Arresting the Warlord

by Gail Koger

  “Really? How odd,” I replied. Of course, we’d only be officially mated for about an hour, but they didn’t need to know that.

  The other warrior picked up a bowl of squiggly things. “She is the female everyone is talking about.”

  Trayon’s eyes brightened. “You can summon lightning?”

  Wow! News traveled fast on this ship. “I can.”

  “Are there more females like you?”

  “Not that I know of. It’s a rare talent.”

  “There must be, and I will find her,” Trayon stated.

  “Before you start hunting, you might want to check with Zarek first.”

  Trayon’s tentacles squirmed madly. “I do not answer to the Overlord.”

  “Okey-dokey. May the Goddess be with you.” I headed to the food replicator on the opposite wall and ordered my cake.

  The Askole warriors broke into what sounded like a bunch of guttural grunts, groans and clucking.

  Were they planning their hunt? Who knew? Jake didn’t speak Askole. I typed my order in. A big piece of German Chocolate cake and a glass of milk appeared on a tray. I carried it over a table. Huh? The Askole warriors had disappeared. Should I warn Jake? Nah. I’m just a silly female whose knowledge is of little value. I grabbed a fork and dug in.

  “Who you?” A little voice asked.

  “What?” I looked around but didn’t see anyone. “I’m CeeCee. Who you?”

  A giggle sounded in my mind. “Me Oola.”

  “And where’s Oola hiding?”

  “On ceiling.”

  I looked up.

  A furry baby tarantula dropped down on a thin thread of silk and landed on the table. “Me warrior.”

  Oh my God, Oola was a Tabor. I had never been a big fan of spiders but who wouldn’t be fascinated by a race of telepathic arachnids. “A very sneaky warrior.”

  Eight little eyes peered up at me. “Me hungry.”

  I ran a finger over the little cutie’s golden fur. “What are you hungry for?”

  “Mealie bugs.”

  “Okay. I’ll get you some.” Hopefully, the food replicator was programmed for Tabors too. I walked over and typed in mealie bugs. A minute later a bowl of bugs appeared. I picked it up. Huh? Kinda reminded me of gray termites. I turned around and groaned. Oola was covered in chocolate. “Bad baby. Chocolate isn’t good for Tabors.”

  Oola spat out a mouthful of liquefied cake. “Tastes bad.” She jumped in my glass of milk.

  “Oh no, no, no!” Was she in her terrible twos? Fishing Oola out, I dried her off with a napkin and said sternly, “No eat human food. Oola eats these.” I placed the bowl of bugs in front of her.

  The baby Tabor climbed in and chowed down.

  “Where’s your mama?”

  “She lost,” Oola replied.

  “Is she on this ship?”

  “Mama is.” Oola jumped out of the bowl. “Me exploring.

  “Are you now?” I bet Shrek would know where her mother was. I held out my hand. “How would you like to meet an ogre called Shrek?”

  Oola climbed up my arm and perched on my shoulder. “What ogre?”

  “A magical creature that heals people.”

  “Me like.”

  A glittering blue light suddenly engulfed me. It felt like my molecules were being torn apart.

  “No like. Make stop,” Oola cried.

  “Jake, I know you’re super busy with important man stuff, but someone just grabbed me with a transporter beam, and I need to know how to stop it,” I said tartly. My molecules abruptly stopped whizzing about. The light faded and I was standing on a raised platform. An Askole warrior stood at a control console. Assuming my bad ass cop’s demeanor, I snarled, “What in the hell do you think you’re doing?”

  The Askole warrior totally ignored me and Jake did too.

  I yelled at the warrior. “Hey! I’m talking to you.” Before I could step off the platform the blue light blossomed around me again.

  Oola clung to my braid. “Want my mama.”

  “Where are you CeeCee,” Jake demanded.

  “Oh, now you’re talking to me. I think I was on an Askole ship and now my molecules are being spread to God knows where. The transporter beam vanished, and I was standing next to East Mitten Butte. “Oh, wait. Monument Valley.”

  Jake growled, “What are you doing in Monument Valley?”

  “That’s a question you should ask your Askole friend, Trayon.”

  “Fuck!”

  Trayon zoomed up. “Show me your females.”

