Alien Knight Blind Date Disaster (Lumerian Knights Book 3)

by Becca Brayden

  Falden raced to the front door, Gareth hot on his heels. Still invisible to both the Caldorians and the criminals they fought, they moved stealthily around the three males holding the door against King Dagan’s forces. The three men crouched behind the open doors, using the heavy wood and steel structures as cover. Falden and Gareth stepped behind them easily. To cut down the enemy here would reveal their presence, their very existence to both the Caldorian warriors and the enemy.

  And the Lumerian Knights were a myth. Legend. A closely guarded secret for more than two thousand years.

  Still, the urge to strike rode Falden hard, made his sword arm tingle with the need to hunt down anything and everything between him and Isabella.

  A quick scan of their surroundings showed multiple levels, all teeming with various life forms. One in particular caught Falden’s attention. Next to him, Gareth sucked in a quick breath as he registered the same data.

  “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Yes.” Falden did not need to elaborate. He and Gareth had not battled a Dark One, servant of the A’Nua Na-KI, in several hundred years. He was not pleased to see the powerful creature showing up on their scanners now. What was it doing on Earth? And how had the presence of their ancient enemy gone unnoticed?

  More relevant to the moment, how many of the Dark Ones, vile, wicked and merciless, had the A’Nua Na-KI sent to Earth?

  “Fuck me. What do they want with Isabella?” Gareth whispered, despite the fact that there was no need, at least not at the moment. The low-level scum they’d passed on the way in could not see through their Spectral Shielding. But the Dark Ones? Or the A’Nua Na-KI? He hadn’t fought either in a long, long time, and the last battle had not gone in the Lumerians’ favor.

  “A few weeks ago I would've said food or slavery. Now I’d say the Vilitos and Darkoor putting a bounty out on any human female came from higher up the food chain.”

  Gareth grunted and drew his sword. “Not good. Dagan needs to be warned.”

  That was true. If the A’Nua Na-KI had somehow heard about Sasha and her new power? They would send hordes of the Dark Ones to Earth. Swarm the planet searching for human females who could do what the new queen of the Caldorians could do—manipulate the power of the ancient Lumerian crystals, channel healing energy. Torrin’s woman could generate fire. And that was only the beginning. Falden had no idea what would happen to such powerful human females over time, as months stretched to years, years to centuries. He had vague memories from his youth of elder Lumerian females so powerful they could destroy entire fleets of ships with nothing more than their will.

  “Where to?” Gareth waited for Falden’s command.

  “Cassiel? Vander?” Falden asked.

  “In position. You aren’t going to believe what we’re seeing up here.”

  “Fuck.” Gareth sighed as Vander continued.

  “A Dark One, Commander, on the first floor. Visible through the first set of windows. Could be more. Can’t see inside yet. Too many fucking Darkoor swarming around.”

  “Damn bloodsucking worms.” Cassiel’s outburst made Vander chuckle into his comm.

  Falden cursed under his breath. The Darkoor they could handle, but the Dark Ones were interdimensional creatures. Not only were they vicious fighters, they were smart. And without a Sword of Ohm-Ra, a semicircular weapon used to disrupt their ability to shift into other dimensional forms, force them to coalesce and remain in one place just long enough to be vulnerable, there was no way to defeat one. “Even one is too many.”

  “Give the word, Commander,” Vander said grimly. “Let’s do this. We’ll start cleaning up out here and meet you in the middle.”

  “No.” Falden debated for all of three seconds. The Caldorians fighting their way inside were providing the distraction he had wanted, but the Dark One’s claws would rip through the unsuspecting warriors like razors through rice paper. There was more on the line than Isabella’s life. He’d been next to King Dagan long enough to know these warriors were good men. They needed protection. And Dagan had sent them here because Isabella had forced his hand.

  He could not afford any mistakes. This was more than they’d bargained for. With the Dark One inside, four Lumerian Knights and a hundred Caldorians would never be enough. They did not have the weapons needed to deal with a Dark One. The best they could hope for would be to save Isabella with minimum casualties and escape.

