Vexing Voss:Coletti Warlords 03(39)

"My ear!" Lilkee's eyes rolled back in head, and she slumped over in a dead faint.

Zarek surveyed the pampered princess and sighed. "We need to neutralize the digestive acids."

Voss squatted down next to her and tapped a button on his bracelet. "Her battle suit isn't functional."

A startled yip broke from me as something fell on my shoulder. Scorm! I swatted frantically at it.

Little tentacles wrapped tightly around my hand, and Bedan cried, "It's me. It's me. They need help."

Frowning, I stroked his head. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hit you. Who needs help, honey?"

"Desh has them trapped."

"Raj and Kunwar?"

"My father too."

"Bebo's here? Where are they?"

"I take you." The air around me began to glow a brilliant yellow.

"No! Wait!"

A swirling vortex formed abruptly and sucked us inside.





Chapter Twenty

The vortex from hell spat us out, and suddenly I was falling. "Oh shittttt!"

Plummeting toward the unforgiving sand, the wind whistling in my ears  and Voss's roar of fury echoing in my head, I screamed at Bedan, "Do  something."

"Me try." A starburst of incandescent yellow flared around us. His  second attempt to teleport us failed as badly as the first. The tornado  of death spun us around and threw us out.

"Oh my God!" Down I went, arms and legs flailing wildly and screaming blue bloody murder.

Yipping in fear, Bedan clung to my hair.

The ground rose up and smacked me. "Ooof."

Bedan scrambled away from me. "Me sorry. Me sorry. Me missed."

Missed what? Spitting out a mouthful of sand, I raised my head and  froze. Oh dear God. He had missed all right. I was surrounded by a bunch  of strange Gorum. Fear clenched my stomach. Bet I was on the dinner  menu. "Help!"

Voss snapped, "You allowed a child to teleport you?"

"Allowed? I was hijacked, and get me out of here!"

"Me try again," Bedan cried, and burrowed under my braid.

"No!" Voss and I yelled in unison.

"Me go for help." A burning sensation flared on my neck, and an instant later Bedan was gone.

I grabbed for my pistol. Fuck. The holster was empty.

A gaudily tattooed Gorum slithered over to me. "Remove your clothing."

"Never on a first date." I shot to my feet, flinching as a tentacle wrapped around my waist and dragged me forward.

"Desh," Voss growled on our private link.

I eyed the slimy green tattoos that crawled across his hide with a creepy life of their own. "Are those things alive?"

"Do not touch them," Voss warned.

"Not gonna be a problem, boss."

"He says you carry the king's mark," Desh commented as tentacles plucked  the knives from my boots. Another one tugged at the neck of my battle  suit.

Yanking wildly at the goopy tentacle wrapped around me, I struggled to get free. "Who says?"

"Raj." The tentacle oozed under the neck of my battle suit.

"Really?" I looked around, trying not to freak out as Desh's slimy  tentacle caressed the tattoo. "Where is he?" I wanted a word with the  blabbermouth.                       
       
           



       

"He fled like the coward he is."

Relief flowed through me. Raj and the guys were safe. "If you're smart,  you'll let me go before the Battle Commander arrives. He's got a really  nasty temper."

"The Battle Commander and the Overlord have been neutralized."

"Who told you that? Malik?"

"Yes. He now rules the Coletti clans," Desh stated smugly.

"Like hell he does." I gestured at the smoke billowing high into the  sky. "That was Malik's base, and he's the only one that has been  neutralized. Betcha he didn't tell you that your pal Balram was killed  either."

"You lie."

I winced as the tentacle tightened painfully around my ribs. "Try to contact him."

There was a long silence, and Desh's bellow of pain and fury echoed across the desert.

Not good. "Honey bunny, I'm still waiting to be rescued here."

"There have been some developments," Voss growled.

"What kind of developments?"

Malik snarled behind me. "She is mine to kill."

The breath froze in my lungs. Oh hell. That kind of development.

His anger rolling across my mind, Voss commanded, "Do not provoke him."

"Where's the fun in that?"

A low rumble of warning sounded in my head. "Zoey."

