Chapter Eight

We appeared behind a six-foot tall, rust-colored geyser. It spewed pinkish water high into the air.

Huh? A thermal lake, and oh yay, the minerals in the water interfered with my scanners. My gaze focused on the bubbling watermelon-pink lake. A few funky bottle-shaped trees with coppery bark and orange leaves dotted the banks.

I switched my attention to the towering mountains rising out of a glittering white salt plain. The stripes of cerulean blue, magenta, canary-yellow, and blood-orange seemed almost mystical, as did the heat waves quivering across the terrain like restless spirits.

"Beware, little one," Enzo cautioned, "this beauty hides many dangers."

Hitch meowed in agreement.

"Paradise with a bit of a bite, huh?"

"Very much so," Hothar added as he tossed a small device into the geyser.

Boom! A thick cloud of smoky vapor poured out, obscuring the area.

"Today Mallox dies." Enzo zipped away.

Hothar teleported us to the electrified fence.

The mist parted revealing four headless Rodan soldiers sprawled on the ground.

Askole warriors were lethal.

"Fence is de-energized," Enzo advised and swung the gate open.

Dropping me on my feet, Hothar pulled his laser pistol and commanded, "No wandering off."

Grrr. Doing my best dimwitted impersonation, I gushed, "Gee, I was hoping to take a couple of selfies with the pretty pink lake in the background."

Hothar gave me the stink eye. "Behave."

"Right back at ya, Hot Lips. I'm not twelve."

With an aggravated sigh, Hothar trotted through the gate.

Enzo inquired, "Hot lips?"

"He's a great kisser." I frowned as Hothar placed what looked like two thermite grenades next to the power generator. "Are those grenades?"

"Yes."

"Holy hell! Is he nuts, we're too close."

"Run!" Enzo zoomed away without offering me a ride.

"Jerk." I ran for my life. "Stay put he says."

Hitch yowled at me.

"I'm running as fast as I can."

"What happened to your kamikaze courage?" Hothar asked as he scooped us up.

I wrapped my arms around his neck. "I might be crazy but I'm not suicidal."

"You still take too many risks." Poof! We were back at the geyser.

"So do you, big guy."

Kaboom! The power generator blew. A rippling fireball rose high into the sky.

I flinched as rocketing shards of metal pelted the ground around us.

Hitch yowled in alarm.

Hothar curled his body around us. "I won't let anything happen to you."

"Yeah, but who's protecting you?"

"Tihar gave me one of their prototype battle suits to try out."

"Guinea pig, huh?" I frowned as prickles of alarm skittered up my back. Something horrible was heading our way.

Enzo zipped up. "Mallox has released the mutant fighters."

"How many?" Hothar set me on my feet.

"All of them."

"We need to get to Dway before they kill him," I interjected.

Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow.

"What? A secret passageway? Show us."

Hitch hopped down and scurried over to a raised sentry post. He stopped on top of what looked like a sewer grate and hopped up and down.

"There's a tunnel underneath the grate that leads directly to Mallox's lab," I translated.

Purring loudly, Hitch scrambled up my body and took his spot on my helmet.

Enzo vaporized the grate and dropped into the tunnel.

"And you think I take unnecessary risks."

"Askole warriors are extremely hard to kill, and you are not."

"Am too."

"The way is clear," Enzo called.

"Copy." Hothar's hand closed over my shoulder and poof! We were in the pitch-black tunnel.

My helmet's night vision automatically kicked in and I gasped. There were chopped up bodies everywhere. My gaze locked on Enzo's bloody sword. Hyper-speed did have its advantages.

Hothar's bracelet beeped. "Tihar is going to destroy Mallox's laser cannons."

Thunderous explosions shook the tunnel, raining dirt and rocks down on us.

I checked my scanner. There were some sizeable cracks in the ground around us.

Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow.

"I know the tunnels aren't stable. We will leave as soon as we retrieve Dway."

Meow. Meow.

