Interlude

Chapter 10

Lila

The three of us reform in the docking bay of the station, and all around us, lifeforms are rushing back and forth. There are a few smaller vessels inside the bay, and the noise is quite loud.

Let’s get moving. We don’t have long until harvester sign-ups, Xavier says inside my head, so he doesn’t have to shout. I can tell he projected it to Brannock as well from the nod he gives him.

Screams of horror sound out, and I use my wings to whirl around, looking for the danger, but I realize it’s us. We’re the danger—or the spiky red and green man next to me is. People are freaking out at the sight of Brannock in his berserker mode.

“Shit, change of plan.” Xavier waves a hand, and everyone in the docking bay instantly freezes. I can feel the tingle of his magic at work, so I’m assuming he’s wiping all their minds of what they saw. That was not the low-key kind of entrance we were planning. We want to be as forgettable as possible.

“Ah, maybe it would be better to change back to normal or assume a glamour. Otherwise, there is no way we are going to get hired if this is the kind of reaction you get,” I mutter to him, and he chuckles.

“I thought there would be enough time since the last war that people would have forgotten our reputation. I guess that’s not the case.” He sounds disappointed. I guess I would be too if my appearance caused that kind of reaction without even getting to know me. Brannock’s body shudders, and I watch with interest as the red and green is replaced by his pretty sparkly blue opal color. His back and shoulder spikes also reappear, pushing out of his skin in a gruesome display that must be uncomfortable if the grimace on his face tells me anything. His whole body shakes, and he sighs, stretching out a little, before it shimmers and the pretty, sparkly man is replaced with another corn man.

“Good thinking,” Xavier says. “This race is in tune with plants that bear fruit. It’s why this one was hired in the first place. We’ll say you are his brother. That fits his narrative.” My warlock husband’s ability to pry someone’s brain open and get all their knowledge is an incredibly scary yet handy power to have. He waves a hand and unfreezes everyone. It’s funny to watch how confused they are, but they quickly shake it off and continue on about their business prior to realizing a predator was amongst them.

“Come on, we need to get moving. It’s about a ten minute walk from here to that bar, and we’re running out of time.” Brannock stumbles as he starts to move. “Fuck, this isn’t easy,” he grumbles as he catches himself. I’m not even sure how they move, to be honest. There are no visible legs, they kind of just shuffle. At this rate, it’s going to take us forever.

I fly ahead of them and spy a travelator, so I wave at them. “Over here.” If we continue at the rate they are going, we will never get anywhere. I’m going to have to keep an eye on both of them so they don’t get chomped on by anything on the planet. They certainly can’t run out of the way.

It’s all I can do to keep a straight face as I watch the two of them move clumsily to the travelator. They both heave a sigh of relief as they make it there, and it starts moving them along the halls of the space station.

I flit above them, still feeling weary, but at least I’m not incapacitated. I didn’t really get a good look around the station last time, and it’s a fascinating blend of weird and wonderful. My eyes tend to linger on the more inhuman aliens that are all kinds of shapes and sizes, but as we move along, I spy someone I know.

“Glup, you motherfucker!” I shout at the Gurko who is talking to another of his species. I dart down so I’m in his shocked face.

“You messed with the wrong fucking girl,” I growl at him, and he looks confused before snarling back at me.

“I don’t know who you are, little fairy, but you better get out of my face before I eat you.” He bares his teeth and snaps them at me, then I remember I’m in a different form, so there’s no way he’s going to remember.

“Does the name Lila Adams ring a bell?”

His snarl drops, and his blue skin turns pale as his eyes dart around. “No, I don’t know anyone by that name,” he mutters as he sighs when he doesn’t see my original form.

“Oh, I beg to differ. I know exactly what you did to her, and now it’s time for a little payback.” My fury is righteous, and I allow my elemental form to shift into her more primal counterpart. My limbs grow, getting thicker and larger, fur sprouting out of my skin as I feel my head grow and my teeth lengthen, my antler style horns hardening to weapons. The wings on my back grow bigger as I set down on the ground and reach for the little troll who is a lot shorter than me now. I hear him whimper, and I feel a rush of excitement. I know that this form is technically an herbivore, but it also seems to have a slight penchant for destruction.

