Chapter Two
The invasion begins…
Armed to the teeth, and trying to ignore the butterflies dancing in my stomach, I stepped onto the portal’s platform. “Today the monsters feel our wrath.”
“Give ‘em hell,” Uncle Ben said, and his fingers danced across the control console.
I sighed. He said the same thing every time. The golden circles of light engulfed me. My body tingled like crazy, and I appeared in what looked like a storage room. I planted the bomb and hit the retrieval button. Poof! I was back in Uncle Ben’s lab. “One down, two to go.”
“Give ‘em hell, Lexi.”
The lights encircled me again and poof! I was standing in the empty crew quarters. Huh? Their communal showers looked a lot like ours. Who knew. I left the bomb on a neatly made bed and hit my retrieval button. The instant I appeared in the lab, I asked, “Any confirmation that they blew?”
“There is chatter on the military channels about two massive explosions in space.”
“Good.”
Uncle Ben cracked his knuckles.
I frowned. He only did that when he was freaked out. “What’s wrong?”
“Their entire fleet will be on alert by now. They’ll be waiting for you this time.”
I had the sudden irrational urge to laugh. I had been playing Russian roulette for the last three months and now he was concerned. “Probably. But we don’t really have a choice, now do we? We fight or we die.” I pulled my Glock. Was I scared? Hell, yeah. “Let’s do this.”
“Give ‘em hell.” A wild look in his eyes, Uncle Ben tapped on the console.
The circles of light surrounded me, but this time it felt like a zillion fire ants were crawling over my body. Holy hell! Something had gone wrong! I appeared in midair and dropped like a rock. Smack! I slammed into someone, and my Glock went flying.
My eyes bugged. I was on the bridge of a futuristic warship, and the viewscreen showed one hell of a space battle going on.
To make things even more fun, I was lying across the lap of a huge, muscle-bound male wearing black battle armor.
Since he was sitting in the captain’s chair, I was assuming he was the boss.
A very angry-looking boss. I blinked. Holy cow was he good-looking, if you were into the whole merciless predator thing.
Huh? The red chains woven into his black warrior’s braids matched the communication device on his left wrist. Who knew aliens accessorized and why did I care?
I took a deep breath trying to control the panic streaking through me.
A low growl rumbled in his chest
One look into his disturbingly hostile amber eyes and I knew I was in big trouble. I reached for my retrieval button.
His arms clamped around me painfully, and he spat a bunch of gobbledygook.
“Sorry, I don’t speak that language,” I replied mentally. Somehow, I knew he was psychic.
A harsh voice sounded in my head, “How did you get through our shields.”
“Dunno. My uncle is the scientific genius, not me. I’m just the delivery girl.”
“What do you deliver?”
Did I look stupid? The minute I told him bombs; he’d kill me. I pasted a friendly smile on my face. “Stuff. I’m Lexi and you are?”
“Battle Commander Kaelen. I serve Zarek the Coletti Overlord.”
I had no clue who Zarek was, nor did I want to meet him. “You must be so proud.”
“Do you have a death wish, female?”
I grimaced. “Some people would think so.”
The ship pitched radically and that’s when I noticed it was a Tai-Kok battle cruiser shooting at us. A shudder shook me. That was the ship I was supposed to be on.
Battle Commander Kaelen yelled some gobbledygook. Twenty seconds later, four torpedoes shot toward the Tai-Kok ship.
“Blow those fucking monsters to hell!” I hollered.
Kablooey! The Tai-Kok battle cruiser vanished in a nimbus of white-hot gases and debris.
I hooted, “Good job!”
The battle commander stood, dumping me on my feet. Baring his sharp, white fangs, in a menacing snarl, he demanded, “How did you get on my ship?”
“Excellent question, but one I can’t answer.” I took a step back and found myself staring down the barrel of his laser pistol. Damn. He could give Wyatt Earp a run for his money.
“Try.”
I raised my hands. “I’m from Earth and it’s my job to blow up as many Tai-Kok ships as I can.” I took another step back.
“You, a lone female, are blowing up Tai-Kok ships?”
God, what a snotwad. “Yes.”
“With what?”
I said a silent prayer and replied, “With the bomb on my left hip.”
BAM! A yellow energy beam hit me in the chest. I fell backwards as violent muscle spasms contorted my body. Damn, that hurt. “Are you trying to kill all of us? What part of bomb, didn’t you get?
Kaelen removed my gun belt and held up the bomb. “This device is a bomb.”
“Yes, and going through the portal makes the ammonium nitrate a bit unstable. The exothermic decomposition produces temperatures of 2,000 degrees Celsius, and the powerful shockwave leads to the total destruction of a vessel. If you’re not in cahoots with the Tai-Kok, I have no beef with you, and I won’t blow up your ship. ”
Kaelen’s stunned expression was priceless. “You think you can destroy my warbird with this bomb?”
“I am not your enemy, but that bomb has destroyed eleven Tai-Kok ships.”
Everyone on the bridge was suddenly covered in head-to-toe body armor. I snorted. Like that would help.
An armored warrior with a metal box in his hands appeared next to Kaelen.
The battle commander placed my bomb in the box.
The warrior vanished.
Huh? How did he do that?
