Trelon just gave them both a tired, but satisfied smile. “Yes, I am one lucky bastard."
Trelon looked towards Zoran. “I sent my mate and her friends to visit with yours. I hope your living quarters are still in one piece after she is done.”
Zoran nodded with a smile. “I am glad. Abby will enjoy their company, especially after everything that has happened. She completed her transformation, though I wish it could have been under more pleasant circumstances.” Zoran added with a growl. “Ben'qumain may be dead but our Uncle is not. I want him found. Creon, have you found out any more information?”
“Ha'ven is working on his connections within the Curizan. With his half-brother dead, the opposition there has taken a powerful blow. Unfortunately, Ha'ven feels there may still be a threat. He is pursuing some leads and will let us know what he finds. In the meantime, he asked that I give you his sincere regrets for any harm to you or your mate and asks that you take into consideration this is just a small fraction of a militant group trying to cause trouble.”
Zoran nodded. “I understand that now. Please tell him I appreciate his concern and welcome his help. Peace between our two galaxies is important if we are to strengthen the alliance against additional threats. From my understanding, the Sarafin had been having issues of their own. My sources say their King has disappeared. His ship sent out a distress signal a week ago stating it was under attack.”
Mandra jerked his head up, frowning. “Who would be insane enough to attack a Sarafin warship?”
“I don't know. With everything going on here, I have not had time to read the reports that have been coming in.” Zoran replied.
“It might be in our best interests to offer assistance.” Creon suggested. “I, for one, would just as soon not ever have to fight them again.”
The other four brothers agreed whole-heartedly. The Sarafin were renowned throughout the galaxies as ruthless savages who did not know the meaning of quitting, retreating, or negotiating if they were pissed off. The fight between the Valdire and the Sarafin had been a long, bloody battle with many lives lost on both sides. It was strange though, once a peace treaty between the two worlds had been signed, the brothers found they actually had a lot in common with the Sarafin.
Cara was excited about Abby being back safe and sound. She wanted to find out exactly what had happened to her. Trelon had told her a little bit about it during one of their brief moments of sanity last night but Cara wanted to see for herself her new friend was alright. Cara had waited impatiently for the sky to brighten enough that she felt confident the other girls were awake. Once it had, she had contacted them and planned an info-fun session to be held in Abby's living quarters. If she didn't know better, she would almost think Trelon was relieved to have her occupied somewhere else. Maybe it had to do with the fact she had discovered how to program a variety of coffee mixes into the replicator. That had been one of the things she had done while Trelon was gone. Of course, she had to sample them to make sure she was getting the flavors right and had probably drank the equivalent of five pots of espresso. Maybe that was why she was so wired last night, she thought sheepishly. A shiver went through her as she remembered how the night had progressed. Once they made it into the cleansing room, the shower had woken her up. She never knew there were so many ways to make love, or so many places to do it. She couldn't really decide which has been the best: the cleansing unit where she had gone down on Trelon and watched as he came all over her breasts, the couch where he had bent her over, the dining table where he had eaten her instead of the food they had prepared, or the balcony under the stars. Of course, the bed hadn't been too bad either. Decisions, decisions. She thought with a mischievous grin. Maybe she would just have to try them all again to see if the second time helped her decide.
“I am so glad Abby is okay.” Trisha said as they walked down the corridor. All of them were doing their best to ignore the dozen or so guards that trailed behind them.
“What's with all the guards?” Cara asked curiously. “I noticed them outside of Carmen's room that day but isn't this a little bit ridiculous? How many guards do we need to protect us, especially with our gold BFF's with us?”
Ariel snickered. “They're not here to protect us. They're here to prevent us from escaping again.”
Cara's eyes brightened. “Again? Do you need help with anything?”
The four women burst into laughter as the echo of groans filled the corridor from the guards. They were all watching the women in horror. Cara could have sworn that a few of them even looked a little nauseated, especially the ones she had seen outside of Carmen's apartment. The two guards assigned to guard Abby and Zoran's rooms looked on with apprehension as the large group advanced. The sight of four laughing human women pushing a large cart covered in dishes and surrounded by four huge, golden symbioses were bad enough. But the sight of so many other warriors escorting them and not looking happy about it made them wonder if perhaps they should request a transfer to some remote outpost.
