Page 26 of Crossing Quinn

Chapter Six

I took one look at the tracking scanner and groaned. Escaping from Jandjviles’s airspace would be difficult if not impossible. We were outnumbered two to one, and I had just blown the hell out of the slaver’s base. The Tai-Kok and their allies would do everything in their power to destroy us. I studied the command console. “This is the long-range Talon fighter?”

“The best combat vessel in the Coletti fleet,” Quinn responded proudly.

“And it has a cloaking device, right?”

“It does, and it’s activated.”

“Goddess, I love pouncing on unsuspecting enemy ships. It’s such fun,” I said, gleefully rubbing my hands together. We might survive after all.

A smile fit for a bloodthirsty fiend formed on Quinn’s mouth. “Something else we have in common.”

Papa would like him. A lot. But I doubted a Coletti warlord would agree to become a relic hunter. I was my mother’s daughter, and looking for lost civilizations was in my blood. Quinn was probably one of those males who thought females belonged in the home. Which would also explain the cooking comment. Time to set him straight. “I like blowing stuff up.”

“I noticed,” Quinn said dryly and banked the Talon sharply. “Time to play a little dodge ball.”

Dodge ball?

The Talon skimmed under the belly of a Tai-Kok destroyer, darted around a slave ship, and barely missed a pirate vessel that popped out of warp drive.

Oh. The Earth game, and somehow very appropriate. We dodged this way and that.

“Me no like,”Clio cried; her tentacles clutched my neck.

“Ease off, Clio. Auntie Xenia needs to breathe.”

She loosened her grip. “Feel funny.” Wavelike contractions contorted Clio’s body.

“No. No. No. Don’t you dare puke up the nasty Tai-Kok.”

Quinn’s eyes widened in alarm. “Puke?”

Clio made a bubbly, wet burp and spewed bloody chunks of Tai-Kok all over Quinn. Other than a tiny piece of brain matter on my knee, she had missed me completely.

His expression of absolute and total horror was priceless. “Is she done?”

Wrinkling my nose at the rancid smell, I rubbed Clio’s slightly rubbery skin. “Feeling better, sweet girl?”

“Better.”A tentacle stretched out and plucked an eyeball off Quinn’s head.

I bit my lip to keep from laughing.

Quinn wiped the gore off his face and avoided another ship. “How is your mother with kids?”

“Good. Why?”

“I’m designating her as ship’s babysitter.”

“Not a bad idea.”

Clio’s tentacles continue to pick pieces of Tai-Kok off Quinn.

I noticed his right eye twitched every time Clio snatched a slimy chunk. “If she barfs it up again, I’m locking her in the cargo bay.”

Had he forgotten Katanic shapeshifters had their own form of teleporting? To distract Quinn, I blurted out, “I’m utterly amazed at the amount of ships in Jandjviles’s air space. Is it market day?”

Popping a Tai-Kok finger in her mouth, Clio crunched loudly.

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