Chapter 24
DADDY
I dragged Sheila down to the alley by the parking garage, working to restrain her claws with my tentacles.
On the way into town, I’d been stressed out of my mind.
I’d stayed in my Vorcon form because it was optimal for speed and I didn’t have any time to waste.
I had to get to Twink before her. When I reached Main Street, a crowd had formed along the sidewalk.
That is to say, up until they saw me and started racing away.
I’d feared the worst—that as I neared, I would discover Twink’s frail human body shredded like paper across the café.
But he wasn’t there, and a shrill cry alerted me that my ex was across the street in a parking garage.
As I’d made my way to it, I shifted back into my natural body.
Even though it wasn’t ideal for battling a Vorcon, it would be preferable to a male Vorcon that was intended to be dominated and forced into submission by a female.
Retrieving the syringe from the backpack, I’d hurried alongside the building and began to climb when I saw Sheila in a stairwell with my Twink, and then I speedily kicked into action.
After we crashed against the pavement, I managed to gain hold of her ankles and a wrist, but she was quick with her free arm and nicked my tentacle that had nearly restrained it.
“There you are, you traitorous bastard!” she cried out in her native language.
“Sheila, it’s good to see you too,” I replied in kind, stabbing my syringe into her chest, but before I had an opportunity to pump her with the tranquilizer, she headbutted me.
Fuck.
As I recovered from the blow, she dislodged the syringe and chucked the damn thing. It clinked against the pavement. Fuck, I thought, struggling to keep hold of her as she slashed at me with her free claw.
We wrestled from the alley into the street. I used my free tentacle to retrieve another syringe but couldn’t find it straightaway. Where was it?
“Did you really think you could get away from me that easily and fuck with some lesser being? I will take him and terrorize him beyond anything you’ve ever seen. You’re my mate.”
“I’m sorry for leaving so abruptly, but I was thinking we should break up.”
I finally managed to secure her other wrist and locate the syringe, tucked in an inner pocket. Damn these human contraptions and their nonsensical workings.
“We’ll break up over my dead body!” she cried out.
With my tentacles now locked around her, she rushed backward, forcing me toward a car. Knowing the syringe was unlikely to survive impact, I hurried to pull it from the backpack, just in time before she threw me into the car, denting the vehicle and my back. The syringe went flying through the air.
Having gained an advantage, she was quick to repeat the attack.
“Daddy!” Twink called from across the street as he and his friends headed out of the stairwell entrance of the parking garage.
“It’s fine!” I called to him in his language. “Just having a discussion with my ex! But I need that syringe.”
“Ex?” Sheila called out, slamming me against the car once again.
“Where is it?” Twink called out.
“On my left,” I replied as I recovered from the assault. “I didn’t see exactly where it went.”
“Great,” Eric muttered as they began searching around.
I continued addressing Sheila: “I left you, and you clearly knew that’s what I wanted. That’s why you sabotaged my ship.”
She laughed before elbowing me in the gut. “Do you like this planet? I thought it would be a great place to start our new family.”
“A new family? Here?” I asked, horrified at the nightmare that would have to unfold for her to seize control of Earth.
She grunted as she struggled against my hold. “Yes, and these creatures can wait on us hand and foot. And then do whatever I want them to do to your lover, you cheating bastard!”
Twink and Eric helped Powerbottom around, like he was injured, as they hunted for the syringe.
I imagined if they were overhearing us, speaking the Vorcons’ language at such an intense volume, it must’ve appeared as though we were in a battle to out-scream one another—certainly nothing that would have made sense to any of them.
As I secured my hold of her, she attempted to pull me away from the car. She jerked forward, twisting and jumping before using the force to bring me back down onto my back, with her on top of me. Despite the intensity of the blow, I managed to keep my hold on her.
“And now what do you plan to do?” she asked. “You can’t hold me here forever.”
It was a good point.
“You think it went in there?” Powerbottom asked, indicating a trash can.
“We’re not doing that,” Eric insisted before Twink groaned and braved a search.
A familiar fragrance filled my nose. I knew what Sheila was doing.
“Stop it, Sheila. That won’t work on me anymore. I found a way to prevent you from controlling me.”
