A wraith waited for us in the passage.
Vulf charged it.
I squeaked in horror and wrapped sha around him, strengthening the shield that protected us from gas with all the sha that I could reach.
The wraith disintegrated as Vulf ran through it. I hadn’t had time to pull the wraith apart, so I’d appreciate—or more likely, have nightmares—about his surviving it later. So much could have gone wrong. The wraith could have sucked Vulf’s life force, his personal sha, and left him…
I slapped my forehead. My idiotic, meandering thoughts were a symptom of sha backlash from the wraith’s disintegration. Fortunately, the shield around Vulf and I held, in the sense that it still kept out gas. I feared it wouldn’t protect Vulf from another sha assault, and the damn man was already at the end of the passage, the door to the bridge open.
Vulf leapt through the open door, onto the bridge, as a massive wave of sha energy struck. It broke the shield around Vulf, although the protective bubble immediately resealed around me; that was proof of how instinctive the Academy’s training had made my use of sha energy. I didn’t even have to think to protect myself. But I’d left Vulf at Ivan’s mercy, and Ivan had saved his power for a final, decisive assault.
It failed.
As I reached the doorway, Vulf’s robot wolf form filled the bridge, his tail slapping at a screen. He must have shifted mid-leap. Ivan lay pinned under his front paws.
I looked around. The crown had rolled under the co-pilot’s chair. When I picked it up, the chaotic sha in the room settled, and converged on me. I slumped into the chair, no longer afraid that Ivan would overpower Vulf and me.
“Welcome home,” Ahab said with relief. A moment later, he was all business. “I’ve sealed the decontamination unit as an emergency repair for the exit hatch the Captain tore off. We’re safe to return to Naidoc.”
Ivan’s sha surged.
I noticed how the flows of it flinched from Vulf, while the sha streaming through and around me was eager to flow into Vulf.
“Ahab, can you send the medbot to sedate Ivan, please?”
My grandfather tried to form another wraith, but I blocked the gathering sha. Easily. The Imperial Crown warmed in my hands.
“The medbot is not required,” Ahab said. A small server hatch opened and a sedation needle appeared. “The atmosphere is now safe to breathe,” he added.
I injected Ivan, and as the sha he held released with his fall into unconsciousness, I also released the bubble protecting me.
Vulf shifted to human, and I launched myself into his arms.
Chapter 13
On the journey back to Naidoc, Ahab took responsibility for communicating with the Meitj Guard, as well as reassuring Vulf’s family as to his continued existence. Apparently, news of him being blown up in the Imperial Palace had reached them and a pirate flotilla was preparing to fly to the rescue—or to exact revenge. The last thing Naidoc needed was more chaos, so fortunately Ahab was convincing as to Vulf’s well-being.
Vulf was more concerned with convincing himself that I was okay.
He’d insisted that we shower together to remove the dust from the Imperial Palace’s explosion, but the showering together wasn’t for sexy reasons. He used it to check me for bruises.
Since the medbot had healed my concussion, but not cleaned me up, I was grateful for the shower. And I did my own assessment of Vulf’s state of health: reassuringly vigorous.
“We don’t have time,” he muttered against my mouth.
“So step out of the shower,” I teased him. Skin on skin contact was glorious.
He growled. “Why do I have to be the sensible one?”
The shower cycled into its drying stage. It reminded me that we did have to be sensible. The return journey to Naidoc was a short one. “Fine. We’ll both be sensible.” I pinched his butt before I dashed out of the shower and dressed in my red utility suit and braided my hair.
“What happened at the palace?” I asked when we both had coffees. “I had concussion and was flickering in and out.”
“You had concussion because your grandfather hit you.”
I put a hand on his thigh. We sat close together on the sofa.
Some of his protective aggression relaxed. “When the courtroom exploded—which I assume was Ivan’s doing?”
“He said he had someone set the explosions months ago. He just needed a touch of sha to trigger them.”
“Whoever laid the explosions was an expert. They knew which room a secret trial would be held in, and they left a path out that Ivan took with you.” Vulf tensed again. “At the explosion, I shifted into my robot wolf form instinctively. I lunged for you, but Ivan had a sha shield up and it repelled me.”
“So your robot wolf form can’t break defensive sha, only shield you against attacking sha,” I mused.
He was less interested in speculation. “Since I couldn’t reach you, I stood over the Emperor who was right near you and Ivan. I held the debris off him.”
