Vampire in Atlantis

projecting crumpled as he fell.
    “Mommy?”
    Ivy screamed and ran to her son, but Nicholas was there first, catching him as he fell.
    Serai raced to the cave entrance, calling to her magic as she ran, and by the time the horrible soldier who would hurt a boy had climbed the rest of the way up the stone steps and into the cave, she carried glowing energy spheres whose heat didn’t come close to her fury.
    “You would hurt a child ?” She didn’t wait for an answer, especially since the visual evidence—more knives in his hands—was clear for all to see. Instead, she blasted him with both of the spheres, and he fell back, unconscious, to the cave floor.
    Nicholas tore past her in a blast of displaced air and before she could say or do anything to stop him, he wrenched the soldier’s head from his body and tossed both pieces out of the cave and to the ground below.
    “I will have the same again for anybody else who approaches,” he roared out into the night.
    Before Serai could protest, Nicholas leapt out into the air and was back mere seconds later, carrying a struggling soldier.
    “This one is alive,” Nicholas shouted. “If you want him to stay that way, keep back.”
    “You didn’t have to kill him,” Serai said, staring at the place where the first soldier had fallen.
    “He hurt the boy,” Nicholas said, and then he punched the new soldier in the side of the head, knocking him out. “An unconscious prisoner is a lot less trouble.”
    “My son is bleeding to death,” Ivy shrieked. “Do something. Get us out of here.”
    Serai quickly crossed to her side. “Does your power not extend to healing?”
    Ivy shook her head, sobbing.
    Ian looked up at Serai and tried to grin, but he was pale and it was true the wound was bleeding badly.
    “I can repair this injury,” Serai said. “I will need to use the Emperor.”
    “No,” Nicholas shouted. “It’s mine. I need it.”
    “It is not yours, and you are a fool to try to claim it,” Serai said calmly.
    “Nicholas, you can’t let Ian die,” Ivy said, no longer shouting but with tears streaming down her face. “Not even you could be so cruel.”
    The vampire stared at the boy, so many different emotions crossing his face that Serai couldn’t begin to identify them all.
    “Fine,” he finally said. “I am a fool. A weak, emotional, irrational fool, but you may take the gem if it allows you to help the boy.”
    “I will make it allow me to do so,” Serai said grimly. She needed Daniel, though. He should have been here by now. She sent her senses out, seeking him, and found him healthy but still detained inside one of the vehicles.
    Daniel, I need you now. Inside the cave. I’m going to attempt to wield the Emperor, and I need your strength. Please come.
    She waited and almost immediately his strength surrounded her in a warm wave of love—and fury.
    Don’t you dare touch that stone until I get there, or I will personally tie you down and never let you out of my bed for the next eleven thousand years!
    She almost laughed, in spite of the situation and the danger. Her fierce warrior mage, determined to protect her at all cost. Except this time, it was her turn.
    She took a deep breath and centered herself, and then she cupped the Emperor in both hands and raised it into the air. She was prepared for the first punch of power this time, and she opened herself to it instead of fighting it.
    “Emperor, answer my call. Heal this boy who does not deserve to be injured in the cross fire of this battle. Heal the women who struggle, caught in stasis beneath the sea, O mighty Emperor, object of power of the sea god.”
    She realized that she’d spoken the words in ancient Atlantean, but it seemed fitting that she honor the gem with its proper tongue. The Emperor’s tremendous power seared through her like a bonfire through kindling and she was afraid, but slowly she adjusted, tuning her own magic to the resonance of the amethyst.
    She knelt beside Ian and nodded to his mother. “Please remove the knife now.”
    Ivy shook her head. “Now? Are you sure? What if you’re wrong and removing it causes him to bleed out?”
    Ian touched his mother’s cheek with the hand on his uninjured side. “No, Mom, she’s doing it already. I can feel the pain going away. Please take the knife out before my skin heals around it. That would be so gross!”
    Ivy still hesitated, and Nicholas knelt beside her and gently moved her to one side. He took the hilt of