Dad Panther (Alien Guardians of Earth Book 3)

by Donna McDonald

  “I can’t.” Reva covered her mouth with her hand and then lowered it. Now she was in it deep. There was no choice. “What I mean is… when I take it off, it just… it turns up back on me. When I change clothes, the jewelry changes to something different. I thought I was losing my mind.”

  She watched the men looking at each other. Had she gone too far? The badge-flashing man came to a decision—God help her. She could see it on his face.

  “You’re coming with us,” he informed her.

  “Heads up but don’t point at her,” he told the one with the gun before turning to the third.

  “Pack her things. Leave nothing behind. Set a blue light discharge to destroy all traces of her DNA. We don’t want to be followed.”

  Reva trudged behind the flashing-badge man knowing the weapon was only inches away from her. She crossed her arms and rubbed them from the chill chasing behind the adrenaline rush of her fear.

  Surprising her, the guy with the weapon scooped down and picked up her sweater from the chair she’d sat in earlier. He held it out to her. Reva chuckled nervously but accepted it. Some bit of comfort was better than none.

  Reva slipped her arms into the sleeves and pulled it on. When she felt the end of the gun push between her shoulder blades, she had no choice but to leave.

  Reva…

  It was the voice in her head—the one from the Hall of Echoes.

  “It’s okay. I’ll be with Hank soon,” Reva said aloud, hoping the sentient blade understood her message. Death was coming for her. As soon as they found out her jewelry was just regular old gold, it was all over. Death didn’t worry her. It was the method of dying that had her freaked out.

  “Hank?” the badge-flashing man repeated, turning to her.

  “My dead husband. I hope he’s waiting for me on the other side after you kill me,” Reva flatly informed him.

  “We don’t want your death, Dr. Hunter. Quite the opposite, in fact. We want your cooperation.”

  “Mine or the alien’s you said made me come hide out in a cavern?” Reva asked.

  “If I understand how this shit works, it’s all one and the same, isn’t it?”

  Reva frowned. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” But now she understood why the sentient blade had refused her request for information.

  Praying help was waiting twenty-two stories up. Reva stared ahead as she and two of her abductors crowded into the elevator.

  9

  “Regretting your decision?” Rodu asked.

  “No,” Sugar said firmly. “The children are safe. Axel will take care of them. Sure, I can feel a bunch of new mother emotions pulling on me, but I’m okay. The artifact is helping me hold them back. I’ll deal with them later when we’re home and all the blades are safe.”

  “A set of coordinates just flashed through the travel log. I’m retrieving them now. Should I set a course to the location?” Gina asked.

  “Yes. Get us there as fast as you can,” Sugar said firmly. She looked at Rodu. “The Creator Blade sent those.”

  “I agree,” Rodu said with a nod.

  Sugar turned to Protector Lake. “Are you going to let the real Lake out for a while?”

  “Negative,” the Protector Blade answered flatly. “He has given me permission to stay in control.”

  Sugar crossed her arms and stared. “Why would Junior do that? He’s not the take a back seat type.”

  Protector Lake turned away. “Your words confuse me, but I understand enough from your tone to determine that no answer would please you. You are not able to hear the real reason without judgment yet.”

  “Say what…” Sugar burst out, uncrossing her arms and leaning forward. “Haven’t you interfered in Lake’s life enough for one day? Let Junior out for a while. I need to talk to him.”

  Rodu reached out a hand. “Let him be, Sugar. It is between Lake and his blade. They must reach their own accord on things. I’m sure Lake has his reasons.”

  Sugar narrowed her gaze on Rodu. “Do you know what they are?”

  Rodu shook his head. “No, but I trust my gut. The Creator Blade will enlighten us when we find it. Since you told me there were four blades, I’ve always known the Creator Blade was the one with the answers we all seek.”

  Sugar leaned back and shrugged in defeat. “Fine. I don’t really miss Junior’s runaway mouth anyway.”

