Alien Knight Steals The Bride

by Becca Brayden

  “Torrin,” Juliette cried out.

  I am here, my love. Hear me. Mind to mind.

  I-I can hear you, Torrin. How is that possible?

  We are connected. Joined. My strength is now your strength, just as yours is now mine. I am stronger and faster than most. I heal almost instantly. Now all that I have is yours. Can you feel my love for you?

  Yes. Yes. Oh, Torrin. I’ve been such a fool. Please forgive me.

  We’ve both been foolish. That is in the past. We are together now. We are one.

  I love you.

  You are my everything, Juliette. I want to stay here with you forever, but we are in danger. I feel a great enemy approaching.

  Juliette opened her eyes and turned her face to the North. Yes. I can feel them coming. What are they?

  They are A’nua Na-KI, my love. They survive on the blood of others. They have no life-force energy, so are almost magnetically attracted to it. We must wake. Get out of here.

  Yes. I understand.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Abruptly, the electrical current disappeared, dropping Torrin and Juliette unceremoniously to the hard ground. Heavy, cold rain splattered across their faces.

  Torrin was the first to open his eyes. Gathering Juliette into his arms, he leaned over her to protect her from the torrential downpour. “Falden! Enough with the rain!”

  Falden lowered his sword, sheathing the blade in the scabbard strapped to his back. Slowly the rain let up until only a fine, misty drizzle remained.

  Stroking Juliette’s cheek with the tips of his fingers, Torrin brushed his lips lightly against hers.

  Juliette’s arms snaked around his neck, pulling him toward her for more.

  He groaned, wanting nothing more than to take her back to the small cargo ship they’d stolen and pleasure her until she was too hoarse to scream. Instead, he nipped her full bottom lip. “Juliette.”

  “Mmm,” she mumbled, still not fully aware of her surroundings.

  “My love, we must move from here. The A’nua Na-KI are coming.”

  Juliette’s eyes popped open, fully alert this time. “Oh my god. They’re coming.”

  “Yes,” he nodded, helping her stand. “Are you strong enough for transport? The experience can be a bit disturbing.”

  She turned her head and saw strangers, all but the one she’d spoken with during her communications with Dr. Jorvin. These were huge alien warriors, all wearing strange black camouflage material that flickered in patches in and out of sight like shadows in the night. Juliette turned back to Torrin, questions racing through her mind at the speed of light.

  Greig interrupted. “Enemy ship approaching! Straight ahead! Get down!”

  “I’ll explain later,” Torrin promised, pulling her back down into a running crouch. “For now, let’s get you out of here. I don’t want you anywhere near here when the A’nua Na-KI and their Vilitos friends find us.”

  Juliette looked at Torrin with love in her eyes and dug her heels in, refusing to go. Refusing to run. “No. They’re just as responsible for Balinora’s death as C’bor. I won’t go. I can’t pretend to know what just happened, but I know we are one. If you die, then I’ll die, too, so I might as well stay and fight.” She looked at her hands as hot sparks tickled her fingertips, her eyes glazing with inner fire. “With your help, I can do this. I know I can. Just guide me through it.”

  Torrin’s heart dropped into his stomach as a large black ship appeared directly in front of them. There was no time to argue with Juliette. The time for choosing was gone.

  “I’m right handed, so stay to my left!” he ordered Juliette. “If you think you can control those flames, we could use you as a sort of human flame-thrower. I should be immune to it now that we’re together, but dangerous all the same! We could die here today if we stay and fight!”

  “I won’t let my friend die in vain, Torrin! I have to fight!” she yelled over the sound of the ship’s enormous engine thrusters.

  Juliette took a moment to figure out how to direct a stream of white hot flame through her hands, but once she figure it out, there was no stopping her.

  Torrin nodded to Taeger and Falden, then led the way toward the enemy ship, hacking and slicing their way through Vilitos scum as Juliette spread her flame across their forward path, incinerating everything it touched.

  On and on they fought until they reached the ship. “Get back!” she shouted.

  “What are you doing?” he yelled, fear for her uppermost in his mind.

