing.
"Oh, boy."
"Human lightbulb," he said, and it took her a minute to realize he was actually joking about job opportunities.
He started laughing, and she shook her head.
"Wow. Sex must be really, really good for you. Have I ever heard you tell a joke? Ever?"
"Tour guides equipped with our own flashlights for all the midnight ghost tours," he replied, and she nearly fell over. Two jokes in one century? From Alaric?
"Hey, nobody but me gets to touch your flashlight, buddy," she quipped and was rewarded with another easy smile, almost as if he were at all used to smiling. It was kind of like a minor miracle.
She had to grin at the idea of Alaric giving a guided ghost tour, though, but then she thought better of it when an awful truth hit her. "Ghosts? Are there ghosts, too?"
"You've seen vampires, shape-shifting giant monkeys, and demon kin from another dimension, and you're going to quibble over ghosts?" As he talked, he pulled on fresh clothes from his apparently limitless selection of black shirts and black pants, and she spared a moment to mourn the loss of the view.
All that lovely, muscular, naked man. And all hers. She felt like purring.
"Ghosts?" he repeated, probably wondering why she was staring at him like a lovesick cow.
"It's just that ghosts are dead people, and quite honestly I've seen enough dead people to last me a million lifetimes."
Alaric took her in his arms and held her tightly. "Never again. We'll be ordinary and boring together. No battles, no dead people, no flying monkeys."
She laughed a little. "Let's go see this thing. How often do you get to watch the most famous lost continent in the history of the world actually rise?"
Alaric's smile faded.
"Hopefully, rise without being destroyed," he said grimly.
"I could have lived without thinking about that."
Alaric and Quinn walked into the palace gardens, and he was amazed to see that while the two of them had been . . . resting, the whole of Atlantis had been transforming the gardens into a giant banquet facility. Tables were everywhere, spread with snowy white linens and set with what looked like every dish and cup on the Seven Isles. Baskets of hot bread and fresh fruit, and heaping platters of eggs, meats, potatoes, and fish promised enough for a hearty feast.
As they looked around for a place to sit, Conlan noticed them and waved them over. He hugged Quinn and grinned at Alaric, but he didn't say a word about where they might have disappeared to.
I appreciate your discretion, Alaric sent to Conlan.
Conlan grinned even harder. Did you know your ears are glowing?
Quinn murmured an excuse and hurried away to find Riley, and Conlan grabbed Alaric and pulled him into a fierce hug, with much back pounding.
"You did it," the prince said.
"We all did it. It took more than just me. Christophe, Myrken and the acolytes, Serai--so many gave so much for this to be accomplished."
Conlan threw his head back and laughed. "I was talking about you finally taking Quinn to your bed. Sounds like it was awfully crowded in there."
None too gently, Alaric elbowed his friend, the high prince soon to be king, and together they went to find their women. Their family.
"Hey," Conlan said, throwing a companionable arm around Alaric's shoulders. "Guess what I just realized? We're going to be brothers-in-law."
"You can imagine my joy," Alaric said dryly, but Conlan just laughed and proceeded to introduce Alaric to everyone they met as his new brother-in-law. This confused most of the Atlanteans, who knew full well that Alaric was Poseidon's high priest, but it made the warriors laugh really, really hard.
Conlan looked out into the sea of faces. His family. His friends. His subjects, no matter how uncomfortable he was with the demands of kingship. He knew he had to say something to mark the momentous occasion, but he was drawing a blank.
"How about, one small step for Aidan, one giant leap for Atlantis?" Riley offered the suggestion as she watched their son like a hawk while he charmed everyone in sight, being passed from lap to lap to lap.
"That has a certain ring to it."
She started laughing. "No, no, no, you can't use that, I was kidding. It's already been used."
Conlan reached for his dagger. "Who else is giving speeches about our child?"
As she walked away, still laughing, he realized he never would fully understand the human woman who had won his heart. He glanced across the table at Quinn and Alaric, and he knew that it was okay. Complete and total understanding would make life dull, and the gods themselves knew that neither he, nor Alaric, nor any of his warriors would ever have to settle for that. He scanned the long table of laughing people and named them, these men and women who had forever had his back and would forever inhabit his heart:
Ven, brother and protector. Jokester and deadly warrior. Paired with Erin, his gem-singer witch, he was happier than he'd ever been.
Bastien, who had undervalued himself for so long. The panther shifter Kat Fiero had opened his mind and his heart.
Marie, first maiden of the Nereid Temple. She had given so much of her long life to aiding in the childbirth of others. She deserved the happiness she'd found with the panther alpha Ethan.
Justice, only recently discovered to be Conlan and Ven's half brother. Deadly and always forced to walk the balance between his dual natures. If he hadn't found his archaeologist and object-reader love, Keely, they would have lost him to his darker impulses. Together they and their adopted child, Eleni, formed one bridge to Atlantis's future.
Brennan, so long burdened with the curse that none of them thought he'd had a prayer of recovering his emotions, until he met and nearly lost Tiernan, whose own truth-teller gift had helped Brennan find his way.
