Chapter Four
A scraggly Coletti warrior staggered down the beach with a whiskey bottle in one hand and a severed Rodan head in the other.
Whoa! Stay and play it was. Couldn’t wait to hear this guy’s story.
The warrior stopped, lifted the skull up to his ear as if listening to it.
Okey-dokey. He was either very drunk or there was a village somewhere missing its idiot.
The warrior threw his head back and laughed crazily.
Yep. He was a few fries short of a Happy Meal. Was he an escaped prisoner or a traitor?
The village idiot yelled, “The end is coming Zarek! You will die by my sword.”
I grimaced. A delusional traitor. Only a fool challenged Zarek to combat.
Cackling like a demented witch, the warrior continued down the beach with a horde of flies buzzing around him.
He was one weird looking dude. Not only was he pint-sized by Coletti standards, his warrior braids reminded me of moldy dreadlocks and he had a beer belly. The only fat Coletti I knew about was Oydle, the hybrid interrogator Voss brought in to question Sarah. Maybe this guy was his brother. It would explain a lot. Coletti warriors were always well groomed. This guy’s faded red battle suit was beyond filthy and his boots were covered in God knows what.
The idiot drained the bottle, tossed it in the air and fumbled for his laser pistol. Thunk! The bottle hit him in the head. He toppled over.
I shook my head in disbelief. This fool thought he could defeat Zarek? I cautiously approached the village idiot and took his laser pistol. Ugh. He stank of blood, rotted flesh and urine. Batting at the flies, I backed away from him and considered my options. My telepathy and mind control were still on the fritz. I could always shoot him, but he might have intel we needed.
The idiot opened his eyes. “You are one ugly female.”
“You’re not so pretty yourself. Got a name?”
“I am Waewae, Overlord of the Coletti clans.”
“Sure, you are.”
Waewae bared his yellowed fangs. “I am the rightful heir to the Coletti Empire.”
“No, Talree is,” I countered.
The village idiot erupted to his feet, tripped over the head and did a face plant in the sand. He muttered something.
“Sorry, I didn’t quite catch that.”
He rolled over and bellowed, “Malik is my father! Zarek stripped him of his birthright. Now I will reclaim what should have been his.”
The dude was off his meds. Malik had been the most hated villain in the universe. Only a village idiot would broadcast the relationship. “You do know he’s dead, right?”
“He was murdered by a human and I will have my vengeance.”
“Got any proof Malik’s your father? I mean, you don’t look anything like him.”
“My mother is Lilkee, a Coletti princess and the most powerful psychic female ever born. She knows the truth.” Waewae managed to stand up.
“Your mother was banging her brother?” I couldn’t keep the disgust out of my voice.
“They mated to keep our bloodline pure.”
“On Earth it’s called incest.”
Waewae yanked his sword out. “I will kill you.”
“You can try,” I replied, watching him stagger this way and that.
“Your feeble mind cannot comprehend how powerful I am.”
“I’ll agree you’re powerfully drunk and smell like a ten-day old corpse,” I said, trying not to breathe deeply.
The wannabe Overlord spun the sword around his head. “I am the best swordsman in the galaxy.”
“I’m sure you believe that.” I pointed at the dreadlocks now littering the sand. “But you need a bit more practice.”
“You dare to insult me. You are nothing but ass dung. Soon your pathetic planet will be wiped from existence,” Waewae shrieked and attacked me.
I ducked his swinging sword and tossed him in the ocean. He hit with a big splash and sank beneath the waves. Crap! There was no way I was doing mouth-to-mouth on that creep. To my relief Waewae bobbed to the surface and swam toward me.
Hothar appeared next to me. “Who is that?”
“He says his name is Waewae. He claims he’s Malik’s son and the rightful heir to the Coletti Empire.”
Hothar snorted. “He cannot be Malik’s son. It is a known fact he was sterile.”
“He also swears Lilkee is his mother and I believe him. Waewae is seriously bonkers.”
“As is his mother,” Hothar said.
The future heir to the Coletti Empire stumbled out of the water. “You dare to attack me?”
“You needed a bath,” I responded and wrinkled my nose. He still stunk to high heavens. I threw him back in the ocean.
Waewae floundered about in the water. “I am the Overlord! You cannot treat me this way.
“If he is not careful, he will draw the sea predators,” Hothar commented.
“True, but if he has Coletti blood, he should be able to teleport. Right?”
Hothar laughed. “You are an evil female.”
The sand abruptly heaved and bucked beneath our feet. Large fissures snaked down the beach.
“Holy hell! Earthquake!”
“Not an earthquake. I overloaded their power generators,” Hothar said, wrapping a protective arm around me.
“You do realize if this island blows, we’re in deep doo-doo?”
Hothar shrugged. “There is another island five klicks to the west.”
