Atlantis Unleashed Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  Dedication

  Acknowledgements

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  Chapter 39

  Chapter 40

  Chapter 41

  Epilogue

  Teaser chapter

  GLOSSARY OF TERMS

  “Alyssa Day works her own brand of sexy sorcery

  in this fabulous new paranormal series.

  Warriors and witches have never been so hot!”

  — New York Times bestselling author Teresa Medeiros

  Praise for

  ATLANTIS AWAKENING

  “Alyssa Day’s Atlantis is flat-out amazing—her sexy and heroic characters make me want to beg for more! I love the complex world she’s created!”

  —National bestselling author Alexis Morgan

  “The legend comes to life. Alyssa Day’s superb writing, fascinating characters, and edge-of-your-seat story bring the legend of Atlantis to life. I cannot wait until the next installment.” —Award-winning author Colby Hodge

  ATLANTIS RISING

  “Alyssa Day creates an amazing and astonishing world in Atlantis Rising you’ll want to visit again and again. Atlantis Rising is romantic, sexy, and utterly compelling. I loved it!”

  —New York Times bestselling author Christine Feehan

  “The Poseidon Warriors are HOT!! Can I have one?”

  —USA Today bestselling author Kerrelyn Sparks

  “Alyssa Day’s characters grab you and take you on a whirlwind adventure. I haven’t been so captivated by characters or story in a long time. Enjoy the ride!”

  —New York Times bestselling author Susan Squires

  “Alyssa Day has penned a white-hot winner!”

  —New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter

  “Wow! Alyssa Day writes a marvelous paranormal romance set on Earth.”

  —USA Today bestselling author Susan Kearney

  “Inventive and electrifying. An exhilarating new series!”

  —Romantic Times

  “Alyssa Day roars onto the paranormal scene with this tense and magnetic read.”—Romance Junkies

  “Fascinating and intriguing . . . Fantastic reinvention of Atlantis.”—Huntress Reviews

  “Breathtaking paranormal romance.”—Fresh Fiction

  “Wow! What a spectacular series opener . . . The love scenes are sizzling hot.”—OnceUponARomance.net

  “The world-building is superb . . . The Warriors of Poseidon are a sexy, chivalrous, and dangerous team [who] create an atmosphere of testosterone so thick you can cut it with a knife; the interaction between this brawny bunch is priceless.”—ParaNormal Romance Reviews

  “A cast of sexy but tormented alpha heroes.”

  —The Romance Reader

  THE WARRIORS OF POSEIDON SERIES BY ALYSSA DAY

  Atlantis Rising

  High Prince Conlan’s Story

  “Wild Hearts in Atlantis” from Wild Thing

  Bastien’s Story

  Atlantis Awakening

  Lord Vengeance’s Story

  “Shifter’s Lady” from Shifter

  Ethan’s Story

  Atlantis Unleashed

  Lord Justice’s Story

  Don’t miss Atlantis Unmasked, Alexios’s story,

  and Atlantis Redeemed, Brennan’s story,

  coming soon from Berkley Sensation!

  THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP

  Published by the Penguin Group

  Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA

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  (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)

  Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

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  (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)

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  South Africa

  Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  ATLANTIS UNLEASHED

  A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author

  PRINTING HISTORY

  Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / June 2009

  Copyright © 2009 by Alesia Holliday.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form

  without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in

  violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.

  For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  eISBN : 978-1-101-05849-7

  BERKLEY® SENSATION

  Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,

  a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,

  375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

  BERKLEY® SENSATION and the “B” design are trademarks of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

  http://us.penguingroup.com

  To Debbie Wooley,

  who came up with the title Atlantis Unleashed.

  Thank you!

  To Cindy Hwang, who is wonderful beyond words.

  May you have hotel breakfasts three times a day

  forever and ever.

  And, always, to Judd, Science Boy, and Princess:

  I love you bigger than chocolate.

  Acknowledgments

  To the best editor and agent on the planet, Cindy Hwang and Steve Axelrod. What can I say? You’re like dark chocolate and little fluffy bunnies all rolled up into one. Except not chocolate-covered fluffy bunnies, because that would be gross. And wrong.