  “Okay.” I pointed to a stone hogan nestled against the butte. “You’ll find a typical Navajo female there.” One that used to be a Marine and could kick ass with the best of them. Forty years ago.

  Whoosh! Trayon was a black blur as he zoomed over to the hogan. Gunfire erupted when he kicked the door in.

  “You were supposed to knock, you jerk.” I ran toward the hogan. Poof! Jake abruptly appeared and I crashed into him. “You need to wear a damn bell.” Yikes. The expression on his face could give Zarek a run for his money in the scary as hell department.

  “Where is he?”

  I quickly pointed at the hogan. “Trayon wants a female who can summon lightning.”

  “Where did you meet Trayon?”

  “In the mess hall.”

  “Did you tell him, you’re one of a kind?”

  “Do I look stupid to you? Oh wait! I forgot. I’m just a brainless female,” I snapped.

  “Want my mama,” Oola wailed.

  “Fucking hell! Where did you find a baby Tabor?”

  “In the mess hall. Her name is Oola.”

  “The mess hall was a neutral zone until you came on board,” Jake grumbled.

  “Oh, now it’s my fault there’s a bunch of lunatics running amok on Zarek’s ship?”

  More gunfire came from the hogan.

  I raised an inquiring eyebrow. “You’re the big, bad warlord. Aren’t you supposed to handle that?”

  Jake gave me the stink eye and teleported. The shooting stopped.

  Oola perched on my nose. “Him mad.”

  “Yep.” I put Oola back on my shoulder. “Stay.”

  “Me scared.” Oola shivered. “Wanna hide in hair.”

  An image of Jake’s sister Kaylee flashed across my mind. Eight baby Tabors decorated her hair. I sighed. “Okay. Go ahead.”

  Oola scrambled to the top of my head and burrowed in.

  God, I hoped I didn’t end up with spider poop in my hair. I checked my bracelet, found Shrek’s link, and tapped it.

  “How may I assist you CeeCee?”

  “I have a baby Tabor called Oola with me. Can you let her mother know she’s safe?”

  Shrek let out a relieved breath. “We’ve been searching for Oola for the last hour. Can you bring her to sick bay?”

  “Would if I could, but an Askole by the name of Trayon transported us to Monument Valley. He thinks I can lead him to a female with my powers.”

  “Does the Overlord know of this?”

  “Haven’t a clue, but Jake’s here.”

  “I will let Datlow and Tae know.”

  “Thank you.” I disconnected the link.

  A glittering blue light formed in front of me.

  I scowled. I didn’t even have a knife for protection.

  The light dissipated and there stood an armored Askole warrior. He literally radiated power. “Where is Trayon?”

  I pointed at the hogan.

  Whoosh! The warrior raced over to it and vanished inside.

  General Jones popped in with an enormous gray Tabor perched on his shoulder.

  Gee. Monument Valley was suddenly a popular place.

  “Grampa Bey!” Oola hopped up and down on my head. “Me lost mama.”

  The Tabor jumped off the General’s shoulder and scurried over to me. “You were told not to leave the nursery, Oola.”

  “Me was hun
gry.”

  “Bey will stay with you until we have the situation under control,” General Jones stated and teleported away.

  Like I needed a guard? I stared down at Gramps. What did one say to a Tabor? Did I talk about the weather? Ask about his family? Did he consider Earth spiders kinfolk?

  “I was raised in a jungle and find Arizona extremely barren. My family is doing well. Comparing us to Earth spiders is like comparing humans to apes.” Bey’s tongue shot out and snagged a fly.

  “Oh. Okay. So, not to be rude or anything, but do you spin webs like our spiders?”

  “We do.” Bey crawled up my chest. “Would you like a demonstration?”

  “No! That won’t be necessary.” I gingerly touched his leg. “Uh. If I have to fight, you’re kinda in the way.”

  Bey moved to my shoulder. “Better?”

  Before I could think of a good answer, the crawlies hit me. I groaned when ten red dune buggies appeared out of a cloud of dust. Each had a machine gun mounted on top of the roll cage. The roar of their engines was deafening.

  “Those humans wish to capture you and seem unaware that your mate is nearby,” Bey commented.

