Coletti Warlords: Vexing Voss (17 page)

A feral smile curled my mouth. I just needed the ass to touch me. Feigning a seizure, I jerked spasmodically in my chair.

“Balock’s balls,” Zye spat. Clamping a hand on my shoulder, he ran a scanner over me. He didn’t want me dying too soon. He planned on making Voss, the terror of the universe, watch as I was eaten piece by piece. Didn’t that sound like fun?

Drawing heavily on Zye’s energy, I focused on the tentacle of power Zarek had left as a tracking device, followed it back to his mind, and screeched,
“Help! Kidnapped by Zye.”

Zye staggered back a step, shook his head as if to clear it, then hauled off and punched me hard in the face.

Stars exploded in my vision. I heard a deep-throated growl before everything faded to black.

“Wake up! Wake up!”

Why was someone shaking me like a rag doll?

“What did you do? Wake up!”

I forced my eyes open and flinched at the rage etched into Zye’s face.

“What did you do?”

“Timid mouse,”
Zarek commanded as he started efficiently cleansing the Drakash from my mind.

I obediently broke into hysterical sobs. “Please don’t hurt me. Please!”

Zye grabbed a handful of my hair and yanked my head back. “What did you do?”

“Nothing. How could I? I can’t feel my body, and my mind’s all muzzy,” I squeaked, adding in a bit of ditzy, airheaded bimbo into my act.

He gave my hair a vicious pull. “I felt you link with someone.”

Wailing like a frightened child, I cried, “Who? How? What did you do to me? Why can’t I feel my body?”

With a scowl, Zye released my hair. “I drugged you.”

“Why?”

“To make them pay.”

“For what?”

“They destroyed one of the greatest minds of this millennium,” Zye hissed. “Akeem would have restored the Coletti Empire to its greatness.”

“Oh, he worked for Malik?”

His hands balled into fists. “No! Malik answered to him.”

I found that a bit hard to believe.

“Tread carefully,”
Zarek warned.

“Zye is a few bricks short of a full load.”

“Indeed.”

Keeping my tone fearful, I asked Zye, “What will you do now?”

“I’m going to destroy him.”

“Malik?”

“No, you stupid petka, Zarek.”

Widening my eyes in astonishment, I gushed, “You’re strong enough to defeat Zarek in hand-to-hand combat?”

The Overlord’s chuckle sounded in my mind.

Zye puffed out his chest. “I could defeat him easily.”

“Really?” I would pay good money to see that fight. “Have you challenged him yet?”

“No need. He’ll soon be dead.”

“How?”

“I poisoned his wine.”

“Um… Would that be the wine Akeem brought into the meeting chamber?”

An evil smile curved Zye’s mouth. “One sip, and Zarek dies in agony.”

This guy was living in la-la land. Everyone on the ship knew that hadn’t worked. To my utter relief, I could finally feel my hands and legs again. Keeping up my helpless act, I cringed away from him. “The Overlord knew it was toxic. He never drank it.”

“That’s not possible. You are lying.” Zye’s open palm smacked me across the face.

The room danced around me, and pain radiated from my cheek. “It’s true. You saw him in the hallway. He looked pretty healthy to me,” I whined fearfully.

He smacked me again. “I poisoned all his wine.”

Dammit! The jerk had split my newly healed lip. Enough was enough. My temper roared to life. I was gonna kick the crap out of him.

“Easy, little one,”
Zarek said, blocking my attempts to move.
“You’re not strong enough to defeat him, and we need to know where he is taking you. Which you can’t learn if you’re unconscious.”

True. I spat out a mouthful of blood and stuttered, “But…but…I heard Voss talking about the wine. They knew. That’s why Zarek made Akeem drink it.”

Zye’s face paled, and he dropped into the pilot’s chair. “That’s not possible.”

“It’s true, and the Battle Commander slaughtered every one of Akeem’s warriors.”

His stunned gaze focused on me. “All of them?”

“Yes,” I whispered fearfully.

He sat there for a moment, then started laughing.

I hadn’t expected that response.
“Is he losing it?”

“His brain waves are unstable.”

“Wonderful.”

“None of it matters. Nothing can stop Malik from unleashing the Destroyer of Worlds,” Zye announced gleefully.

Zarek’s rage hammered my mind.
“He found it.”

I gave Zye a weak smile. “Is that some kind of new ship?”

