Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

parents had dragged her to see.
    Overdeveloped imagination bordering on psychosis, my butt, Dr. Koontz. I’m going to Atlantis.

Chapter 8
Boston
    Alexios stared at Brennan, who continued his litany of murder in low, hoarse tones. “Kill them. Kill them all.”
    Brennan lifted his hands, aiming his deadly throwing stars at a group of humans who huddled, naked and trembling, in the corner. The motion snapped Alexios out of his state of shock and into movement, and he flashed across the room to grab Brennan‟s shoulders, noticing with his peripheral vision that Christophe was changing position to protect the humans.
    Protect the humans.
    From Brennan .
    It boggled the freaking mind.
    “Brennan! Stop it now,” Alexios shouted, shaking the warrior‟s shoulders. The pale green of Brennan‟s eyes had faded into silvery fire, and there was no sign of recognition on his face when he stared at Alexios.
    For a moment, even as his mind recoiled from the idea, Alexios thought he‟d have to fight the man who‟d saved his life on countless occasions. Brennan‟s arms tensed under Alexios‟s hands as he strained to escape, but then the enraged warrior‟s eyes slowly subsided back to green as a gradual sense of awareness returned to his features.
    “Alexios? What—” Brennan‟s voice trailed off as consciousness swam up from the secret depths behind his eyes. “The leader? Where is he? Did he get away?”
    Alexios released his friend and stepped back, still wary, his hands dropping to the hilts of his daggers. “Not exactly.”
    Christophe strode up to them, his sword out and held at the ready, a snarl on his face. “Yeah, you dusted him. Which normally I‟d be all over, but we needed this one to tell us what he knew about Justice. What were you thinking?”
    One of the humans rose unsteadily to his feet and took a deep breath, trying to regain some semblance of control. He was built like a manatee, and Alexios randomly wondered why it was always the ugly humans who went to the cult‟s naked parties.
    The pretty humans undoubtedly had better things to do. Damn shame, considering how many of these gatherings he‟d busted in on over the past four months.
    The manatee drew a layer of pomposity around himself like a cloak and dramatically cleared his throat. Probably some captain of industry when he had his clothes on. If only his board of directors could see him now.
    “Look here, you three. I don‟t know what you think you‟re doing, but this was a private party, and I‟m going to call—”
    “Oh, shut up, Tiny Dick,” Christophe snapped. “Just a tip, but maybe you‟d be better off to keep your pants on in the future.” Almost negligently, he waved a hand in the air in the direction of the man, whose eyes bulged out before his eyelids fluttered closed and he silently slipped to the ground, unconscious. Alexios shot a look at Christophe and was unsurprised to see that the warrior‟s eyes glowed a fierce dark green with the force of the power he channeled.
    “Hells, while we‟re at it,” Christophe muttered, “why not take care of all of this?” He took a deep breath and raised his hands in the air, then whispered an ancient incantation and opened his arms in a sweeping gesture that encompassed the room. Like a wave tumbling against the shore, the humans in the room fell to the floor in a graceful, rolling line of naked flesh.
    Alexios narrowed his eyes. “They‟re unconscious, right? You didn‟t just kill a roomful of humans, did you?”
    Christophe laughed. “Hey, not a bad idea. What, thirty fewer idiots we have to protect from themselves?”
    Alexios nearly snarled. “Fool, if you—”
    “Relax. I just put them to sleep for a while. But they‟ll all wake up with one miserable hangover. It was the least I could do.”
    Brennan shoved his throwing stars in some hidden pockets in his jacket and stared at the bleeding gashes on his hands. “What happened here? Why am I bleeding? Did I truly kill the one vampire who might have helped us to find Justice?”
    Alexios blew out a deep breath. “Yeah. You did. You had some kind of meltdown and went crazy on us, saying the humans must die. And if I‟m not mistaken, that was a giant helping of emotion crushing you down.”
    Brennan raised one eyebrow, but no other evidence of even the slightest surprise marred the serene calm that had returned to blanket his expression. “Impossible. I have experienced no emotion in more than two thousand