Alien in the Family

it.”
    “I agree,” Chuckie said. I glared at him. “What? You think any of us want you actually fighting these people?”
    “I’m not without the skills.”
    “You are in comparison to what we’re up against,” Christopher snapped.
    Willem and Queen Renata exchanged glances. “We will protect as you request,” Willem said. I was surrounded in moments.
    “Great. Nothing’s here yet. I think I can get out of the group huddle.” They backed off but stayed nearby.
    Jerry brought over some extra clips for my Glock. “Just in case,” he said with a grin.
    “You guys all weaponed up?”
    “Yep. The pawns have all agreed—we don’t plan on dying.”
    “That’s the mind-set I want.” I was with Martini—I didn’t want to lose anyone from our side.
    Chuckie and Martini were discussing strategy, and the conversation was getting animated. I went to them, Animal Planet trailing me.
    “We need to stop them here,” Martini said.
    “No argument. I’d like an idea of how.” Chuckie looked around. “Do we need to call in more agents, yours or mine?”
    “No.” They both looked at me. “Look, they’re the white side, okay? Accept it. We have no freaking idea of what they’re going to throw at us, just that it’s going to probably hurt. So our initial strategy has to be a reactive one. I don’t like it any more than you guys do, but that’s the reality. If we need more backup, we’ll call for it.”
    “If they don’t knock out telecommunications,” Chuckie said.
    “Too late,” Kevin was holding his phone. “Just tried to call for backup. No signal, no connection, nothing.”
    “They’re almost here, then.” I grabbed Martini’s hand and pulled him out of the group. Animal Planet followed. “Um, guys? Appreciate your slavish devotion to your assigned positions, but a little privacy?”
    “Oh,” Willem said, sounding embarrassed. “Apologies.” They backed off.
    I looked around. We weren’t the only couple having that “this may be good-bye” chat. Animal Planet seemed to catch on, too, and apparently only Wrolph was mateless on this journey. “I hate these people.”
    “Me too, baby.” Martini wrapped his arms around me. “Promise me you’ll stay out of it.”
    “Jeff, I can’t promise that, and you know it. They’re gunning for me, under the laws of this ritual. I know I’ll be getting involved.”
    “You’ll have to get through your honor guard first, and they seem dedicated, thankfully.”
    I leaned my head against his chest. “They’ll be gunning for you, too, you know.”
    “I know. I’m used to it.”
    “You know, in all the movies and TV shows, the happy couple always loses a member either right before or right after they get married.” I hated where my mind went during times of trouble.
    Martini picked me up, and I wrapped myself around him. “It’ll be fine, baby. I promise. They’ve thrown worse at us, and we’ve been fine.”
    I knew this was a blatant lie and that Martini knew it was a lie as well. I chose not to mention it. We held each other tightly for far too short a time. Then he kissed me deeply. Like every kiss of his, it was fabulous and arousing, and I didn’t want to stop. The fear that it could be the last kiss of his I’d ever have didn’t make it better, though—it made it bittersweet.
    We probably wouldn’t have stopped, but suddenly there was wind and a roaring. We broke apart a bit and looked in the sky. A ship worthy of an Imperial Battle Cruiser from Star Wars appeared out of nowhere, hovering over us. Three shuttles disengaged from it, circled us, then flew off. I could tell they’d gone to land on the three peaks chosen for their little game of Interplanetary Risk. The battle cruiser rose up, disappearing as it did so. I assumed it was still there, merely cloaked again.
    Martini set me down. “Be good, be careful, and stay in the back. Run if you have to. Get through the gate if you can. And remember that, no matter what happens, I love you, and I always will.”
    He ran away from me at hyperspeed before I could say anything. But it didn’t matter—my superempath knew how much I loved him.
    A whole lot of people appeared in front of us. More than we had. I spotted the power players—in the back, like a lot of ours were.
    Gregory’s voice rang out. “Let the Ritual of Worth begin!”

CHAPTER 50

    MOIRA JUMPED OUT IN FRONT and started for us. To my horror, and Martini and Chuckie’s obvious shock, Christopher did