Atlantis Rising Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Epigraph

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  GLOSSARY OF TERMS

  Praise for ATLANTIS RISING

  “Alyssa Day creates an amazing and astonishing world in Atlantis Rising [that] you’ll want to visit again and again. Atlantis Rising is romantic, sexy, and utterly compelling. I loved it!”

  —New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan

  “An amazing new world you don’t want to miss and you won’t want to leave. Alyssa Day delivers chills, thrills, and your fill of sexy Poseidon Warriors.”

  —USA Today bestselling author Kerrelyn Sparks

  “Wow! Alyssa Day writes marvelous paranormal romance.”

  —USA Today bestselling author Susan Kearney

  “Alyssa Day’s characters grab you and take you on a whirl-wind adventure. I haven’t been so captivated by characters or a story in a long time. Enjoy the ride!”

  —New York Times bestselling author Susan Squires

  “There’s nothing more evocative than the world of Atlantis. Alyssa Day has penned a white-hot winner!”

  —Gena Showalter, author of The Nymph King

  Praise for Alyssa Day’s previous books written as Alesia Holliday . . .

  “An appealing heroine with a sense of humor and a sexy hero.”—Library Journal

  “Characters that will win your heart!”

  —New York Times bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann

  “Holliday does it again! The reader won’t be able to put down this . . . story filled with colorful and heartwarming characters.”

  —Romantic Times (41⁄2 stars)

  “Excellent . . . fast-paced.”—Lori Avocato, award-winning author of The Pauline Sokol Mystery series

  “Delightful, delicious, and just plain fun.”

  —Susan McBride, author of The Debutante Dropout Mystery series

  “Fun.”—Susan Wiggs, author of The Ocean Between Us

  “Well-written, fast-paced . . . [I] was hooked from page one.”

  —The Best Reviews

  “Simply fantastic.”—Affaire de Coeur

  “Charming characters come to life immediately. This is without a doubt in the top ten books of the year.”

  —Huntress Book Reviews

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

  Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada

  (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)

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  (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)

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  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)

  Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  ATLANTIS RISING

  A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / March 2007

  Copyright © 2007 by Alesia Holliday.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without

  permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of

  the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  eISBN : 978-0-425-21449-7

  BERKLEY SENSATION®

  Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  BERKLEY SENSATION is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  The “B” design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  To the best editor in the world, Cindy Hwang,

  who lets me try new things

  and always roots for my success.

  A good editor is worth her weight in gold—

  Cindy is worth her weight in diamonds.

  To LCDR Judd,

  for more reasons than I will ever have words.

  And to Michelle Cunnah,

  who saves my life

  at the eleventh hour

  on every single book.

  Acknowledgments

  Thanks, always, to Steve Axelrod, who makes me laugh, makes great deals for me, and says nice things when I make my once-a-book “aarghhh” phone call.

  To my wonderful friends Christine, Cheryl, Kathy, and Val of the Starfish Club for encouragement, and to all my incredible friends who listen, are patient, and offer wonderful advice: Lani Diane Rich, Michelle Cunnah, Barbara Ferrer, Eileen Rendahl, Whitney Gaskell, Beth Kendrick, Cindy Holby, and Marianne Mancusi. To Megan Emish, for the Warriors of Poseidon symbol. To my terrific Web people, Deb and Tara at RomanceDesigns.com, who should have been thanked earlier.

  To Suz Brockmann, Ed Gaffney, Eric Ruben, Virginia Kantra, and Cathy Mann, who are brilliant and generous, and to the folks at the Into the Storm weekend for sharing their enthusiasm with me and listening to the first-ever reading from this book.

  Jenny Crusie and the Cherries, who are funny, cranky, and amazing in exactly the right proportions.

  And always, of course, to my children, who ate a little too much pizza and watched a little too much TV during the last two weeks of this book, but never once complained. You’re the best.

  Dear Reader,

&
nbsp; Thank you for coming along with me on my journey to Atlantis. Be sure to visit me at www.alyssaday.com for free screensavers and to sign up for my members-only mailing list!

