Coletti Warlords: Just Desserts (3 page)

Haki hid in my hair and shivered.
“She says Talree comes.”

I glanced at the fountains of molten rocks flowing out of the crater. Not in time.

“Daddy save us,”
Thor stated proudly.

“Of course he will, sweetie.”

“Come here,” Hank commanded from the corner of the room.

Rolling my eyes, I obediently waddled over to him. Yep, he definitely had the Warlord’s bossy gene.

Covering my body with his, Hank detonated the explosives.

Boom!
The door blew off and crashed against the far wall with a loud
bang
.

“Let’s get out of here,” Hank said, ushering me out into the hallway.

The building groaned and creaked ominously. The temperature increased dramatically until it felt like we were being cooked alive.

Hank shot a worried look at the orange glow radiating from our cell and increased his pace, practically dragging me down the corridor.

“These research outposts usually have some sort of armored hovercraft for collecting samples,” I said, trying to ignore a sharp contraction. My baby wasn’t being born now. No way. No how. And not here.

The stench of death grew stronger and stronger.

“No like it here!
” Haki cried.

“
I know, honey.”

Thor asked anxiously,
“Daddy come soon?”

“Yes.”
I glanced into a lab and grimaced. Dried blood covered the walls. A chewed-up hand, bloody boot, and shattered skull decorated the floor.

Hank’s lips drew back in a feral snarl. “Those scientists never had a chance.”

“No, but paybacks are a bitch.”

“I like the way you think,” Hank said.

I felt a tingling sensation, and a glittering blue light blossomed around us. “I guess the Tai-Kok don’t want us crispy fried.”

One second we were in the research station’s hallway, and the next we were standing on an icy-cold transporter platform. I blinked in disbelief. The alien version of a Frankenstein monster stood at the command console.

The funky-looking critter wore the tattered remains of a red battle suit. Could it be a cyborg? Or something else? Pitted, badly rusted metal covered half its skull. Two of the creature’s eyes had been replaced with telephoto lens that continually zoomed in and out. The right arm was metal with a clawed hand, and a stump made from some kind of wood replaced his lower left leg.

“Mog,” Hank said.

Duh. I gave myself a mental head-smack. “The Tai-Kok commander Jaylan fed to the sand sharks.”

“The one and only.”

“I’m kinda surprised the Tai-Kok took him back.”

“They didn’t,” Hank answered, pushing me behind him.

Haki chittered.
“He silly.”

Thor asked curiously,
“Why he has claw?”

“Shhhh. Be very quiet until your father comes.”

“’Kay,”
both kids said in unison.

Mog started quacking like a rabid duck on meth.

A mechanical voice translated his gobbledygook. “You are my prisoners. The Warlord will surrender to me, or I will eat you, piece by piece.”

“Get in line,” I muttered, rubbing my aching back.

Hank queried, “Which Warlord are you talking about? Zarek? Talree or Jaylan?”

The Tai-Kok looked confused for a moment, then quacked, “Jaylan. He fed me to the sharks. I will have my vengeance.”

I whispered, “I bet the boob forgot to tell anyone he has us.”

With a snort of amusement, Hank asked, “Have you contacted Jaylan with your demands?”

Mog’s eyes spun wildly. With a flustered squawk, he quickly tapped on the console. Nothing happened. Honking angrily, Mog punched the communication icon again, again, again, and yet again.

Guess the rumors of him being a bit brain damaged were true. I peered around Hank’s back. “Do you need Jaylan’s communicator code?”
Please say yes. Please say yes.

His eyes zoomed in on me, and he quacked.

A second later, the translator said, “Yes.”

“89123021CZJK,” I supplied, smiling evilly as Mog typed the code in.

“Gotcha, you dumb bastard,” Hank murmured.

Yes, we did. The special code embedded in the signal would paint a big bull’s-eye on his ship.

Jaylan’s image formed in midair. His back toward us, he studied a busy battle board.

Mog honked, and the translator said, “Warlord.”

Jaylan spun around and bared his fangs menacingly. “Mog, this time you will
die
.”

“I have your mate.”

Jaylan’s eyebrows rose incredulously. “Do you?”

The cyborg touched the control panel, and a yellow light scanned us. “Surrender to me or they die.”

