Jinxing the Warlord Read online

  Jinxing the Warlord

  Gail Koger

  Copyright © April 2022 by Gail Koger

  All rights reserved. This copy is intended for the original purchaser of this e-book ONLY. No part of this e-book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without prior written permission from Gail Koger. Please do not participate or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized copies.

  Image/art disclaimer: Licensed material is being used for illustrative purposes only. Any person depicted in the licensed material is a model.

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  Cover Artist: Limabean Designs

  Published in the United States of America

  This e-book is a work of fiction. While reference might be made to actual historical events, existing locations, the names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and any resemblances to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  Contents

  Dedication

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Books in the Coletti Warlord series

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to my parents.

  Prologue

  How did I end up on the barren world of Cygnus? Fate and a promise made under duress. Turns out Fate is one sick, twisted bitch.

  My father was a Jat combat warrior in the Alliance’s military. His team was assigned to Rayet to help them beef up planetary defenses. That help came a little too late. I was six years old and had lived in the Capitol city of An’an for only two months when the Tai-Kok came. These monstrous creatures literally live to eat. Children are considered a delicacy and ruthlessly hunted.

  Even after twenty years, the horror of my mother’s death never lessens. My father’s ship was pursuing a Rodan battlecruiser when the Tai-Kok struck. As soon as the sirens sounded, all the kids in my classroom were ushered into an underground bunker. My mother wasn’t as lucky. She was captured and taken aboard a Tai-Kok slaughter ship. To my utter surprise, my severely injured mother was able to call me on her vid link. Her blood-covered face is forever etched into my mind and the screams of the dying still haunt my dreams.

  “I love you Jinx. Never. Forget. That.”

  “I won’t Mom. I’m going to get Papi’s laser rifle and come rescue you.”

  “No! You’re just a baby. I need you to stay in the bunker.”

  “I’m not a baby. I’m six-years-old and I won’t let you die.”

  A beep sounded as my father joined our conversation. “Stay in the bunker Jinx. Only trained warriors can defeat the Tai-Kok.”

  “But the planetary defenses are down, if I don’t save her, who will?”

  A spasm of pain crossed my mother’s face. “I’m dying Jinx… but before I do, I’m blowing this ship to hell and back.”

  No. Tears poured down my cheeks. She couldn’t die. She couldn’t.

  “The Tai-Kok sensors didn’t pick up your implanted Peekay?” There was a note of sorrow in my father’s voice.

  “They were too busy eating…” Another spasm twisted my mother’s features. “To scan me. The timer… is set.”

  “I will avenge you,” Papi growled.

  “No! Promise… Me… You will… Keep Jinx safe. Promise me.” My mother’s breath came in labored gasps.

  “You have my word.”

  “I… Love… You… Kym Tuva.”

  “And you, my Earth angel, hold my heart.” My father’s harsh voice broke. “Until we meet again in the afterlife.”

  The vid link went black. Thirty seconds later, a thunderous cracking boom sounded and the ground shook beneath my feet.

  The merciless Tai-Kok attack turned the once bustling world into rubble and only three thousand men, women and children lived to tell the tale. I was one of those survivors. Some say they can still hear the wails of the dying. No one wanted to stay on a world that belonged to the dead, so Rayet was abandoned.

  My father was never the same. It was like something inside him had been broken beyond repair. To honor my mother’s dying request, he retired from the military, cut off his warrior’s braid and bought a small spacecraft.

  For eight months we wandered around the galaxy. Papi finally decided to move us to Cygnus, a desolate world on the fringes of Alliance space. The Tai-Kok didn’t raid planets with less than two thousand residents, but he forgot about the Rodan. Those bastards would attack even the smallest outposts…

  Chapter One

  Almost a year later we landed on Cygnus. A glittering gray hell with stacks of giant white boulders strewn across the sand. Red cactus-like trees dotted the landscape. A hot wind blew through the rocks creating an eerie melody. Adding to the spookiness were the ghostly mirages cavorting over the sand. In the far distance, stony mountains resembling waves of a petrified sea jutted from the gray dirt.

  I pointed at the temperature gauge. “It’s 120 degrees outside. It’s like being stranded in the Ninth Hell.”

  “Your biosuit will keep you cool,” Papi responded.

  “What about all the critters that will try to eat us?”

  Papi ran a hand through his thick black hair. “Keep vigilant and use your laser pistol when necessary.”

  “I don’t have a laser pistol,” I countered.

  Papi stared at me for a long moment. “I will teach you how to use one.”

  “When?”

  “Soon.”

  “And if the bandits try to rob us?”

  Papi rose to his immense height, pulled his sword, and smiled; a smile guaranteed to send lesser males running for their lives. The star tattoo on his left cheek that signified his elite status as a Jat warrior didn’t hurt either. “I will kill them.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “But you won’t find and execute the Tai-Kok that attacked Rayet?”

