"But we have tonight," she whispered. "Let's make it enough to last forever."

And she led him out of the room.

Barrabas snapped the neck of the Atlantean in front of him and watched the dead warrior fall to the floor. Then he threw his head back and howled his rage out to the stone walls of the chamber.

Drakos stood well back from the carnage, probably afraid that he'd be next. With the mood Barrabas was in, it was surely possible.

"How is it possible that these puny sacks of flesh can withstand my mind-control powers?" he hissed, kicking one of the bodies so hard he heard the ribs snap like kindling.

It would have been so much more satisfactory if the man had yet lived. Barrabas so enjoyed it when they screamed.

"But they did scream before they died, didn't they, Drakos?"

He walked through the gritty residue of the three vamps from his blood pride.

Point taken. Poseidon didn't approve of vampires touching his precious toy.

They'd died spectacularly, though. A waterfall of flaming death. Barrabas had to admit the sea G.o.d had style. One had to admire such creative methods of murder and annihilation.

His vampires had died screaming, too.

The Atlantean leader, Reisen, hung from one of the manacles on the wall, b.l.o.o.d.y and near death. But that one had never screamed. Not even when Barrabas hacked his hand off with a sword.

One had to admire such courage, too. Except when it obstructed his plans. Then one had to torture it mercilessly to death.

"Reisen thinks the others will come for the Trident. The prince and the priest," he mused, carefully rubbing his boot on one of the dead bodies to remove the blood. He watched as the thing's shirt turned reddish black, then deliberately stepped on its face as he strode over it.

"They wouldn't dare confront you, my lord," Drakos responded. He even looked outraged on Barrabas's behalf. A nice touch, that, genuine or not.

"A prince and a priest," Barrabas repeated. "Haven't these Atlanteans ever heard of the separation of church and state?"

He laughed and watched Reisen flinch, lifting his handless arm toward his chest. "Maybe we'll have to introduce you to the new and improved Bill of Rights when we take over your precious Seven Isles, what do you think?"

Reisen lifted his head and glared at Barrabas. "Conlan will obliterate you, and Alaric channels more power than you ever dreamed of, bloodsucker." He coughed, spat out a glob of blood.

Then the Atlantean smiled, blood running down his chin. "And I will dance on your salted grave."

Barrabas roared out his outrage, and the lights in the chamber flickered. "You will never live to see it, worm."

But before he could rip the warrior's head from his body, Drakos was in front of him, back of his hand smashing into the man. Reisen's head snapped back and cracked against the wall, then he collapsed, unconscious or dead.

Drakos bowed. "Perhaps he might prove useful later, my lord. Once he is sufficiently persuaded, he may be key to our learning more of the Trident."

Barrabas narrowed his eyes, wishing yet again that he could scan his general's mind. "Do you offer good strategy or defiance, Drakos? Why do you always seem to walk the razor edge between the two?"

"Would you want a weakling as your second?"

Barrabas waited several minutes before responding. Let Drakos worry. "No. But do not take that as leave to defy me. General Drakos."

Drakos bowed again. "Shall I bring the last of them? The one they call Micah?"

"Oh, yes. We still have a few hours until dawn. Let us see if we can make this one sing for us." Barrabas walked back across the bodies of the dead, enjoying the snap of bones as he crushed limbs.

"I do so love the sound of music."

Chapter 36.

Conlan made it nearly two entire steps inside the dim room behind Riley before his control snapped. He slammed the door shut behind him and yanked her back against him, nearly crushing her in his arms. "I can't do this, Riley. I can't go into this battle tomorrow with you anywhere near danger. Please don't ask it of me."

She turned in his arms, put her arms around his neck. "I don't think it's up to us. I get the feeling that this is some kind of proving ground, and Poseidon is making all the rules. When he put this mark on my back, he put my game piece in play."

Conlan laughed, the sound of it ringing bitter and hard in his ears. "Because that's all we are to him. p.a.w.ns in some insane chess match."

Riley touched his face, traced the edge of his lips with one finger. "Doesn't history teach us that we are only p.a.w.ns to all of them? My G.o.d, your G.o.ds, everybody's G.o.ds? We play the best game we can, and then we die. Match over. And all we have to show for it is how well we played the game."

