Burn the Night

by Jonathan Yanez

  Burn the Night

  New Arilion Knights Book Two

  Jonathan Yanez

  Copyright © 2018 by Archimedes Books. All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to locales, events, business establishments, or actual persons— living or dead—is entirely coincidental.

  Acknowledgments

  If you think this book is awesome at all it’s only because I have a pack of rabid ARC Wolves, a wonderful editor and a talented cover artist. Thank you for your help.

  ARC WOLVES

  Kelly

  Athena

  Eagle Eyes

  Lois

  Editor - Beth

  Cover Illustrator - Jamie

  Kiki and Ian, thank you for trusting me. I promise you, your faith is well placed. I won’t let you down.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Hungry for More Arilion Knights?

  A Note For You

  1

  As soon as he stepped out of the black vehicle with windows so dark Emma wondered how anyone could see out of them, she knew she was in trouble.

  He wore a military uniform with so many medals on his chest, Emma wasn’t sure how the fabric was able to support the load at all. She looked down on him from the second story window of her room as he crossed her lawn to the front door.

  Did you really think you were going to keep an alien invasion under wraps from the government? Emma asked herself. You knew this was coming sooner or later. Just be glad Dad’s already gone to work. He doesn’t need to be involved in this. He’s done enough for you. He’s done everything for you. It’s up to you to protect him now.

  Three solid knocks on the door below echoed inward to Emma’s house. She looked down on the vambraces on her forearms that were now as much a part of her as her own fingers or toes. Instead of removing the lightly glowing purple pieces of armor, Emma donned a thick black hoodie. With the sleeves rolled down over the vambraces, they hid the glow of the armor nicely.

  The knock came again. Still not hurried or too loud, just deliberate, as if it were saying, “Open up, Emma. I know you’re in there.”

  “Easy, easy, let him do all the talking. You don’t know how much he does or doesn’t know,” Emma whispered to herself out loud as she descended the stairs. “No reason to freak out, not yet at least. That might come later.”

  Emma reached the ground floor that led from the kitchen to the front door. She hesitated before her hand touched the doorknob. “Who is it?”

  It sounded like a dumb question, even in her own mind. She knew exactly who it was. She had seen the man walk up her lawn. Truth be told, she was just buying time, any time to think of a better plan than playing dumb.

  “Miss Jackson, my name is General Fox.” The man’s voice was strong without being unfriendly. “I’d just like to talk with you.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not really supposed to answer the door to strangers.” Emma played the kid card. Even though she was sixteen, it still came in handy when she needed it. “Maybe you should go.”

  “If I went now, I could come back later, but then your father might be home,” General Fox answered. “If we have this conversation in front of him, it’s going to be a lot more complicated for all of us. I’d rather not do complicated at the moment.”

  Emma’s mouth was dry. She worked up enough saliva to finally swallow. She understood everything General Fox wasn’t saying. Her father knew nothing of her being Earth’s Arilion Knight or the Academy or her reintroduction to her alien mother, for that matter.

  Emma turned the deadbolt on her door. It clicked with a sound that told her things were about to change. She slowly opened the barrier between herself and General Fox.

  “So, yeah, I guess now would be a good time to talk after all. I’m old enough to talk—to talk to strangers.” Emma tried to keep the stutter out of her voice that came with anxiety, but it was no use. “What can I do for you, General?”

  General Fox smiled at Emma. He was tall with a square jaw and short haircut that looked as though not a single strand of his dark hair was out of place. He extended his right hand. “I know trust has to be earned. I hope in time we’ll get there.”

  “Soooooo…” Emma accepted the offered hand, her own palm enveloped by that of the much larger man. “Is this where you bring in the guys with the biohazard suits and we quarantine the place?”

  “You’ve watched ET too, huh?” General Fox gave her hand a brief squeeze before releasing. “No, no things are quite different these days. I’m part of a secret government task force, codename Project Nebula. We’re in charge of a sphere that allows us to travel throughout galaxies and the universe itself. On our travels, one of our own was selected as the Arilion Knight of a planet called Atmos. We’re still learning all we can, but one thing is clear. We’re stronger together than we are alone.”

  “There’s—there’s another Arilion? Here? Here on Earth?” Emma asked, forgetting her own plan to play dumb and see what the general knew. “Who? Who is he?”

  “His name is Frank Wolffe, and I’m sure he’d love to meet you.” General Fox grinned, understanding he had broken through at least the initial wall Emma had in place. “In part, that’s why I’m here.”

  Emma’s mind was going wild with ideas and possibilities of training and fighting alongside another Arilion Knight. Thus far, she had been instructed by fearsome warriors from several species, but not one of them an Arilion.

