“Hang on,” Toni rushed to the control panel beside the cage. “We’ll get you out.”
“You’d better get him out now, darling girl,” Elemi urged, glancing back at the corridor. “It would be bad form to stick around expecting an encore.”
As she spoke her last word, the walls behind Elemi exploded inward with a deafening crack, blowing shards of crystal and glass into the chamber, spraying shrapnel.
Toni shielded herself, putting her hands in front of her clear helmet. The floor shook, making her stumble and fall on her ass. Wincing at the pain, she sat up as a massive crystalline body blazed through the cracked opening, wreathed in an unsteady bluish light that flickered and pulsed erratically in and around him.
Lord Baelon.
His once-pristine clear-blue form was now clouded and cracked, with searing navy-blue lights leaking out, as if he were bleeding. Each step he took sent tremors through the floor, and his clenched hands were radiating energy so fiercely it warped the air around him. His glowing-red eyes burned into her.
“You dare to presume you have bested me?” he roared with raised fists. His voice reverberated with a raw power that shook the chamber.
Gasping, Toni scuttled backward, unable to take her eyes from the towering menace looming over her.
Chapter Ten
Azazelexhaledaheavysigh. It didn’t take a psychic to know Toni and the sexbot broke the Nexus Core.
The very air around his cage vibrated with a violent wave, its pressure heavy enough for him to feel, even where he was. Fortunately, it wasn’t hard enough to prevent him from breathing, thank the Goddess.
Then something popped into his head. Like a bubble bursting and clearing the air.
Azazel?
The mental clarity of his youngest brother’s voice in his head took him aback.
Arakiba?
How was brother speaking to him on their psychic path? What happened to the mechanical setup from his JR unit?
Woo-hoo! Yes, we can talk to each other again.
Azazel winced at Arakiba’s gleeful whoop.
I take it Elemi did what she had to and freed the Krystalii from Baelon’s psychic hold?
I think so.Azazel hated to admit he wasn’t sure.If that’s what happened, they should be back any minute now.Hopefully.
Great! Listen,Arakiba continued.The bros and the rest are all orbiting just out of reach of the Krystalii mother ship as we speak. We’ll be there in no time to get you and finish phase two. See ya!
Azazel stifled a groan. Again, his brother left without giving him a chance to ask what he meant. No use in trying to connect with him again. When Arakiba acted like that, he usually wouldn’t respond. Asshole.
And just what in the hell was phase two?
A movement outside the chamber caught his eye. There… what was it? He squinted. Yes, it was Toni. By the seven gates, what was she doing? Running through the door as if the wicked god of death,Uggae,was hard on her heels.
In desperation, he searched the doorway entrance, expecting to see one of the Elite guards rushing in to stop her. But no. The only thing following her was that shocking-pink android, Elemi.
“Hang on.” Toni rushed to the control panel beside the cage that held him. “We’ll get you out.”
Azazel startled when he heard her. Did that mean that part of his cage had changed with the Core out of commission?
“You’d better get him out now, darling girl.” Elemi glanced behind. “It would be bad form to stick around expecting an encore.”
A tremor ran through the crystalline cage just before a force shattered the chamber right behind the android. Exploding energy sent cracks racing up the wall as shards of blue, purple, and clear crystal, along with glass rained in a cascade of light and sound.
With a high squeal and her arms crossing in front of her face, Elemi was buried under a mountain of wreckage.