  To Prudence Scott, friend and arc
haeologist from Australia, who helped with scientific details about Keely’s profession. Any errors are entirely mine and were made in spite of her careful and detailed assistance.

  To Leis Pederson, Lori Antonson, and Elsie Turoci, who do the heavy lifting.

  To the friends who keep me out of the rubber room during cross-country moves, leaking roofs, and mommy crises: Barbara Ferrer, Cindy Holby, Michelle Cunnah, and Eileen Rendahl: none of my books would ever get written without you.

  And especially to Ann Thayer-Cohen and my wonderful reader group at [email protected] and my friends at MySpace who keep me laughing, keep me inspired, and keep me supplied with wonderful titles for my upcoming books—you rock.

  Dear Readers,

  Welcome back to the world of the Warriors of Poseidon! Thank you for your patience while I worked on this book—Justice is a complex man, which made for a complicated book! Thanks also for continuing to read my books and for writing to let me know how much you’re enjoying these stories of the Atlantean warriors and the women who’ve touched their hearts.

  Although the important archaeological find of the Mayan mural at San Bartolo is real and was discovered by Dr. William Saturno as I described, I have taken liberties with the location of nearby villages (and, as far as I know, no rogue vampires have taken over the site in real life).

  You can see amazing streaming video of the Mayan mural at www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3401/03.html, under the Nova ScienceNOW section, if you’re a history and archaeology junkie like I am. Scientists speculate that the Mayan civilization in that area at one point exceeded the population of modern-day New York City. But then, over a few short decades, almost everyone simply vanished—and nobody knows exactly why. One theory is that they overbuilt their natural resources. (I’m pretty sure I’m the first to think that vampires had anything to do with it, but then again, I write fiction, so I can imagine anything I want.)

  Creation myths, art, and ancient legends from vastly disparate cultures all around the world have so many unex plainable commonalities that it is plain to me that one over-arching, advanced civilization, such as that of Atlantis, could have played a part in these astonishing similarities. They say truth is stranger than fiction, but for me, truth infuses fiction and makes the world of Atlantis so exciting. Thanks for coming along for the ride!

  Please be sure to look for Alexios’s story, Atlantis Unmasked , and Brennan’s story, Atlantis Redeemed, in book-stores soon and visit me at www.alyssaday.com for excerpts, bonus short stories, and downloadable screensavers for members only, or friend me at www.myspace.com/authoralyssaday!

  Hugs,

  Alyssa

  The Warrior’s Creed

  We will wait. And watch. And protect.

  And serve as first warning on the eve of humanity’s destruction.

  Then, and only then, Atlantis will rise.

  For we are the Warriors of Poseidon, and the mark of the Trident we bear serves as witness to our sacred duty to safeguard mankind.

  Chapter 1

  Four months ago,

  a cave deep underneath Mt. Rainier,

  Cascade Range, Washington, United States

  Justice took inventory of his condition, his weapons, and his chances, as he’d done so many times before in his centuries as a warrior, and came up with:

  bad

  worse

  odds-on favorite to be a dead man in the next five minutes

  Condition, physical: Currently lying flat on his belly on the cold, damp dirt of the cavern floor. Face smashed down on the side of a wet and soon-to-be seriously enraged tiger. Peacock-egg-sized lump on the back of his head from rough handling by the vamp and the wolf shifters who’d carried him down the long dank tunnel from the surface. Possible cracked rib or two. The ketamine they’d darted him with was mostly worn off, due to the nature of his Atlantean immune system, but he wouldn’t bet any gemstones on his ability to transform into mist.

  Condition, mental: Fury bordering on homicidal rage. In other words, standard operating procedure. Ha. SOP. Poseidon picked his warriors carefully, or so he’d always heard.

  The sea god must have been multitasking the day he’d decided to add Justice’s name to the list.

  Weapons: None. The sword he’d worn for hundreds of years—indeed, since the king of Atlantis had given it to him with not a single word of explanation but only a look steeped in contempt—gone. One of the two shape-shifters standing guard over Justice and his furry tiger friend Jack stood off toward the mouth of the cave, fondling Justice’s sword like he couldn’t believe his luck. A faint glow from the cavern beyond silhouetted the guards’ shapes against the utter dark of the small cave in which they’d dumped Justice, and he watched in impotent fury as the shifter raised his sword in the air as if admiring his new toy.

