by Gail Koger
Papa grabbed Mami’s chin and forced her to look at him. “You cannot and will not take Clio, a Katanic shapeshifter, to that theme park. You do remember how much trouble Xenia caused?”
I winced. My illusions of the big, bad wolf and a fire-breathing dragon had sent people screaming from the park. Papa had been furious.
“It’s a wonderful experience for children.” Mami’s lower lip quivered.
“For Earth children.”
“For all children. Xenia had so much fun there.”
“Tell that to the people who were injured in the stampede to get away from Xenia’s very real-looking illusions,” Papa said.
Quinn raised an inquiring eyebrow. “What did you create?”
“Want a demonstration?”
“I do.”
“You got it.” I concentrated, and poof! An eight-foot purple-and-black dragon appeared. It emitted an ear-shattering roar and spat flames.
Wulf stared in open-mouthed astonishment.
Clio giggled in delight.
“Very realistic,” Quinn remarked.
Zarek added, “A useful talent.”
I let the illusion vanish.
“Do again. Do again,” Clio exclaimed.
I summoned the cartoon version of the big, bad wolf. It prowled the bridge and howled.
A second later Clio morphed into a smaller version of the wolf. “More. More.”
I created a princess.
Poof! Clio became the princess. “Me sparkle.”
“Yes, you do.” Mami picked her up and danced her around the bridge, singing, “You are so pretty. Such a pretty sparkly dress. Such a pretty toothy smile. Such pretty little tentacles.”
My mother can’t sing. She sounds a bit like a screech owl with its wing stuck in a shredder.
Papa rubbed his forehead as if he had a sudden headache.
Wulf and Quinn winced.
Zarek grimaced when Mami hit a high note and broke the link.
Papa was always looking for new ways to harass the Tai-Kok. He once transmitted Mami’s warbling across all the monsters’ communication links. Within an hour, the quadrant was Tai-Kok free.
A tentacle shot from Adan, wrapped around my waist, and dragged me over to him. “I need your help.”
“What kind of help?” I didn’t trust him at all.
“I have Tai-Kok metal bits stuck in my back teeth,” Adan whispered.
I whispered back, “And?”
“If you remove the shattered dentures, I will bring you more chocolate.”
I thought about it for a moment and shook my head. “Not good enough. I want a Coletti communication bracelet.”
“Warrior category?”
“If I’m sticking my hand in your maw, it’s got to be warlord grade with all the extra scanning abilities.”
“Deal.”
“I expect delivery within three days.”
“Done.” Adan’s face altered, serrated teeth popped from his lips, and a gaping maw appeared.
Oh yuck. “Raise your head a bit.”
Adan angled his head up.
“Hold it right there and open wider. A bit wider.” He obeyed, and I peered inside Adan’s mouth. Yep. Pieces of Tai-Kok teeth were stuck in his back choppers. “I see them. Do not bite me.”
“I do not find Farin females tasty.”
“Good to know.” I stuck my hand in Adan’s slimy mouth, dislodged several metal bits, and yanked them free. Slobber splattered the floor. “I told you to spit the teeth out.”
“I was very hungry,” Adan said sheepishly. “There are more teeth jabbing my jaw.”
Yuck. The last thing I wanted to do was stick my hand back in his gooey mouth. Slobber was running down my arms as it was. “How many of the monsters did you eat?”
“I lost count after the first dozen.”
“Since you’re ridding the galaxy of Tai-Kok, I’ll take another look. Ugh. What a mess. You have a bunch of incisors sticking up all over the place.” I pried at the stubborn chunks of metal. “Move your tongue to the left.”
Adan mumbled something.
“My left. Perfect. Don’t move.” Sticking my head into his mouth, I reached down and wiggled a tooth back and forth.
“No eat. No eat,” Clio cried and threw herself at Adan.
Mami shrieked and hit the floor.
Quinn, Papa, and Wulf pulled their swords.
“Whoa! Stop. I’m helping Adan. He has Tai-Kok stuck in his teeth.”
“He’s never heard of floss?” Quinn’s tone was snarky.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m almost done.”
