Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

matter. She was patient. She could wait.
    “In regard to your visions, although my instincts tell me that you are speaking the truth, or at least the truth as you believe it to be, I would be a poor leader, indeed, if I were to take your word for something so critical,” Conlan said slowly. “However, if there were some way you could prove to me the validity of your visions—”
    “Yes,” Keely said. “Sure. If you—”
    “Absolutely not,” Justice said harshly. “We have caused Keely to suffer far too much. We will not allow you to bring her to any further harm.”
    Keely whirled around, her heart in her throat. She heard it in his voice, never mind the plural self-reference again. The Nereid was back, and Justice‟s fury over the potential threat to her was dangerously near to causing his fragile control to topple. She took a step toward him with some thought of comforting or helping, but he moved with a blur of speed and was suddenly across the room from her, still clenching his fists.
    “Do not,” he growled at her, the words suddenly rich with a liquid accent she‟d heard before—from his mother in the throne room during her visions. Then he turned the force of all that rage on his brothers. “We have seen Keely for centuries in our vision quest. She is ours, and you will not harm her.”
    Before Keely could move, Ven had somehow positioned himself so that he stood between Keely and Justice. He spoke calmly, as if trying to soothe a frenzied animal.
    Or simply a brother who‟d gone insane when a geas shattered.
    “Justice, you know we don‟t want to hurt her. You know we want to do everything we can to help you. Am I talking to both of you now? Have you gone Sybil on me?”
    Suddenly, shockingly, Justice threw back his head and laughed. It was a warm, hearty, normal laugh, with nothing chilling or alien about it. A wave of relief hit Keely with such force that her knees weakened from the onslaught. He‟d done it. He was in control.
    When Justice stopped laughing, he looked at Ven and grinned. His eyes were clear again.
    “You and your damn movies. The Nereid has no frame of reference for Sybil or Dawn of the Dead or I Was a Teenage Werewolf , either. Maybe that‟s the trick. I can battle the other half of my soul with B movies.”
    Ven very subtly moved so that he was no longer blocking Justice‟s view of Keely. “You see?
    All these years, you goons mocked me for my excellent taste in quality filmmaking, and now it just might save you from losing your marbles.”
    Conlan folded his arms across his chest and looked at Keely. “I thought having one little brother was bad enough. Now I‟ve got two of them to deal with. I may abdicate the throne and move to Fiji, where it‟s quiet.”
    Keely snapped her mouth shut, from where it had been hanging open down to about her kneecaps. Staring at them in disbelief, she put her hands on her hips. “Are you kidding me?
    Justice‟s sanity and the fate of all Atlantis might be at stake here, and you‟re making bad jokes?”
    “We‟re guys,” Justice said, still grinning. “It‟s what we do.”
    It was the sanest, most absolutely ordinary thing that he‟d said in the entire time she‟d known him, and that grin on his face transformed his features from dark and terrifyingly beautiful to drop-dead, fall-at-his-feet-with-her-clothes-off sexy. She couldn‟t do anything else but stand there smiling back at him like a giddy coed with a crush on the professor. She didn‟t know how much time passed, while they all stood there grinning at each other, but of course like all good things in her life it was too soon over.
    Conlan drained his coffee mug and put it back down on the table. “I have devised a plan that will both test at the veracity of your visions and also perhaps give us the information we need in order to track down the missing jewels, Dr. McDermott. You will object read the Trident.”
    Keely stumbled and fell back against the wall, then slid bonelessly down until her butt hit the floor. “Oh, sure. No problem, Your Highness. For my next trick, I‟ll read the sacred object of power—of a god .”
    She couldn‟t help it; she started laughing helplessly. “After what Poseidon‟s sword very nearly did to me . . . oh, hell. You may as well call me Keely instead of Dr. McDermott. Why be formal when I‟m going to be dead soon?”
     
    The Nereid tried to break free again, and Justice ruthlessly shoved him back into a corner of his