Alexios, so fierce with his scarred face, rock star hair, and killer instincts. Only another warrior would do for him. Grace, with her archer's bow and deadly aim, had never stood a chance against him. And soon, their daughter would add her own guidance to Atlantis's future.
Christophe, their problem child. All attitude and arrogance until he met the infamous cat burglar, the Scarlet Ninja, otherwise known to only a select few as Lady Fiona, famous children's book author and illustrator. Fiona and her little brother had curbed some of the wildness in Christophe. Not all, Conlan amended, remembering that he had heard about more exploits of the Scarlet Ninja only last month when he'd gone to London. Just enough.
And Serai, ancient Atlantean princess, held in stasis for so long that she'd nearly died trapped in a crystal box. Daniel, her eleven-thousand-year-old vampire consort. They'd met before Atlantis had ever sunk beneath the waves, and only found each other again recently, after so many millennia of each believing the other dead.
Now, finally, Alaric. Conlan's best friend for nearly five hundred years had met his true mate. The soul-meld had caught them both, and Conlan truly believed they would be the better for it, as he and his own aknasha had discovered.
Then he considered the idea of baby Alarics running around and didn't know whether to laugh or flee, but he finally knew exactly what to say.
He stood up at the head of the table, with the magical crystal arrangement in front of him that would carry his voice to every table in the garden and every home in the land, and he reached down to pull Riley and Aidan up to join them.
"Today marks the day we have anticipated for thousands of years. Atlantis will finally rise and take its place in the world again. We are here to celebrate that amazing accomplishment and honor those who made it possible. But I am also here to acknowledge the strides we have already made in joining the wider world."
He gestured. "You see at the table here to my right that today we have our first-ever shape-shifter guests in Atlantis. More than that, both of them are soul-melded to Atlanteans, so we consider them part of the family."
Everyone cheered and Kat waved, but Ethan stood up and bowed. "You can be part of my panther pride, too, anytime, Your Highness. I've seen you Atlanteans in a fight!"
Another cheer.
"After eleven thousand years, one of our own, a Nightwalker Guild mage, returned to Atlantis to claim the princess he'd loved and lost. A vampire sits at the table to my left, soul-melded to an ancient Atlantean princess. He, too, is part of our family."
More cheering, but then Serai stood up as gracefully as she did everything. "If you call me ancient one more time, Prince Conlan, I will challenge you to a duel," she said, smiling. "And I get to pick the form."
For a brief moment, Serai disappeared and a saber-toothed tiger stood in her place. The crowd went wild, cheering and stomping their feet, and then the very elegant princess reappeared and took her seat. Conlan bowed deeply in her direction, grinning at Daniel as he did so. He had a feeling that the princess kept her vampire very busy.
"We were once a very great civilization, when Atlantis rode the surface of the waves. Today we will rejoin the world, and the eyes of every country and every people will be upon us."
He looked around at the faces of those he loved so much. "We will continue as our ancestors began, more than eleven thousand years ago. Atlantis will become a productive member of the world economy, a
valuable participant in international strategy, and--most important of all--we will continue the work that my warriors still perform today, so many millennia after Poseidon first assigned us the task."
He gestured with his hand and every one of the Seven, every warrior in training, and every warrior assigned to every segment of the Seven Isles, stood.
"Because now, finally, our prophecy is fulfilled and we will protect humanity no matter what is to come. Warriors, to me," he shouted, and the warriors all streamed up to stand near him, and turned and faced the crowd and recited the oath with him.
We will wait. And watch. And protect.
And serve as first warning on the eve of humanity's destruction.
Then, and only then, Atlantis will rise.
For we are the Warriors of Poseidon, and the mark of the Trident we bear serves as witness to our sacred duty to safeguard mankind.
"We have waited, and watched, and protected," Conlan said. "And now, Atlantis will rise!"
As if on cue, a booming noise sounded and the whole of Atlantis jerked sideways, as if buffeted by a huge wave or an immovable object. Everyone looked up, and for the first time in more generations than anyone could count, they could see real sunlight over the dome of Atlantis. With a mighty heave, the dome broke through the waves and kept rising and rising, until the Seven Isles floated on the ocean's surface once more.
Everyone waited, seemingly afraid to breathe, and for a moment even Conlan feared that the dome was too damaged to open, but then the top and sides unfolded like the petals of a giant crystalline flower, and Atlantis showed her face to the world.
And the world was there to greet them. Conlan shot up into the air in mist shape and viewed the sea in all directions, and he realized there were hundreds of ships, helicopters, and airplanes, and even a hang glider carrying a homemade banner that said WELCOME TO THE WORLD, ATLANTIS on it in bright blue letters.
Conlan floated back down to report, and his people started cheering again, as the first helicopters flew overhead and called down on loudspeakers for permission to land and greet them.
"We made it," Riley said, holding Aidan tight.
"We did," Conlan agreed, putting his arms around them both. "Are you ready to go be High Princess Riley for a little while?"