Page 18 of Crossing Quinn

I watched as they retreated into the holding cell and engaged the energy barrier. Scarface wasn’t a complete dumbass.

Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap! Zap!Hundreds of bugs committed suicide on the glowing energy field.

Mami was curled up in the corner of the cell, watching as the warriors stomped, smashed, and crushed the bugs that had followed them in.

I dropped my illusion for a moment and put my finger to my lips.

Relief filled Mami’s eyes when she spotted me.

Scarface plucked an insect off his face and noticed my mother was untouched. “Why aren’t the bugs attacking you?”

“I didn’t desecrate the sacred places,” Mami answered, trembling badly.

I became a rotting corpse crawling with maggots and wailed, “Leave this place or die.”

Scarface jumped about a foot, yanked out his pistol, and fired at me. The beam was absorbed by the energy barrier. “You can’t be real. It’s some kind of trick.”

“Looks real to me,” his buddy muttered.

The third warrior backed away. “No one said anything about ghosts.”

I added a gruesome black snake slithering out of my left eye socket to the illusion. “Death is the price for violating our burial site.” The snake hissed, exposing nasty-looking fangs.

“Not real! Not real!” His eyes rolling in fear, Scarface kept firing at me until a bug latched onto his nose. He squished it and hopped up and down on the remaining insects like a demented jackrabbit. “Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!”

When the last bug had been killed, I deactivated the energy barrier.

The remaining var bugs rushed in.

The warriors freaked out, frenetically trying to knock the starving insects off their exposed flesh.

Quinn laughed. “You are one stone-cold bitch.”

“Yes, I am, and you would be wise not to forget that.” Goddess, I was enjoying his banter way too much.

“Is that a challenge, darlin’?”

“What do you think?” I flattened myself against the wall as the warriors charged out of the holding cell and ran from the ship. The var bugs scuttled after them.

“Not a smart move,” Quinn said. “Don’t they realize there are more varmints waiting for them?”

“Evidently not.” I flinched as thousands of bugs exploded from the sand. I quickly closed and locked the door. “You think the explosions drew the var bugs in?”

“Good possibility.” Static filled Quinn’s transmission.

“Solar flares are interfering with our link.”

“I…hour…out.”

Mami peeked around the doorway. “Are they gone?”

“They are.”

With a sob, Mami threw her arms around me. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”

I stroked her back. “I know. I know you are. We need to leave before Nilus sends more warriors.”

“Nilus? Here?” Mami stiffened. “Go outside? Where is your father?”

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