“Good to know.” I sighed in relief as the pressure in my head vanished. All my psychic abilities were back online.
The earth shook, heaved and rolled. With a thunderous cracking boom, a rippling fireball rose high into the sky. The center of the island collapsed into a gigantic crater. Thick black smoke boiled out.
A flaming palm tree fell from the sky and smacked the sand in front of us.
“You’re as good at blowing up things as I am.” I held up my hand. “High five!
“High five?”
“Hold up your hand,” I said.
Hothar did as instructed and I smack his palm. “High five.”
“Ah. A celebratory gesture.”
“It is.” My gaze fixed on Waewae as he stormed out of the water. “He still hasn’t teleported.”
“I do not think he can. His mother’s psychic abilities are those of a five-year old child.”
“I am the Overlord! You will treat me with respect and how dare you blow up my base,” Waewae shouted.
Hothar’s fist shot out, connecting with Waewae’s jaw. His head snapped back, and he hit the sand.
A few prickles ran up my back. I turned toward the source and watched a Genghis Khan wannabe climb out of the crater. Soot covered his lacquered red body armor. Shattered antlers wobbled merrily on his funky, domed helmet. “Oh lookie. We’ve got ourselves a Legionnaire.”
Hothar scowled. “The Askole suspected the remaining Legionnaires had formed an alliance with the Rodan.”
“And they were right on the money.” Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a squadron of Talons streaking toward us.
The Legionnaire took one look at us and ran.
“What a wuss.”
“I will fetch him,” Hothar said and vanished. He reappeared in front of the Legionnaire and straight armed the wuss, dropping him like a rock.
Waewae sat up, blinked and rubbed his jaw. “That warrior hit me.”
“Yep, he did.”
“That is a death sentence.” Waewae’s hand closed around the knife in his left boot.
I jammed my laser pistol against his nose. “Draw it and you’ll be headless.”
“But I am the Overlord, you cannot kill me,” Waewae protested, slowly removing his fingers from the hilt.
“Wanna bet? I drank blood for the first time today and it was nasty. I can’t get that metallic taste out of my mouth. What’s worse is, it’s been ten hours since I’ve had any chocolate. Do you know how irritable that makes me?”
Waewae gulped audibly. “No.” His hand twitched toward the knife.
“Before you do something stupid, you gotta ask yourself: Do you think you can stab me before I vaporize you? Are you that fast? Are you feeling that lucky?” I sensed seven Coletti warriors teleporting in. About time.
“Stand down Casey,” Uncle Saul commanded and held out a chocolate bar. “I’ll deal with Lilkee’s son.”
Huh? My uncle was wearing a spiffy Coletti battle suit. Looked good on him. “Been chatting with Hothar?”
“I have.” Uncle Saul motioned to the other warriors and they took up defensive positions.
I lowered my weapon and took the candy. “God, do I need this.” I tore the wrapper off with my teeth.
The village idiot pulled his knife. Five stun beams hit him instantaneously. He shrieked in pain. Uncontrollable muscles spasms shook Waewae’s body and his arms and legs slammed repeatedly against the sand.
“Guess he was feeling lucky.” I took a bite of the chocolate and moaned in pleasure.
“Is that chocolate?” Hothar dropped the Legionnaire on the ground and eyed my candy bar like a starving wolf.
“It is.” Crap. Hothar was a chocoholic too. My first instinct was to shove the entire candy bar into my mouth, but if I did that, I would be getting a long lecture from Uncle Saul about proper etiquette. If Hothar was my new partner, I needed to keep the peace until I found a way to get rid of him. I handed him half of the bar and ignored Uncle Saul’s astonished expression. “It’s the good stuff too.”
“I forgive you for destroying my Talon,” he said and stuffed it in his mouth.
Uncle Saul sighed. “You destroyed Hothar’s Talon?”
“We were outnumbered, our shields were failing, and I had no option but to use the Safat Fireflash missiles,” I answered.
“Wasn’t that a bit of an overkill? Hothar’s an excellent pilot.” Uncle Saul rubbed his temples. “That Talon was worth a million credits. The Overlord will not be happy.”
Hothar gave me a “I told you so” look.
“Dead rat dinosaurs are a good thing,” I retorted and frowned at the water lapping against my boots. Was the tide coming in or was the island sinking? Before I could say anything, another explosion sent debris rocketing into the air. I instinctively ducked as bits of metal pelted the sea. Thwap! Bap-bap! Thop! Plunk!
Uncle Saul eyed the smoke and flames shooting from the crater. “And what were your reasons for blowing up the Rodan base?”
“Oh, I didn’t do that, Hothar did.” I licked the chocolate off my fingers.
“Casey is my mate,” Hothar announced.
I gave him the stink eye. The sneaky bastard knew that would divert everyone’s attention.
Uncle Saul’s jaw dropped. “What?”