  Juliette put both hands on the dark ship and closed her eyes. Soon, the metal began to heat. Burn. Melt. Inside, they could hear inhuman shrieking.

  The ship’s engines roared to life. In an instant, it was gone.

  Juliette fell to the ground, unconscious. Torrin sank to his knees, covering her protectively with his body as he, too lost consciousnees, as much of the energy she’d used had come from him. They were one.

  Juliette yawned. She tried to stretch, but something heavy was on top of her. Birds chirped at the window. She slit one eye open, too comfortable to move far. Torrin’s heavy leg was draped over hers. She was in a big, soft bed. Snuggling closer to his blessedly cool frame, she opened her other eye and looked around.

  “Great! You’re awake. I’m Sasha,” a young woman’s voice greeted her.

  “Agh!” she screamed, completely disoriented. Without thinking, she shot a ball of fire at the strange voice, realizing too late that the ethereal beauty and the huge alien warrior standing protectively next to her were no threat.

  Blue flame engulfed the woman as Juliette’s fireball hurtled toward her face. The fireball hit the wall of blue and fizzled out. “Oh,” exclaimed Sasha. “That was unexpected. A bit tingly.” She smiled sweetly.

  Juliette shoved at Torrin’s arm until he groaned sleepily. “Torrin,” she hissed under her breath. “Wake up.

  “Mmm?” he mumbled. “Come back to bed.”

  Juliette shoved him again. “Wake up. We have company.”

  With one smooth motion, Torrin rolled out of bed, instantly on high alert, ready to kill. “What?”

  Juliette hissed in aggravation. “And now you’re standing there naked.”

  Torrin shook the sleep out of his eyes, finally focusing on what was really happening. Dagan, the Caldorian King, was standing in front of him, grinning like a Cheshire cat. And next to him, a tiny little Lumerian female. He stared. No. That wasn’t quite right. She had markings across her forehead that sparkled like crystals. He’d never seen anything quite like it before. He didn’t want to be rude to his king, but he needed answers.

  “Dagan,” he frowned. “What’s going on? Where are we?”

  “You’re on Earth, my friend,” Dagan rumbled. “You’re in my home, at least until I can get a more permanent one built. And this is Sasha,” he squeezed the tiny woman next to him. “Like you, we went through the yielding.”

  Torrin looked around. “How did we get here?”

  This time Sasha answered. “We were going to bring you in our ship, but the big warrior named Taeger insisted he bring you here,” she said, scrunching up her nose. “I think he and Falden are still downstairs arguing over who’s going to protect you now that the cat’s out of the bag and all.”

  He stared at the tiny woman, completely puzzled by her strange words. “Why would a cat escaping from a bag cause concern? Is it overlarge? Dangerous?”

  “No,” she laughed. “I just meant about you being royal and all. Heir to the throne?”

  Torrin looked to Dagan for confirmation. “Is that true? Did you know?”

  Dagan frowned “I didn’t know. Falden will have to tell you about it. We just found out ourselves. However, now that I know, I can officially extend Caldor’s hand in friendship. We are, as always, your ally. “

  Sasha chimed in, “You’re welcome to stay on Caldor, I’m sure, but we’d love for you to make your home here on Earth. You, and any other Lumerians that wish to settle here.”

 
Torrin nodded, then turned to Juliette. “I would make my home here eventually if that appeals to you, and you may stay here now if you wish, but I must find my brother first. I would welcome your assistance.”

  Juliette’s smiled lit up the room. “I go where you go.”

  He leaned down and kissed her breathless. Neither one noticed when the king and queen left. “I go where you go, my queen.”

  Epilogue

  Lumerian Knight Taeger Norasair – Commander/Guard/Spec-Ops

  They jumped through space, transported from their ship to a long, black corridor perhaps ten paces wide. Black floor. Black walls. Black ceiling. As black as deep space.

  “If their sensors picked up any trace of us, they’ll be on us in seconds. Stay low,” Taeger ordered. One glance at the readout inside his visor confirmed what he already knew; he was with six of his bravest warriors. They’d all volunteered for this mission even though they knew the odds of success were almost nil. A suicide mission. But they had to try. They’d been in countless battles over the centuries. Nothing compared to this one. They were to rescue a child. Just one.

