by Helen Allan
As the Frenchman landed upon her, he aimed his weapon at Anhur. But before Etienne could fire, he was jumped on by a Gharial and forced to struggle for his life as the creature latched onto his shoulder with its jaws, tearing at him like a vicious wild animal. Snarling and hurling chunks of flesh aside, its teeth gripped his shoulder as it swung its mouth side to side like a rabid dog with a chew toy.
Sorrow, screaming, hurled a knife at the creature attacking her friend, but her throw lacked strength, the weapon merely glancing off its shoulder. Reaching to her right for the scabbard holding her second blade she tried unsuccessfully to withdraw it as the blood on her hands, pouring from her stomach, caused her fingers to slip. Gasping and scrabbling for it, she was weapon-less as Anhur leaned down, knocked her helmet off, and pulled her up off the ground by her hair.
She stared at him, pain and fear transfixing her, immobilising her. He looked to her for all the world like an avenging angel. His white jumpsuit splattered with blood, his blonde curls plastered to his face with sweat, his eyes boring into hers like cold blue icicles.
“This is all your fault, bitch,” he growled through gritted teeth, “look around.” He twisted his hand into her hair and forced her to look 360 degrees around the battlefield. All she saw was death.
“It would have come to you sooner or later, Anhur,” she choked, coughing blood, her words slightly garbled. “You were just too focussed on your hunts and games, on your idea that your kind, our kind, are better than all – you were too blind to see.”
“Don’t try and pin this on my people,” he ground out, yanking her hair hard and holstering his laser. Without hesitation he pulled out a long knife and plunged it deep into her stomach wound, pushing it with each word, higher towards her hearts; “you killed the father of all, you allowed Seth to gain power – this – is – all – your – fault.”
Sorrow screamed as the knife pierced her first heart, the second thumping double loud as it struggled to keep her alive.
“Don’t Anhur, please,” she said, looking into his face. She knew he was about to thrust the knife into her second heart, and she knew enough about him to know he would ensure she could never be regenerated, he would take her hearts, or her head, as a trophy.
He paused, looking into her eyes and grinned as he leant his weight on the knife and Sorrow suddenly realised she had never fully known how much he enjoyed killing, until this moment. His eyes looked exactly as they did during sex; excited, intense, dark. She couldn’t bear to see his expression and raised her eyes to the sky. If she was to lose her life now, she didn’t want his face to be the last thing she saw. But as she looked up, she gasped. Coming at warp speed, faster than most eyes could see, she saw a pod heading straight for the lizard gate. Without knowing how, she understood immediately what was about to happen. John had said he would close the gate ‘by hook or by crook’ – seeing the lasers hadn’t worked, he was using the only weapon he had left in his arsenal – the pod itself. Almost as if in slow motion, despite its accelerated trajectory, Sorrow watched as the pod hit the gate. A burst of light and power, reminiscent of a nuclear explosion, blasted out of the portal and flattened everything on the battlefield.
The force of the explosion blew Anhur and Sorrow apart. Landing 30 metres away from where she had been, gasping and coughing blood, Sorrow rolled to her knees and looking over the piles of bodies, saw the Gharial portal had been destroyed. But the battle was far from over. Thousands of the creatures still swarmed the area; the humans, Earthborn and Sin were still severely outnumbered. Many Earthborn were dropping their weapons and making a run for the gates to jump to another world, any world, to get away from the creatures, leaving the fight to a handful of diehards, the humans and the Sin. As they reached the portals most were cut down by the red commanders standing, guarding the gateways.
Shaking her head to clear it of the ringing in her ears, Sorrow rose to her feet and, wiping her bloody hands on her pants, leant down to pick up a laser gun from the ground. Part of her knew this was her last stand, her one functioning heart was working doubly hard to keep her alive, and she had lost a fatal amount of blood, but she also knew that every gun was needed if the alien invaders were to be overcome. She would at the least die fighting.
Seeing Etienne not far away, fighting for his life against two Gharials, she aimed and shot one in the back before staggering towards him and shooting the other in the back of the head at point blank range. The strain of staggering that distance and the recoil of the weapon had caused a rip somewhere deep in her chest, and she frowned as she dropped the weapon to the ground and pressed her hand to her breast.
“You have to get to the Capital,” she panted, “take some cover in the buildings – there are just too many to be fighting out in the open,” she gasped out the last words and leaned heavily on Etienne as he turned to put his arm around her waist and catch her fall.
“I agree,” he shouted, backhanding a Gharial with his gun and firing into its chest as it fell at his feet. He grimaced as he turned back to Sorrow, his shirt was nothing but rags. Gashes deep enough to put your fingers in crisscrossed his shoulder and upper chest which ran slick with blood. As he pulled her tight against his side Sorrow tried to lurch away, but he shook his head and tightened his arm around her waist.
