by Lea Kirk
PROPHECY
Book One of the Prophecy Series
By Lea Kirk
A nightmare of galactic proportions
One normal day turns into horror when Earth is attacked. Now ER nurse Alexandra Bock is imprisoned aboard an alien slave ship with no way out. She deems all aliens untrustworthy, including the handsome blue-skinned Matiran captain who shares her cell.
A betrayal from within
One night of treachery leaves Senior Captain Gryf Helyg a prisoner of his enemies. Because of him, Earth’s indigenous people face extinction and his home world is threatened. But his plans for escape are complicated by his inexplicable draw to the Earth woman imprisoned with him.
A chance to save both their peoples
One ancient prophecy holds the key to free Alexandra and Gryf’s war-ravaged worlds. Can two wounded souls who have lost everything learn to trust and forgive in order to fulfill the prophecy, and find a love that will last for eternity?
Prophecy
Book One of the Prophecy Series
Copyright © 2016 by Lea Kirk
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
ALL RIGHT RESERVED, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Author.
First Edition January 2016
California, USA
Cover Design
Danielle Fine
Content Edits
Sue Brown-Moore
Copy Edits
Laurel C. Kriegler
Digital Formatting
Seaside Publications
~ Dedication ~
In memory of
Ethel Kirk Kittleman
This one’s for you, Grandma
Chapter One
Present Day Earth
Alexandra Bock opened her eyes. Faint grey light filtered through a woven black cloth over her face. Where the hell was she now? A chill from the hard surface seeped through the thin fabric of her hospital scrubs, and her muscles contracted, sending a violent shudder through her body. Had she really been chased by a giant, green-skinned alien through the streets of her hometown?
It happened. It had really happened.
There’d been no escaping him either. He’d been fast and unbelievably huge. Like ten-feet-tall huge—and as pissed as hell. That might have been her fault. At the time, ramming the heel of her hand into his nose had seemed like a reasonable idea. It did distract him long enough for her to bolt.
But that freaking space invader had the decided advantage of being faster, and he had friends. They’d herded her through the rubble-strewn streets of Damon Beach like a pack of Australian Shepherds, laughing and shouting as if the thrill of the chase excited them. The last thing she remembered was burgundy blood dripping from Green Man’s large nostrils, and the knuckles of his enormous fist just before it connected with her head.
Now she was...somewhere cold and metallic...lying on a hard floor with a sack over her head that stank like old cheese. That green bastard must have put it on her while she was unconscious. She swallowed against the first hint of acid at the back of her throat. Would she ever stand on the sandy, sun-warmed Northern California beach of her hometown again? Feel the cold Pacific waves rush around her feet? Was she even on Earth anymore?
She shifted her arms from behind her, but stopped when cords bit into her wrists. Damn. Guess the disgusting hood is staying on for now. She tested her feet and twisted her mouth in disdain. Tied at the ankles. Could this day get any worse?
That’s a rhetorical question, God. Although, there weren’t a lot of things worse than an unexpected alien invasion. She may have survived it, but that didn’t guarantee she’d remain among the living. Especially given her current incapacitation. Knowledge is power, Alex. Figure out where you are and how to escape.
A steady mechanical whoosh, like air blowing, reached her ear. And muffled voices, some of them moaning. The voices definitely sounded human. The invaders’ voices had the rich tone of a deep gong. A child sobbed nearby, and she couldn’t do a damn thing to help because she was trussed like a pig. After what she’d seen and experienced today, someone here was bound to need a nurse.
You need a nurse, Alex. Or a doctor. Something was amiss with her right ear. Even pressed to the floor, she should hear echoes of the voices around her. And the fuzziness of her thoughts indicated a concussion. But freeing herself of the bonds was her first priority, then she could deal with her injuries. If she wiggled around enough, she could loop her hands under her legs. Once they were in front of her, she’d be able to take the hood off. Magicians and escape artists did this trick all the time. How hard could it be?
You nitwit. You’re a five-foot-eleven ER nurse who quit gymnastics when you were nine. She was so screwed. Unless someone nearby wasn’t tied up and could help her. That might work. She pulled in a breath and raised her head to call out.
Pain exploded behind her eyes, and her stomach lurched like a drunken sailor. Bile burned a path up her esophagus and her gag reflex kicked in. Crap. She was going to hurl inside the hood. This would be way beyond gross.
A gentle hand cupped the crown of her head. “Paci,” a man’s voice murmured, the language strange but beautiful and lilting.
The nausea receded and her mind floated, as if buoyed by a gently rolling ocean wave. Tension drained from her shoulders. Peace; this she could deal with.
The hand vanished and the tranquil waves faded, leaving Alex weak and gulping for whatever oxygen she could suck through the musty hood. What just happened there? Cool fingertips rested against her neck. Were they human or alien? Must be human; an alien wouldn’t bother to check her pulse.
Unless he was checking to see if she was strong enough for experiments…
Her heart shot straight up into her throat, and she fought to contain the groan welling in her chest. Breathe, Alex. You’re overreacting again. This isn’t the movies. First rule of disaster training: stay calm. If she ever got the chance, she’d make damn sure future training programs covered alien invasions.