  Shifting slightly where he and Gareth crouched out of the way of foot traffic to and from the entrance, he activated an emergency beacon in his armor that would summon all Lumerians within range. Now. Right fucking now.

  Over a hundred Knights would be here in the next few minutes, en masse, fighting shoulder to shoulder for the first time since their planet had been destroyed. Exposing themselves to the world, to the universe, the Intergalactic Council, to their enemies. And for what?

  For Isabella.

  For Falden’s sanity, because without her in his life, he would break. He’d been strong for centuries. She made him weak. Needy. But it was too late to go back to the way he was before. Too fucking late—and he didn’t want to. The cold, echoing loneliness beckoned him with a familiar call, but he was done living in that void. He needed her, and he didn’t need anything.

  Gareth grunted in surprise. “She mean that much to you?”

  “Yes.” He had not realized it, not until this moment, but life without Isabella was not worth living. Not to him. Not anymore. He’d done his duty, spent millennia protecting the Lumerian royal bloodline, fighting for his people. For the first time, none of that meant anything without her. “I can’t lose her.”

  Gareth’s gaze met his, and the look in his friend’s eyes was cold as ice. Deadly. Focused. “Then we won’t lose her.”

  “Fuck yeah, bro. Let’s slice and dice.” Cassiel’s new attempt to master human slang actually made Falden grin.

  Slice and dice.

  He gripped Furon in his hand. “The others will be here soon.” The rest of his Knights were on the Caldorian base. Summoned by the emergency beacon, they would not waste time with human means of transportation and would arrive within minutes.

  Falden tightened his grip, the weight of the sword nothing, as if the strange liquid-metal had forged to his flesh, become part of him. “Slice and dice. Vander. Cassiel. Meet us on the first floor. Isabella is below us.”

  “Understood. We’re moving. Vander out.”

  Falden nodded to Gareth, and they moved as one back toward the entrance, now guarded by two Darkoor and three human males, all firing stolen Caldorian weapons at the warriors outside.

  Blue fire arced through the air as Falden swung his sword, decapitating the nearest human. The second was dead before the first body hit the floor. Next to him, Gareth swung up from the floor, the Darkoor nearest him sliced from crotch to throat. Gareth split the monster’s body in half before stabbing the remaining human through the heart.

  Only one enemy remained, and Falden recognized him all too well, first from the bar where Falden had met Isabella, and then from Dagan’s interrogation room. Deactivating his Spectral Cloaking Armor before an enemy for the first time in centuries, Falden appeared out of thin air as the Darkoor scrambled for his weapon, his round rows of teeth bared so fiercely Falden could see down the asshole’s throat.

  “Bhaosz. Where is Isabella?”

  “Fuck you.” Bhaosz raised a Caldorian rifle. Fired at point-blank range. The burst of light bounced off Falden’s armor like sunlight off a mirror. Bhaosz raised the rifle to fire again and Falden snapped.

  He lifted the sword and pointed the tip at Bhaosz. Made of an otherworldly material, the semiliquid blade swirled like smoke. Ancient runes engraved down the center glowed an electric blue.

  Electrical fire raced from Falden’s hands and crackled along the length of the blade until the energy burst from him, from the sword, like lightning toward his enemy. With a scream, Bhaosz was lifted from his feet and thrown to the ceiling, held there b
y the steady current Falden was generating.

  “Where. Is. She?”

  Four more Darkoor raced toward Falden, all attempts at appearing human long forgotten as they fought with inhuman strength and determination to reach the Lumerian.

  Two Caldorians burst through the front door, took in the scene with a glance and fired past Gareth to seriously injure one of the Darkoor before Gareth could slice the fucker in half. Irritated, he chopped off the other’s head and gave Falden his back. No one was getting past him.

  “Where is she?” Falden growled.

  Bhaosz screamed as bright blue and white flames licked around and through his body in a live electrocution. The sound coming from him was completely alien. No humanoid creature could make the twisted screech that exited the Darkoor’s round throat.

  “Where is she?” Falden’s voice had not risen. If anything, it had gone soft. Dark. Merciless.

  When Gareth and the two Caldorians dispatched three more well-armed Darkoor, Bhaosz gave up hope.