Cara skipped up to the door, bouncing with the after affects of adrenalin, lack of sleep, and caffeine. She smiled innocently up at the guards as she knocked loudly on the door. She thought she recognized one of them from the day Trelon had tried to kill Dulce. When she looked at the guard again, he moved gingerly away and looked down the corridor.
“He's not here.” She whispered loudly. “I think he snuck off somewhere to get away from me for a little while. How's Dulce doing?”
Abby opened the door before the guard could reply. Cara waved her fingers at him and smiled brightly before she reached for the front of the cart and pulled it through. Cara ignored Abby's startled expression and motioned for everyone to follow her. Trisha, Carmen, and Ariel with their respective new symbiosis pets, trotted in behind her.
“Good morning!” Cara said brightly as she laid a tray full of food on a low table. “We thought you’d be hungry.”
“No, you wanted an excuse to find out what happened!” Trisha said with a grin as she picked up a piece of fruit from the tray and bit into it. “Damn, they have some good fruit here.”
“So, tell us all the good juicy details? I heard you fired Ben’qumain? How’d you do that?” Ariel said as she laid another tray with cups and a large pot of something that smelled suspiciously like coffee down on another small table.
Cara watched as Abby looked at each of them. After accepting a cup of coffee from Ariel and the plate of food Cara held out, Abby sank down onto the soft cushions of the sofa and pulled her bare feet up under her. Cara collected a plate of food and a huge cup of coffee. She hesitated for only a few seconds before shrugging her thin shoulders.
What the hell,
she thought,
you only live once.
So what if she was on a high from all the caffeine. She knew a great way to burn it off, she thought mischievously, picturing Trelon's huge body tied to the bed. Cara had to force her mind back to what was being said.
God,
she mused wickedly,
she was getting to be a mental slut!
Abby took a sip of coffee, seeming to be thinking carefully about what she was going to say before she responded, “I turned, can turn, into a dragon.”
Cara's eyes widened and a huge grin spread over her face as her mind absorbed what Abby was saying. She could see Abby looking at them all from under her eyelashes trying to determine how they would react. Cara saw Ariel and Trisha staring at Abby with their mouths hanging open and Carmen studied her with an intense expression. For Cara, the idea of being able to change into a dragon opened up a whole new realm of interesting possibilities. If she was a dragon, would she be able to fly like Trelon can? Could she spew fire like Zoran did? Oh, my...she thought with a mischievous grin, if she could no one would ever catch her.
“That. Is. So. Cool!” Cara said excitedly her voice rising as her excitement grew. “How did you do it? Can I do it? Oh. My. God. I have to be able to do it. I could totally drive Trelon out of his ever-loving, fucking mind! Oh Abby, you have got to teach me how. Please! Please! Please!”
The three other women glanced from Cara to Abby. Suddenly a small chuckle filled the air followed by uncontrollable giggling. All eyes whipped around unable to believe where the giggling was coming from.
Carmen wiped her eyes trying to stop from giggling, “Oh Abby, please teach us. I would love to be able to give someone else hell and I’m sure I could think of a hundred different ways to do it in the form of a dragon.”
Soon, all the women were giggling and making up ways they could drive the men insane by switching between human and dragon and using the symbiosis. Cara’s was the most creative but Carmen came up with the most devious. When Zoran walked into the room a couple of hours later and found all five women in hysterics he had a bad, bad feeling he and his brothers were in for trouble.
Trelon rolled his shoulders trying to relieve some of the tension in them as he walked towards his living area. He looked around frowning when he didn’t see the two guards standing out front like they should have been. All of them had tightened security since Cara’s poison and Abby’s abduction. Concerned, he hurried forward bursting into the room with his sword in his hand. He froze when he saw the twisted figures of Cara and the two warriors in the middle of his living area.
“What the hell is going on?” Trelon roared.
His roar sent the two warriors crashing to the floor. Cara’s war cry echoed throughout the room.
“I won!” Cara said doing an odd dance and pumping her arms in the air. “I won, oh yes, I won, oh yeah. Who’s the girl? What’s that you say? Cara! Cara! Cara!” She sang as she danced around the two men trying to untangle themselves from each other.
