Claimed by an Alien Warrior

by Tiffany Roberts

  “We’ve had reports of strange occurrences in the area tonight. Have you seen anything out of the ordinary?”

  “Nope. I haven’t seen anything. But I really am in a hurry. I hope you find what you’re looking for.” She pulled on the door.

  He stuck an arm out and stopped the door from opening more than a few inches. The gust of cold air that flowed in was nothing compared to the ice in her veins in that moment.

  Officer Asswipe leaned down, face close to hers. “I’m going to need you to come with me, Miss Weston.”

  Zoey’s eyes widened, and her heart stopped. “I-I don’t know who you’ve mistaken me for but—”

  He turned his head slightly, as though looking at someone else. “We’ve got her. Gas station on State,” he said.

  She pulled on the door again. “Let me go.”

  The man closed his free hand around her wrist and tugged her away from the door. “This’ll be much easier if you cooperate.”

  He bent her arm, causing intense pain through her elbow. She cried out and did the only thing she could think to do — she swung her coffee cup, squeezing the sides so the lid popped off, and splashed the scalding liquid in his face.

  Officer Asswipe flinched back, releasing her as he shouted in pain. Zoey threw open the door and ran out.

  “Ren!” she yelled.

  He appeared in front of her an instant later and caught her in his arms. She started, gaze darting up at him before sweeping around the parking lot. There, on the other side of the building, was one of the black SUVs. Its driver’s door opened and a man in a black uniform climbed out.

  “They’re here,” she rasped.

  “I know,” Ren replied, lifting her off her feet and running to their car. From somewhere in the distance — but not nearly far enough away — came the sound of screeching tires and revving engines.

  Their vehicle shook as they both jumped inside. Ren sparked the engine to life and Zoey wasted no time throwing it into drive.

  “How did they find us so fast?” she asked as the car bounced hard over the curb and back onto the road.

  She screamed as several popping sounds went off behind them, accompanied by an equal number of objects hitting their car with metallic thumps.

  “They’re shooting at us?” she screamed.

  “That way,” Ren commanded.

  Their tires wailed as she slowed to take the sharp turn. Fortunately, the road he’d directed her onto was fairly straight, and she floored the accelerator.

  Ren twisted to look behind them. “I don’t know how they found us. You may be correct about them tracking my interference with electronics. I think Stantz also knew my ship was somewhere in this area. He implied that they’d detected its impact but had been unable to locate it. He might not have known all along, but our path might have led him directly to it.”

  Headlights appeared in the rearview mirror. They grew from pinpricks of illumination to terrifying, unblinking eyes of fire in the darkness.

  “Oh shit. They’re coming, Ren.”

  “Drive faster, Zoey.”

  She squeezed the wheel as she lurched into the left lane to pass a slower vehicle. The headlights of an oncoming car glared at her, but she swerved back into the right lane before causing an accident.

  She followed the road around a curve, pressing the pedal down once it straightened out again. Fear and adrenaline sped her pounding heart. The homes that lined either side of the road rapidly thinned, until Zoey and Ren were left on a pitch-black country highway, zipping past snowy fields and copses of leafless trees.

  A huge pool of light swung out from one of the fields and came toward them. Zoey leaned forward and gazed up to see a low-flying helicopter silhouetted against the dark clouds.

  “Oh, my God,” Zoey said. She sat back and looked in the mirror. The vehicles behind them had fanned out to drive in both lanes, the SUV in front taking the center with two more flanking it. “Ren, what do we do?”

  “We drive as far as we can, and when we stop, we go on foot.”

  “They have helicopters!”

  “We’ll figure it out, Zoey. Trust me.”

  “How can you be so calm about this?”

  She chanced a glance at him. His eyes were on her, gleaming with a strange, deep sadness. “This is all I knew for my entire life. Before you.”

  “We’re going to die, aren’t we?”

  She screamed as a burst of bullets hit the road in front of them, kicking up chunks of asphalt.

