Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

one of your „Riley is hormonal‟ moments, Alaric, you‟d better be glad I‟m too huge to waddle over there and kick your butt.”
    “My butt, as you say, is infinitely relieved,” Alaric replied. “But perhaps we might return to the subject at hand.”
    Ven crossed the room to the central long, wooden table, where stacks of maps and strategic plans had been piled on one side to make room for the refreshments. He helped himself to another cup of coffee. “Here‟s a quick status report. We got word this morning that there‟s a vampire uprising in St. Louis. Evidently, Anubisa is trying to crack the whip on how the vamps gather Apostates, but she‟s doing it through Vonos. Guy‟s got all the subtlety of Bruce Willis going after the bad guys in the fifth or sixth Die Hard .”
    Conlan nodded. “Alexios, Christophe, and Denal left before dawn to travel to St. Louis and meet Jack, Reisen, and the rebel faction there.”
    “Do we suddenly trust Reisen?” Alaric asked, his eyes suddenly glowing a fierce green as he drew power to him. “After he took it upon himself to steal Poseidon‟s Trident from the god‟s own Temple?”
    “Whether we trust him or not is moot. Quinn trusts him, Jack trusts him, and they both reported that he‟s on some sort of quest for redemption,” Conlan said. “He only takes on the most dangerous missions, going so far that they‟re afraid he may be suicidal.”
    “I don‟t care about his quest for redemption. I don‟t want him anywhere near Quinn,” Alaric snarled. “I will leave for St. Louis as soon as we adjourn this meeting.”
    “We need you here, Alaric,” Erin said. She‟d been unchar acteristically quiet during the meeting. “I‟ve been trying to reach for Justice—for some hint of his presence—ever since we got here. You know, I‟m a gem singer? Protégé of the goddess of the Nereids? Since we discovered he was half Nereid, I was hoping that, somehow, I could use that connection to try to get at least a rough idea of where he might be.”
    She shook her head before they could ask. “No luck. Nothing. I may be a witch and a gem singer, but I apparently stink as a cell phone.” She turned back toward Alaric. “That‟s why we need you. You‟re the only one with the power to locate Justice.”
    “I have no wish to offend you, Erin,” Alaric said. “But you do realize, of course, that I‟ve been attempting to contact or locate Justice constantly since he left us last night?”
    Erin sighed and slumped a little in her chair. “I‟m sorry, Alaric. I should‟ve realized. I‟m just exhausted. I don‟t think I‟ve slept at all since Justice went off with Anubisa months ago. He saved my life. He saved Ven‟s life. He even saved my sister, in a way. But now we don‟t know where he is. We don‟t know where Deirdre is, or if my sister is even alive.”
    She stopped and scrubbed fiercely at her eyes with her fists. When she spoke again, her voice was husky with unshed tears. “I guess I‟m just ready for something to go right.”
    Ven knelt beside Erin‟s chair and drew her into his arms, and the anguish on his face mirrored what sliced through Conlan‟s chest.
    “I think we‟re all ready for something to go right,” Conlan said. “We need a plan, then.
    Alaric will go to St. Louis, but continue to attempt to locate Justice. Riley and I will find either a minister or an Elvis willing to perform a marriage in Atlantis. Ven, you lead a team to try to figure out where Justice is with this archaeologist and then go bring them home.”
    A knock sounded at the door, and Liam put his head in and looked an inquiry at Conlan.
    Conlan nodded and beckoned him to enter.
    “Perfect timing,” Ven said. “We need to know about this Dr. McDermott. What is it about her that made Justice go nuts?”
    Liam strode into the room, shaking his head. “That I don‟t know. But I can tell you this: Keely McDermott is a true object reader, though the Gift was thought lost in the waters of time. She read the sapphire, and she saw Nereus.”
    Alaric‟s head snapped up, and he leaned forward. “What did she say? What did she say about High Priest Nereus and the Star of Artemis?”
    “Not much,” Liam confessed. “I‟d planned to question her more about it once she was safely in Atlantis. But she did say the strangest thing. She said I looked exactly like him.”

Chapter 16
    The cavern underneath the Temple of the Nereids
    Justice woke instantly, climbing