Taken by Force

by Anna Argent

  Radek went on high alert as he realized that something had gone terribly wrong. As soon as Ava hung up the phone, she jumped up and started sliding on her clothes.

  “Tell me,” he said.

  “Emily says there’s someone in the house. They’re hiding, but whoever it is isn’t going away.”

  “They’re hours away from here. We won’t get there in time to help. You need to call the police.”

  She ripped her shirt over her head. “You don’t understand. The police can’t help.”

  “Why not?”

  “Emily saw them. She says they’re not human.”

  “Cyturs? Dregorgs?”

  Ava shook her head. “She said he was something else. Almost human, but not.”

  “A Raide.” She was right. The police couldn’t help. If the Raide had found Ava’s family, then it was already too late.

  Emily and her mother were going to die screaming in pain while the Raide ripped from their minds everything they knew about Ava.

  He grabbed her hand to stop her frantic dressing. “We can’t go. It’s too dangerous.”

  She jerked her hand away and snarled at him. “I don’t care.”

  “That’s what Dimas is counting on. He’s going to use them to find you.”

  “Let him. We wanted to kill the fucker anyway.”

  “We won’t have the element of surprise.”

  She shoved him away hard enough to break his hold. “They’re my family, Radek. I’m going after them. You do whatever you want, but if you try to stop me, you’re going to regret it.”

  He didn’t doubt that for a second. The only question was whether he’d regret not stopping her more.

  In the end, there was really only one move he could make: protect Ava. If that meant following her into danger so she wouldn’t walk into its open jaws alone, then so be it.

  *****

  Emily stayed crouched next to Mom, hidden beneath the basement stairs.

  This level of the house was unfinished, with bare concrete floors and foundation walls. Wires and pipes ran overhead, mapping out the rooms above.

  Whoever was up there was in her bedroom now.

  She’d gone upstairs to grab some movies to watch on her laptop. Even though it had been against the rules that Radek said would keep them alive, she hadn’t thought that one little mission up the stairs would be such a big deal.

  Until she saw him.

  He was tall and skinny with bright yellow hair. His skin was a pasty white, and his eyes were huge and bloodshot. She’d only caught a glimpse of him through a narrow gap in the curtains, but it had been enough to tell her that he was bad news.

  She’d raced down stairs, woken Mom and called Ava. In those few short minutes, whoever he was, he’d found a way into the house and was slowly trekking closer to the basement stairway.

  Mom gripped the fireplace poker in her skinny hands. In a voice so quiet it could barely be heard a foot away, she said, “If he comes down here, you stay hidden. I’ll deal with him.”

  Emily shook her head. Her neck was so tight with fear she could barely move it. “You’re too weak. Our only chance is to team up on him.”

  Mom shifted so as to block Emily from being able to slip out between the boxes of food stacked everywhere. “Stay here. Stay silent. No matter what.”

  Emily was about to argue when she heard the floorboards overhead creak.

  He was getting closer.

  There was no way anyone could know they were down here. There were no lights on. No noises.

  Unless he could hear their hearts pounding.

  He stopped again for a minute.

  Was he looking at something? Listening for them?

  She had no idea, but the silences were almost as terrifying as the idea of him moving closer.

  If they’d had a gun, she would have shot through the floor and into his feet. That would have made him think twice about sticking around.

  Of course, she didn’t have a gun, which she swore she would fix at the first opportunity.

  Assuming she lived that long.

  More creaks and groans brought him to the top of the stairs.

  Sweat trickled down Emily’s brow and stung her eyes. She didn’t dare move enough to wipe it away for fear he’d hear her. Hell, for all she knew, he had some kind of super-hearing or X-ray vision.

  The idea of him looking through the floor at her totally creeped her out.

  She tightened her grip on her makeshift weapon—a kitchen knife she’d swiped on the way downstairs. It was short and serrated, but having it in her hand made her feel just enough better that she wasn’t sobbing in fear.

  Please hurry, Ava.

  Emily didn’t know how far away her sister was, but Ava always knew what to do in bad situations. She knew how to handle belligerent drunks, pissed off customers, and assholes like Beau. If anyone would know what to do during an alien invasion, it would be Ava.

  But Ava wasn’t here. Mom was here, weak from chemo and years of battling cancer. Frail, sweet Mom who bruised if she sat down too hard.

  There was no way she was winning a battle against an alien in the basement, armed with only a fireplace poker.

  If they were going to live through the night, it was up to Emily to make it happen.

  But how?

  Hiding was their best option, but as the door to the basement stairs opened, she realized that their attempt to hide had failed. Whoever he was, whatever he wanted, he was going to find them.

  Emily squeezed past Mom and pried the fireplace poker from her chilled hands. She couldn’t say a thing for fear of being heard, and she wasn’t strong enough to stop Emily from doing what she wanted. Sure, there was going to be hell to pay for what she was about to do, but that was only if they both lived through it.

  With the poker shaking in her grip, she stepped out from hiding and looked up the stairs at the creature. It’s tall, spindly body was outlined in the golden light that filtered through the curtains from the street.