"We are going as fast as we can."

Hitch suddenly let out an urgent yowl.

Wazzock's piss! Mutant spiders with bulbous heads were swarming down the tunnel.

"Ask Hitch what weaknesses they have," Hothar ordered.

Before I could ask Hitch began meowing.

Enzo inquired, "What did the creature say?"

"We need to turn their intense craving for food against them."

"Did he say how, Casey?"

"They have a hive mind with some basic telepathy. We hook into that and drive them mad with hunger. Hitch says they will turn on each other."

Hothar slid into my mind, and I felt him connect with Hitch. "Link with us Enzo."

There was a tickling sensation as Enzo's mind joined ours, and together, we projected an intense ravenous hunger.

The mutant spiders went crazy. Within two minutes all the spiders, but one, had been reduced to desiccated corpses.

Enzo skewered the remaining spider.

"You are such a smart little dude." I gave Hitch a big mental kiss. "And I love you so much."

Hitch purred.

"You love him? You have known him for only a day!"

The disbelief in Hothar's voice had me grinning. Few Coletti warriors had pets. We were adopting Hitch whether he liked it or not. "I've always wanted to have a cat, but Uncle Saul is allergic to them. Now Hitch can be a part of our family."

"He is useful," Hothar agreed.

"Dway's life signs are fading," Enzo abruptly announced and zoomed into the lab.

We sprinted after him. I grimaced at the crunching noise the spider bodies made beneath our boots. Hothar came to an abrupt halt, and I slammed into him. "Ouch! Why did you stop?"

"Marion's clone has Enzo trapped in some kind of energy field. She is threatening to kill Dway if we come any closer."

"Gotcha." I linked with Aphrodite and passed the information on. "How do we free Enzo?"

"Dunno."

"You're a witch. You have to know some basic spells."

"Mud twine lees sum," Aphrodite chanted.

I was suddenly freezing. "What did you do?"

"I made you invisible."

"What?" I look down at myself. Dang, I was invisible. Weird, but kinda cool. " Okay, how do we neutralize Marion's clone?"

"I'm not a trained killer. You figure it out." Aphrodite severed our link.

That twit was going to be the death of me. I linked with Enzo and Hothar, "Aphrodite made me invisible and I'm going to take out the clone."

"Don't kill the clone. Zarek wants to interrogate her," Hothar replied.

I rolled my eyes. Of course, he did.

Meow. Meow.

"She hurt and starved you?"

Meow .

My temper flared to life. "Don't worry. She won't ever harm another living being."

Meow?

"I promise." I eased around Hothar. A glittering purple energy field held Enzo immobile. Marion's clone held a laser pistol to Dway's head. Her hand shook so badly I was afraid she might shoot him by accident.

Meow.

"I'll be damned, you're right. She doesn't have a shield up. Bad decision." Then I noticed the clone's deathly pallor and that her oozing sores had gotten a lot worse. Why hadn't she tried to heal herself? She had to be hurting.

Meow.

"Yep, she is struggling to maintain the energy field around Enzo. Which is good for us. She doesn't have enough power left to attack Hothar or us." Did I feel sorry for her? Hell, no. Anyone who hurt helpless critters and created monsters deserved what happened to them. A piece of her nose fell off. Yuck! Karma sucked.

"You fools thought you could defeat my master. Soon our warriors will feed on you and your children," Marion's clone rasped.

Yeah, that wasn't going to happen. I lashed out with my telekinesis.

The clone flew backward and crashed into a large cage filled with rotting bodies.

The energy field around Enzo vanished.

Hothar picked up her laser pistol and examined it. "It has been disabled."

"Huh? I guess Mallox was afraid she would use it on him."

"If Zarek wishes to interrogate the female, he should hurry. She will be dead within an hour," Enzo advised.

Hothar nodded. "I will inform him."

Part of the wall slid back. My eyes widened in horror when Mallox stepped out with his weapon pointed at Dway. "Move and he dies."