"Yes'um, boss man. No playing with the nasty warlord."

"Disobey me, and no chocolate for a month."

"That's just mean."

"Two months."

"My lips are zipped."

"Give me the female," Malik demanded.

Desh's wormy tentacles waved madly. "She is my captive to do with as I wish."

"I am the Supreme Commander, and you will obey me," Malik bellowed.

"You do not rule us," Desh snapped.

I looked over my shoulder. Whoa! The Supreme Commander was a bloody  mess. I wiggled my fingers at him and smiled brightly. In perfect High  Coletti, I chirped, "Hi there. I don't think we've been properly  introduced. I'm Zoey, your worst nightmare."

A vein popped in Malik's forehead. "You dare mock me?"

"Moi? Heavens no, but I am gonna kill you."

"Shut up, Zoey," Voss snarled.

"You? Kill me?" Maniacal laughter burst from Malik.

I edged a little closer to Desh as Malik kept on laughing and laughing and laughing. The dude was seriously losing it.

His laughter stopped abruptly, and madness burned in his eyes. "The only  one dying is you. Slowly. Painfully. Your screams will fill the night,  and I will bathe in your blood."

"Okeydokey, then." I turned to Desh. "Are you sure you want to ally  yourself with this guy? I mean, this is the third base he's lost in a  week. Not to mention three battle cruisers and a shitload of fighters.  Plus, if you haven't noticed, the Supreme Commander is fucking nuts."

Desh's eyestalks surveyed Malik carefully. "The female has a valid point. You have suffered many defeats."

"They are merely setbacks."

I snorted. "Says the guy who just had his ass handed to him."

Pulling his sword, Malik spat, "I will cut out your lying tongue."

"Aw c'mon. All they have to do is scan the planet. Your bases have been  blown to smithereens, and there are Coletti, Askole, and Alliance battle  cruisers parked overhead. Oh, and if you think Lilkee is gonna save  your ass, think again."

"She speaks the truth. It is time we reassessed our alliance."

"It is my destiny to rule this galaxy. Any who stand in my way will be destroyed," Malik howled in fury.

"Dude, you're kinda outnumbered."

Another maniacal laugh broke from Malik. "The Gorum cannot defeat me. I am indestructible."

"Yet you bleed," Desh stated as dozens of tentacles crawled toward the raving lunatic.

A shitload of heavily armed Coletti warriors appeared around us.

"Do you think me a fool? I've planned for every contingency. Nothing escapes my notice, and you no longer serve my purpose."

My radar went to Defcon 1, and I quickly scanned the area. Holy smoke.  We were smack-dab in the middle of a sand shark breeding ground. "I hate  to rain on your parade, but you made a teensy little mistake in your  contingency plan."                       
       
           



       

A spine sliced through the sand behind Malik. "What are you babbling about?"

"You forgot about them." I pointed.

Malik turned just as horrific jaws erupted from the sand. Chomp! The sand shark swallowed him whole.

That was one way to escape the Kalafat. I yanked at the tentacle wrapped  around my waist. If I didn't get him to let go, I was a goner.

Desh squalled in agony as another shark ripped into him.

"Being eaten alive hurts like a mother, doesn't it? Did you think of that when you were feeding Bebo's children to the Tai-Kok?"

"They had to die."

"So do you."

His tentacle jerked me around and thrust me forward like some sacrificial offering. "You first."

The hungry shark opened its gaping maw, giving me an  up-close-and-personal view of its awesome fangs. Ewww. Rotting skulls  were jammed on its back teeth.

"Destroy its mind," Voss roared in my head.

"Yes, sir," I cried, yanking my legs back as yet another shark burst  from the sand. Holy Mary, mother of God, they were everywhere.

More sand sharks erupted around us in a feeding frenzy. The Gorum's and  Coletti warriors' horrific screams seemed to echo in my head. Their  cries stopped as they were dragged under the sand.

Voss bellowed, "Now!"

Drawing on every ounce of power I had, I blasted the sharks surrounding  us, and to my utter relief, they crashed to the ground deader than  doornails.