  “What do you want?” she demanded. Her voice wavered, but her glare held firm.

  The thing flipped on the light so she could see it better. “Your pain.”

  The instant her gaze met his—the very second she looked into his bright red bloodshot eyes—she gave him exactly what he wanted.

  Pain ripped through her, shredding her throat with a scream as she fell to her knees. The fireplace poker slipped from her numb hands, leaving her helpless, and there wasn’t a thing she could do to stop it.

  Chapter Twenty

  Ava jumped out of Radek’s truck before it had come to a full stop.

  A sense of impending danger had been growing more with every mile closer they got to her home. By the time she hit the sidewalk in front of her house, it had grown to full-blown panic.

  Something bad had happened, or was about to.

  “Ava, no!” Radek shouted.

  She didn’t care what he had to say. Her family needed her. She would deal with him later. Now was the time to find her loved ones and never let them out of her sight again.

  She was already halfway across the yard when he barreled into her from behind and tackled her to the ground.

  The cold earth was hard. Even the grass was brittle and pokey. There was no give below her and even less above her.

  Once he had her immobilized, he lifted up enough to flip her over so she was facing him. “You need to stop and listen.”

  She took a swing at his eye, which earned her hand a prison sentence in the hard grasp of his fist.

  His voice grew angry. “If you rush in there, you’ll be blown to pieces. Stop fighting me and listen before you kill yourself and everyone in the house, Ava.”

  That got her attention. Mom and Emily were in there. That was the only reason Ava quit struggling and listened to what he had to say. “What?”

  “The Raide love traps. If you go busting in there, you’re likely to set one off. If your family is still in there, you’ll blow them up rig
ht along with you.”

  She’d called Emily and Mom about a thousand times on the drive here, and neither of them had answered. She didn’t know if it was because they weren’t with their phones, or if they weren’t able to answer, but the reasons why that could be were few and terrifying.

  “I need to get in the house.”

  “I know,” Radek said. “And I can make that happen, but you have to let me go first, and you absolutely can’t rush me. Understand?”

  She did, but she hated it.

  Despite the commotion they’d been making on the front yard, none of her neighbors came out to see what was going on. Had something happened to all of them too? Or was it fear of the alien sightings that kept them quiet?

  That deep sense of danger was still pounding on her, demanding she pay attention. Maybe what Radek said was true and the place was filled with traps.

  “Is it safe for you to go in?” she asked. She didn’t want anything to happen to him either. “Maybe we should call the bomb squad.”

  “They can’t help. They’ve never seen alien tech. I have. And if you give me time, I can get in and out without making anything go boom. I’m good at this, Ava. Trust me.”

  She took him at his word. As skilled as he’d been in combat, she had no doubt that he’d kick ass at this too. “How long will it take?”

  “As long as necessary. Until I’m done, you have to promise me you’ll stay out here.”

  She didn’t want to make any such promise, but the idea of Mom and Emily blowing up because she was too stupid to listen to the man who knew what he was talking about gave her a brief moment of sanity.

  “I promise. Just tell me what I can do to help.”

  He got up off of her and offered her a hand up. “I need you to monitor the receiver. If Orac happens to contact us while I’m in the middle of a delicate job, I don’t want the noise to make me flinch.”

  “I can do that.”

  “You’ll do it in the truck, where you won’t be tempted to rush past me if your family is in need.”

  That thought put her on edge, but what choice did she have? “Fine. Whatever will get you moving fastest.”

  She did as he asked, twisting with anxiety every second she had to wait. After what felt like half the night, but was probably closer to twenty minutes, he came back to the truck.

  He opened his mouth to speak, but she beat him to it. “All clear?”

  He nodded, but the look on his face wasn’t one of hope.

  “Are they in there?”

  He shook his head. “There’s no sign of them.”

  Ava took off, rushing through rooms as fast as she could.

  The house was empty. Mom and Emily were gone.

  Radek met her in the kitchen, his expression grim. “They were in the basement. Emily’s laptop is still warm.”

  “The cars are still here. Where are they?”

  He took her hands in his, and until this moment, she hadn’t realized just how out of control she was, flapping around, frantic and helpless.

  He waited until she was looking into his eyes before he spoke, and when he did, his tone was apologetic. “There were signs of a struggle.”

  She hadn’t seen any, but she had been searching so fast, she could have missed something. “What signs?”

  “It doesn’t matter. All you need to know is that they fought.”

  “Tell me,” she demanded. “What signs?”

  “There’s a hole in the door where the fireplace poker bashed through it. I saw some claw marks on the railing, like someone fought not to be taken.”

  Ava stifled the whimper that tried to escape her throat. “What else?”

  He let out a sigh of resignation. “There was blood. Not much, but it was definitely human.”

  Blood.

  The word went through her head, over and over again, rolling around like a rogue wrecking ball, smashing every other thought before it could form.

  Radek grabbed her arms and eased her to the floor. It was only then she realized she’d started to collapse.