Stepping out from behind Hank, I threw Jaylan a kiss. “Hey, sweetie, Mog just transported us away from our previous hosts.”

Relief flared in Jaylan’s eyes, and he quickly tapped a communications icon. “Do your previous hosts know you’re missing?”

“An eruption just took out the research center, so I imagine they’re freaking out about now.”

A low, raise-the-hair-on-the-back-of-your-neck kind of growl sounded off-screen.

I smiled. That was Talree’s someone-is-going-to-die-horribly growl.

A thin stream of drool ran down Mog’s chin as he bared his two pitiful metal teeth in a snarl. “Warlord, you will come in an unarmed shuttle to the coordinates I just transmitted. You have eight of your hours to comply, or I will eat your mate.”

Jaylan’s mouth tightened. “We agree to your terms.”

Mog broke the transmission and honked triumphantly. “I will bathe in his blood.”

Hank nodded in agreement. “You’re right. There will be a bloodbath.”

A shimmering blue light suddenly engulfed us.

Mog squawked in disbelief.

An instant later, we were standing on another transporter platform. Swell, it was the asshole with the Mohawk.

The Tai-Kok warrior let out a series of cackling honks.

A mechanical voice said, “There is no escape, humans.”

A sparkling blue energy field surrounded us. I waved at the monster. “Bye-bye.”

Mohawk quacked in fury. “I will find you.”

Hank and I appeared on the bridge of an unknown ship. A sigh of relief escaped me when I saw the female Askole sitting at the command console. Tihar must have sent his sister, Soulet, to rescue us.

Her attention focused on the battle screens, she said,
“Strap in, little mother. The Tai-Kok have their weapons system locked on.”

“Shit.”
I hurried over to weapons control, dropped into the seat, and fastened the harness over my bulging belly.

Hank took the chair next to me and brought up the tracking screens. “Who is she?”

“Soulet, the Askole High Commander’s daughter.”

A fierce salvo rocked the ship.

“They just launched a squadron of marauders,” Hank advised.

The Tai-Kok’s two-man fighters were deadly, but they had picked the wrong person to mess with. “Cranky” didn’t even begin to describe me.

Soulet’s tentacles squirmed wildly about her head.
“Tihar said you have the Overlord’s skill at killing.”

“I’m very, very good at killing monsters.”
Bringing up my targeting screen, I wrapped my right hand around the firing control and started shooting.

The view screens lit up like the Fourth of July.

Hank whistled. “Nice shootin’.”

“A little side effect of my merge with Zarek.”

A marauder materialized on the aft view screen, firing its laser cannons.

Soulet rolled the starship over. G-forces slammed me back against the chair as the ship accelerated sharply and went into a nauseating series of twists, banks, and dives.  Ugh. The pressure made my contractions worse.

“Whee! Fun,”
Haki cried.

“Fun” wasn’t quite the word. Bend over and kiss your ass good-bye was more like it. I unleashed a barrage of laser fire, and the marauder vanished in a geyser of metal and crimson flames.

Our ship bobbed wildly as we took hit after hit.

Warning lights appeared on Hank’s console. He tapped an icon and warned, 
“Shields are overloading.”

I noticed a decrepit freighter closing fast on the Tai-Kok’s battle cruiser. A little too fast.
“Is that Mog’s ship?”

Hank looked at his screens.
“Oh, yeah, it’s him. His life readings are one of a kind.”

To my utter astonishment, a missile launched from the freighter and scored a direct hit on the battle cruiser’s engines.

The Tai-Kok ship disintegrated into a cloud of vaporized metal.

“Holy shit! What were the odds of that happening?”

Soulet let out a crackling laugh.
“Mog had the codes to the battle cruiser’s computers and shields.”

“I guess the Tai-Kok high command never thought Mog would use his knowledge against them,”
Hank added.

“My question is, did Mog know we were no longer on the battle cruiser before he blew it to kingdom come?”

Hank laughed.
“Probably not.”

The remaining marauders turned their wrath on the freighter.

“Mog better pull another rabbit out of his hat, or he’s a dead man,”
I commented.

Soulet frowned.
“Rabbit?”

“It’s like a petka,”
I explained, wincing as another contraction hit.

A very confused Soulet asked,
“How would a petka help him, and what is it doing in a hat?”

“It’s an old Earth saying,”
Hank told her.

