Kaelen’s eyes narrowed.“What is your mother’s clan name?”
“She’s dead. What does it matter?”
“I will have my answers.”Kaelen picked up my left wrist, bit down and drank my blood like a friggin’ vampire.
“Hey! I amnotfood.”Drawing on every ounce of power I had, I hit him with my right hook.
His head snapped back, and he crumpled to the floor. I grabbed my emergency recall pendant and pushed it. The yellow bars of light engulfed me.
With a roar of pure fury, Kaelen shot to his feet.“I will find you.”
“No, you won’t.”
Kaelen laughed.“I have taken your blood, and there is nowhere you can run, that I cannot find you, Lexi.”
His taunt echoing in my head, I did a face plant on the portal’s floor. Ow.
A computerized voice announced,Phase coil malfunction.Phase coil malfunction.
“Wonderful.” I made sure all my parts were in the right place. “I never, ever want to do that again.”
“What happened to your suit, and why are you bleeding?” Uncle Ben cried.
I got slowly to my feet. “I had a run-in with a Coletti battle commander. He likes to bite.”
“Why did he bite you?”
I limped over to him. “The portal dumped me on the bridge of his spaceship. Let’s just say, he wasn’t happy.”
Uncle Ben was white as a ghost and visibly shaken. “We can worry about that later. The Tai-Kok have landed ships in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles.”
“What am I supposed to do about it? The portal seems to be malfunctioning, and I don’t want to end up in a wall. Plus, Battle Commander Kaelen kept my bomb, my gun belt and the spacesuit,” I groused.
“I can replace those items,” a deep-timbred voice announced.
I turned around. General Saul Jones was standing behind me. He had to be at least six-foot-five, and his muscular build rivaled my dad’s. His cold green eyes studied me intently. “The Tai-Kok are forcing people inside their ships.”
Nausea rose in my throat. “Slaughter ships.” I looked at Uncle Ben. “Is the portal gonna work?”
“Yes.” He studied his control console. “I think.”
With a touch of asperity, I snapped, “You think? I’d like to live to see eighteen, but the way things are going, that’s highly unlikely.”
“How old are you?” General Jones demanded.
“Sixteen going on eighty.”
General Jones’ mouth tightened into a hard line. “You’re just a kid.”
“Yep, and I’m hell at blowing up stuff.”
Amusement flashed in the general’s eyes. “Your father says you have a unique combat talent.”
“I can knock the shit out of people using just my mind and it comes in real handy when the Tai-Kok attack me.”
“Show me,” General Jones commanded.
My eyebrows rose in surprise. “You want me to hit you?”
