Chapter Eighteen

As it turned out, cleaning up the dung was pretty drekking hard. The Tanezumi, ratlike creatures with long tails, lived in tunnels beneath Tanith’s cities. A lot of the passageways were too small for someone of Quinn’s size to fit. Me? I was tiny enough to travel down the narrowest tunnel. Color me happy.

Aruid, the tubby warrior Zarek had put in charge of tunnel operations, was an arrogant, lecherous ass. “On your comm screens you will find your room and tunnel assignments. Any attempts to enter each other’s room will be reported to the Overlord.” Aruid paused, and a ravenous desire filled his eyes. “A female with your abilities deserves a full-blooded Coletti, not a hybrid.”

“It’s not your decision to make. It’s the Overlord’s,” I snapped.

The lecherous ass smiled. “As is proper. Please note that your duties include the lower thirty tunnels.”

“Thirty tunnels? This can’t be right,” I exclaimed.

“Those are the Overlord’s instructions,” Aruid said with a smirk. “Your tasks must be completed each day.”

Quinn growled in my head, “I don’t like the way Aruid is looking at you.”

“Me either. If he keeps it up, I’ll introduce him to my fireballs.”

“If you need anything, Xenia, please come to me. I know how to treat a female properly,” Aruid said, licking his lips obscenely.

Quinn pulled his sword. “Touch Xenia and I will kill you.”

“Weapons are not permitted in the tunnels,” Aruid replied and teleported away.

I grimaced in disgust. “Ugh. What a cowardly creep.”

“Stay away from him.”

“Not going to be a problem.” I glanced down at my screen. The instructions read: Dump the dead Tanezumi and their dung into the incinerator chutes. Using a high-pressure hose, you will clean any residual excrement from the cages and replace the bait. Once completed, you will return the traps to the specified locations.

“Let’s get started.” Quinn held out his hand.

I took it. “You sure know how to show a girl a good time.”

“I do. Which is why we got stuck cleaning shit out of the ninth level of hell.”

* * * *

One thing Zarek and Aruid failed to mention was that sometimes the Tanezumis weren’t quite dead. The first time it happened, I had just opened the cage, and a growl like a grizzly bear erupted from the supposedly dead rat. I jumped about a foot, and the rat burst out of the cage with one only one thought on its tiny mind. Kill! The little monster had sharp teeth, and the fight to keep it from chewing on my neck left me covered in dung. I incinerated the nasty thing and danced on the shitty ashes.

Fortunately, the poisoned bait usually killed the rats quickly, but not before they filled the cages with an enormous amount of dung. The stench was horrific. It was a mixture of rotted eggs, ammonia, and death. Ugh. The breathing mask didn’t help at all. My appetite disappeared completely, and I pretty much survived on Quinn’s blood. Even after a long, hot shower I still stank. People avoided Quinn and me like the plague.

Not to mention trying to clean thirty tunnels a day was an impossible task. Using Quinn’s teleporting skills, we somehow managed to pull it off. I also cheated and fireballed as many rats as I could. If the Overlord’s intentions were to keep us too exhausted to mess around, he had accomplished his goal.

At the end of our third week in hell, I wearily dragged a cage down a narrow passageway when my internal radar went on red alert. A sibilant hiss sounded from somewhere behind me.

Quinn immediately asked, “What’s wrong?”

“I’m not sure.” I looked over my shoulder. Funky, milk-white cobra eyes stared back at me. In the shadows I could make out a bulbous body with a long snakelike neck and the head of a raptor.

“Fuck! That’s a nauger!”

The nauger’s mouth opened, exposing needle-sharp teeth. It hissed again.

I groused, “Don’t need to be armed, huh?”

“I’m getting a laser rifle from the armory!”

An emergency siren began to wail.

The nauger charged me.

I pulled the dead Tanezumi from the cage and threw it at the nauger.

The nauger snatched it midair. Two chomps, and the Tanezumi was gone. The nauger eyed me hungrily.

“You don’t want to eat me. I taste like shit. Literally.”

The ugly creature shuddered violently and collapsed. Thank the Goddess, the poison worked on them too.

Three more naugers took its place.

My berserker rage flared to life. I was exhausted, chocolate deprived, and unable to even cuddle with Quinn. I hated the Overlord, Tanith, and all its vile critters. The need to kill was overwhelming. “Want to play? I’m game.” I summoned my fire and hurled a fireball at them.

Whoosh! Boom! Brilliant green flames engulfed the naugers, and within seconds they were ash.

Claws skittered on the rock floor.

A pack of the horrid creatures were running right at me.

Enough was enough. I wasn’t doing this anymore, and if I had to fry the Overlord, so be it. I hurled fireball after fireball after fireball. Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Whoosh! Boom! Electric green flames filled the passageway. The fire died away leaving a thick layer of gray ash. I sagged in relief.

There was a flash of light at the end of the passageway, and more than a hundred naugers ran toward me. Drekk! Someone had deliberately opened the tunnel’s blast doors.

Quinn grabbed the back of my jumpsuit and teleported us out of the tunnel. We appeared by the incinerator chutes. He looked me over frantically. “Are you hurt?”

“No.” I shuddered at the sound of hundreds of claws clicking on the rock. “I thought the blast doors were locked at all times.”

“They are, unless someone opens them.”

“It’s got to be Aruid,” I spat.

“I agree. If I die, he will claim you.”

“Not a chance in the nine hells.”

The naugers spilled out of the tunnel.

I summoned a fireball.

An energy barrier materialized in front of us.

Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Dozens of naugers committed suicide on the glowing energy field. Five fully armored warriors appeared behind them and quickly vaporized the remaining creatures.

I sagged against Quinn. “Thank the Goddess. I’m out of juice.”

