Kol: Alien Abduction Romance (Alien Raiders' Brides Book 3)

by Vi Voxley

  "Give me a second," she pleaded. "And maybe use the bed this time?"

  Sixteen

  Kol-Eresh

  Another week later...

  It was time to take Jackie home.

  The harbinger very grateful for that. The Black Hall had been as generous of a host as a Nayanor fortress could possibly be, but the long night was approaching. Kol-Eresh would have rather died than been the only harbinger not to be with his people during the storm.

  And he wanted Jackie to settle into her new home before the gates were closed, trapping them inside.

  The diadon in his fated's chest seemed to have fully taken.

  The harbinger shared Jackie's boundless joy for that, but the others didn't share their optimism, to his annoyance. Zar Kohora and Ashley had both expressed their warnings. Forack had stopped bothering a while ago.

  As a female, Ashley had chosen her words carefully, advising caution with something as unknowable as the diadon was, not to mention the disease.

  Zar Kohora was a harbinger, however. His words were straightforward and cold.

  "Do you remember The Reaper?" Zar asked him as the hovership prepared to take them back to Garolian Pass.

  Kol-Eresh regarded the other harbinger with a sense of dread. The Reaper had been the previous master of the Black Hall, one of those warlords who never left Luminos. Zar had taken the fortress from him, for reasons he hadn't really shared with anyone who hadn't been there during the storm that saw murders in the Black Hall.

  As a Nayanor, Kol-Eresh hadn't asked either. It was the first time he'd heard Zar Kohora speak about it, not just heard the many rumors going around.

  "Of course," he replied. "What of him? The dead are the dead."

  "Yes," Zar agreed, the light in his sharp eyes unforgiving and dark. "The Reaper is dead, but he almost took Ashley with him."

  Kol-Eresh didn't reply, waiting for Zar to continue.

  Losing their fated was the only topic that Nayanors had true respect for, the only occasion where they didn't resort to the regular boasting.

  "The grand hall was filled with plasma weapons," Zar went on, his deep voice gaining a rough edge as he remembered the event that had nearly cost him everything. "He sent men to hunt down Ashley, to bring her to him. He even managed to turn females against us, trapping her. There was a moment when I genuinely believed I'd lost her."

  "She lives," Kol-Eresh said. "You protected her, as a warrior should."

  "I did," Zar agreed, a flash of emotion flying over his face. "But there was a moment before all that where I stood to lose her for good."

  The other harbinger stared at Kol-Eresh, the silence stretching between them for a long moment.

  "I wanted to tell you this because it's impossible to imagine without experiencing it," Zar said. "As you said, it's the duty of the warrior to protect his mate. I thought I was doing that. Ashley's safety, her life, was my first priority.

  "I locked her up, betrayed her trust. If I'd died in my arrogance through some lucky shot, she would have died there in the cell. In the dark, alone, of hunger and thirst. That was my idea of keeping her safe back then."

  This time, Kol-Eresh said nothing because he didn't know what to say.

  The way Zar described it, every action he'd taken was the same exact thing he would have done. Nayanors were treacherous beings, their warlords were power-hungry and cruel. Harbingers were blamed for losing a single female on the raids, but it wasn't uncommon to target the Terrans when their mate was too powerful.

  He tried to imagine that happening to him, but couldn't. Living without Jackie was an impossibility. He might as well have lived without air.

  "So I'm telling you now," Zar said seriously, "that what you think is protecting her might be the thing you regret the most in the end. Stop telling her she's fine. You can't know that. Your healer doesn't know that.

  "Enjoy every second you spend with her, fight off every danger that threatens her and don't feed her lies. That is all a man can do."

  Kol-Eresh nodded, looking at Jackie saying goodbye to Ashley by the hovership. His fated was smiling, as she had since the day she'd woken up from the surgery. The harbinger didn't know if he could wipe that smile from her face, but Zar was right.

  "Any news about the Eternals?" he asked Zar, not looking at the other harbinger.

  To Kol-Eresh's surprise, he groaned darkly.