  “Me neither,” Gina said from the pilot’s seat. She banked the aircraft right to swing around for a landing. “We’re here, but we have to stay cloaked. Someone else arrived before us.”

  Protector Lake looked out of the window. “The blade is not with them. The woman does not host.”

  Sugar walked to peer out of the same window. “That woman is too calm to be hiding a blade on her person. She’s walking along with a gun shoved in her back and not having a meltdown. I think she knows about the blade and is keeping calm on purpose.”

  Rodu came to the window and peered out. “Her abductors look military.”

  Gina turned to all of them and glared. “Hush so I can listen and learn the truth without all your guessing,” she ordered. She moved her airship’s translator to face the men who were holding the woman hostage. “They seem to think the woman has the blade on her person. She seems to be letting them believe it. Perhaps she has it on her.”

  “No,” all three of them answered before looking at each other.

  Sugar chuckled. “Only a weird human like me would spend the night twenty-two stories underground by choice. And that woman doesn’t look like an Ancient Earth historian.” She shoved Protector Lake’s shoulder. “Are you willing to go look in the place they took her from? The Creator Blade may still be down there in the cavern.”

  “Host Lake and I gladly accept the task of looking,” Protector Lake said with a head bow.

  “Good,” Sugar said then grinned at Rodu. “Think you can help me rescue that poor woman without killing those men?”

  Rodu huffed. “I can try to control myself. Can you?”

  “The artifact would advise me to decline to state what cannot be determined before engaging in the conflict in question.” Sugar laughed at her attempt at geek speak, then touched the center of her chest. Moments later, she was covered in a suit of golden energy. “My control improves daily. The Protector Blade and I are now one.”

  Rodu snorted before touching his chest. “I’m starting to believe you have gotten that far in your symbiosis.”

  Sugar looked over her shoulder. With the blade’s keener senses, she saw Axel’s sister in ways that would shock the Lyran scientist if she knew. “Gina of Rodu, are you prepared to fight to survive? Your family requires you to keep living.”

  “Give me no thought. I am prepared to fight,” Gina confirmed. She watched the blade energy form armor around the man who’d helped give her life. “Take care of each other. The group you see outside has many advanced technological weapons. Some may be able to undermine the blades inside you. Bring their weapons back if you can for me to study.”

  Sugar bowed her head to acknowledge the warning and the request. Then the three of them crept to the partially opened door Gina indicated and jumped silently to the ground together.

  They hid beside a building near the hotel’s front entrance. She and Rodu watched as Lake took something from his pocket and looped it over his head. Moments later, Lake jogged forward and disappeared from view as they watched.

  “He uses the tools she made for him. Gina of Rodu excels in stealth,” Sugar explained, looking at the male who helped Queen Nyomi create the brilliant scientist.

  “But Gina is not a warrior,” Rodu reminded her.

  Sugar turned back and looked at the woman standing between the two men. She pointed to her. “Neither is that woman, yet she does not run away. The men are distracted. Most humans would at least try to escape. It is instinctive.”

  “The man with the weapon watches her closely. He would kill her instantly if she made any move to run. She remains with them ou
t of self-preservation. It is a logical choice.”

  Sugar shrugged. “I think she is willing to sacrifice herself. If that is the case though, why are she and the Creator not yet merged?”

  “Perhaps the woman refused,” Rodu suggested.

  “I was not given a choice,” Sugar said.

  “Neither was I,” Rodu stated.

  “Nor was Lake Allen Wright. We know he fought the blade during merging,” Sugar added.

  Together, they looked at the woman and studied her more closely.

  “Perhaps she is an innocent who got involved accidentally,” Sugar suggested.

  “If so, that gives us more reason to save her,” Rodu added.

  A third man exited the hotel’s main entrance in a run to join the other two. He was carrying a big suitcase and a woman’s purse.

  “I set the discharge for five minutes from now. When the ground rumbles, we can go.”

