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

by Vi Voxley

  The healer's expression told Kol-Eresh exactly how little the man had faith in him, but the harbinger couldn't blame him for that. The odds stacking up against them were growing by the minute, but he wasn't about to give up and let Jackie wither away.

  He pulled her into his arms and made her look into his eyes.

  "You will be fine," he promised her. "I swear this, on my life."

  She didn't believe him either, Kol-Eresh could see that.

  Luckily for him, he was at his best when he was facing a battle no one believed he could win. The harbinger made a promise to himself as well.

  He would find the Eternals, and then he would wipe them out of existence.

  Nineteen

  Jackie

  Three days later...

  Jackie was dreaming that she was cold.

  She was one some ice world. With the omnipotence of knowing she was dreaming, Jackie knew that the world was endless. It didn't matter in which direction she chose to go, the same old freezing storm would be waiting for her everywhere.

  The dark presence that haunted behind her was there too. It had a physical form in the dream, but it kept standing behind Jackie, like a shadow. When she turned very quickly, the monster of despair didn't moved out of the way fast enough. She saw long claws and felt his scorching, rotting breath.

  It was closer than it had ever been before.

  "Hello!" she called into the storm. "Is anyone there? Kol?"

  There was no answer. The world of suffering was hers to walk alone. Jackie had no idea if it was endless because she wasn't really moving or if it simply lasted into eternity. All she could see was about three feet in front of her. Heavy, sharp ice beat at her face.

  Then suddenly she wasn't alone anymore. There was a shadow in front of her.

  Jackie approached carefully, hoping that it was Kol-Eresh who had found her in the storm, but as she neared the figure, she knew it wasn't him. The man was too tall to be the harbinger.

  She turned to run the second she saw the dark eyes of the Eternal, but the dream wasn't taking any pity on her. Jackie ran headlong into the monster behind her. She looked up, saw the bloodshot eyes of the beast and –

  She sat up on the makeshift bed, screaming.

  Sweat was running down her back, but Jackie was still cold like it was coming from inside her. It didn't feel like a natural frosty bite, more like numbness.

  She looked around in the room, but there was no one there. Kol-Eresh was out, hunting for food which was scarce before the coming storm. The ship was parked under the protective shadow of a large cliff and Jackie's comm device was laying right next to her.

  She decided not to call him. There was no point in inviting the harbinger to come and comfort her like some child.

  Jackie pushed herself up, pulling a coat over her shoulders. The diadon in her chest was glowing, battling the curious symptoms in her body that it didn't seem to recognize. Jackie could tell. Kol-Eresh had told her that the diadon had an analytical component that glowed red instead of the sapphire blue.

  The colorful spot of light on her shirt was definitely red.

  It didn't promise anything good.

  She climbed to the console, pulling herself up with difficulty. The numbness in her limbs was making her feel like a frozen marionette, all her joints refusing to cooperate.

  "Ship," Jackie told the AI. "Flip the screen camera. Show me myself."

  The AI obeyed. It was a simplistic tool that the Nayanors rarely used, preferring to pilot the ships themselves. Kol-Eresh had turned it on as a safety measure, running the alarms and keeping an eye on her vitals.

  Jackie almost screamed when her image appeared on the monitor.

  For the most part, she still looked like herself. Tired and weary and sad, but the person who greeted Jackie was her.

  Except for the eyes. The deep purple irises made her look like –

  An alien? Jackie thought, laughing after the shock passed. Yeah. An alien. A little alien on an alien world.

  So she had two of the symptoms now. Forack had described them to her, reluctantly. The women who had ingested the serum all went through the same three stages. First their eyes turned purple, then they started feeling the same cold Jackie was feeling, like death itself was breathing down on them.

  The last symptom was the tiredness.

  Jackie tried to figure out where she was simply exhausted or if the third was already taking a hold of her too. The other two had come quickly enough, far quicker than they had for the other women, all of whom were gone.

  She felt like she should have been more concerned about all that, but honestly Jackie had been having a hard time coming up with reasonable reactions lately.

  The outer hatch opened and closed.

  "Jackie?" she could hear the harbinger calling.

  "I'm in here," she answered. "You're not going to like this."

  Jackie heard something heavy being dropped and fast footsteps approaching. The harbinger practically ripped the door open when it didn't slide fast enough for him. He stopped dead in his tracks when Jackie looked up.

  "My eyes," she said. "I know."

  Kol-Eresh didn't answer at first. A hopeless, dark laugh sounded in the small room instead and Jackie realized that it was her laughing.

  "Could you help me down?" she asked. "I seem to have lost some of my strength."

  The harbinger did that without saying a word. He knelt down beside her, helping Jackie rest against the wall of the ship.

  "How did the hunt go?" Jackie asked, the odd smile still on her lips.

  "I found a beast that had hidden from the long night," Kol-Eresh replied dismissively. "That's not important. Jackie –"

  "It's very important to eat," she pointed out. "I'm actually quite hungry. Could we have some?"

  "In a moment," Kol-Eresh promised. "Why are you laughing?"

  Jackie regarded him. She wanted to be serious and not mock her fated's concern, but her emotions no longer connected to her body in a way that followed logic.

