Twin Dragons: Dragon Lords of Valdier Book 7 (5 page)

“Now, for the boy,” Ha’ven said, lowering
the old man to the floor.

“You have got to show me how you do that,”
Creon said, walking toward where Ha’ven was now standing.

“Some things are best left to wonder,”
Ha’ven commented lightly as he turned toward the tunnel. “Just as
you and Vox being able to shift has always fascinated me.”

“What can I say? A gift from the Goddess,”
Creon grinned.

“Or a curse,” Ha’ven muttered under his
breath. “Let us get the boy and get off this rock. I never did like
places like this. It brings back memories I would rather not
re-live.”

“I know,” Creon replied tightly.

Ha’ven released his breath in frustration.
“I did not mean it that way, Creon,” he said.

Creon smiled tightly at his friend. He knew
that Ha’ven didn’t blame him for what happened to him back in the
lower caverns of Hell where he had been tortured. It still didn’t
prevent him from having enough guilt for the both of them.

*.*.*

Two hours later, both men were ready to
admit defeat. Creon stood over a stubborn Cal who was sitting on
the edge of the platform, flanked by two guards. He eyed the old
man in aggravation. Even Ha’ven had muttered it would have just
been easier to take the damn creature than try to find the kid in
the endless maze of tunnels.

“None of the scanners work once we get into
the lower corridors,” one of the warriors said. “We’ve searched the
upper ones and there was no sign of them.”

“How can something the size of a Pactor just
vanish?” Creon demanded, running his hands through his hair in
annoyance before he turned on Cal. “If it wasn’t for the fact that
I do not want to upset my mate, I would have left you and the boy
here. Call to him, tell him the beast can go,” Creon ordered.

“How do I know you’ll keep your word?” Cal
asked, standing up.

“He has a point,” Ha’ven muttered.

Creon threw an exasperated look at Ha’ven.
“You are getting as bad as Vox, you know that, don’t you? You are
being a pain in my…”

Ha’ven shrugged and grinned as he looked at
Cal. “Creon always keeps his word,” he said, suddenly serious. “If
he says the beast can go, it will go.”

Cal studied both men for several long
seconds before he nodded his head. Creon shot the guards a look
when Cal stood up and took a step away from them. The guards paused
and stepped back, watching as Cal walked over to the entrance to
the tunnel. Cal raised his fingers to his lips and loudly whistled.
He did three long whistles followed by two short. He repeated the
call several times before he stopped.

“Come on out, boy,” Cal called. “The beast
can go with us.

Creon and Ha’ven watched in disbelief as the
hunched figure of Mel appeared. The Pactor was glued to his side.
They stepped to one side as the old man, the boy, and the Pactor
slowly walked by them up the ramp.

“Remind me to contact Mandra as soon as
possible,” Creon mumbled under his breath to Ha’ven.

“Why?” Ha’ven asked, eyeing the strange
group.

Creon grinned. “Ariel loves animals. I’m
giving the damn thing to her as a present. Mandra won’t be able to
do a thing about it.”

“You, Creon Reykill, are a very devious
male,” Ha’ven replied with a chuckle. “I want a picture of his
face.”

Melina shrank back against Hobbler as eight
very large men crowded into the back of the shuttle. A smile curved
her lips and she had to hide her face when Hobbler let out a loud
fart. The moans that followed had her burying her face against
Hobbler. It didn’t help when her granddad leaned down next to her
ear and whispered into it.

“That was a good one,” Cal muttered. “Ripe
too from the looks on their faces.”

Melina shook her head, trying to cover her
amusement when Hobbler did it again. This time the moans turned to
a very loud curse from the male that had been going to leave the
Pactor back on the asteroid.

She peeked over Hobbler’s back to see his
face. That was a huge mistake as it was turning a funny shade of
blue. She learned why when he drew in a large breath of air. The
poor guy had been trying to hold his breath.

“That’s it! Someone get me a blaster,” Creon
choked out behind his hand. “What the hell have you been feeding
this damn thing?”

“Well, Pactors eat just about anything,” Cal
commented. “I should have warned you that standing behind them can
be a touch on the dangerous side.”

