Coletti Warlords: Just Desserts (19 page)

I climbed on, wobbling a bit as I stood upright.

“Don’t fall,” Hank barked.

“Yes, sir.” I grabbed a handful of his hair to steady myself.

He grunted. “Damn, woman. You tryin’ to snatch me bald?”

“Quit being such a baby.” I quickly unlocked the shackles and jumped down.

“Momma! I help Daddy find you,”
Thor shouted excitedly.

Hank rubbed his head gingerly. “You’re a regular homing pigeon.”

“That’s good, sweetie. Where are we?”

“Heurist. We come.”

“Isn’t Heurist in the middle of the Queen Mother’s territory?”

“It is.” Fire ants danced in my head. “Someone is coming.”

Hank smacked Tihar’s face.
“Snap out of it.”

Yeah, like that was going to work. “Lift me up.”

Hank held out an impatient hand. “I can pick a lock, ma’am.”

The bossy jerk was going to drive Soulet nuts. I gave him the pick. Within thirty seconds, he had efficiently unlocked the shackles. Tihar slumped to the ground.

“If you think I’m carrying the Askole, think again.”

I shot him a frosty look. “Gee, I wouldn’t want you to hurt yourself.”

“He stunned Soulet,” Hank snapped.

“What Tihar did was inexcusable.”

“Damn right it was.”

The sensation of danger was growing stronger. Crap. Our kidnappers were coming back. Wait. It wasn’t Mog. It was his henchmen. A lot of them “Move aside, old man. I’ve teleported Tihar before, and I can do it again.”

Hank snorted. “
You
teleported that Askole?”

My hands curled into fists. “You calling me a liar?”

“He’s gotta weigh four hundred pounds.”

“And your point is?”

“There’s no way an itty-bitty female could pull it off.”

God, save me from chest-thumping alpha males. “You’d be amazed at what you can do when you’re looking death in the eye.” I poked him in the shoulder. “And I never,
ever
leave a man behind. Even you.”

A red flush stained Hank’s cheeks.

A hairy, ten-foot-tall teddy bear lumbered into the cavern. It stopped dead and stared at us.

“Fuck.” Hank pushed me behind him. “I’ll handle it.”

“Uh. It’s a Hus Ping.”

“If it bleeds, I can kill it.”

“Who do you think kicked Tihar’s ass?”

Hank arched a brow. “The teddy bear?”

“The Hus Pings travel in packs, and they’re dumb as—”

Letting out a thunderous roar, the Hus Ping charged Hank. He dodged the slashing claws and drove his boot into its knee, knocking the bear down. Before it could get up, Hank slammed his forearm into the base of the Hus Ping’s neck.

The teddy bear shook its head, then swung a massive arm back, catching Hank across the chest.

I flinched as he slammed into the wall. That had to hurt.

With a furious bellow, the Hus Ping grabbed Hank and shook him violently.

I teleported to the pit and whistled loudly. “Hey. Cuddles. Over here.”

The bear dropped Hank and rushed toward me. Thirty seconds before the Hus Ping could grab me, I teleported to the other side of pit.

The look in the Hus Ping’s eyes as it fell? Priceless.

Hank limped over. “You were saying?”

“The Hus Pings are scavengers, usually harmless and dumb as a rock.”

“Harmless?” He wiped the blood off his mouth.

“They were until Mog came along.”

A faraway look in his eyes, Hank said, “More of them are coming.”

“Momma. Daddy know ’bout Pings.”

“You’re such a smart baby.”

Haki asked,
“Me too?”

“You too.”
I hurried over to Tihar and lay on top of him.

“What are you doing?”

“Duh.” I teleported us a hundred yards down the tunnel.

Hank appeared next to us. “I humbly apologize, ma’am.”

“Never judge someone by their size. You’re liable to get your ass handed to you.”

“Yes, ma’am. I’m mighty impressed by your abilities.”

Sarcastic ass. “We need to find a place to hide.”

“I’ll do a little recon.” Hank vanished.

“How many Pings, Momma?”

I scanned the cavern.
“Tell Daddy forty.”

“’Kay.”

Angry growls echoed down the tunnel.

Time to put a little more distance between the bears and us. Lucky for me, the Hus Pings weren’t the best trackers in the galaxy. Gathering my power, I teleported us another five hundred yards and collapsed against Tihar’s scaly chest.
“You need to cut down on the Bir worms, buddy.”

Hank popped in. “I found us a way off this rock.”

“Great. How far?”

