by Nina Bangs
The Cosmic Time Travel Agency? Ganymede still wanted to get back to a hands-on running of his business, but he would work from an office here in Galveston. He’d tell Sparkle as soon as he figured out the logistics of the whole thing.
“Mede?” She walked out of the bathroom trailing steam from her quick shower. Nude. The way he liked her. But she didn’t linger to play. She simply waved and went into the bedroom.
He wandered into the kitchen to root around in the freezer. Grabbing a bowl, he scooped out some Rocky Road ice cream. The flavor sort of went with today’s theme. He settled down on the couch, then turned on the TV news. Nothing. Where was the bastard? He turned it off. Damn. It would’ve been great if Dad could’ve given him a hint of what to expect.
Ganymede had just finished his ice cream and was thinking about another bowl when Sparkle emerged from the bedroom. He forgot about the ice cream.
Sparkle tried to look suitably menacing to go along with her amazing outfit. She didn’t get many chances to wear it, but it never failed to make her feel like a warrior queen—a super short, black leather skirt with metal studs, a black leather bustier laced tightly enough to push up her breasts but loose enough to show a little skin through the laces. After all, a fighting woman had to breathe deeply. And her favorite part—knee-high, leather, lace-up platform boots with metal spikes sticking out of the toes to deliver a lethal kick. She’d fluffed up her hair to give it that tousled look, the one that said she just kicked major butt.
“Wow.” Mede just stared.
“I love you when you’re speechless.” She made sure to swing her hips as she sashayed over to him. “You’ve seen this outfit before.”
He swallowed hard. “And it’s a wow every time I do.”
She sighed. Time to get serious. Sparkle sat down beside him on the couch. She leaned into him and he wrapped his arm around her waist to pull her close. “Have we thought of everything, Mede?”
“No. We didn’t have enough time.”
Sparkle could feel the deep vibration of his voice all the way through her. She wanted to curl against him and purr. “When this is over, I want us to settle down forever.” Left unsaid was, “Wherever that may be.”
His soft chuckle wrapped around her, so familiar and loved. “Cosmic troublemakers don’t settle, and forever will get stale in one place.”
“We can.” She felt militant about this. “No more wandering the earth making humans miserable. We’ll have neighbors in an ordinary neighborhood, a garden, maybe even get a dog. We might even be…kind. Maybe I’ll bake cookies.”
He looked horrified. “Please don’t.”
He was right. She was a terrible cook. She bit her lip as she thought. “I suppose the neighbors will eventually notice that we stay young and gorgeous while they shrivel and grow old. But we’ll find a way to deal with that.”
He frowned. “Sounds boring. I’d want—”
She’d have to wait to find out what he’d want because his text-alert pinged. Sparkle sat up as he took his hand from around her waist to retrieve his phone. He stared at the screen for a moment before meeting her gaze. His expression said everything. It was time. But she promised herself they’d be together on this couch on the other side of the battle. She fashioned her resolve into an unbreakable promise and stored it in the corner of her heart where all that was truly Sparkle Stardust lived.
“That was Dad. He texted one word. Causeway.”
Mede raked his fingers through all that golden hair she’d touched so many times in the past. And you’ll touch it many times in the future.
“I wish he’d try to squeeze in two or even three more words.” With a muttered curse, he called Holgarth. “I don’t give a damn if you’re still drying out. Tell me who’s watching the causeway.” He listened then made another call. “Blue, what’re you seeing right now?” Some more listening. Then an expression of shock. Finally, he called the general. “Nazari, sound the alarm. They’re fifteen minutes away.” Long pause as the general shouted questions.
Sparkle could hear them clearly. She figured everyone on their floor could hear them.
“Tour buses. That’s all I know.” He cut the general off in mid-yell and shoved the phone back into his pocket. Then he shook his head and laughed.
“Tour buses? You’re kidding.” Sparkle stood. Laughter was the last thing she expected in this situation.
“Blue said there’s a line of about twenty of them crossing the causeway right now.” His laughter faded to a chuckle.
