Mated By The Demon Collections: Paranormal Romance

by Riley Moreno

  "Oh, really?" Sarai asked.

  Shippo looked away, "I'm constantly changing. I'm a freaking fox on a forest planet. I'm good."

  Jeremiah tried to change the course of the conversation, "I think I change faster. I feel stronger than ever when I change."

  Shippo was a werefox and Sarai was a werebear. They had control over when they changed into each of those animals and some people said they had the characteristics of those animals. They were shifters, not quite human but Earth beings, definitely.

  They knew they were other-humanly, but it wasn't their ability to change into animals that made them the ultimate navy seals, it was the bond that connected them. They were able to fight like they were meant to, in an animalistic and beastly way.

  "Jorgen," Jeremiah said to his old friend. "How are you?"

  Jorgen put down his water and looked at Jeremiah. Jorgen was blonde and moody with a penitent for yelling instead of talking. He was a good leader, though, and had seen them through many missions. In boot camp it was said that he was the scrawniest to begin with, but once he went through training he bulked up and become a super soldier. He spawned from a Nordic-like planet that had a plethora of dragon-born glider people. He had stories to tell about those days.

  Today, he merely looked at Jeremiah and said, "I have food allergies."

  "To what foods?"

  Jorgen said, "Most things, mainly the breadstuffs and sugars. Meat is fine."

  Sarai yelled, "Bulk up!"

  Shippo chimed in, "Protein for days, Jorgen."

  "Yeah," Saira said. "It's no problem having too much of a good thing."

  Jorgen nodded, "Eating a lot of meat, definitely doing that."

  "That's our werewolf!" Jeremiah said as he slapped Jorgen on the back and went to the cooling den for some food. He had to wash his hands four times before eating, it was just a habit of his, and he started in on his food as he realized Shippo and Sarai had convinced Jorgen to change into a wolf.

  He panted but sat upright, was the full size of a man, but was the shape of a wolf. He banged his paw on the table and panted again. When Sarai put his water in front of Jorgen, Jorgen tried to grab at the water with his paws and when he had a grip on it, attempted to bring the cup towards his lips. It spilled on him and Jeremiah. Jorgen immediately transformed back into a human while Jeremiah yelled.

  "You got your water all over me!"

  Jorgen said, "I am sorry, Jeremiah."

  "Okay, okay. Be sorry, but my food's still wet and that's on you!"

  Jorgen put up his hands and tried to grab the food. Jeremiah got up and moved himself away.

  Sarai said, "Jorgen, what the heck, man?"

  Jorgen said, "Don't be so upset. It's nothing."

  Jeremiah threw the pan away.

  "When are we going?" he asked.

  The four-man squad was ready together and geared up together in the locker rooms of their hangar. Each of them would be manning one of their fighter jets, except for Shippo. They docked on to a larger spore of the bioship which, once released, would fly to the nearest craft and attach itself, as long as the craft was going under 1,000 astronomical units per second.

  Jeremiah's universe sector was Earth-centric, meaning the majority of technologies and cultures derived from earth. That was why it had been decided that an astronomical unit, the distance from the earth to the sun, would be the constant used for measuring small measures of space within galaxies. Jets and cruisers could function within galaxies and could therefor use astronomical units, but bioships were much faster and used the lanes of the dynamic black matter passes. The bioships couldn't use internal propulsion but would travel thousands of astronomical units a second on the black matter passes. The squad

  They hitched on to a star cruiser bound for Magnus and lay in its shadow. The diplomatic party onboard didn't notice them and they detached just seconds before Magnus' hangar door opened for them. His bioship was the largest in the sector and dominated the nearby galaxies so much that their relative black holes were drawn into it.

  The diplomatic party that exited the ship were there to settle negotiations with Magnus and took his full attention. He twisted his hand and the members of his party turned with him to talk with the exiting members.

  Jeremiah and his fire squad watched and then released their gravity binders that kept their jets bound to the bioship. They all floated in free space and watched as Shippo piloted the drill jet.