  Alyssa

  In this island, Atlantis, arose a great and marvelous might of Kings . . . But in later time, after there had been exceeding great earthquakes and floods, there fell one day and night of destruction; and the warriors . . . were swallowed up by the earth, and in like manner did the island Atlantis sink beneath the sea and vanish away.

  —Plato, Timaeus, dated at approximately 600 B.C.

  One can hardly doubt that significant shifts of the earth’s crust have taken place repeatedly . . .

  —Albert Einstein, in correspondence to Charles Hapgood, May 8, 1953

  Capital City of Atlantis, 9600 B.C.

  It was the time before the Cataclysm, forced upon Atlanteans by the greed of humanity. In Poseidon’s Temple, in the soul of the seven isles of Atlantis, a group of warriors met with the sea god’s high priest. He divided them into seven groups of seven and assigned each a sacred duty and an object of power—a magic-imbued gemstone. Some were to sink to the bottom of the world, shielded from prying eyes and envious lusts by the waters that nurtured them. Others were to join the lands of humans at assigned locations—all high grounds that would protect the lineage in the event of severe flooding.

  All would wait. And watch. And protect.

  And serve as first warning on the eve of humanity’s destruction.

  Then, and only then, Atlantis would rise.

  For they were the Warriors of Poseidon, and the mark of the Trident they bore served as witness to their sacred duty to safeguard mankind.

  Whether they liked it or not.

  Chapter 1

  Hell is empty

  And all the Devils are here.

  —William Shakespeare, The Tempest

  Capital City of Atlantis, Present Day

  Conlan waved a hand in front of the portal and briefly wondered whether its magic would even recognize a warrior who hadn’t passed through its gateway for more than seven years.

  Seven years, three weeks, and eleven days, to be precise.

  As he waited, up to his chest in the healing water, death taunted him—flickering at the edges of his vision, shimmering in the deep blue ocean currents surrounding him, pulsing in the scarlet blood that dripped steadily from his side and leg. He laughed without humor, propping himself up with a hand on his knee.

  “If that bitch-vamp Anubisa couldn’t break me, I’m sure as hell not giving up now,” he snarled to the empty darkness surrounding him.

  Iridescent aqua lights flashed as if in response to his defiance, and the portal widened for him. Two men—two warriors—stood at guard, widened eyes and parted lips mirroring identical expressions of shock as they stared through the transparent membrane of the portal. He shouldered his way through the portal’s opening, which enlarged to fit whatever or whoever it deemed worthy of passage.

  “Prince Conlan! You’re alive,” one said.

  “Mostly,” he replied, then stepped into Atlantis. He drank in the first sight in more than seven years of his beloved homeland, lungs expanding to taste the freshness of sea-filtered air. In the middle distance, the gold-veined white marble pillars fronting Poseidon’s Temple glowed with the reflected hues of artificial sunset. Conlan’s breath caught in his throat at the sight of it.

  A sight he’d been sure he’d never experience again.

  Especially when she’d laughingly proposed taking his eyes.

  “A high prince with no vision. What a delicious metaphor for the loss of your philosopher-king father, young princeling. Why don’t you beg?”

  She’d strolled around him, flicking the silver-barb-tipped whip almost leisurely at him, as he stood, helpless, in chains made for creatures borne of deeper hells. Extending one delicate finger, she’d touched the droplets of blood that sprang up so eagerly in the wake of her whip.

  Then she’d brought her finger to her mouth, smiling.

  “But you will beg. Just like your father begged when I sliced the flesh off of your mother as she yet lived,” she’d purred, evil mixed with a hideous lust in her eyes.

  He’d roared his hatred and defiance for hours.

  Days.

  He’d even wept, driven to madness from the pain, on seven separate occasions.

  Once during each year of his imprisonment.

  But he’d never begged.

  “But she will,” he said, voice hoarse with the effort of remaining upright. “She will beg, before I’m done with her.”

  “Highness?” The guards rushed forward to assist him, yelling out for aid. He whipped his head up, teeth bared, growling like the animal he’d become. They both stopped, midstep. Frozen in place.

  Unsure how to react to royalty gone feral.

  Conlan staggered forward, determined to take the first steps onto his native soil without aid.

  “We must inform Alaric immediately,” said the older, more experienced warrior of the two. Marcus. Marius, maybe? Conlan focused, certain he must know the man.