“You are done.” Quinn moved me over. “I’ll do it. Show me.”
“Really, I can do this,” I protested.
“If you do not finish the task, Xenia, I will not obtain a Coletti communication bracelet for you,” Adan stated.
Goddess, what a blabbermouth.
Quinn fixed me with a stern gaze. “What is he talking about?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Papa’s and Wulf’s grins. They thought it was funny? “I need a new communications bracelet.”
Quinn demanded, “Why didn’t you ask me?”
Was that a flash of hurt in Quinn’s eyes? “Ah, well, I didn’t think you would get me one.”
“It is my duty to provide for you,” Quinn stated grimly.
Duty? My temper flared to life. “I’m not a simpering female who needs to be cared for. If I want a new bracelet, I’m quite capable of getting it. Besides, you would have said no.”
“What type of communications bracelet do you want?”
“I want a duplicate of the one you are wearing.”
“Only Coletti warriors are permitted to wear them,” Quinn replied.
I threw up my hands. “I’m a warrior, and in another few weeks, a Coletti.”
Quinn studied me for a long moment. “Zarek will insist you wait until you have been converted, but if we are going to stop the Tai-Kok from taking the Shebu, you will need the proper equipment. I’ll get you a communications bracelet. Deal?”
“Deal. The Goddess in all her infinite wisdom put us together for a reason.” I went up on my tiptoes and kissed Quinn’s cheek.
He brushed his lips across mine. “She knew you are the other half of my soul.”
A poetic warlord? How did I get so lucky? What should I say back to him? The truth? “I’m falling in love with you.” I knew I was grinning like an idiot, but he made me happy.
“About time.” Quinn gently stroked the side of my face with his thumb. “I’m a forever kinda guy. Once you’re mine, I’m never letting you go.”
Every word out of Quinn’s mouth made me want him more. “Even if I want to keep on being a relic hunter?”
“My uncle was an archaeologist, and I used to spend summers on his dig sites. I knew then I wanted to search for the world’s lost cities, but my studies were interrupted by the Tai-Kok. I became a warrior instead.”
“Once we exterminate the Tai-Kok, we will search for those lost civilizations together.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Quinn nibbled on my lower lip.
My father growled, “No kissing.”
“He’s nibbling, not kissing, Papa.”
“All touching must cease until you are twenty-one,” Papa grumbled.
Wulf snorted. “Never happening. Yakira couldn’t keep her hands off me.”
Adan made a retching noise. “I do not understand you humanoids’ need to press your mouths together. It is revolting.”
“How do Katanic shapeshifters show affection?” I really wanted to know.
“With food.”
“What kind of food?”
“The still living kind.”
I eyed Adan warily. Were people the Katanic version of chocolate? “You didn’t answer my question.”
The image of thousands of slithering red snakes with crocodile heads flashed into my mind. “Avestians, but they are difficult to catch. Females also find Askole very
tasty.”
“You’re joking, right?”
Papa shook his head grimly. “He is not.”
“You have eaten Askole?”
“Before my rebirth, yes,” Adan stated matter-of-factly.
He was freaking me out. “And Detja didn’t have a problem with that?”
“She did, but there was nothing she could do to stop me.”
Quinn asked, “You still want to stick your hand in his mouth?”
“Not really.”
Adan groused, “We had a deal. Are you an oath breaker?”
“No, I’m not. Open your mouth, and I’ll retrieve the rest of the metal bits,” I replied.
“Yes, my lady.” Adan’s maw grew larger and large.
I glanced up at Quinn. “Got a flashlight?”
“I do.” He pulled a small light from a hip pocket and turned it on. The beam highlighted Adan’s back teeth perfectly.
I pointed at the protruding metal fangs. “See them?”
“The Tai-Kok have piss-poor dentists. The metal shouldn’t have crumbled like that,” Quinn commented.
Clio climbed up on my shoulder. “Me get. Me get.” She extended several tentacles and quickly plucked fragments of the metal dentures from Adan’s gums.
“Good girl, Clio.” Quinn took the broken teeth from her.