  The drill jet was large and cumbersome. Slow and incapable of anything but pulling apart segments of armor on jets, cruisers, and bioships. It had an overhanging drill that, when Shippo released it, would crank down and bore into the fleshy, tender mass underneath.

  He piloted the drill jet away from the eyes of the main dispatchers of the hangar and went far below the ship. There he re-enacted the gravity binder and began the slow process of peeling away enough of a panel of the bioship to allow ease of access into the inner canals of the ship.

  On their coms Jorgen asked, "Shippo, send over the blueprints for us to look at where we're going while you finish the job."

  "Right away," Shippo replied.

  Jeremiah studied the prints and realized it wasn't memorizing the layout that he was worried about; he was still worried that he wasn't strong enough to turn into a werelion. The process was draining, but only when he was weak. Since the war had come to a close he didn't worry about working out and making sure he could shift easily. He hadn't even done it once in between finding out he had this mission and now.

  It was all because of the war crimes everyone realized Magnus was committing. The war was going fine, the allied galaxies were forcing Magnus to retreat his troops, but what everyone didn't know was that Magnus didn't want to be fighting a war, he was getting rid of planets and those that lived on them after using them for experiments and labor. That was the reason they had to get these documents. They had to get rid of the data and the reason behind Magnus torturous experiments.

  Angered, he pounded the dash of his jet.

  "Everything okay?" Sarai asked.

  "Jeremiah?" Jorgen said with a questioning edge to his tone.

  "I'm fine, something spilled."

  Jorgen grunted into the com and then yelled, "We got fighters on the left."

  "Shippo, are you done?" Jeremiah asked with petulance in his voice.

  Shippo grunted and continued his work, then said, "Not enough so that we could get our jets in and seal it up.

  Jorgen yelled as he began shooting his blasters. “We have to regroup.

  "I'll ready my electric torpedoes," Saira said as he backed off with his jet.

  "I've got your back," Jeremiah said to Jorgen as they sped forward together. Both of them halted together after a unit's pace and crossed paths, changing position and distracting their prey.

  "Ready!" Sarai said as he blasted out the first four.

  Jorgen and Jeremiah moved their ships to get out of the assault torpedoes' way and then moved their ships back towards one another after they saw four fighters destroyed.

  Reinforcements were quickly on top of them as they tried to double back. Jorgen and Jeremiah moved their jets in unison to move away from each other and become hard to hit targets. Then, they shot together and created an onslaught of bullets on their enemies. They then moved around to the front and aimed at the group of fighters that had quickly approached from the rear.

  Jorgen and Jeremiah assaulted those before Jorgen asked, "Shippo, are you detached enough from the bioship to jump some units?"

  "We're jumping units?" Shippo asked. "I can do five astronomical units before this thing starts falling apart."

  Jorgen grunted and Jeremiah said, "Well we have ten astronomical units to go."

  Jorgen yelled, "We have to regroup."

  Jeremiah said, "Shippo, get off the bioship and bind to me."

  Shippo was amazed, "Nobody does that anymore. One of us could go flying."

  "Just do it, Shippo."

  "Jermia
h, are you sure?"

  Jeremiah nodded then told them, "We have to do it. Only for the five. The remaining five you do on your own, alright?" he asked Shippo after the drill jet had clamped onto his fighter jet.

  They retreated until they were five units away from Magnus' bioship. There were fighters patrolling all over the area and the two had to separate then jump the rest of the distance as quickly as they could. They were being both hunted by the fighters from under the ship and those patrolling. When they got to the bioship Jorgen was already gone.

  Jeremiah asked Jorgen, "Can I bring on board."

  Jorgen noted, "She does have diplomacy."

  "Exactly," Jeremiah said, "I think she would be a perfect addition."

  Jorgen asked him, "Do you think she could really talk Magnus into giving us those plans?"

  "No, but I do think that if Everette can distract him we might have someone to go as far as a plan goes.

  Jorgen nodded and said, "I agree. Where is she?"

  "Back on our home planet,” Jeremiah added.