  “I can’t lose them,” she told him. “We have to find them.”

  “We will,” he assured her. “But we have to figure out where they went. The Raide will have taken them somewhere safe to question them.”

  “How do you know it was them?”

  “Because I found three of their traps.”

  “Are you sure it was their traps, and not some kidnapping survivalist nutjob who left them?” The fact that such a notion gave her a sense of relief proved just how bad things really were.

  He cradled her face. “I know Raide technology when I see it, sweetheart. We need to take a step back and figure out what our next move is.”

  She didn’t know. How could she? Mom and Emily were taken by creatures she’d never encountered. How the hell was she supposed to come up with some kind of plan?

  “I don’t know what to do. Tell me what to do.”

  His hands stroked her back, but it did little to calm her fear. That heavy sense of danger had eased up a little now that the traps were disarmed, but it was still there, hovering in the back of her mind, reminding her that things were still grim.

  He activated the communication device matching the one he’d given Orac. “Can you hear me?” he said into the transmitter.

  After a few seconds, there was a wet, squishy sound, then the deep rumble of Orac’s voice. “Yes.”

  “Have you heard anything about some human women that Dimas took captive recently?”

  “I will ask,” Orac said.

  Orac was silent for a while, and with every second, Ava’s worry and fear grew.

  “Mine have seen two women held captive.”

  Her hope perked up for a moment. Maybe Orac knew where Mom and Emily were and Ava could have them back before anything bad happened. And once she had her family safe and sound, she was never again letting them out of her sight.

  “Where are they?” she asked into the communication gadget.

  “With Dimas and his son.”

  “But where is that?” asked Radek.

  “Indiana,” he finally said after a long pause.

  “That’s a big state,” Ava said.

  “Not a state. A road. A long road.”

  “Are you saying that Dimas is on a road named Indiana?”

  “Yes.”

  Hope died a swift death, shrieking in pain. A sob swelled in her throat, but she fought it down. “There are a lot of Indiana Streets in the U.S. That hardly narrows it down.”

  “Can you give us any more clues?” asked Radek, as he stroked her back in an effort to soothe her.

  Orac’s voice dropped to a whisper. “Cyturs come. I must go.”

  The squishy sound came again, followed by dead silence.

  Ava resisted the urge to break down in a heaping mass of fear and frustration, but only barely. “How are we going to find them?”

  He tucked her head under his chin. “Let’s turn on the news. Maybe we’ll get lucky and a reporter’s camera will have caught sight of the Raide or your family.”

  It was a long shot, but she was willing to grasp at any straw offered at this point.

  She forced herself upright long enough to get to the living room. The TV was still filled with nothing but people talking about the sightings. Footage was running on the screen while a panel of “experts” argued over what they were seeing.

  Radek threaded his fingers through hers. “They’re getting bolder fast.”

  She leaned into him, soaking in his strength. “Three more recorded sightings just in the past few hours, and those groups were bigger. What does it mean?”

  “It means that it won’t be long until the Raide bring in large quantities of troops. Services are still up. Humans still have cell phones and satellite capability. None of the communication systems have been shut down yet, but once Dimas thinks people are afraid enough, he’ll take down all of it.”

  “How?”

  “What the Raide
lack in brawn, they make up for in brains. They’ve absorbed the technology of who knows how many other worlds. They have the ability to transport huge numbers of troops through huge windows they control—we call them doors. Hell, they even know how to open a door when they want to. Even Loriahans can’t do that. All we can do is take advantage of a window that’s already open. Dropping a few satellites from orbit or setting off a string of EMPs that will disrupt human technology won’t be any problem for Dimas at all.”

  “But there’s still time, right?”

  “Yes, but I have no idea how much. The way humans love to communicate and are constantly online is making it easy to spread fear and panic.”

  “Before that happens, we have to find Mom and Emily. If the Raide use EMPs, your truck will stop working.”

  “I’m aware. I think our best hope to find them is for me to contact a friend back on Loriah.”

  “How is that going to help?”

  “He’s Imonite, and his woman is probably the most skilled inventor I’ve ever met. If anyone has a gadget that can help us find your family, it’s Talan.”

  “How do you contact him?”

  Radek pulled what looked like a pocket watch but way more complex out of his pocket. Colored lights swirled inside. Rather than lighted words or letters, there was an area that looked like it was made of ultrafine sand. There were symbols etched into it, and as she watched, those etchings kept changing.

  “What is that?”

  “It tells me when the next window is going to open. Once it does, Talan will get my message.”

  “Like a text?” she asked.

  He nodded. “Just like that. Hopefully, he’s somewhere in range when my signal goes through.”

  “How long until that happens?”

  “Not long. A few minutes. Keep watching the news until then. If you see images from any big city on the water, make note of it. That may be what Orac was talking about.”

  Ava watched the screen while the experts prattled on about their theories. One man was excited about the arrival of “visitors,” as he called them. Another was clearly terrified. A young woman took a logical approach, saying what a great opportunity this was for us to study human behavior in the face of the unimaginable.