She smiled. "I think I stretched that metaphor completely out of shape. But you get my meaning."

He closed his eyes. Focused on the feel of her breath on his skin. The heat exploding up through his body at her touch.

"I don't care about games or G.o.ds. Not tonight. All I want is to hold you and burn this moment into my memory for all time," he said roughly, tightening his arms around her.

"Yes," she said. Simple and direct. Just yes . And then she lifted her face to kiss him, and his world caught fire.

He lifted her, and her legs came up and around his waist. He cried out at the fierce pleasure that pounded through him at her touch. His body hardened, muscles clenching, and he walked, carrying her, until her back was pressed against the wall.

She moaned into his mouth and twined her fingers in his hair, pulling his head toward her as she plunged into his kiss. He shifted his hands until he felt her rounded a.s.s in his palms, and he squeezed and caressed her, pulling her forward so her skirt rode up her thighs and nothing but his pants and the thin silk of her underwear was between them.

It was still too much. He propped her up on one of his thighs and shifted his hands to rip the lace in two and yank the pieces off her. Then he pushed his leg up so that the hardness of his leg rubbed against her wetness.

She moaned and writhed against him, her fingers digging into his shoulders. "Yes, touch me. Take me, Conlan. I need you."

He bent to bury his face in her neck, needing to shout out his triumph but wanting to m.u.f.fle the sound from everyone gathered so near. With a muted growl, he bit at her neck where it curved into her shoulder, then caressed the spot with his tongue, soothing the tiny sc.r.a.pe.

She moaned again and arched into him, frantically pulling at his shirt, trying to get her hands on his skin. He ripped his shirt up out of his pants with one hand, unbuckled his belt and unzipped in seconds. Before he could do anything else, she put her hands on his shoulders and used them to lift up a little.

Then, looking into his eyes the entire time, she centered herself and slid down on his erection, wrapping him in her heat and wetness. He couldn't help it, he shouted out her name. Grabbed her delicious a.s.s again and squeezed. Lifting her and driving into her again and again, watching pleasure glaze her eyes until they fluttered closed.

Then he stopped. She whimpered, blinked at him. "Why did you stop?"

Slowly, inch by inch, he lowered her onto his shaft again, watching her face. "Because I need to see you while I take you. I need to look into your eyes and see into your soul, my Riley, mi amara aknasha . I need to know that you are mine, now and forever."

He pulled back out of her, drove in again to the hilt, loving the sound of her gasp. "I want you to take me and know that I am yours as well."

She lifted up, feminine muscles clinging to his c.o.c.k even as she pulled away from him. Torturing him with her deliberateness. "Now and forever, Conlan. No matter what the G.o.ds may have in mind for us, there will never be another for me. You are my only. My happily ever after. My love. My soul."

With the words, she seated herself on him, pushing against him until she could take no more.

There was no more to take.

Then stopped, surrounding him, tightening around him, his hardness entirely sheathed in her heat. His heart sheathed in hers.

Simultaneously, they swept aside any remaining barriers between their two souls.

And light and color blasted through his world-her world-their world. They stood trembling in a maelstrom of cerulean and aqua and silvery green. The music of rainbows lilted through them, around them, piercing them as they stood. A fountain of need, of longing, of utter fulfillment cascaded around them and into them until he could not tell where he ended and she began.

Worlds trembled on the verge of awakening, and stars burst into firestorms of radiance. Riley's soul opened to him, and he claimed it for his own.

She did the same with his.

And the fire, fury, and raging power of the elements soared through him and out of him into her, and he had a microsecond of time to wonder how such pa.s.sion could explode without creating new life, but then she was screaming in his mind and the universe went supernova around them.

He fell to his knees, still cradling her in his arms, too weak to stand. She gasped for air, her breathing in time with his.

When she finally lifted her head, her face was almost too beautiful for his vision to bear. "What happened? Did the world end?" she whispered.

"That, I think, was the soul-melding," he replied, barely able to form words. "According to legend, it only grows more intense as time pa.s.ses."

She blinked. "We're never going to survive it."

It was a long time before he could quit laughing enough to catch his breath and carry her to the cot in the corner. There he held her throughout the hours until dawn and watched her sleep. Thanking the G.o.ds for the gift of her love. Vowing his life to protect her.