“A touch?” Ha’ven asked in a strangled
voice. “This could be used as a new weapon!”

Several of the men had taken off their
shirts to tie it around their nose and mouth. Even their eyes were
watering. Melina just hoped that Hobbler didn’t do anything else.
The baby Pactor had a bad habit of leaving huge, nasty presents
when she was scared.

“There she blows,” Cal whispered as a large
wet splat, followed by several smaller ones filled the air. “Green
bombs.”

Melina shot her grandfather a nasty look. He
was taunting her as much as the men. She could see the gleam of
mischief in his eyes. She glared at him, silently letting him know
that he could expect payback. His grin showed he couldn’t wait.

“You are so bad,” she mouthed.

His wink told her he was enjoying every
minute of it. Melina’s heart swelled with love to see the teasing
look back in her granddad’s eyes. They had always been close, even
before her parents and grandmother were killed in a car accident
coming home from Atlanta one summer.

“Move, move!” Ha’ven growled.

Melina gasped as all eight men shuffled
around and pressed forward. She was trapped in the corner. Poor
Hobbler didn’t understand what was going on. She kept nipping at
the men packed like sardines in front of her as they pressed
against the cockpit doorway in an effort to get as far forward as
possible.

“I should have just left you behind and let
Carmen kill me. At least I would have died for a good reason,”
Creon bit out through clenched teeth, just before he winced. “I
swear, if that thing bites my ass one more time, I’m opening the
loading door and pushing him out into space.”

“It’s just a baby,” Cal said cheerfully,
patting Hobbler on the head. “She doesn’t know any better. You and
your men scared her.”

Creon grunted when one of the men knocked
into him as the shuttle turned for its final approach to the
warship. The smell of urine added to the aroma as it mixed with the
fresh manure. A shudder ran through his body at the sound of the
creature pissing all over the floor. He decided right then and
there that this shuttle was going to be ejected into space the
moment he got out of it.

“Mm, Mel and I’ll clean this up,” Cal
finally said. “We’re used to things like this.”

“That’s okay,” Creon replied hoarsely. “I
didn’t like this shuttle anyway.”

Cal’s deep laugh drowned out the relieved
sighs as the shuttle finally landed. He wrapped his arm around
Melina’s shoulders as the back platform opened and the men rushed
for it. He felt her shoulders shaking with silent laughter. It was
good for both of them to laugh again.

“Not bad for a new beginning,” Cal murmured.
“He said he might take us home, Melina. If he does, we’ll be back
on the farm before you know it.”

Melina looked up into her grandfather’s
shining eyes and smiled, really smiled, for the first time in over
four years.

*.*.*

Melina stared with wide eyes at their new
‘home’. The huge male had ordered a warrior to escort them to a
repair bay on the same level as the landing area. Cal had insisted
that they clean up the shuttle before they moved in. Melinda’s lips
curved upward as she remembered that.

If she wanted to keep everyone away from
her, all she needed to do was have Hobbler pee and poop. The only
warrior that had remained close was the one ordered to escort them.
Even he had kept a fairly large distance from her, Cal, and Hobbler
as they cleaned up the mess before escorting them to the area that
would be their new, temporary home.

The only time when she had become scared was
shortly after they first arrived in the bay. She was adjusting a
barrier around the pen where Hobbler would be staying when the
doors to the bay opened and two men walked in. She recognized the
warrior from earlier, but not the other.

Her grandfather had snapped out for her to
stay with Hobbler as the new male, Tandor, introduced himself as
the medical officer. He wanted to do a thorough medical examination
of both of them.

Melina hadn’t heard her grandfather go off
like he had at the man in a long, long time. Maybe not since Stuart
Wilson went for a joy ride on the tractor her grandfather used to
plow the fields back home.

Stuart and his friends had been drunk one
Friday night after a football game and had snuck onto the farm. The
muscled linebacker had driven the tractor into the pond. Gramps had
been more concerned that Stuart or one of the other boys could have
been killed than about the old tractor.

He had made Stuart work the rest of the
school year and summer to pay for the damage done. Melina sighed as
she thought of that summer. It was the first time she had been
kissed. Gramps hadn’t been too happy about that either, now that
she thought back to it.