  These thoughts were crashing through Emma’s mind when the familiar face of her next-door neighbor, Miss Starling, appeared around General Fox’s shoulder. Miss Starling was widely known as the neighborhood snoop.

  She wore a fluffy pink robe open at the top to show off what she imagined every male wanted to see. In her right hand, she held a wine glass of orange juice that Emma guessed was infused with a healthy dose of alcohol.

  General Fox noticed Emma staring around him. He turned to take in the woman. If he was startled to see her, he didn’t show it.

  “Ma’am.” General Fox nodded toward Miss Starling.

  “Oh, he has manners too.” Miss Starling batted her long fake eyelashes. She smoothed her bleached blonde hair with her free hand. “I love a man in uniform. Emma, you didn’t tell me we were going to have company today.”

  “Uh, that’s because I had no idea he was coming.” Emma scrunched her brows, stuck in the constant debate when Miss Starling came around of being annoyed and amused. “What, did you say ‘we’? He didn’t come to visit both of us. Just me.”

  “Yes, yes.” The elderly woman dismissed whatever Emma was saying with an outstretched hand that looked more like a claw, thanks to her overly long acrylic nails. She turned back to the general. “Anyway, I
wanted to invite you over for a liquid breakfast. Maybe a mimosa or two to take off the edge?”

  “I need to keep my edge,” General Fox politely declined. “Besides, it’s o-eight hundred hours. A bit too early to be indulging.”

  “Oh, it’s nine am somewhere.” Miss Starling winked at the general. “Well, I’ll be right next door when you’re done doing whatever it is that you’re doing here. What is it that you’re doing here?”

  “Just a house call. Emma showed interest in joining the armed forces after graduating high school,” General Fox said with a smile. He turned back to Emma. “Emma, you were just inviting me inside so we can talk about your future in the military.”

  General Fox pivoted so fast with the lie he had constructed, Emma was caught off guard.

  “Uh, right, I’m joining the military?” Emma said in a tone that asked more than told. General Fox gave her an upturned eyebrow. “I mean, yes, please come in and sign me up.”

  “Okay, well, I’ll just be next door when you’re finished.” Miss Starling winked at General Fox. “Don’t be long.”

  General Fox followed Emma into her home. Emma smiled at Miss Starling and closed the door behind him.

  “Is she always like that?” General Fox asked with an amused smile on his lips. “I don’t know whether to be flattered or to grab my sidearm.”

  “That?” Emma raised her eyebrows. “That was nothing. You should see how hard she hits on my dad. Sometimes I feel like I need to get some pepper spray or a taser for him.”

  “How old is she?” General Fox asked, watching through the window as Miss Starling made her way back across the lawn to her home.

  “Can’t be sure exactly.” Emma took a moment to think. “All I know is she was telling me stories of how she was a little girl and electricity was invented, soooo…”

  Emma let her voice trail off as she realized this could all still be a trap of some kind. One of her teachers in the Academy in particular, Drown, was always drilling her with the idea to trust no one. That everyone was a potential enemy no matter how they posed themselves.

  Emma created distance between herself and General Fox just in case. The vambraces on her forearms sensed her fight or flight instinct and burned brighter under her dark sweater.

  General Fox took a step back as if he sensed what Emma was thinking. He pointed to a chair at the kitchen table. “May I?”

  “Yes, sorry.” Emma relaxed herself, taking a long breath. “Please, take a seat. How did you find me anyway?”

  “In this day and age, it’s harder than ever to keep a secret,” General Fox said, taking a seat at the kitchen table. He crossed his legs and relaxed into his chair. “When you fought the Shay on the beach of California, our satellite picked up the whole thing. We did some research and consulted with an ally we have who is well-versed in the goings-on in the universe. She told us everything we didn’t know.”

  Emma slowly nodded along with the general’s words. “And now you want me to come and fight for the government? Or Project Nebula?”

  “Not exactly.” General Fox shook his head. “We don’t want to stop what you or the Academy are doing. We’d rather partner with you and the alliance that already exists within the Academy. We believe our goals for a safe universe are the same. We’d like to come alongside the Academy and help in any way we can. We can offer our own technology, the Arilion Knights that are already training in our branch of the military, and more.”

  The pieces of the puzzle began to fit in place for Emma as she put together what the general was getting at.

  “You want me to set up a meeting for you,” Emma said, crossing her arms over her chest. She lifted an eyebrow. “You want me to be the bridge that fills the gap between The Academy and Project Nebula.”