“Is English your language?”
A man’s voice, and definitely not alien. Low, calm, gentle—everything the alien invaders’ voices were not— it wrapped around her like her favorite bathrobe, soft and warm.
“Yes.” The word slipped passed her lips as she expelled her breath. “Help me.”
“No fear. You are safe for the time.”
A pleasant tingle fluttered through her core, apparently in response to the stranger’s voice. Capable hands assisted her to sit upright, triggering a pulsing thrum that beat against her skull like Thor’s Hammer. “My head….”
The floating sensation returned, but this time, instead of ocean waves, she drifted amongst big, white, puffy clouds in a cobalt sky. Nice. Her head lolled back and a strong hand cupped and cradled it.
“Concussion, severe tympanic damage, and dehydration, Captain,” a second man’s voice said.
So, her self-diagnosis had been correct; a concussion and ear damage. Hardly surprising after the abuse she’d endured at the hands of her captors. How was it no one on Earth had seen them coming? There should have been some warning. With all the satellites, telescopes and whatever else NASA used, they must have been blind to have missed the approach of those gargantuan space-ships. What a way to find out we’re not alone in the universe.
“We will free you now.”
Captain had a nice, melodic accent. Wonder
where he’s from? Hands worked at the cords binding her ankles.
“You’re military?” Please don’t let him be a cruise ship captain. Somehow imagining him as military was more reassuring.
A second set of hands tugged at the bonds around her wrists.
“I am,” Captain said.
“Then where were you guys during the attack?” She’d expected to see fighter jets streaking across the sky, coming to the rescue. But they’d never appeared.
“We were unable to help.”
The military being grounded by the invasion was a scary thought. It made sense though. The aliens must have attacked more than just the California coast. Their space-ship had spanned the horizon like a floating continent. It wasn’t a stretch to assume they were capable of wiping out all civilization from the West Coast to the Rockies, and beyond.
She sucked in a ragged breath. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Don’t cry. Her feet fell apart, free from their bonds, and blood rushed to her toes with the sting of a hundred needles. “Ah.”
“The ties of the hood are well knotted,” Captain murmured. “To rest your head against me will keep it from moving as much while I work. Will you agree?”
Anything to minimize the pain. She made a small sound of agreement and he drew her against him. His heart thumped steady, strong, and, most importantly, like a normal human’s under her ear. Some of the tension in her shoulders seemed to melt away as he manipulated the hood’s bindings.
“We are held aboard an Anferthian slave ship.” Captain pitched his voice low.
“You mean those green bastards took us off Earth?” Like hell she would spend the rest of her life as a slave.
“No. On your planet we remain as they collect survivors.”
“I hate aliens.” Especially ten-foot-tall, green-skinned, scumbag aliens.
Were Mom and Dad safe at his conference in New York, watching the attack from their hotel room? Or were they somewhere on this slave ship? And Nicky. Had her brother already left high school to meet her for lunch? What if she was the only one in her family to survive? Don’t even go there. Her family had to be alive. Life without them…. A sharp pain pierced her heart, and she squeezed her eyes tight against another round of hot tears.
“Your feelings are justified,” Captain murmured.
He had that right. Someone was responsible for today’s massacre and she’d give anything to make them pay.
“What is your name?” Captain’s words rumbled under her ear, the abrupt change of topic disrupting the flow of her angry thoughts.
“Alexandra Bock.” She pressed her lips together. Why had she told him that? Only her father called her Alexandra. Everyone else called her Alex.
“You are near free of your bonds, Alexandra Bock.” Captain set her back upright, away from the comforting sound of his heartbeat.
The unknown person behind her slid the cords from her wrists. She brought her hands around, shaking them and wiggling her fingers. Relief, relief, relief! She reached up, her tingling hands fumbling to find the edge of the hood, colliding with Captain’s. Together they shimmied the hood over her head.
Finally, freedom...oh. Sweat, blood, and body odor assailed her olfactory senses, and her stomach roiled in protest. Now the cheesy stink of the hood didn’t seem so bad.
Squinting to ease the throb in her head, she took in the grey metal monotony of the walls and floor surrounding her. The long, narrow room appeared to be made of a single piece of molded metal, curved where the walls met the floor. Is this really a slave cell, or an alien version of a tin can? A soft glow from the ceiling illuminated the space.
Her gaze took in a heavy-set man in a business suit lying on the floor nearby. Another man in some sort of graphite grey uniform knelt over the businessman’s foot, as though examining it. Huddled against a wall, an African-American woman sat with her arms and head resting on her drawn-up knees. Nearby, a dark-headed boy, who couldn’t be more than six years old, was being tended by a woman with midnight black hair.
Alex’s mouth dropped open. The woman appeared human in every way, except her skin was blue. She was an alien...a despicable alien. Not the same species as the invaders, but that hardly mattered. As of lunchtime today, all aliens had landed on her shit list.
“Alexandra, are you well?”
She turned back to Captain and met his deep sapphire gaze. Her breath hitched in her throat, and warmth spread through her chest. Familiar, and such a beautiful color. Unlike like her own boring brown.