  “Okay, Dr. Hunter. You and your fancy jewelry need to get loaded up.”

  When the first man grabbed her arm, the woman jerked it away. “Thought you said I wasn’t a prisoner,” she spat at him.

  “You’re not,” the man replied with a chuckle. “But one minute from now, you will become the invisible woman. Dr. Reva Hunter is about to die in a cave in. You can watch your funeral on the news.”

  “Just kill me and get it over with,” the woman ordered, rubbing her eyes. “I can’t take this stress anymore.”

  Guessing she’d reached her breaking point, Sugar and Rodu both ran at the same time the woman suddenly did. Neither of them was quick enough to stop the man with the weapon from firing at her. The flash erupted from the gun and entered the fleeing woman’s back, tossing her forward and to the ground.

  Rodu reacted by throwing an energy ball that blew up in the center of the three men like a grenade. It turned the men and everything around them into piles of dust. There was only a black powder circle left when the air cleared.

  “Don’t you have a lower setting than complete annihilation?” Sugar demanded.

  “Sometimes. When I’m not angry,” Rodu replied calmly.

  They ran to where the woman was lying and winced at the laser hole in her back. They rolled her over and saw the hole was much more significant in the front.

  Sugar felt for a pulse then scooped her up. “She lives but not for long. Perhaps Gina can delay her death until Lake can heal her.”

  The ground shaking beneath their feet almost caused Sugar to drop her precious cargo.

  “Lake,” Sugar mentally called in alarm.

  When there was no answer from her fellow protector, she passed the dying woman to Rodu. “Take her to Gina of Rodu. I will look for the Protector and the Creator.”

  “I will join you as soon as I can,” Rodu said.

  They both took off in a run.

  Finding the elevator controls destroyed, Protector Lake took the stairs. When his instincts said to hurry, he did. He stopped on the next floor with an exit and ripped the elevator's doors on that level open. He climbed onto the emergency ladder inside the elevator shaft and reached out to tug on a cable. Finding it secure, he slid down it and reached the bottom quickly.

  There was only one room so he hurried inside and looked around. He saw a strange device on the floor that was counting down. Ignoring it, he stretched out mentally. She had to be here. He could feel her presence.

  “Where are you?” he called loudly with his host’s voice.

  A tiny thread of her energy filtered back to his senses. His gaze scoured the room, looking for a logical hiding place. It would have to have been inside the wall for those above not to have found the blade when they took the woman.

  Searching his host’s memories, Lake found a potential answer. Going to the closet, he shoved things aside until he found a hidden door with an access lock keeping people out.

  “Help me open it safely. I don’t want to damage you,” he whispered.

  The numbers were faint in his head, but he managed to get them. The door sprang open under his hand and he scooped out the gleaming golden object inside.

  “Is there any way to diffuse the bomb? Or constrain it?” he asked the blade in his hand.

  None. Flee. Save your host.

  “Host Lake knew the risk coming down here. The young man is a warrior with a braver heart than he lets be known. He would have hosted you well.”

  Protector Lake ran to the elevator. He looked up the shaft. They had no time for climbing the stairs no matter how fast he moved up them.

  Tucking the Creator Blade inside his shirt, he looped his hand and wrist around the primary cable before summoning a plasma knife to slice through it below his feet. As he was pulled rapidly upwards, the elevator car above began descending downward faster and faster. At the last moment, he swung out of its way as far as he could. The elevator scraped the back of him as it slid quickly past. He bore the pain because there was nothing else to be done.

  Then once again, he was propelled to the surface rapidly.

  When the elevator car crashed at the bottom, he was yanked to an abrupt stop at the top of the shaft. His damaged host body hung limply and was bleeding profusely. He removed the Creator Blade from his shirt and tossed it out of the open doors onto the floor of the hotel lobby. The ground rumbled at the bottom of the shaft when the bomb in the cavern room finally exploded.