  "Plenty," Zar said grimly. "It looks to me like they're trying to get as many females as possible before the storm. The attacks have grown more frequent and more brutal. Last time, they left behind thirty dead."

  "Thirty," Kol-Eresh replied, baring his teeth in a snarl. "Thirty females? How did they get out in such numbers?"

  "They didn't," Zar replied, shaking his head, his eyes on Ashley. "It was one of the hoverships bringing a haul from another raid. There were fifty warriors aboard the carrier, all armed to the teeth."

  Kol-Eresh couldn't believe it. Nayanors were powerful warriors. Fifty of them was an overkill by any standard, yet the way Zar described them –

  "All dead?" he asked.

  "Their names will be forgotten," Zar replied tersely.

  Kol-Eresh nodded, agreeing. Warriors who couldn't protect females on their own home world, being backed by a unit so large didn't deserve any remembrance.

  The loss of thirty females was unacceptable, however. And it was worrying. There was no use in declaring their superiority to the Eternals if they kept being proven wrong. If the Eternals had gotten so bold and so powerful, there was no telling what they might do next.

  "Have you considered there might come a day when they attack a fortress?" Kol-Eresh asked darkly. "One of the smaller ones at first. Black Hall is safe, no doubt, but the rest..."

  "Yes," Zar said, the tone of his voice bitter and harsh. "I don't think the Black Hall is as safe as you think it is, though. I know every inch of this place. It's grand and strong, that's true. It's also big. Warriors who've lived here their entire lives have gotten lost in the maze of corridors and starved. It's virtually impossible to guard every point of entry and the Eternals –"

  Zar barked a humorless laugh.

  "The Eternals have had long lives and I bet they know more about this place than I do," he finished. "I would give everything to know where the bastards have made their lair, to take the fight to them once and for all and see what they could do against an actual elite unit."

  Zar was silent for a moment.

  "They have done something I thought impossible," he admitted, still looking at Ashley. "They've managed to instill a dark fear in my heart. The thought that I might return to my quarters one day and discover that the Eternals have gotten in. Gotten to my fated and my sons."

  The other harbinger shook his head.

  "I never thought the day would come when I'm actually looking forward to the long night," Zar growled. "Even the Eternals can't weather that and perhaps we will have a better idea of where to search for them when the storm passes."

  Kol-Eresh turned to him, holding out his hand.

  "When the long night passes, we'll wipe them out," he swore. "Once and for all, as we should have done a long time ago."

  Zar grasped his wrist and they shook on that.

  "Done," Zar promised. "When the skies are clear, we'll search every corner of this world and we won't stop until we've found the bastards.

  "Go now. You should make sure your fated is safe in Garolian Pass long before the long night ever starts showing its colors."

  Kol-Eresh marched to the hovership and took Jackie's hand, pulling her away from Ashley. His fated waved goodbye to her friend and it pained the harbinger to be made to do so many things that saddened his female.

  "I'll see you after the storm!" Jackie called to Ashley.

  The other female's response was lost to the roar of the hovership's engine starting.

  "Couldn't we have waited just a minute more?" Jackie asked, laughing when Kol-Eresh shut the door behind them and the ship took off
.

  The harbinger thought about the Eternals and Zar's ominous premonition. As the hovership sped toward his fortress, he made Jackie take a seat and knelt on one knee before her.

  "I need you to listen to me," Kol-Eresh said.

  Jackie's smile dropped and she leaned back, suddenly careful and wary. Kol-Eresh hated it. He would have preferred to keep his female happy all the time. It was the way a fated bond was supposed to work, but the times they lived in were too perilous.

  "That doesn't sound good," Jackie said. "I don't think any positive conversation has ever started like that."

  "Maybe," Kol-Eresh agreed. "Hear me, my love. You have heard about the Eternals already, yes?"

  "Yeah," Jackie admitted. "You told me a little. And there are rumors and whispers. Ashley told me a little about them, but either she doesn't know much herself or she didn't want to tell me the whole truth."

  "Good," Kol-Eresh said. "The less you know the better, trust me. Their actions put the most vicious warriors to shame and I don't want you to ever witness their work.