  Sure, it was all fun and games until an Atlantean warrior sliced your guts out.

  Justice would have smiled if he wouldn’t have ended up with a mouthful of wet tiger fur. They’d taken his daggers, too.

  The better to kill them with.

  He tried to reach out toward his brother down the shared Atlantean mental path, but nothing but a harsh static buzzed through his mind. The drugs were probably still interfering with his access to his powers over water and energy, too. He’d assume he was helpless. Better that way.

  Never rely on the unreliable when you’re otherwise weap onless against two wolves and a potentially drug-crazed tiger.

  Chances: He’d bet on himself against most shape-shifters, even in close quarters like this, but five hundred pounds of tiger? Even Jack, who was sort of a friend when he walked on two legs.

  He’d have to call it even odds. And that was before he ever got to the two wolves. So maybe he’d have to take out the wolves first.

  Because Justice knew one critical fact: he’d rather spend eternity roasting in the lowest of the nine hells than spend one more minute with his face pressed into the rank animal stench of a wet tiger.

  The shifters finished their muttering about sneaking out to see the action and moved off, as stealthy as a couple of drunken water buffalo. Before today, Justice would have bet a Roman-emperor-turned-vampire as powerful as Caligula would have hired a better class of help.

  He’d have been wrong. No wonder the Roman Empire had fallen.

  All the better, though.

  Justice waited long enough to be sure they weren’t faking the move, then leapt up and away from the still-unconscious but ominously twitchy tiger. Maybe the action knocked something loose in his drugged brain, because he suddenly knew his brother was finally arriving. Lord Vengeance to the rescue, just freaking great.

  Of course, Vengeance didn’t know that he was Justice’s brother.

  “I could tell you, but I’d have to kill you,” Justice growled; then, more loudly so he could be heard, “Damn, Vengeance better appreciate this.”

  He whipped around to see Vengeance standing at the tunnel entrance, sword at the ready. Ven said something about cat hair and tiger pillows, but Justice barely heard it, because the booming sound of an unseen bell smashed through the air. He covered his ears, but the percussive waves of noise threatened to crush his skull beneath their power.

  A flash of foreknowledge swept through him and he somehow knew—just knew—that the next hour would change everything.

  Everything.

  Then the goddess walked into the room clothed in the body of Ven’s woman, and everything inside of Justice that was not the primitive, savage descendant of his Nereid ancestors shattered. Insanity and battle lust washed in a blue-green haze across his vision and, as he stared at the brother he wanted so desperately to acknowledge, his last rational thought was one of regret.

  Had it been minutes or hours? Justice crouched on the stone ledge, hidden from sight and surveying the carnage. Dead and dying shifters and vampires littered the stone floor of the cavern. The stench of the acidic decay of the vamps combined with the coppery metallic tang of blood to rot the very
air they were breathing. The flickering lights of the torches on the walls illuminated garish displays of broken and torn-open bodies.

  He’d done his part, but had been careful to stay out of sight, drawing his opponents behind the cavern’s many rocky outcroppings. Even the preternatural senses of the vampires had been overwhelmed by the wash of blood, and nobody had seemed to notice him.

  Nobody still living, at least.

  Justice was planning to be the trump card, and any good gambler knew the value of never revealing his hand. He glanced down at the blade of his sword, gleaming wetly in the flickering dark.

  No trump card had ever dealt such a deadly hand. He was the joker, and the queen of death was next on the list.

  He heard her voice then, and knew he’d failed. The vampire goddess Anubisa had captured Vengeance and his woman in spite of Ven’s strength and Erin’s powerful witchcraft.

  Justice had failed them.

  He’d failed his family.

  As he listened, options, strategy, and desperate measures swirling through his still only semilucid brain, he heard her say it. The words he’d dreaded. Anubisa was going to take Ven with her. She was giving the rest of them to Caligula as a little gift.