Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

and stared up at him with greedy lust. "Do you voluntarily accept my service, Lord Vengeance, blood kin to Conlan?"
     
    Justice's sarcastic voice interrupted before Ven could respond. "Of course he doesn't, you evil bitch. You're holding his girlfriend as collateral. He has no choice."
     
    Anubisa whirled around as Justice lightly leapt down from the same rocky outcropping from which Ven had prepared to attack. She took a step closer to him and tilted her head, then inhaled deeply. "You smell like—"
     
    "I smell like the blood kin of Conlan and Vengeance," Justice said, flashing a grim smile.
    "I'm their brother, and I offer myself in his stead."

Chapter 34
    Ven stared at Justice after he made his ridiculous claim. "Don't do this, you idiot! I expect you to save Erin for me."
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    Justice laughed. "You think I'm lying, don't you? Precious pampered royal princes, never imagining that dear Daddy may have done the nasty with someone who wasn't their mother. Someone who wasn't even their species!"
     
    Anubisa studied Justice, awareness dawning in her eyes. "The mating I forced on Conlan's father bore fruit? Oh, that is entirely too delicious!"
     
    "Yeah, well, this delicious fruit is going to start killing everyone in this room, thanks to the geas laid on my ass, if you don't get me out of here," Justice said bitterly. "You wanted voluntary? Well, trust me, after centuries of having to take orders from my brothers, with their overblown sense of entitlement that came with being the royal heirs, I'm more than ready to try out the other side."
     
    Ven shook his head, trying not to believe what every one of his senses told him must be the truth. "Why? Why didn't you talk to Alaric about some way to lift the geas?"
     
    "Don't you think I tried? There was no way to achieve it without telling him the truth of my birth, and that would lead to me killing him. Or at least dying in the attempt."
     
    Justice sheathed his sword and crossed to Anubisa. "Me for him. Willing service." He flashed a dark smile at her and, so quickly Ven didn't see him move, bent his head and kissed her. It was no gentle kiss, from what he could see. It was more of a punishing, claiming kind of kiss, brutal and possessive, and it lasted a long time.
     
    When Justice finally raised his head, Anubisa's eyes had faded from glowing red to black and she looked dazed. She stared up at Justice, her lips swollen from his kiss, and then finally spoke.
     
    "No man has willingly kissed me for more than five thousand years," she said, so softly Ven almost didn't catch the words. "I accept your offer, Lord Justice, blood kin to Conlan and to Vengeance."
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    "No!" Ven bent to retrieve his sword and leapt toward them, but she shot up toward the ceiling, with Justice firmly in her grasp. As they rose, Justice kissed her again and managed to knock the ruby out of her arms. She clutched at his shoulders and didn't even seem to notice. Justice lifted his head and stared down at Ven, and his lips formed a single word.
     
    "Brother."
     
    Then he bent his head to the vampire goddess again, and the two of them vanished.
     
    Ven caught the ruby before it could shatter on the stone floor, and ran toward Erin.
    Finally released from Anubisa's thrall, Erin sank to her knees over the body of her sister, who appeared to have suffered the true death. She was sobbing so hard her entire body shook with the force of it, and as he watched her she screamed and shot an energy bolt at Caligula that smashed him into a stone pillar.
     
    When he reached her, Erin raised her head and stared through him, her face drenched with her tears, and the ancient power of the gems again in her eyes. "Now we kill them all," she said, rising.
     
    He held the ruby out to her and agreed. "Now we kill them all."
     
    As she began to sing, vampires began to explode in waves. The shifters were unaffected by her song, so Ven waded into them with a killing fury, slicing out with his silver daggers, whirling around to destroy them, two and three at a time, shouting out a fierce battle cry. "For Atlantis!" he cried. "For Lord Justice! For my brother!"
     
    And all around him, vampires exploded and shifters died, until he was covered with blood and gore and surrounded by dead and dying bodies. Still he raged and stabbed and roared out his anguish, until the sound of the silence