“So? Tour buses are always coming here.”
“Do they all have Bourne Express as their destination sign?”
“Oh.”
“Yeah, oh. All this time I had these pictures in my mind of how he’d get here. Dropping out of the sky leading an army of flying ghouls. Rumbling across the country camouflaged as a killer storm that would flatten cities. Marching behind hundreds of giant worms that were tunneling under Texas to reach us. Riding the crest of an enormous tsunami that would swallow the whole Gulf Coast. Now, here he comes…riding in a tour bus.” Mede shook his head. “Zendig hasn’t learned a major lesson of war. Presentation is everything. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’s lost the first round.” He headed for the door. “Let’s go.”
Sparkle stopped long enough to fish her gun from the side-table drawer. It was for when natural talent might not be enough. She was a realist. Mede could blow holes in the universe. Her? Not so much. Sometimes you just needed an edge. Reluctantly, she put on her gun belt. The black leather matched her outfit, but it ruined the smooth line of skirt and bustier. It would be worth it, though, if she got the chance to blow a hole in Zendig. Then she ran to catch up with Mede. When she joined him in the great hall, he was speaking with the general.
“Everything set?” Mede scanned the great hall. “Those buses will be here soon.”
Sparkle waited for the laughter, but Kadar didn’t seem to think it was funny. “He could have those buses packed with explosives ready to ram the Castle.” He had to speak loudly because the wail of the fire alarm he’d pressed into service as an attack warning was drowning him out.
Mede made a derisive sound. “Humans think like that, not people from Effix. We depend on our own power in a battle. Besides, I think Dad would’ve squeezed any bomb-filled buses into his text.”
Thankfully, the fire alarm cut off, leaving her ears still ringing.
She thought about the gun at her hip. Humans got it right once in a while. “You did a great job, Kadar. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the place was deserted except for Amaya in her cage and Conall’s team.” Speaking of whom… She waved at the droopy-looking kitsune. “How’s it going?”
Amaya scowled. “I’m hungry. What’re the chances of you getting a burger to the lady in the cage?”
Sparkle made a moue of regret. “Sorry. Zendig will be here in a few minutes. But afterwards I’ll make a burger-and-fries run for you.” She hesitated. “And for the cage.” Then she switched her attention back to what Mede was saying.
“Sparkle’s right. I have to hand it to you, Navari. I’d never guess there were a hundred people hidden away here. I can’t figure out how you found enough hidey-holes for them.” Mede looked around. “You probably have a few stowed inside the fireplace. It’s certainly big enough.”
For the first time, Kadar smiled. “You’d be surprised.” He shouted at the semi-empty great hall, “Show yourselves.”
At least twenty troublemakers popped into plain view around the room.
“How?” Sparkle hadn’t sensed them. Amazing.
The general looked smug. “Sam Jones, the troublemaker over there in the khaki shorts and Hawaiian shirt, can hide himself and a few others for an unlimited amount of time. He’s made quite a living hiring out his services.”
“I bet he has.” Sparkle wondered how many unsolved burglaries good old Sam had under his belt.
“Sam Jones? Never heard of him.” Mede glanced at the others who had appeared. “
Don’t know any of them.”
Kadar looked offended. “A good leader is organized, knows his men and their talents so he can call on them in an emergency.” His expression said he would make that good leader. “You’ve been too self-involved, Ganymede. You should reach out to your fellow troublemakers, get to know them.”
“Thanks for the advice, General. Now maybe Sam should hide himself and his friends again.”
Sparkle held her breath. She hoped Kadar didn’t sense Mede’s teeth grinding. She knew how Mede reacted to people telling him what to do. She spoke up to give him time to settle his temper. “Sam Jones? Oh, no. The poor man. No troublemaker should be a Sam Jones.” She looked over to where the Sam Jones in question was an interested observer. She threw him a kiss. “You come visit me when this is all over, and I’ll make sure you leave with a name you can wear with pride.” She offered Sam her most sensual smile.