  “The Red Kings are a few fries short of a happy meal.”

  “You need to summon your mate,” Bey added.

  I snorted. “Not a chance. They’re mine.”

  “We warriors,” Oola chirped.

  “And I don’t need a penis to kick ass.” I raised my arms and chanted, “Sepulcrum ibidem solus novum. Vem Hum. Domum rotundam!”

  A bank of black clouds gathered overhead. Bolts of multi-colored lightning erupted in the cloud-shrouded sky. Cracks of thunder reverberated off the buttes.

  Bey wrapped his legs around my neck. “What are you doing female?”

  “The name is CeeCee and, duh, I’m summoning a storm.” The wind plucked impatiently at my hair as I shouted, “Miraculin. Vivtorie construxit!”

  An enormous rain bomb dropped from the clouds and hit the dune buggies like a sledgehammer. I caught brief glimpses of the vehicles flipping end over end.

  “Wheeee. This fun,” Oola cried.

  The outflow winds pelted us with sand and debris. I ducked several flying branches.

  “You and Kaylee have much in common, you both act without thinking,” Bey sniped as he webbed a slew of tumbleweeds rolling toward us.

  Jake growled in my head, “Now the entire galaxy knows what you’re capable of.”

  “I am a police officer. It’s my job to stop bad guys and I will not apologize for doing that.”

  “Kill the storm, buttercup.”

  “Crisito deo ojo mirabilis visio.”

  The clouds dissipated revealing turquoise skies. Wrecked dune buggies littered the valley. The Red King thugs hung limply in their safety harnesses. Huh? They actually buckled up.

  Bey resembled a drowned rat.

  Oola giggled madly. “Wheeee. Do again. Do again.”

  “You okay Bey?” I wiped the muddy red dirt off my face.

  “No. I am not.” Black fangs erupted from Bey’s soggy fur. “You are a menace.”

  I glared at him. “And you aren’t bullet proof. Those dune buggies were armed with machine guns.”

  “I would have stopped them,” Bey retorted.

  “From two miles away? I don’t think so. Why don’t you join your Coletti friends in the hogan and stay the hell away from me?”

  “I cannot.”

  “Why not?”

  “I am to guard you against further kidnapping attempts,” Bey replied.

  “Can you stop a transporter beam?”

  Bey climbed on top of my head. “No. Where you go, I go.”

  Fuck. It was like wearing a thirty-pound fur hat. For a moment, I considered zapping the old fart, but I didn’t want to hit Oola.

  “Your display impressed Sariel and now he wants permission for his warriors to court Dragos females,” General Jones groused.

  Ooops. “That other Askole warrior is Sariel, the Askole High Commander?”

  “He is.”

  “Well, color me surprised. Anyone got handcuffs? We need to arrest the Red Kings before they can rabbit.”

  “Stay put, we’ll handle them,” Jake ordered.

  I gave him a mental salute. “Yes, sir.”

  General Jones, Jake and four Coletti warriors teleported to the wrecked vehicles. They quickly cuffed the thugs while Trayon and Sariel zipped after the ones making a run for it. In a very short time, sixteen Red Kings had been arrested and transported back to Zarek’s warbird.

  I mentally scanned the area. How was Cantor going to react to his henchmen being arrested?

  Jake teleported over to us and smirked. “I see you’ve met Bey.”

  “Yes, I have, and unless you want me to zap his furry ass, you’ll get him off my head.”

  “Who that?” Oola wanted to know.

  I shifted one of Bey’s legs and looked. Officer Yellowhorse was speeding down the dirt road in an official Navajo Police Department jeep. “That’s a Navajo police officer.”

  “What he do?”

  “He protects our people from bad men,” I said.

  “Like Grampa and my daddy do?”

  “Yes.”

  Officer Yellowhorse pulled the jeep to an abrupt stop and eyed Bey warily. “Lily Begay called to report an intruder.”

  “It’s been handled, and the Askole will pay for the damages,” Jake said before I could answer.

  Yellowhorse nodded and pointed to the wrecked dune buggies. “Those belong to the Red Kings.”

  I smiled. “They did. The Red Kings are in custody.”

  A pleased smile crossed Yellowhorse’s face. “Good to know.” His smile faded. “Johona Claw asked that you call her. She might have information on the alien killer.”

