Warriors of Poseidon 05 - Atlantis Redeemed

calculating the odds that he could destroy all four of the thugs before one of them shot Tiernan.
    “You didn’t think we’d show you all of this and then let you go, did you?” Litton laughed. “I must admit, I never took you for a fool.”
    “Funny,” Tiernan said, handing over her phone to one of the scientists. “I always took you for a murdering bastard.”
    Waves of fury were radiating from her skin, and Brennan wondered how nobody else in the room could feel it. She was running so hot that it seemed impossible that the paint on the walls was not blistering.
    Or maybe he felt it only because of the soul-meld, which meant if anything were to hurt her . . .
    He’d seen berserker rage only once in all of his years, and the path of carnage and destruction had been hideous beyond belief.
    If they hurt Tiernan, they’d see worse.
    As the rage climbed higher and higher, pounding through his veins, Brennan’s power climbed, building and building until his body ached with the attempt to control it. Power sought release, Atlantis Redeemed – Warriors of Poseidon 05
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    and power this wild was going to blow the roof off if he didn’t control it. He glanced almost reflexively up at the roof.
    Maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.
    “Please sit down, Mr. Brennan,” Dr. Litton said with exaggerated politeness. “We have more to see.”
    “We don’t want to see it, you sadistic monster,” Tiernan cried out. “If it’s the last thing I do, I’m going to see you pay for that.”
    Litton laughed, long and hard. “Oh, my dear Ms. Baum,” he finally said, wiping his eyes. “The lovely cliché of it all. The last thing you will do is probably going to involve your naked body and one or more of my guards. They like to try out the new subjects, and I see no reason not to let them.”
    A red haze swamped Brennan’s mind, short-circuiting reason and logic. The need to kill, fierce and urgent, took over and filled him, searing through body and mind and soul, until nothing was left but the rage.
    “You will not hurt her,” he said, snarling the words.
    “We have the guns, Mr. Brennan. Your knives are not much use, are they? I would be interested to know how you got those past the metal detectors, though,” Litton said. He beckoned his guards. “Take them to their accommodations, please. Oh, and leave the knives on the table.”
    Brennan had no choice. The guards were trained professionals, and two of them always stayed well out of his range. They’d shoot Tiernan if he fought back. He’d have to watch for a chance when they left the room.
    As they filed out the door, sandwiched among the four thugs, the images on the screen painted a violent threat of what their immediate future might hold. Susannah, still tied down to the chair, was screaming. Only this time, she was doing it in the shape of a fox.
    One of the thugs shoved Tiernan and she tripped, twisting her ankle, and cried out. Brennan’s tenuous hold on his temper shattered. He lowered his head, pretending to look at the floor, so they wouldn’t see the magic glowing in his eyes, and he called power on a scale beyond anything he’d attempted before. He wanted water in destructive force.
    He called the thunder.
    The first percussive boom shook the walls of the building, and the crack of an accompanying lightning strike struck hard in its wake. Brennan pushed harder, and hail pounded down on the roof, its rapid drumming echoing through the room.
    “What the hell?” one of the guards said, instinctively looking up when another lightning strike, Atlantis Redeemed – Warriors of Poseidon 05
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    more powerful than the first, smashed into the building and the electricity in the room blew out.
    “Down,” Brennan shouted, hoping Tiernan would listen to him, but not willing to trust that she would. He launched himself at the two guards in front of him and snapped the first one’s neck before the man ever saw him coming. Brennan whirled around and sent a vicious kick into the second guard’s throat, not quite snapping his neck but taking him down.
    The backup generators for the building came on, and a row of lights, dimmer than those that had been in the room before, switched on, and Brennan went for his daggers. He leapt over the downed guard and headed for the table, only to find that one of his blades was missing. He hurled the one he found into the third guard’s throat and spun around, searching the room for