“It’s an ancient weapon that the Bootan used to destroy their enemies. Now we will use it to destroy ours.”

“Why hasn’t Malik used it already?”

“It’s in Gorum territory. Once the Tai-Kok have eaten all the worms, we’ll claim it.”

“Wow, what a brilliant plan.” That explained why Bebo had been sold out.

Zye preened. “The Tai-Kok have already dined on the king of the Gorum and his pregnant mate. They made him watch as they pulled his unborn children from her womb and ate them one by one.”

Nausea rose in my throat.
“Oh dear God. They have no idea what they have done.”

“None,”
Zarek snapped.
“Children are precious to the Gorum. Bebo will not stop until every Tai-Kok has been exterminated.”

“I’ll be glad to help him wipe that vermin out.”

“It does present the perfect opportunity to negotiate an alliance with Bebo,”
Zarek said thoughtfully.

The medic from hell taunted, “You feel sorry for the monsters?”

“No child deserves that fate.”

An evil laugh broke from him. “It’s your fate as well.”

I cowered in my seat, wondering when he would realize I could move. “What are you talking about? What are you going to do with me?”

“I’m going to feed you to the Gorum, you stupid petka.”

Sobbing hysterically, I pleaded with him, “Please don’t do that. Do you really think Voss or the Overlord will care? They won’t. They won’t.”

“You’re the Battle Commander’s mate,” Zye snapped in disgust.

“I’m nothing to him but a source of blood, sex, and children. I can be easily replaced. Please. I’ll…I’ll do anything you want, but don’t feed me to them, please.”

“You’re lying. Your bloodlines make you a highly prized mate.”

“I’m not a Siren. I’m nothing special. Voss was so mad when he found out. I’m nothing like…nothing like the rest of my family.”

Zye scanned my mind, and with Zarek’s help, I appeared to be a low-level psychic. “I was told you were a Siren.”

To my utter relief, the paralysis was rapidly leaving my body. I wailed pathetically, “My father…the general told everyone that. He wanted to be posted…be posted to Central Command.”

He waved his hand dismissively. “It matters not. It will be a blow to the Battle Commander’s pride to have his mate stolen and her death broadcast across the galaxy.”

“No. No. No. Please don’t do that,” I whimpered.

“Be quiet, or I’ll give you more Drakash,” Zye threatened.

“Yes, my lord.” Huddling in the chair, I studied the control console.
“We’re heading toward Joroco.”

“Which explains Akeem’s eagerness to keep us far away from the planet,”
Zarek growled.

“Is this Destroyer of Worlds as bad as it sounds?”

Voss’s familiar presence flooded my mind.
“The Bootan destroyed ten solar systems before the weapon was captured by the Gorum and hidden.”

“Would Bebo use it on the Tai-Kok and Rodan?”

“In his place, I would,”
Zarek answered.

“It is the logical thing to do if you want to utterly destroy your enemy,”
Voss added as he mentally scanned my body. I could feel his anger as he cataloged my new injuries.

Whoa. The big guy was working himself up. Part of me liked the fact he would kill anyone who hurt me, but I could take care of myself.
“Hey, I get first dibs on killing the creep.”

Almost as if he had heard me, Zye bellowed with fury, whipped out a pistol, and fired.

Agony seared through every cell in my body as the stun beam hit me. Was that me screaming? God, I hoped not. Voss would freak. I fought to stay conscious.

Zye shook me viciously. “Do you take me for a fool? Do you?”

Did the idiot actually think I was capable of answering him? My stomach clenched as I realized I had lost my link with Voss and Zarek.

“The Battle Commander cannot save you.”

Tears of pain leaked down my cheeks. Zye was a dead man walking.

The murderous medic shoved a scanner at my face. “I can outthink, outfight, outmaneuver them. This little device tells me when Zarek or Voss are trying to contact you.”

Power flowed into me, and the agony faded away. When I didn’t get stunned again, I figured his swell scanner didn’t work as well as he thought.

Zye touched the control console, and we came out of warp drive. A glittering pink planet filled the view screen.

Joroco, a barren desert wasteland occupied by a few hardy souls who mined Sipan, and home of the icky Scorm. Trying to find Malik’s hidden base would be a difficult, time-consuming task.

Lucky for us, dickhead was taking me right to it. All I had to do was send up a smoke signal, and my honey bunny would come riding to the rescue. Easy. Right?

