Coletti Warlords: Vexing Voss (26 page)

The dude was seriously hard to kill, but I’d sure give it a go. I quickly surveyed the area, looking for anything I could use as a weapon.

Metal glittered in the sunlight.

Hot dang. A sword. I crept away from the madman.

His fangs bared in a feral snarl, Malik spun around and asked pleasantly, “Leaving so soon?”

“Yep, places to go, things to do.” Keeping a wary eye on him, I picked up my pace.

Malik caressed the blade of his wickedly sharp knife. “My friend wants a taste of your flesh.” He crooned to his knife. “Soon, my friend. Soon.” He cocked his head and smiled. “Such impatience to kill.”

Oh dear God. “You know when you consider your knife your best buddy and you talk to it like it’s a real person, you’re a few bricks short of a full load?”

He cocked a puzzled brow. “You think I’m insane?”

“Is the pope Catholic?”

“I do not know this pope,” Malik stated dismissively.

“What a surprise. You really need to confess your sins. Of course that would probably take the next hundred years, and what’s up with fucking your own daughter? I mean, that is truly sick and twisted.”

A nasty little smile pulled at Malik’s mouth. “I am sick and twisted.”

“And evidently proud of it.”

“Anything to annoy my father.” He stalked toward me, stroking the friggin’ knife like it was his lover.

I sent out a mental distress call.
“Get this freak away from me!”
The blade flashed in the sun.
“Like now!”
I jumped back as he slashed at my throat with a lightning-fast cut.

Malik chortled insanely. “Voss cannot save you.”

“Then I guess I just have to save myself.” I threw a handful of sand in his face and bolted. I ran for what seemed an eternity. The sizzling sun beat down on me, and my fear-fueled sprint became a stumbling jog.

Malik teleported in front of me, and wham! His fist connected with my face.

I flew backward and slammed into the mangled corpse of a Coletti warrior. I rubbed my aching jaw. Nope, Malik’s powers definitely weren’t on the fritz.

Dozens of Scorm wiggled out of the dead guy. Shit! I scrambled away and frantically brushed the nasty critters off my battle suit.

Picking up
my
sword, Malik swung it around his head.

God, another show-off, and where in the hell was Voss?

“I’m here,” Voss growled behind me.

“Snookums!” I spun around and hugged him in relief.

He gently wiped the blood off my busted lip. “You are my life.”

“And you’re mine,” I answered, eyeing his bloody battle suit. He had been a busy boy.

“How very touching,” Malik sneered.

Voss pushed me behind him and drew his sword. “This ends now.”

“Prepare to die.” Malik charged Voss.

Their blades met in a clamor of steel. The two men circled each other, exchanging blows, popping in and out in what seemed to be a choreographed ballet of death.

My heart in my throat, I watched them duel. Malik was very, very good, but my Battle Commander easily parried his cunning cuts and slashes.

I eyed the bloody cuts covering Malik’s body. Damn, what a shame the nasty warlord’s battle suit was damaged.

The sword dancing in Voss’s hand, he mercilessly took Malik apart piece by piece.

Without warning, there was a loud, cracking
pop
, and thick yellow smoke engulfed the combatants.

“Oh God! Voss!”

Voss staggered out of the gaseous cloud, struggling to breathe.
“Stay…back. Poisonous…gas.”

Malik strolled out of the rapidly dissipating cloud, swinging his sword idly.

“What did you do?”

“Killed him,” Malik answered with a laugh.

Horror rocked me when Voss collapsed to his knees and the sword fell from his hand. Think. Think. Malik must have taken the antidote, and it should still be in his blood. Right? How did I get him to share it with Voss? Slit his throat? Beg? Kick his sorry ass? Yeah, that would work. “Are you such a fucking coward that the only way you can defeat an opponent is by cheating?”

“Cheating is more fun,” Malik answered, kicking Voss viciously in the face and knocking him to the ground. He took Voss’s laser pistol. “The great Battle Commander dying, unable to fight, and forced to watch as I take what was his.”

“I am not helpless, and I am not yet dead,” Voss rasped, struggling to his feet. A fierce rage blazing in his eyes, he picked up his sword. “Your actions have dishonored our clan.”

Malik sneered. “Honor is highly overrated.” He shot Voss in the chest with a stun beam.

