Shots were fired initially as a horde of Liffelithi dwarves descended on us, but the laser blasts were ricocheting off my shield and bouncing into the hull, which didn't do it any good, actually. I was proud of Norian and Lendill—they hadn't drawn a weapon and stood calmly beside me, cool as the proverbial pre-pickled vegetable while chaos occurred outside my shield.

Somebody was shouting for weapon-toting dwarves to stop shooting in less than a minute. I watched the one who'd shouted the command—a rather short Liffelithi dwarf, wearing a very large hat. Napoleon came to mind as he swaggered toward the perimeter of my shield and poked it with a finger. Norian glared at him as I moved to the inside of my shield, standing opposite the captain.

"Can you hear me?" Napoleon poked my shield again.

"I hear you, all right," I said, crossing arms over my chest.

"Good. Come out of there, give yourselves up and we'll consider allowing you to live."

"I could say the same to you, except I don't want to lie," I told him. "I don't intend to let you live."

"I don't know what's holding this shield up, but it has to run out of power eventually," Napoleon said while running his hands across the invisible barrier. "We'll have you then, and since we're being truthful, you won't live either." His teeth were good—I saw that when he offered a nasty grin.

"Well, gee, that's too bad, huh?" I snapped. "Before I kill you, I want to know who's behind the Trell massacre. Go ahead; tell me it was Black Mist." I somehow had the idea that Black Mist had provided protection or shields on the way in, and then canceled their efforts on the way out. It was a signature move for them.

"I won't divulge any information to you," Napoleon huffed.

"You will tell me everything you know," I commanded, compulsion thick in my voice. The schmuck should have known not to stand so close—he got hit with my compulsion from close range.

"Black Mist offered us a great deal of money. The head of my clan made the deal and didn't tell me how much. I merely carried out his orders."

"So, somebody else to go after," I mused, watching Napoleon. Norian and Lendill came to stand beside me and Norian wanted to turn to his lion snake so badly I could feel him vibrating. "What's his name?" I asked. "This dwarf who took Black Mist's money?"

"Giryoth," Napoleon muttered. That information hadn't been given willingly at all. Of course, he didn't have a choice.

"We'll pay a visit to him presently. In the meantime, I'm destroying your toy." I went to energy and gathered light around me. The Ranos Canon melted. Liffelithi were running and screaming; the heat I gathered was melting the walls and the floors of the ship. Napoleon ran away with his crew—I hadn't told him not to. I then disabled every escape pod on the ship with a thought. Norian, Lendill and my body remained inside my shield, which was as cool as a spring day as we watched the ship fall apart around us. Napoleon's men screamed and died—either from the heat or by exploding as they were sucked through holes forming in the hull of the ship. Once outside the pressurized ship, their bodies flew apart—they no longer had anything to hold them together. I think Lendill went to his knees at one point, his mouth hanging open in shock as he watched. The whole thing took ten minutes, after which I slipped back into my body and folded the three of us to Giryoth's palace.

Chapter 11

Giryoth's assistant cursed us and the seemingly useless guards outside Giryoth's private quarters when we appeared inside his office without warning. "How in the name of revenge did you get in here?" he shouted. He could have been Napoleon's brother—he was short, too, maybe weighed a little more, with hair dyed a dark green. It matched his uniform—a dark-green jumpsuit with gold doo-dads on the left breast.

"We folded space," I answered truthfully. "We're here to see Giryoth."

"You will not get in to see him," he pulled a laser pistol from a side pocket and aimed it at us. Well, too bad for him. He was headless in less time than it took to draw a breath. He'd forgotten the first rule of attempted homicide—never bring a gun to a vampire fight. I stepped over his body, heading for the doorway that lay beyond his desk. I took a brief look around me—judging by the opulence surrounding us, Giryoth was extremely wealthy. I figured Black Mist had made him a lot wealthier, after they'd blown Trell away. Well, he wasn't going to spend that money if I had anything to say about it.

"Norian, what does the Alliance do with the money and assets seized from criminals?" I asked calmly as we stepped inside Giryoth's private study. He wasn't there but I heard noise just beyond—somebody was having sex, I could tell.

"They take the funds into their coffers and pay restitution to those affected by crime," Norian replied as we walked toward another door. It was locked, so I kicked it in, hard enough that it broke from its hinges and crashed into the opposite wall.