I watched Adan flex his jaw. “Better?”
“Yes, the pain is gone.”
“A level ten explosion detected on the surface of Qeeturah. The stone city has been destroyed,” the ship’s computerized voice announced.
“What?” I quickly checked the scanners. It felt like I had been punched in the stomach. The greatest find of the century had been reduced to rubble. “Those bastards blew up the stone city.”
Quinn pulled into his arms. “You have my promise we will make them pay.”
I snuggled into his warmth. I couldn’t see a future without Quinn in it. He was mine for all eternity. Slime and all.
“Do not tell Eleni about the city. It will destroy her,” Papa warned.
Clio imitated my father’s voice, “Do not tell Eleni. Do not tell Eleni. Do not tell Eleni.”
I frowned. My mother would have a meltdown of epic proportions. “The joke is on the Tai-Kok. My bracelet doesn’t have Mami’s translation program. Which they will need to decipher the glyphs. Without the glyphs, they will never find the Nabatean’s new world.”
“Do not tell Eleni. Do not tell Eleni. Do not tell Eleni.”
“How skilled is Nilus with the Nabatean glyphs?” Wulf’s thoughtful gaze was on my mother.
“No tell. No tell. No tell.”
“Quiet, youngling.” Papa picked up Mami and held her against his chest. “Nilus’s skills rival Eleni’s.”
Wulf stroked his goatee. “How long would it take him to translate them?”
“About a week, if the Tai-Kok don’t eat him first,” I answered.
“From my research, prisoners don’t survived longer than a day on a Tai-Kok ship,” Quinn said.
I put in blithely, “Let’s hope they get a bad case of the munchies.”
“Or I can always gift them with more var bugs,” Adan quipped.
Papa’s features held a merciless rage. “An excellent idea. With the right tools and parts, I can fashion a suction device and an ultrasonic bug caller.”
“I have tools and a small workroom,” Quinn responded.
“Sounds like a plan.” I loved male bonding.
Papa placed Mami in the copilot’s chair. “If she starts to make a fuss, summon me.”
“Will do.”
Adan handed me Clio. “You need to care for her.”
“Wait! What if she gets hungry?”
Adan stuck a tentacle in his mouth and made a retching noise.
“Oh hell no.” Quinn backed away.
Adan’s throat bulged weirdly, and he pulled out a goopy arm.
Nausea rose in my throat. “Was that necessary?”
“The child must be fed.” Adan held the arm out to Clio.
With a happy squeak, Clip grabbed it and stuffed it in her maw.
Tai-Kok juices dripped in my lap. “Ugh.” I clapped a hand over mouth. I will not puke. I will not puke. I will not puke.
Clio held up a bloody finger. “You want? Me share.”
“No!” I shook my head violently. “I’m full of chocolate.”
“Tastes good.” Clio pressed the finger to my lips.
Papa snatched the finger. “Can I eat it? I’m very hungry.”
Clio giggled when my father used sleight of hand to make the finger disappear.
I wiped the crap off my mouth and gratefully took the piece of chocolate Quinn held out. “Love you.”
“You are my heart.”
A sigh of content slipped from me. Color me lucky.
Clio pointed at my father. “Who he?”
“He’s your grandfather.”
“Gumpa?”
Papa laughed. “My first grandchild is a Katanic shapeshifter.”
“According to my Yakira, family comes in all sizes and shapes,” Wulf remarked.
Quinn nodded. “That’s because alien life-forms are drawn to our females. Kaylee and the Tabors. Zoey and the Gorum. Bree and her horde of alien kids.”
“Yakira and Ziyad,” Wulf added.
Adan chimed in, “Farin females and Katanics.”
“Enough chatter. If we are to stop the Tai-Kok, we need to build our devices,” Papa interjected.
I put my two cents in. “You need to collect some iplo lizards too, Papa. You know how they love to chew on power cables. And it might be a good time to share Mami’s singing with them again.”
“A sound strategy,” Papa agreed.
“Me sleepy.” Clio nuzzled my neck.
