by S. E. Smith
Edge of Insanity
The Alliance Book 6
Synopsis
USA Today Bestseller!
Sometimes the only way to survive is to let insanity take over…
Edge remembers little of his capture but all of what has happened since. Sold to the Waxians, he resists their efforts to gain information on the Trivator military and weapons systems. He can feel his mind splinter from their repeated tortures, but a soft voice in the darkness urges him to resist—and fight back.
Lina Daniels is used to fighting fire with fire. She isn’t afraid of death, but she is terrified of being captured. As a resistance fighter on Earth, she knew the dangers. Those threats seem minuscule compared to those on the alien world where she now found herself.
Determined to return home, her plan is simple—free the Trivator warrior she discovered and force him to take her and the other women who are with her back to Earth. That plan turns out just as hazardous as being a fugitive on an alien world! The last thing Lina expects is for the Trivator to become intensely protective of her or his stubborn determination in believing she is his Amate!
The soft sound of Lina’s voice is the only thing that prevents Edge’s mind from completely shattering. With the Waxian and Drethulan forces on their tail, it will take more than a few daring moves to escape to freedom and safety. Can a tortured warrior and his rebellious rescuer escape the forces chasing them or will the threat of losing the last thing holding him together hurl Edge over the precipice and into insanity?
Character Bible
Lina Daniels: Human – sister of Tim Daniels.
Tim Daniels: Human – brother of Lina;
second in command for Destin Parks
Destin Parks: Human – Rebel Leader;
married to Jersula 'Sula' Ikera.
Jersula 'Sula' Ikera: Usoleum Ambassador to Earth
Gail Barber: Human: former Chicago police officer
Mirela Guinn: Human;
Hospitality and professional kickboxer
Mechelle Guinn: Human;
gaming programmer and actress
Bailey Reynolds: Human; Physician’s Assistant
Andy Curlman: Human; Diesel Engine Mechanic
Edge: Trivator warrior; expertise in combat; weapons, piloting spacecrafts, and combat medical training.
Thunder: Trivator warrior; expertise in tracking and moving behind enemy lines.
Vice: Trivator warrior; expertise in tracking and moving behind enemy lines.
Jag: Trivator Warship Commander; expertise in military maneuvers and combat situations.
Razor: Trivator Chancellor in charge of the Trivator military.
Hunter: Trivator diplomat
Jesse Sampson: Human; mate of Hunter
Kali Parks: Human; mate of Razor
Jordan Sampson: Human; mate of Dagger,
hacker extraordinaire
Dagger: Trivator warrior; expertise in combat weaponry; fighting
Prymorus Achler: Waxian; Prime Ruler
Katma Achler: Waxian; mate to Prymorus and former military commander of the Waxian forces.
Deppar Achler: Prymorus’s half-brother, overlord of Oculus IX: Waxian Spaceport
Stitch: Trivator doctor
Dakar (Adron) Mul Kar: Kassisan Spy for the Kassisans and working with the Alliance.
Chapter One
Spaceport: Oculus IX—Deep in Waxian controlled territory.
The sound of cruel laughter pierced the periphery of Edge’s consciousness. He wanted to fight the darkness, but it had become a welcome haven against the constant pain wracking his body. Despite his feelings of shame at his weakness, Edge knew he would court any brief respite from the agony ripping apart his mind and body. His head felt as if it might explode after the relentless inquisition he had just survived.
He wasn’t sure ‘survive’ was the correct word. His mind was fragmented, his thoughts flashing at a nauseatingly rapid rate where one thought would start to form, only to be replaced with another in a dizzying kaleidoscope of colors that left him weak and disoriented. Whatever drugs his captors had pumped into him this time had come all too close to breaking the fragile control he had on his mind.
“Did you see the blood coming out of his nose this time? I swear I thought I could smell the bastard’s brain frying,” the guard gripping his left arm chuckled.
“We’re just lucky Deppar had us double strap him or we’d all be dead,” the guard on his right retorted.
“What are you talking about? I was expecting him to cry like a baby this time,” the first guard replied with another laugh.
“I hope you know that you are going to be the first one he kills if he ever gets loose,” the second guard muttered. “Open his cell door.”
Edge heard another guard mumble something under his breath before the sound of metal scraping against stone screeched through the air. A groan mixed with the sound. It took a moment for Edge to realize the sound was coming from himself. Every sound was amplified in his head, causing sharp, excruciating pain to ricochet through his skull.
“He’s drooling,” the first guard chortled. “Next thing you know, he’ll be pissing his pants. He can’t even lift his head or keep the spit in his mouth. You really think he could fight me?”
“I heard Deppar is tired of dealing with him,” the cell guard said as the first two guards dragged Edge through the doorway and dropped him to the cell floor. “Talk is that he has called in someone else to retrieve the information. I heard another Waxian wants all the knowledge the prisoner has about the Trivator forces and their technology. This Waxian is supposed to be working with the Drethulans. If he is, he’s a crazy bastard. You couldn’t pay me to have a Drethulan at my back. I doubt this Trivator will survive long once they get ahold of him.”