  Jorgen said simply, "I see."

  "With the kids," Jeremiah said.

  "I see."

  Jeremiah laughed as he said, "Let me call and see if she can get a babysitter."

  Jorgon asked, "For now?"

  He shook out his head. They were going to have to lay in wait, now. Magnus knew they were there, but he had to know that they weren't going to attack again before they did. They did wait for another week, in which the squad and Everette sat around and reminisced, spending long forgotten time with one another and reconnecting in ways that Jeremiah didn't think were possible. He hadn't missed his old friends too much while he was at home thinking about his children and Everette, but now that they were around him he couldn't remembered why he had ever left their company.

  Shippo was dexterous and smart, the nerd of the group for sure, but still sociable and funny, always quick with a joke. Sarai looked out for the rest of the group while Jorgon was crafty and capable, full of stories of exploits and adventure. Sometimes Jeremiah wished it was him that could be still doing missions, heading squads, and giving the right orders every time.

  Everette had to take a cargo ship to a mainline fusion 890 cab jet which took her to the bioship. The squad was located through 98 different tunnels and passageways that led to their sector of the bioship. In it were the necessary barracks for a platoon, a kitchen, one bathroom to be shared by all genders and species, and a recreation room off of the kitchen, which nobody ever used. Everybody hung out mostly in the kitchen while they waited for direct orders, or worked out in the barracks.

  She arrived in the morning after having departed the night before.

  The morning on the bioship started when crews of repulsors, tiny machine-like insects that ate away at all of the metal scum, debris, and rust, would scuttle across the windows and layers of armor plating on the bioship.

  Around the kitchen table of their small sector of the ship, the four man squad huddled together over a tea made of the beans from Egniola fruit. It made them all more alert and focused. Without hesitation they chopped into their plans.

  She came into the kitchen of the bioship and asked, "How is everyone?"

  "Oh, Eve!" Jorgon said and got up to hug her. Sarai and Shippo stayed sitting and yelled out, almost in unison, "Everette! How are you!?"

  She smiled deeply as she hugged Jorgon, her old friend, and then to Sarai and Shippo.

  "Hey boys," she asked, "how are you?"

  "We asked first." Shippo said, with a finger in the air.

  She laughed, then said to them, "Fine, I'm doing great! Kids are heard. You?"

  They nodded and Shippo said, "Both of us are just doing our tours."

  Everette sighed and said, "Oh, you sound bored with it."

  "Not bored," Sarai said, "Just tired."

  "It's not as easy being a mom as it is being chancellor, is it Eve?" Shippo asked.

  Eve replied by saying, simply, "Was."

  Sarai sighed at the kitchen table where he was sitting and said, “I still can't believe I know someone that is that high up there."

  She laughed, "You also got it wrong. Being a mom is way harder than being chancellor. That was a cake walk in diplomacy!"

  Sarai and Shippo laughed and Everette turned towards Jorgon and Jeremiah. They had been discussing plans for the day again and Eve added, "I hope you don't mind me tagging along today."

  "No, not at all," Sairai said. "They have us doing it totally differently for this one."

  Jorgen turned to Everette and said, "Yes, we are happy to have you along for this. We aren't doing a typical mission until we go through with this plan with you."

  Jorgon had once proposed to Everette. Years ago when she was much younger, in her teens, and when he was only a cadet. She had denied him and their short romance had faded. Years later she was just as curvy and beautiful, Jeremiah knew, and so he was careful not to gloat too much about her, but he was still so in love with her that he couldn't help it, really, and made small advances towards her often. He moved towards her then.

  "You mean another typical mission," Shippo said.

  Jeremiah added, "The mission was not a success.

  She pouted her lips, "What do you think went wrong?"

  "We weren't covering ourselves properly. We weren't ready. It felt like the rest of the team, like me, just weren't prepared for the fight we had."

  She looked concerned, "How can it be avoided?"

  Jorgen began, "I think we are supposed to go in today to see if negotiations are possible. He wouldn't let any other negotiators in but us. He must think we're friends since we've seen so much combat together."