A Coletti warrior built like a tank laughed. “It is fitting your mate is old, ugly and fat.”
Now that was just rude. One look at the rage in Hothar’s eyes and I knew there was some bad juju between those two.
“You will show my lady the proper respect, Jarok.” Hothar’s hand closed around the hilt of his sword.
I shook my head in disbelief. Testosterone was the bane of the universe. Just ask Kaylee or Zoey or Sarah or Aunt Tess.
“You think you can defeat me? You did not earn your warrior status, it was given to you,” Jarok snapped.
Hothar calmly drew his sword. “I accept your challenge.”
Seriously? I glanced down at the water now washing over my boots. Hadn’t anyone else noticed the island was sinking? Or maybe they knew and didn’t care. I guess if I could teleport, I wouldn’t care either.
“Stand down,” Uncle Saul roared. “This is neither the time nor place for a challenge.”
My uncle was the voice of reason.
Jarok stepped toward my uncle. “You think you can stop me, old one?”
Holy crap. The arrogant fool had just made the biggest mistake of his life. My uncle had a lot in common with the Overlord.
His eyes cold with menace, Uncle Saul smiled and without any warning struck Jarok with a series of punishing mental blows.
Reeling from the onslaught, Jarok’s mental shields slipped and I got a quick peek at his thoughts. Dang! The bastard was creating a diversion. Why would he do something so stupid? I dug deeper. The pissant had sworn allegiance to Waewae and was working with the Rodan. Jarok was a dead man walking. If Hothar or Uncle Saul didn’t kill him, Zarek would.
“Submit or die,” Uncle Saul growled.
His fangs bared in a snarl, Jarok drew his sword. “The only one dying is you, old one.”
Using my telekinesis, I yanked the sword out of Jarok’s hand and tossed it in the ocean. “He’s working with the Rodan and considers Waewae the rightful heir to the Coletti Empire.”
Surprised flashed in Jarok’s eyes and he edged toward Waewae.
A low growl of aggression rumbled in my uncle’s chest. “How good of a look did you get?”
“Enough to know he’s dirty.”
“You are an old human female. You know nothing,” Jarok mocked.
“Please beat the living hell out of this disrespectful bastard, Hothar.”
“It would be my pleasure.” Hothar sheathed his sword.
Jarok leaped for Waewae.
I caught him mid-jump, spun him like a top and dumped him at Hothar’s feet. “All yours.”
Uncle Saul held up his hand. “No. He’s mine.”
“Okey-dokey.” You didn’t argue with my uncle when he got that predatory glint in his eyes.
“As you command,” Hothar said, clamping his right arm against his chest and stepped back.
The other warriors lowered their laser pistols and eyed me warily.
I cocked my head as Jarok’s thoughts leaked out. The idiot was gonna make another try for Waewae. I flashed his intentions to my uncle.
Jarok teleported.
I tossed the wannabe Overlord twenty feet down the beach.
Jarok reappeared, and surprise, Waewae was gone, and my uncle stood there instead.
Uncle Saul unleashed a powerful snap kick into Jarok’s gut. The traitor doubled over and fell to his knees. Uncle Saul drove his elbow into the back of Jarok’s neck, dropping him to the sand.
Prickles stampeded up my spine. “Wazzock’s piss! We’ve got a cloaked Rodan ship overhead.”
“The Rodan have a transporter lock on Waewae,” Hothar warned, tapping icons on his bracelet. “They are trying to locate us now.”
“Engage countermeasures,” Uncle Saul commanded, grabbing Jarok.
“Hold your breath,” Hothar growled as he crushed me against his chest and teleported. Poof. We were in the ocean.
A wave crashed over my head and I wiped the water out of my eyes. “Why the water?”
“Salt water creates an electrical anomaly that makes it difficult to get a transporter fix on us and our bracelets generate an energy field that obscures our heat signatures,” Hothar responded.
I looked around. Uncle Saul had Jarok in a choke hold and all the other warriors were swimming over to us. Shit! “The monsters got Waewae?”
“Yes, and the Legionnaire,” Hothar growled.
“Sonovabitch! Waewae must be awfully important to the Rodan, but why?”
“An excellent question and I intend to get the answers from Jarok,” Uncle Saul said.
A massive explosion rocked the island.
Coordinates suddenly appeared in my mind and powerful mental voice commanded, “Evacuate.”
Hothar tightened his grip on me. Inky blackness engulfed me and thirty seconds later we were standing on another island. Uncle Saul and the other warriors popped in around us. Jarok hung limply in my uncle’s grip.
To the east, red energy beams slashed through the billowing clouds of black smoke as Talons fighters and the Rodan mother ship exchanged laser fire.
Kaboom! A humongous explosion ripped apart the Rodan base. The island sank beneath the churning seas.