“What could the Trivator know? He’s been held captive for too long to have any current information of use. If you ask me, this other Waxian or the Drethulans should have gotten to him before he was sold to the mines,” the first guard retorted before he spit on the floor near Edge’s head. “Between working the mines and the drugs Deppar used on him, there isn’t much left of the bastard’s brain to interrogate. Deppar should just kill the big bastard now before he gets loose.”
“Well, they didn’t ask you,” the second guard grumbled as he left the cell. “You’re a grunt and grunts do what they are told. We keep our mouths shut if we want to get paid and live to spend it. Now, come on, I’m ready for some food.” The cell door closed with a clang, and the sound of the cell guard locking it was loud in the small corridor. “That reminds me, Deppar said no food or drink for the prisoner. He wants him as weak as possible for the Waxian’s visit,” the second guard informed the cell guard.
“I haven’t fed him anyway. They don’t give us enough food, so I’ve been eating what they sent down. It all tastes like shit anyway,” the cell guard muttered.
Edge rolled over in the narrow, dark cell as the guards continued to talk. A shiver ran through him as the toxic dregs of the drugs the Waxian had pumped into him seeped through his pores. He fought against the urge to throw up. The trembling in his body increased as the chill from the cold floor soaked into his sweat-dampened skin.
“Goddess, give me death,” Edge whispered, hoping she would be merciful and grant him his wish.
“Like hell. You can’t die now that I’ve found you, Trivator. I need you alive,” a soft voice answered.
Lina Daniels peered through the narrow openings in the wall grill near the cell’s filthy floor. Ever since she had overheard two men in the market talking about a Trivator, she had been searching for the alien warrior. It had taken her a day to discover where they were holding him. Then, almost another week to figure out a way in and out of the building. The last thing she wanted was to end up either in the cell with him or on the dinner table as the main course for the alien bastards holding him captive.
This tiny shithole of a cell had been the last on her checklist for the day. She
had come up empty handed with her search of the other cells, and this one was empty too. She had been about to give up and had even started to scoot back down the drainage channel when she heard footsteps approaching and recognized one of the men’s voices from the market.
Holding her breath, she waited to see what they would do. She was rewarded for her patience when the door opened. The man she’d been searching for was being dragged in by his arms by two guards. She watched with a combination of satisfaction and disgust as they dropped him to the floor.
The man was definitely a Trivator! She silently studied him while the guards talked. Personally, she didn’t give a damn what his species or the Earth’s government had said about the aliens responding to her planet’s transmissions into space. As far as she was concerned, the Trivators and the Alliance had invaded Earth.
The resulting fallout had been devastating for humans. Her life and that of millions of others had gone to hell in a matter of hours. She’d spent the last decade since that unforgettable day fighting to free her fellow humans from the aliens and as well as from other humans.
It didn’t help when memories of being sold by one of her own species filled her mouth with a bitter taste. She wanted to return to Earth so she could kill Colbert Allen. Who the hell cared that revenge was a bad idea? She’d had a lot of bad ideas in her lifetime and would deal with the consequences just as she always had—with a fight.
Lina ground her teeth to keep the curse from passing her lips. She wanted to tell the three guards to finish up with their sadistic enjoyment and get out. Now that she’d found what she’d been looking for, she had work to do.
It’s about freakin’ time, she savagely thought when the door finally closed behind the sadistic trio.
Returning her focus to the man in the cell, she watched as he rolled until he was facing the wall and unknowingly her. The grim satisfaction that coursed through her at the success of her mission was quickly replaced with a punch to the stomach as instant recognition hit her. Dark, painful memories threatened to choke her. Blood, pain, and despair flooded her as a vision of him standing over a lifeless body ripped her back to the past.
Deeply shaken, she closed her eyes for a moment and drew in a deep breath. There was no room for her personal feelings. Whether she liked it or not, she needed this man regardless of who he was or the painful memories that he awoke inside her.
Swallowing the bile that rose in her throat, she focused on her mission. This was not just about her. If it had been, she would have been tempted to help the Waxian with killing the Trivator.
At least, she reasoned, I would be the more merciful killer. It might still come to that if he doesn’t know how to fly a spaceship, she thought.
“Goddess, give me death,” he murmured.
Lina froze when she heard his barely audible mumble. A surprising rage swept through her unlike anything she had ever felt before—well, almost anything. She was reserving that little dose of overwhelming rage for Colbert Allen. Still, the words were like kerosene on an open flame to her. She totally ignored the fact that she had thought about killing him less than a second before.
“Like hell. You can’t die now that I’ve found you, Trivator. I need you alive,” Lina hissed out.
In the darkness, she could barely make out that his body had stiffened in surprise. Muttering a series of expletives under her breath, Lina felt along her side for the pocket of her pants. Slipping her hand inside, she pulled out a tiny red light and turned it on. Inserting it between the gaps of the grill, she got her first good look at the Trivator’s face.
