Warriors of Poseidon 05 - Atlantis Redeemed

Tiernan, who would have been on the floor under the table, if she’d listened to his command.
    She was standing over the body of one of the scientists, holding Brennan’s dagger, and the blade dripped blood. She raised her head and stared right across the chaos of the room at Brennan, horror and disbelief warring on her very expressive features. “I killed him,” she said, and somehow he heard her over all the noise and shouting and screaming. “I killed him.”
    A gunshot tore through the noise and everything stopped. The final guard stood two feet behind Tiernan, and he’d fired the shot straight up in the air, ripping a chunk out of the ceiling.
    “Everybody down on the floor and shut the fuck up,” the guard roared. “Anybody still standing in five seconds is going to get shot.”
    Brennan didn’t move, and Tiernan didn’t seem to have even heard the guard, but everyone else but Litton hit the floor. Tiernan just stood, silent, possibly going into shock, staring down at the dead scientist. Tiernan dropped the dagger and flinched at the sound it made when it hit the ground.
    Litton stalked across the floor toward her, and Brennan tensed to hurl himself at the scientist, but the guard leveled his gun directly at Tiernan’s head. There was no way he could miss from less than two feet away.
    “You try it, buddy, and her brains hit the wall,” the guard said calmly. There was training in that calm; the man was cool and controlled when everyone else was frantic. He’d kill Tiernan before Brennan could even get close.
    Brennan slowly put his hands on top of his head and released his hold on the power. A stray lightning strike might rattle the man enough to make his finger twitch on that trigger. The drumming of the hail on the roof slowed and then stopped.
    “Kick her knife over here,” the guard commanded. “I won’t underestimate you again, rich boy.”
    Brennan stepped closer to Tiernan and kicked the dagger across the floor. It skidded to a stop next to the guard’s boots.
    Atlantis Redeemed – Warriors of Poseidon 05
    Page 147 of 232
    Litton looked down at the dead scientist, the one from the video, and then he drew his arm back and slapped Tiernan’s face. Hard. Her head snapped back with the force of it, and Brennan felt her pain and shock. Brennan’s control, near to breaking, frayed even further. Only the gun trained on Tiernan’s head kept him from ripping Litton’s head off his neck.
    “I needed him, you bitch,” Litton snarled, his face nearly purple with rage. “He was worth twenty of you. Journalists. Bunch of leeches upon society.”
    He raised his hand again, but then shook his head. “No. You’re not worth it. I have a far better plan for you, Tracy Baum. You’re going to go in the chair. Tonight. I need a guinea pig to see if it functions properly since we repaired the damage. There’s a chance it will turn the next subject’s entire frontal lobe to pudding.” He laughed that nasty laugh again. “Who better than you to try it out?”
    “You will die slowly if you touch her, Litton,” Brennan said, and the guard narrowed his eyes, measuring his opponent, then took a firmer grip on his gun.
    Litton just waved a hand in the air. “Shut up. I don’t need to hear your mouth, I just need your signature on all those lovely wire transfers we’re going to do later. My worries about funding are now over, aren’t they?”
    “This is your last warning, Litton,” Brennan said, his voice gone dead and icy. “I will let you live if you release her now.”
    Litton pointed at the guard. “You. If he talks again, shoot him. No, wait. If he talks again, shoot her. Just in the leg. Something that will hurt but not kill her. Maybe her foot.”
    The guard nodded, stone-faced, so Brennan couldn’t tell if Litton’s casual cruelty disgusted the man or if it was simply another day in the life of a mercenary. It didn’t matter anyway. He held a gun on Tiernan. He would die, too. The power climbed up Brennan’s spine to his skull, until he thought his bones would shatter from the sheer force of it.
    Kill them, destroy them, death to any who threaten my mate, the power said, and for the first time in his lifetime it was sentient and had a voice, and it was the voice of utter destruction to these monsters who dared to harm Tiernan. It took every ounce of control Brennan possessed to keep from attacking, but the sight of that gun, aimed at Tiernan, served as a very efficient