Hear me, Poseidon, for I vow this with everything I am or will be. This woman is mine.

Light flashed through the room, a lightning strike of energy that scorched across his vision.

Poseidon's answer, perhaps. Now if Conlan only knew what in the nine h.e.l.ls it meant.

A few too-short hours later, Riley sat in a corner of Quinn's war room, hands cradling a mug of coffee. She couldn't stop watching Conlan. Her fierce warrior had so easily taken command of the planning and dominated the room. Even in a roomful of alpha males, he would always be the one who dominated.

For a man who didn't believe he had what it took to rule, he had the look of a king stamped into every hard line of his face.

And he wanted her to be his queen. The thought was too enormous to wrap her mind around, especially now. On the eve of a full-out a.s.sault of the vampire lair. She'd think about it later. She was getting d.a.m.n good at denial.

Jack was pointing something out on the map. "These are concrete walls, it's not like we can blast through them. If Quinn's contact doesn't come through for us, we're f.u.c.ked."

Quinn, looking like a stiff wind would knock her down, merely nodded, face grim. "He'll be there. Don't you think I've tested his information on smaller issues before trusting him with something like this? He believes that Barrabas's way is wrong, and that the undead should return to the old ways."

"Eating people in the shadows?" Ven asked, voice flat.

"No, coexisting with humans without trying to conquer us," Quinn replied. "He has existed on animal blood for centuries, except for the rare voluntary donation."

"So he claims," Conlan pointed out. "No matter. We are committed to proceed on this information. May the G.o.ds have mercy on him if he has betrayed us."

The icy wind that seemed to be Alaric's calling card swirled through the room, coalesced into his dark form near Conlan. "There are no G.o.ds that heed the call of such vermin, save for Anubisa. And I would wish that she would come to his aid, so that I might end her existence."

"Oh, I'm down with that," Ven snarled.

(Ionian's voice was calm and utterly lacking in emotion. "If Anubisa should appear, she is mine. Consider this my first royal decree."

Ven slowly nodded, but Riley noticed that Alaric made no sign of agreement. He simply stared at Quinn with the air of a predator examining its prey.

Or a man sentenced to die regarding his executioner.

She couldn't quite determine which.

Bastien broke the silence. "I'm not picky. If I have to take them down one by one, the bloodsuckers are going to die."

"You know the human police and soldiers will protect the Primus, as well. It's an official house of Congress," Justice said from a dark corner of the room. Riley hadn't even known he was back there. She had a sudden insight that he lived much of his life in dark corners.

Another thing to think about later.

"That's why Daniel is taking us in through the underground pa.s.sage," Quinn replied, looking anywhere but at Alaric. "We may have to fight our way through some of Barrabas's blood pride to get to him, though. Daniel did warn us of that."

"To the Primus, then. We will retrieve the Trident, and teach these vampires a lesson in interfering with humanity or with the Warriors of Poseidon," Conlan said, voice ringing through the room. "A lesson that is some two thousand years overdue."

"Amen to that," Riley said fervently. Then she put her mug down and touched one hand to the silver cross around her neck. "And may G.o.d watch over us."

Then she thought of the mark on her back. "All of the G.o.ds."

Chapter 37.

"It's unlocked. Just like he promised," Quinn whispered, as she opened the door that had been hidden behind a wall of cleaning products in the bas.e.m.e.nt janitorial closet of a shabby office building. Conlan nodded, gestured to Ven that the two brothers would take point down the dark corridor.

From behind him, Jack let out a low rumbling roar. "I don't think so. I'm not putting my men in danger-I'm not putting Quinn in danger-unless I'm in the front row at the party, boys."

Conlan paused, nodded. "Join us, then, tiger. But this mission is under my command, as the future of my realm depends upon it. If you cannot agree to that, you will remain behind."

The shape-shifter's eyes glowed a fierce golden color. "Who's gonna stop me?"

Alaric waved a hand, almost nonchalant. "That would be me." The priest walked to stand in front of the shape-shifter, who was frozen in place, unable even to speak.

"Even at the dawning of the full moon's eve, my power exceeds yours. Do you challenge me, or do you work with us?" His voice was bored, as if the enormous were tiger were of no consequence.