Callie’s lips dipped at the corners, her eyes narrowing to slits. “A gift huh?”
My daughter tells me only one of the humans has a family they still speak to. How did you convince Callie to marry you, Pá?
He sighed and wrapped a hand around his muzzle and closed his eyes. He was smarter than this, truly.
I asked. Now, may I have the use of my relay or not? Callie would like to send a message to her parents.
There was no answer for several long breaths and then the faintest vibration started under them. Callie looked down at the vibrating water, her fish friends scattering, and her brow furrowed. “What is that?”
The low lighting around Erral died.
A low cry came from beyond the wall and his stomach tried to sink into the floor. He sighed and dropped his head for a moment at the realization.
Oh no.
That infernal Rijiteran devil had hacked into his system!
A growl rumbled in his chest and he was suddenly reminded acutely of being young and angry at a much taller opponent.
Some things change, and yet, many don’t.
How lovely.
The lights came back on and with them a red sphere dropped from the artificial sky. It was one of his communication orbs.
He really did find her irritating.
She’d always stolen his toys.
The orb was about the size of his head and when it got eye level with them a holoscreen flashed into being.
Hella’s dark form frowned at him and his own lip raised in response. A big female with a fierce look stood at her shoulder, her hard face telegraphed violent thoughts. She had his death in her eyes.
Wonderful.
Callie sat up straight like something had electrified her.
“Jack?”
twenty-four
Callie
IhadseenJack’sdeath glare before. The one that promised the most painful end imaginable. It stopped people in their tracks and made them cower. The woman who stood next to her made Jack seem like a pale imitation of true terror. She was wearing a plain black t-shirt with its short sleeves straining to wrap around her impressive biceps and worn blue jeans. She was taller than Jack by at least a foot, maybe more, and wider, with dead eyes like a shark.
My body froze, every hair standing on end and cold washed over me as the woman’s gaze shifted to mine.
“Callisto Ramirez, are you in danger?” Her voice was rough, deep, and held such authority that I answered her before my head had even processed what she was saying.
“No.” My voice was barely above a whisper. I shook myself and cleared my throat to speak more clearly. “No. I’m not in danger.”
The woman scrutinized me for a long moment and every cell in my body wanted to flee in opposite directions. She lookedlike Jack, or that is, Jack looked like her. The same brown hair, though this woman’s was longer, reaching her hips in a thick braid pulled over her hulking shoulder. The same brown eyes and narrow nose, but the woman’s lips were wider and fuller, and she had a sharper chin. Jack was a large woman, built like a Mack truck and a strongman had a baby, but whoever this was made our Amazon look downright dainty.
Jack’s fiery eyes left Rathal from where she stood next to Death Incarnate and softened on me, her shoulders relaxing. “Callie, thank god. I’m so glad to see you’re okay. When we saw on the drone feeds that you were taken I about lost my shit. I’m so fucking sorry we couldn’t come get you personally. Ohem and I had to go to Earth to get my mother.”
She jerked her head at the terrifying woman who lifted her lip in what I’m guessing was supposed to be a smile but all it did was flash a fang at me in a silent snarl. My heart stopped in my chest for a beat and then tried to gallop away like a panicked horse. The woman, Jack’s mother, showed me more of her teeth. Jack watched me and then looked at her mother before rolling her eyes and smacking her mom on her arm.
“Quit terrifying my friends. This is why Patty fucks with you.” She looked back at me and gestured at the monster that birthed her. “Callie, this is my perfectly harmless mom, Hella. Who willnoteat you or bury you in a shallow grave. No matter what she says.”
