Chapter Seventeen
Aunt Tess, Bree, Zoey, and Kaylee had also been drafted into helping with the ceremonies. None of us were pleased with the situation, but you didn’t tell Detja no. If she wasn’t happy, neither was the Overlord. Nothing good ever came from pissing him off. Just ask Bree. She made the mistake of mouthing off to Zarek and got stuck with latrine duty on a Coletti space station. She still has nightmares about it.
Detja’s office was high tech with a feminine touch. A crystalline desk was the centerpiece. Behind it was an ornate metal bookcase filled pictures, knickknacks, and a variety of crystals. A curved blue linen couch with colorful pillows filled one corner. A collection of willowy plants was scattered across the walls.
To operate the computer, I simply ran my hand over the desk. My biometrics had been keyed into the workstation. In an instant, the holoscreen appeared at eye level and a keyboard formed in the desk. Pretty cool.
We had all been assigned specific tasks. I got stuck with sending out thousands of wedding invitations, and if that wasn’t bad enough, I had to find and buy the bloodred Tar flowers. The Coletti considered them the symbol of unity, and no ceremony was complete without the flower. The planet they came from was smack dab in Askole territory and had been repeatedly bombed. I did a little research and found the Tar flower’s double on Earth. A Mystic Wonder Dahlia.
Aunt Tess was sure Detja would notice the difference. Me? Not so much. Adan was driving her nuts with his pranks.
The ceremonial chamber was a thousand feet below the city. Holographic devices had been implanted in the ceiling. During the ceremony, it would resemble a night sky blazing with stars.
My aunt and Zoey were blessed with supervising the candle placements and hanging of godawful tapestries on the walls. The warlords considered them romantic. All of us thought the bloody battle scenes and the graphic pictures of women being fucked by warriors didn’t belong in a wedding chapel.
Believe it or not, Zarek thought the graphic sex scenes would show the nervous “brides” what masterful lovers the Coletti warlords were. Yeah, right. Kaylee said the captured women usually took one look at the tentacles on the warriors’ enormous dicks and started screaming.
We Earth girls, not so much. We’re made of sterner stuff and usually armed to the teeth.
Bree and Kaylee got the fun job of the preparing the “bridal” suite. I had taken a quick peek. The room belonged in a Las Vegas brothel. A huge four-poster bed with red silk sheets dominated the chamber. The walls were covered by more of those naughty tapestries. The only things missing were paddles, whips, and chains.
A furious Detja linked with me. “Have you seen Adan?”
“No. What’s he done now?”
“He ate all the chocolate.”
“What!”
“And most of the chips and salsa,” Detja added.
A big black cat strolled into the office.
Speak of the devil. “You ate our chocolate?”
“Another shipment arrives from Earth tomorrow,” Adan responded without an ounce of remorse.
“That doesn’t justify your actions. It’s that time of the month, and I need my chocolate.”
Abracadabra! Adan transformed back into his true form. A tentacle grabbed me. “Then I will take you to Earth for more.”
I yanked and tugged at the tentacle. “Oh, hell no! Let go of me!”
“You said you wanted chocolate.” The little brat dragged me closer.
“Dammit! Let go!” I hung on to the desk for dear life. “Detja! Help! I found him.”
“We help Momma.” Musa flew in with KeeKee on her back.
KeeKee pelted Adan with web balls while Musa spewed fire at the tentacle holding me.
He released me and tried to catch Musa, who evaded him easily.
“Don’t you dare hurt my kids!” I yelled.
“Your kids?”
Musa landed on my shoulder, and KeeKee scrambled to my head to peer at Adan. “Who that?”
“This is Adan. He is a shape shifter. That means he can take different forms.”
Musa jabbered and KeeKee translated, “Want see.”
Like magic, KeeKee’s double appeared.
“Do again! Do again!”
Adan obliged and became a large flowering plant in a clay pot.
Two seconds later, Detja and the Overlord teleported into the room.
A low growl rumbled in Zarek’s chest as he grabbed the potted plant and heaved it out the open doors. It hit the lake with a loud splash!
An eerie, shrieking howl sounded from the water.
“What the hell?”
“Adan hates getting wet,” Zarek answered with a satisfied smile.
I eyed the lake nervously. “He won’t try to eat you now, will he?”
“No. Adan’s psychic skills are no match for mine. He knows I will kill him if he harms any of my people.”
“Good to know.”
The Overlord’s bracelet chirped repeatedly, and he glanced at the screen.
“Go to your meeting,” Detja said.
Zarek gave her a melt-your-panties kiss and teleported.
Whoa! Guess their romance was alive and well.
Detja ran a hand over the keyboard. “I see you sent out all the invitations.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“How many have responded?”
“I was working on the totals when Adan popped in.” At Detja’s inquiring look, I added, “Around eight hundred guests.”
“And the Tar flowers?”
I cringed. “The flowers I found will arrive tomorrow.”
“The Mystic Wonder Dahlia is an adequate replacement. I want you and your cousins to meet the ship from Earth and greet and entertain Eve until her daughter Yakira and Wulf arrive.”
I gasped, “You found Eve’s daughter? My God, Kira’s been missing for almost twenty years!”
“Wulf located her ten years ago, but her adopted family took her from him,” Detja replied.
“Adopted family?”
“A Bjarke mercenary rescued her from the Tai-Kok slaughter ship and raised her as his own. They named her Yakira.”
Fury welled up in me as I remembered that horrible day in Rocky Point, Mexico. It was the first time I’d come face-to-face with the monstrous Tai-Kok. Our fun beach vacation had turned into a macabre slaughter-fest with butchered tourists littering the sand. The Tai-Kok rampaged through the picturesque restaurants and bars, feasting on their prey. The tourists’ screams still echoed in my head. I had taken a dead police officer’s gun and shot as many of the fiends as I could. “Did you know the Tai-Kok had been raiding Earth for over twenty-five years?”
“I did not.”
“I was ten years old when they attacked Rocky Point. It’s a beach town in Mexico. I saw them take Kira. I tried to stop them, but I wasn’t fast enough or strong enough.”
“You were only a child.” Detja hugged me. “It was not your fault.”
“No, it was the government’s. The fucking morons thought that since the attacks were sporadic, they would keep the existence of the aliens a secret. Didn’t want to frighten the public. They had to know the Tai-Kok would be back, but they did nothing to prepare for that possibility.
“Fifteen years later, the Tai-Kok attacked. The alien blitzkrieg shocked and awed our military with a spectacular display of force. They hoped to destroy our will to fight, but that didn’t happen. One look at the media’s horrific stories about the Tai-Koks butchery and you knew. You fought or you died.”
“Know this, Yakira not only survived, she flourished. The Bjarke took good care of her and even had her missing limbs replaced with bionics. She is a cunning warrior,” Detja declared.
Tears welled in my eyes. “Oh, dear God. The Tai-Kok ate on her?”
Detja patted my arm. “Her Bjarke father had her memories erased.”
I sagged in relief. “Good. I can’t wait to see Kira, I mean, Yakira again.”
“Eve is bringing supplies for the ritual called a bachelorette party.”
I laughed. “Yakira has a lot of Earth traditions to catch up on.”