Warriors of Poseidon 01 - Atlantis Rising

that we take a human to Atlantis? Especially now, when the Trident is in the hands of the enemy? I repeat, you're both out of your fucking minds."
     
    Shaking his head, Ven nonetheless stepped back and away, sweeping an arm out as if to urge Alaric to continue.
     
    Alaric shrugged. "Knowledge is power. The human has powers that are unknown to us.
    If she truly can convey emotion over the mind path, then she must be studied and analyzed for the source of that ability."
     
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    Ven started to interrupt, but Alaric held up a hand. "Not to mention the potential enormity of a weapon with the power to bring a warrior of such strength and mental shielding as Conlan to his knees," he said, his tone clinically dispassionate.
     
    Conlan made a growling sound low in his throat, surprising himself and, from the looks of it, everyone around him. "You would dissect Riley in a laboratory, if you believed that was the only way to understand her gifts, wouldn't you?"
     
    Alaric raised one eyebrow. "Riley? You know her name?"
     
    Fury rising, Conlan clenched his fists until his knuckles turned white, fighting to regain enough composure to speak. "You. Will. Not. Touch. Her," he gritted out.
     
    Alaric immediately held his hands out, palms facing down, as if to show that he intended no harm. He lapsed back into formal speak, perhaps realizing the threat from Conlan. "I sense a disturbance in the elements surrounding us, and yet you showed no outward sign until now. As I am unlike your human, and cannot sense emotions, you must explain your reaction to my words."
     
    Conlan forced his hands to unclench and took cleansing breaths. "I don't even know if I can explain. Or, if I could, that I would want to."
     
    He shook his head, trying to clear it. His mind involuntarily reached out to touch Riley's restlessly sleeping consciousness. That simple touch calmed him a little.
     
    Just enough to piss him off. What the hell was going on?
     
    "I need time to understand it, myself," he admitted.
     
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    Ven broke in. "Alaric, surely you must see that our most important job is to retrieve the Trident, not play babysitter to some human female. I like humans myself, Conlan, and have enjoyed many a happy hour with them."
     
    Conlan's brother flashed a wolfish grin. "Hell, sometimes with two of 'em at a time. I've even defended thousands of them from the vamps and the damn shapeshifters over the centuries. But you don't see me going around staking out their houses."
     
    Someone barked out a laugh. Conlan's gaze whipped down the line of his warriors.
    Bastien. Of course. He was too damn big to be afraid of anything. Even the wrath of two Atlantean princes.
     
    Damn. He had to admire the sheer balls of the man.
     
    Conlan turned back to Ven, nodded. "You're right. But this one is different. She may have the ability to be used as a weapon against me—against any of us—and how can that be good?"
     
    The part of his brain where duty gave way to need shouted out at him. And I want her. I will have her.
     
    Duty be damned.
     
    "Agreed," Alaric replied, startling Conlan. But of course Alaric was responding to his words, not his thoughts.
     
    Or so Conlan hoped. If the priest had mastered thought-mining, the politics of Atlantis were headed for a big pile of reeking whale shit.
     
    Alaric's gaze never flickered. "She could distract us at a critical point and cost us the object of our quest. We contain the female, and then we retrieve the Trident. It is the Atlantis Rising – Warriors of Poseidon 01
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    wisest course of action, as you say, Conlan. It is also true that I need time and a quiet place in which to scry for its location."
     
    Ven grumbled a little then rolled his eyes. "Well, when you put it that way… Let's do this thing."
     
    He jerked his head toward the left, and Bastien, Denal, and the rest ranged themselves around Conlan, Alaric, and Ven. Black coats billowing out behind them, nine of the deadliest predators ever to travel the earth and its oceans shimmered into watery mist and headed for a tiny house holding a sleeping human female.
     
    And once I see her again, I'll realize that this insane attraction was a momentary thing.
    We'll secure her for later study, and then we'll retrieve the Trident.
     
    Nothing has changed.
     
    Except Conlan's years of training in self-awareness mocked