Alien in the Family

butt and the others manage to regroup. Tim was hurt, and so was Christopher. “James, get them out of here! Go to Chuckie.”
    Serene was still up and fighting. Maybe the battle staffs responded well to women, not just Jareen and the Amazons, because she was a lot better with it than I’d have expected. Reader and Kevin started to get the others moving. Brian was down, and Serene was standing over him, keeping an Amazonian pawn and the two image-changing A-Cs at bay.
    Moira charged me. I planted the staff and used it to let me slam both feet into her stomach. She flew back, still away from the others, which was what I wanted.
    Jareen finished off the spares, then leaped over to Serene. She sliced the Amazon down the middle, then she and Serene each took one of the A-Cs. They shifted to look like me. Serene gave a snort of disgust and stabbed hers through the heart. Jareen grabbed the one she was fighting by the head and gave it a vicious twist. The A-C went down. I was glad he didn’t look like me any more, since he was lying on his front but his face was staring at me. For certain it was the guy who’d held the door for me at THEhotel. The one Serene had killed was indeed the other one. Good. Flirting was not an issue. Fake flirting really pissed me off.
    Serene and Jareen each grabbed an arm and dragged Brian back. I had no idea where Tito was.
    Moira was on me again, and now it was just the two of us. There was a variety of staff-to-staff slamming that didn’t do much other than make my arms feel like they were jolting out of their sockets. The staff spinning had been a lot more fun and much easier on the limbs.
    “You will enjoy being with me and my mate.” She spun and tried to kick my legs out.
    I jumped and landed safely. “I doubt it. I like men. Big, strong, manly men. In fact, I like their hands all over me. And their other parts inside me.”
    She was young and easy to bait. “You disgust me!” She charged, I sidestepped and hit her in the stomach with the side of the staff. Knocked the wind out of her, but she grabbed my staff and wrenched it out of my hands, which knocked me back and down. Now she had two, and she was good with them. Moira grinned. “Get ready to die.”
    I was in the same crouch I’d spent years in—my feet and hands were set just the way they were in the sprinter’s blocks before the gun went off. I let her get a little closer, then pushed off with all my strength.
    I hit her stomach and took her down. Grabbed the pressure points on her arms and squeezed for all I was worth. Lucked out that they were in roughly the same place on her as on a human. Her hands released the staffs.
    Moira flipped us, so she was on top of me. She felt as heavy as Martini and she was definitely as strong. But I had to wrestle him all the time after I harpooned him. I wrapped my arms and legs around her and held on.
    “Mmmm, I like this,” she said against my neck. I was sort of surprised—in my experience, anyone being this close to my neck would cause me to start to lose control. Apparently not when I was fighting for my life. I was thankful for small favors and worked to get out of the under position.
    I heard someone shouting instructions. To me, I realized. “Move, move, move! Don’t let her hit your head, block with your arms!” It was Tito, and I did what he said—just in time. Moira rained some blows down, but they hit my forearms. She reared back, and I slammed the heel of my hand into her nose. It knocked her back.
    “Release your legs!” I did as Tito said, pulled my knees to my chest, and slammed my feet into her sternum. She went onto her back and off of me. I scrambled to my feet and grabbed a staff as I did so.
    “Tito, you okay?” I couldn’t see him. Anywhere. I looked around to see someone rolling on the ground with Gregory.
    Moira tried to get up; I kicked her in the head and sent her flying back. Tito was on top of Gregory, pounding him. Moira flipped onto her feet, I slammed my staff into her side, and she went down again. Tito was still pounding Gregory—A-C or no A-C, Gregory wasn’t looking like he had much, if any, fight left.
    Moira crawled to her hands and knees and went for her staff, but I kicked it away. “You won’t fight me equally?” she asked. Tito was off Gregory now, and Gregory wasn’t moving at all.
    I thought about it, spun the staff, and rammed it right into her head. “No. Oh, and, by the way?” I pulled the staff out. There was a huge