Chapter One

Aphrodite Davis wasn't what I expected. After all the horror stories about her screaming meltdowns at the sight of anything scary, like Chihuahuas, cucumbers, or multi-legged aliens, I thought she would be a scared little mouse. She was anything but mousey with her blonde hair in a trendy up do and her overdone makeup. The wannabe love goddess's bloodred catsuit had a plunging neckline that barely contained her girls. Any sudden move and those puppies were popping out. Uncle Saul owed me big time.

Her bright red lips stretched in a grimace; Aphrodite tottered toward me on four-inch stiletto heels. "You're my bodyguard?"

"I am."

Aphrodite eyed my armor and let out a hyena-like laugh. "The General expects a midget to protect me?"

I'm a redhead and I have a bit of a temper. For a moment, I considered bouncing Aphrodite off the ceiling a few times to teach her a lesson, but it would piss off Uncle Saul. Making my uncle angry was something I avoided at all costs. "I might be short, but my telekinesis makes me a formidable warrior."

"Like I care. You're totally unacceptable. I told the General I wanted a warrior to keep me safe and take care of my needs."

I rolled my eyes. Aphrodite, the Goddess of Love, had seduced the last two bodyguards assigned to her. "Where's your armor?"

"It's ugly, and besides I don't need it."

This ought to be good. I gave her a little mental push. "Why aren't you wearing your armor?"

"It hides my best assets."

"Which are?"

"My breasts. I'm a triple E-cup," Aphrodite gushed proudly.

Nope, more like a C-cup. "You do remember General Jones telling you we are responding to a Kotsor sighting on the merchant ship Vakoch and armor is a necessity?"

"I'm not leaving Earth and I'm certainly not going anywhere with you." Big crocodile tears rolled down her face. "I want to talk to Saul, he would never allow this to happen, he knows how delicate I am," Aphrodite wailed.

Delicate my ass. "Sorry, princess, but you're a witch and we need your magical skills to kill the nasty Kotsors and disarm any magical traps."

"Aren't they like huge spiders?"

"Yes, Kotsors are the kissing cousin of the black widow." What a clueless twit.

Aphrodite's eyes rolled back in her head and down she went.

I stared at her in disbelief. She had to be faking it. I mentally scanned her. Nope. She had fainted. The guys might be willing to put up with her theatrics, but I wasn't. Pulling a capsule of smelling salts out of my pocket, I broke it under her nose and stepped back.

With a screech, Aphrodite erupted to her feet. "What the hell?"

"Smelling salts. A word to the wise. Every time you faint, I'm gonna use it."

"No, you will not. Mud gui sum," Aphrodite shouted.

Her spell ricocheted off me. I watched in surprised delight as it slammed into the angry witch, knocking her backward into a wall. "I might have forgotten to mention Skye gave me a protection amulet. Any spell you use against me will boomerang back on you."

With mascara running down her cheeks, a sobbing Aphrodite got to her feet. "You can't treat me this way. I'm special."

"Special." I did air quotes. "Is one way to describe you. Dead is another if you don't get your act together. Do you want the Kotsors to overrun Earth?"

"It's not my problem," Aphrodite spat.

"So, a world full of giant-sized black widow spiders eating people is okay with you?"

"Yes! I'll find a place to hide."

"And you'll watch children die and do nothing?"

"I don't know. I'm not brave like Skye or Ella," Aphrodite cried.

I rubbed my aching forehead. The cowardly witch was going to get me killed. I was two months away from my twenty-first birthday and finally getting to have hot, mind-blowing sex with Hothar. "All you need to do is cast your spells. I'll do the rest."

"Fine." Aphrodite tried to storm off, but the heel of her left stiletto had broken off. Step. Hop. Step. Hop.

I exhaled a long breath as her girls popped out of the catsuit. "And put your armor on. We don't know how many Kotsors are onboard that ship."

She gave me a one-fingered salute.

I linked mentally with Uncle Saul and shot him an image of her catsuit. "This isn't going to work."

"You might be right, but Zarek wants you to train her to fight."

"Me? Train that cowardly witch to fight? Never gonna happen."

"It's not open for debate."

