by Gail Koger
“No, but it has to be done.”
I felt Quinn gingerly probe Dolon’s mind and caught fleeting glimpse of a one-arm Nilus frantically working to decode my bracelet. How Komodo ate him, piece by piece until it was deciphered. With a shudder, I backed out of Quinn’s head.
Uncle Saul patted my shoulder. “You okay, sweetheart?”
“Dolon has a lot to answer for.”
“You have no idea,” Quinn commented. He drew his laser pistol and fired.
Uncle Dolon’s body disintegrated into a million fireflies.
Papa grumbled, “I wanted to kill him.”
“After I saw the sick things that bastard planned on doing to Xenia, it was my right to end his life,” Quinn countered.
Wulf announced, “There are twelve Tai-Kok warriors and two humans approaching.”
“I’ll be damned. It’s General Georgina Tasker and Brigadier General Lawton, our missing traitors,” Uncle Saul growled, his gaze fixed on his communications screen.
Quinn tapped an icon on his bracelet. “And the bad news is, there are about a hundred var bugs chasing them.”
“Get in bed with the Tai-Kok, and you can expect to get eaten,” I remarked. “Speaking of eating, anyone else hungry?”
A piece of chocolate appeared in Quinn’s hand. “Will this do?”
“It will.” I took a bite. “Yum.”
“Once we wrap this up, I’ll take you out to dinner. You like Mexican food?”
“I do and it’s a date.”
“A date that will include your mother and me,” Papa stated firmly before turning his attention to Uncle Saul. “If the var bugs get loose on Earth, exterminating them will be difficult.”
“There is one way to get rid of vermin.” Wulf set the timers on four thermite grenades and placed them on the transporter console. “You blow them to the lowest level of hell.”
“You don’t need to interrogate the traitors?” Call me curious.
“No. They were tried and convicted of treason in absentia. They both received the death penalty. When located, the traitors are to be executed immediately. Let’s meet back at Futureland. Lysis, with me. We need to get the Shebu to a safe place.” Uncle Saul held out his left hand. Papa took it and they vanished.
I looked up at Quinn. “When will I be able to teleport?”
Wulf laughed at the horrified expression on Quinn’s face, and poof! He was gone.
“Well?”
“Too soon.” Quinn put his arms around me and teleported.
Inky blackness flashed before my eyes, making the white spots stand out dramatically. I sagged against Quinn. “Don’t feel so good.”
“Here, drink some of my blood.”
I cracked an eye open and stared at the blood dripping off his hand. “I think I’ll pass.”
“Drink.” Quinn used his best dictatorial voice.
I knew it was part of the bonding process, but ick.
“Xenia.”
Steeling myself, I put my mouth to the bleeding wound and sucked in a mouthful. Nausea rose in my throat.
Quinn invaded my mind, and the sensation went away.
“More.” I drank and drank and drank. A warmth flowed through my body. The ringing in my ears and the killer headache disappeared. Huh? The healing powers of Coletti blood weren’t a myth.
“Better?”
I went up on my tiptoes and gave Quinn a bloody kiss. “All better.” The ground shuddered beneath my feet. “Whoa! Talk about rocking my world.”
Quinn laughed. “You’re feeling the effects of the thermite grenades.”
“Oh.” I looked around and realized we were standing on a ridge high above a million-credit mansion.
“I thought we were meeting Uncle Saul back at Futureland?”
“I need to make sure the traitors’ underground compound is completely destroyed. Deploy your helmet.”
“Yes, my lord.” I tapped my control belt. “Deploy helmet.” It formed around my head.
Quinn released me, and body armor engulfed him.
KABOOM! A titanic explosion rocked the mansion. The walls caved in, and a rippling fireball rose high into the sky. The ground around the huge house heaved and buckled before collapsing into a gaping crater.
Pieces of debris rained down on us. Thwap. Bap-bap. Thop. Bang.
The earth shook violently, and part of the hillside gave way, filling in the crater.
I checked my scanner. Nothing remained of the compound.