She snarled. “Bastard! I made your life so easy. I was good to you. Fed you. Kept you safe from our children. Why would you refuse such a life?”
“Because you forgot to give me the one thing I really needed. Freedom.”
Despite how firm my hold was, Sheila was tenacious, and I found my strength waning, while hers never wavered, and she chuckled, I was sure because she knew that eventually she would wear me down.
“Found it!” Twink called out, rushing over.
“Don’t come too close,” I warned him. “Just toss it!”
Twink followed the instruction, and I figured I could spare one tentacle for the task, but it was enough to give Sheila an advantage, and she pulled free of the others before spinning around and decking me in the face.
“How are you preventing me from controlling you?” she pressed, clearly mostly annoyed that her old tricks weren’t working.
I didn’t bother to respond, only went for the attack, but Sheila was too quick for me, seizing my tentacle holding the syringe, though I moved just as quickly in passing it to another before sticking her in the thigh and emptying it into her.
She stared at where I’d punctured her before looking back at me, that rigid jaw softening as she looked at me with those gorgeous eyes, as though she was making one last heartfelt plea for me to do her bidding.
“I’m not yours anymore,” I reminded her. “I’m Twink’s.”
Her eyes bulged, and she flashed her teeth. The tranquilizer hadn’t kicked in yet, since she still had enough strength to headbutt me. My skull slammed against the asphalt, and she used my moment of disorientation to gain her freedom and rush Twink.
“No!” I called out, grasping for her with a tentacle, but she was already out of reach.
Twink didn’t even have time to react, just standing there, stunned, before something moved quickly, grabbing Sheila and tearing across the street.
Once I’d recovered, I checked the other side of the street, where this large brown-gray mass had Sheila pinned to the wall of a building before pulling away. She tumbled to the sidewalk.
She was done.
The brown-gray mass had legs and tiny arms, and it steadily shifted until it became a blue Furker.
His appearance suggested he was from the same generation and species as myself—the result of Furkers mating with Darbons on our home planet.
The Furker fidgeted with his arm cuff, and a black sphere rushed to his side, floating midair.
It opened, and the Furker reached inside, retrieving two bands and restraining Sheila.
“You are hereby under arrest by orders of the Intergalactic Justice Department,” he said before issuing her rights in her tongue, which I didn’t really see as by the book, considering she remained unconscious.
Twink hurried to my side, his arms around me in no time. Fear still coursed through him, his eyes glistening as he said, “Are you okay?”
I set my hand against his cheek, stroking my thumb across his flesh. Seeing him, feeling him, reminded me that despite how terrified I’d been of what Sheila may have done to him, he was safe, which was all that mattered. “I’ll be okay. Did she hurt you?”
He shook his head. “No, just gave me a good scare. She’s really something.”
He must’ve noticed when she confronted him. “Yes, she is gorgeous, isn’t she?”
His expression twisted up, and I sensed I’d misunderstood his meaning, but I didn’t really have time to get into that.
“So no aliens in Harmony Springs?” Powerbottom said, coming up behind Twink.
Guilt twisted up in my Twink as he cringed, turning to see his friend. He chuckled lightly. “Yeah…about that…”
By then, the Furker who’d saved my ass was heading over, Sheila wrapped in his tentacles.
“Who are you?” I asked.
“Name’s Kryton.”
He slid one of his tentacles across his arm cuff, and his credentials appeared in my line of sight. With them, the appropriate authentications to show he was a member of Justice.
“Got a lot of questions for you,” he went on.
“You’re not the only one,” Powerbottom added.
*
After securing Sheila, Kryton tended to Powerbottom’s injury with a pain reliever and serum that sped up his natural healing process, then escorted us to his ship.
Twink had captured one of Sheila’s drones—the Chihuahua.
He was a tiny thing, but his bark carried with it a threat, as though he’d take on all of us without issue.
It made me uneasy to let Twink hold him, yet he was the only one who could quiet the tiny dog’s rage.
If I got too close to my boyfriend, he would bark once again, as though guarding Twink with his life.
How could such a tiny thing be so brave and so very stupid?
Even amid Twink soothing the tiny beast, I detected tension between Twink and Powerbottom, but he and his human friends kept quiet. Whatever happened between them could wait; first they needed to recover from the shock of the attack.