  “We aren’t going to die, kun’ia,” Ren shouted over her scream. “They want me alive. They won’t risk it, especially if they think I’m leading them to—”

  Another burst of gunfire struck the road, panged on the hood of their car, and punched through the roof. There was a loud pop as something heavy struck Zoey’s thigh. She inhaled sharply, and warmth spread over her leg. The front end of the SUV bounced viciously.

  They blew out a tire, and I’ve been shot, she thought dazedly. Always figured it would hurt more…

  Then the SUV decided it had had enough of driving straight and swerved wildly to the side. The slick road offered no traction. She could almost hear its voice in her delirious mind — guess you shouldn’t’ve been driving so fast, huh? — just before the SUV flipped.

  “Zoey!” Ren shouted.

  Zoey was weightless for a split second. Ren wrapped his arms around her, crushing her against him as the SUV landed on its roof and continued tumbling. Strangely, she felt no pain. Ren’s body jolted with the impact, and her head struck something beside her — the window, or maybe the door. The sound was the worst part, all crunching steel and shattering glass and tons of machinery protesting at such harsh treatment.

  The SUV came down on the driver’s side. She felt a strange pinch in her arm, and then the rolling continued. When the world finally stilled, and the tension in Ren’s body eased slightly, Zoey peeked past his arms to see that the vehicle had landed — rather lopsidedly — on its wheels.

  Nailed it.

  She might’ve laughed at any other time, but she couldn’t catch her breath, couldn’t fill her lungs.

  Her ears rang, and her vision dimmed to black.

  Zoey.

  The voice in her head sounded a lot like Ren, if he were calling her underwater, or through a stack of pillows.

  There was so much pain now, pain everywhere.

  Zoey!

  She struggled against the darkness. Ren needed her. He was calling her!

  But she was tired. So, so tired. She just needed a little rest…

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  “Zoey!” Ren called again, shaking her gently.

  Her head lolled, but she did not respond.

  Fire burned in his veins as he checked her breathing — present, but shallow and weak. Despite his best efforts to shield her, she was banged up and splattered with blood, most of which seemed to be from wounds on her head and her thigh.

  The helicopter’s blades whirred overhead, creating a chilled breeze that blew into the broken SUV through the shattered windows. He heard vehicle doors opening outside. Human voices rose in shouts over the aircraft’s din.

  His ship was so close. So close, but they were surrounded, and Zoey was hurt…

  She’d shown him a life he could never have imagined. Had woken within him feelings he’d never known could exist. Over a few days — so short a time, too short a time — she’d become everything to him. She’d become the future he wanted, she’d become his hope, his peace.

  His love.

  And now she was on the brink of being taken from him. He couldn’t lose her. Couldn’t bear it, couldn’t survive it.

  “Stay with me, Zoey,” he commanded. “You may not give in.”

  “Out of the vehicle!” a human shouted as Ren tore the sleeve off his coat and hurriedly tied it around Zoey’s leg, hoping to staunch the bleeding.

  When he lifted his hands, they were stained crimson, glistening in the high-powered lights from the
helicopter and nearby ground vehicles.

  Zoey is hurt. My Zoey. My kun’ia.

  He hadn’t wanted conflict, hadn’t wanted battle; he had resolved himself to simply return home, to put his time on this planet behind him, to fulfill his final duty. The lives he’d taken had been out of necessity and had not matched the aligarii lives claimed by these humans. He’d been willing to forgive them.

  But they’d harmed Zoey. They’d declared war.

  This is all I knew for my entire life.

  And now, the humans would know the wrath of an aekhora.

  Rendash twisted in the seat, bent his legs, and kicked the passenger door off the vehicle. It skidded away in the snow. He cast any lingering pretenses of detachment aside with it.

  He latched onto the doorframe with all four hands, poured strength into his arms, and launched himself out of the vehicle. His cloaking field settled into place almost immediately.

  The human soldiers — he counted twelve standing in the snowy field, with one more at each of the three black transports and at least two in the aircraft — shouted their surprise and confusion.