“Earning the Meitj goodwill,” Ahab said. “The Meitj Guards have sent through video of events.” He set the footage playing on the viewscreen. For all the drama of the explosion, the damage was relatively contained.
Vulf watched the Imperial Palace collapse inward in the northern quadrant. “When the explosions ended, I cleared a path out for the Emperor, Professor Summer, and the others. I couldn’t follow you through the narrow route Ivan took.” Remembered frustration and fear roughened his voice.
I put our coffee mugs on the table and cuddled into him.
Ahab took up the story. “The Meitj Guard can’t find footage of Ivan leaving the Imperial Palace with you and the crown. He must have used sha energy to obscure his vision. I believe an invisibility cloak is possible?”
“It is,” I confirmed. “It’s difficult, but the crown seems to boost a shaman’s abilities. Ivan could have done it. It would explain why we weren’t stopped.”
The video ceased displaying the extent of damage to the palace and people’s reaction to it—panic. Instead, the camera footage melded seamlessly to show Vulf in robot wolf form racing for the space dock.
“I guessed Ivan would try to escape,” he said. “Is that video speeded up, Ahab?”
“No.”
“You’re fast.” I stared at Vulf’s racing form.
“And impervious to blaster fire,” he noted as a squad of Meitj Guards tried to stop him, only to be knocked aside.
The video changed to show him inside the space dock. People of every species scattered in alarm before him. When they didn’t scatter in time, he leapt over them. He ran with a deadly grace, like a missile given life and purpose.
Yet for all his speed, the Orion was launching as he reached the arm of the dock where it had berthed.
I stared at the space around the Orion, although I already knew that the Meitj security system had been too slow to ensnare it.
But Vulf wasn’t too slow. He accelerated as he raced the length of the dock, then launched into space. He hit the hull of the Orion, and although the video couldn’t show that level of detail, I knew his metal claws dug in, securing him.
“I also magnetized my paws.” He seemed interested in his limpet-like attachment to the Orion. “We’ll need to test the Orion’s integrity after we repair the hatch and hull.”
I started to laugh. He stared at me, bewildered, and I attempted to explain. “It’s such a prosaic comment after all your heroics.”
“Our heroics,” he corrected me. “Including Ahab’s. Thank you, my friend.”
“Yes, Ahab. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Ahab was embarrassed, but pleased. “We’ll reach Naidoc in ten minutes, a
nd the Meitj Imperial Court is quite insistent they meet with you both.”
“And that we return their crown.” Vulf leaned forward and picked it up from the coffee table. He passed it to me. “Should we?”
I traced the setting of the largest ruby. “Until we know more about the Ceph, I think it would be dangerous to upset the status quo. I’m not happy that an entire species is trapped in stasis. But there’s a time to be impulsive and a time for cautious testing of the sha fields.” Unconsciously, I used the Academy’s metaphor for activating unstable sha energy. I gave Vulf custody of the Imperial Crown. “I don’t think any shamans are ready for the power boost the crown gives us.”
“It’s that significant?”
“Yes.”
He sighed. “We’re going to have a lot of questions to answer. Your use of the crown, Ivan’s capture, my shifting into a robot wolf. They won’t let us go for hours.”
I sighed as he had, and slumped against him.
He rubbed my arm, his thumb brushing not so innocently against my breast.
I jolted upright.
“You wouldn’t dare!”
He laughed.
“Vulf!”
Want More?
If you liked Her Robot Wolf, please let me know with a review. Otherwise I’ll prioritize finishing my paranormal romance series, Old School, before returning to Jaya and Vulf’s adventures. You just know that the Ceph are going to cause trouble—or are they? And exactly what do they look like? I have lots of ideas for the next book, but not enough time in the day.
The Old School is a series of stand-alone novels:
Phoenix Blood
Fantastical Island
Storm Road
Fire Fall
Desert Devil
Amaranthine Kiss
Shangri-La Spell
If you haven’t already discovered it, don’t miss my complete paranormal romance series, The Collegium. Magic, mystery, shifters and demons.
Demon Hunter
Djinn Justice
Dragon Knight
Doctor Wolf
Plague Cult
Hollywood Demon
Alchemy Shift
You can catch up with me on my Facebook page, Twitter @Jenny_Schwartz, or at my website.
Jenny
Her Robot Wolf: Gift of Gaia Page 20