“Leave me, Etienne,” she gasped as he began dragging her towards the Capital, “I’m not going to make it, but I can cover your back as you go.”
“Ah mon amour that is not a consideration,” he ground out between clenched teeth, pulling her towards the city walls.
Sorrow, too weak to argue, allowed him to pull her along. Their retreat would mean they would need to pass close by the gates, but much of the fighting was now branching further away from the portals, now that John had sacrificed his life to close the Gharial homeworld gateway. Staggering together, both bleeding heavily, they struggled over bodies, fighting off attackers, and called out to the Sin and fellow humans as they went, to retreat to the city. Sorrow saw several humans nod in agreement and Khalili beckoning his fighters to fall back as well. There was no sign of Anhur.
She had just begun to hope that they might make it to the safety of the city when she felt a dull thump. Her eyes widened, and she fell against Etienne, gasping. A laser had hit her in the back, slicing through her spinal column with the ease of a pebble being dropped into water. Her weight pulled Etienne to the ground with her as she fell forward, blood bubbling from her mouth.
“Oh fuck,” she gurgled, as her face hit the mud.
Etienne scrambled to his knees and rolled her over. Her eyes, glazing, tried to focus on his face.
“I’ll fix you, ma belle, he whispered, tears in his eyes, pushing her hair back from her face as he struggled to a sitting position and gathered her into his arms, her torso resting across his knees, her legs splayed out at odd angles like a broken doll.
“There’s no fixing this Etienne,” she tried to say, her words interrupted by the blood bubbling over her teeth. Her tongue felt thick like she had been given a shot by a dentist. She could no longer feel her lower body or parts of her face. She closed her eyes for what felt like a second, but then realised; she did not have the strength to reopen them.
Etienne squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and breathed out deeply. Opening them again, his jaw clenching, he leant down and kissed her softly on the eyelids, wiping the blood from her mouth and face with his sleeve. He looked up over her head, his eyes narrowing in determination.
“Must you always have the last word,” he sighed.
Ignoring the shots firing all around him, he swept her up into his arms and, with inhuman strength, ran for the nearest portal, jumping through into another world, just as all hell broke loose behind him.
SORROW’S FLIGHT
Gods of Time
Sorrow’s Fall
Dear Readers,
Sorrow’s quest continues in Sorrow’s Flight and Sorrow’s Fall.
If would like to know more about books
in this and other series I write, please sign up to my newsletter at: www.helenallan.com.
And if you enjoyed this book, please do leave a review.
Helen Allan
Etienne’s Endearments
(don’t speak French? Here is a list of the terms Etienne uses)
Ma colombe – my dove
Mon chou – my sweet bun
Ma souris – my mouse
Mon poussin – my chicken
Ma belle – my beautiful one
Ma crevette – my shrimp
Ma mie – my heart
Ma beaute – my beauty
Ma bichette – my darling
Ma cherie – my sweetheart
Ma biquette – my goat
Ma caille – my quail
Ma gazelle – my gazelle
Ma poule – my hen
Ma puce – my flea
Ma sardine – my sardine
Mon sucre d’orge – my candy
Mon amour – my love
Mon ange – my angel
Mon tesor – my treasure
Mon Coeur – my heart
Before Sorrow, Came Megan.
‘An eternity as an immortal in slavery was not what she had in mind.’
Desperate and alone, sixteen-year-old Megan uses a powerful and ancient talisman to escape modern-day life and make a new start in ancient Egypt. But powerful enemies lie in wait seeking her destruction and the magical scarab necklace she wields.
Will an alliance with another immortal, the handsome and secretive Franklin, help keep her from harm long enough to learn the secrets of the scarab? – Or will he cause her to lose everything – including her heart?
She thought he was going to kiss her and her breath caught in her throat, but his lips barely brushed hers as he smirked and whispered: “I will take you to my bed again, Little Slave when you beg me.”
Now 18, Megan journeys on a dangerous and desperate search to discover who seeks her Scarab necklace before another in her close-knit circle is killed. And she will soon find that some she thought were friends are not, and some she thought were enemies may be the only hope she has.
Ancient Mystery – Timeless Love
Hitting the dirt with a thud, Megan drew her swords and raced across to her lover, reaching him just as the beasts did. She turned to fight with him, back to back, as the crowd roared for their blood.
Trapped, and having lost everyone she ever loved, Megan must find a way to journey back in time, and through space, to rescue the one she can’t live without. And this time, she will seek her revenge on those who have, for too long, used humans as playthings.
