The Separation Trilogy Box Set: Books 1 -3

by Felisha Antonette

  “Don’t.” I force the air from my lungs, and he draws near me, nothing separating us. My muscles tense, and I swallow a gasp.

  “Stop?” he asks.

  I breathe, saying, “No.”

  It started off uncomfortable, but it isn’t lasting. We’re losing ourselves when there’s a knock on the door.

  “Shit, I knew that was going to happen,” Marc utters.

  “It’s probably my brother.”

  “Or mine. You want me to get it?”

  “No way.”

  The door goes unanswered.

  I finally relax, wrapping my arms around him, and it seems he’s relaxed as well. Our breaths grow heavy, and an odd pressure builds in my chest until it feels like it explodes. A silverish light blasts out between us, beaming past his shoulders and onto the ceiling.

  Marc jumps back and throws his blanket over me, dimming the sudden luminosity of my body. It’s not enough. I scramble to pull the pillow over me, and it helps.

  Panicked, he asks, “Is that supposed to happen?”

  I shake my head, hugging the items to my body to hide myself. “I don’t know. I’ve never done this before.” I push my hand over my forehead to my hair and release a heavy sigh. My racing heart calms. What the hell is wrong with me? I glow with light now?

  Marc cautiously peeks beneath the blanket, and to our relief, I’ve stopped glowing. We sigh, but I keep the blanket clutched in my hand, covering my body as I sit up.

  Sitting at the edge of the bed, he rakes his fingers through his hair. “Whoa, Ky. You’re mixed with Vojin, huh?”

  “Yeah.” Our breaths have evened out, but the shock is taking a bit to wear off for me. I push my hand across his back and scoot a little closer to him. “I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

  His brows knit. “Don’t be sorry. You’re okay?” Looking away from me, he asks, “I didn’t…break anything, did I?”

  I look myself over. “No. Nothing is wrong.” I smile and place a kiss to his shoulder. “Maybe it’s a side effect to uh, pleasure.”

  He chuckles, turning to face me. “Yeah?” he asks with a seductive drawl.

  I nod. “Can we try it again? I’ll keep my alien mojo under control.”

  “Your alien mojo is likely going to call your cousins in here, and they’ll see all your naked lady parts.”

  I hitch my finger for him to come closer. “We wouldn’t want that.”

  Marc eases over me. His hands pressed to the mattress holds up his weight as he looks me over. As if he’s doing a pushup, he sinks down on me and pecks my lips. “Tell me something.” He drops to his elbows and inches separate us. His body is a comfortable weight on mine, and I lift my knees to his sides and push my arms around his back. Through a breath he asks, “Will you choose Luke over me?”

  Nervousness shutters my flesh. He feels it. I can tell by the way he drops his gaze to the right. I suspect this has been a burning question for him ever since the night he nearly lost Sean, and I put my life on the line for them. It’s a question I’ve been hoping to avoid. One I would prefer for time to tell while also hoping for the moment to never come. I’d like to think I wouldn’t know what to do if I were put in such a situation. But I do. Slowly, letting my arms fall away from him, feeling as though I’m sinking into the firm mattress, I say, “I’d choose Luke.”

  Marc burns me to a crisp with his unrelenting stare. As if snapped out of my disloyal trance, he blinks as his brows bump together in a scowl. “Are you—.” He takes a pause to clear the heavy rasp from his throat. And though it’s not gone, his tone is clearer when he asks, “Ky, are you saying that because you were born to or because that’s what you would do?”

  My brows tremble as they meet in their center. I reach for his cheek, and he retracts, turning his head a bit to make it clear he doesn’t want the contact. The pain in his narrowed eyes slowly darkens the purple hue of his gaze. I swallow hard. “I don’t want to answer that.”

  My response seems to shove him away from me. He sits at the end of the bed, shoving his hands through his hair as he leans back, forcing his elbows to point to the ceiling and the muscles in his back to react to the movement. Nodding, he relaxes and says, “Okay.”