  Rendash formed a vrahsk on each arm, causing his cloaking field to falter just before he landed atop the nearest soldier, plunging two of the blades through the man’s chest.

  The impact kicked up loose powder. The hard packed snow beneath the human’s body sizzled against the blades, evaporating to steam.

  The other soldiers opened fire, launching dozens of projectiles into Ren’s shield. He leapt into the humans clustered nearby, drawing their gunfire as far away from Zoey as possible. More snow flew into the air to sparkle in the artificial light like stars scattered across the night sky as Ren wove among the soldiers in a battle dance, his vrahsks singing.

  Pained screams and gurgling cries mingled with bursts of gunfire and the beating of the helicopter’s blades to create a bone-chilling dirge.

  With each strike, Ren saw Zoey, pale and unconscious, in his mind, saw the blood — her blood — soaking her clothing, covering his hands. With each strike, he amplified his strength, his speed, his reflexes, producing scorching heat inside his body. He darted from soldier to soldier, offering no mercy to his enemies.

  The helicopter banked around, and a soldier fired a large gun mounted at its side opening. Snow sprayed everywhere, and the projectiles slammed into Ren’s shield in an unrelenting torrent. He staggered against the onslaught; the air around him lit up with purple flashes as his shield strained against the repeated impact.

  She may die if I succeed.

  She will die if I fail.

  Releasing a roar, Rendash jumped out of the gunfire, hitting the cold snow in a roll, and snatched up an object from the ground as he faced the helicopter again — the detached door of the destroyed SUV. The helicopter’s operator turned the aircraft around to grant the gunner a clear line of fire.

  Grasping the door by its thin, bent upper frame, Ren spun to build momentum and hurled it at the helicopter.

  The door struck at the base of the blades, smashing the machinery. The helicopter pitched wildly to the side. Screaming, the gunner tumbled out, dangling by a strap. Ren bolted clear as the blades bit into the ground. Snow, ice, and frozen dirt sprayed at him with enough force to trigger his shield. The Earth itself shook when the body of the helicopter whipped into the ground in a massive, deafening crash.

  Ren didn’t look back; he charged the remaining soldiers in the field, dodging through bursts of projectiles to attack with his blades.

  One of the soldiers tugged a cylindrical object from his chest, pulled a small ring from its top, and threw it at Rendash.

  Dismissing a vrahsk, Ren extended a hand, catching the cylinder on his palm. He lifted his arm and catapulted the object into the cluster of soldiers. Two of the humans were quick enough to dive onto the ground, throwing their arms over their heads.

  The cylinder’s explosion echoed through the night like rolling thunder. Its concussive force hurled a pair of humans through the air, their blood spraying like mist to paint the snow. Despite the ringing in his ears, Ren heard the pained screams of the survivors. He killed them swiftly and picked up two of their long guns.

  A fire in the helicopter wreckage cast a flickering orange glow on the bloody snow, deepening the surrounding shadows and highlighting the lifeless corpses scattered nearby.

  The sound of roaring engines came from somewhere down the road; more land vehicles were inbound.

  Ren shouldered the human weapons, took aim at the men standing at the stationary SUVs, and squeezed the triggers. The weapons flashed as they sprayed projectiles with surprising accuracy. All three men crumpled, the doors of their vehicles offering inadequate cover; one lived long enough to cry out in pain as he hit the ground.

  Lights at the edge of Ren’s peripheral vision caught his attention. More black SUVs. Somehow, he knew Stantz was in one of them.

  He shifted his gaze to the damaged vehicle that sheltered his mate.

  How much time did she have?

  They are too close for me to move her safely.

  His insides twisted and clenched sickeningly; he wanted to go to her, needed to go to her, but he had to end this first. Had to commit fully to the part of himself he so desperately longed to leave behind. And he had to do so with haste, or he’d lose her forever.

  His mate, his love, his everything.

  Dismissing his remaining blades, he crouched over the nearest bodies and gathered two of the explosive cylinders. He engaged his cloaking field and sprinted through the snow along the side of the road, toward the oncoming vehicles.