The final in the Scarab Trilogy will leave you breathless!
Notes
[←1]
To see all the memories Sorrow received, check out the companion novella The Gods of Time – link given at the end of this book.
The Gods of Time
A Scarab/Sorrow series companion novella
HELEN ALLAN
Copyright © Helen Allan, 2018
Published: 2018
Hell West Press
ISBN: Paperback Edition: 9780648455943
All rights reserved.
The right of Helen Allan to be identified as the author of this Work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
This book is a work of fiction and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. So, if you are a God, don’t strike me down, I made this all up, even the foreword. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in retrieval system, copied in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise transmitted without written permission from the publisher. You must not circulate this book in any format.
Cover art by Lilly Dormishev
The Gods of Time
Family Tree
Books in the Series
In saeculum saeculorum;
PREFACE
Always and forever the Gods had guarded the universe.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Dear Readers,
Before Sorrow, there was Scarab.
Family Tree
Books in the Series
The Gods of Time
Scarab: Falling Through Time
Scarab 2: Fighting Time
Scarab 3: The Chains of Time
Sorrow’s Sin
Sorrow’s Flight
Sorrow’s Fall
Note to readers:
This novella is a companion book to the paranormal romance ‘Sorrow’ series and gives a deeper understanding of the background of the Aliens who Sorrow fights in the battles for the 12 planets. The Sorrow series can be read as a stand-alone series, or as a spin-off from the Scarab time travel romance series.
www.helenallan.com
IN SAECULUM SAECULORUM;
For ever and ever
PREFACE
“Tomb engravings show no less than seven hundred Gods were regularly worshipped in the Nile Valley alone. Of many, we know a great deal, of some very little, but certainly study of mythology from around the globe enumerates quite clearly that they descended from the stars, and that all humanity was born of their cosmic egg. It is also clear, most learned men agree, many remain among us.”
(Ancient Greek text)
Always and forever the Gods had guarded the universe.
Using their time travelling technology and vast intelligence they kept the peace.
They were benevolent and kind, unselfish and noble, trusted to ensure the planets and all their numerous species were protected.
Until one day they weren’t, and they didn’t.
1
Gaea strode purposefully down the hallway, her robes whipping around her legs, her steps sure. In her pocket, she held the last of the scarab time controllers, taken just minutes prior from the blood-soaked neck of her husband. Hearing voices behind, she quickened her pace, making her way to the doorway of the ship just as she heard her name called.
Spinning and pasting on a friendly expression she turned to speak to the man calling her name.
“Ah, Amun,” she said, smiling, “I am in a hurry, Council business, can it wait?”
“No Mother, I must speak to you about the Council decision last night,” her son said, bowing in a half-hearted show of deference to her as he approached. “There are some who feel it might be safer to take you into seclusion for a time, to allow your followers to calm down and accept the decision.”
Gaea inwardly seethed, but outwardly projected calm.
“Amun,” she sighed, “the vote is cast, the decision made, I will not argue further with you on this matter. The Council has spoken. Taking me into custody will only inflame my followers. Take my advice and let things calm down naturally, I will address those who stood with me en masse this evening, all will be well.”
“So, you will not prevent me from ascending? You will not speak out further against the plan?” His eyes strayed possessively to the scarab necklace she wore.
“No,” Gaea sighed. “If it is the Council’s desire to pass the time controllers to our children and allow you to destroy all planetary alliances then that is the decision and I will abide by it – I can fight it no longer. But, Son, let me have today to think things through, to plot my course. This evening we shall gather as a family and discuss how we shall proceed.”
Amun’s eyes narrowed. “Mother you know you will have to resign as President, you have been too vocal an opponent to the way forward. It is time you passed on the scarab and the office to another.”
“Son,” Gaea smiled, “I am aware of what you want. I have spoken to my sisters this afternoon; we have agreed. Now please, allow me this time.”
Amun bowed and turned on his heel.
Gaea waited until
she could no longer see his back before turning and quickly entering the ship. She was one of only eight on the planet who knew the codes for instructing the aircraft. The other seven, her sister Councillors, their partners and her husband, she had killed with her own hands; the last just minutes prior. Now she hurried in and ordered the ship to power up. She knew she had but minutes before the planet’s security systems would try to override her authority.
“Ship 1,” she said, striding through the biosphere towards the central control tower.
“Welcome President Gaea,” the ship intoned in a friendly, female voice.
“Set a course for the furthest star system that can support my body,” Gaea said, taking her late husband’s scarab out of her gown pocket and frowning at the stains the blood left on the fabric.
“That would be 23,000 light years away Gaea,” the ship replied, “you would need to be in life-support status for longer than any have gone before.”