  It was important that he remember things.

  Yes, Marcus.

  “You’re bleeding, Highness.”

  “Mostly,” he repeated, stumbling forward another step. Then the world spiraled down to black.

  Ven stood in the observation chamber, looking down on the hall of healing below, where Poseidon’s high priest, clearly exhausted, labored over Ven’s brother. It took one hell of a lot to drain the energy out of Alaric. He was rumored to be the most powerful high priest who had ever served the sea god.

  Not that warriors knew much about the difference between one priest and another. Or, usually, gave much of a shit. Except, right now, he cared about that distinction.

  A lot.

  Ven clenched the railing, fingers digging into the soft wood, as he thought about what exactly Anubisa must have done to Conlan. He knew what she’d done to Alexios. One of Conlan’s most trusted guards, the Seven, Alexios had spent two years under Anubisa’s tender ministrations. Hers and those of her evil apostates of Algolagnia, who drew their only sexual pleasure from pain and torture.

  Then she’d left him—naked and near death—to die. In a pile of pig shit on Crete. The vamp goddess of death was big on symbolism. Maybe something she’d inherited from her father-husband, Chaos. And that was seriously twisted right there.

  It had taken Alaric nearly six months to retrieve the warrior’s memories. That half year had included two cycles of purification in the Temple to cleanse his soul.

  Ven didn’t want to think it—fucking hated to think it—but sometimes he wondered if Alexios had ever come all the way back from whatever black pit of hell she’d dragged him into.

  Still, Alaric had okayed him. Alexios was back as one of the Seven. It was a matter of honor that Ven trust him.

  The Seven served as the most trusted guard to the high prince of all Atlantis. Even when he was gone; presumed dead.

  They also led and coordinated the teams of warriors who patrolled the surface lands of the earth. Watching over the damn humans, who’d let themselves be herded like—what did the bloodsuckers call them? Sheep?

  While Ven and all of the Warriors of Poseidon had to keep to the shadows. Out of sight. Incog-fucking-nito. Defending the landwalkers from the badasses among the bloodsuckers, the furry monsters, and all the shit that went bump in the night. And, frankly, the badasses seemed to be in the majority in those particular species most of the time.

  And they’d done a damn fine job the past eleven thousand years, give or take. Until the day about ten years ago when the freaks that inhabited the night decided to come out of the coffin. First the vamps, then the shape-shifters. The job of Poseidon’s warriors got about fifty kajillion times harder when that happened.

  For whatever reason, Anubisa hadn’t bothered to let her people—her vamp society—in on the secret of Atlantis. But Ven knew that could change any minute. If any
body knew about the capriciousness of gods and goddesses, it was an Atlantean.

  Doomed to the bottom of the sea at Poseidon’s whim.

  Not that he’d ever complain about it. Out loud, at least.

  Still, it was tough to defend humans when the big, bad, and ugly roamed freely, and the Atlanteans had to stick to the shadows. But Ven had argued the point in the Council until his face turned blue, and then he’d finally given up. The Elders didn’t want anybody to know about Atlantis, and until Conlan ascended to the throne, nobody could go against their edict.

  Ven looked down at his brother again, barely registering the soothing tones of the harps and flutes being played by temple maidens in the alcoves surrounding his brother. The music was supposed to aid in healing.

  Ven laughed. Yeah, except Conlan hated that light, fluffy Debussy shit. When he ascended to the throne, he’d probably ask for Bruce Springsteen or U2 to play at his coronation.

  If. If Conlan ascended to the throne.

  He didn’t even want to think about what would happen if Conlan had gone bad. Because guess who was second in line? Yeah. Ven would go from being King’s Vengeance to high prince in a royal godsdamned minute, and there was no fucking way he was cut out to lead anything.

  He looked down at his brother again, lying so still. Conlan had grown up like royalty, honor and duty and all that happy shit ingrained in his soul. But Ven had grown up pure street fighter. There was a big, ugly part of his soul. The part that had withered and died when he’d been with his mother at the end, before she died. When she’d begged him to save himself. Keep his brother safe.

  He’d promised her, sobbing, as she died.

  Great fucking job he’d done of keeping his word.