Laura Jo Phillips by Berta's Choice

noting that Sergio was driving slower now that he was talking. 
    “They learned that Arima House was being built on the Dracons’ ranch,” Sergio said.  “They sent me to find out if it was true, and to find out who was running it.  All they want to do is try to enlist your help.  They will pay you more money than you can imagine.”
    “To do what?” Berta asked, though she already knew.
    “To tell them who the berezi are,” Sergio replied.  “That’s it.  You won’t have to do anything else.”
    “I hope it makes you feel better to believe that,” Berta said.  “I can promise you though, there is far more to this than you think.  The Xanti are not to be trusted.”
    “I agree they aren’t to be trusted,” Sergio said as he spotted the clump of trees that was his destination.  “But why would they want to kill you?  It doesn’t make sense.  All you have to do is agree to whatever they ask.  Then I take you back, and my part is done.  The Xanti release my mother, my debts are cleared, and you can do whatever you want.”
    Berta shook her head.  Apparently Sergio believed what he wanted to believe.  “Unlock the doors, Sergio.  Let me out before we get there.”
    “If I do that, my mother dies,” Sergio said.
    “If you don’t, you and I both die,” Berta argued.
    Sergio shook his head.  He couldn’t let himself believe that.  She was wrong.  She had to be.  He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and kept on driving. 
    A few moments later he parked the ground-car next to the group of trees and got out.  He unlocked the back door, grabbed Berta firmly by the wrist and pulled her from the car.  She wavered on her feet a bit, still dizzy from the drug he’d given her.  As much as she wanted to pull free of Sergio’s grip, her body would not obey her mind.
    Sergio half walked and half-dragged Berta away from the ground-car and in between the trees.  Just beyond the first few trees he saw a short round figure with blue skin standing just beyond an unfamiliar Xanti.  Unlike the Xanti he was familiar with, this one had white skin that didn’t glitter or sparkle.  It had long black hair and dark blue eyes, and it was far shorter than any Xanti he’d ever seen before.  It looked oddly like Berta Simms, in a weird, garish way.
    “Ah, just on time, Sergio,” the Xanti said in a high pitched voice.
    “Are you a Xanti?” Berta demanded, blinking rapidly as she tried to focus her eyes on the beings before her.  She wished the drug would hurry up and wear off.  She felt almost as though she were underwater.
    “I am,” the Xanti said.  “I take it that you are the one called Berta Simms.  The overseer of Arima House.”
    “How is it that you are here?” Berta demanded.  “The Dracons’ ranch is guarded against your kind.”
    “My little friend here is a Damosion,” the Xanti replied with a smirk.  “They’re not good for much, but they do have the handy ability to nullify magic in their immediate vicinity.  Actually, it’s not an ability so much as a function of their physiology.  Other than that, they are useless beings.”
    Berta glanced at the blue figure standing nearby and hid a smile at the expression of anger on its face.  He...or she, obviously had enough intelligence to understand what the Xanti was saying.  And didn’t like it.
    “That’s interesting,” Berta said.  “Sergio tells me that you want to make a deal with me.  So let’s get to it.  I’m not feeling so well from that drug he gave me.”
    “I would think not,” the Xanti said.  “I’m afraid that Sergio was misinformed though.  I do not seek to make a deal with you.”
    As the Xanti spoke he reached into a pocket and removed a small square box.  He thumbed a switch on it, then held it sideways, pointed at Berta.  A beam of blue light shone from the box and the Xanti scanned Berta’s body from head to toe with it.
    When he was finished he put the box back into his