Coletti Warlords: Vexing Voss (2 page)

I waited to answer my father until I was sure his vein was pulsing nicely. The moron actually thought I wrote bodice-ripping romance novels. I had even decorated my room with erotic book posters and a frilly pink heart bedspread. The joke was on him. I’m an award-winning journalist and even have my own byline with
New Times Weekly.

With the information my snitch gave me, I knew one of the traitors was on the general’s base, and I wasn’t leaving until I found him. My father’s demands had worked to my benefit. The only downside was the Coletti Warlords. They were persistent buggers.

“Zoey, answer me, dammit!”

I pushed the intercom button and squeaked timidly, “I’m right in the middle of a scene. Can’t it wait, sir?”

“While the rest of the Jones clan protects Earth, you write goddamned porn. You’re such a fucking waste.”

Oh, I was more than doing my part to protect Earth, including being a Siren—anonymously, of course. I wasn’t ending up as a broodmare. With a heartbroken sob, I sniffed. “I’ll leave immediately, sir.”

“You’re not going anywhere. Comb your hair and put some makeup on, for God’s sake. You’ve got five minutes before I send Ted up.”

Ted was the general’s toady and an all-out bully. “Yes, sir.” My dad only got this way when a big-shot Coletti was visiting. Got to make a good impression, you know. The only way for my father to earn another star was to get posted to Central Command.

Dropping my shields, I scanned the area and gasped in horror. Holy shit, this Warlord’s psychic powers were off the charts. Why they kept coming to look me over was a mystery. It wasn’t like I flaunted my powers. Okay, sometimes I did, but always for a good reason. Maybe I needed to up my gross factor or give them what they were looking for.

A feral smile pulled at my mouth. Why not give them Jasmine, the general’s whore? All I had to do was boost what little psychic ability she had, and they’d be all over her. The trick was not getting caught.

I widened my scan. Where was the little slut? Oh my God, she was banging Lieutenant Golf in the men’s restroom. Talk about romantic. Wonder if the general knew?

I slid easily into her mind. Yikes, the lieutenant’s itty-bitty penis wasn’t getting the job done for her. I could hear her saying, “Oh yeah, baby. That’s it. Give it to me, big boy.”

He was going to give it to her, all right. Jasmine’s mercenary thoughts were centered on how much money she could get out of him. She wanted a new party dress.

The nasty bitch was about to get her just dues. With a few adjustments, her power level and brain waves now mimicked mine. God, I loved having psychic abilities. Too bad the fix wouldn’t last long, but the resulting fireworks would be fun to watch.

Now came the hard part. I skimmed cautiously around the scarily powerful Warlord’s mind, and waited for him to notice me.

An instant later his mind struck and bounced off my shields.
“Impressive shields, female,”
a deep voice announced in my head.

Shit! Shit! Shit! He had been playing possum, and I had walked right into his trap. Now all I had to do was lead him into mine. Giving a little yelp of alarm, I did what he expected any reasonable person to do when confronted with a dangerous predator. I ran.

He followed me easily.
“I’ve been tracking you for some time now.”

That explained why the Colettis kept coming back to the base. I had used my powers a little too much lately investigating my mother’s murder.

The Warlord commanded,
“Tell me your name.”

It was a good thing mind control didn’t work on me.
“Jasmine.”
I led him right to the horny bitch and snapped my shields down tight.

I caught a fleeting sensation of all that power ensnaring Jasmine’s mind. A tremor shook me. If he ever got inside my head, he’d own me mind, body, and soul.

My bedroom door shuddered from a heavy blow. “Zoey, open the door.”

Ted was such an ass. Using my best whiny voice I cried, “Go away. I have a migraine.”

“You think I give a fuck?”

I flinched as the warlord’s furious mind swept the house. I was impressed. It had taken him all of thirty seconds to realize he had been tricked.

“Zoey!” Ted roared.

“I need to comb my hair,” I answered in a frightened voice.

“You’ve got five minutes,” he snarled and stomped down the stairs.

If the warlord wasn’t here, I’d give Ted a good mental shove down the stairs. I went into the bathroom and pulled out my makeup. Time to ugly myself up.

Five minutes later I limped down the stairs and came to a dead stop. Even with my psychic abilities locked down tightly, I could sense another powerful Coletti warlord inside the general’s office. Thank God it wasn’t Scary Guy. I had a horrible feeling he would know who I was the minute he saw me.