But, holy crap, his skin is blue too! A hunk of cold lead settled in her heart. This could not be happening.
“No. No, no, no.” She pushed herself to her feet, and Captain rose with her. The room tilted, and she tottered sideways a couple of steps. Captain reached for her, but she jerked away from him, sucking air through her teeth with a hiss. “Don’t! Just, don’t touch me.”
Captain lowered his hands to his side.
“You...you’re an alien.” A hint of red heat curled to life deep inside, like the edge of a newspaper being lit for a campfire. How dare he trick her into thinking he was human!
He nodded slowly. “To you, yes.”
“Oh, God.” If she could put her fist through a wall, she would. Instead, she fixed him with a hard glare. “Do you have any idea how many people I watched die today? I don’t even know if my family is alive. My home, everything I ever knew, has been destroyed. Aliens did that.”
“We are not those aliens.”
Of course he’d say that, but how could she be sure? “We didn’t do anything to deserve this. Hell, we didn’t even know that there were other life forms in the galaxy before today.” Alex tightened her jaw, inhaling and exhaling through her teeth. “You called them Anferthians, but which Anferthian made this happen? Someone’s responsible for this attack, and you know who, right? Tell me who it was.” She would rip open their throat with her bare hands.
Captain’s brows furrowed above wary eyes, and he tilted his head to one side. An errant curl of snow-white hair shifted onto his forehead. High cheekbones accented his patrician nose, like an ancient Greek statue come to life. A lapis statue with at least a week’s worth of white beard.
“The responsibility is mine, Alexandra.”
She snapped her attention back to his eyes. He was the reason so many people were massacred today? Why her life had been upended like a derailed train car? Why she had no idea if her family was even alive? The dry twigs burst into flames, ready to consume everything in its path. Her vision narrowed on Captain’s face. This was his fault, he had owned it. That son of a…
Alex balled her right hand, pulled back her arm, and swung. Her fist slammed into one gorgeous blue eye. Captain’s neutral expression vanished, replaced with a look of astonishment as he staggered back a step.
Ow, ow, ow! She cradled her fist to her chest and rubbed her stinging knuckles. A pair of large hands grabbed her from behind and spun her around. Two ruddy-red eyebrows drawn together above a pair of grey eyes froze her in place. Anger seethed from this new blue alien. Uh, oh. She was toast.
He jerked her close, and her head snapped back. A jab of pain shot through her head like an ice pick, and a cry escaped her. She squeezed her eyes shut as tight as she could, waiting for the blow that was sure to come.
“Stand down, Commander Roble.” Behind her, Captain sounded calm, as though he hadn’t just taken a right hook to the eye.
“Alex!”
No way! Her eyes popped open. “Nicky?” She turned her head toward the familiar voice. Her brother’s anxious face blurred as tears flooded her eyes.
“Let her go,” Nicky snarled at Commander Angry Alien.
Angry Alien didn’t argue. He just let her crumple to the floor, then stepped away.
“Ass-wipe,” Nicky muttered as he crouched next to her.
What was her brother thinking going toe-to-toe with an alien built like a bouncer? At six-foot-one and eighteen years old, Nicky was pretty full of himself. They should have a c
hat about that before he got himself hurt.
No, nix that. She was four years older than him, and she’d just punched a guy as tall as her brother in the eye. A fact Nicky would probably point out if she went into lecture mode.
A gurgling noise came from the vicinity of her stomach. I’m going to feel so much better after I puke. She wrapped her arms around her middle and hunched forward. Nicky rubbed her back and crooned, but his words weren’t computing in her brain. He was alive, though. And if both of them had survived, then maybe there was hope for their parents.
Sweat dotted her upper lip. Stay calm, Alex. Don’t lose it. A pair of black boots moved into her field of vision.
“I may have deserved that,” Captain said. “I truly am sorrier than you can imagine for the horrors visited upon your people and your planet, and do hold myself accountable for failing to avert this tragedy.”
Tragedy? That had to be the understatement of the decade. Century. All time. She raised her throbbing head and gave him what she hoped was a nasty glare. He didn’t look too happy either, but that might have more to do with his already swelling eye than anything else.
“They’ve taken our planet away, haven’t they?” The potential answer to that question scared the crap out of her, but she needed to know how widespread the invasion was. Captain nodded.
No, not a tragedy. It was outright genocide. To top that off, she was imprisoned on an alien slave ship with a bunch of...other aliens. One of whom admitted he was somehow responsible for this slaughter. Now this day couldn’t get any worse.
Her stomach contracted and her body tensed, as though conspiring to prove her wrong. Oh, hell.
She threw up on his boots.
Chapter Two
Senior Captain Gryf Helyg gazed at the ball of human misery huddled at his feet. It just did not seem possible, but after one Galactic Standard week his situation showed no signs of improving. He had been betrayed by Vyn Kotas, his fleet destroyed, and his cousin killed. Then the Anferthians incarcerated what remained of his crew aboard one of their slave ships. Had that not been enough? Now this Terrian woman, from a race he had sworn his life to protect, had accosted him.