The hell it wasn't. I had learned a few tricks from watching Uncle Saul negotiate with some damn powerful aliens. "You know, and I know, I'm the only one strong enough to deal with Aphrodite, except for Annie, of course. And I'm betting she has already turned you down. I'll do it on one condition. You make Hothar my partner."

"You're not twenty-one yet."

"I will be in two months, and it's been a year since I've seen Hothar. Either he's my partner or you find someone else to deal with Aphrodite."

Uncle Saul's tone held a mixture of grudging admiration and annoyance. "You're getting better at negotiating. Hothar was just promoted to the rank of war commander for single-handedly destroying two Rodan bases. He's due leave time. I'll discuss it with Zarek."

"Make it happen or I walk." Severing the link, I sagged against the wall and fought down my rage. Those bastards had deliberately kept me in the dark about how dangerous Hothar's missions were. To be promoted to war commander at his age meant Hothar had come close to dying. I gave myself a mental head thump. That explained why Uncle Saul had insisted I work out of his office. If things went south, he'd be there to keep me from following Hothar into the afterlife.

Damn them to hell. With the Rodan unleashing the Kotsors on the galaxy, their stupid rules made no sense. Hothar's abilities were one of a kind and they knew we made an unbeatable team.

God, how I missed the sound of his voice, the way Hothar kissed me, the way his hands felt on my body and the warmth of his mind. Uncle Saul didn't fully grasp how close to the edge I was. Not being able to mentally link with Hothar for so long had made me a tad homicidal. If Aphrodite kept pushing my buttons, they wouldn't like the results.

My warrior's bracelet chimed. I glanced down at the message. We had docked with the Vakoch, and the assault team was standing by. I typed my response and headed for Aphrodite's quarters. She better have her armor on.

"Aphrodite lodged a formal complaint against you," Uncle Saul announced mentally.

"For what?"

"Assault."

I snorted. "It was smelling salts and did the cowardly witch mention she attacked me?"

"No, she did not. I take it Skye's amulet worked?"

"It sure did." I banged on the door of Aphrodite's temporary quarters. "Get your ass out here."

"Aphrodite is refusing to work with you," Uncle Saul quickly added.

"Tough." Using my telekinesis, I blew her door open.

The cowardly witch screamed blue bloody murder and keeled over.

Uncle Saul spat, "Have you lost your fucking mind?"

"Yeah, I have, and it's all your fault!"

"My fault?"

"You didn't stop Zarek from sending Hothar to the far side of the galaxy." I severed out link and examined the witch. At least she was wearing her armor. Pulling another smelling salts capsule out of my pocket, I broke it under her nose and in my best drill sergeant voice shouted, "Get up. Now!"

Aphrodite bolted upright.

If looks could kill, I would have been toes up. "We are going over to that ship, and you are going to kill every one of those friggin' spiders. Do you hear me?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"There are thirty crew members on the Vakoch and we're going to save every one of them. Do you understand me?"

Aphrodite nodded.

"Good. Move it. Move it. Move it." I fought back a grin as I double-timed the witch down the corridor.

Aphrodite took one look at the assault team and cried, "Help me! Please, help me. "She's crazy."

"You want to live lady?" Lieutenant Smith asked coldly.

The color drained from Aphrodite's face. "I do."

"Then do what Casey tells you. Mallox's creations are deadly."

"Who's Mallox?" Aphrodite, the clueless, asked.

My jaw dropped. "You've got to be kidding me. Have you been living under a rock or what?"

"The Navajo Nation is very remote, and I didn't have access to a vid screen."

I stared at her for a long moment. How could she not know who the most hated villain in the universe was? "Mallox is a Rodan scientist who is creating an army of mutants to unleash on the galaxy."

"Mutants?"

"Like the Kotsors?" Duh.

With a baffled expression on her face, Aphrodite shrugged. "Why would he do that?"

"So, they can eat our brains."

"Don't be silly only the Tai-Kok eat us, and I've never heard of this Mallox."

Okey-dokey, the brain-dead bimbo needed a little show and tell. I projected the image of a large rat with wormy growths covering its body into Aphrodite's mind. "This is one of his creatures."

