20. Chapter Twenty

Chapter Twenty

"Thanks for coming. I think we have everything we need. We'll be in touch." Jenna placed herself between a hissing Amelia and Stacey. She was hoping to stop a fight not get in the middle of one.

"It's probably for the best. In another minute, I was about to take hissy out," Stacey said.

"What did you say?" Amelia moved over enough to look at Stacey.

"Oh shit," Jenna said, pulling Bella up to get her out of the room.

"I said your cousin saved you. I was about to spank that ass."

"No one except my mate spanks my ass. Bella ask Zylar to examine you, please. You looked peaked. Tell him I'll be there after I take the trash out. Jenna, go with her. I don't want to take the chance of either of you being hurt." This time, she was going to do things the right way and protect those she loved. "Mina, we'll be calling you."

"Yes, yes, run along. I have something to say to this one." Stacey was grinning as she spread her legs, emphasizing her height. She had about four, maybe five inches on Amelia.

"If height told the entire story, only the tall would lead." Amelia laughed as she watched as Jenna led Bella to the door.

Amelia?" Bella turned to look at her.

Amelia shook her head. She didn't want to talk in front of Stacey. Bella's shoulders deflated, and she walked out the door with Mina and Jenna behind her.

Amelia walked in front of the table Bella and Jenna were sitting at. She jumped up and took a seat.

"You met a Tan-ge." Amelia chewed on her cheek before she shook her head and tried again. "That Tan-ge played around in your head, pitting me against my cousins. Although you don't seem to be any worse for the encounter."

"He hit every button going in and coming out," Stacey said batting her eyes coyly and shaking her hips. "I know about you and the pitiful war you think you have with him. I'm here to tell you he's mine. Stay away from him."

Amelia cocked her head and looked at Stacey through slitted eyes. She was hoping changing the way she viewed the woman would give her some insight into who she was. Falling for someone who looked like a monster on the outside was something she could understand. Hell, she was even good with it since it happened to her. It was falling for a monster on the inside that she never understood.

Falling for the beast, she understood. Falling for Hannibal Lecter was out of her realm of comprehension. What about the women in real life because the beast and the other were fantasies? The women who sent fan and love letters to mass murderers in jail. Shit, that meant there was a precedent for human women to do things that made no sense to the rest of the population. That's the category Stacey fell into.

"He killed a planet full of women, and that wasn't the first planet he targeted."

"Lies," her face crumpled into a sneer. "He told me you would say that. You would paint him and his people with a brush that was blacker than your foul heart."

What? There was evidence, right? No, it was one alien race's word against another. The accusations flowed both ways. If the Tan-ge had treated her like she was worthwhile instead of a piece of trash to be used and disposed of, maybe she would feel how Stacey did. Amelia knew she'd come into direct contact with more than one of them and she knew what they were capable of and who they were.

Wait, there was evidence other than the way she'd been used?

"One of them came to earth and killed every man, woman, and child walking the streets of a small town. They want the earth for their own, not the sentiment life of the planet."

Stacey snorted. He said you would say that, too. It was media misinformation. The government paid them to make it look like it was the Tan-ge. The Diza paid the government to make them point the finger at the Tan-ge. You know the government's about misinformation. I have a source in the White House that says President Lincoln is getting dicked on the regular by the Diza king. Do you think she's going to let that get out?"

Amelia smacked her head with her palm. The woman would be a conspiracy theorist's wet dream.

"As always, you're welcome to think what you want. That's what being part of America means. It doesn't give you the right to bring your bigoted thinking into someone's house. Why are you here?"

"For you, of course. I want to save my man a headache. You're that headache." Stacey cracked her neck and smiled before she reached for Amelia.

Amelia rolled off the desk. She wasn't much of a fighter, but she knew as she approached Earth that her life was on the line, which meant that Zylar's life was on the line, too. Kill one of them, the other will die. Who came up with this fated mate concept?

"Don't you get it? This male, the Tan-ge is not only my enemy but yours. Why would he send you out to do his dirty work? He has no plans to marry you or make you his mate. He won't reward you unless the reward is death."

"No reward, huh?" Stacey reached out and smacked Amelia with her mind.

Amelia felt her neck crack when she flew backward hitting the wall and sliding to the floor.

Amelia's hand went to her neck, probing it before picking herself up from the floor. Well, that was new and unexpected. You're an empath with psychic abilities."

"Surprise, bitch."

"You need to wash your mouth out with soap." Amelia took another look at Stacey. She was tall and blonde with guileless brown eyes and a killer rack. Her body was curvaceous. It was no wonder why he would want her. Any man would want a piece of Stacey until they got to know her.

"It doesn't have to be this way." Stacey struck, sending another mental punch Amelia's way. It was meant to take her down.