“I told you we don’t need a damn exam. The
boy and I are healthy as a horse,” Cal snapped loudly. “No one goes
near the boy, but me. No one.”

“I need to scan you both and make sure that
there are no parasites or other health issues. It is standard
procedure,” Tandor explained patiently.

“The Antrox made sure we were all clean,”
Cal responded stubbornly. “The bastards didn’t want anyone bringing
in something that could wipe out their stock. They may have worked
us to death, but they made damn sure that we weren’t contagious so
we could kill each other. Now get the hell out of here.”

“At least let me do a brief scan,” Tandor
suggested. “Just for my records. It will only take a moment.”

“No! You get your damn scanner out of here,”
Cal replied. “We’ll stay away from everyone. Don’t want to be
around anyone else anyway. The boy gets nervous when he’s around
people. Just leave us alone until you drop our asses back on Earth
and everything will be fine.”

Tandor released an exasperated sigh. “Surely
after so long alone, you and the boy would enjoy being able to
interact with some of the other personnel on board the warship?”
Tandor glanced at where Mel was standing on the other side of the
Pactor. The boy’s hat was pulled down, but he could still see the
vivid green eyes watching him. The male was still young. He wasn’t
even old enough for facial hair. “The boy might do better if he has
contact with others. How long were you held captive? A situation
like that could be very damaging to a young child.”

“Don’t you go worrying about Mel’s mental
health,” Cal said. “He’s fine. I’m here and he has the Pactor.
He’ll be good with that.”

“I am not disagreeing that you are not
enough for the boy, but surely you see that being around just you
and a beast is not enough stimulation. Perhaps I can help,” Tandor
suggested. “From what I’ve been told and what you have said, the
boy doesn’t speak and may have… mental health issues that I can
help him with, perhaps even heal.”

“The only thing that will help heal the boy
is getting back to Earth,” Cal insisted, crowding Tandor and the
guard who was listening to the exchange in silence. He kept
stepping closer, until the door to the bay opened. “You and
everyone else stay out of here and leave us alone and it will be
fine.”

Tandor scowled as the old man stepped back
and palmed the door to the bay shut. He looked down at the scanner.
All readings for body temperature and parasites were normal for the
old man. The scans for Mel looked fine, but he had been too far
away to get a good reading.

“Is he always so difficult?” Tandor asked
the guard in frustration.

“From what the warriors who were on the
asteroid said, he could have been more difficult,” the guard
responded with a grin. “I heard the boy went after one of the
warriors with a metal pipe while the beast attacked another, so it
could have been worse.”

“Well, just in case, I will order some
additional nutrients to be added to their food,” Tandor sighed.
“I’ll have it delivered since it doesn’t look like they will be
leaving the repair bay any time soon.”

“If you could have smelled the shuttle when
the door opened, be thankful for that,” the warrior laughed.
“Pactor dung is about as foul as it gets, yet those two didn’t even
blink an eye about cleaning it up.”

Tandor shuddered. “I’m glad I missed that,”
he replied. “If you notice anything unusual, please immediately
report it to me.”

“Yes, sir,” the warrior replied, leaning
back against the bulkhead. “I don’t imagine this will be too
difficult a job.”

Melina ran the damp cloth over Hobbler’s
forehead, giggling softly when the baby Pactor tried to nibble on
it. She loved feeling clean, really clean, for the first time in
forever. It had taken her a few minutes to figure out the bathroom
that was attached to the small office area, but it had been worth
every second of it.

Ha’ven Ha’darra had ordered a section of a
different repair bay divided for their use as they needed the
original one late last night. This one was better for several
reasons. It was further down and was a smaller, less used, area. It
was more of a storage area for parts and equipment. The second
reason it was better was because it had a room with a full bathroom
where the other didn’t.

They had been on board the
Horizon
for a week now. It was so different from the Antrox mine. She
didn’t have to worry about where to sleep if her grandfather was
working, or about other prisoners harassing her. She especially
didn’t have to worry about the guards. Their lone guard had
disappeared after the second day.