  “First floor. Boss has her.”

  “Why? Why does he want her?” Falden demanded.

  Bhaosz laughed, the sound pure evil. “Sasha. Maju. Crystals. They know.”

  “Fuck.” Gareth’s voice cut through the clutter in Falden’s mind like nothing else could have, echoing his own thoughts at the Darkoor’s statement. If the A’Nua Na-KI knew human females were being activated by microbes in the maju paste, knew that females like Sasha Tiranon and now Juliette Rosen had been transformed into women so similar to Lumerian women, even he would be hard-pressed to tell the difference, could summon powers lost to the near extinct Lumerian race, they’d swarm Earth, take every human woman they could get their hands on, kill as many as they had to in order to find what they wanted. Enemies of his people, powerful individuals who held seats on the Intergalactic Council, would be after the women as well. Looking for one who could give them dominance in the never-ending, universe-wide struggle for power and control.

  They would hunt for more women like Sasha. Like Juliette. Like Isabella.

  But Isabella was not bonded to a male. She was not anchored in her power. She was not Lumerian, not born with their gifts. Right this moment, she could be in agony. Suffering. Dying.

  “Enough.” Done with the garbage of a life form before him, Falden released his hold on Furon’s energy. The lightning coming from the sword faded until there was not enough force to hold Bhaosz’s body suspended. Falden sliced Bhaosz in half as the Darkoor fell to the floor.

  Behind him, the two Caldorian warriors who had taken up posts near Gareth looked confused. One kept an eye on the interior while the other felt around like a blind man, arms outstretched, grasping at empty air.

  “What are you doing?” Falden asked.

  The warrior, a strong young male named Yorek, did not divert his attention from his search. “There is someone here. A shot came from this area when we were being rushed by the humans.” He lowered a hand to indicate a pile of half a dozen dead on the floor before his partner. “We took them out, but we had help. I know we did. I’m not hallucinating.”

  Falden sighed. “No, Yorek. You’re not.” He stepped forward. “Gareth, reveal yourself.”

  On his right, standing less than a foot away from Yorek, Gareth appeared as if out of thin air, his sword brandished in one hand, a laser pistol in the other. “Hey, kid.”

  “Good. Let’s go.” Falden lifted his chin, and Gareth grinned as he disappeared again. Falden turned to the Caldorian. “You in command of this op?”

  “Yes. Who are you?” Yorek’s eyes narrowed dangerously as he took in Falden’s armor. His sword. His markings. “What the hell’s going on here?”

  Falden didn’t waste time arguing. “I work with King Dagan. Elite guard. We run Dungeon 6.”

  There was a flicker of recognition in the Caldorian’s gaze, and Falden knew the Lumerians had not been perfect in their efforts to remain hidden. Remain secret. His Knights had been too comfortable for too long. There were rumors among the Caldorians on base, rumors about Dungeon 6 and invisible warriors.

  When Yorek simply stared, waiting for more information, Falden continued. “Gareth and I are going inside. More of my Knights are on the way. Take the building, but be careful. There are humans here fighting, but there are also more Darkoor and a Dark One.”

  That made Yorek take a step back and raise his weapon. “Here? Why?”

  Good questions that Falden didn’t have time to answer. “In case this goes badly, make sure King Dagan knows that both the Council and the A’Nua Na-KI know about Sasha. Can you make sure you tell him that?”

  “I don’t understand.” The Caldorian warrior shook his head, frowning. “Everyone knows King Dagan has found his mate. What are you not saying?”

  Gareth took the opportunity to smack the much younger male on the back of the head. “No time. Just do as you’re told. And don’t get in our way. Council. Queen Sasha. A’Nua Na-KI. Got that?”

  Yorek nodded and Falden activated his armor, disappearing before the Caldorian’s eyes.

  “When do we get that armor?” Yorek’s friend, silent until now, fired a shot over the pile of corpses on the floor, not missing a beat.

  Chapter Twelve

  A warm, metallic tang coated Isabella’s cracked lips, the smell of her own blood strong in her nostrils. She was dying. She knew it like she knew each time she pulled air into her lungs, it would burn like acid, and each time she lifted her head, the world would spin. And spin.