  “Your mother destroyed all of them.”

  Tears welled in my eyes. Had she? “When I’m old enough, I’m going to kill every Tai-Kok I can find,” I yelled.

  Papi let out an exasperated sigh and raised his eyes heavenward. “Your daughter has turned into an ungrateful child, Beth.”

  With an outraged huff, I took refuge in my cabin. Once Papi gave his word, he never broke it. Ever. He wouldn’t even admit finding gold on this hellhole was harder than he thought.

  Two months later, I found Papi staring at a picture of my mother with tears streaming down his face. The sadness in his gray eyes was almost too much for me to bear. Goddess
, I had been such a brat, but that was going to change. It was my turn to care for him. I would become the daughter he needed. I logged into my computer and caught up on my schoolwork. After I finished, I scrubbed down the ship and fixed dinner.

  Papi’s eyebrows rose in surprise when he noticed I had made his favorite meal. “What is the occasion?”

  “I’m sorry I was such a brat. I miss mom so much it makes me crazy.”

  He hugged me. “Me too.”

  Papi was my only companion and not inclined to chat. I was confined to the ship when he was prospecting for gold and other metals. To say I was bored would be an understatement. I was desperate to talk with another female. I wanted to find out how they dealt with the bugs and the loneliness. How they kept the sand out of their hair and did they have any pets. There were females at the pleasure houses, and I bet they’d be happy to talk to me. Maybe they had kids I could play with.

  Eight months into my captivity I had reached my breaking point. If I had to visit every pleasure house on this planet, I was going to find a friend. That day when Papi left to go prospecting I rode my skimmer to Asher’s Outpost, a hodge-podge of prefabricated buildings sagging under the unforgiving sun. Asher sold everything from food to weapons and bought gold from the prospectors. The tavern and small pleasure house had eight skimmers parked out front. The prospectors were probably lonely too.

  Papi said drunken males were unpredictable fools. To avoid them, I’d go in the back way. Butterflies danced in my stomach. I couldn’t wait to meet the females.

  Bugger. The door was locked, and holy Goddess, I could hear someone screaming. Hurrying over to the nearest window, I went up on my tippytoes and peeked inside. Huh? A naked female was screeching and hollering like crazy while a big male with a hairy butt bounced up and down on top of her. The female kept yelling, “I want all of your gigantic cock. All of it.”

  I looked around the tiny room but didn’t see any roosters. As far as I knew, there weren’t any chickens on this world.

  The male started grunting like an Earth pig as he bucked on top of her, and I caught a glimpse of a long, wormy-looking thing. Had a dirt dragon gotten into the room? Was it trying to eat the female? No. That nasty male was jamming it in her. Yuck.

  A big hand grabbed the back of my biosuit and yanked me away from the window. “What in the nine hells do you think you are doing?”

  I winced as Papi’s furious bellow reverberated around my head. “I wanted to talk with the female, but that male was bouncing on her. I think he’s sticking a dirt dragon inside her.”

  Papi blinked in surprise and seemed to be fighting back laughter. “It’s… It’s not a dirt dragon. It’s…”

  “Some other kind of critter?”

  “When you’re older, I’ll explain it to you.”

  I frowned. “Why can’t you tell me now?”

  “Get on your skimmer before I put you over my knee and paddle your behind.”

  I quickly got on my skimmer. When Papi used his command voice, it was better to do as he asked.

  “You are never to return to Asher’s Outpost. Do you understand me?”

  “Yes, Papi, but you come here all the time.”

  “I am a male and a warrior. A little female with your pretty yellow hair and green eyes would be put to work in the pleasure house. I will not allow that to happen.”

  Like I wanted some stinky male bouncing up and down on me. “Yes, Papi.”

  “You left the ship without a weapon or permission,” Papi growled.

  I studied the toes of Papi’s sand-covered boots. “I have a knife and you never actually said I couldn’t leave the ship.”

  “What would you have done if a dirt dragon had attacked?”

  “I would have summoned my force field.” Wait a minute. “How did you know where I was?”

  “I put a tracker on you.”

  “What?” I squawked in outrage. “I’m not a law breaker.”

  “You broke the rules, and this planet is filled with dangerous species. I will do what is necessary to protect you,” Papi shot back.

  “I just wanted a friend.”

  Papi handed me my helmet. “I will endeavor to be a better companion.”

  With a sigh, I started my skimmer and headed back to the ship.

  That night Papi sat me down and started teaching me how to play an Earth game called chess. He also decided I needed warrior’s training. Since I was still a kid, I was surprised his classes included how to fly the ship, how to fight, how to use my mental gifts properly and how to prospect for gold.

  I had inherited Papi’s rare psychic ability to form a force field around me that was strong enough to withstand laser bolts. I also had his gift to create illusions with my mind. To toughen me up, Papi would attack me mentally and physically. Usually without any warning. His motto was: Those who are not prepared, die.

