Chapter Six
The little fur creatures made shrill noises that pierced the night air. Instead of running away, they ran over to Violet and pushed at her as she staggered to her feet.
“Run, damn it!” she screamed.
“Get away from my niece!” Dorcas ran faster than Violet would have thought possible, whipped her cane out, and jabbed the larger creature in the belly. There was an explosion of sparks and yellow flames, and then a horrible smell of seared flesh. The creature reared back and let out a high screech.
“What the heck?” gasped Violet as the creature slowly backed away. “Since when did your cane do that?”
“When they fixed my knees, they did an upgrade on the cane too. Why do you think I didn’t want to give it up?”
“Good Lord. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Dorcas looked smug. “A lady can have her secrets, can’t she?”
The furry creatures shrieked louder, pulling on Violet’s legs and gesturing at the giant beast. It sounded as if they were saying “Eep! Eep!” over and over again.
The dinosaur-thing had stopped retreating, and now it fixed its beady eyes on them.
“Uh-oh,” Violet said nervously. She glanced through the trees at the camp. Could they outrun the creature before it ate at least one of them? Probably not.
And why did she suddenly feel a warm rush of arousal sweeping over her? Why was her heart hammering in her chest? She was a hundred percent positive she didn’t have a thing for carnivorous dinosaurs.
“Well, well, what do we have here?” Treffon’s voice boomed out behind her. He came stalking up, walked past Violet, and headed straight for the dinosaur-thing.
It took one look at him and turned and ran back into the forest.
Treffon turned his attention back to Violet. “You should not take walks in the forest without my protection.”
“I wasn’t just casually strolling…oh, forget it,” she groaned. “Let’s get out of here before something else wants to eat us for dinner.” She replayed his words in her head. “Wait…what do you mean,yourprotection?” His arrogance was breathtaking. At least she told herself that was why her breathing was rapid and shallow. And that twisting sensation low in her belly was probably just hunger.
Treffon turned with a growl, ignoring her question. He led them back into the main clearing.
“That’s not the hairball that made you cry, is it?” Dorcas asked Violet as they pushed their way through the thick underbrush. “I hope not, because that one’s kinda hot. Also, I think he’s rich. I’ve got a sixth sense about that. You should keep him.”
“Someone made you cry?” Treffon whirled around. Damn Vulfans with their hyper-sensitive hearing. He looked around with a ferocious scowl. “Who was it? Point to them. I will kill them now.”
“What? We don’t solve disputes by killing people,” Violet said, appalled. Also,hewas the one who’d made her cry, but she certainly wasn’t going to tell him that.
Treffon looked confused and tapped his comm bracelet. “It must be broken,” he muttered. “I could haveswornthat you just said we do not solve disputes by killing people.”
“Whatever. I’m still not speaking to you. You humiliated me on purpose, and frankly, I deserve better.” Violet turned and stalked off, with Dorcas and the little furry creatures following her.
Treffon didn’t follow her; he walked over to talk to one of the Peacemakers as Violet and Dorcas sat down on a fallen log and the fur creatures gathered around them.
“You stick with me,” Violet said, shaking her finger at them. “Do not go wandering off into the forest by yourselves again. I’ll keep you safe.” She wasn’t sure quite how she’d do that; her best strategy would probably be tripping and falling in front of whatever was chasing them, so it ate her first.
She glanced after Treffon, who was having an animated discussing with the Peacemaker. Treffon looked angry, and the Peacemaker looked defensive.
“I can’t cane him?” Dorcas sounded very disappointed. She waved her stick in the air. “I don’t get too many chances to take this bad boy out for a test drive.”
“No, leave it be. Anyway, I’m glad the big jerk didn’t follow us over here. Very glad. Extremely happy.”
“So you’re happy about it, you say?” Dorcas raised an eyebrow.
“I swear if I didn’t know better I’d think you were being sarcastic. Yes, I’m happy. I didn’t want him to keep following me around and— Oh, for heaven’s sake.” That last statement was directed at Treffon, who was now urgently waving at Violet.
“Stay here,” she sighed. “I’m going to go tell him he has to get us and these little furballs out of here.”