"What in the name of the blood feud is going on?" Giryoth thundered, leaping out of bed. Well, somebody had a bedroom installed behind his office. Made it easy to sexually harass the secretary, I guess. It's difficult, too, to appear serious and menacing if you're not very tall, completely naked and purple with rage. Giryoth's companion was cowering in the bed, the sheets gripped tightly in her hands. She was pretty and Giryoth was wealthy. Go figure.

"How much did Black Mist pay you to kill six-hundred-million people?" I asked as politely as I could. I was doing my best to reel in my temper. Norian and Lendill stood at my shoulder and Lendill had one of his laser pistols out. He wasn't going to need it.

"How the hell did you get in here?" Giryoth shouted. "Windon! Get in here, now!"

"Windon will have to pull himself together, first," I purred, allowing my claws to slide out.

"Who are you?" Giryoth was only now beginning to worry. His companion was far ahead of him—she was already making breathy, shrieking noises.

"I am the Queen of Le-Ath Veronis. Six-hundred-million people died on Trell because Black Mist was aiming at me. Too bad you missed, huh?" I took a step toward him. Giryoth shuddered and took a step back.

"And I am the Director of the ASD," Norian was right beside me. "I can only imagine that I was supposed to die as well. As you see, you failed to kill me, too. Shall we leave you here and let Black Mist know?"

"No," Giryoth whispered, backing up a little more, his eyes widening in terror. Yep—death was right in front of him and he was still more frightened of Black Mist.

"What are you going to do, Lissa?" Lendill muttered. I turned to look at him.

"I have an idea," I said, and folded Norian, Lendill and Giryoth to Wyyld.

* * *

"Are you sure this won't upset you?" Ildevar Wyyld asked as he eyed Giryoth, who had no idea what was coming. Ildevar had sent Norian and Lendill off to research the whereabouts of Black Mist. That was a ruse—he'd told them he and I would take care of Giryoth. Ildevar was going to do the honors, and I was going to watch.

"I've seen it before, remember?" I replied with a shrug.

Giryoth was looking from Ildevar to me and back again, fear plain on his face. Well, he should have thought about consequences before killing Trell.

"I must thank you for providing for me," Ildevar bowed slightly in my direction. Giryoth didn't have time to squeak before Ildevar was his lengthy, coppery self and had Giryoth swallowed in less time than that. It's a little disturbing, knowing that it's a humanoid sliding down a Ra'Ak's throat instead of an animal or cooked meat of some kind, but Giryoth had it coming.

"Did you remove his clothing for me?" Ildevar was back to humanoid.

"No, we found him like that," I sighed.

"They digest easier if they are naked," Ildevar remarked. "Now, what do you intend to do with the rest of Liffel?"

"Well, the population has been diminishing on Evensun," I said.

"Ah."

"I thought I'd send them there. We'll see how one batch of murderers does against another batch. And then I intend to blow Liffel to little, tiny bits. As a message to Black Mist."

"When did you intend to do this?" Ildevar looked at me, a speculative gleam in his eyes.

"In the next few minutes. I think Norian may be reevaluating his relationship with me. As you may, too."

"Do you care for Norian?" Ildevar raised an eyebrow.

"Of course I do. We wouldn't have—well, we wouldn't have," I turned my head, feeling embarrassed.

"There is nothing to be ashamed of. You have multiple mates. It is reasonable, when there are so few females among your kind."

"Yeah, well, if somebody had told me that when I was younger, I would have thought they were crazy." I folded away to do my errands.

The criminals went to Evensun. The others, and there weren't many—mostly children, I sent to an underpopulated world just outside the Alliance. They were begging for immigrants—a devastating disease had destroyed many of their inhabitants. Then I went to energy and blew Liffel to atoms. The news was all over the newsfeeds by the time I returned to Wyyld.

* * *

"I'm assuming the ASD turned the ranos cannon on Liffel," Viregruz nodded toward Zellar, who'd brought the news of Liffel's destruction to Black Mist's founder. "Doesn't matter," Viregruz continued. "Cancel the transfer of funds—I'll double your bonus," he nodded to Zellar. "You did very well, and this has turned out better than anticipated." Viregruz moved to stare out a window—night had fallen and very few people wandered along the darkened sidewalk below.

"I, uh, have other news," Zellar muttered, hanging his head. "From one of our spies."

"What news is that?" Viregruz jerked his head toward Zellar.

"Our target—well, targets—are still alive."