The ship dropped lower and lower. Ahead of us, gaunt, wind-tortured peaks of red stone rose from the seemingly endless ocean of coral sand. With the tap of an icon, a landing bay appeared in the massive wall.

Color me impressed.

Firing the landing thrusters, Zye brought the fighter to a stop next to a long line of Tai-Kok marauders.

With my psychic abilities still on the fritz, sending up a smoke signal might be a little harder than I thought.

“Dinnertime.” Zye chortled, unfastening my harness.

God, how I wanted to smack that sick smile off his face.

Zye tossed me over his shoulder and teleported.

We appeared in a corridor dotted with cells. Each held a half-starved Gorum. If the energy barriers failed, we’d be dinner. Zye opened the closest door and tossed me inside.

I did a fast tuck and roll, somersaulted to my feet, and blasted Zye’s mind with everything I had.

His head snapped back, but he didn’t go down.

Crap. I hit him again.

With a roar, he lunged at me and grabbed my arm.

I twisted, used Zye’s forward momentum against him, and hurled him over my shoulder, right into an energy barrier.

Zap!
It sparked brightly. Bolts of crackling red danced over Zye’s violently convulsing body. A high-pitched scream broke from him, and he fell to the floor, his battle suit smoking nicely.

My powers might be on the fritz, but I could still kick his sorry ass. “The only one on the dinner menu is you, asshole.”

A Gorum squalled and threw himself at the energy barrier. His hunger was a living thing.

“Bebo still lives,”
I told him.

His body quivering badly, the yellow eyestalks swiveled to stare at me.

Peeling off my tunic and armor, I turned and showed him the tattoo.

“He lives,”
came a hoarse whisper in my mind.

“You bet your ass he does, and I think Bebo could use some help killing the ones who betrayed your people to the Tai-Kok, don’t you?”

“Desh and Balram have much to answer for.”

“The Tai-Kok and Rodan are my enemies too.”
I showed him my memories of the attack on Phoenix. The incinerated ruins of our cities, a schoolyard filled with the gutted corpses of children.
“They slaughter our children without mercy. It has to stop.”

His rage flooded my mind.
“They kept Rani alive long enough for her to watch as they ate her unborn children.”

“These monsters need to die. Will you help me kill them?”

“Release me, and none will live.”

“Sounds like a plan. You eat the Tai-Kok while I blow Malik’s precious base to kingdom come.”

“You are truly the Battle Commander’s mate.”

I touched my band. Surprise. Even the Gorum knew what it meant.
“If we don’t fight, we die.”

“They are now the hunted.”

“I like the way your mind works.”
I quickly dressed and kicked Zye.
“Wanna snack?”

“Very much.”

“What’s your name?”

“Raj.”

“Okay, Raj, let’s go kill some Tai-Kok.”
Grabbing Zye’s laser pistol, I turned off the energy grid.

There was a blur of movement, and Zye disappeared down Raj’s gullet.

Whoa! I quickly opened the cell door.

Emitting a high-pitched squalling cry, the Gorum whizzed by.

More squalling cries sounded in the corridor, and soon three pitiful-looking Gorum had joined Raj.

My little army was growing.

They looked at me, and their guts rumbled.

Shit! A ravenous army, and I probably looked like a Happy Meal minus the fries.

“She carries the king’s mark,”
Raj announced.

The Gorum suddenly surrounded me.

I froze. Oh dear God. They were so very hungry.

The first one touched Bebo’s mark and stung me right through the friggin’ armor. “I am Yann.”

I fought down a scream. Goddammit, that hurt.

The second one quickly stung me. “I am Vishna.”

“I don’t need another tattoo, guys, really.” I hissed through clenched teeth.

“I am called Jiao, and to carry our marks is a great honor.” His tentacle slithered over my shoulder.

Holy Mary, mother of God. It was like being stung by a zillion bees. My knees buckled, and I hit the floor. Please Lord, don’t let there be any more of them.

“Now none but our enemies can harm you,”
Raj proclaimed.

“Swell.”
I struggled to my feet.
“Will ya go eat those damned Tai-Kok, please? I need to send a smoke signal.”

Jiao stroked my hair curiously.
“What is this smoke signal?”

“I’m going to set off a big enough explosion that the Battle Commander can see it from space.”