  “I told you I was going to be honest with you so we can begin to build trust,” General Fox said, staring at Emma, right into her eyes. His stare was unnerving but not intimidating. “Like it or not, you bear a very heavy mantle being the Arilion Knight of Earth. It’s on you, Emma, to be the warrior Earth needs you to be. From everything I’ve read about you, from everything I’ve heard, you have it in you to be everything you need to be. All we want to do is come alongside and offer our support.”

  “This is some pretty heavy stuff.” Emma blew air out between her lips. “I mean, I’m still learning how to drive. I don’t even have a job.”

  “This is your job now,” General Fox interrupted her. “We can start off slow. The first step would be to set up a meeting between me and the leaders at the Academy. We can move forward from there.”

  “Yeah, well you have to meet my mom first.” Emma cringed at the idea of her warrior alien mother speaking with the general. “Then we can get you in front of the Academy and then you’ll still have to convince the Alliance you want to help.”

  “‘The journey of a thousand miles starts with one step’,” General Fox said. “And eventually, Emma, we need to tell your father. You shouldn’t have to sneak around. Being honest with him will free your time as well.”

  Emma felt a hole in her stomach open. She felt sick. Telling her father was something she wanted more than anything but what came with the truth would be painful for him. He would have to find out that the woman he loved was not only an alien all along, but she had lied to him, that she had left him and worse. Emma knew all of this and hadn’t told him either.

  “What’s that?” General Fox turned in his seat. He tilted his head to the ground as if he were talking via some internal comm Emma couldn’t see. “Yes, when? We’re on our way.”

  General Fox stood from his seat looking down at Emma with regret. “Emma, Earth is going to need you sooner than we anticipated.”

  2

  “What do you mean?” Emma asked, confused. “What happened to ‘the first step was setting up a meeting’?”

  “That was the plan until right now,” General Fox assured her as he made for the door. “We’ve been monitoring a situation here on Earth, hoping to address it at a later date with your help. Time doesn’t seem to be on our side anymore and things have accelerated. We need your help now.”

  “What are we talking about?” Emma remembered the battle on the beach when she had turned back the Shay invasion. She was stronger now after another month of training but still not where she needed to be. “Are the Shay back?”

  “No, not the Shay; a new threat.” General Fox opened the door, ushering Emma outside. “If you’ll come with me, I’ll explain everything.”

  Emma’s sense of duty drove her to follow the general out the door without further question. Her foot had just crested the threshold of her house when the air behind General Fox shimmered.

  A moment later, her mother, Tistan Duel, appeared on her porch. The teleportation technology at her disposal would allow her to teleport from the Academy to Earth in the matter of seconds.

  General Fox reacted to the threat immediately. He pulled his side arm from a holder at his back. Emma had missed the weapon due to the fact that it was hidden under his coat. He had his weapon pointed at Tistan Duel’s head a moment later.

  Not to be outdone, the Halyna warrior batted away the handgun with her left hand, drawing one of the two long swords that rested in sheaths on her back.

  “No, wait!” Emma yelled at her mother and General Fox, hoping her warning would be enough. The combatants were moving too quickly to be able to stop them with words.

  General Fox moved with surprising speed for a man of his age, side-stepped the blade, and put a boot into Tistan’s midsection. Tistan grunted but absorbed the impact, only taking a step back into the house before pivoting. She slashed low with her sword.

  General Fox lifted his foot off the ground to ignore the strike. Tistan rose up quickly from her hunched position, She sent a strike to the general’s forehead before he could level his weapon at her again. A thin line of blood came from a small graze by his right eye.

  Tires screeched as two blacked out SUVs converged on Emm
a’s home. Doors opened. A flood of heavily armed Marines began taking up positions around General Fox and Tistan Duel.

  Emma realized she had to do something quickly before her mother killed someone or weapons began discharging in her neighborhood.

  “Stop!” Emma channeled the power in her vambraces, constructing gloves over her hands that started at her fingertips and traveled down to her elbows. Using her advanced speed, she moved to stand between General Fox and her mother. With her right hand, she held the blade to Tistan’s green sword. She grabbed General Fox’s handgun with her left hand, obstructing the barrel.

  A dozen heavily armed Marines had taken up positions with large assault rifles Emma could only guess at. They ranged from crouched positions to a few assuming a stance on a single knee. Every one of them waited on the order from the general.

  The scene was still for a moment as Emma turned from first her mother and then the general, imploring them to cease their attacks. “This isn’t right. We’re on the same side. Stop before someone does something they can’t take back.”

  Tistan stared at the general with malice in her eyes. Despite this, she relaxed her stance and took a step back.

  General Fox did the same, looking over to his men and giving them a signal with his hand that Emma guessed meant “stand down.”

  The Marines covering her front yard lowered their weapons, but it was clear they were ready to move back into action at a moment’s notice.