  Every day we climbed on our skimmers and hunted for gold and other valuable metals. If we came across any other miners, Papi told them I had Tungiasis, a disease that left the victim covered in horrific, oozing skin lesions. My illusion was very realistic, and the males couldn’t get away from me fast enough.

  At night I did my schoolwork and Papi drilled me with different mental exercises to strengthen my shields. Soon they were almost unbreachable. Using a virtual reality simulator, Papi put me through battle scenarios against Tai-Kok and Rodan ships. By the time I hit puberty, I was an ace at shooting them down. In hand-to-hand combat against my father, I could hold my own, but for some reason shooting a living, breathing opponent with my laser pistol was beyond me. I missed every time.

  Chapter Two

  Six months before my twenty-fifth birthday, I started hearing things. At first it was like someone was whispering to me, but I couldn’t quite understand what they were saying. Did I have sun madness or was it something else? Whatever was causing it, the voices were getting louder and louder. I was afraid to tell Papi. He had enough to deal with. Someone was murdering prospectors and taking their gold. Because of Papi’s Jat warrior status, the miners hired him to find and eliminate the suspects. He jumped at the chance to use his warrior’s skills again. Which left me to do all the maintenance on the ship. Today, I got to repair the weapons systems.

  I set the toolbox down and opened a panel on the fuselage. Cold prickles skittered up my spine. A predator was nearby. My hand dropped to the butt of my laser pistol.

  “I wouldn’t do that,” a harsh voice growled in Galactic Basic.

  Drekk! Why hadn’t I sensed him sooner? As I slowly raised my hands, I conjured up my favorite Tungiasis illusion with horrific, oozing skin lesions, rotting teeth and a balding scalp. “There is no gold here.”

  “I’m not here for gold. I’m looking for Kym Tuva.”

  “Who?”

  “Turn around,” the male commanded.

  I turned to face him and smothered a laugh at the stunned expression on the male’s face. He was as big as my father with angular cheekbones, a square jaw and sensual mouth. His black warrior’s braids and body armor screamed Coletti. The overconfident ass didn’t even have his weapon out. What did a Coletti warrior want with my father? “I have Tungiasis disease. You might want to keep your distance.”

  “Coletti warriors are immune to Tungiasis disease,” he said smugly.

  Time to have some fun with the arrogant jerk. “Oh? Really?” I fluttered my eyelashes and gave him a seductive smile, making sure my rotting teeth were on full display. “How about a kiss?”

  The warrior’s eyes widened slightly.

  “Come on sweetie, I haven’t had sex in so long I forgot who gets tied up.”

  “Where is your father?”

  Was that a note of desperation in his voice? “He’s hunting,” I replied, lowering the zipper on my bodysuit. “Can I hunt you?”

  Using his command voice, the male demanded, “Who is he hunting?”

  “What makes you think this Kym Tuva is
my father?” I countered.

  “You are in the Alliance database. Your name is Jinx, and your human mother was killed in the Tai-Kok raid on Rayet.”

  Drekk! Did the Coletti Empire need Papi’s help in tracking someone? “My father was hired to find out who is murdering prospectors and taking their gold. You might find him at Asher’s Outpost.” I licked my lips obscenely. “Are you sure I can’t give you a ride?”

  Poof! He vanished.

  Grinning, I dropped my illusion and linked with Papi, “A Coletti warrior is looking for you. I told him you were at Asher’s Outpost.”

  “I will meet with him. Did he say what he wanted?”

  “No, I was wearing my Tungiasis illusion.”

  Papi chuckled. “Was he suitably horrified?”

  “He was.”

  “Stay near the ship until I find out what he wants,” Papi instructed.

  “Not a problem, I’m repairing the weapons systems.”

  “Good luck.” The link broke.

  A flash of amber caught my attention.

  I pulled my laser pistol and took a closer look. A critter resembling an Earth tarantula with a scorpion-like stinger clung to the side of a boulder. Was it a Barat? It kinda looked like one. If so, what in the nine hells was it doing on Cygnus?

  “Momma?”

  Frowning, I looked around, but no one was there. “Who said that?”

  “Me lost.” The small, amber-colored critter scurried over to me. “You find momma?”

  Bugger. That explained the voices. The Goddess had gifted me with my mother’s ability to talk to the animals. The little guy was a Barat and definitely male. I hadn’t realized how intelligent they were or that they were able to communicate psychically. If memory served me correctly, they were distant cousins of the Tabors. I holstered my pistol. “I’ll help you find your mom. Can you show me where you lost her?”

  “Me can.” The little guy scurried off.

  I followed him. “What’s your name?”

  “Deebe.”

  “I’m Jinx. Why aren’t you afraid of me?”

  “Me not two-legged food. You no try to smash me like others do.”