Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

run this sword through my heart, and you will be cheated of your goal,” Ven said, grim determination hardening his features.
    Justice nearly staggered as the truth of what he must do slammed into him. To save his brother—to rescue Erin, who might possibly be able to heal his second brother‟s unborn royal heir—he must make the ultimate sacrifice.
    Worse, he had to make them believe that he wanted to do it.
    Acid washed through his veins as he prepared himself to face an eternity of torture. He almost laughed at the thought. It was no less than he deserved.
    No more than he‟d expected.
    Below him, on the cavern floor, they were still talking. He couldn‟t hear it, though. Couldn‟t make out the words. Nothing but a vast ringing noise smashed through his skull, until he heard the bloodsucker goddess issue her demand, in a voice sheathed with blood and ice that sliced through the haze of his mind.
    “Do you voluntarily accept my service, Lord Vengeance, blood kin to Conlan?” Anubisa demanded.
    Justice forced down the grief and bile threatening to make him puke and stepped farther out from behind the shielding rock and onto the ledge directly above and across from her. This needed to be a performance to outshine all performances.
    Good thing he had the best poker face in Atlantis.
    He sucked in a lungful of air and called out to her. “Of course he doesn‟t, you evil bitch.
    You‟re holding his girlfriend as collateral. He has no choice.”
    The shock on her face pleased him. He‟d surprised a goddess. Maybe he had a one-in-a-thousand chance to stay alive.
    Maybe.
    Anubisa shot across the cavern floor, and he leapt down to meet her, standing braced and silent until she jerked to a halt, only inches separating them. The burning red of her eyes deepened until they glowed, and then she freaking sniffed him, inhaling his scent like a beast, and his skin tried to crawl off his body.
    “Blue hair,” she said. “And yet you smell like—”
    “I smell like the blood kin of Conlan and Vengeance,” he said, flashing a smile that tasted like death. “I‟m their brother, and I offer myself in Vengeance‟s stead.”
    Ven exploded in denial, but Justice barely heard him. The geas was kicking in, biting into his nerve endings. He‟d been cursed to kill anyone he told the truth of his birth. Either kill them or his mind would shatter.
    He picked option C. Shacking up with a vampire goddess. At least maybe he‟d have a little fun before she killed him.
    Everybody was staring at him. Right. Time to start acting.
    He laughed. “You think I‟m lying, don‟t you? Precious pampered royal princes, never imagining that dear Daddy may have done the nasty with someone who wasn‟t their mother.
    Someone who wasn‟t even their species .”
    Anubisa shook her long black hair away from her face, staring intently into his eyes as if to discover if he were telling the truth. Ancient vampire goddesses didn‟t show emotion. But there was something—just a flicker—in her eyes that allowed him to believe she was buying it.
    “The mating I forced on Conlan‟s father bore fruit? Oh, that is entirely too delicious!” She threw her head back and laughed, and the shifters who were still alive began to howl.
    “Yeah, well, this delicious fruit is going to start killing everyone in this room, thanks to the geas laid on my ass, if you don‟t get me out of here,” Justice said, trying to think of a way to convince her. “You wanted voluntary? Well, trust me, after centuries of having to take orders from my brothers, with their overblown sense of entitlement that came with being the royal heirs, I‟m more than ready to try out the other side.”
    Ven protested again but Justice cut him off, then sheathed his sword and smiled down at Anubisa. “Me for him. Willing service.”
    Then, though it took every ounce of courage he‟d ever even dreamed he possessed, he put his hands on her shoulders, yanked her to him, and kissed her. It was more challenge than kiss, and she shuddered beneath his touch, first stiffening, then melting into his embrace.
    So the vampire goddess was at least something like a mortal woman. He could use that, and he might yet survive. Soul intact or not.
    When Justice finally raised his head, Anubisa‟s eyes had faded from glowing red to black.
    The world shifted into insanity as, for one single moment, she appeared to be almost mortal.
    A woman whose beauty was so dark and terrible that any man