Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

“guarding the children who deserved to be protected.”
    At the table, they‟d argued, they‟d planned, they‟d wasted sixty precious minutes, but they still hadn‟t reached an agreement as to how they would handle the so-called barter.
    Keely and Alejandro were to the point of shouting at each other when he‟d finally had enough. “That‟s enough.”
    The words came out harsher and louder than he‟d intended, but right at that moment, he didn‟t give much of a pile of miertus .
    Everyone fell silent, staring at him. He realized his hand was on the hilt of his sword and forced himself to release it. These people were not his enemy.
    Finding one lost child is also not our mission, the Nereid said. We need the Star of Artemis.
    To return it to the Trident and take our rightful place as prince of Atlantis. The child’s fate is unfortunate, but children are dying all over the world. We can’t save them all.
    “We can save this one,” Justice said fiercely. Alejandro, Keely, and the others turned puzzled faces to him, and he realized he was doing it again. Arguing with himself out loud.
    We can save this one, he repeated, but this time in his mind. I hate to pull out a bad cliché, but you’re either with me or you’re against me, and I’m just a single one of Alaric’s mindfucks away from getting rid of you forever.
    The Nereid fell silent, so Justice decided to talk to all the people who didn’t live in his brain.
    “Look, we‟ve been over this and over this for an hour. This discussion is useless and mind-bogglingly irrelevant.”
    He pointed at Alejandro, whose dark eyes were flashing fire and vengeance. “ You want to bulldoze our way in there, guns blazing, with every man we‟ve got. Go before twilight and surprise them and snatch Eleni. Have I got that right?”
    Alejandro nodded. “ Sí. It‟s the only way. We overpower them and—”
    Justice cut him off. “It‟s the only way, all right. It‟s the only way to get the rest of your men killed. Vampires never take stupid chances. Their sense of self-preservation is matched only by their cowardice and depravity. They wouldn‟t have taunted us with that note unless they had far superior numbers. Obviously they‟ve got human or some kind of nonvamp help, or they couldn‟t have taken Eleni during the middle of the afternoon. They sure as the nine hells won‟t be sitting in the middle of the meet place playing jump rope with her.”
    He looked at each one of them in turn. “We go in hard and fast and they kill us hard and fast.
    Then they kill her, wherever they‟ve hidden her. Then just for kicks they come here and slaughter the rest of your people.”
    Keely nodded, rubbing her reddened eyes. “I‟ve been telling him—”
    Justice cut her off, too. “You‟ve been telling him that we threaten the vamps. Reason with them. Tell them that the P Ops patrol should be here tomorrow and if they give us Eleni, we won‟t rat them out. Is that about right?”
    Keely nodded, her eyes narrowing. She probably figured she wasn‟t going to like what he said next.
    She was right.
    “Vamps don‟t do logic and reason when they‟re angry and want revenge. We can threaten them with P Ops, sure. They‟ll cut their losses and move on somewhere new, to a nesting ground where we can‟t find them. Of course, they‟ll drain Eleni first and leave her dead body for us as a present, but they‟ll be gone.”
    Keely‟s face went dead white at his cruelty, but he just added it to the list of his sins, the inner whip of self-flagellation cutting mercilessly into him. Yeah. He was a foul bastard who‟d abandoned these poor villagers for an afternoon of selfish pleasure, and a tiny child would pay the price.
    An orphan, like he‟d been an orphan. But he‟d at least had adoptive parents who‟d loved him.
    Eleni had nothing but pain, torture, and death in front of her, unless he fixed it.
    He was good at fixing things.
    He unsheathed his sword and carefully placed it on the table in front of him. “This is the plan.
    Either get on board or get the hells out of my way, but this will be the plan. They want me, I‟m guessing, since I‟m the one with the nifty explosive trick.”
    Alejandro slammed a fist down on the table. “They want me! The use of the word „barter‟
    was deliberate. If you are planning any solo trip to the vampire camp, you are mistaken.
    These are my people, and I failed them while I . . . while I—” he shot an anguished look