An evil grin curled my mouth. Just wait until they got a sniff of my eau de dead skunk perfume. I knocked timidly on the door.

“Come in,” my father growled.

I opened the door and got my first look at the Coletti. He was a big dude, and, to my surprise, really cute, if you were into the whole merciless-predator thing. His black battle suit displayed an amazing amount of muscles, and he wore large bronze bracelets on each arm. A bronze chain was woven into one of his ebony warrior braids. He was definitely high up on the food chain.

“Jaylan, this is my daughter, Zoey.”

The warlord’s stunned gaze swept over my greasy black hair that hung in clumps around my pale, zit-covered face, and paused for a minute on the black raccoon-like circles around my eyes. He eyed my Hunchback of Notre Dame outfit in outright horror, and his nose wrinkled in disgust as my scent hit him.

It was all I could do not to giggle. Hideous didn’t even begin to describe me. There wasn’t a man or warlord alive who would want to touch me.

“It is an honor to finally meet you, Zoey.” Baring his awesome fangs in a scarily polite smile, he held out his hand diplomatically.

What a liar. Time to get the fun started. I scuttled round the desk and hid behind the general. “Please, don’t let him eat me.”

The general gagged. “My God! What is that smell?”

“My new medicine,” I squeaked, letting the tears roll. My cheap mascara would soon be running down my face in nice black streaks.

Jaylan took a step back, and his copper-colored skin turned a ghastly green color.

I had to admit the stench was pretty horrific. I might have overdone it just a tad. Thankfully the Vapor Rub up my nose kept me from hurling. I clutched the general’s jacket. “Please, sir, don’t let him hurt me.”

My father jerked away from me and vomited into the wastebasket.

The big warlord grabbed it away from the general and puked violently.

Who knew warlords had such weak stomachs?

A beep sounded in my earpiece. Marie’s signal that Ted was coming with a tray of her nice powdered-sugar-covered cakes and coffee. My plan was coming together perfectly.

Right on cue, Ted stepped in the room. I let out a bloodcurdling shriek and ran for the door.

Jaylan instinctively leaped out of my way and crashed into Ted.

He staggered off balance, desperately trying to keep the tray from falling. I stuck out my foot and tripped him.

The tray tipped over, raining cakes and coffee all over Jaylan and my father.

A stunned look on his face, Jaylan stared at the coffee running down his spiffy boots and the pieces of smashed cake decorating his battle suit.

“Dammit! You clumsy fool, look what you’ve done!” my father bellowed, trying to brush the powdered sugar off his uniform.

I shot out of the office and ran into the parking lot. God, I hadn’t had this much fun in ages, and the looks on their faces were priceless. Grinning, I headed for my car.

“Zoey!” the general shouted.

Crap. Hunching my shoulders, I turned to face him. “I’m so sorry, sir.”

“You worthless bitch, you’re determined to destroy everything I’ve worked for!” My father punched me.

My head rocked back, the world swam dizzily around me, and I hit the asphalt.

“Your mother ruined you.”

Wiping at my bleeding mouth, I fought down the urge to kick the living hell out of the jerk. Staring up at my father’s rage-contorted face, I hissed, “You hit like a girl.”

“I’m going to beat the truth out of you.” My father pulled back his foot to kick me, and I rolled frantically to the right.

A frightening Coletti battle cry sounded, and the next instant the general flew across the parking lot and slammed into a wall.

I took one look at the ferocious expression on Jaylan’s face and quickly huddled into a fetal ball. What had the general done to piss him off that much?

The warlord stalked over to my father, grabbed him around the throat, and lifted him up. “Touch her again and you die.” He shook my dad hard. “Do you understand me? Voss has claimed her.”

Say what?

His face an ominous purple, the general nodded.

“Zoey!” Marie screamed, rushing toward me in her crappy mustard-yellow maid outfit that clashed violently with her red hair. “Did that bastard hurt you, honey?”

I scrambled to my feet and ran into her outstretched arms like a scared child, and whispered in her ear, “Did you get my bag?”

“It’s stashed under the rose bush. I can’t believe he hit you,” she whispered, shooting a worried glance at Jaylan, who still held my father by the throat.