With an ear-shattering yowl, Hitch jumped off my helmet and attacked him.

Mallox staggered backward and grabbed at his face. "Get it off. Get it off." White foam suddenly spewed from his mouth, and he collapsed to the floor.

Whoa! I instinctively kicked Mallox's pistol out of his reach.

"Don't bother. He is dead. Hitch injected him with a neurotoxin that resembles Tabor venom." The surprise in Hothar's voice was almost amusing.

A triumphant yowl sounded from Hitch.

"You okay little dude?"

Poof! He was sitting on Mallox's head, calmly washing his paws. Meow.

Enzo added, "And that is not Mallox."

"Great, another friggin' clone," I groused and picked up Hitch. "Do you have any idea if the real Mallox is here?"

Meow.

That was a definite no. God, how many times had Mallox cloned himself?

Hitch's tail rose high in the air. Meow. Meow. Meow. Meow.

"What? Really? Where?"

"What did he say?" Enzo wanted to know.

I grinned. "Hitch says there is a room full of cryogenic tanks filled with Mallox's extra clones."

"I have informed Zarek," Hothar said.

Marion's clone twitched.

"You need to cuff her. Witches use their hands to cast spells," I warned.

Hothar quickly slapped handcuffs on her and added a gag.

"Gags don't work on Ella or Skye, and they might not work on her either," I said.

Hothar shrugged. "Cannot hurt."

Enzo announced, "They are coming."

Multiple glittering blue lights formed. The minute the transporter beams faded away; Aphrodite started in. "I don't like my molecules whirling about like that. Why do I have to wear armor? It's so confining."

"You think she has an off button?" I asked Hothar.

"Doubtful."

Tihar snapped, "Be quiet female and heal Dway."

"Are you going to let him talk to me like that, Bodhi?" Aphrodite huffed.

I grabbed Aphrodite by the arm and jerked her around. "Stop being such a selfish bitch and do your fucking job."

"I hope you like being invisible." Aphrodite snapped and hurried over to Dway.

I could feel her magic flare. The gaping wounds in his chest closed and his breathing steadied.

"I will contact Ella and ask her to reverse the spell," Tihar promised.

"Thank you." My gaze focused on Dway. He had opened his eyes.

"Trap," Dway whispered mentally.

"Wazzock's piss," Hothar and I said in unison.

The walls slid back and out poured dozens of Mallox's clones. Every one of them was armed to the teeth.

Chaos erupted. It was the most terrifying, heart-stopping madness I had ever known. Deadly laser beams zinged in every direction. The Askole warriors were flashes of black as they went to hyper speed and skewered the clones. The gargling cries of the dying vied with Aphrodite's shrieks of horror.

A laser bolt hit me dead center in the chest, knocking me back a step. To my relief instead of turning into a zillion fireflies, my spiffy Askole armor had dissipated the energy.

My eyes widened in horror when eight clones jumped Hothar. "Cowabunga, mother truckers," I yelled and lashed out with my telekinesis, sending Mallox's replicas flying.

"That is not a proper battle cry," Hothar groused.

"Why don't we discuss it later when you're not getting your ass kicked."

"My ass is in no danger."

I could feel Hothar's immense satisfaction as he beat the hell out of the clones. Having a mate who enjoyed his job was a prerequisite for a successful relationship, or so Uncle Saul said.

Hitch yowled.

"What?"

Crap. One of the clones had Aphrodite slung over his shoulder and was running down the hallway with her. For a moment, I considered letting him take her. If they cloned her, the Rodan Empire would fall within weeks.

Meow?

"No, I don't want to rescue her, but I will. It's my job." I ran after them. If I didn't let Hothar know what I was doing, he would have a meltdown. I quickly linked with him. Dang, he was busy fighting off a bunch of clones. So was Enzo, Tihar and Bodhi. Rescuing the witch should be easy enough. I mean, I was invisible.

Mallox's clone disappeared through a wall panel.