  Steeling himself, Rendash veered into the road. His cloaking field fell as he reinforced his shield and strengthened his leg muscles to the point of searing pain, and he slammed into the driver’s side of the lead vehicle, smashing metal and shattering glass. His shield flared as it absorbed the impact with the SUV. The vehicle bounced and stuttered over the road before tipping into the ditch on the far side.

  The impact rattled Ren, but he didn’t allow himself a moment’s delay. He spun toward the second SUV as it swerved to avoid the first and emptied both long guns into the windshield. The vehicle lost control and went off the road, crashing into a wooden pole. The pole sagged toward the SUV as electricity crackled and buzzed overhead. The vehicle’s front end was destroyed, wrapped around the base of the pole in a mangled mess of bent metal.

  He tossed the firearms aside, bunched his legs, and leapt onto the final vehicle, extending his nails into sharpened claws through his nyros to latch onto the roof. The transport swayed as it sped along the road. Ren’s lower half flailed from side to side.

  Dragging himself forward, he hammered his fist into the windshield. Cracks blossomed across the glass. Another blow saw it buckle, opening along the top seam.

  He pulled the ring out of one of the cylinders and dropped the explosive through the windshield gap.

  Ren jumped off the vehicle, tumbling over a snow bank on the side of the road.

  The passenger door swung open and a soldier inside desperately struggled to abandon the SUV. Red lights flared on the back of the vehicle, and its tires screeched as it was brought to a halt. A thumping explosion sounded within, breaking the windows and scattering glass in the road. The soldier on the passenger side was blasted out through the open door, hitting the ground in a heap. Smoke curled up from his shredded back.

  He lay unmoving on the road.

  The SUV rolled forward slowly, stopping only when it crashed into one of the parked vehicles.

  Regaining his feet, Rendash ran to the lead vehicle, which lay on its side in the ditch. A bloodied soldier was attempting to climb out through the broken driver’s window. Ren buried a vrahsk in the human’s throat and tossed the remaining explosive into the open window. The screams from within were cut short by another thumping explosion.

  “Nearly back, Zoey,” he whispered as he approached the last vehicle at the damaged pole. Smoke billowed from its destroyed engine.


  He tugged open the passenger door. The two humans in the front seats were dead, their bodies riddled with projectile wounds. The rear driver’s side door was open, and a lone human was trudging through the snowy field beyond.

  Ren pulled a small gun from the dead passenger’s belt and fired three projectiles into the struggling human in the back seat. Tossing the weapon down, he vaulted over the vehicle to pursue the last survivor.

  “Get those birds here now!” the man — Stantz — shouted.

  As Ren closed the distance between them, he made no attempt to mask the crunch of snow beneath his feet.

  Stantz spun to look at Ren, eyes wide and fearful, and stumbled, crashing to the ground. He turned onto his back and scrambled away in retreat as Ren leapt at him.

  Ren landed with his legs on either side of Stantz’s and loomed over the human.

  “You’re declaring war against the United States of America!” Stantz shouted desperately. “Think about it. Even you can’t stand against this country!”

  Grabbing a fistful of the man’s coat, Ren lifted the man’s torso off the ground. Stantz drew a gun from a hip holster. Before he could aim the weapon, Ren caught his wrist in a hand and squeezed. Bone snapped under the aligarii’s crushing grip. The human screamed.

  A distant whirring sound heralded the approach of more helicopters.

  “Mercy! Show mercy, and I’ll make sure you and the woman aren’t killed!” Stantz pleaded.

  Zoey.

  Leaning down over the human, Ren bared his teeth. “You may have doomed her already.”

  “W-w-we can get her m-medical attention,” the human stammered, “the b-best in the world!”

  “You tortured and killed all that remained of my Umen’rak,” Ren growled as he formed a blade on his lower right arm. “You took my people from me, took my home from me, and now you seek to take Zoey from me, as well? Now you face justice for what you’ve done.”

  Stantz stared at the thrumming vrahsk, which cast a pink-purple glow on his terrified face. “The woman can go. She can—”