  "What else is there to do?" she asked quietly. "I look pretty funny, don't you think?"

  "No," Kol-Eresh said.

  The sharp tone of his voice hurt her. Jackie tried to pull away from him, but there was nothing behind her but the wall.

  "Please leave me alone," she asked. "I want to eat. Let's just eat and I'll go back to sleep."

  Kol-Eresh raised one eyebrow, his features twisted in concern and suspicion.

  "You haven't slept for days," he said. "You have been too afraid to sleep. What happened while I was gone?"

  "I slept," Jackie said, chortling.

  She almost knocked her head against the wall as the laughter burst forth from inside her. There was nothing particularly funny to laugh about. In fact, there was absolutely nothing to laugh about, but it was better than crying and Jackie didn't want to change back.

  Kol-Eresh had other ideas.

  "Stop it," he ordered roughly, taking her hand a bit too hard and shaking her. "Snap out of it, Jackie."

  "Let go of me," she warned him. "I'm dealing with this the best I can."

  "Are you?" Kol-Eresh asked. "Because it looks to me like you aren't taking this seriously."

  That was the wrong answer.

  Even the cold Jackie felt around her heart didn't compare to the surge of red hot anger that filled her body from head to toe then.

  "I have done nothing but taken it seriously," she said. "For a long, long time. I'm tired, can't you see that!? So damn tired of all the wrong solutions. Talking about it just depresses me, ignoring it bothers me. Daring to hope again and having that hope dashed exhausts me in a way you can't possibly imagine.

  "Let me laugh! Let me look at my purple eyes and laugh!"

  Kol-Eresh stood and nodded.

  He left the room without giving her another look. Jackie was left there to sit and listen while the harbinger started to prepare the beast he'd hunted.

  She tried to calm her racing pulse and
focus, but it was impossible.

  The monster had rested its hand on her shoulder and Jackie didn't have the strength to push it away. She couldn't even lift her hand without exerting herself.

  She had tried to be brave and strong for so long. At that moment, Jackie was teetering at the edge of the despair that had been beckoning her ever since she heard the news.

  I can't believe I thought it couldn't get any worse.

  Turning her head, Jackie looked at the screens on the console. They showed her the various diagnostics that Kol-Eresh was having the ship run, in the vain hope that one of them would give him a lead where to look for the Eternals.

  He refused to admit it, but it was hopeless. It wasn't like it hadn't been tried before. The Eternals had been wreaking mayhem on Luminos for a long time and no amount of luck or skill or meticulous searching had gotten the Nayanors any closer.

  Kol-Eresh was full of hope, but it was a fool's hope.

  Jackie looked around in the room that the harbinger had set up for her. It wasn't ideal, but she felt more at home there than she had in a long while. The bed was nothing more than a mattress and warm Fermanoli coats as covers, but that was where she laid in the arms of her fated, happy to be there with him.

  That was how it could be. That was how she wanted it.

  Jackie waited with all the patience in the world, like a person who had nothing left to lose. She could wait until the meal was prepared and then they could have the talk that had been coming since the day they met.

  It was an appropriate moment for tears, but Jackie had none left. They, too, had given up on her.

  Twenty

  Kol-Eresh

  Something had changed.

  The harbinger couldn't put his finger on it, but Jackie was different. While he'd been away, his fated's state had worsened rapidly and it hurt to see on a level Kol-Eresh couldn't have imagined.

  The silence from the ship's consoles was deafening. They were nowhere near finding the Eternals and Jackie was going through the symptoms so fast it seemed impossible.

  Kol-Eresh tried to push the worst to the back of his mind, but it wasn't working.

  "Kol," Jackie said, raising her newly purple eyes to him.

  She had been in a miraculously good mood. In the few days that had passed, Jackie had been so afraid it was palpable. She couldn't sleep unless she was curled up against him, his arms wrapped around her slender form. And when she dreamed, it was restless and broken by the constant startled awakenings.

  Now her appetite was back. The meat of the horned beast Kol-Eresh had found wasn't very tender and it definitely wasn't an animal hunted for food unless there was no other way. At least it was edible.

  Jackie had been eating without a problem, taking seconds.

  He should have been glad to see her eating again, gathering some much-needed strength, but Kol-Eresh couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was coming.

  "We need to talk," Jackie said.

  He knew in that instant what she was about to say. The harbinger's mind changed track so fast it must have reflected on his face, because Jackie turned defensive too.

  "Don't you dare say it," the harbinger growled. "I will not hear a word if it's what I think it is."

  "I can say whatever I want," Jackie replied. "It's my life and I want to keep the last semblance of control I have."

  "You want to give up."

  Jackie didn't reply at once, but even that was enough.

  "No," Kol-Eresh said sharply just as Jackie said:

  "Not give up in the way you mean it."

  "There aren't very many options in this case," Kol-Eresh said, putting down his food. "Any delay, any rest is time we can't waste. I will take the ship deeper onto the plateau, down south –"

  "Toward what?" Jackie asked and the accursed laugh was back. "Kol, please be honest with me. I hate that you are building up this fantasy in your head that isn't going to happen.

