Stealing Jia (Coletti Warlords #12) - Gail Koger Page 0,19

growl rumbled in Trayon chest as he ripped the webbing with his lethal fangs.

I grabbed the can of mace off my belt. Did it work on Askole warriors too?

Trayon broke free.

Guess I’d find out. Before I could pull the trigger Adoz roared, and flames spewed from his mouth.

Snikt. Schlik. Schlik. Schlik. Schlik. A horned helmet formed around Trayon’s head seconds before the flames hit him.

“No Adoz! Fire bad on spaceships.”

Sure enough, the ship’s automatic fire suppression system kicked in, spraying a thick foam over the room.

“Cazzo.” I wiped the gunk out of my eyes.

His tentacles squirming madly, Trayon spat a bunch of guttural grunts and his furious gaze locked on me.

Merda! He looked like he was ready to kill us all. I looked around frantically. We needed a place to hide.

A gray whirlwind erupted around us. Thirty seconds of falling down an endless black hole and poof! We were standing in what I assumed was the Askole’s mess hall. Two heavily armed warriors stared at us in surprise.

“Oh no. Oh no,” the snake cried.

Guttural grunts, groans, and clucks sound from the speaker system.

A warrior lunged for me.

I pressed the red button on my mace and sprayed him in the face.

He reared back with a roar of pain, tripped over a chair and landed face first in a platter of bloody worms.

I smiled. Mace, the great equalizer.

The other warrior charged me.

Adoz blasted the Askole with fire.

I groaned as the fire suppression system immediately spewed a thick white foam over the room. To make things even more fun the spinning vortex from hell appeared again. There was a flash of black and we appeared in a small storeroom.

My knees threatening to buckle, I leaned against the wall. “Who? How?” I took a deep breath and tried to calm my shattered nerves. “What just happened? Who did that?”

“Me.” The snake slithered up my leg and wrapped around my waist. “My name is Chiara. I am a Shani from the planet Derak. I thought he was going to eat us like the Rodan ate my friends,” she wailed. “I opened a worm hole to take us to safety, but I am not strong enough to port us to your world or mine.”

I carefully stroked her dry, scaly skin. “It’s okay. It’s okay. You did good.”

“I did?”

“You were awesome. How did you end up on Threll?”

“The Rodan attacked my planet. They took us younglings and destroyed our lair. My mother was badly hurt in the fight. I must go home. She needs my help.”

“We want our momma,” LeeLee and LooLoo cried in unison.

Adoz chirped mournfully.

“No die,” Tiny pleaded.

I closed my eyes wearily. Adam still needed rescuing and now I had to get all these children home too. How was I going to pull that off? I couldn’t fly a spaceship and I had no clue where the Rodan base was or where their families were either.

The storeroom door slid open and there stood a foam covered Trayon. How had he found us so quickly?

“Our minds our linked and your unique lifeforms show up on the ship’s sensors,” Trayon answered.

Chiara hissed at him like an enraged python.

Pepe bared his fangs and barked, “Go away. Go away.”

Tiny shivered violently.

I grabbed Adoz’s mouth. “No fire!”

“We bite. You die,” LooLoo warned.

“Tabor poison doesn’t work on Askole warriors,” Trayon said, keeping his hands in plain view. “Are you ready to surrender?”

“Are you going to let Tiny live?”

“What you ask for is impossible.”

If I remembered correctly, Askole man parts were like humans. Reaching out with my mind, I mentally grasped Trayon’s balls and twisted them viciously. “Wrong answer. Earth females might be small, but we make up for it in pure meanness.”

Trayon let out a wheezing gasp and dropped to his knees. “You are a cunning and ferocious female.”

“You bet I am. The kid lives or I unman you.” I tightened my grip.

“As you wish.”

“What?”

“You have my word I will not harm the child.”

I released him. That was a little too easy. “I want it in writing.”

“I will add it to our mating documents.”

I groaned. I knew there would be a catch. “How do you propose to keep the rest of your people from killing Tiny?”

“I will adopt him.”

I gaped at him. “You would do that?”

“To keep you happy. Yes.”

Whoa. I wasn’t expecting that. “Once he’s legally your son, they won’t try to kill him?”

“They will not.”

“And if I refuse to mate with you?”

“I cannot protect him or the others.”

“That’s blackmail,” I protested.

Trayon’s rather toothy grin was alarming. “It is.”

“You’ll still