  They had arrived in formation, one hand flat on the hard, obsidian floor of the enemy ship’s upper corridor, one knee bent beneath them and the opposite leg stretched out behind, poised for a sprint. Cloaked. Unseen. Silent.

  He had taken point position on the spear, the other seven members of the rescue team fanned out behind him. As he blinked to clear his vision, he was glad they had come to this place wearing full armor. There was air in the corridor, but they had not known whether it would be breathable. He assumed the oxygenated atmosphere would be saved for the prisoners, mostly human, locked in cells somewhere deeper in the ship. The gravity holding them in place was not meant for comfort or safety. Rather, it was to keep the ‘product’ in prime condition during transport. Compliant. Damage free. Fresh.

  Greig, his second in command, looked around grimly, gripping his weapon tighter as he murmured, “You sure we can’t get everyone out and blow this place to all hell?”

  Taeger glanced back without answering. They all knew the answer, including Greig. They were Lumerian Knights. They couldn’t destroy the ship while there were people on board. They couldn’t kill the innocent.

  At their backs stood the wall on the far end of the long, open corridor. Approximately a quarter mile long, so long that the corridor shrank to a tiny point in the distance. The space was nearly square with ceilings double his height. The walls were like carved stone, the markings on the black surface uniform and repeated. About every eight paces an inset appeared. Wide enough for four or five to pass abreast, the sliding doorways set back just a few inches from the main two walls of the corridor. Those were the holding cells, one after another. Dozens of them, with no visible controls to open the doors. They’d chosen this location for transport because the ship’s small control room was reported to be near, not quite centered, on this upper level.

  They weren’t sure how many enemies they would face. Here, now, Taeger sensed five, and those five terrified him.

  “I see one!” Greig lifted his forearm mounted weapon down the corridor. In his other hand he held a Sword of Ohm-Ra. The semi-circular weapon glowed a soft white, the latent energy ready to merge with that of their enemies, break their connection with the ghosting technology they’d been using.

  “Fire!” Taeger ordered, lifting his arm, blasting the attacker as quickly as he could. On either side of him, Seth and Greig did the same. Their job was to slow the Dark Ones down so the warriors behind them could move into position and strike with their Rings and anchor the enemy to this dimension. Once they had them pinned to this reality, they would execute them with the Lumerian swords strapped to their backs.

  “It’s not working!” Greig shouted.

  “Keep firing,” Taeger ordered as the others fanned out to the sides, ready to close in on the enemy from behind.

  “Damned thing’s too fast, and I think it can see us,” another warrior replied, his calm demeaner never faltering.

  The deep, steady voice came from behind Taeger and to his left. Seth. A good man. A fierce fighter.

  But there were four more. Somewhere.

  And this one was smiling. Or whatever passed as a smile on its inhuman face. With skin stretched tight, black as the walls but dull, as its body absorbed all light and reflected none. The eyes were sunken into a matte black face, its expression unreadable. Bottomless. Predators’ eyes. Rounded pieces of bone protruded from the skin in a vertical arched pattern where eyebrows should have been, the pieces stark white and shocking in the dark. Similar pieces of bone erupted from flesh along the cheeks and around the mouth, down its chest in a macabre display meant to inspire terror.

  The creature leaped through the air, falling from above, completely unaffected by the weapons they’d brought. One clawed hand, with fingers twice the length of Taeger’s and sharp, clawed bones at the tip, slashed through the armor of the warrior beside Greig like the suit was made of paper. Lyari’s scream was cut short as the Dark One slashed his throat.

  Greig bellowed with rage, slashing at the Dark One. Evil eyes turned toward him as it fed on the downed warrior’s spraying blood, completely unaffected by Greig’s weapons. Unaffected. Amused.

  Taeger grabbed Greig and dragged him back. “Seth’s right. Our cloaking doesn’t work on them. They can see us. There’s nothing we can do. We need to regroup.”

