White Bait Worms

The day before the event, Slate arrived at Dante's Moon in one of his warships to accompany Candace to the world.

At the appointed hour, all the Princes were already present alongside Candace in the hangar, waiting for Slate.

His Raptor 600 was docked and waiting as he strode in, accompanied by a half-dozen of his men. They were all still wearing their black battle gear.

All six of his brothers were standing around the waiting area with Candace, shooting the breeze.

They were all wearing white body suits with something that looked like a cape on which the gold emblem of the Erenveil crest was embroidered. It was all rather cheesy looking, in his very haughty opinion.

He gave his brothers a cursory look and zeroed in on his woman.

She was the smallest one there, with curves in all the right places and an angel face that looked out of place among all his demon brothers.

Today, she was wearing a tiny white miniskirt and thigh high boots to go with the long sleeved white shirt that matched the rest of his brothers' outfits.

His eyes zeroed in on the flash of skin between the top of her boots and the edge of her mini skirt. The sight of her stirred a deep longing within the pits of his loins that had only gotten stronger day by day.

Slate fought down the instinct to scoop her up and take her away to some secluded place and make mad passionate love to her.

"Why are you all in white?" He asked no one in particular.

"Ask Jared. He's the fashionista." Dante said as he walked up to Slate and slapped his chest with a solid palm. "And keep your eyeballs in their sockets or you will go blind."

Slate's eyes rolled over to Dante with a barely veiled disgusted look. He wanted to tell Dante that he had seen far more than a bit of thigh and he hadn't gone blind yet, but Slate wisely kept his mouth shut.

"We are trying to project the image of NOT war." Jared responded as he folded his arms across his chest.

Slate turned to Jared. "So you're responsible for this cheerleading outfit."

"What's wrong with us cheering for Candace?" Jared turned to the rest of the men. "While you guys have been busy doing other things, Jason and I have been in the audience, being her cheerleader all this time."

The men looked away, slightly embarrassed. It was true that Jason and Jared always attended the events during the times that they were stuck doing their work elsewhere, but wasn't that part of their job? They were supposed to keep an eye on everything.

Jared turned back to Slate and gave a critical stare at his black Prime Warrior outfit.

"What now?" Slate glared at him. "I'm wearing what you and Jason designed for the warriors."

Jared shook his head. "What you are wearing is very warlike."

"Isn't that the point?"

"Yes, but it's making us look as if we are going there to wage war." Jared harrumphed and looked over at Jason.

Jason nodded and waved a hand in gesture.

An attendant approached Slate, holding a bundle that suspiciously looked like a white bodysuit with the same cringeworthy white and gold cape.

"I am not wearing this. I am the Prime Warrior. My whole purpose is to look scary so nobody messes with us."

"This is the biggest Avgo Event EVER." Jason reasoned. "The final three Avgo Females will be putting on a show for the galaxy to watch. You cannot be looking as if you're staging a battlefield."

"Even though that is EXACTLY what we are doing." Slate threw back.

Candace smiled and came up to him. Reaching out, she touched his face with her warm soft hands.

"Is the outfit too restricting? Will you not be able to defend me if you wear it?"

Slate's Adam's apple bobbled as he swallowed something that was caught in his throat. His eyes fixated on her brilliant hazel eyes. When had he ever been able to say no to this woman?

He looked at the attendant with sidelong glance. With a thundering scowl, he grabbed the bundle from the poor quivering man's hands.

"Give me a few minutes to change."

===========

The journey to Nymphalidae, with the help of several hyperspace jumps, only took two hours.

All the Princes along with Candace were in the main viewing chamber of the Raptor 600, chatting to themselves as they traveled through space.

They were surrounded by escort warships covering them from all sides.

"Those don't look like Erenveil warships." Candace pointed to one of them.

"They're not." Byron looked at the escort ships with interest. "Those are Insectoid warship."

Candace gasped. "Are we in some kind of trouble with the Insectoids?"

Dante smiled. "The Insectoids are my people. They are here to escort us to Nymphalidae just to make sure we don't run into trouble."

"Trouble? From whom?" Candace looked at the men with troubled eyes.

Dante waved his hands around. "Take a look, Candace. All my brothers along with the leading Avgo Female are in one ship, and we are traveling away from the safety of Erenveil."

Slate nodded. "If ever there was a time to attack and wipe out the entire Erenveil royalty, this would be it."

"So then why are we all converged in one ship?" Candace grimaced.

Slate reached out and held her hands. "Remember when Dante canceled the remaining Avgo Events because it was too dangerous for you to continue?"

Candace nodded.

"We managed to convince him to hold this Avgo Event to flush out the perpetrators."

Dante's eyes were steel green. "Against my better judgement, I'm allowing the rest of the Avgo Events to continue." He turned to Slate.

"It is true what Slate said. The attackers were not obvious with their earlier attempts. They worked in the shadows, collaborating with various other groups."

"Like Earth and Emporia?" Candace murmured.

Dante nodded. "And various other entities, including the Space Pirates who are basically mercenaries for hire."

"This whole setup is to lure them out into the open so we know exactly who to target our arsenal and blast them into kingdom come." Slate's eyes narrowed. "We are like the shining white bait worms that are too delicious to pass over."

Candi nodded, hoping the men had backup plans for their backup plans.