Stealing Jia (Coletti Warlords #12) - Gail Koger Page 0,6
gone after Giovanni already? Or were they hunting me?
To my disgust, the old guy tottered over to my tree, whipped it out and urinated. So much for making a quick exit and who knew one old man could produce that quantity of urine. Very stinky urine. Where was his keeper?
A dark-haired woman in typical tourist garb hurried out of the shuttle. “What are you doing?”
“Taking a piss.” The old guy hollered. “You blind?”
The woman threw her hands up in the air. “There’s a perfectly good toilet onboard the shuttle and I only stopped so you could take pictures of those stupid ruins.”
I frowned. Her mental signature matched that of a Coletti warlord’s, and I was literally stuck up a tree. A chilling cold encircled my body and bam! I couldn’t move. Not a finger or a toe. My grip on the tree loosened. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t stop myself from toppling off the branch. I smacked the ground hard. Oof!
“Oh, look. A falling songbird,” the dark-haired woman exclaimed.
Was that supposed to be funny?
The old guy grabbed my rocket launcher. “With a new Falcon rocket launcher.”
“Put it down before you blow something up,” the woman barked.
The old man scowled at her. “I know my way around weapons.”
Bang! Flames shot from the rocket launcher. Whoosh! The missile whizzed away.
“Fuck!” Armor engulfed the woman, and she knocked the old man to the ground.
Kablooey! The shuttle blew into a thousand tiny pieces.
The woman did her best to shield the old man and me from the flaming debris raining down on us. “Nothing like announcing our presence to the evil scientist,” she chided.
I had always heard the Coletti were awesome warriors, but these two were inept fools.
“It’s not my fault the controls are touchy,” the old man retorted.
The woman retracted her helmet. “It wouldn’t have been a problem if you hadn’t picked the stupid thing up.”
“Maybe.”
Envy swelled inside me. They were family. Idiots, but family.
A glittering blue light suddenly engulfed us. Merda!
Chapter Three
When the light faded, we were in an ancient dungeon complete with mummified human remains shackled to the wall. I did a mental happy dance. Not a rat in sight.
“Was that a transporter beam?” The old guy ran his hands over his body.
I wanted to know too.
The woman nodded. “It was.”
“It felt like my insides were being scattered about the universe.” The old guy blew out a relieved breath as he patted his groin. “But I’ve got all my parts.”
I would have rolled my eyes if I wasn’t paralyzed.
The dark-haired woman tapped her comm-link. “Damn, my bracelet’s not working.”
Hmmm. Giovanni must have set up an energy suppression field. Maybe he wasn’t as unprepared as I thought.
“I’ve found three surveillance cameras,” the old man announced.
The woman instructed, “Take them out.”
His arms and legs gyrating wildly, the old guy danced around the dungeon and yelled like a lost soul, “Hu-hu-hu-hu-hu.” Flames erupted from the cameras.
What was he? I had never seen powers like his.
The woman turned her attention to me, and her voice sounded in my head. “My name is CeeCee Tsosie. The old man is Jesse Tsosie, my uncle. Our team is here to stop Giovanni from creating more monsters. I think that’s your objective too. I propose we join forces and take him down together.”
Only fools trusted strangers. “You’re Coletti,” I snarled. “Give me one good reason why I should work with you? Plus, that old fool over there blew up your shuttle and got us captured.”
“This might be Coletti body armor, but I’m a shaman, not a warlord. That old fool is not as harmless as he looks.” Tiny bolts of lightning formed on her palm. “I can get us out of here, but Giovanni’s creatures are loose in the catacombs. Truce?”
Creatures? What kind of creatures? God, I hoped they weren’t giant mutated rats. The cold surrounding me vanished and to my relief, I could move again. “Truce.”
“Oh yeah, Giovanni installed an energy suppression field in his swell dungeon and your weapons are as useless as mine,” CeeCee added.
The suppression field I knew about, but what in the world was a shaman? Was she like an American witch doctor? “Shaman?” I carefully got to my feet.
“I’m a protector of my people and I can control the weather and other things.”
My gaze roved over CeeCee’s petite frame. “You’re Polizia?”
“I am.”
“What did you hit me with?”
“I psychically stopped your ability to move,” CeeCee answered.
I tried to cloud her mind. “Handy talent.”
“I know one of your abilities is to cloud people’s