by Gail Koger
The future heir to the Coletti Empire stumbled out of the water. “You dare to attack me?”
“You needed a bath,” I responded and wrinkled my nose. He still stunk to high heavens. I threw him back in the ocean.
Waewae floundered about in the water. “I am the Overlord! You cannot treat me this way.
“If he is not careful, he will draw the sea predators,” Hothar commented.
“True, but if he has Coletti blood, he should be able to teleport. Right?”
Hothar laughed. “You are an evil female.”
The sand abruptly heaved and bucked beneath our feet. Large fissures snaked down the beach.
“Holy hell! Earthquake!”
“Not an earthquake. I overloaded their power generators,” Hothar said, wrapping a protective arm around me.
“You do realize if this island blows, we’re in deep doo-doo?”
Hothar shrugged. “There is another island five klicks to the west.”
“Good to know.” I sighed in relief as the pressure in my head vanished. All my psychic abilities were back online.
The earth shook, heaved and rolled. With a thunderous cracking boom, a rippling fireball rose high into the sky. The center of the island collapsed into a gigantic crater. Thick black smoke boiled out.
A flaming palm tree fell from the sky and smacked the sand in front of us.
“You’re as good at blowing up things as I am.” I held up my hand. “High five!
“High five?”
“Hold up your hand,” I said.
Hothar did as instructed and I smack his palm. “High five.”
“Ah. A celebratory gesture.”
“It is.” My gaze fixed on Waewae as he stormed out of the water. “He still hasn’t teleported.”
“I do not think he can. His mother’s psychic abilities are those of a five-year old child.”
“I am the Overlord! You will treat me with respect and how dare you blow up my base,” Waewae shouted.
Hothar’s fist shot out, connecting with Waewae’s jaw. His head snapped back, and he hit the sand.
A few prickles ran up my back. I turned toward the source and watched a Genghis Khan wannabe climb out of the crater. Soot covered his lacquered red body armor. Shattered antlers wobbled merrily on his funky, domed helmet. “Oh lookie. We’ve got ourselves a Legionnaire.”
Hothar scowled. “The Askole suspected the remaining Legionnaires had formed an alliance with the Rodan.”
“And they were right on the money.” Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a squadron of Talons streaking toward us.
The Legionnaire took one look at us and ran.
“What a wuss.”
“I will fetch him,” Hothar said and vanished. He reappeared in front of the Legionnaire and straight armed the wuss, dropping him like a rock.
Waewae sat up, blinked and rubbed his jaw. “That warrior hit me.”
“Yep, he did.”
“That is a death sentence.” Waewae’s hand closed around the knife in his left boot.
I jammed my laser pistol against his nose. “Draw it and you’ll be headless.”
“But I am the Overlord, you cannot kill me,” Waewae protested, slowly removing his fingers from the hilt.
“Wanna bet? I drank blood for the first time today and it was nasty. I can’t get that metallic taste out of my mouth. What’s worse is, it’s been ten hours since I’ve had any chocolate. Do you know how irritable that makes me?”
Waewae gulped audibly. “No.” His hand twitched toward the knife.
“Before you do something stupid, you gotta ask yourself: Do you think you can stab me before I vaporize you? Are you that fast? Are you feeling that lucky?” I sensed seven Coletti warriors teleporting in. About time.
“Stand down Casey,” Uncle Saul commanded and held out a chocolate bar. “I’ll deal with Lilkee’s son.”
Huh? My uncle was wearing a spiffy Coletti battle suit. Looked good on him. “Been chatting with Hothar?”
“I have.” Uncle Saul motioned to the other warriors and they took up defensive positions.
I lowered my weapon and took the candy. “God, do I need this.” I tore the wrapper off with my teeth.
The village idiot pulled his knife. Five stun beams hit him instantaneously. He shrieked in pain. Uncontrollable muscles spasms shook Waewae’s body and his arms and legs slammed repeatedly against the sand.
“Guess he was feeling lucky.” I took a bite of the chocolate and moaned in pleasure.
“Is that chocolate?” Hothar dropped the Legionnaire on the ground and eyed my candy bar like a starving wolf.
