Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

sixty steps, then a right turn.
     
    "Get out of the way, you two. We need to dump this damn tiger before our arms fall out of our sockets." The group carrying Jack must have crowded past them, because the jungle-sharp smell of tiger strengthened and then waned as they passed.
     
    He carefully opened his eyes again, in time to see the shape-shifters dump Jack on the ground, hard. The large tiger lay still, his chest barely rising and falling with shallow breaths. Justice still couldn't see Quinn. When one of the ones who'd been carrying Jack turned to face his captors he hurriedly shut his eyes again.
     
    "Why are you still carrying that piece of shit? Throw him over on top of the tiger. With any luck, the cat will wake up in a rage from the drugs and eat him."
     
    The "Calgoolie" idiot laughed. "Good idea. At least that would be a little entertainment for a change around here. I'm not much for icy, damp places."
     
    They took a couple of steps and tossed Justice. He maintained the appearance of limp unconsciousness, even when his face smashed into what had to be Jack's unyielding rib cage and his knees smacked the stone floor hard enough that he could only hope nothing had shattered.
     
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    Though he was relieved to find that Jack's chest was still rising and falling with the tiger's breaths and a steady heartbeat thudded under his head, he made another, far more unpleasant, discovery.
     
    Jack smelled like wet cat.
     
    Before he could figure out a way to turn his head to the side, undetected, so that he could scan the area, he heard the tramping of more footsteps. These came from the opposite direction of the way he'd been carried.
     
    "It's about time you got here." The voice hissed with menace, and Justice instantly recognized the leader from the very short-lived battle above.
     
    "Yeah, well, you weren't carrying several hundred pounds of smelly tiger. Damn thing was pure dead weight," one of the shifters said. "I'd like five minutes alone with the idiot who decided we had to bring him, instead of just killing him on the spot."
     
    With his face still mashed into Jack's side, Justice had to agree with the smelly tiger part. Also with the killing part, except the killing he had planned involved a certain group of shifters and vamps.
     
    By his oath to Poseidon, there was going to be much,much killing. And he was going to enjoy every bloody moment of slicing heads from bodies, just as soon as he could figure out where he was and how to get Jack and Quinn to safety.
     
    "Drakos took the woman to Caligula, so why don't you come along with me and you can voice your complaints directly to the emperor?" The vamp's voice was sly with amusement. "I'm sure he'll be glad to find some way to… accommodate you."
     
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    The shifters growled and stamped their feet a bit, then the one who'd been talking about "smelly tiger" finally spoke up. "Naw, just blowing off a little steam. We'll stay here and guard these two. You go ahead and do your vamp stuff."
     
    The vamp laughed. "No, our 'vamp stuff,' as you so eloquently phrased it, is something that Caligula wants to share this time, so two of you stay here to stand guard until they start to stir. The rest come with me. The woman is important to the human rebellion in some way, and he wants to make an example of her. It should be quite a show." He laughed again and a chill whispering of torture and death skated down Justice's spine.
     
    Almost simultaneously, the tiger's muscles clenched. The movement was so slight none of their captors would have noticed it, but it gave Justice very specific information and concerns:
     
    First, Jack was waking up.
     
    Second, depending on the reaction Jack had to the drugs in his system, Justice might be defending himself from a five-hundred-pound tiger any minute.
     
    Without his sword.
     
    The day kept getting better and better.

Chapter 28
    Ven watched Erin as she walked—almost staggering—forward through the wood's beyond the cabin, holding her hands out in front of her, palms facing down. "What is it?"
     
    "There were vampires here very recently. At least one of them called death magic," she said. "We need to—"
     
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    "What is it?" He raised his sword and pushed past her, scanning the area for danger.
     
    "A battle," she said, her