Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

would have thought it served you well in your chosen profession. Why would you choose to explore the past if you are so determined to deny yourself?”
    Keely clenched her fists against her legs and slowly inhaled and exhaled a very deep breath.
    “Okay, I can‟t deal with this right now. I‟m running on adrenaline and pancakes. Here‟s what you need to know.”
    She turned to Justice and looked up at him, a question in her eyes. He knew what she was asking and, although he despised the idea that his brothers would hear about the humiliation that had destroyed his childhood, he nodded assent.
    “I think I need to sit down for this,” Keely said.
    Conlan hastened to indicate that she should sit, apologizing for his lack of manners. Justice remained at her side, sitting next to her on the battered couch that had seen so many planning sessions.
    Almost without meaning to, he found himself taking her hand in his own. He needed the contact. Needed the warmth of her touch in order to endure the revelations she was about to give.
    Conlan poured tall glasses of water from the tray sitting on a sideboard and carried them over.
    Keely took a long drink of the sparkling cold liquid, and then she began to talk. Quietly, concisely, and in chronological order, she told them of the visions she‟d had. She began with the one Liam had forced upon her, of the Star of Artemis.
    Ven interrupted at one point. “Nereus? But—”
    Conlan waved him to silence. “Later,” he told his brother. “Please continue, Dr. McDermott.”
    The telling seemed to last for an eternity, especially when waves of shame washed through Justice with the heat of Hells-fire. Keely finally finished her recounting and drained the water from her glass, then looked up at Conlan and Ven.
    “So. Any questions?” Defiance underscored the weariness in her voice.
    “I have so many questions that I don‟t even know where to begin to ask them,” Conlan said.
    “But I have a feeling that you need rest. Food and rest. So we‟ll adjourn this meeting and postpone our questions until the morning. Perhaps by then our high priest will have returned.”
    “Alaric is gone?” Justice asked, surprised by the news.
    “He couldn‟t reach you, so he went to St. Louis to help with a certain matter that required his assistance,” Conlan said, leaving the details to Justice‟s imagination.
    Justice knew there were deeper reasons that Conlan wished for Alaric‟s return. The high priest had the role of testing anyone suspected of being compromised by the vampires. Even Conlan himself had undergone it.
    Justice was sure that he was next. What he wasn‟t sure of was what Alaric would make of his dual nature.
    Do not worry about this priest, the Nereid whispered in his mind. We will present a united front for the testing.
    A hint of relief winged its way through Justice at the thought, and wary caution followed closely behind. Now, so soon, he was planning to deceive his fellow Atlanteans for the foreign presence that squatted inside of him?
    Better to cut it out of himself like a cancer.
    You cut me out and you die, the Nereid reminded him, arrogant command in his tone. I would have expected gratitude, not censure. We are out of the cavern, are we not?
    Yes. There was that.
    “Yeah, we had a little vamp and shifter problem,” Ven added, cutting into Justice‟s internal battle. “It didn‟t go all that well for the good guys, either. Quinn was wounded, and Alaric went after her to be sure she was okay.”
    Justice wanted to ask for further information, but Keely leaned against him, drooping with exhaustion.
    He carefully rose, pulling her with him. “Rest. As you say, we need rest. Food and a bath, and then a good night‟s sleep should go a long way toward restoring us.”
    Keely only nodded, her eyelids drifting shut as she stood there. He wanted to carry her, but knew she‟d hate it, especially in front of Ven and Conlan. So he contented himself with walking beside her down the corridor toward the guest wing.
    Giving in to the burgeoning paranoia that grew with every step he took farther into the palace, especially since Ven had accompanied them to “help out,” Justice examined every inch of the room they‟d offered Keely before he let her step so much as a foot into it.
    Finally, he turned toward the doorway where she leaned, all but falling over from tiredness, and he nodded. Heaving a sigh of relief, she crossed to the bed and flung herself down on