  “Is she smoking peyote again?”

  Yellowhorse shrugged. “She claims it’s her right as a shaman.”

  “Shaman, my ass. I’ll call her when I get time. Any problems I need to know of?”

  “Billy Nez was arrested again for stealing sheep and there was a bad accident on Route 160 at milepost 150. The idiot was doing over a hundred miles an hour when he hit a pothole, lost control, and plunged off a cliff. The medic said the victim’s in bad shape and insists that he has fangs.”

  I looked at Jake. “Are you missing any warriors?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  A sudden thought hit me. “Do you think the accident victim is Cantor? The crash site isn’t far from here.”

  “It’s a possibility, but the question is: why was he driving when he could teleport?”

  “Cantor spent almost five hundred years in prison, I can’t imagine he came out unscathed,” I replied.

  Jake turned to Officer Yellowhorse. “Can you find out which hospital he was transported to?”

  Yellowhorse tapped his comm-link. “Four Corners Regional Health Center. He’s listed in critical condition. Need a lift?”

  Jake shook his head. “Thanks, but I can get us there faster.”

  “I’ll go check on Lily.” Officer Yellowhorse drove off.

  “Four Corners Health is over eighty miles from here,” I advised.

  Jake slid an arm around my waist. “I’m a warlord, buttercup.” There was a flash of black and poof. We were standing outside the emergency room entrance.

  “Wheeee! Fun. Do again.” Perched on my nose, Oola peered up at Jake. “Do again?”

  “Later, little one.”

  “I wanna go now.”

  Bey barked, “Enough Oola.”

  “You mean.”

  I blew Bey’s hair out of my eyes. “Can I lose the fur hat?”

  Jake grinned. “C’mon Bey. You can ride with me.”

  “Your female is a chaos creator like Kaylee.” Bey hopped over to Jake’s back.

  I rolled my eyes. “I wasn’t until Jake came into my life. I think he’s the problem
, not me. Oh yeah, I want my weapons back, all of them. Like you promised.” I removed Oola from my nose and placed her back on my head. “Stay.”

  “Buttercup, you are a weapon,” Jake replied.

  “You better believe I am, but I still want them back. Does Bey know the Navajo people consider Spider Woman to be a good spirit and he needs to act appropriately.”

  “I am not a female.”

  “They don’t know that unless you plan on flashing them.” I strode through the automatic doors and headed for the nurses’ station.

  Chuckling, Jake followed me.

  I smiled at the plump Navajo woman sitting behind the counter. “Hey Emily, I’m doing a follow-up on an accident patient that just came in.”

  Emily eyed me. “Get caught in a sandstorm and when did you start wearing armor?”

  “I did.” I brushed a twig off my armor. “I’ve had the misfortune of crossing paths with a bunch of aliens lately.”

  Jake gave Emily a big smile, exposing his fangs.

  Her eyes widened. “Is he?”

  “Yes, he’s a Coletti warlord. Emily, this is Jake Jones, my mate.”

  Emily’s jaw dropped. “You married him?”

  “Kinda.”

  Jake extended his hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you ma’am.”

  “Well, at least you picked a cute one.” Emily shook his hand, then jumped out of her chair when Bey crawled over Jake’s shoulder. “A holy one!”

  “His name is Bey, he’s a Tabor, and a guardian of his people,” Jake explained.

  She swallowed hard. “One of those aliens you were talking about, CeeCee?”

  “Exactly.”

  “Your accident victim is in room 12 and he’s listed as a John Doe.”

  “Thanks.” I started down the hallway.

  Jake tapped his bracelet and scanned room 12. “He’s Coletti.” He handed me his spare laser pistol. “Just in case.”

  “You think he’ll heal that quickly?” I slid the pistol in my holster.

  “Yes.”

  “I want my stun gun back too.”

  “Uncle Saul has it.”

  I took a cautious peek into the room. A very large male filled the bed. His face was a battered mess. “Are you going to alert the General and Zarek?”

  “I am.”

  Beep. Beep. Beep. I glanced at the monitor. His heart rate and blood pressure were spiking. “He’s awake.”

  Jake pulled his sword.