Voss’s body jerked spasmodically, and he crashed to the sand, the breath rattling in his chest.

“Now lie there like a good little warlord while I show your mate what she has been missing.”

Raw fear twisted my stomach. “You fucking bastard.”

“Sticks and stones.” Grinning like a hyena, Malik sauntered toward me. “To
honor
your great romance, I’ll grant you a boon. When Voss is gasping his last breath, I’ll slit your throat, and you can watch each other die. Who said romance was dead?”

An image of my mother’s mangled body formed in my mind, and I fought down my fear. It ended now. He would never again kill someone I loved. “I’ll do anything you want, just give him the antidote.”

Malik parroted me. “Where’s the fun in that?”

Yeah, I didn’t think that would work. I linked with Zarek.
“We need help now! Malik poisoned Voss.”

“Tattletales die a slow, painful death,” Malik growled and tapped an icon on his warrior’s bracelet. An energy field erupted around us. “There will be no rescue, no escaping your fate. Today I take both your body and your life.”

“Never gonna happen.”

“Never?” Malik walked back over to Voss and pressed the tip of his sword against my honey bunny’s throat. “Not even to save his life? You did say you’d do anything.”

“I lied. You have no honor. Your word is worthless. Just as worthless as you are. You are nothing but a pathetic little man with an itty-bitty dick.”

His eyes cold with menace, Malik snarled, “You’ll soon know the size of my dick.”

That’s right, asshole. Focus on me. Move away from Voss
. “Nah, you probably can’t get it out.”

With a roar of fury, he fumbled with what was left of his battle suit, and out came his wormy little snake. “Most females tremble at the size of my member.”

“They’re trembling with laughter, not awe,” I corrected.

A fierce savagery filled Malik’s eyes as he raised his sword and stalked toward me.

“Zoey speaks the truth. You are a pathetic coward with a very small dick,” Zarek said.

Malik spun around.

Battered and bloody, Zarek, Wulf, Lothel, Hothar, and the Gorum formed a circle around the barrier.

An evil grin curved Malik’s mouth. “I see you survived my booby trap, but once again you’re too late, Father.” He teleported back to Voss and raised his sword. “Now all you can do is watch as I kill your great Battle Commander.”

A terrible rage vibrated through every cell of my body. “The only one dying today is you.”

That creepy maniacal laugh broke from Malik. “You think you can kill me?”

“Yes.” With a little help from Zarek. A torrent of power exploded from me and slammed into Malik.

His face a bleached-out mask of shock, Malik staggered and went down on one knee. In a choked, hoarse voice filled with fury, he spat, “You will pay for that.”

An immense power hit my mind. I sucked in an agonized breath and tasted the cold, bitter flavor of fear.

“You are not alone,”
Voss whispered in my head.

Images rushed through my dazed brain, and I suddenly knew what I had to do.
“Let’s kick some ass.”
I unleashed volley after volley of energy, hammering Malik and driving him to his knees.

Bellowing like a wounded bear, Malik jumped up and launched his counterattack.

Pain shattered my concentration, and darkness danced across my vision. Malik’s next mind blast seared through my brain, and it took everything I had to hold my shields. My energy reserve was dwindling rapidly, and I wasn’t sure how much longer I could fight him.

The next blow sent me reeling. My knees buckled, and I crumpled to the sand, too exhausted to rise.

Malik howled in victory. “Did you think this pitiful female could defeat me, Father?”

Voices whispered in my head,
“Get up. You fail, he dies.”

No! Voss couldn’t die. I had lost too much. I wasn’t strong enough to go on without him. Reality blurred, and for a moment, I stood on that bloody Phoenix street strewn with disemboweled corpses and the hot wind carrying the children’s tortured screams. From somewhere deep inside me came a final vestige of angry strength. Never again would the innocent be slaughtered. Vengeance would finally be mine. This was the hour of his death. The day of retribution.

I hurled all my pain and rage at Malik.

Malik’s screams of stunned agony reverberated around the energy field.

“Die. Die, you bastard.” I felt his shields crumble under my furious onslaught. The one who had sought to destroy me and mine would in turn be destroyed. I sensed his life force slipping away, and then it was gone.

I fell into a weird kind of limbo where I was detached from my body. There was no pain. No fear. Just peace. Voss was safe.

“Zoey?”

