Page 30 of Asmodel

“Okay, then.” Asmodel pulled his shirt off. “Strip the guy so I can wear his clothes.”

Both Raxx’s brows rose. “Even his underwear? That’d be heinous, man.”

JR13 snickered.

“Yeah, ah, unnecessary.”

He drew the line at wearing something another guy had against his dangly bits.

“Yo, here’s hoping you aren’t allergic to cats.”

Damn, he never thought of that. But it was too late to back out now. He pulled his pants off, leaving him in his tight briefs. “I guess we’ll find out.”

Asmodel transformed into the prone guard and finished putting on the creature’s battle-suit clothing. Once everything was in place, he used his telekinetic ability and transferred the unconscious guard to the nearby thick underbrush. With a brush of his mind, he covered the cat-man with leaves and loose branches. The poor guy would wake up in a couple of hours confused, but otherwise healthy.

Hopefully, they’d be on board theShadow Drifterwith Izzy long before then.

“Here they come.” Holding his hands out, Raxx faced Asmodel. “Hurry, put me in those cuffs you found on our friend.”

To conserve his psychic strength, he unhooked a set of binders from the belt he’d “borrowed” and clicked them around Raxx’s wrists, over the sleeves of the leather jacket he wore. That way, the metallic cuffs wouldn’t eat into his skin.

“That okay?” Asmodel asked.

Raxx tried to pull his arms apart, but they stayed in place. “It’ll do for now.” A sheepish grin creased his lips. “Just keep the key handy, will ya?”

Asmodel gave him a lopsided grin before glancing at JR13 on his shoulder. “Better get yourself out of sight.”

“No, really?” JR13 snarky reply came as he scuttled and hid in a side pocket on the battle-suit vest. “All set, organic man.” The muffled announcement was reassuring.

With the thick, wiry midnight blue-fur of his Scikvak form, Asmodel didn’t feel the small bot’s pointed legs brushing across him. He’d better keep extra vigilance on his companion since he couldn’t rely on his sense of touch to do so.

“Talonar!” A male scikvak barked the name as he and several others burst through the brush. “Report!”

“Yes, sir!” Asmodel jerked to attention. Not sure if he was supposed to salute or something similar, he stood with his cat ears flattened sideways. Clutching the long pole weapon the scikvak threatened them with, he kept the end on the ground. One good thing about taking the shape of an existing organic creature, the body knew how to react even if he didn’t. “I followed this creature from the crash site and captured him.”

The leader walked around Raxx with the end of his thick tail pointed upwards. “I find it extremely odd that this human was on the same ship as the Ozevroc.”

Asmodel had no idea what an Ozevroc was.

“That’s the race of alien that took Isabella Torres.” JR13’s voice was low, but loud enough for Asmodel to hear. “That makes sense. He’s suspicious since that kind of ship was a one-seater.”

“I haven’t questioned him yet, sir.” Asmodel turned to Raxx. Hopefully, the guy came up with something.

The leader humphed. “You, human. Were you on that ship that crashed?” The cat-man looked him over. “You don’t look the worse for wear.”

“Name’s Raxx Jorlen, friend.” Raxx put his bound hands over his heart with a slight bow, never taking his eyes off the leader. “I was an unfortunate prisoner of the Ozevroc.” He pointed a thumb behind him to the black smoke rising in the distance. “That rat bastard had more than one stasis pod on the ship, ya know?”

“Do you know if there were any other humans on that ship?”

Raxx shrugged. “Not that I know of.”

“Commander Jaltaar.” One soldier behind the leader approached him with dark ears back and flat against his head. “The Supreme Alpha Regent is insisting on an update.”

The commander hissed.

Asmodel took a chance and touched his mind. The scikvak was not pleased about talking to whomever the regent was.

“All of you, monitor this human while I speak to the regent.” The male walked a few steps away and touched a claw to the front of the black leather collar around his thick neck. Whatever he said was drowned out by the general rumblings of the group of soldiers around Asmodel.

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