  “Okay?” So simple? After I could read the visible disappointment in his eyes, the regret forcing his chest to rise and fall with every harsh breath… Just, okay?

  Marc nods and lies back beside me. “I’m not supposed to love you, Kylie. But I do. And I’m sorry.”

  With my arms bent at my chest, he wraps me in his. “Sorry about what?”

  He kisses my forehead and breathes long and hard. “Tomorrow is going to be crazy. Maybe we should call it a night.”

  An uneasy feeling attacks my stomach. “Are you sorry for loving me?”

  He shakes his head. “Not yet.”

  “Well, I love you back. I do.” I swear it.

  Chapter Thirty-Eight

  I rub my shaking hands together and take deep breaths as I enter Jord’s office. The day has flown by, and I’ve eagerly awaited this very moment. The base is quiet. An eerie quiet that makes me give the empty roads an onceover before I push the door closed behind me. I’m the last one to join the group. Marc and Sean, Collins and Cecelia, Jord and Seits, Harold, and Luke are already here, suited up and getting briefed for our mission.

  Jord hands each of us one marble. “We will use one for all of us to get there. Each of you have one to get back if the person next to you doesn’t make it. I don’t expect us to stay together. When you need to come back, throw it against the ground. It will break, jump in, and have it already established when it’s leaving your fingers here is where you want to return. If we all do end up staying together, the hole we jump through will still be here, and we can all jump back through and, of course, end up here. Any questions?”

  “No.”

  I bump Luke. “Don’t stop until we’re out.”

  “Don’t drop.”

  “Don’t doubt.”

  “I got you.” He lifts his arm vertically with his fist facing the ceiling.

  I do the same with mine, saying, “I got you.” Our arms align before we bump the sides of our fists together.

  We’ve crowded around Jord’s office. Harold, Seits, and Jord are lined up beside each other, and the rest of us stand twin by twin. I meet Marc’s purple gaze and mouth, “I love you.”

  He hesitates before he mouths it back. I turn around to Jord handing out the face masks. They’re black, matching our suits. Placing them over our faces, they cover our nose, mouth, and most of our chin. We strap it on with a plastic dual-sided release buckle. We load our guns with the proper bullets and stuff one into each holster; one’s at my back, my front, my left thigh, and my right ankle. My shotgun is slung over my shoulder by a strap. Along my vest pockets and extra compartments of my suit, I’ve stashed extra ammunition, but Jord has also provided us with backpacks and belts that contain more.

  We slip on our goggles and strap on our helmets.

  “Okay,” Jord slams the marble on the floor, and it shatters. A pit forms. It’s big enough for us to jump two at a time. “Let’s go!”

  Harold’s first, then Jord and Seits, and after is Luke and then me.

  I dive through a tunnel made up of the Vojin green and blue particles. Moving at lightning speed, the colors rush past me. We fall out of the gateway, landing upright. Jumping to our feet, guns in hand, Luke and I find four Vojin, gray, expanding like balloons on the glass-like floor. The floor, wall, and ceiling are illuminated in a calming blue color, and there are green lines of light that surf up the walls. Maybe they’re message or communication lines.

  Jord waves toward an opening that’s the shape of a doorway. He gestures for us to continue. Luke and I move to the opening as others fall in line behind us. Luke peeks out to the hall, then waves me forward. I hustle behind him, and we quietly make our way across the slick floor, one foot over the other. Every hall looks the same as the last, with the dim blue glass lighting
our path. Checking our rear, down a side hallway we’re passing, a faint glow grows brighter as it nears the distant corner.

  I tap Luke and point down the hall. Flicking two fingers forward, we hustle in the direction of the hall. As we’re nearing the corner, six bluish-silver Vojin leisurely round the corner. We fire six silent shots. The aliens crumple to the floor, bodies expanding, preparing to explode.

  I nod toward the corner, wordlessly asking Luke if we should head this way. He nods once and looks behind him, waving our comrades on.