“It makes no sense.”

Rubbing my belly in an attempt to ease the pain, I snapped,
“Never mind. It’s not important. Let’s just get the hell out of here before more Tai-Kok show up.”

Hank eyed me warily.
“Are you in labor?”

“Maybe.”

“Cross your legs, dammit. You can’t have that baby now!”
Hank bellowed.

If I’d had a gun, I would have shot him.
“Cross my legs? Are you kidding me?”

“I’ve never delivered a baby before.”

“I have,”
Soulet advised calmly.

I asked hopefully,
“A human baby?”

“No, but popping a soft skin from the birthing canal can’t be that difficult.”

A hysterical laugh escaped me.
“Right. What possibly could go wrong?”

An engine warning light appeared on the console.

“Oh fuck! This ship is not crashing. Do you hear me?”

Hank winced and held up a placating hand.
“Yes, we do.”

Soulet grinned.
“We will not crash, little mother. The planet Centra is a good place to hide. Even soft skins can survive there.”

“Be still, my beating heart. But if it’s nothing but jungle or swamp, you’re turning this ship around. Been there. Done that.”

Hank patted my knee.
“It’s a water world.”

I bared my fangs at him.
“Don’t patronize me.”

He hastily withdrew his hand.
“Wouldn’t think of it, ma’am. There are a bunch of islands we can take refuge on. We’ll be safe.”

“Safe? Hello, shit magnet here.”
A gasp broke from me as a painful spasm contorted my belly.
“I can’t have Thor now. Not with the Tai-Kok horde on our asses.”

Soulet pointed a medical scanner at me.
“The baby comes, little mother.”

“Shit.”
I sucked in a deep breath and rode out the tearing agony.

“Scared!”
Thor cried.

Haki scurried down to my stomach.
“You hatching. Eat through egg.”

“NO! Human babies aren’t hatched. No eating.”
What happened to my easy delivery in sick bay?

Little emerald eyes peered up at me.
“How Thor come out?”

I so did not want to have the birds-and-the-bees talk with him.

Hank petted Haki.
“That’s a lesson for another time. You need to keep Thor calm. Can you do that?”

“Me can.”
Haki hopped up and down on my belly.
“We play.”

“Oh, God.” My abdomen tightened into a contorted ball. I hissed in pain.

“Breathe through it,” Hank coached.

I glared at him. “Don’t
talk
to me.”

Atmospheric turbulence buffeted the ship. The view screen showed scummy black water whipped into a frenzy by what had to be a class-four typhoon.

“Don’t tell me. It’s hurricane season?”

“It is,”
Soulet answered cheerfully.

“Fuck.”

Chapter Three

Steep white cliffs rose out of the crashing onyx waves. With some slick maneuvering, Soulet managed to squeeze her fighter into a massive cavern on the east side of the island.

She gave me a rather frightening smile.
“This planet has several million islands. The chances of the Tai-Kok finding us before the Coletti and Askole battle fleet arrive is very slight.”

“Gosh, I feel so much better now.”
I took a deep breath and fought down my growing fear. It was never that easy. I knew I was behaving badly, but dammit, I needed Talree. Here. Now. Not a zillion miles away.

Haki scampered wildly from one side of my stomach to the other.

Thor swatted playfully at Haki.

Wonderful. The kids were playing “Tag! You’re it.”

Hank chuckled at Haki’s antics.

The sensation of impending doom was growing stronger and stronger. I knew we were in danger. Fighting back a scream as a nauseating wave of agony twisted my innards, I turned to Soulet.
“I want you to cleanse the Drakash from my body.”

Soulet shook her head.
“I cannot.”

My temper flared to life, and I shouted,
“I need my Siren abilities back. Now!”

“The risk to your little warrior is too great.”

Tears rolled down my cheeks.
“God, I’m totally helpless. I can’t protect myself. I can’t protect Thor or Haki.”

“I’ll protect you,”
Hank stated firmly.

“I am her protector,”
Soulet growled.

Hank narrowed his eyes.
“I made a promise to Talree. One I intend to keep.”

Soulet snapped,
“I also took an oath.”

Great, the last thing I needed was a brawl breaking out. I screamed bloody blue murder and clutched my stomach. Just like that, I had both my bodyguards’ undivided attention.