Quinn studied the area. “I’m not sensing any life-forms. Are you?”
Drawing on my psychic abilities, I scanned the area. “A couple of dogs, a cat, some birds, and a bunch of scared bunny rabbits, but no Tai-Kok, traitors, or var bugs.”
Quinn’s helmet melted away. “Good. Have you heard of tonsil hockey?”
I climbed up Quinn’s body and wrapped my arms around his neck. “Is it something like this?” I settled my lips over his and tickled his lower lip with my tongue. He opened for me, and I invaded his mouth.
Zarek was suddenly in my head. “Is this a new form of mouth-to-mouth resuscitation?”
Drekk! I slid down Quinn’s body. “We were, ah, celebrating, my lord.”
“I take full responsibility for our actions, my lord,” Quinn stated calmly.
“No! I kissed you first.”
“Enough!” Zarek roared. “Return to the command center immediately.”
“Yes, my lord,” we said in unison.
Chapter Seventeen
The minute Quinn and I entered the command center, Mami ran over and hugged me excitedly. “The Nabatean people still live! Can you believe it?”
“No.” I hugged her back. “Where are they?”
Mami laughed. “Everywhere! They assimilated into this world. The ones in California are the guardians of the Shebu and have agreed to work with us to keep it safe. I have so many questions about their culture.”
Me too. We could learn so much from them. How they were able to create water where there was none. Their shield technology, Ion drive, and how they crafted their stunning artwork. “Where are they? I can’t wait to meet them.”
Mami gasped. “Is that blood on your mouth?” She glared up at Quinn. “You’re not taking proper care of my daughter.”
“I killed Dolon,” Quinn stated gruffly.
I sucked in a horrified breath and waited for Mami to have a meltdown.
Mami patted Quinn’s arm. “Good.”
Good? I eyed her warily. No hysterics. No fainting? “Are you okay?”
“Dolon was responsible for the destruction of Qeeturah and for killing my father. He had to be stopped.” She pulled a tissue from her pocket and wiped the blood off my mouth. “Much better.”
Quinn let out a long breath. “Where are the Nabateans?”
“That’s Elof, their leader.” Mami pointed to where Papa was talking to dwarf with dark blue skin.
I couldn’t wait to meet him. I started toward them.
“Oh crap,” Quinn muttered and grabbed my arm. “The boss is here.”
“Boss?”
“Going somewhere?” The Overlord’s voice was lethal.
I reluctantly turned to face Zarek and met his furious gaze. “I wanted to talk to Elof.”
“No. I will not allow it.” Zarek was doing a great impression of Papa in a snit.
“What! You can’t do that. We’ve searched for them for years. I have so many questions.”
“Zip it,” Quinn warned in my head. “The last thing you want to do is piss off the Overlord. It never ends well.”
Zarek literally radiated menace. “You and Quinn have repeatedly ignored my commands. There are consequences for disobeying me.”
“It was only a couple of kisses,” I protested.
“Does the phrase ‘psychic joy toys’ ring a bell?”
My stomach clenched. How did he know about that?
“I know many things,” Zarek answ
ered my unspoken question.
Quinn pushed me behind him. “Xenia is an innocent. I seduced her.”
“No, you didn’t.”
“Yes, I did.” Quinn added on our private link, “It is my duty to protect you.”
“I don’t need protecting.”
Zarek rolled his eyes heavenward and bellowed, “Enough! I’m sending you both to Tanith. Your punishment is two months of dung duty and no chocolate for a month.”
“That’s just mean,” I cried.
“I would be happy to change that to a year without chocolate,” Zarek rumbled.
“No! That won’t be necessary, my lord.” A year without chocolate, and I would be homicidal. “Before you ship us off, could we meet Elof?”
“Must I remind you that you deliberately deleted Detja’s messages and my dozen warning vids? I believe you were going to blame the problem on the solar flares.”
“You are so busted,” Quinn muttered under his breath.
“I plead not guilty due to insanity.”
“I do not find you amusing,” Zarek responded and vanished.