I lift Glup up into the air, and the other Gurko he was speaking to comes at me with his taser-like baton at the ready, but I just kick out a leg, and he goes flying across the room. I hear a loud thud as he hits the wall, but I don’t bother to turn around, my focus on the being in my hands. I roar loudly in his face, and he squeals like a small child. A rush of adrenaline flows through me, and I smile, displaying all of my very large teeth.

“Put me down, put me down!” he cries, his terror obvious as he bangs his fists against my furry forearms, but I barely feel it. I shake him like a Polaroid picture, amused to see the way his eyes roll and his head snaps back and forth before slamming him down on the ground, WWE style. I use my foot to pulverize his face into the metal floor. I know that if I push just a little harder, I could pop his skull like it was a grape. As much as I would like to kill him, I don’t, because that would draw too much attention. Instead, I haul back and wave a hand. The metal floor shimmers and glides up, responding to my bidding, surrounding Glup in a cage barely big enough for him to sit up in.

I lean in and whisper, “Lila’s coming for you, so you better watch out.”

He blanches and wraps his hands around the bars of the cage, trying to rattle them, but they are solid. Hopefully they can find another earth elemental or someone else with metallurgy abilities to remove him, otherwise he’s going to be an interesting exhibit for all the station visitors.

I turn and walk away, allowing my primal form to recede, and a wave of tiredness washes over me as I catch up to Brannock and Xavier, who were stuck on the travelator, unable to get off to come to my assistance. They are almost to the end, and I see them both heave a sigh of relief when I fly into sight.

I wait for them at the end of the moving walkway, and when they get to me, Xavier—or I think it’s Xavier, since they are basically identical—snatches me up and runs his hands all over my body to check that I’m okay. The hands linger slightly on my small breasts. Yup, it’s Xavier. I slap his hands away. There’s no time to have fun in this form. It’s actually something we haven’t tried, playing in my other forms, so I must remember to suggest it when we have less important matters to attend to.

“Who was that?” Brannock asks, looking back at the crowd of people who have gathered around the makeshift cage.

“That was the motherfucker who handed me over to the carevasta bears.”

Both corn men’s faces turn cloudy, and they start to head back in the other direction, but I grab their leaves with both hands and stop them. “We don’t have time for revenge now. I put the fear of Lila in him. He’s going to be constantly looking over his shoulder if he ever gets out of that cage,” I tell them, smirking at my ingenious idea.

Xavier chuckles with approval. “Vindictive, I like it.”

I have to tug harder on Brannock’s leaf to get him to relent.

“I will kill him for you, Lila, to save you from having to do it yourself,” he offers, and I can see he’s trying hard to hold his glamour. It keeps shimmering. I look around, hoping nobody notices, pushing him up against a wall and grabbing his head between my two little hands.

“Brannock, look at me,” I demand, his gaze locked on the Gurko in a cage. I shake him to get his attention, and his eyes finally drift to mine. I feel Xavier tuck in behind me to block us from sight, my tiny form definitely not enough to do that. “Hold it together.”

There’s a vicious rumbling sound coming from deep inside his chest, and his form flickers slightly. “He gave you over to be a sex slave. He will die,” he grits out, his form still flickering.

“Lila, if he loses his shit, we are in big trouble. If his berserker mode activates, he will slaughter anyone in sight.”

“Wasn’t he in berserker mode earlier?” I ask Xavier, and he shakes his head.

“No, he had just taken that form. Berserker mode flips, and it’s like they lose all sense of reasoning, like a rabid animal. They only come out of it when everyone around them is dead. It’s what made them so formidable during the war.”

