Page 59 of Courting Mayhem

Odd tadpole-like forms moved in the floating slime.

“I’ll be damned. Qa’a just puked up his army,” Derek exclaimed.

I frowned.“Those tadpole thingies are his warriors?”

“They are. Gotta say, I’m impressed. That’s one hell of a Trojan Horse maneuver.”

Qa’a’s tadpoles metamorphosed into multi-tentacled wraiths, and the battle was on.

It was the weirdest fight I had ever seen. The shapeshifters kept morphing into different creatures. Shazam! Prehistoric, alien werewolves were waging war. Bam! There were mosquito thingies with serrated teeth chewing on each other. Poof! They disappeared and in their place were a horde of Earth dinosaurs. In a flash, they transformed into a cross between a shark and an armadillo. I couldn’t tell who was losing and who was winning. I wanted to ask Qa’a, but he was busily stuffing all sorts of creatures down his maw.

“Qa’a’s warriors are winning,” Derek announced.

“Thank the Goddess and how can you tell?” I squinted at the squirming mass of bodies. They were changing forms too fast for me to tell who wore Qa’a’s mark.

Derek replied,“Your scanner should show you who’s wearing Qa’a’s mark.”

“My scanner is offline.”Zan was supposed to be sending us new gauntlets, but they had never arrived.

“You’ll have your new armor today,” Derek promised.

“Color me happy.”

“How are the kids handling the fighting?”

“With rapt fascination and they smack tentacles each time a bad guy gets eaten.”

Derek chuckled.“It’s the Katanic version of the high-fives.”

I stiffened when a long, ropy tentacle reached for Defne.

“No hurt,” Kiri cried, and her feeder roots latched onto the tentacle.

The executioner emitted a high-pitch shriek and poof! It disintegrated.

I blinked in astonishment. Fuck! This was bad on so many levels. How would Qa’a react when he found out Kiri could easily kill his kind?

“Let’s hope he didn’t notice,” Derek whispered in my mind.

I whispered back,“Kiri did it to protect Defne and she’s one of a kind. I won’t let Qa’a hurt her.”

“If he decides to terminate her, you won’t be able to stop him,”Derek growled.

He had a point. How I did I protect Kiri? How? A smile curved my mouth. Zosia was the key. I’d just point out that Kiri was the perfect bodyguard for Defne. I petted Kiri’s leaves.“No tell Qa’a that you killed the mean executioner. Okay?”

“Kay. Me did bad?”

“No, you did good. Really good, and I want you to know you’re a very brave kid.”

“Kay.”Kiri hugged me tightly.

The violently rotating walls began to collapse.

Did anyone notice? Hell, no. I pounded on Qa’a’s massive side. “Hey! The vortex is collapsing.”Did that stop Qa’a from eating his enemies? Nope. “Do you want your daughter to die?”

“Do not drop my child,” Qa’a commanded and hurled us down the narrowing funnel.

“Fuck!!!” The wind tore at my hair and burned my eyes. The smooshing sensation on my face felt like I was pulling G’s. I liked going fast, but seriously, this had to be the worst rollercoaster ride ever.

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