Adan walked over to us. “Ready to go?”
“We are,” Quinn said.
I wasn’t, but I didn’t have much of a choice. If you disobeyed Zarek, you paid for it big-time. I cast a glance at Mami happily chatting with Elof.
Quinn took my hand. “You still have your comm link.”
He was right. Mami would be eager to fill me in.
I felt Adan mentally summon a vortex. A brilliant orange glow popped into existence and spun rapidly.
How hard could it be to clean dung out cages?
Chapter Eighteen
As it turned out, cleaning up the dung was pretty drekking hard. The Tanezumi, ratlike creatures with long tails, lived in tunnels beneath Tanith’s cities. A lot of the passageways were too small for someone of Quinn’s size to fit. Me? I was tiny enough to travel down the narrowest tunnel. Color me happy.
Aruid, the tubby warrior Zarek had put in charge of tunnel operations, was an arrogant, lecherous ass. “On your comm screens you will find your room and tunnel assignments. Any attempts to enter each other’s room will be reported to the Overlord.” Aruid paused, and a ravenous desire filled his eyes. “A female with your abilities deserves a full-blooded Coletti, not a hybrid.”
“It’s not your decision to make. It’s the Overlord’s,” I snapped.
The lecherous ass smiled. “As is proper. Please note that your duties include the lower thirty tunnels.”
“Thirty tunnels? This can’t be right,” I exclaimed.
“Those are the Overlord’s instructions,” Aruid said with a smirk. “Your tasks must be completed each day.”
Quinn growled in my head, “I don’t like the way Aruid is looking at you.”
“Me either. If he keeps it up, I’ll introduce him to my fireballs.”
“If you need anything, Xenia, please come to me. I know how to treat a female properly,” Aruid said, licking his lips obscenely.
Quinn pulled his sword. “Touch Xenia and I will kill you.”
“Weapons are not permitted in the tunnels,” Aruid replied and teleported away.
I grimaced in disgust. “Ugh. What a cowardly creep.”
“Stay away from him.”
“Not going to be a problem.” I glanced down at my screen. The instructions read: Dump the dead Tanezumi and their dung into the incinerator chutes. Using a high-pressure hose, you will clean any residual excrement from the cages and replace the bait. Once completed, you will return the traps to the specified locations.
“Let’s get started.” Quinn held out his hand.
I took it. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”
“I do. Which is why we got stuck cleaning shit out of the ninth level of hell.”
* * * *
One thing Zarek and Aruid failed to mention was that sometimes the Tanezumis weren’t quite dead. The first time it happened, I had just opened the cage, and a growl like a grizzly bear erupted from the supposedly dead rat. I jumped about a foot, and the rat burst out of the cage with one only one thought on its tiny mind. Kill! The little monster had sharp teeth, and the fight to keep it from chewing on my neck left me covered in dung. I incinerated the nasty thing and danced on the shitty ashes.
Fortunately, the poisoned bait usually killed the rats quickly, but not before they filled the cages with an enormous amount of dung. The stench was horrific. It was a mixture of rotted eggs, ammonia, and death. Ugh. The breathing mask didn’t help at all. My appetite disappeared completely, and I pretty much survived on Quinn’s blood. Even after a long, hot shower I still stank. People avoided Quinn and me like the plague.
Not to mention trying to clean thirty tunnels a day was an impossible task. Using Quinn’s teleporting skills, we somehow managed to pull it off. I also cheated and fireballed as many rats as I could. If the Overlord’s intentions were to keep us too exhausted to mess around, he had accomplished his goal.
At the end of our third week in hell, I wearily dragged a cage down a narrow passageway when my internal radar went on red alert. A sibilant hiss sounded from somewhere behind me.
Quinn immediately asked, “What’s wrong?”
“I’m not sure.” I looked over my shoulder. Funky, milk-white cobra eyes stared back at me. In the shadows I could make out a bulbous body with a long snakelike neck and the head of a raptor.
“Fuck! That’s a nauger!”