  With Luke and I in front and Jord and Seits in the back, we follow the wall, creeping on alert, waiting to be caught off guard. Along this wall, where the green lines of light continue to scale upward, we come upon another opening. Luke stops at its edge and peeks in. Beyond the opening, I can barely make out a whispered exchange. Luke raises his fist. I copy his move, stopping Cecilia behind me.

  Luke meets my eyes with his squinted, questioning if I can understand them. I shake my head. I don’t think they’re speaking English. He looks around me and points to him and me, then the room. We get a nod of approval from Jord.

  Storming into the small space, before they can peep a word, Luke fires four shots before the rest of us can make it in. Cecilia and Collins watch the hall as the rest of us look over the screens taking up the top half of the room up to the ceiling.

  I don’t recognize any of the jumbles of symbols scattered over the gray screens. Luke taps my shoulder and nods for us to go.

  We leave the room to find Marc and Sean waiting for us in the dimly lit blue hall. We follow the hallway, stepping over Vojin bodies that have expanded and will soon explode. They likely took them out while we were in the room. This shows the Vojin must have no idea we’re here. The weapons work better than we expected.

  We come upon a wide opening in a large area at the end of the hall. Its size reminds me of the ballroom in Highrum. A lot of Vojin mill around this open space. This is where the battle begins.

  We reload our weapons, and Jord, Seits, and Harold rush in, guns blazing. They attack before the Vojin even know what’s happening. Their silent shots don’t even render screams. The Vojin, all pink, bluish-green, and gray drop from their perfect aim. Collins and Cecilia are next. Then Luke and me. By this point, as we charge from the opening of the hall, the Vojin have discovered us and fight back with strikes of light and acid burning gas spheres spurting from their hands. The light strikes off their fingers like lightning and dark orange gas balls form as they roll down their arms to their hands. The Vojin throw them off their flesh with much might.

  One hits my leg, burning through the pant leg and stinging my skin, scorching like acid.

  I push past the pain and trade my handgun for my shotgun. Blasting Vojin by twos and threes, I hit everything I see, targets precisely executed. I pump and fire quickly, dodging the Vojin attacks.

  I fire empty and sling the shotgun back over my shoulder. I don’t have time to reload. Grabbing one handgun from my front holster and another from the holster on my thigh, I’m back in the game.

  Catching a break from the Vojin attacking in front of me, I spin on my heels to check my rear. I grab Collins out of the way of an oncoming Vojin sphere that is firing for her head. She nods to me as she hustles to the other side of the room.

  We cautiously move around the room, shooting and conveniently avoiding their attacks. A deep gray fog erupts from the exploding Vojin and darkens the room. The other Vojin drop, attacks falling limp, havoc gone peaceful. The battle’s over so quickly. If I’d blinked too long, I would have missed it.

  I survey the room before the gray fog from the exploded Vojin makes it too hard to see. On the far end of the space are more screens that stretch from floor to ceiling, showing Earth with a large blue target dot on it. We keep close to the wall that rounds the room in the shape of an oval. One entry is behind us, and the other is on the other side of the room. The wall beside it holds a screen, depicting a video of our planet.

  Jord taps his gun, grabbing our attention. He points to a glass staircase that circles the wall of this room to an upper floor. We nod, and he, Seits, and Harold jog up the stairs without waiting on us.

  There’s a slight pfft of air being released, followed by something squeaking over the floor. Luke and I turn around, and a door opens behind us. Two Vojin, seven feet tall, charge through, and I’m hit hard on the back of my neck, knocked out.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  Regaining consciousness, I feel my head swaying. I swallow hard, trying to shake the dizzy feeling. I’m on my knees with my arms tied behind my back, execution style. Groaning from the pain in my neck and head, I open my eyes. It’s black. I see stars as I fight for my sight to return. I blink. Boots appear in a darkened haze.

  My sight clears the more I blink, and the dizziness lessens. I follow the boots up the body to the face. Collins is pointing her gun at me. I nod, accepting this. To my left, I spot Luke, still sluggishly awakening, also on his knees, slumped over with his arms tied behind his back. He shakes his head as his surroundings slowly come into focus and he looks at me. He looks at Collins and nods like I did.

