Stealing Jia (Coletti Warlords #12) - Gail Koger Page 0,47

“Once their spines are gone, the cowards run.”

“They aren’t too smart either or they’d know Lilkee’s warriors have a short life span,” I said. “I mean, you can’t collect the bonus if you’re dead.”

“The Hadors desire for credits outweighs common sense,” Ivan said.

I rubbed my suddenly aching forehead. “Someone is financing her, but who?”

“That is the question. Zarek investigated Lilkee’s finances and found she has less than fifty credits in her account,” Trayon replied.

Loki chimed in, “That would explain why the few mercenaries that do survive their missions are murdered when they return.”

“The only logical conclusion is we have a traitor in our ranks.” My shoulders sagged. Saving Adam seemed an impossible task.

“Who has kept the Rodan informed of our movements,” Commander Zan said.

I sighed. “Which is why they risked seven battle cruisers to ambush Trayon’s and Zarek’s ships. It should have been an easy win for them.”

“But they did not count on my talented mate or Chiara’s ability to port onto a shielded ship,” Trayon gloated.

I grinned. “I imagine the Emperor wasn’t pleased by the news.”

“No, he was not. Three of his commanders were beheaded and served for dinner,” Jubal said.

“Ugh!” I wrinkled my nose in disgust. “If they know we’re coming, they’ll be prepared for a siege.”

“A long bloody siege,” Jubal concurred.

An evil smile curved Sariel’s mouth. “The Gorum have agreed to help.”

“Can they teleport through the Rodan shields?” Call me curious.

“They can,” Trayon replied.

Jubal smiled gleefully. “A single Gorum once ate the entire crew of a Tai-Kok ship.”

I had a hard time wrapping my head around that fact. Most Tai-Kok ships held a crew of four hundred. The Gorum must have been the size of a blimp when he finished gobbling them down. “Do the Gorum eat people too?”

“There is nothing the Gorum will not eat,” Commander Zan stated.

My eyes widened in horror. “Are you sure they’re on our side?”

“The Gorum King has a treaty with Zarek,” Trayon assured me.

Dad teleported into the war room. “Zarek wants Cuylen brought to his ship for interrogation.”

“Take him,” Sariel said.

Dad clamped a hand to his chest, picked Cuylen up and vanished.

“Chiara, I want you to scan each ship in the fleet for anything unusual,” Trayon ordered.

“Yes, Father Trayon.”

Trayon rubbed my back. “We will find Adam.”

“Alive?”

“I cannot promise you that.” Trayon’s gauntlet chimed. “I am needed on the bridge.”

“Go. I’ll help Chiara.” I watched Trayon zoomed away. Would I ever be that fast?

Three hours later, we were no closer to finding our traitor, but the ships had been scanned and given an all clear.

“The Gorum will be arriving shortly,” Trayon announced on our private link. “I want Chiara and you to meet them. Come to the bridge in ten minutes.”

“Are you sure that’s necessary?” I asked nervously.

“As my mate you will meet many dangerous lifeforms. You must learn how to deal with them.”

He had a point. They were allies. They couldn’t be worse than the Tai-Kok, could they?

Chapter Fifteen

A bright yellow glow popped into existence on the bridge. If it had appeared three feet to the left, it would have taken out navigations. The spinning light transformed into a rather large vortex. Had Trayon and the others lost their minds? It could destroy the ship!

I edged closer to Trayon. “Is it supposed to do that?”

“Yes.”

“It’s not going to suck us into some kind of weird black hole, is it?” I shielded my eyes as the light grew brighter and brighter.

“No.” There was a touch of amusement in Trayon’s voice.

“Glad you find me so entertaining.”

Trayon stroked the side of my face. “I love watching your reactions to new experiences.”

“Right. There’s never a dull moment with me around.”

“Exactly.”

Chiara wrapped around my neck. “Their mode of porting is much like mine.”

I nodded. But this twisting funnel of death was so much bigger.

Sariel, Zarek, Zan, Jubal and Dad didn’t seem concerned. They just watched the tornado of doom intently.

I was thirty seconds away from crawling into Trayon’s lap when two monstrous creatures slid out of the blinding golden light. Poof! The vortex vanished.

I blinked in disbelief. The Gorum resembled enormous garden slugs. They had long, white tubular bodies and two eyestalks with bright yellow orbs. Okay, our slugs didn’t have those twisty, wormy growths around their heads. What was even more interesting was the wormy things resembled the rat creature’s protrusions. Was Giovanni trying to clone them too? “Excuse me, but are you missing any of your people?”

The entire bridge crew looked at me in disbelief.

Zarek sighed.

Sariel fixed a disapproving gaze on me.

“Ooops. Sorry, I