  And spin.

  She held on stubbornly, hope keeping her fighting, not for herself…for Matthew. The twelve-year-old boy lay unconscious on the floor next to her. He was still breathing. Barely.

  All she could do was pray that whatever drug they had given him would wear off with no ill effects. Until then, she had to hold on, remain conscious. Fight. She was too weak to carry Matthew out of here. She knew that. Holding on until he woke up and they could work together to get out of this hellhole was her only goal.

  That was assuming she wasn’t eaten before then.

  The terrifying charcoal colored creature rested near a table taller than her head. There were body parts on that table. Human. Alien. She wasn’t sure. Maybe a jumble of both. In the cup placed in the middle? Blood, some of it hers. She knew because they’d slit her arm and taken what they wanted as the creature watched with dead, hate-filled eyes.

  She wanted to kill him. It. Whatever he was, he wasn’t human. More like a skeleton on an acid trip. His flesh was purest black, the color of deep space, black tar, with no gloss, no sheen, no life. His eyes were equally black, an abyss of nothing, glittering with evil. Pure. Evil. And where his eyebrows should have been curved pieces of bone protruded from its skin. The bone fragments formed patterns that covered parts of the monster’s face and neck. It’s chest. She’d never seen anything like it, and never wanted to see it again.

  The creature ate and tossed his scraps to the floor where a dozen Darkoor scrambled and fought over the muscle left on a thigh, the fat left on a bone. The creature poured blood from his cup, and they ran their hands through the puddles on the floor, painted their flesh, the blood coloring the stark, bone-white rows of teeth a disgusting shade of red.

  It was horrific. Macabre. If she hadn’t been on the verge of vomiting every time she opened her eyes, she would have thought it was a nightmare. Except nightmares happened when one was asleep, and she was very much awake. And in pain.

  She held Matthew’s head in her lap and ran her fingers through the hair at his temple, cursing herself for being a thousand kinds of stupid.

  She should have listened to Falden when he said it was too dangerous for her to speak to Bhaosz. She’d had no idea what he was, and once he showed her the truth, she should have waited, assembled a team, let the aliens who knew how to fight these evil creatures do the fighting.

  But she’d been arrogant. The new power of her voice and her ignorance about what was really going on had led her on this
wild-goose chase. And now she was very afraid she was going to die here. Matthew too.

  Or worse.

  For years she’d heard the phrase, a fate worse than death. Intellectually she’d known there had to be things worse than dying. But she’d never felt the truth of those words until now. She’d give anything to be back in Falden’s arms. She should have listened to him. Told him everything.

  The creature raised a thigh to his mouth, held by the lower half of the leg. It was small. Human. She retched as his teeth tore the leg in half.

  The leg of a woman? She didn’t want to know. Turning her head aside, she squeezed her eyes shut, dipped her head down toward Mathew to drown out the slurping sounds as the creature fed. The term blood market took on a whole new meaning. She’d naively assumed they meant only blood. Like a vampire. Not. This.

  “Oh my God.”

  That was it. Game over for her stomach. She crawled to the edge of the mat they’d chained her to as her stomach heaved. The collar around her neck didn’t let her get far.

  She was a fucking dog on a leash sitting at her master’s feet. A master who might decide to eat her at any moment.

  The remains of the leg hit the ground a few feet from her. Unfinished, the creature moved faster than her eyes could track, tearing the remains of the other leg to shreds in a matter of seconds, his claws cutting through the muscle and tendon like a hot knife in warm butter.

  She dry heaved, scrambling as far away from the smell as she could get. She pulled Matthew’s unconscious weight with her as every muscle in her body filled with fiery agony.

  She struggled to clear her vision, wishing at the same moment that she couldn’t see at all. Her head felt like rats were devouring her brain from the inside out, the pain unique and impossible to describe. And when she had tried to summon the energy to use her voice? The creature had laughed at her.

  Laughed.

  She was going to die here.

  The hopeless thought flashed through her mind and was gone. Dismissed.

  If she died, Matthew died, and that was not acceptable. She would stay awake. Focus. Wait for an opportunity.