Trelon’s arm dropped. In truth, he was so tired he just didn’t have the strength to hold it up. He watched as the two red-faced guards bowed quickly, grabbed their boots by the door, and left. His eyes followed them but his ears were tuned to his mate’s sing-song voice as she crowed she was the champion of the world at the top of her voice.
Turning back around, Trelon barely had time to drop his sword before his little mate wrapped herself around him. He felt Cara’s legs wrap around his waist and she was peppering his face with small kisses while she talked a mile a minute. He finally had to seal his lips over hers to give himself time to think. As he deepened the kiss, he tasted a hint of some exotic flavor he wasn’t familiar with. Trelon groaned when he felt Cara moving against him restlessly while she tried to undo his shirt.
“Cara.” Trelon said as he tried to pull away. Cara just hummed and kept kissing him.
“Cara.” Trelon tried again, leaning further away and holding her by her shoulders so she would look at him. “What have you been drinking?”
“Mmm,” Cara asked as she fought against his hands. “French Vanilla Cappuccinos.”
Trelon found it was easier to hold her closer than it was to try to force her away. Wrapping his arms tightly around her waist, he moved to the couch kicking aside a…was that his sheets? The ones he had paid a fortune for at a Sarafin market just a few months ago. Why were there huge round circles of different colors all over them?
“Cara, what are French Vanilla Cappuccinos?” Trelon asked. They must be some type of potion wine from her planet if it caused her to act like this! Trelon groaned when Cara started attacking his neck with little nips and licks.
“Oh, it’s coffee.” Cara said between kisses. “Did you know that Abby can turn into a dragon? I want to turn into a dragon. If I turn into a dragon will I be able to fly? Can girl dragon’s breath fire? Oh, I guess they can because Abby roasted the bad guy. I want to be able to roast somebody. Do you think I can…” Cara was still talking as Trelon pressed his mouth over hers again and fell onto the couch.
Well
, Trelon thought to himself,
that answers whether she would be upset about the transformation.
Now all he needed to do was get her sober enough to be able to go through it; but first, he figured he better get some sleep because he had a feeling if he was having trouble keeping up with her now there would be no way he would be able to once she had a set of wings on her. Trelon released a sigh as he pulled away from her lips.
“…try to become a dragon right now. I want to fly out over the water just like Symba did. Oh, I won at Twister. I hope you don’t mind about the sheet. I needed something that would lay out flat. I’m going to help Ariel and Carmen escape only I don’t think they are really going to escape, I think they just want to drive your brothers nuts. If I’m a dragon am I going to want to eat raw animals? I don’t think I would like that.” Cara continued as if Trelon had never kissed her.
“Cara!” Trelon said sharply waiting for Cara to be quiet for a moment.
“Yes?” Cara asked with a smile.
“No more coffee!” Trelon said sternly. He was going to find out what the damn stuff was and hide it. “How much have you had?”
“Oh, only five or six.” Cara said with a shrug of her shoulders.
“Cups?” Trelon asked suspiciously.
“No, pots. You see, coffee has a lot of caffeine, at least the caffeinated stuff does, and it is the only type I programmed into the replicator. I love the stuff. I can drink it all day long. Only problem is sometimes it makes me really hyper so I have to be careful. I was working on programming all different types and I got the espresso stuff down pretty good, you use espresso for some of the fancier drinks, but it is like a mega-dose of a pick-me-up. I’m telling you, if you want to stay awake for long periods of time, just drink a pot or two and it’ll keep you going for days.”
Trelon’s eyes widened with each word. Days? Pots? Pick-me-up? Oh Gods and Goddesses, he was never going to survive! How could one tiny alien female reduce him to wanting to cry like a babe? He needed sleep desperately. He had not had a full night since he met her. How she functioned he had no idea but if he could replicate her energy level and distribute it among the Valdire warriors they would never lose another battle. Trelon stood up with Cara still chattering away in his arms and carried her towards their sleeping area. He was going to bath her, bed her, and chain her and not necessarily in that order. He might have to gag her as well, he thought, when she began singing again.