  "Zar told me there have been more attacks lately. I want you to be especially careful. My fortress is strong, but I need you to run at any sign of danger. A female cannot stop an Eternal. Apparently not even all warriors can. We need to set up a warning system for us."

  Jackie's eyes were clearly frightened now.

  "You're scaring me," she admitted. "At first I thought they were some distant concern, but every time someone tells me about them, it feels like they're coming closer. Now I get the sense they're right behind me. Is it that bad?"

  "Yes," Kol-Eresh said, thinking about the truth Zar had spoken of. "We will hunt them down when the long night is over, but during this storm, I need you to be extra careful. I just got you back. I won't lose you to those assholes, nor to anyone else."

  He pressed his hand gently against Jackie's cheek and that made his fated smile at last, nodding to him before leaning in for a kiss.

  "I trust you," she said. "I don't anything to happen to me either. Now that I'm alive again, I want to keep living."

  Kol-Eresh didn't reply. He couldn't lie but he didn't want to crush her dreams either. Especially when none of them really knew what was going to happen to Jackie.

  He pulled Jackie into his arms, holding her there as the hovership sped over the fields around the Black Hall, toward Garolian Pass.

  They were almost home. Two hours later, messages from his fortress started pouring into the harbinger's short-range communicator. He shut them off, but the soft blinking of the device was comforting in a way. Soon, Jackie would be able to start making herself comfortable in their quarters and he could start believing she was really his now, to keep.

  They were almost home when the attack came.

  There was no warning. The first sign that anything was wrong came from the pilot of the hovership.

  "Harbinger!" the comm link jumped to life in-ship. "I have visual of the Eternals, they –"

  No more words came. There was a sudden, gargled scream and then the hovership smashed into something – or something incredibly heavy smashed into it. Kol-Eresh reacted as fast as it was possible to react, pulling Jackie out of the way, but he only barely managed to save them from being pulverized.

  The hovership hit the ground with a crash that vibrated through the entire ship. It went rolling on the ground. Being trapped inside its confines was like being shaken apart on an atomic level, the impacts were that hard.

  Kol-Eresh took them all, shielding Jackie with his own body.

  He had never thought or acted that fast, turning direction mid-air, pushing himself off whatever served as a wall at any particular time. The harbinger spun around in the rolling hovership, keeping pace with it the best he could. The result was that they moved along with the ship, avoiding the worst of the damage.

  Not all of it, of course. Kol-Eresh was bleeding heavily. Pieces of the wall had stabbed through his armor and it had taken him everything not to get stuck on any of the protruding parts. That would have been the end of them both.

  He didn't even know what condition Jackie was in. She'd screamed when the first hit came, but then she'd fallen silent.

  An eternity seemed to have passed when the hovership finally fell still. Kol-Eresh and Jackie dropped to the floor, but the harbinger managed to keep himself on his feet in the suddenly very cramped space.

  "Jackie!" he called. "Jackie! Jackie, can you hear me?"

  His fated had lost consciousness, but she came to with her beautiful eyes wide with fear.

  "The Eternals?" was her first question, staring at him. "No. No no no –"

  "Are you hurt?" Kol-Eresh asked.

  That was the most important thing. As long as Jackie could move, there was a chance she could hide until he took care of the accursed traitors of his species.

  "I – I'm hurting, but I don't think it's too bad," Jackie managed to murmur. "Kol, I don't want to –"

  "Nothing will happen to you," the harbinger said, cutting her line of thought at once. "We need to get out of here and find shelter for you. Garolian Pass isn't far. They'll know of the attack by now if my pilot had any sense to sound the alarm. You have to hide until then."

  "What about you?" Jackie asked, as if there even was a question.

  "I'll take care of the Eternals," Kol-Eresh said. "Stay here. Stay hidden until I return. If you see anyone else but me, run."

  Jackie wanted to protest, he could see the words coming to her lips, but he couldn't let her voice them. It wasn't the ideal situation. Leaving Jackie alone was the last thing he wanted, but remaining hidden was the female's only chance.