“It is.” Crap. Hothar was a chocoholic too. My first instinct was to shove the entire candy bar into my mouth, but if I did that, I would be getting a long lecture from Uncle Saul about proper etiquette. If Hothar was my new partner, I needed to keep the peace until I found a way to get rid of him. I handed him half of the bar and ignored Uncle Saul’s astonished expression. “It’s the good stuff too.”
“I forgive you for destroying my Talon,” he said and stuffed it in his mouth.
Uncle Saul sighed. “You destroyed Hothar’s Talon?”
“We were outnumbered, our shields were failing, and I had no option but to use the Safat Fireflash missiles,” I answered.
“Wasn’t that a bit of an overkill? Hothar’s an excellent pilot.” Uncle Saul rubbed his temples. “That Talon was worth a million credits. The Overlord will not be happy.”
Hothar gave me a “I told you so” look.
“Dead rat dinosaurs are a good thing,” I retorted and frowned at the water lapping against my boots. Was the tide coming in or was the island sinking? Before I could say anything, another explosion sent debris rocketing into the air. I instinctively ducked as bits of metal pelted the sea. Thwap! Bap-bap! Thop! Plunk!
Uncle Saul eyed the smoke and flames shooting from the crater. “And what were your reasons for blowing up the Rodan base?”
“Oh, I didn’t do that, Hothar did.” I licked the chocolate off my fingers.
“Casey is my mate,” Hothar announced.
I gave him the stink eye. The sneaky bastard knew that would divert everyone’s attention.
Uncle Saul’s jaw dropped. “What?”
A Coletti warrior built like a tank laughed. “It is fitting your mate is old, ugly and fat.”
Now that was just rude. One look at the rage in Hothar’s eyes and I knew there was some bad juju between those two.
“You will show my lady the proper respect, Jarok.” Hothar’s hand closed around the hilt of his sword.
I shook my head in disbelief. Testosterone was the bane of the universe. Just ask Kaylee or Zoey or Sarah or Aunt Tess.
“You think you can defeat me? You did not earn your warrior status, it was given to you,” Jarok snapped.
Hothar calmly drew his sword. “I accept your challenge.”
Seriously? I glanced down at the water now washing over my boots. Hadn’t anyone else noticed the island was sinking? Or maybe they knew and didn’t care. I guess if I could teleport, I wouldn’t care either.
“Stand down,” Uncle Saul roared. “This is neither the time nor place for a challenge.”
My uncle was the voice of reason.
Jarok stepped toward my uncle. “You think you can stop me, old one?”
Holy crap. The arrogant fool had just made the biggest mistake of his life. My uncle had a lot in common with the Overlord.
His eyes cold with menace, Uncle Saul smiled and without any warning struck Jarok with a series of punishing mental blows.
Reeling from the onslaught, Jarok’s mental shields slipped and I got a quick peek at his thoughts. Dang! The bastard was creating a diversion. Why would he do something so stupid? I dug deeper. The pissant had sworn allegiance to Waewae and was working with the Rodan. Jarok was a dead man walking. If Hothar or Uncle Saul didn’t kill him, Zarek would.
“Submit or die,” Uncle Saul growled.
His fangs bared in a snarl, Jarok drew his sword. “The only one dying is you, old one.”
Using my telekinesis, I yanked the sword out of Jarok’s hand and tossed it in the ocean. “He’s working with the Rodan and considers Waewae the rightful heir to the Coletti Empire.”
Surprised flashed in Jarok’s eyes and he edged toward Waewae.
A low growl of aggression rumbled in my uncle’s chest. “How good of a look did you get?”
“Enough to know he’s dirty.”
“You are an old human female. You know nothing,” Jarok mocked.
“Please beat the living hell out of this disrespectful bastard, Hothar.”
“It would be my pleasure.” Hothar sheathed his sword.
Jarok leaped for Waewae.
I caught him mid-jump, spun him like a top and dumped him at Hothar’s feet. “All yours.”
Uncle Saul held up his hand. “No. He’s mine.”
“Okey-dokey.” You didn’t argue with my uncle when he got that predatory glint in his eyes.
“As you command,” Hothar said, clamping his right arm against his chest and stepped back.
The other warriors lowered their laser pistols and eyed me warily.