“Formidable? I would say downright terrifying. Fuck, okay, we need to distract him.” I don’t wait for Xavier to make a suggestion. Instead, I press my lips to his, kissing him hard. The rumbling cuts off abruptly, and his eyes widen in shock, but it doesn’t take long for him to respond, and he kisses me back. It’s a little strange, my tiny mouth on his big, bubbly one, but we make it work. His arms drift up until he clasps my waist, and he pulls me toward his body.

“Well, I guess that’s one way to distract him,” Xavier comments behind me, sounding amused. I’m kind of lost in the kiss, though, and the way his hands feel on my body. He has fat, stubby fingers that would feel amazing pushing in and out of my pussy.

“Whoa.” I pull back in shock, surprised that my thoughts went there. I blink to clear the foggy lust and look at the man in front of me. His glamour has stabilized, and he’s looking back at me with wide-eyed amazement.

“You kissed me.” A finger drifts up to his lips, and I feel my core throb at seeing the thick stubby thing. I need to pinch myself. Bad Lila.

“Ah, yeah, I mean you were pretty damned focused on killing Glup. I don’t think that would have done us any favors.” A rush of embarrassment prickles at my skin. I can’t believe I just forced him to kiss me.

Phoeall, you didn’t have to try very hard, trust me, Xavier reassures me. He enjoyed it very much.

Brannock is still staring at me with wide-eyed surprise—or as wide as the little piggy eyes they have can get. “You kissed me?” he repeats, sounding bewildered, and my embarrassment rises. Time to go.

“Ah, um, we should get moving.” I break away and fly the rest of the way to the bar, waiting for the two men to reach me. There seems to be a large crowd of people hoping to get hired on to be halla harvesters.

When they catch up, Xavier doesn’t wait at the back of the line, instead pushing through the crowd like a bulldozer. I allow the two of them to take the lead, and I follow behind—flying above the crowd is faster anyway. We make it to the front where there are two people sitting at a desk, talking to prospective employees.

“Why is it so busy?” I whisper in Xavier’s ear.

“Because the amount they pay far outweighs the perceived danger. People are idiots, and greed plays a big part in the decision to be a halla harvester. It’s what the brewers are counting on. It’s also why halla mead is so expensive.”

The two beings sitting at the table are a species I recognize. “Didn’t you have one of these in your harem?” I say quietly out of the side of my mouth, and he gives me a wink. I glare at him. Both of them are like human trees, with foliage for hair, and their skin looks like bark. The one on the left’s eyes brighten when they see Xavier.

“Dopnoo! Finally, someone who knows what they are doing. We haven’t had many people return from the last outing.” He exchanges a nervous glance with his counterpart.

Xavier scoffs. “Oak, Elm. Good to see you both. Is it any surprise? We lost four harvesters. I would say people are starting to wise up.”

“Shh,” the other one hisses, looking wildly around the room in the hope nobody heard Xavier’s comment. “Let’s not make that common knowledge. We need to double our crew this trip, and you’ll scare off the prospects.”

“Well, I’m here, and this is my brother, Dipee, and our little friend Vika.” He points first to Brannock and then me. He makes “little friend” sound suggestive, and the two tree dudes eye me skeptically. Right, do the corn dudes even have dicks? I mean, I can’t see anything that looks like one.

If I had the ability to mimic like you, I could show you, Xavier muses inside my mind, and it takes all my control not to roll my eyes with the attention of the two overseers still on me.

“Excellent. Earth elementals are always welcome. You did warn her that she wouldn’t be able to control the plants though.” Oak looks at Xavier who nods, or I guess bows, really, in acknowledgement.

“Yes, but she’s been in space for too long and needs to be one with her element. She’s aware of the danger.”

“Right then. Sign here, and welcome to the crew.” Elm slides a tablet over, which looks like an indemnity form releasing them from any responsibility should we be maimed, injured, or killed on the job. The three of us sign our aliases, and Oak and Elm give us instructions to meet them at their ship in the docking bay in an hour.

We get pushed to the side as the next person steps up, and we make our way back through the crowd of aliens, returning to the outside of the bar.