Kaelen’s helmet retracted. “You will tell me how you got through our shields.”
My temper flared to life. I was so done with arrogant males who refused to listen to me. “When the muscle spasms stop, I’m so kicking your ass.”
Kaelen’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “You are not afraid of me.”
“Should I be?”
His warriors laughed.
“Only a fool challenges me.”
“I’ve been playing Russian roulette with the Tai-Kok for months now. And surprise, surprise, not much scares me anymore.”
Elevator doors whooshed open and out walked a Coletti wearing some kind of medical smock. He stared at me in surprise. “Where did the female come from?”
“Earth. A small planet in a galaxy far, far away,” I replied.
“Is your world in a nearby system?” The medic asked, running some kind of scanner over me.
I gritted my teeth as another wave of muscle cramps hit me.
“I want a full scan, Andor,” Kaelen ordered.
Andor nodded. “I need to remove her suit.”
“No!” I struggled to control my flailing limbs.
The medic patted my shoulder. “I will not harm you.” He removed my helmet and injected something into my neck.
Cold fear skittered up my back. “What did you give me?”
“Something to stop the spasms,” Andor replied.
A sigh of relief escaped me as the painful muscle cramps stopped. “Thank you.”
Kaelen abruptly lifted me and between the two of them, they removed my spacesuit. They both seemed surprised at my sweatpants and bright red T-shirt with the one-fingered salute logo on the front.
Dammit! Uncle Ben was going to be pissed that I lost another suit.
Andor uttered a bunch of gobbledygook.
Kaelen tilted my head up and sniffed my neck. “Who is your sire?”
“My father is human, my mother wasn’t.” If he kept sniffing me, I was going to introduce my knee to his groin.
Kaelen’s eyes narrowed. “What is your mother’s clan name?”
“She’s dead. What does it matter?”
“I will have my answers.” Kaelen picked up my left wrist, bit down and drank my blood like a friggin’ vampire.
“Hey! I am not food.” Drawing on every ounce of power I had, I hit him with my right hook.
His head snapped back, and he crumpled to the floor. I grabbed my emergency recall pendant and pushed it. The yellow bars of light engulfed me.
With a roar of pure fury, Kaelen shot to his feet. “I will find you.”
“No, you won’t.”
Kaelen laughed. “I have taken your blood, and there is nowhere you can run, that I cannot find you, Lexi.”
His taunt echoing in my head, I did a face plant on the portal’s floor. Ow.
A computerized voice announced, Phase coil malfunction. Phase coil malfunction.
“Wonderful.” I made sure all my parts were in the right place. “I never, ever want to do that again.”
“What happened to your suit, and why are you bleeding?” Uncle Ben cried.
I got slowly to my feet. “I had a run-in with a Coletti battle commander. He likes to bite.”
“Why did he bite you?”
I limped over to him. “The portal dumped me on the bridge of his spaceship. Let’s just say, he wasn’t happy.”
Uncle Ben was white as a ghost and visibly shaken. “We can worry about that later. The Tai-Kok have landed ships in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.”
“What am I supposed to do about it? The portal seems to be malfunctioning, and I don’t want to end up in a wall. Plus, Battle Commander Kaelen kept my bomb, my gun belt and the spacesuit,” I groused.
“I can replace those items,” a deep-timbred voice announced.
I turned around. General Saul Jones was standing behind me. He had to be at least six-foot-five, and his muscular build rivaled my dad’s. His cold green eyes studied me intently. “The Tai-Kok are forcing people inside their ships.”
Nausea rose in my throat. “Slaughter ships.” I looked at Uncle Ben. “Is the portal gonna work?”
“Yes.” He studied his control console. “I think.”
With a touch of asperity, I snapped, “You think? I’d like to live to see eighteen, but the way things are going, that’s highly unlikely.”
“How old are you?” General Jones demanded.
“Sixteen going on eighty.”
General Jones’ mouth tightened into a hard line. “You’re just a kid.”
“Yep, and I’m hell at blowing up stuff.”
Amusement flashed in the general’s eyes. “Your father says you have a unique combat talent.”
“I can knock the shit out of people using just my mind and it comes in real handy when the Tai-Kok attack me.”
“Show me,” General Jones commanded.
My eyebrows rose in surprise. “You want me to hit you?”
“Yes, I need to know you can defend yourself against the aliens.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’ve blown up eleven alien ships and I’m still breathing. That should be proof enough and I don’t want to hurt you.”
General Jones grinned. “You won’t hurt me.”
“Yeah, she will,” Uncle Ben warned.
Giving my uncle the stink eye, General Jones ordered, “Punch me.”
With a shrug, I hit him with my right hook.
His head snapped back and down the general went.
“Well, hell!” I knelt and patted his face. “You, okay?”
The general groaned.
“You did warn him,” Uncle Ben said.
Testosterone made men do such stupid stuff. “Yep.”
“That’s quite a punch,” General Jones commented and sat up.
“Yes, sir. It never fails to stop the Tai-Kok.” I glanced around. “Where is my father?”
“He tried to kill your uncle and had to be restrained.” General Jones got to his feet. “Let’s get you outfitted.”
Huh? If I hadn’t been so freaked out, I would have noticed Uncle Ben’s black eye. “Yes, sir.”