She shrieked loud enough to raise the dead.

"And Mallox likes to use humans in his experiments too." Rubbing my ringing ears, I flashed her a picture of a naked male covered in tentacles. His enormous mouth was filled with hundreds of serrated teeth. Before she could scream again, I tapped my bracelet, and a helmet formed around my head. "Got the picture now?"

Fear glittering in her eyes, Aphrodite just stood there with her mouth agape.

"You'll need your helmet."

"Why?"

I leaned over and hit her control icon. "To keep the Kotsors from eating your face off."

Her moan was cut off as the helmet engulfed her head.

"When you're ready, Smitty." I grabbed Aphrodite's arm as he opened the airlock. My stomach sank. It was empty. The crew members had been told to evacuate to the airlock.

"I'm picking up life signs on the bridge," Lieutenant Smith advised.

I mentally scanned the ship for Kotsors. "The main concentration of Kotsors are in the cargo hold."

"Copy that. We'll get the crew off and then deal with them."

"Hooyah." Being in a family of Marines, I loved military jargon.

Aphrodite dropped to the floor. "No, I'm not taking another step."

"Okay. Stay here, but Smitty needs all his warriors to rescue the crew." I followed the assault team down the hallway.

"Wait! You can't leave me here. I don't have a weapon," Aphrodite squawked.

"You're a witch. You are a weapon."

"But I've never fought the monsters before."

"Then it's time you started." I turned my back on her and hurried after the assault team. I smiled when I heard Aphrodite following me.

Smitty held up an armored fist and growled, "Hostiles."

Everyone stopped.

"What's wrong Smitty?"

"We need the witch. Now!"

I dragged Aphrodite up to Lieutenant Smith and gasped. A human/Kotsor hybrid blocked the corridor. It had six black orbs for eyes, two articulated fangs protruded from its mouth and icky fleshy finger-like appendages instead of hands. Even creepier were the six spider legs sprouting from its human torso. Ugh. From the large dangly bits, it was male. "Burn it," I commanded Aphrodite.

Thud.

"Wazzock's piss." I kicked her leg. "Get up!"

Smitty growled, "She's fucking useless."

"Yep."

"Prepare to die," the hybrid rasped and charged us.

Smitty and his team opened fire, incinerating the creature.

Six more rushed us and were met with a barrage of laser fire. A million fireflies danced in the hallway as they disintegrated.

Horror rolled over me as thousands of Kotsor hatchlings swarmed down the corridor. "Retreat!" I yelled and punched out with my telekinesis. The shockwave of energy smashed the little buggers against the walls and floor.

More of the creepy crawlies skittered toward us.

Smitty and the soldiers kept shooting, but there were too many of them.

I hit the mutants again and again and again with my telekinesis. Spider guts blanketed the hallway. "We need reinforcements, Uncle Saul. Like now!"

"Where is the witch?" Uncle Saul bellowed in my head.

I dodged a web ball. "The last time I saw her, she was passed out on the floor."

A huge human/Kotsor hybrid with two heads crawled slowly down the hallway.

I did a double take. Holy hell, it was wearing body armor, but its heads and legs had been left exposed. Like that was going to work. I filmed it with my warrior's bracelet and sent the vid to Uncle Saul. "Houston, we have a problem."

"Yes, we do," a harsh voice snapped.

"Who said that?"

Smitty and his men unleashed a volley of laser fire.

To my stunned disbelief, the laser bolts ricocheted off an energy barrier surrounding the creature.

"Get down!" the voice commanded.

"Zarek?" I hit the floor as sizzling beams of death missed me by inches. Two of Smitty's men weren't so lucky. "Wazzock's piss." I lashed out with my telekinesis and managed to stop the monster's advance. "We need reinforcements. Now!"

"No! I can't. Let go of me," Aphrodite shrieked.

I glanced over my shoulder. Uncle Saul had a firm grip on the loudly sobbing witch.

A low growl of aggression rumbled in my uncle's chest. "You will turn that monstrosity into ash, or you'll spend the next five years in an eight by ten cell. Do I make myself clear?"