I cocked my head as Jarok’s thoughts leaked out. The idiot was gonna make another try for Waewae. I flashed his intentions to my uncle.
Jarok teleported.
I tossed the wannabe Overlord twenty feet down the beach.
Jarok reappeared, and surprise, Waewae was gone, and my uncle stood there instead.
Uncle Saul unleashed a powerful snap kick into Jarok’s gut. The traitor doubled over and fell to his knees. Uncle Saul drove his elbow into the back of Jarok’s neck, dropping him to the sand.
Prickles stampeded up my spine. “Wazzock’s piss! We’ve got a cloaked Rodan ship overhead.”
“The Rodan have a transporter lock on Waewae,” Hothar warned, tapping icons on his bracelet. “They are trying to locate us now.”
“Engage countermeasures,” Uncle Saul commanded, grabbing Jarok.
“Hold your breath,” Hothar growled as he crushed me against his chest and teleported. Poof. We were in the ocean.
A wave crashed over my head and I wiped the water out of my eyes. “Why the water?”
“Salt water creates an electrical anomaly that makes it difficult to get a transporter fix on us and our bracelets generate an energy field that obscures our heat signatures,” Hothar responded.
I looked around. Uncle Saul had Jarok in a choke hold and all the other warriors were swimming over to us. Shit! “The monsters got Waewae?”
“Yes, and the Legionnaire,” Hothar growled.
“Sonovabitch! Waewae must be awfully important to the Rodan, but why?”
“An excellent question and I intend to get the answers from Jarok,” Uncle Saul said.
A massive explosion rocked the island.
Coordinates suddenly appeared in my mind and powerful mental voice commanded, “Evacuate.”
Hothar tightened his grip on me. Inky blackness engulfed me and thirty seconds later we were standing on another island. Uncle Saul and the other warriors popped in around us. Jarok hung limply in my uncle’s grip.
To the east, red energy beams slashed through the billowing clouds of black smoke as Talons fighters and the Rodan mother ship exchanged laser fire.
Kaboom! A humongous explosion ripped apart the Rodan base. The island sank beneath the churning seas.
Chapter Five
“Another couple of seconds and we would have been fish bait.” I squirmed in Hothar’s crushing hold. “Ease up will ya? I can’t breathe.”
“My apologies.” Hothar released me. “What kind of garment are you wearing beneath your clothing?”
I grinned at the baffled note in Hothar’s voice. “A fat suit. It’s part of my disguise.”
“This is not your true shape?”
I narrowed my eyes at Hothar’s delighted smile. “Got something against big, beautiful women?”
“You are lovely in any form.”
“Good answer.” For a moment we watched a lone palm tree circling around and around the boiling sinkhole. “Did you notice what kind of explosives they had stockpiled?”
“Two hundred cases of thermite grenades,” Hothar replied.
I let out a whistle. “More than enough to sink the island.” A twenty-foot tsunami crashed against the barrier reef surrounding our island. “Any other islands in the area?”
Hothar nodded. “Twenty klicks to the west.”
“You can teleport that far?”
“I can.”
I patted his arm. “You might be useful for something more than sex after all.”
The alarm on my uncle’s face was almost comical.
“A clever move, but you will not get rid of me that easily,” Hothar said in a low, peeved voice.
I shrugged. “It was worth a try. My uncle’s an old-fashioned kinda guy.”
Boom! Hellfire blossomed on the Rodan ship’s hull.
I did a happy dance. “See, Safat Fireflash missiles work every time.”
“It will take more than one direct hit to bring down a Rodan mother ship,” Hothar advised.
“Rats.”
The Rodan ship accelerated sharply and vanished. The Talon fighters pursued it.
I scowled. “Waewae’s gonna escape.”
“The Overlord has arrived. The battle is far from over,” Hothar said.
Huh? How did he know the Overlord was here? A mental link of some kind? Since Hothar had his abilities, I bet Zarek kept a close eye on him. I would.
My Uncle’s voice rumbled in my head. “Jarok’s regaining consciousness. Get him talking.”
“Yes, sir.” I’d just give him a little psychic push to tell the truth and wa-la! He would spill his guts. I would make one hell of a bartender.