  Protector Lake clung desperately to the cable, but losing blood was quickly becoming an issue for his human host. Weakness was taking over. He wished they’d been merged enough for him to heal his host more quickly, but evidently, that fate wasn’t meant to be this time.

  He groaned and starting chanting an ancient prayer as his host’s fingers slipped down the cable.

  10

  “Stop running back and forth and talk to me. Why are you carrying a cryrogenics tube on board your airship?”

  Gina checked the woman’s back and did what she could to prevent more internal bleeding before rolling the woman to her back. If she lived, the human female likely wouldn’t remember Gina’s rough handling. She’d only remember running from her abductors and taking the blast.

  She turned to the male questioning her. “Who’s asking? You or Destroyer Rodu?”

  “Your concerned father and I expect a truthful answer,” Rodu admonished, crossing his arms.

  Gina gently arranged the woman in the tube and set the control dials before replying. “I cannot guarantee she will live, but I am doing what I can to save her. Marta will have to work a miracle. Regeneration may be necessary and even then the chances are not great.”

  “Why would you do regeneration on a human who does not have a blade?” her father asked with a frown. “If the woman dies, she dies. That is her destiny. And you did not answer my original query.”

  Gina frowned at his unreasonableness. It was an aspect of her father’s character that he allowed few to see. “I carry the tube to collect specimens when they are needed for my studies. And no… I have not used it to carry back a cryrogenically frozen human yet. However, it is the only potential solution I have for our current situation.”

  “The humans of this planet already hate aliens. I do not wish to think of my daughter being yet another reason for them to do so.”

  Gina glared at her father. “Do you honestly think this is the proper time for a debate about how Lyrans treat humans? Sugar and Lake have not returned yet.”

  “If they need me, they will call.”

  He would not let it go. Gina knew that. No one was more persistent than the male who brought her to life. “I know Mother has explained what happened. I only abducted a human once, Father. I erased his memory of it before I set him free a day later. It was seventy years ago. I installed the standard Lyran tracking device in him so I could study his habits as Mother wanted. I removed it long before he died of old age. Studying him helped us understand the many conspiracy theories humans have about us.”

  Rodu huffed. He lifted a hand and waved around the ship. “I
don’t know what you do when you leave the palace. You talk to your mother about such things and not to me. If she tells you to jump, you jump. For all I know, she could be abducting humans and doing experiments. Sometimes I think I don’t know her at all.”

  Gina stopped and stared in stunned shock. “You know she is more than my mother. She is my queen. And you are some alien’s experiment yourself. I am convinced an alien created all the blades.”

  Rodu grunted. “At this moment, all I am is your father.”

  Gina stiffened at the censorship in his tone. “I have tried my best never to disrespect your wishes so save your lectures for Axel. He’s never bothered to honor your wishes more than he had to.”

  Rodu shrugged. “Perhaps I am overreacting. It was seeing the woman being put into that tube that was the trigger. Why are we trying so hard to save her? I still don’t understand. She made a brave choice. Maybe she deserves to die in peace. There was a great honor in her sacrifice.”

  “Do you honestly wish me to let her die?” Gina demanded.

  “All I am saying that it would be more natural for her to do so. Her wounds are incredibly severe,” Rodu reminded his daughter.

  “Well, it would not be more natural for me to let her die. I save a life when I can save it—any life,” Gina said with a glare to back up her words.

  She walked away muttering in Lyran so her father wouldn’t completely understand what she was saying. She loved her human father, but his conflicted feelings about his longevity were a mental burden the entire family bore with him. The humans called it survivalist guilt. She didn’t know how her mother persuaded him to keep regenerating for all these years.

  Rodu’s head snapped up. He ran to the ramp Gina had lowered to let him inside.

  “Where are you going?” Gina called as he started down it.

  “The Protectors need me,” Rodu called behind him and never stopped moving.

  Gina smacked the front window of her airship and swore. If the Protectors had called for Rodu the Destroyer, it could not be for a good reason. She was tired of dealing with death and wanted no more of it.