Page 83 of Game on Askole

Adan’s skin rippled and presto! He was back in his true form.

The Askole warrior’s eyes bugged.

Two ropy tentacles shot out.

The Askole ducked them and zoomed for the door.

Adan laughed like a hyena.

The sound made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

The minute the bounty hunter stepped into the doorway, his body disintegrated into a million fireflies as he was hit by multiple laser bolts.

Crap. Just what I needed—more hunters.

The Overlord said,“I will send Cedras to teleport you to safety.”

“No need. I will bring her to you,”Adan proclaimed.

Horror knotted my stomach.“No! That’s not necessary. I’ll wait for Cedras.”

“There are too many hunters. If you stay, you die.”

A black canister rolled through the doors.Pop!Thick gray smoke spewed from it.

“We leave. Now.”Tentacles jerked me against Adan’s slimy hide. A booted foot repeatedly thumped against my stomach. Terrific, his food was still alive and kicking.

My lungs began to burn, and breathing became difficult. The canister was a gas bomb.“Go. Go. Go.”

An incandescent orange light formed around us. The light spun faster and faster and faster until it became a vortex.Slurppp!We were sucked inside. It was like going from zero to Mach 1 in ten seconds flat. The horrific, twisting funnel of energy rocketed us across a weird black void.

Strange shapes emerged out of the blackness. I rubbed my eyes. Was I hallucinating? The shapes turned into forms; the forms became dark, wraithlike creatures. Shit! The creatures were chasing after us. I screamed when tentacles shot from them, missing us by inches. “As I speed through the valley of the shadow of death, I know evil is real! Death awaits us. For God’s sake, Adan, put the pedal to metal!”

“We are at maximum velocity. In the void, the Katanic executioners are unable to harm us.”

Color me happy. Wait a minute.“Executioners?”

“Must you repeat everything I say?”

“When I don’t know what the fuck is going on, yeah.”I flinched as they shot more tentacles at us.“Zoey never said anything about seeing specters when she rode with the Gorum.”

“Katanic teleporting abilities are quite different from a Gorum’s capabilities.”

Adan was sidestepping the question.“What do the executioners want with you?”

“To kill me.”

“I kinda figured that out. Why do they want to kill you?”

“A thousand years ago, I was banished after I refused to mate with the king’s daughter.”

“That’s a stupid reason to banish you.”

“It was. Unfortunately, I was forced to return to my world to complete my transmutation, or I would have become a killing machine unlike anything this galaxy has ever seen.”

The thought of Adan eating his way across the universe gave me the heebie-jeebies.“They wouldn’t grant you a pardon or temporary amnesty?”

“They would not.”

---