  "You say we can't delay like we know where we're going, but we don't. There is no destination, no course and if we don't have them, we really don't have a timeline either. All we have is this wild chase and I don't want to do this anymore."

  "Out of the question," Kol-Eresh said. "If we stop searching, you will die. It's clear that the diadon can't combat the serum. There's some honesty for you. We have to keep going."

  "It's not out of the question, if I don't agree," Jackie said angrily. "This is my life we're talking about. I'm not some toy that you drag from one place to another like I don't have a say."

  "You don't when what you're suggesting is insane," Kol-Eresh said.

  Jackie's eyes were flashing with anger, but he was willing to accept and weather her hatred. The alternative was unthinkable. The harbinger was prepared to put everything he had on the line for his fated, including the relationship between them.

  He couldn't let her go. Not now and not ever.

  "Why is it so insane?" Jackie demanded.

  "Guess," Kol-Eresh said bitterly. "If the circumstances were different, if your life wasn't at stake, I would understand that you're calling it a wild chase. I can even admit that it is, yes. If I knew where the Eternals were hiding, we would already be there. I would signal the Black Hall and every other fortress on the damn planet and we would bury those bastards before the long night hits.

  "But it is how it is. There are no other chances. This is the only one."

  "This is the only life I have!" Jackie yelled at him. "And I don't want to spend the last of my days here in this ship alone while you're out there hunting and searching for the Eternals!

  "Kol, listen to me."

  She took a deep breath and the harbinger could see the pain on her beautiful face.

  "You know that this is over, you just don't want to admit it. The symptoms are all here and it's only been three days. What do you think are the odds that we will stumble upon the Eternals in the next three? When the rest of your species hasn't been able to find them in years?"

  "It doesn't matter," Kol-Eresh said. "I will keep looking until all hope is gone."

  Jackie stared at him, her big eyes wide and accusing.

  "Alright," she said and the defeated note in her voice somehow hurt more than her anger. "If I can't convince you that this has been hopeless for a while, I will just say this.

  "I love you. I don't care if I only got to spend a few weeks with you, they were the happiest I've ever been. Happier than I ever thought I could be.

  "We have this ship. I like it here. I like the bed and the Fermanoli coats and the way your arms feel around me. And I really like the fields where we are now. That is how I want to spend the rest of my time. Walking outside with you before the storm comes. Laying here in your arms, enjoying just being with you. You can tell me of the battles you've fought, I can tell you of Terra... I don't know, anything.

  "Don't you want that too?"

  When Jackie was done, she looked at him, her purple eyes hopeful and waiting.

  He could see what she meant. The harbinger wanted Jackie to have every bit of comfort and happiness in her life that she deserved after everything she'd been through, but he was a Nayanor and she was his fated.

  The answer was as clear as day.

  "No," Kol-Eresh said.

  The light was gone so quickly from Jackie's eyes that it was like it had never been there. He continued.

  "I want to do that with you for all the days that come after I find the Eternals," Kol-Eresh said. "After you are cured and well, from all the things that try to bring you down."

  Jackie shook her head, looking at him like she couldn't believe her ears.

  "Stop that," she said, her voice weak and broken now. "Stop, Kol. I can't take your ridiculous quest anymore. I just want you here with me, telling me that you love me. I don't want to be alone when it –"

  His fated's voice broke completely, becoming nothing more than a whimper. She was shaking from head to toe, looking at him in a way that almost made Kol-Eresh take back ever
y word he'd said.

  "I can't believe you're giving up," he said. "Nothing is over until it's over, do you understand? I can't sit here with you, motionless, all three of us. Me, you and the ship. Every second would nag at me, asking me why I wasn't doing everything I could to save you.

  "I would never be able to forgive myself."

  "So you're willing to desert me now?" Jackie yelled at him.

  "I'm willing to fight until the end, because you're not the one that will be left behind with all their regrets!"

  Jackie stared at him. The world itself was holding its breath as she blinked, shaking her head like she was trying to unhear his words.

  Kol-Eresh wished he could unsay them, but it was too late.

  "Did you just tell me that I'm getting out of this easy!?" she bellowed then.

  There was no turning back, so the harbinger simply chose to say what he was thinking.

  "Everything you said before, I want that. I want long nights in my fortress, listening to the storm beating against the outer walls. On the upper floors, you can hear it. You can sometimes even feel the harvester Gechs walking when they're nearby. I want to hold you in my arms, safe and happy.

  "That's worth every sacrifice I have to make, including taking the risk that I will not be able to find the Eternals in time."

  Jackie was waiting for him to finish the thought and Kol-Eresh sighed.

  "But yes," he said. "There are two futures for the both of us. Either we cure you and everything will be alright. Or we don't. You will be taken into the folds of the darkness and I will be left here, to live a Nayanor lifetime without you.

  "So no, this isn't a choice for me. I'm trying to save us both."

  The fire in Jackie's eyes was gone. In place of it, there was pure steel as she opened her mouth and spoke very firmly.

  "If you think anything could be alright between us after this, you're an even bigger fool than I thought."

  "There will come a day when you look back at this moment and thank me for not letting you give up," Kol-Eresh said, knowing he was making it worse.