  “What’s this?” he asks.

  “You and Ky’s execution. We thought it would be good to execute you in your own home.”

  He nods again and says to me, “You should’ve let me kill her, Ky.”

  “Yeah…” I say, annoyed, rolling my eyes. “I know.”

  Collins laughs. It rings through this small room and screeches through my ears.

  The door slides open behind her.

  Marc and Sean barge in, guns drawn and revenge in their eyes. Relief sweeps over me.

  “Put your gun down, Collins,” Sean demands.

  She does as instructed as they continue forward. “Stand up,” Sean kindly tells us, and we follow his request.

  Three gray seven-foot Vojin fall in behind them. Marc and Sean pull out their shotguns, aiming them at us. Sean forces Luke to stare down his barrel, and Marc’s is aimed at me. Aimed right in my face. “Any last words?” Sean asks.

  “Ain’t this a bitch,” Luke snaps as their guns load.

  To Be Continued in Ominous Order…

  Find out how it all ends. Grab the final install of the Separation Trilogy, here >> Ominous Order!

  I hope you enjoyed reading Salient Invaders. Please take a moment to leave a rating or review on Amazon. I greatly appreciate it, and I’ll see you in book 3!

  Ominous Order: The Separation Trilogy Book 3

  Copyright © 2020 by Felisha Antonette

  www.felishaantonette.com

  Cover Design by Miblart

  Edits by Novel and Kind

  Paperback ISBN: 978-0-9971455-9-5

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

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  Felisha Antonette

  Connect@felishaantonette.com

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  Created with Vellum

  Chapter One

  I suck in an even breath, staring past the double-barrel shotgun to Marc’s narrowed eyes. The heavy pounding of my heart causes every inch of my flesh to vibrate. Anger bubbles in my gut as I focus my gaze and peer into the barrel. Gunpowder burns my nostrils as the heat of the shotgun warms my face. Impatiently, I wait for the bullet to erupt.

  The seven-foot Vojin with latex flesh the color of a storm cloud moves in my periphery. “Execute,” he instructs.

  I’m suddenly aware of how heavily I’m breathing. My breaths thrash past my parted lips and from my nose. My chest aggressively rises and falls. I can feel something
working its way from my aching knees through my numbing chest to settle in my burning throat. Heartbreak. The feeling Marc may have experienced when he found out I was involved with the Vojin. Betrayal. And now he’s turned the tables, and I experience it firsthand.

  Marc doesn’t break our eye contact. He loads the gun, and the sound stabs me in the chest. I clear the burn from my throat and blink away the tears. After everything we’ve done, the words we shared, the moments we wouldn’t have given to anyone else, the only other person in this universe I’d spare my life for, Marc’s betraying me. But why?

  His index finger wraps around the trigger, and I swallow hard. I’m not afraid of dying. I expect death. I prepared for it. But to be killed by him? Not in a million years would I have guessed this.

  The anticipation is killing me.

  I take a step forward and press my head against the barrel so it’s firmly placed between my brows.

  “Just tell me this one thing before you kill my sister and me,” Luke says. I dare not flick my gaze to him. My eyes are still locked on Marc’s, waiting for him to falter. A glimpse of a wink, a smirk, a tremble to his chin, a twitch of his index finger pulling away from the trigger, a flare of one nostril, a hitch from his brow. I wait for something to indicate he’s not a traitor. That he didn’t use me. That everything between us wasn’t just some sick trick, some sick game he played with me. But I find no lies in his sober stare.

  “Speak, Lukahn,” the Vojin says, granting him his request.

  “Why?”

  “You are—” the Vojin starts.

  Luke cuts the Vojin off, throwing his hand up. “Not you. You two.” He gestures to Marc and Sean with a nod.

  “That is not of importance,” the Vojin says.

  “The hell it isn’t!” Luke snaps. By the rage in his tone, anger is erupting inside him. He’ll try to fight his way out of here and likely get himself killed in the process.