  As Lumerians, they’d seen the results of this advanced technology, but did not yet understand how the Dark Ones’ multi-dimensional reality worked. This was their true enemy. The unwavering, vampire-like creatures known as A’nua Na-KI. The Dark Ones. Non-living. Non-life force energy.

  All Taeger knew was that the Swords of Ohm-Ra they’d found deep, deep in the black market would somehow disrupt their ability to shift their mass into other dimensional forms, force them to coalesce and remain in one place just long enough to be vulnerable. For a few seconds, they could be destroyed.

  Other civilizations had watched the Dark Ones devour world after world, bound by the Intergalactic Council to stay out of the way. Taeger and his men were Lumerian Knights, once bound by the same Council, but that was more than two thousand years ago. Lumeria was gone. Destroyed. He and his men had been on their own all this time. Survived the destruction. All Taeger cared about now was seeing justice done. For him. For his people. For the people unable to fend for themselves, destined to be destroyed by the A’nua Na-KI if someone didn’t stop them.

  He and the other Lumerian Knights based on Mora Five had spent years preparing. Cultivating trade partners. Some legitimate. Some black market. They would do whatever was necessary to take down their enemies.

  “Our weapons barely slow them down.” Taeger motioned to his men to gather closer, never taking his eyes from the gruesome creature feeding on his friend.

  He had nearly a dozen of the white rings, and still he feared they wouldn’t be enough. Each ring was only good for one strike, one perfect strike. And the strikes would only be effective in five places. Only five. The center of the palm. The center of the sole of the foot. The third eye. The center of their chest. Center of their lower abdomen. And those three, only from the front. Striking along the spine did nothing. “Puncture their flesh with the ring, hook it into their bodies along one of their energy meridians. Then kill them. Strike fast.”

  Seth interjected, “Does anyone know where the boy is?”

  “Lower level. Right under us,” Taeger nodded, glancing at the energy signature readout. “He’s not alone.”

  “So, as far as possible from our current position,” Greig shouted as he blasted the creature with what should have been a mortal blow.

  What he said was true. The ship was long and narrow with two levels of holding cells. There was a primitive ladder on the far end, opposite their position, that would allow them access to the lower level holding cells. Behind them was some kind of elevator, but they had no way to operate it. Like everythin
g on this ship, it was bare of controls systems. No lights. No buttons. It was either operated through the main control room, or the Dark Ones could control everything on the ship with something implanted in their bodies. Or with their minds.

  Taeger knew they’d come in on the second floor, but assumed the elevator was only taken one direction…up. The lowest level, where they needed to go, was for cargo. Human cargo.

  This vessel was small, a single piece of a greater whole that had been sent to collect ‘food’ supplies and reconnect with the main ship. The few crew members would be eager to rejoin their brethren once they reunited. None of them would bother with the humans they’d collected.

  Research led the Knights to believe that to be assigned to the Dark Ones’ harvesting ships was one of the lowest level duties among their people. A punishment. An embarrassment. Interacting with their food was beneath them.

  Most of the Dark Ones never made contact with, or even saw, what they were carrying back to their home world to be consumed. The engines were on the lowest level, unmanned unless there was a problem. Elsewhere on the ship, more of the Dark Ones took their leisure, waiting out the trip home. The ship was simple. Efficient. A three-layer construct that needed no guards and a mere handful of crew.

  All other species were nothing to them. Lower than microbes in intellect. Simply food. Slaves. Pets. Nothing more. Not for millennia.

  Unfortunately, this cargo vessel was full. Of minds. Of terrified people. His people, from his new home planet Mora Five. Or what was left of it. They had destroyed everything. Taken everything. Even the boy they all needed to hold their people and culture together.

  Taeger and his men had kept the boy safe and out of harm’s way. Until now. The attack had begun three days ago. He knew the Dark Ones were behind the destruction of his own world. Somehow hiding behind their pathetic allies. Using the Vilitos as servants and shields. Taeger burned with fury. Regret. Pain.

  Now, just as before, everyone was forced to flee, evacuate, leave their homes and possessions for the small chance of survival on yet another world. Forced to run. Always running. Always in hiding.