Stealing Jia (Coletti Warlords #12) - Gail Koger Page 0,51

him back to me.”

“You have my promise.” Trayon brushed his lip over mine. “Once you are fully Askole, I will be proud to have you fight at my side.”

“Deal. The minute you find Adam…”

“I will tell you,” Trayon inserted.

“Annihilate those bastards.”

Trayon gave me his toothy smile. “I will bring you Giovanni’s head.”

“Oh. Gosh. That’s not really necessary.”

“As you wish.” Trayon zoomed away.

The Rodan base fell within an hour. I mentally tagged along as the assault team hit the lab. Nothing remained except a mountain of rotting body parts. Mallox, Giovanni, and the prisoners were nowhere to be found.

A stomach-churning wave of fear hit me. Was Adam dead? No! I would know if he had died, wouldn’t I? With every ounce of power I had, I reached out to Adam. For a moment, I connected with him. His thoughts were alien. Savage. Instead of hands, he had talons. His gut ached from hunger. A hysterical woman was shoved into his cell. Nausea clogged my throat when he began tearing at her flesh. The woman’s screams seemed to go on forever.

“Enough,” Trayon commanded and severed the link.

I made a broken, gasping sound. Once again, I had failed Adam. My loving brother was gone and in his place was a lab created monstrosity.

“None of this is your fault,” Trayon interjected. “We will find Adam and the others. If they are beyond our help, they will be humanely put down.”

Tears poured down my cheeks. Put down? They weren’t mindless animals. They were people with families that loved them.

Cason climbed into my lap and patted at my tears.

“Do not cry, Mother Jia,” Chiara rubbed against my cheek. “We will find him.”

“We help,” the twins proclaimed.

Pepe snuggled against me. “No be sad. We here.”

Adoz’s claws kneaded my shoulder and he crooned in my ear.

Their love poured over me, soothing my broken heart. I wasn’t about to give up on Adam. A part of him still existed. All I had to do was figure out how to reach him. “Have you asked Uncle Jesse, the Navajo shaman, if he could help them?”

“The shaman has agreed to assist us and Zarek has his scientists working on a solution.”

The sense of relief was overwhelming. We’d find a way to reverse the mutations, but first we had to find them. I frowned. “The fleet had the moon blockaded. How were Mallox and Giovanni able to escape with their prisoners?”

“We are scanning Denebola for energy signatures. It is possible they have a hidden lab there,” Trayon replied.

That made sense. “The Rodan were harvesting the Eugleanophyta. They have to have a production facility.”

“We found it, but the structure was empty except for a small quantity of the seaweed.”

“Mallox knew we were coming and moved his mind-altering drug to a secure location. He can’t take over the galaxy without it,” I said.

“Soval is running scans on the Eugleanophyta we recovered.”

I took a deep breath. If I was going to stop Mallox and Giovanni, I needed to be a full-blooded Askole. Adam was more important than my hair. “How long does the conversion take?”

“Up to a year,” Trayon replied.

“That’s too long. There has to be a way to speed it up.”

Trayon stroked my mind. “The faster the conversion, the more painful it will be.”

“I don’t care. I need to be stronger, faster, and able to fight at your side. Please. This is my last chance to save Adam.”

“As you wish, but know this, the pain will be excruciating and once I start, I cannot stop,” Trayon warned.

“I understand. Can you do it today?”

“I will make the arrangements.”

I let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you.”

“Do not thank me yet. Once the change begins, you will curse me with every breath you take.”

Chapter Seventeen

And he was right. I screamed, cursed, begged, and cried. Every nerve in my body was on fire. Trayon held me against his chest as I thrashed wildly. The agony grew and grew until it was a struggle to breathe.

Trayon growled, “Will you let Giovanni win? Block the pain.”

“Block? How?” I gasped as the blood seemed to boil in my veins.

“Concentrate on my touch.”

“What?” My mind spun chaotically. The sound of his voice was calming, a haven from the changes tearing me apart. It drew me away from the darkness threatening to consume me.

Trayon ruthlessly seized control of my mind and soon the pain was replaced by the exquisite pleasure of his touch. “Your body was made for mine. We belong together. You will not die.” He pressed a scorching kiss on