“I think Daddy just blew any chance of getting that job at Central Command.”

“What a shame.” Marie took an abrupt step backward. “Dear God! Did you use the entire bottle?”

“I guess I should have stopped with one good spray, but I wanted to make sure I grossed them out.”

“By the amount of vomit in that wastebasket, I think you succeeded.”

Immense power rippled the air around me, and the biggest, scariest warlord I’d ever seen teleported in. The guy was huge, and his battle suit fit him like a glove, emphasizing every bulging muscle. Two daggers protruded from his knee-high armored boots, and on each arm he wore a large copper bracelet. Copper chains were woven into his ebony warrior’s braids. A burn scar on the right side of his hard, chiseled face twisted his mouth into a permanent sneer.

One look at his aura of sheer menace, and I knew he was the warlord who had been chasing me.

A frightened gasp broke from Marie. “Isn’t that Voss, the Overlord’s battle commander?”

My stomach clenched. Dear God, it was him. The only logical reason for his visit was the Alliance cruiser that had blown up in Earth’s orbit a month ago. I was pretty sure the traitor I was investigating had sabotaged the spaceship, but all my research had failed to yield any hard evidence.

What had Jaylan meant when he said Voss had claimed me? We had never really met, and he didn’t know anything about me. Did he? Nah, I was probably freaking out over nothing. If he laid a hand on me, I’d kick his ass. I eyed his muscles again. Running was good too.

Marie grabbed my face and turned it toward her. “Unless you want to be a Coletti war bride, you’ll wipe that scowl off your face and start crying.”

I obediently broke into hysterical sobs.

“Better.” Marie stiffened. “Holy Mother of God, he’s headed this way.”

I took a quick peek over my shoulder. Shit! Voss’s pale amber eyes were locked on me, and I didn’t like his
gotcha
smile.

The Battle Commander’s baritone voice sounded in my head.
“Your disguise is very effective, little one. I shall enjoy discovering what is hidden beneath it.”

“Holy shit!”

“He knows,” Marie cried at the same time.

“He sure as hell does.”

“9-1-1?”

“Oh yeah.” I reached into my pocket and hit my special panic button. The base alarm wailed loudly.

Voss stopped dead, shot me a suspicious look, and commanded in perfect English, “You will go to the bunkers and stay until I come for you.”

Yeah, like that was going to happen.

He pointed a long finger at me and warned, “Disobey me, and you will be punished.”

The menace in his voice did make my knees wobble a bit. I nodded my head obediently, and he vanished.

Jaylan clamped the general to his chest and teleported.

Stopping only long enough to grab my get-out-of-jail bag, Marie and I bolted for the tunnels like two scared rabbits. Voss was downright terrifying, and there was no way I could beat him in a fair fight. So I’d have to cheat. A lot.

Two military police officers waved us through the blast doors, and we tore down eight flights of stairs.

Marie huffed. “How long do we have?”

“It won’t take the Battle Commander long to figure out I rigged the computers, and the squadrons of Tai-Kok fighters are nothing but ghost images.”

I handed her a clip-on bio jammer. “Once these suckers are turned on, we’re invisible to the Coletti’s scanners. I could have used one when the hunters were chasing me around Tucson.”

Her hands shaking badly, Marie quickly turned it on. “Where did you get these?”

“I borrowed them from Daddy’s armory, along with a few other things.”

“If you get caught…”

“I won’t.” Breathing hard, I skidded to a stop next to a massive steel door and quickly typed in the security code for the emergency evacuation tunnel. Mind reading could be so handy.

The doors groaned and slowly slid open. We hurried over to a small door, and I ran the security card I had swiped from Daddy over the scanner. The door clicked opened. I rolled out the motorcycle I had stashed there. Warlords being warlords, I figured I better have an escape route and a safe house.

“You’ve gotta ditch those clothes.” Marie gasped, rubbing more Vapor Rub under her nose.

“That spray is worth every penny I paid for it. No warlord will want to come within ten feet of me.”

“No, they’ll just throw you in a cell until it wears off.”

“Good point.” I quickly stripped down to my underwear, yanked a camouflage shirt off the shelf, and put it on.

“I must compliment you on a well-executed ruse. You are far too clever for a female,”
Voss rumbled in my head.

I think he just insulted every woman on Earth.