Holding me like I was the most precious thing in the universe, Quinn teleported.

An instant of inky blackness, and poof. We appeared on a sunny terrace draped with a bright riot of flowers. In the distance, a silvery waterfall cascaded down the cavern wall. It was an Eden buried deep within Tanith.

I reveled in the sunshine and the gentle breeze fanning my face. Below us, a flock of pink, ducklike birds floated peacefully on the turquoise water. Some called this paradise. What lurked underneath Tanith’s subterranean cities was pure hell.

Quinn collapsed on a bench. “I’m beat.”

“Me too.”

“Let’s just sit here for a moment and enjoy the sunshine.” He pulled me onto his lap.

I leaned against Quinn’s chest and allowed the comforting warmth of his body to sink into my very soul. I was home. “You never told me why you became a Coletti.”

“It’s a long story, which started when the Tai-Kok killed my parents.”

I flinched at the pain in his voice. “Could you have prevented their deaths?”

“No. I was a thousand miles away. I made it my job to avenge them, but no matter how many of the monsters I killed, it was never enough. The Overlord offered my family a way to stop the carnage.”

“And you took it.”

Quinn snorted. “Not at first. Central Command rounded up my entire family and turned us over to the Coletti invaders. I was seriously pissed.”

“How could your own people betray you like that?”

“General Tasker, the traitorous bitch, said surrendering us to the Coletti was for the greater good. Billions of lives in exchange for a few psychics. It was a win-win situation.”

“For the Tai-Kok,” I exclaimed.

“Exactly. We were taken to Tanith and told we either agreed to become Coletti or the change would be forced on us.”

“What did you do?”

“I challenged the Overlord to combat.”

My jaw dropped. “Seriously?”

“My temper has always been iffy, and I let it override my common sense.”

“And Zarek didn’t kill you?”

Quinn laughed. “He gave me a good beat-down and merged his mind with mine. That’s when I realized Zarek has more power in his little finger than I do in my entire body.”

“Yikes. One of those come-to-Jesus moments.”

“It was. I agreed to be a good Coletti warrior, and Zarek agreed to let me live.”

“Wise decision.”

“It was.” Quinn massaged the tight muscles in my neck.

With a sigh, I closed my eyes and let the peaceful sound of the wildlife lull me to sleep.

In the dim recesses of my mind, I heard Detja say, “They look exhausted, and when is the last time they bathed?”

“Look at her! She practically skin and bones. Didn’t you feed them?” Mami’s voice was full of indignation.

Papa interjected, “According to their schedule, they had to clean thirty tunnels a day. An impossible task.”

“Thirty!” Detja exclaimed. “Let me check.”

I linked with Quinn. “If we ignore them, think they’ll go away?”

“No.”

“We know you’re awake,” Papa commented.

With a sigh, I opened my eyes and met Mami’s horrified gaze. “What are you doing here?” Drekk. That came out wrong.

“We’re here for your bonding ceremony.”

Quinn and I said in unison, “What bonding ceremony?”

“The one being held tomorrow. On your birthday,” Papa answered.

I was beyond horrified. “Why didn’t someone say anything?”

“I left instructions,” Detja said haughtily.

“The only instructions we received were about shit cleanup,” Quinn responded and helped me to my feet.

Zarek teleported in. His cold gaze surveyed us from head to toe. “Aruid said you let naugers into the tunnels.”

“Let!” My voice was a screech.

Quinn grabbed my hands before I could summon a fireball. “We did not let naugers into the tunnels, but I think Aruid did. Xenia held them off until an energy barrier could be raised. If she hadn’t, the naugers would have made it into the city.”

With her best ice queen demeanor, Detja turned on Zarek. “Did you assign them thirty tunnels to clean?”

Zarek frowned. “They were to clean three a day, which would give them enough time to prepare for the bonding ceremony.”

“Do they look ready for the bonding ceremony? Not only has Xenia lost a considerable amount of weight, she’s covered in dung. We’ll never get them cleaned up in time,” Mami’s voice was shrill with outrage.

Papa added, “They do stink.”

“Papa!”

“When is the last time you ate?” A faint glow lit my father’s eyes.

“I don’t know.”

“She hasn’t eaten any solid food in a week. My blood has kept her going,” Quinn answered.

“This is how the Coletti treat their females?” My father was transforming into his berserker mode.

“Wait, Papa! It’s not Quinn’s fault. After fourteen hours of cleaning out those stinky cages, I was too exhausted to eat.”

His mouth a merciless line, Zarek vanished. A minute later, he reappeared and dumped Aruid in front of us.

“They are lying, my lord. The hybrid is responsible for the naugers getting into the city, not me,” Aruid whined.

“I challenge you to combat,” Quinn snarled.

Aruid wrinkled his nose in disgust, “I will not fight a filthy hybrid.”

From the expression on Zarek’s face, that was the wrong thing to say. I summoned a fireball and let it float above my right hand. “I’ll fight you. Actually, it’s more like I’ll turn you into a pile of ash.”

Wulf, in full body armor, teleported in. “My lord?”

Zarek pointed to Aruid. “Give him to the naugers.”

With a shriek, Aruid fled.

An immense power rippled the air as Zarek stopped Aruid’s flight. The suicidal ass toppled to the floor. His terrified gaze fixed on the Overlord.

I whispered psychically to Quinn. “He can’t move, can he?”

“No.”

Wulf picked Aruid up and teleported.

Detja clapped her hands. “The bonding ceremony will be held tomorrow, and we have a lot to accomplish.”

“A challenge worthy of you,” Zarek commented.

I laughed. “A challenge? We smell like dead Tanezumi.”

“I have the perfect solution for that,” Detja answered. “Follow me.”

“I would follow you into the ninth level of hell to have sex with Quinn.”