“Let go of me! You have no authority to detain me. I have sworn allegiance to the rightful Overlord,” Jarok shouted, struggling to free himself from Uncle Saul’s iron grip.
Someone had got up on the wrong side of the ocean.
“Malik was sterile. Waewae is not his son,” Hothar taunted.
“You lie! Lilkee showed us proof of his heritage.”
“So, you’re okay with Malik banging his sister?” Just call me curious.
“Lilkee is Malik’s half-sister,” Jarok snapped.
I stared at him in disbelief. “And that makes it okay? What have they been putting in your Kool Aid?”
“You filthy hybrids must be wiped from existence.”
“Now you’ve gone and hurt my feelings. I’m not a hybrid, honey, I’m all human,” I retorted. A little white lie, but he didn’t need to know that.
“That is not possible,” Jarok scoffed. “You used telekinesis. Only the Coletti can do that.”
Not true. The Alliance had all sorts of people with telekinetic abilities. “First, I’m an ugly human, then I’m a filthy hybrid. Which is it?”
Jarok blinked rapidly. “You are an abomination.”
“Nope, just human.” I pulled back my lips. “See. No fangs.”
“Pure-blooded Coletti females do not have fangs,” Jarok stated.
“Now you think I’m a pure-blood?” I threw my hands up in the air and turned to Hothar. “Can your bracelet doohickey prove I’m not Coletti?”
Hothar’s eyes burned with suppressed rage. “It can, but Jarok is incapable of acknowledging the truth.”
“Once the hybrids have been wiped from existence, the Coletti Empire will be as it once was,” Jarok snarled.
“Huh? You do realize without hybrid females the Coletti race will become extinct within the next five hundred years?” Zarek had made sure we saw and understood the statistics and scientific data backing up that awful fact.
“Zarek, the great pretender, lied. There are plenty of pure-blooded females to breed with,” Jarok shot back.
I scratched my suddenly itchy face. “Okay. Where are they?”
“Have you actually seen these prospective mates? Talked with them? Rumor has it, those imaginary full-blooded females were recruited from pleasure houses and aren’t Coletti at all.”
“You lie!” Jarok head-butted Uncle Saul and broke free.
I immediately seized control of Jarok’s mind and paralyzed his motor cortex. “Guess what dickwad? Little ole’ human me has total control of your body. Sucks doesn’t it. You can’t move a finger to scratch that itch on your nose and or reach for a weapon. Best of all, you can’t teleport.”
Jarok’s eyes rolled wildly when he realized everything I had said was true. “What are you? What are you?”
“I’m a Siren.”
Hothar smiled proudly. “A very powerful Siren.”
“Females cannot use mind control. It is not genetically possible,” Jarok spat.
“Gee let me guess. Lilkee told you that?”
“Yes.”
“Like she also promised you your own command and all you had to do was help the Rodan slaughter your people.”
“The hybrids must be eliminated,” Jarok growled.
Hatred and loathing churned in my gut. “The families the Rodan massacred on Beta Five-One were all full-blooded Coletti. Not a hybrid among them.”
“It is all lies.” Jarok gave a demented laugh. “Soon the entire galaxy will know Zarek is spreading vicious and untrue propaganda.”
The pictures of the dead children were forever burned into my mind. I shoved those bloody images into Jarok’s mind. “You allowed this to happen. A warrior does not butcher the innocent.”
Jarok visibly paled, but insisted, “They were hybrids.”
“They were children. Harmless children.” I stared at him in utter disgust. “You’re a murderer, a fool and a coward.”
“Zarek isn’t fit to lead,” Jarok shouted.
“I’ve heard enough. Silence him,” Uncle Saul instructed me.
“Yes, sir.” I tightened my control on Jarok. “Do not utter another word.”
Jarok’s mouth moved, but nothing came out.
I watched Hothar and Uncle Saul search Jarok. He had a shit load of weapons on him. Damn, was it hot. Rivulets of sweat ran down my body. Not only was the fat suit suffocating me, my face was itching badly. Ugh. The stench of decayed and rotting vegetation made me want to puke. This island was more of a scummy swamp than lush paradise. Dozens of enormous banyan trees rose out of the water-logged terrain. Debris from a shipwreck littered part of the beach.