Sam looked a little dazed as Kadar ordered them all back to invisibility. She couldn’t help feeling a teeny shiver of triumph. The general might glare and yell, but she could get the same response with a twitch of sexiness and a smile.
“The fog is rolling over the island, and the sound around the castle has been dampened. Now if you folks will hide yourselves, we’ll be as ready as we’re going to be”—he speared Mede with a hard stare—“given how little time I had to prepare the troops.”
Sparkle didn’t allow Mede time to respond. She grabbed his hand and pulled him to the stairs. “Let’s go up to the wall-walk so we can see when they arrive.”
By the time they emerged onto the walk, they were both out of breath. The fog was so thick they didn’t even see the two other troublemakers who were up there with them. They crept to a spot where they could crouch behind the battlement to view the parking lot. Too bad the damn fog made it invisible.
Mede pressed close to her, his warmth welcome on what had been a warm Texas afternoon. The drifting fog cocooned them, making it almost possible for her to believe they were the only ones on Earth.
“No matter what the bastard throws at us, we’ll be stronger, more powerful, because we’re together. It’s always been that way.”
She nodded, wanting it to be true. But this time… Until this moment, she’d managed to hold the terror at bay. Cosmic troublemakers didn’t do panic. The possibility that she might die in the next few hours didn’t shorten her breath or make her heart hammer. Her true horror was the thought of surviving this only to find Mede gone forever. It could happen, because for the first time in her long existence they were facing the power that had created all of them. What if their combined strength wasn’t enough?
Mede reached over to grip her hand in his. She closed her eyes, trying to absorb his conviction, his belief that they would see tomorrow. And when she opened her eyes, he was close enough for her to see the glow in his amber eyes, close enough to see her reflection there.
“But he’s our maker, Mede.” Tell me how we can defeat him.
Suddenly, he was fierce, his sensual mouth drawn into a thin line of denial. “No, he’s not our maker. We had our own lives before he dragged us away from them, before he took everything from us and forced us into what he wanted us to be. Today is payback, Queen Doria. Believe it.”
Sparkle couldn’t help it, she smiled. He remembered. Millennia ago she had been—for a short human lifespan—the queen of a long-forgotten civilization. She had been fierce, feared by her country’s enemies and loved by her people. For those few years, Sparkle had forgotten she was a troublemaker and had merely been a queen. She straightened and lifted her chin. She could be that queen again, for him.
Mede leaned in to cover her mouth with his. His lips moved against hers softly, demanding nothing, promising her everything he was, everything he’d ever be. “It’s time for me to take my cat form again so I can do some sneaking and spying. Have to ID their weaknesses.
Sparkle nodded and looked away. Even after all these years, Mede still didn’t want witnesses to his change. It was slow and painful, so she understood. Quiet settled around her with its false sense of peace.
The feeling didn’t last. The growl of buses pulling into the parking lot shattered the moment. She couldn’t see them, but she heard when the drivers shut off their engines, when the people, or whatever they were, started unloading, and when they started toward the Castle with sounds of slithering and dragging that made her shiver. She wondered why Kadar hadn’t put more defenders outside the Castle. But he was the general, so maybe she should allow him to do his thing.
Then Mede was staring up at her. “Gray is the perfect color for a cat spy in a fog. I’ll mental-message you and Nazari what I find.”
What was left to say other than, “Stay safe.”
“Hey, I’m good at this, babe.” Then he padded to the stairs leading down to the great hall and was gone.
“So am I, babe,” she whispered. Then Sparkle straightened, lifted her chin, fluffed her hair again and put her patented sexy-walk in motion. She was a dangerous woman, and Zendig was about to see her in action.
30
Ganymede crept out of the restaurant’s kitchen door into the shifting fog. He took a deep breath of the cool damp air before padding around the side of the castle until he had a view of the parking lot. No blazing Texas sun cut through the heavy fog, and nearby objects like shrubs and statues were nothing more than shadowy figures that could be anything—zombies, IRS agents, anything. He loved it. This was a cat’s world.