“Not far.” He flashed me the image of a landing bay.

I whimpered. It was over a thousand yards away.

“We help, Momma.”

To my utter surprise, Zarek’s, Talree’s, Haki’s, and Thor’s power poured into me. I focused on the image and teleported. There was fleeting second of blackness, and poof. I was in the landing bay.

“Momma did it,”
Thor chortled.

“Love you, baby boy.”
The landing bay was empty except for a pitiful excuse for a shuttle. It looked like it was held together by chewing gum. “That’s it?”

Hank shrugged. “I did a systems check. It’ll fly.”

“Yeah, but for how long?”

“Long enough, ma’am.”

“Right. I guess we can teleport if it catches fire.”

He looked at me like I was nuts. “Teleport from a moving shuttle?”

“I’ve done it before.”

“And you didn’t lose any body parts?”

“Nope, not a one. Can you put Tihar in the shuttle?”

“Me?”

“You’re a former marine. It should be a walk in the park for you to carry Tihar a measly hundred feet.”

Anger flashed in Hank’s eyes. “I was an Army Ranger, ma’am.”

“There’s a difference?” I waited for the explosion.

“Marines are pussies. They send the Rangers in when the job needs to be done right,” he retorted.

I saluted him. “Mess with the best, die like the rest. Hoo-yah.”

Hank shot me a nasty look. With a grunt, he heaved Tihar over his shoulder and stood.

This should get interesting.

The Askole’s tentacles slid down Hank’s neck. Letting out a startled yell, the big wuss dumped Tihar on the floor and smacked wildly at his neck. “Sonovabitch.”

Stifling a gurgle of laughter, I assumed a concerned demeanor and asked, “Bug get ya?”

He muttered something under his breath.

I cocked my head. “What was that?”

His eyes narrowed in pure exasperation, Hank replied, “It wasn’t a bug, ma’am. Oh, yeah. I found Valdez.”

“What? When? And you decided to withhold that information until now?” I mimicked Talree’s scary face.

A laugh broke from him. “You couldn’t frighten a fly with that look, ma’am.”

Dang. I thought I had it down pat.

Hank stalked over to a control panel and hit a button. The wall slid back to reveal a bloody holding cell. “I discovered our traitor’s location five minutes ago.”

My stomach roiled. Valdez was missing most of his face, an arm, and part of one leg. “He’s still alive?”

“He is.”

“Sucks to be him. He thinks he’s hurting now, wait until Zarek gets finished with him.”

“Grandpa wants bad man.”
Thor quickly added,
“Alive.”

“We’ll try.”

“Try hard, Momma.”

“Tell Grandpa Valdez is missing pieces.”

“Find med kit,”
Thor parroted.

Hank called, “I’ll look for one, ma’am.”

“If you call me ‘ma’am’ one more time, I’m gonna kick your ass.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

An evil-looking grasshopper landed on Hank’s shoulder.

Should I warn him or not? It jumped on his head. Its mandibles chomped on his hair. “You’ve got a critter on your head.”

He rolled his eyes.

Its antennae quivering, the grasshopper crawled down Hank’s face. He froze. “Get it off. Get it off. Please.”

Well, if he was going to use the P word.
“Off,”
I commanded mentally.

The alien grasshopper obediently hopped down.

Hank stomped the shit out of it.

“Snake come, Momma,”
Thor said urgently.

Terrific. “Did you hear that, Hank?”

“I did.” He ran to the cell area, retrieved a med kit, and brought it to me.

“Hot dang.” Grabbing it, I hurried to Tihar and ran the scanner over him. Not as bad as I was expecting.

A metallic voice sounded from the med kit. “Inject Askole with 10cc of Vishna.”

I did as instructed.

Tihar twitched.

The metallic voice directed, “Scan Askole again.”

I complied.

“Inject Askole with 20cc of Sushila,” the voice commanded.

“Sushila?” I rummaged through the kit. Crap. There wasn’t any.

“Inject Askole with 20cc of Sushila.”

“Would if I could.”

Hank opened another med kit and handed me a vial. “Here you go.”

“Thanks.” I quickly injected Tihar.

“Stand back,” the metallic voice ordered.

I exchanged a puzzled look with Hank, and we took several steps back.

Tihar shuddered and shook. His eyes rolled wildly in his head.

“That can’t be good.”

“Maybe we should make a run for it,” Hank said.

With a terrifying howl of fury, Tihar shot to his feet.
“Kill. Kill. Kill.”