The nauger’s mouth opened, exposing needle-sharp teeth. It hissed again.
I groused, “Don’t need to be armed, huh?”
“I’m getting a laser rifle from the armory!”
An emergency siren began to wail.
The nauger charged me.
I pulled the dead Tanezumi from the cage and threw it at the nauger.
The nauger snatched it midair. Two chomps, and the Tanezumi was gone. The nauger eyed me hungrily.
“You don’t want to eat me. I taste like shit. Literally.”
The ugly creature shuddered violently and collapsed. Thank the Goddess, the poison worked on them too.
Three more naugers took its place.
My berserker rage flared to life. I was exhausted, chocolate deprived, and unable to even cuddle with Quinn. I hated the Overlord, Tanith, and all its vile critters. The need to kill was overwhelming. “Want to play? I’m game.” I summoned my fire and hurled a fireball at them.
Whoosh! Boom! Brilliant green flames engulfed the naugers, and within seconds they were ash.
Claws skittered on the rock floor.
A pack of the horrid creatures were running right at me.
Enough was enough. I wasn’t doing this anymore, and if I had to fry the Overlord, so be it. I hurled fireball after fireball after fireball. Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Electric green flames filled the passageway. The fire died away leaving a thick layer of gray ash. I sagged in relief.
There was a flash of light at the end of the passageway, and more than a hundred naugers ran toward me. Drekk! Someone had deliberately opened the tunnel’s blast doors.
Quinn grabbed the back of my jumpsuit and teleported us out of the tunnel. We appeared by the incinerator chutes. He looked me over frantically. “Are you hurt?”
“No.” I shuddered at the sound of hundreds of claws clicking on the rock. “I thought the blast doors were locked at all times.”
“They are, unless someone opens them.”
“It’s got to be Aruid,” I spat.
“I agree. If I die, he will claim you.”
“Not a chance in the nine hells.”
The naugers spilled out of the tunnel.
I summoned a fireball.
An energy barrier materialized in front of us.
Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Dozens of naugers committed suicide on the glowing energy field. Five fully arm
ored warriors appeared behind them and quickly vaporized the remaining creatures.
I sagged against Quinn. “Thank the Goddess. I’m out of juice.”
Holding me like I was the most precious thing in the universe, Quinn teleported.
An instant of inky blackness, and poof. We appeared on a sunny terrace draped with a bright riot of flowers. In the distance, a silvery waterfall cascaded down the cavern wall. It was an Eden buried deep within Tanith.
I reveled in the sunshine and the gentle breeze fanning my face. Below us, a flock of pink, ducklike birds floated peacefully on the turquoise water. Some called this paradise. What lurked underneath Tanith’s subterranean cities was pure hell.
Quinn collapsed on a bench. “I’m beat.”
“Me too.”
“Let’s just sit here for a moment and enjoy the sunshine.” He pulled me onto his lap.
I leaned against Quinn’s chest and allowed the comforting warmth of his body to sink into my very soul. I was home. “You never told me why you became a Coletti.”
“It’s a long story, which started when the Tai-Kok killed my parents.”
I flinched at the pain in his voice. “Could you have prevented their deaths?”
“No. I was a thousand miles away. I made it my job to avenge them, but no matter how many of the monsters I killed, it was never enough. The Overlord offered my family a way to stop the carnage.”
“And you took it.”
Quinn snorted. “Not at first. Central Command rounded up my entire family and turned us over to the Coletti invaders. I was seriously pissed.”
“How could your own people betray you like that?”
“General Tasker, the traitorous bitch, said surrendering us to the Coletti was for the greater good. Billions of lives in exchange for a few psychics. It was a win-win situation.”
“For the Tai-Kok,” I exclaimed.
“Exactly. We were taken to Tanith and told we either agreed to become Coletti or the change would be forced on us.”
“What did you do?”
“I challenged the Overlord to combat.”
My jaw dropped. “Seriously?”
“My temper has always been iffy, and I let it override my common sense.”
“And Zarek didn’t kill you?”