“Mom?”
Joy erupted inside me as she appeared out of the blackness.
“I did it, Mom. I killed the bastard. Just like I promised.”

She pressed a kiss to my forehead.
“I’m so very proud of you, Zoey.”

“Malik will never hurt anyone again.”

“No, he won’t, but your battle drained your life force to the point of death, sweetie. It’s not your time. You must go back.”

“I want to be with you, Mom. I’ve missed you so much.”

Zarek’s furious voice demanded,
“Will you let Voss die?”

“What? No. I saved him.”

“No, you did not. Get up. Now! Voss needs the antidote. You must deactivate the energy barrier.”

A wave of power hit me like an electric shock. My eyes flew open. “I’m up!” Everything was a nauseating blur. I shook my head to clear it and spotted Voss. There was a bluish tinge to his skin, and his breath came in ragged gasps.

Oh dear God. He was dying. I tried to rise, but my muscles howled in protest. It was like I was made out of granite. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get up. My strength was gone.

The Overlord’s growl reverberated around my skull,
“Will you let Voss die?”

“No, I would give my life for his.”
My gaze settled on Malik. He was just a couple of feet away. I could do it. Gritting my teeth, I dragged myself across the burning sand and fought back the waves of dizziness.

“Hurry,”
Zarek urged.

Fear had me scrambling like a drunken sea turtle for Malik. I grabbed his thick wrist and started punching icons on his warrior’s bracelet until the energy barrier vanished.

Everyone rushed to Voss.

A shudder shook me. I was so very cold. The sun dissolved, and an inky blackness crashed over me in a claustrophobic wave.

Chapter Twenty-One

I floated in an endless black void. Shadows shifted, danced, and writhed in a celebration of death. They whirled around me, beckoned to me, pulled me away from the light.

Oh fuck! Was I dead? I didn’t feel dead.

The shadows pushed me farther and farther into the void. Gruesome skeletal caricatures spun gleefully around me.

Okay, this was creeping me out.
“Mom? You there? Am I dreaming? Please, God, let me be dreaming.”

Faraway voices called to me.

“Hello? Who’s there?”

A maniacal laugh shattered the silence.

“No! None of this is real. It can’t be. I killed you.”

“I cannot die.”

“Sure you can.”

“I attached myself to your life force. As long as you live, I live.”

Gotta say I didn’t see that one coming. Did I want to go through life with a murderous parasite attached to me? Hell no. I swam deeper into the waiting blackness.
“Let’s go say howdy to the devil.”

Malik’s stunned horror washed over me.
“Stop!”

“Not a chance, asshole. You’re done with killing my loved ones.”

“You’ll die too.”

“And your point is?”

“Are you insane?”

“No. Determined. It ends now.”

“You’re bluffing.”

“Am I?”

“Voss will never allow you to die,”
Malik blustered.

“Because of you, he’s in no shape to stop me.”

A thrust of iridescent light shot into existence.
“But I am.”

Crap. Zarek.
“Sorry, sir, I forgot all about the Kalafat, but he hurt Voss, and he’s gotta die.”

“He will die, but this is neither the time nor the place.”

“Touch me and she dies,”
Malik snarled.

A ribbon of dazzling energy shattered the blackness and coiled around me. A tremendous power poured into me, ripping me away from Malik’s foul grasp.

Malik’s cry of stunned agony echoed in my head.
“No! It’s not possible.”

“Awake,”
Zarek commanded.

My body convulsed violently, and I sucked in a lungful of air. A groan broke from me as pain radiated throughout my body. Being back in the land of the living hurt like a mother.

“Zoey? Please wake up,” Hothar called urgently.

My eyes snapped open, and I surveyed his badly bruised face. “Whoa! I hope you kicked the asshole’s butt.”

A feral smile curved Hothar’s mouth. “I did.”

“Good.” I raised my head and looked down at my body. “Why am I wearing this funky paper jumpsuit?”

“It’s a life-support suit for those who need intensive care.” Grabbing me in a bear hug, Hothar whispered in my ear, “I thought we had lost you.”

“Can’t breathe,” I squeaked.

He eased his grip. “You take too many chances.”

God, he sounded just like Voss. Shit! “Where’s Voss?”

He pointed to a regen tube filled with a funky red gas. “The medics have stabilized him, and they are purifying his body of the poison.”