Yikes. “Don’t move a muscle,” I whispered to Hank.

A bunch of Hus Pings burst into the landing bay.

One second Tihar was in front of us, and the next he wasn’t. Moving too fast for the eye to follow, he literally tore the Hus Pings to pieces. Body parts and blood flew in every direction.

Hank dodged a flying leg. “Damn. He’s fast.”

More teddy bears joined the fight.

Scooping up the pressure injectors, I filled them with a heavy-duty anesthesia and handed one to Hank. “How about we even the odds?”

“Sounds like a plan.” He popped out.

I teleported. Jabbed a bear in the butt. Teleported. Jabbed. Teleported. Jabbed.

A massive paw rocketed toward my face. I ducked. The bear bellowed in frustration and lunged for me.

I somersaulted backward. Eight-inch claws missed me by inches.

A black blur zoomed by. Tihar was in his hyperspeed mode.

Whack.
Hot blood sprayed over me. Oh gross. I wiped it out of my eyes.

The Hus Ping’s headless corpse lay at my feet.

Another teddy bear grabbed me, squeezing the air out of my lungs. I stabbed him in the thigh with the injector.

The bear staggered around like a drunk on a three-day bender before toppling to the floor.

At least I was on top this time. I pushed the hairy arms off me, took several wheezing breaths, and waited for the funny black spots in my vision to go away.

Tihar turned the last Hus Ping into sushi.

I sagged against the cold metal in utter relief.

A small boiling gray cloud formed.

Perfect. A goddamned vortex. Had the Queen Bitch found us?

Chapter Seventeen

A Shani wearing a gold collar crawled out of the vortex.

That sure looked like Bree’s little friend, and was that a com-link on her collar?
“Rami?”

She quickly slithered over to me.
“The Overlord sent me. You are to call him immediately.”

I released the com-link and flipped it open. “Hello?”

“Status,” Zarek barked.

“Mog is behind our kidnappings. Tihar took out the majority of the Hus Pings. We’ve located a piece-of-crap shuttle we hope will fly and—”

Tihar suddenly crumpled to the ground.

“Oh no.” Scrambling to my feet, I ran over to Tihar and knelt beside him. He had picked up some rather nasty cuts.

Zarek demanded, “What’s happening?”

“Tihar collapsed. I think the drugs we gave him wore off.”

There was a long sigh, and the Overlord asked wearily, “What did you inject him with?”

“Vishna and Sushila.”

“Those drugs are used only in emergency situations.”

“It was an emergency, sir. We needed Tihar on his feet and able to fight.”

Hank hurried over and handed me a med kit.

I quickly scanned Tihar.

The med kit’s mechanical voice stated, “The Askole’s vital signs are stable. He will not be combat ready until 2300 hours.”

Could this day get any worse?

“Rami will assist you until we arrive,” Zarek said.

I massaged my throbbing temples. “Great, and what’s your ETA, sir?”

“One hour.”

“You better be taking good care of my son.”

Talree’s grim voice sounded from the com-link. “Thor is with me. How badly are you injured, Kaylee?”

“I’m fine.”

“Kaylee.”

When Talree got that steely note in his voice, there was no reasoning with him. “Some bruises and a couple of cracked ribs.”

“Have Hank scan you.”

My Siren senses flared to life. Great. More Hus Pings, and was that Mog? “Later.  We have incoming hostiles.”

The landing bay doors opened with a loud squeal.

Hank hurriedly dragged Tihar next to the wall.

A decrepit shuttle zigzagged wildly before swooping into the landing bay. It bounced off our ride and crashed into a wall.

“What a piss-poor pilot,” Hank commented.

“No kidding.” I jerked in alarm when Rami wound herself around my leg.
“What are you doing?”

“The Askole moved.”

“He won’t hurt you.”
I petted her head.
“He’s my friend.”

Rami eyed him warily.
“An Askole tried to kill Momma Bree.”

“That Askole was a rogue. Tihar hunts rogues and kills them.”

Her grip on my leg loosened.

The shuttle door slid back. Three drunk-as-skunks Hus Pings stumbled out and walked right past us, totally ignoring the bloody remains of their buddies.

“If Mog plans on being Master of the Universe, he needs better help,” I said as the bears disappeared down the corridor.

Honking like a demented duck, Mog lurched down the ramp, his funky eyes zooming in and out.

Hank asked quietly, “You think he sees us?”

Mog went for his laser pistol.

“That would be a yes.” I teleported behind Mog and snatched the pistol away.