  Eve nodded, knowing all of the boys had hated the way Magnus seemed un-killable. They could take down everyone around him, but never Magnus.

  The leader, a werewolf came in, "Ready to get going?"

  They nodded and soon they were walking into the hangar. Jeremiah went towards his oblong fighter jet, the fast and fuel-efficient kind that went zero to sixty astronomical units in under a second. He touched its side, feeling it idly before walking away.

  "I think I should take the star cruiser, what do you think, Eve?"

  Eve turned around and asked the guys, "Everyone want to take the star cruiser?"

  Three boys nodded and she looked around to see Shippo was trotting towards her as a fox. She bent down to pet him then followed everyone up the plank platform inside.

  It had a rustic interior and was done in colors like the inside of a seashell, but it was comfortable and they all found places around the cabin. In the captain's seat was the werewolf, Jorgen.

  "Got the extra fuel for the upper ion boson torpedo?" she asked.

  He nodded, "It's gone pear-shaped, though, causing an implosion in the launcher rerouter."

  "You have a rerouter on her, now?" Eve asked.

  Jorgen nodded. She sighed and looked forward. They started talking and chatting until they were seeing the approach of the island planet that Magnus' corporation headquarters was on.

  The fighter jet was received with Magnus himself.

  "Old friends," he said.

  "We're here to ask you to retreat from the palace of the plain galaxies and release the data."

  "I was told a prophecy of the many stars. That the lady of the night will wed the emperor of lies. I want to avoid that, you see. I want the prophecy to be changed by the data. By the research."

  "Why listen to prophets, Magnus?" Everette asked.

  "Wait, it gets better," Magnus said as he dragged his black velvet cape across the blue steel of the open hangar's floor. He stood next to their fighter jet and said idly, "I could kill you all right where you stand with," he turned his pinky, "the flick of a wrist."

  Everette yelled to Magnus, "You have control over too many people! You can't continue to do this to them!"

  Magnus shook his head in laughter, "I have worked to build this empire, why should I let you destroy it?"
/>   "Because I have what can destroy your artifact."

  He looked at her shocked, and she continued, "Yes, I know about the rose made of alabaster. You don't know how to read those symbols. They're not just considered lucky, they're--"

  Jeremiah cut her off by putting a hand on her shoulder, then he said, "I don't think I've heard you talk about this before."

  "Magnus swore everyone to keep quiet about his experiment, but Magnus had this sculpted from the remnants of the project. I'm just ashamed that my galaxy sector had to see it."

  Jeremiah turned to Magnus, drawing his saber.

  "Not here!" Everette yelled. Magnus' arms were up and he was smiling in jest. His black hair clung to his ears and neck and Everette could see the lack of sleep or food he must have been struggling with. She looked back to Jeremiah, who was leaving, and followed suit.

  Inside the jet she asked, "Why did Magnus enter the palace of the plain galaxies?"

  Jeremiah sat in the pilot's seat and flicked on the generator and ion consumption tanks. He finally spoke when ready, "The army of the shadow governments for those planets was weak and they came in when it seemed advantageous."

  "But morally," Everette said. "How is it wrong?"

  Sarai said, "We look at it from a military view, Eve."

  She asked, "Do you know about the mission, anything you're not telling me?"

  Jeremiah looked to Jorgon and turned to Eve, "Yeah, I do."

  "Well?"

  "Magnus has scientific data gathered during human experimentation he has conducted."

  Everette jumped up in her seat, "Are you serious? Well, we have to go back there! We have to get it."

  "He knows where we are."

  "He's going to release it?"

  Sarai said, "That's what we have to stop."

  She laughed and said, "I don't think he's going to call us back in."

  "Don't worry, Eve. The government is working with him on this one." Jorgen said, "That's why they called us in. We may be a bunch of Seals that needed a break from tour, but we all know Magnus and have won battles against him."

  "Never killed him, though."

  After many moments pause Shippo asked, "What now?"