Page 69 of Game on Askole

“When a Coletti mates, it is for life. Lothel would have never abandoned you. Your Askole has no honor. You were a fool to accept his claim,” Detja admonished.

That’s me, the gullible halfwit. Go ahead and rub it in, why don’t ya.“Yes, ma’am, I failed to listen to you. It won’t happen again.”

“Good.” She handed me my battle suit.

Aunt Tess refilled my shot glass. “They say love is blind, and in your case, that’s really true. I did some research, and did you know when an Askole enters the mating frenzy, they excrete a hormone that jacks up your sex drive?”

I was going to need a lot more liquor. “You don’t say.”

“Rumor has it, the Askole who injects the gene-altering enzymes into their lust-crazed victim can reverse the damage done to their prey’s DNA by stinging them again,” Aunt Tess confided.

That caught my attention. I looked at Detja. “Is that true?”

“The Overlord did ask if you were sure you wanted to become Askole.”

“He did. I wasn’t thinking straight. You know, all those hormones?” I flinched when Detja narrowed her eyes and bared her fangs at me. Yikes. My tone was a bit snarky. When had I become suicidal?

“It’s too late for Zarek to reverse the transformation, but I will inquire if Tihar has the ability.”

“Thank you.” I stripped down to my underwear and pulled on the battle suit. “Time to kill some monsters.”

Kaylee laughed. “Thor wanted to come too. I had a devil of a time talking him out of it.”

“He is his father’s son,” Detja stated proudly.

I nodded. “That he is.” Thor was adorable, where Talree was someone I wanted to avoid. When he was really pissed, he got all glowy eyed. It was like some special effect in a monster movie.

Aunt Tess made a face. “You kids have fun. Me? I’m not getting anywhere close to those carnivores.”

“We might need your talents,” Zoey protested.

My aunt shot back, “You’ve got Kaylee. Besides I wanted to spend time with Thor.”

“You’re the expert critter wrangler, not me, and Talree is taking Thor flying,” Kaylee countered.

“You will accompany us,” Detja commanded in her drillmaster’s voice and handed Aunt Tess her battle suit.

“Yes, ma’am.” The minute Detja turned her back, Aunt Tess gave her the finger.

And I thought I was suicidal.

“We come. We come,”KeeKee cried as she and Musa flew over to me. Salsa covered their faces.

“Remember? We’ve had this talk. You don’t have a battle suit. No battle suit, you die,”I told them.

KeeKee gave me her best sad puppy-dog eyes.“Me member.”

“And no shooting web balls at the ducks.”

“You no fun.”

That’s me. The party pooper.

Chapter Fourteen

To kill naugers, we had to get to the surface. Detja, Kaylee, Bree, Zoey, Aunt Tess, and I rode our hover sleds up a narrow escape tunnel built long ago. The dozen or so blast doors opened and closed automatically for us. The passageway ended in a large cavern filled with glittering, ginger-colored stalactites. In one corner, an energy field protected a decontamination chamber and regeneration tube. It made me wonder how many warriors got hurt hunting naugers. Bree said the varmints made the raptor dinosaurs look like pussycats.

Detja tapped her bracelet. The heavy blast door closed behind us. With a grinding noise, another door opened, revealing a burnt-orange sky and the heavily charred ruins of a forest.

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