Maybe Nazari was right. He should get to know some other troublemakers. He’d like to hire the one doing this fog. Great atmosphere. If the Castle survives. Ganymede shoved the thought away.
Even with his enhanced cat vision, he didn’t see the buses until he was almost on top of them. Ganymede crouched beneath a bush to get a look. The people getting off had humanoid shapes, but that’s all he could see. They wore long black cowls with their hoods up. And maybe it was a trick of the fog, but it almost looked as though they glided above the ground instead of walking.
He wracked his brain, trying to remember if he’d ever seen them in his first life. But that time still remained elusive, floating out there just beyond his reach. Ganymede wondered what others Zendig had brought with him. He thought about creeping closer.
“This fog is a nuisance. It must belong to some troublemaker in the Castle. A boring power. I’ll get rid of some of it so we can see what we’re facing. Not all. We don’t want the human population reporting us.”
That voice. Ganymede remembered. It had been part of that time after his capture. Always in his head. Day after day, pounding away at his will, slowly stripping away who he was and replacing that person with someone new. A cold and emotionless voice. Zendig.
A sudden wind whipped the branch above him. It smacked him on top of his head. Ganymede almost leaped into the air. He caught himself just in time. It wouldn’t be a good idea for Zendig to catch him outside the Castle now. He backed further into the bushes.
As the fog cleared a little, he saw Zendig. Ganymede didn’t doubt for a minute that the body he saw belonged to the voice he remembered. Zendig had to be almost seven feet tall with massive shoulders. He wore a black T-shirt that showed off muscled arms and a chest that would’ve sent Mr. Universe back to the gym. Too much. Zendig didn’t understand the meaning of subtle. Then he turned in Ganymede’s direction.
The wind whipped the fog into eddies and swirls as Ganymede got a clear look at Zendig’s face for the first time. It was the face Ganymede would’ve expected from him—brutal, arrogant. All sharp angles with hard eyes that he could feel across the distance separating them.
The wind increased until Ganymede could see all of Zendig’s forces. The smallest group looked human. He spotted his father in their midst. So those were the spies Zendig had sent to search for Bourne. Not dangerous unless they had guns. A larger group weren’t even close to humanoid. The size of small ponies, they had big pale heads, thick necks, and torsos attached to bunches of tent
acles. They scuttled along like crabs. And when one yawned, he could see teeth that would bring tears of envy to Jaws. That’s why Zendig had needed so many buses. It would be tough to cram many of those suckers into one. There were small groups of other fighters that Ganymede couldn’t ID. Mercenaries? Made sense. Zendig wouldn’t want to bring an army of his own people on the off chance some troublemaker would expose him as the kidnapper of their children. He estimated there were a little over a hundred of the enemy. So pretty evenly matched number-wise. Too bad the vampires still slept. They needed an edge.
He mentally relayed the info to Nazari and Sparkle. And then he padded back to the side door. Once inside, he huddled with the general and Sparkle in a shadowed alcove off the great hall. “Zendig will be the real powerhouse. The rest are merely sideshows.”
“What about your dad? Why hasn’t he told the others from Effix the truth about Zendig?” Sparkle’s gaze flicked to the courtyard door. She licked her lips and smoothed her skirt. She took a deep breath. “Geez, the waiting is the worst.”
“It would blow his cover if he told them. Someone could rat on him and then no more info and no more Dad.” Ganymede indulged in a moment of compulsive paw grooming. Then he caught himself. Nerves wouldn’t win this battle. “Time for me to change forms. I want to be human when I destroy this fucker.” He padded down the hallway to the chapel then slowly shifted. Damn. You’d think after all the centuries he would’ve found a way to speed this up. Before leaving the chapel, he said a few words to whatever god was listening. They’d need all the help they could get.
Back in the great hall, he returned to where the general and Sparkle still crouched. Waiting.
The sudden roars of the gargoyles made him jump. But within seconds they cut off. He wasn’t surprised. Zendig’s power would be too much for them. A booming knock on the great hall door finally broke the uneasy silence.
“Open this door. I’ve come for the one you call Bourne, but that I call traitor.”
