Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

of whom were recovering from their own scratches.
     
    "Okay, you may have a point," Justice admitted. "Then what's the plan?"
     
    "Gennae's plan has merit. I will go out and… discuss… the situation pith Caligula, while she holds the shield," Alaric said, baring his teeth.
     
    "If discuss is Atlantean for 'wipe the murdering monster off the face of the planet,' then I would be completely in agreement with that plan," Gennae said.
     
    "You're not going anywhere without me," Justice snarled, daring the priest to disagree.
     
    "Same goes," Christophe stated, drawing his daggers.
     
    Alaric raised one black eyebrow. "I would not have expected otherwise."

Chapter 25
The cabin
    Erin warily raised her head to see what Quinn was doing. The woman had been silent for several minutes; she hadn't spoken a word since she'd ordered the men out of the cabin. Quinn sat on the floor, cross-legged, in front of the fire, staring into the flames.
     
    "Did you want to talk to me or something? Girls-only pep talk? Maybe a bunch of 'it's all right to kill in the name of Life, Liberty, and the American Way'?" The words came out Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    with more weariness and less sarcasm than she'd intended. Maybe she just didn't have any fight left in her.
     
    Quinn pinned her with a dark look. "Is that what you need to hear? Will that make it better? If so, rah rah, go, you."
     
    Confusion broke through the numbness. "What did you want to talk to me about, then?"
     
    Quinn sighed. "Mostly, I just wanted to listen. Do you think that it gets easier to kill just because you've done it more than once? It doesn't. If anything, it gets harder."
     
    "Then how do you do it? How do you do what you do, day after day, month after month?" Erin clenched her hands together so tightly her knuckles turned white. "Even staking vampires isn't a black and white proposition—many of them are neighbors, friends, contributing members of society who just happen to drink blood. How can you look at faces that are exactly like ours and kill them?"
     
    "Some of your best friends are vamps, is that it?" Quinn said bitterly. "Look, you're not telling me anything I don't know. Like I said, it gets harder and harder. Every life taken, even an undead life, is another black mark on my record. Another stain on my soul."
    She laughed. "Listen to me: 'stain on my soul.' Suddenly I'm a drama queen."
     
    "What if it is? What if my soul is irreparably stained because I killed Lillian tonight? She wasn't a shape-shifter or a vampire. She was human."
     
    "She was a monster," Quinn said flatly. "Ven told us that she boasted about killing both your sister and your fellow witch and helping to plan the murder of your family. Do you really think she deserved to live?"
     
    Erin stared at Quinn. The light from the fire played over her face like an eerie foreshadowing of the flames of hell. Erin shook off the fanciful sense of dread and Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    considered the question for a while. Finally, she shook her head. "I did what I had to do, and I'd do it again. It was self-defense, and I was defending Ven, because even if he'd killed every one of those Weres, she would have murdered him, too. But don't ask me to decide who deserves to live. That is a question for the Goddess."
     
    Quinn turned back to face the fire. "Maybe. Or maybe your Goddess and my God gave us the power to defeat them as an answer to the question. Either way, I refuse to let this go on any longer. I can't stand by and pretend not to notice that the vampires are taking over our political leadership, enacting law after law in favor of the undead over humans.
    I can't stand by and let groups of rogue shape-shifters kill humans who get caught up in their territorial struggles."
     
    A wave of hopeless despair washed over Erin. "Can we make a difference, Quinn? Do you really believe that your efforts amount to anything? I feel like we're all playing a carnival game for giants. Do you know that game where you whack the plastic gophers with a mallet as they pop up out of the holes? No matter how many you hit, more keep coming and coming?"
     
    A ghost of a smile crossed Quinn's face. "Yes, I've played that game. Back when I had time for things like street fairs and carnivals. Seems like ages ago."
     
    "Well, the vampires with plans to take over the human race and treat us as sheep, the rogue Weres, more and more