“Later. I promise you,” he whispered to her sleeping form, before leaving the room in search of the coffee shop.
He easily avoided the patch of morning sunlight streaming in through the lobby windows by ducking around the gift shop to find the coffee shop and Reisen and Melody sitting in welcoming dimness in a back corner. A poster of a smiling skeleton on the wall above Melody’s head announced “Welcome to Arizona! At least it’s a dry heat!” and he wondered, yet again, at the human sense of humor. Three cups sat on the table, and he thanked the fates that he could enjoy a good espresso and wasn’t doomed to take in nothing but blood like some comic book version of his kind.
“Good morning,” he said.
Melody smiled up at him. Her smile was haunted by a glimmer of sadness, and there were dark circles under her eyes. He clearly wasn’t the only one who’d spent a sleepless night. “Thank you for the coffee.”
“Hi. You’re welcome. Is Serai okay? She was pretty amazing with that tiger shift and then helping Jack like that.” Melody’s voice broke on Jack’s name, and Reisen handed her a napkin. She took it and wiped her face, then leaned against Reisen’s arm for a moment before straightening and taking a deep breath. “I’m sorry. Jack was—Jack was good people. I hope he can come back, and that Quinn and Alaric can fix him.”
Daniel nodded, wishing he could offer her some words of comfort, but he’d seen shape-shifters lose their humanity before, and he’d never once seen one of them find his way back. The call of the wild was truly that—a call—and nature was a cruel mistress who kept her own once they had returned to her.
“What’s the plan for today?” Reisen asked, changing the subject as he exchanged a glance of mutual grim understanding with Daniel. The Atlantean had little hope of Jack’s return, either.
“We’ve got a mole,” Melody said.
Reisen raised an eyebrow. “What?”
“An inside source at the bank. She can’t work openly with us, because she’d lose her job, and she’s a single mom with three kids, but she’s on our side for sure. Vampires killed her husband, the bastards,” she added heatedly. Then she covered her mouth with one hand. “Oh, um, sorry, Daniel. I realize not all vampires are the bad guys.”
Daniel shrugged. “I’ve been a vampire for more than eleven thousand years, Melody, and have seen more evil perpetrated than you could imagine in your worst nightmares. By vampires and by humans; by witches and by shape-shifters. As you well know, one’s race or species doesn’t determine the depths of the darkness in one’s soul.”
“Poetically said,” Reisen said, narrowing his eyes. “I must ask, though, by what right is one so ancient traveling with a maiden of Atlantis? It is my sworn duty as a Warrior of Poseidon to protect humanity, and yet it is my duty as an Atlantean and a man to protect Serai.”
“Did she seem to need to be protected from me?” Daniel asked dryly. “You might be surprised to learn that she is as old as I am. We first met before Atlantis retreated from the world to the bottom of the ocean.”
Reisen inhaled sharply. “But . . . she’s that Serai? Conlan’s Serai?”
“Conlan’s no longer, not that he ever had claim to her,” Daniel growled. “He abandoned her for Quinn’s sister.”
Melody put a hand on Reisen’s arm and Daniel was surprised to see the warrior react to it, visibly calming. Something lay between the two of them, then, or at least the beginning of something. His gaze traveled between the fierce, proud Atlantean warrior and the small, oddly dressed, human woman. An unlikely match, but then what match was not when it came to these Atlanteans? He and Serai? Quinn and Alaric? Even Conlan and Riley, or Ven and Erin, or crazy Justice and Keely? Not to mention cursed Brennan and the lovely Tiernan.
The Atlantean goddess of love was either insane or an evil genius. Perhaps both.
“This is unproductive,” he finally said. “Serai and I have a mission to accomplish, or she and others may die.” As they drank their coffee, he filled them in on the details of Serai’s connection to the Emperor and what had happened to date.
At one point, Melody excused herself to go purchase pastries and more coffee, and Reisen aimed a long, measuring look at Daniel. “I’m not sure sharing all of this with a human was wise.”
Daniel glanced at Melody as she stood at the counter, paying for her purchases. “Quinn trusted her, and Quinn’s sister is high princess of Atlantis.” He shrugged. “Good enough for me. Are you still planning to help her with her plans concerning the bank?”
“I don’t know. I made a promise that I would, and yet your mission sounds more urgent.” Reisen ran a hand through his hair. “I’m not sure what to do.”
“Fulfill your promise and help Melody with the bank,” Daniel advised. “I don’t believe in coincidences. There might be some reason why the Emperor is being tampered with in the very same place that the head of this banker/ vampire consortium is operating.”
“That sounds improbable,” Reisen said.
“I know, but almost every critical event in this war has ranged from improbable to impossible. We have to keep this consortium from gaining a foothold, or the rebel cause may be doomed.”
Melody returned with a bulging bag and a tray with three more coffees, and Daniel took his cup and stood. “I thank you for the coffee, but I must return in case Serai has woken. We’ll rest here during the day, and then we’re heading out as soon as the sun goes down.”
Melody nodded. “What do you need? Do you have money?”
“Yes, and credit cards enough even to make this overpriced place shiver with glee,” he said dryly. “One benefit of living forever, I suppose. Do you need money? I know the rebels are chronically underfunded.”
Melody tilted her head. “Yes, and since I’m a bona fide computer genius, I happen to have traced a few of our extraordinarily large donations back to a certain vampire primator. Thank you.”
“I’m not Primator. I quit,” he said tersely. Tired of explaining that one.
“You think somebody else could do that job better?” Reisen demanded. “Poseidon’s balls, man, Atlantis needs allies in high places.”
“Yes, and everything I do or have ever done should be predicated on what Atlantis needs, of course,” Daniel drawled. “Especially since it was Atlantean soldiers who dragged Serai away from me when I lay dying on the ground all those millennia ago. Atlantean mages and priests who decided to imprison her, so she could serve as brood mare to your royal studs in some distant future. Oh, yeah. Whatever Atlantis wants, I’m all over that.”
Reisen’s eyes flashed emerald fire, and he rose halfway out of his seat before he reconsidered and sat back down heavily. “Well. I’d be a liar or a fool if I tried to pretend that my goals have never collided with those of the powers that be in Atlantis. But the world needs good men to do good things, or it will be overrun with evil before too much longer.”
Melody, who’d sat silently watching them during the exchange, her eyes enormous, suddenly glared at Reisen and elbowed him in the side. “Hey! Good men and good women, thank you very much. Now maybe we could make with the friendship and figure out our day.”
She pointed to Daniel before he could speak. “You. If you’re going to be hiking at all, and I bet you are, if they’re skulking around trying to hide this gem you talked about, you’ll need gear and provisions. I’ll get someone to bring it to you.”
Daniel inclined his head in thanks.
“You,” she said, turning to Reisen, who seemed to be trying hard not to smile as the small human female put them both in their respective places. “I know you want to help Serai. But I need you, too. Can we compromise? You help me today and tonight, and then we’ll both find Daniel and Serai and help them. Both objectives met, and Melody doesn’t get killed while trying to rob a bank all by herself.”