Page 52 of Captured By the Dragon Warlord
The place stinks to the ancestors of Sarkarnii and all the other noxious elements which Dante and his crew are well known for, but I can just about make her out as I locate the quarters and slam my way through.
“It’s for you, Scarlett.” Another hoo-man female sits off to one side, not even looking up from the vid-pad holding her attention.
There is a second female asleep in the center of the den at my feet.
“Dexx!” Scarlett appears from a side room and smiles at me.
I think my bones have lost all substance. My knees feel weak at the sight of her.
“We think we might have figured something out about the tube we found, the one with the paraxio.”
“You have left this sector?”
Scarlett laughs at my growl.
“No, we’ve done some good old-fashioned detective work.”
“She scanned my brain,” one of the other females pipes up with a smile that could have been put there by paraxio.
“Cestapal did…sort of…” Scarlett crosses the room to me. “Anyway, what matters is we think these tubes are linked to the Veseli and the other creature, the professor, who kidnapped us.”
The snarl I release shakes the room. All the other females do a sharp intake of breath, save my mate and the one by the door.
“Yeah, the one you were MIA for, mate,” the female says.
I don’t know what MIA means, or why she is calling me her mate when she is absolutely not my mate so I grumble at her under my breath. I was aware there had been an off-world excursion for the other warlords, but as it was in the midst of my shift, I could not join the call to action.
“If any creature has threatened you, my sweet ember, I will destroy them,” I rasp. “They will regret ever setting eyes on you.”
SCARLETT
Dexx’s scales look darker than ever. His good eye is squinted as he suffers in the light. He also seems to have grown somehow, being taller and wider than the last time I saw him in his current form. In any event, he isn’t happy here.
I don’t want to leave my friends, but I know Dexx will not go without me.
Before I can say anything, however, the doors to the quarters snap open, and Dante strolls in. I brace myself for what is likely to come next, but other than a rumble emanating from both of them which potentially could have been explosive, this time there is no fight.
“Have you found any more of these devices?” Dexx asks.
“My warriors have found two more. I’m about to offer our services to Driok, Darax, and Dalox, to diffuse them given what they contain.” He gives Dexx an unhinged leer. “I think my crew will fare better with paraxio than yours.”
Dexx glares at him for a long, unblinking moment.
“Yes,” he says finally. “They will.”
“Especially with your little…problem.” Dante grins.
“I have no problem,” Dexx responds, flexing his wings.
I can see this conversation going adrift very quickly and it won’t end well for Dante.
“Lydia has seen who has been planting these devices,” I interject. “It’s the same aliens who took us from Darax’s sector.”
Dante snarls. “Veseli.”
“And something else, something the Paralnyi hasn’t seen before.” Dexx points at Cestapal.
Dante’s tail lashes at the sight of her. It’s difficult to tell if this is because he doesn’t like her or in fact, he does.