Amelia raised a shield. She may not be the best fighter, but the attack on the cruiser coming back to Earth taught her more than she wanted to acknowledge.

"You're not the only empath that's psychic around here." Amelia probed Stacey's emotions as she blocked her from attacking her mind. Stacey's shields were strong, and it looked like she had been working on her mental shields for years, not the months Amelia had been aware of what she was.

Amelia raised a psychic hand and punched Stacey only to howl in pain. That wasn't the way it was done. Stacey stopped to laugh out loud.

"To think he thought you would be a problem."

Amelia jumped up and moved, hiding behind a large chair in the room.

"That's the beauty of fighting this way. You don't need to see a person as long as you have a mental awareness or connection with them. The first is nice, the second is locked on like an atomic bomb to a coordinate that has been set and can't be changed. Sort of like this." Stacey reached out and mentally punched Amelia in the stomach, making her double in pain.

Amelia curled up before she retreated into herself. She started making shields, each one stronger than the last, as Stacey tore them like tissue paper. Stacey kept coming, her advance was relentless, leaving Amelia no choice but to keep refining her shields. It felt like days, months, and years passed in the blink of an eye as Stacey tore down one shield after another. Sometimes she would get a good hit or kick on Amelia before Amelia could raise another shield.

"Come on, you need to do better," Amelia told herself. She raised another shield that Stacey demolished down to the roots, tearing it out of her mind. Amelia lay on the floor, helpless and too tired to raise another shield.

Stacey laughed and began assaulting Amelia, who felt every kick and punch. Stacey never touched her physically, but Amelia knew she was going to die. There was only so much torture her body could take. A nicely aimed kick broke a rib.

"Girl, you're getting your ass kicked."

"Thanks, unknown voice in my head."

Amelia was sure that she was suffering some kind of brain damage from the ass-kicking she was taking. How many times had she hit her head? It seemed reasonable that there was someone in her head talking to her.

"Are you tired of this chick? I know I am," the voice asked.

"I am, but I'll be dead soon and then it will stop."

"After everything, our mate said and showed us. Are you still ready to die without a fight?"

The voice cast accusing eyes at Amelia: how the heck did that work, anyway?

"I fought. Look what happened?"

"If fighting like a two-year-old is your thing, then I guess you fought. How about acting like an adult and getting your act together?"

"Who the hell are you?"

Amelia screamed. That blow hadn't just been psychic, but physical. Stacey was getting bored with the no-hands approach. She wanted Amelia's death to be up close and personal.

"There's not much time. You have to decide what you're going to do."

As Amelia opened her eyes, she became aware that her eyesight was blurry and her eyes had been compromised. Her jaw had swollen, and she could barely feel her cheeks. Stacey was standing close, taking out a switchblade.

"They need to know that I can get to them wherever they are, just like I got to you." The ‘I'm a superior bitch' sound of Stacey's voice made cold chills go down Amelia's back. The bitch was right. Not only had she gotten to Amelia, but she beat her the fuck up.

"I'm ready. "

Too many people thought they had the right to abuse her, and she was done with that shit.

"Listen carefully. Your shield doesn't care how tired you are or what you plan to do after kicking this bitch's ass," the unnamed voice in her head said. It works on intent and your belief in yourself. There will be days you're hanging on to it by your fingernails, but you can do it. Our mate hasn't busted in yet because he believes in us and now, I need you to believe in us. This isn't about willpower, it's about intent. It doesn't happen in the mind; it stays in the soul the biggest place of intent in the human sphere."

Amelia couldn't take a piss in a public bathroom without hearing someone lax lyrical about intent and how it changed their lives. She'd been tuning them out for years, but maybe it was time to listen to her inner self.

Watching Stacey as she played with her blade and grinned like a serial killer wasn't going to get Amelia anywhere. She closed her eyes and allowed her mind to spin loose. Her soul, the center of her intent, was wide open with possibilities. Why hadn't she realized that before?

***

"I'm going to kill her!" Zylar tried to dodge his cousins and get into the room.

"You're going to allow your mate to come into her power," SaKura said.

"If it were your mate, Sakura what would you do for your mate, Rakha? Tell me that you'd be out here waiting to see if they lived or died. Is that how you did it when they came into their power?"

SaKura and Rakha flinched their minds, taking them back to when they almost lost their mates. Zylar took advantage of their not paying attention and dodged around them.

Sakura and Rakha ran and jumped on him as Zylar's fingers touched the knob.

"Healers are a pain in the ass," SaKura hissed.

All movement stopped as a cry of pain left the room. Zylar collapsed, and the cousins watched him as death stole his heartbeat.They howled in pain at the decision they forced on him.

Amelia was dead.