Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

and me, too.”
    The sight of her crystalline tears tracing a path down her cheeks cut directly into his heart.
    Abruptly, he released the power and pushed through the madness.
    The Nereid inside him offered up a sensation of intense joy and need. She is ours, and she has given us her love. What else can matter?
    Justice held out his arms, and Keely walked into them, heedless of the mess covering him. “Is it true?” he demanded, not caring that several villagers were surrounding them, many with shotguns held at half-mast. “Do you love me?”
    She clutched his shirt for a moment, then stepped back from him and looked up at him, disbelief plain on her face. “Do I love you? Do I love you? Are you freaking kidding me? Do you think I‟d go through hell like I have for the past few days for just anybody?”
    Turning on her heel, she started to stalk away, but he raced forward and caught her arm, knowing that he must hear the words. “Tell me now. Is it true?” he repeated. “Do you love me?”
    “Yes, I love you,” she said, all but spitting the words at him. It wasn‟t how he‟d envisioned her declaration of love, but it was a start.
    “Keely, you must know that—”
    “Oh, shut up,” she cried, and then she hauled off and punched him in the face.

Chapter 35
    Justice rubbed his jaw, which actually ached. For a scientist, she packed a hell of a punch. A smile spread over his face, which made his split lip hurt, but he didn‟t care.
    By all the gods, she was magnificent.
    Alejandro lowered his shotgun and whistled, staring after Keely. “If I‟d seen her first, you‟d have quite a fight on your hands,” he said admiringly. “That is one fine woman.”
    Justice narrowed his eyes and growled at the upstart. “Go near my woman and I‟ll—”
    “Yeah, yeah. If you‟re done going crazy on us, we have a hostage,” Alejandro said, cutting him off. “And if there‟s any way you can teach me that explosion thing, I‟d give my right arm to know that trick.”
    “That trick, as you call it, is a power granted to me by my Nereid heritage,” Justice said, for the first time in his life claiming his mother‟s people with pride. Something inside him warmed and expanded at the realization. “I cannot teach it to one who is not Atlantean and Nereid.”
    “Too bad,” Alejandro said with a rueful grin. “But thanks for not exploding all of us. I was afraid when you saw Keely was threatened that we were all going to be collateral damage.”
    “It was a valid fear,” Justice admitted, then looked around. “Did you say a hostage?”
    “Over here,” one of the men called, and two of them walked up, dragging one of the vamps between them. It was the one who‟d been shot in the chest, and the wound was still closing.
    “He must have fallen to the ground from the injury, so he escaped being caught in that wave of death, or whatever you call it,” the man said, bowing his head a little toward Justice but staying a careful distance away.
    Alejandro cocked his shotgun. “Easy enough. Stand away from him,” he ordered his men.
    “No,” Justice said. “I have a better idea. We send him home with a message.”
    “Fine. Here‟s a message,” Alejandro said, lifting his shotgun and firing in one smooth motion.
    Half of the vamp‟s right upper leg disappeared and it started shrieking.
    “I actually meant a verbal message, but that works, too,” Justice said, admiring the man‟s handiwork. “You‟re pretty good with that shotgun.”
    “We will kill you all,” the vampire shrieked. “We will come back with all of our blood pride and tear you into tiny pieces and—”
    “Do you want me to let him take your head off with that thing?” Justice asked, tilting his head to one side as if truly interested in the answer.
    The vamp stuttered to silence, clutching his wounded leg as it began to heal and shooting death glares at all of them.
    “Good. So here‟s the message. You and yours stay away from Las Pinturas forever. If we ever see even the slightest sign of any of you, we will hunt you down and destroy you, and believe me when I say that the exploding vampire technique was only a party trick compared to the destruction I will rain down upon your bloodsucking asses,” Justice said.
    His calm tone seemed to terrify the vampire, who bobbed its head and tried on an ingratiating smile. “Yes, I hear you. I will give the message,” it whined. “If you let me go now, I will hurry to spread your