I stroked her hair. “Do you think the Executioners would be interested in delivering our gifts to other Tai-Kok ships?”
“I will ask them,” Adan replied.
Quinn kissed the tip of my nose. “You have the bridge, Xenia.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Chapter Thirteen
Except for Clio’s cute snores, the bridge was almost too quiet. I kept an eye on the scanners and waited for my mother to wake up. How had that become so routine? And were her “naps” becoming longer?
Mami jerked upright in the chair and looked around wildly. “Where’s Lysis? Oh, thank the Goddess, that monster didn’t eat you.” She flung herself at me.
“Ooof! Love you too, but you’re smashing Clio.”
“Geema squish. Squish, Geema,” Clio whined.
Mami picked Clio up and rocked her. “Sorry. Geema’s sorry.” She looked at me and demanded, “Where is your father?”
“Papa’s creating a new suction device.” My internal radar screamed a warning. Drekk! Now what?
A second later, a gigantic vortex formed outside the ship. Slashes of incandescent silver flashed within the swirling maelstrom.
“An electrical anomaly has been detected,” the computerized voice warned.
A bit of an understatement.
Mami clutched Clio to her chest. “What is that?”
“Not sure.” It could be the Executioners or something else. If it was the Executioners, were they here to help us or harm us? Please. Please, let them be here to help. I linked with Quinn. “We’ve got a problem, lovey.”
“Your mother ran out of chocolate?”
“No. This.” I flashed him an image of the vortex.
“Fuck! I’ve never seen anything like that.”
“Did Adan ask for the Executioners’ help?”
“He did.”
Poof! An aged, pale-faced male with glowing yellow eyes appeared in front of me. His wispy black hooded cloak added to his sinister air.
Thud. Mami hit the floor.
“Geema!” Clio crouched on top of her and bared her fangs at the intruder. “No hurt Geema. Go away. No like.”
“Quiet, child.” His voice was deep and thunderous.
Me either. “I am called Xenia, and you are?”
He smiled, exposing funky, fanged teeth. “I am Qa’a.”
“Did you get that Quinn? He said his name is Qa’a.”
“According to Adan, Qa’a is the Katanic’s supreme leader. Be nice to him. Very nice. We will join you shortly,” Quinn advised.
“Nice is my middle name.”
“Xenia! Treat him as you would the Overlord,” Papa snapped.
“Not a problem.” Qa’a was as terrifying as Zarek. I gave the supreme leader a slight bow. “You honor us with your presence.”
Qa’a studied me for a long moment. “You do not fear me?”
“I respect your power, my lord. How may I serve you?”
“Tell me about the var bugs.”
“Yes, my lord.” Thankfully, Quinn had downloaded my original show-and-tell vid. I tapped an icon on the command control, and a holographic image of the spiny black var bug appeared. “These creatures thrive on the solar radiation bombarding the planet Qeeturah.” I launched into my spiel of how they feed off each other, the small orange iplo lizards, and any fool unlucky enough to land on the planet without the proper protection. I brought up a vid of the bugs attacking Nilus’s mercenaries and Dolon. “They are a simple and very effective weapon.” I switched to the vid of Dolon’s wiggling jig.
“Eeyore. Eeyore. Eeyore. Eeyore.”
The supreme leader had a sense of humor. Who knew?
The bridge door slid open, and Papa, Adan, Quinn, and Wulf walked out, carrying suction devices and bug callers.
“Xenia has presented your case. I am agreeable to sharing these creatures with the Tai-Kok. By raiding our females’ breeding sanctuary, they have declared war on the Katanic Empire. There will be no peace. No negotiations. The Tai-Kok will be wiped from existence,” Qa’a said.
I almost broke into a happy dance at the thought of a Tai-Kok-free universe.
“The Overlord is gathering a battle fleet to defend Earth,” Wulf advised.
The supreme leader inclined his head and said, “We have spoken. I have assigned six Executioners to assist you with the var bugs. They await you at the coordinates you provided.”
Adan did a weird head bob. “Thank you, my liege.”
“Come to me, Clio,” Qa’a commanded.
