Chapter Ten #2
“Okay. How do I get the collar off?”
Zarek was suddenly in my head. “You do not. He is starving. If you remove the collar, he will eat everything within a ten-mile radius.”
The tiger growled and nudged the controls again.
I patted his head. “Hang on. If I push the wrong button, I could kill you.”
He bared his fangs.
“Bad tiger.” I smacked his nose. “Sit.” To my surprise, he sat. “Good kitty.”
Zarek wrapped himself around my mind so tightly I couldn’t move. “Do not strike the Katanic shapeshifter. They are powerful beings who can live for ten millennia. They are deadly, difficult to kill and feared by all.”
“Even you?” I squeaked.
“Yes, even me.”
Well, hell. “What do I do?”
“Keep him calm. Jake Jones is bringing a trailer full of sheep for him to eat,” Zarek replied and spat some gobbledygook at the shapeshifter.
The shapeshifter answered him in the same language.
There were so many languages I needed to learn. Zarek vanished from my mind and for a moment raw panic knotted my stomach.
“You are never alone,” Kaelen said. A phantom hand stroked my back.
I blew out a long breath. “Good to know.”
The Katanic shapeshifter licked my hand like it was a lollipop.
My eyes widened in horror. I could feel his terrible hunger.
Zarek smacked the shapeshifter’s mind and snarled something.
His teeth bared in a fierce snarl, the tiger let out a threatening growl.
I backed up a step and looked around for something he could eat.
A bag landed at my feet.
Dad ducked behind a fence.
I opened the bag. There were five packages of hamburger meat. I dumped them in front of the shapeshifter. “This should hold you over until the sheep arrive.”
He pounced on the meat and thirty seconds later he had eaten everything including the sack.
Fire ants tromped through my head. There were fourteen Tai-Kok soldiers heading my way.
The tiger gave a deep, guttural growl and stood in front of me.
“Kaelen, the monsters want him back.”
“Push the middle button.”
I did.
Poof! The tiger was gone and in his place was a heaving silky black mass with long ropy tentacles and a gaping maw filled with needle-sharp teeth.
My mouth went dry, and my heart began to pound. “Ummm. Tai-Kok soldiers.” I gestured. “That away. Sic’em.”
Moving faster than the eye could follow, the shapeshifter obeyed.
I jogged after him.
Laser beams flew in every direction, and the monsters began screaming.
Ducking behind a low wall, I watched in astonishment as the laser beams were absorbed into the shapeshifter’s hide. Huh? These Tai-Kok soldiers’ uniforms were black, not red, and they were shooting him with some kind of alien Taser.
“Kill the Tai-Kok soldiers using the shock guns,” Kaelen ordered.
I gave him a mental salute and started firing.
From a rooftop, Dad followed suit.
As soon as a Tai-Kok fell, the shapeshifter began stuffing the monsters down his gaping maw. Within sixty seconds, the battle was over.
A head suddenly bulged out from the thick hide. Ewww. Some of the monsters the shapeshifter had eaten were still alive. Bile rose in my throat as I noticed there were other body parts moving inside the shapeshifter.
“Some will survive for up to three days as they are slowly digested,” Kaelen commented.
“Ick.”
“The Tai-Kok eat their prey alive,” Zarek replied.
He had a valid point. Karma was a bitch, and they deserved a horrible death.
The shapeshifter rolled toward me. Damn, he was still very hungry. I projected calming vibes. “Easy. Jake is bringing more for you to eat.”
“I hunger,” a raspy voice said in my head and a slimy tentacle curled around my neck.
Fear skittered up my spine as I met his burning yellow eyes. “I’m Lexi. What is your name?”
“Gael.” The tentacle slid away. “I am Gael, son of Qa’a.”
I could feel Kaelen’s and Zarek’s shock. “It is an honor to meet you.”
“Your father was told you had died in battle,” Zarek said.
Gael transformed back into the tiger and roared his fury. “I was betrayed. Ziyn trapped me in this form and sold me to the Tai-Kok. I was forced to hunt for them.”
“Do you need us to contact your father?” I rubbed his ears like Kaylee had shown me. Evidently, it released endorphins and calmed critters down.
“It is my duty to hunt the traitor down,” Gael answered.
I guess that was a no. I smiled when he started purring.
A diesel truck pulling a livestock trailer skidded to a stop.
The poor sheep knew there was a predator nearby and their high-pitched bleating was awful. But it was them or every living soul within ten miles.
Jake jumped out of the cab, took one look at Gael and froze. “That’s one big kitty.”
“Gael isn’t a cat, he’s something else.”
Poof! Gael transformed into his true form. He ripped the gate off the trailer and chowed down on the sheep.
“What the fuck is that?” Jake bellowed.
I dragged him away from the trailer. “That is a Katanic shapeshifter. A very hungry shapeshifter.”
“No shit!”
Dad joined us. “How many sheep did you bring?”
“Eighty,” Jake replied.
There were only three sheep left, and I could still feel Gael’s terrible hunger. “It’s not going to be enough.”
Dad rubbed his jaw. “The creature hates the Tai-Kok as much as we do, right?”
“Yes.”
“How about we port him on board the Tai-Kok ship and he can eat to his heart’s content.”
I grinned. “And he can check Mars for their new base too.”
“Gael is capable of porting himself,” Kaelen announced.
Jake blew out a breath of relief. “Does he need the coordinates?”
“Zarek has given them to him,” Kaelen replied.
Frowning, Dad threw his hands up in the air. “Hello? Did you forget I’m not psychic?”
“Sorry, Dad.” I quickly filled him in.
A brilliant orange glow popped into existence and spun rapidly. I shielded my eyes. “What in the hell is that?”
“Gael is opening a teleportation portal,” Zarek answered.
Uncle Ben needed to see this. I raised my satellite phone and started filming.
The spinning light accelerated until a vortex formed. Bolts of green lightning crackled wildly around the growing opening. The tiger walked into it and with a snapping crack it vanished.
“How long will it take him to eat all the Tai-Kok?” Call me curious.
A touch of unease in his mind, Kaelen answered, “Not long.”
“Not long? Does that mean an hour or two?”
Zarek interjected, “Twenty of your minutes.”
“What? That’s not possible. There must be at least three hundred soldiers on that battle cruiser.”
“One thousand two hundred soldiers to be exact,” Kaelen replied.
“Holy shit!”
Dad grabbed my shoulder. “What’s going on?”
“They said it’ll take Gael twenty minutes to eat all one thousand two hundred Tai-Kok soldiers.”
Complete surprise on his face, Dad repeated, “One thousand two hundred soldiers? How can they all fit in his stomach?”
“Katanic shapeshifters can eat three times that amount. How? We are not sure,” Zarek said.
Jake whistled. “I take it no one has ever dissected a Katanic.”
“Never in all recorded history,” Kaelen said.
Zarek added, “An En-do warlord tried. They exterminated his entire race.”
“We should contact Qa’a and let him know Gael lives, before he does something we all regret,” Kaelen said.
“I agree.” They vanished from my mind.
My stomach rumbled. “Anyone hungry?”
Jake and my dad stared at me like I had lost my mind.
“What? Breakfast was five hours ago. It’s Monday, right?”
Dad rolled his eyes. “Yes.”
“It’s all-you-can-eat fajitas at Hilberto’s,” I exclaimed.
Jake rushed to his truck. “I’ll meet you there.”
We hurried for the ATV. We needed to get there early before they ran out of food.