  He pulled her into his arms again, pressing a kiss to her sweet lips. Jackie whimpered, her fingers wrapping around his.

  "Be safe," she asked. "And come back, just come back in one piece."

  "I will," Kol-Eresh promised. "Don't move, my love. This will be over soon."

  He slipped out of the compartment, making way for himself with the sword on his back and bare fists where it was needed. There were screams around him as the Eternals cut into the ship, slaughtering the small crew by the sound of it.

  Kol-Eresh wondered what they would do if they didn't find any females. The Eternals hadn't taken it well in the past.

  He emerged from the ship, hidden from sight by the broken wing of the vessel. Looking around, Kol-Eresh saw four immense metallic beasts, waiting for the Eternals.

  Abominations, he thought. Fitting name.

  The harbinger assumed it meant that there were four Eternals too, but he couldn't take that for granted. A warrior never accepted "facts" like that based on logic. He would simply kill until there was no one left to kill, it was as simple as that.

  Kol-Eresh moved ahead in the shadow of the broken ship.

  A harbinger didn't rely on support in battle, but for once in his life Kol-Eresh hoped that the reinforcements from Garolian Pass would arrive quickly. His own life was safe as long as he had an arm to wield his sword with. He needed his warriors to make sure Jackie was as far from the Eternals as she could be.

  There were voices up ahead, muffled and distorted. It made no difference to Kol-Eresh what they were saying anyhow. All of the speakers needed to die for Jackie to be safe and that was all that mattered to him.

  The screams were gone, telling him that everyone else was probably dead.

  A voice drifted to the harbinger then. It was firm and ancient, so deep Kol-Eresh could hardly make out the words, but the ones he recognized set his blood on fire.

  "A warrior approaching from the north," the voice said. "The female is alone. Move in!"

  Seventeen

  Jackie

  There was scrambling on top of the small ship.

  It took Jackie half a second to realize she was toast. The noises were coming closer fast and the last she checked, Kol-Eresh didn't have four pairs of legs.

  Panic set in, but that was where living with the fear of dying for so long finally came
to her aid. Jackie didn't hesitate a second, didn't let the despair overwhelm her before it was already over. She grabbed the first sharp piece of rubble from the floor and hid behind the fallen seats.

  Terrible, clawing sounds came from the ceiling like something mechanical was trying to break through, with iron nails and teeth. Jackie shut off the sound as best she could, tearing a piece of cloth from her already torn shirt and wrapping it around her hand. That way she could grip her makeshift blade and hope it actually served as a weapon long enough.

  The roof opened up, bent out of the way like it was made of paper, and Jackie screamed.

  She'd known she was trapped, with the ship being surrounded and everyone else more than likely dead. She'd been prepared to fight to her last moment, but Jackie had expected something roughly humanoid.

  The thing that looked down at her from the roof wasn't human. It wasn't even alive.

  A head bigger than her, with maws like a hell dog and burning eyes to match, stared at her. Then it opened its mouth and a strange call sounded, half-roar and half mechanical distortion.

  Abomination. They sure got the name right.

  Voices washed into the small compartment as Jackie raised the blade in her defense. The giant dog head disappeared and footsteps were coming closer again, running on the ship's surface above her head.

  Then Jackie heard Kol-Eresh's voice, not far either.

  "Jackie, run! They can tell where you are! Run!"

  She moved at once, not even questioning how the Eternals could come her way without seeing her. Whether they had heat sensors or something even more advanced, Jackie didn't know and she certainly didn't care.

  If Kol-Eresh told her to run, it was bad. The harbinger was a proud man, she'd learned that. The call meant that he wasn't sure whether he could hold all the Eternals off by himself or at least he didn't want to bet on it.

  Jackie's heart was beating out of her chest. She had stared death in the eye many times in her nightmares and recently during her surgery, but this time was the worst. It wasn't just the Eternals clawing through the ship as she crawled through spaces that she hoped were too small for them. If the massive Abominations had to take time to bite their way through the ship, it bought her precious seconds.