She drew in a deep, unsteady breath as the past and present collided again in her mind. There were two things which immediately caught and held her attention. First, he looked like shit. Second, she was surprised by the wave of compassion she felt when she saw the pain etched into his features.
“You were on Earth,” she stated, unsure of what else to say.
“Yes,” came his hoarse response.
“Can you fly one of those spaceships they’ve got here?” she demanded, forcing him to focus on her when his head started to roll back.
“Yes,” he replied.
Lina’s lips twisted and her fingers tightly gripped the light. She drew in another deep breath and wished she could just leave his ass here, but his admission sealed his fate as far as she was concerned. He knew where Earth was, and he could fly. She needed him alive.
“I’ll be back. Don’t you fucking die or get yourself killed before I do,” she ordered.
Sliding backwards, Lina knew she didn’t have much time. She was also going to need some help. As much as she hated endangering any of the other women who had escaped with her, she didn’t have much choice in the matter. She couldn’t haul this guy out on her own, and he didn’t look like he was in any shape to walk, much less run.
She carefully retraced her steps, mentally adjusting her plans to get the warrior out of the building. As difficult a puzzle as the problem was, what worried her most was what to do after she got him out. There were too many variables once they were outside among the rest of the inhabitants on the Spaceport, and there were only so many places you could hide on a small rock in space.
Chapter Two
“Are you sure, Lina? What happens if he turns on us?” Bailey asked, biting her bottom lip.
“Of course she is sure! Lina always knows what to do,” Mirela retorted before she grimaced and added under her breath, “most of the time.”
“Ha-ha,” Andy replied, sitting back against the wall and stretching out her legs. “What’s the plan, boss-lady?”
Five faces turned to Lina, their eyes watching her with anticipation. Gail and Mechelle, Mirela’s twin sister, sat silently contemplating what she had told everyone. Gail was the oldest of them all while Mechelle was the youngest, even if it was just by five minutes.
“His injuries don’t change the basics of the plan too much. We get him out, doctor him up as best we can, and make him take us home,” Lina said.
“Well, that should be easy enough,” Mirela replied with a roll of her eyes.
Gail snickered. “Be careful, Mirela. You might end up carrying this Trivator by his feet,” she warned.
Mirela tossed her head. “It would take all of us to carry out one of those guys. I don’t know about you, but I clearly remember them being big, muscular, and….”
“… Cute,” Mechelle interjected, trying not to grin.
Mirela shot her twin a glare. “I never said I thought they were cute,” she hissed.
Mechelle smirked. “No, you didn’t. You whistled and said—”
“Okay,” Lina cut her off. “Let’s get back on topic and plan how we are going to get him out of his cell, past the guards, out of the building, and down into the access ducts without everyone on the Spaceport seeing us,” Lina ordered in a slightly exasperated tone.
Andy leaned forward and rested her elbows on her knees. Lina could tell when the other women realized that this was probably their only chance of ever getting home. They had been lucky so far, but luck didn’t last forever. Out of the eighteen women who had been abducted and spirited away from Earth by the alien ship, they were the only ones who had managed to escape.
“We’re listening,” Andy said in a quiet voice.
Lina looked around at the hopeful and determined faces. They had been through a lot together. Some of it good and some of it bad, but they had survived. Taking a deep breath, Lina motioned for everyone to gather around in a circle. Kneeling, she used the dirt on the ground as a drawing board.
“This is what we are going to do,” she said in a determined voice. “I’m not sure he can walk, so I’ll need one of you to go with me.”
“I will,” Andy volunteered immediately.
Lina nodded. “Mechelle, I want you to be ready at the entrance to the tunnels. We’ll be coming in hot and heavy and will need to disappear fast. Mirela, I want you and Bailey to have a cart with a cover ready.”
; Mirela looked grim for a moment before she nodded. “There are a couple places where I can borrow one,” she replied, using her fingers to place imaginary quotes around the word ‘borrow’.
“Where do you want us to meet you?” Bailey asked, leaning forward and staring down at the roughly sketched map of the building.
“The building across from where they are holding the Trivator is empty. It has a chute that was left over from whatever they made there. The chute is located on the opposite side of the building. That’s how I’ve been going in and out. I put a metal plank across from one roof to the other and crossed here. I guess they think because this is a Spaceport, no one would come in from the top. Anyway, there are no guards on this building because it is empty and none on the roof of the other one,” Lina explained for the benefit of those who had not been in on the details of her scouting mission.
“What about cameras?” Gail asked.
Lina shook her head. “None that I could see. It is like they moved in and didn’t bother with security except for hiring a bunch of moron guards. The main guy is a Waxian and is scary as shit. I’ve seen what he can do. It surprises me that anyone would be stupid enough to work for the man. I get the feeling the life expectancy of a guard isn’t very long if you mess up,” she explained with a look of distaste on her face.