Warriors of Poseidon 05 - Atlantis Redeemed

Brennan?” Litton said, his voice shrill. “He’s here, you told me he was here. Did you give him his welcome packet?”
    “Yes, of course, but he wasn’t there.” Wesley twisted his hands together, his gaze darting nervously around the conference table. “I mean, he was in a room, but it wasn’t his room.”
    Litton rolled his eyes. “Then you take him to his room. What’s so urgent about that?”
    “We did, I mean, the front desk got him to his room, but it’s more who he was with than where he was, if you know what I mean.”
    Devon sighed. Wesley’s nervous grin was beginning to make him want to rip the man’s throat out. Not that he was particularly hungry or that Wesley was particularly appealing. It might make the babbling stop, though, and there was great merit in that.
    “Who, Wesley?” he said, to forestall any further images of dealing immediate death. “What companion has you so addled?”
    “The reporter, sir,” Wesley said. “Mr. Brennan was with that reporter, Tracy Baum, and she seemed awfully cozy with him, if you know what I mean.”
    The rodent-faced man beamed around the room, a leering let’s-be-men grin that failed to find its audience among the impatient vampires, who either ignored him or looked at him as one might a particularly aromatic pile of garbage.
    “This could be a problem,” Jones said. “Why is our reclusive billionaire having dealings with a reporter? Are you sure your research on this man was accurate, Devon?”
    Devon leaned back against the wall and folded his arms across his chest. “I am always accurate, Atlantis Redeemed – Warriors of Poseidon 05
    Page 62 of 232
    Jones. This is why I have achieved all that I have. You would do well to remember that.”
    “Maybe she’s just his girlfriend,” Wesley said, his voice cracking mid-sentence. “You know, just a piece of ass for the—”
    “That will be enough, Wesley,” Devon interrupted. “Unless you want to have drinks with any of my friends?” He waved an arm at the vampires ringing the table and they leaned forward.
    “Or be a drink?” Smith said slyly.
    Wesley almost knocked Litton down in his haste to escape the room, and Devon allowed himself a grim smile.
    “Powerful men can control their women,” he said, knowing he would regret the remark later.
    She would be sure of that. “If there were any problem at all, Brennan’s previous activities and funding would have been front-page news. He knew full well that his first half million was earmarked for research into enthrallment; that’s why he gave it in the first place. So the woman is either his companion or simply a diversion. Either way, I cannot believe she will be a problem.”
    “I don’t like it,” Smith said.
    “You don’t like anything,” Devon countered. “I will have them followed at all times. If they step so much as a foot out of line, we will capture them and have them killed. This is a no-lose scenario for us. We have an eccentric human billionaire who wants to fund our research in hope that we will give him the gift of eternal life so that he will continue to be part of the ruling class after we take over. Either he will work with us, or we will enthrall him and he will be our puppet.”
    “I plan to kill him, eventually, either way,” Jones said, stabbing one long fingernail into the polished conference table and carving the letter J into the expensive wood. “I have no liking for these upstart humans.”
    Devon noticed Litton starting to back toward the door. “Do you concur, Doctor?”
    “What? Oh, yes. Completely. We need his money. Must get to the party. See you there.” With that, Litton all but ran out of the room after his assistant. When the door closed behind him, Devon sighed.
    “Perhaps we could refrain from the ‘let’s kill the upstart humans’ talk around the doctor who controls the research,” he said, biting off each word.
    “Why do we need Brennan, anyway? We have money,” whined one of the younger vamps who hadn’t spoken yet.
    “Good. You can pay for the damage to that table,” Devon said.
    Atlantis Redeemed – Warriors of Poseidon 05
    Page 63 of 232
    Jones sneered.
    “More to the point, none of you wanted to risk your own money on these trials,” Devon pointed out. “And why should we, when we have willing sheep with money, standing ready to betray their own kind?”
    “You should be the next Primator,” Smith said. “I have no liking for politics, but you’re a