Aphrodite nodded and quickly chanted, "Metieris solus!" A blinding flash of light was followed by a cracking boom. Whoosh! Brilliant amber flames raced along the corridor. The magical fire blasted through the monster's shield incinerating it and all the dead spiders.

I backed away when I realized the flames were getting closer and closer. "Stop the fire, Aphrodite."

Uncle Saul shook her. "Do you want to die?"

"Ono maelot galles." A torrent of rain fell on the fire, extinguishing it.

I let out a shuddering breath of relief. My armor was good, but it couldn't withstand magical fire.

"I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home," Aphrodite whimpered.

"Don't we all." Cold prickles ran up my spine and I quickly scanned the ship. "More of those creepy hybrids are heading our way."

"Lieutenant Smith, I want you and your men to rescue the crew. We'll deal with the hybrids," Uncle Saul ordered.

Aphrodite did the wee-wee dance. "Oh, my God. Oh, my God. I just peed myself."

"Thanks for sharing," I sniped.

Smitty motioned to his men, and they rushed into an elevator.

An ominous yowl echoed down the hallway.

"That can't be good." I raised my laser pistol.

A moment later a horde of furry, white creatures rushed toward us.

I frowned. They kinda reminded me of a cat that had mated with a spider. The creatures had two big, green eyes and eight fat spider legs. Their eerie meowing sent a chill down my back.

"Kill them Aphrodite," Uncle Saul roared.

Aphrodite took off running.

"Swell. Do you want me to chase her?"

"That won't be necessary."

I caught a flash of white out of the corner of my eye and spun to face it. Nothing was there.

Poof! Zarek appeared with a sobbing Aphrodite slung over one armored shoulder. He dumped her on her feet. "Kill the mutants, or I will kill you."

I eased closer to Uncle Saul. I could feel Zarek's fury.

"Markoo thone giest," Aphrodite cried.

The mutant spider whatevers exploded. Disgusting gooey bits rained down on us.

Ugh. I flicked a leg off my shoulder.

His right hand clamped around the back of Aphrodite's neck, Zarek forced her down the corridor. "When we reach the cargo hold you will exterminate the hybrids. If you fail, you die." Zarek shook her. "Do you understand me?"

She nodded. "Yes, sir."

Zarek dragged her over to an open hatch, threw her inside and closed the metal door.

I could hear Aphrodite's muffled screams. "We're not going to help her?"

"No. Two of Lieutenant Smith's soldiers died needlessly. She will learn to fight, or she will perish."

"Isn't that a little harsh?"

"How many times have you fought our enemies alone?" Zarek countered.

I grimaced. "More than I care to count."

"Exactly. I have assigned Hothar to find and destroy Mallox's labs."

Oh, hell no. "I'm Hothar's partner. Where he goes, I go."

"As you wish." There was a hint of amusement in Zarek's eyes. "If the witch survives, she will be part of your team."

Lucky me. I flinched as Aphrodite let loose with a bloodcurdling shriek and pounded frantically on the door. "Sorry, but I've gotta help her."

Zarek stepped in front of me. "The witch is powerful enough to destroy every mutant in the cargo hold. All she needs is the right incentive to do so."

"Aphrodite's a dangerous liability," Uncle Saul added grimly. "I'm not losing more warriors because of her antics."

A thunderous cracking boom sounded, and the ship shuddered.

I scanned the cargo hold. "I'll be damned. Aphrodite exterminated all of them."

"The fear of death is a great motivator," Zarek replied.

Yes, it was. "You still expect me to train her to fight?"

"I do, and Casey, there will no sex of any kind with Hothar until you are twenty-one. Are we clear on that point?" Zarek rumbled.

"Yes, sir. When does Hothar arrive on Earth?"

"His Talon lands in two hours."

"What? I can't meet him covered in bug guts." I grabbed Uncle Saul's arm. "Can you teleport me back to the base?" I was practically vibrating with joy. "Please. Please. It's been so long."

"Take Casey back to the base. I will deal with the witch," Zarek said.

Uncle Saul clamped his right arm to his chest. "Yes, my lord."

"What are you waiting for? Let's go."

Uncle Saul looped an arm around me and teleported me to my quarters.