Alien Knight Blind Date Disaster (Lumerian Knights Book 3)

by Becca Brayden

  Think about Falden. His kiss. His touch. The way he worried about her and walked around determined to protect her.

  The way he felt inside her, making her cry out, cling to him. Beg.

  Tears gathered in her eyes, the hot liquid burning like acid behind her eyelids. Still she held them back. This creature and his freaky Darkoor slaves were not going to see her cry. Her love for Falden was a sacred thing now. Pure. Untouched by the evil in this room.

  She had been prideful, demanding. Hadn’t told him how she felt or admitted that she wanted a future with him, had fallen in love with him.

  Swallowing the tears was hard. She’d been a fool. She knew that now. Maybe Falden would come for her. She would cling to that hope until she was gone from this Earth. He would come. She just had to hold on.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Falden and Gareth fought their way to the stairs. “Vander. Cassiel. Status report,” Falden ordered as more Darkoor poured in from the next room.

  “I think they’ve got a portal open! Their numbers are growing. We’re coming to you, Commander,” Vander shouted. “No fucking way you’re going in there alone.”

  Just then King Dagan appeared at the foot of the stairs, accompanied by Torrin and Juliette. All wore Lumerian armor. “Damn right,” Dagan agreed with a grin as he reached for his favorite dagger, an eight-inch blade that could cut through steel like butter.

  Torrin smiled grimly, two short laser swords at the ready, his Lumerian sword strapped to his back. “We heard the call. Never thought I’d see the day you pressed that beacon.”

  Fuck. Two royals from two different planets. If the Dark One killed either, there would be intergalactic war. Planets would be decimated. There would be nothing left. Still, Falden couldn’t help but be grateful. Even Torrin’s new mate was an asset, her hands playing with the fire she could now generate at will.

  Falden nodded his acceptance. They were all honorable. Loyal. They would fight with him until the end. “Anyone else out there?”

  Cassiel was the first to answer as he and Vander tore their way down the stairs. “Saw two Lumerians out front. Didn’t recognize either one. Been too long. They’re already knee-deep in Darkoor and those human assholes. Fucking traitors.”

  Falden couldn’t agree more, but now was not the time. Closing his eyes, he gave himself to the old ways, taking knowledge from the web of energy that surrounded all living things. Sifted through the maze of auras. Focused on finding Isabella. Faint. So faint.

  Opening his eyes, he took the steps three at time until he saw the door he knew without a shadow of a doubt held both his love and one of his greatest enemies behind it. Terror gathered into a black void in his chest. Isabella’s life force was fading fast.

  Violence of action was his stock in trade. The others were right behind him, weapons ready. They’d done it a thousand times together. Falden was always first in. Surprise and speed on their side. They were fast and lethal.

  Falden couldn’t wait for Dagan to slice through the door as he normally would. Pulling an explosive from his tactical sling, he threw it at the door and raced through the blast, protected by his armor.

  Isabella forced her eyes to open as a deafening roar blasted her ears, an intense blue flash illuminating the darkened room. She’d known someone was out there. Could hear the fighting. The inhuman screams. The creature knew it, too, extinguishing all the lights, suddenly fading in and out. Or maybe she was hallucinating. She didn’t know anymore.

  Through the flash Falden rushed the creature, his movements faster than her eyes could track, sword slashing with deadly accuracy through anything standing in his way, electricity crackling.

  Suddenly a breeze stirred her hair. Within seconds the breeze became a miniature whirlwind. Isabella’s hair blew in every direction. The table slid across the room, slamming into the wall. Her heart lodged in her throat. He’d come for her.

  She thought Falden was alone until Darkoor bodies started flying all around the room. Heads rolled. Balls of flame lit up the room from out of nowhere, blasting the evil Darkoor, the human traitors, the alien creature who had no name

  Her heart nearly stopped as the creature disappeared, only to reappear behind Falden, impervious to attack. Nothing fazed the dark creature. Its clawed hand, fingers twice the length of a human’s, with razor-sharp bones protruding from the tip, slashed through Falden’s armor before he could move, a fresh cut on his arm. He jumped away, slicing with the tip with his sword before the creature disappeared again.

  Isabella screamed, her heart in her throat as she watched the creature slice into Falden again and again. He never faltered, hacking and slashing at the creature as it faded in and out of existence like some kind of nightmare.

  Falden shouted, “Get her out of here! I’ll distract the Dark One as long as I can! Go!”

  A tall, blond warrior dressed identically to Falden suddenly appeared beside Isabella. “Let’s go!” he ordered, grabbing her hand.

  Panic gripped Isabella. She couldn’t leave Falden. Couldn’t let him sacrifice himself to save her. “No!” she shouted, pulling away.

  On her other side another warrior appeared, this one as dark-haired as the other was light. “There’s nothing you can do now! Let’s go!”

  Isabella gathered the last of her strength. Stood without assistance. Pulling at a reserve of power she didn’t know she had, she stepped toward the fierce battle. Falden would never make it out of that room alive as long as the creature he’d named Dark One still lived. Perhaps none of them would. She blinked slowly. Focused on the creature. Put every ounce of will behind her next words, her voice shimmering across the chaos like a mirage in the desert. “Dark One.”

  The Dark One howled with rage and turned its full attention on her.

  “No!” Falden yelled as the two warriors who had been on either side of her stepped in front, blocking her view. With the lightest touch of her fingertips on each of their shoulders, they moved aside, just enough to allow her to focus on her enemy.

  “Dark One, you will stop fighting. You will remain still.”

  The Dark One screamed in fury as it tried to rush her and failed. The shriek reached ear-shattering levels when the monster tried to disappear, faded for a flicker of a moment but could not move as it had before. Her command held, the pulse of power tying her to the creature with the absolute determination of a woman who had nothing left to lose.

  “Falden?” The fair-haired warrior at her side called to his commander, but Falden’s eyes glowed with blue fire.

  The Dark One turned to face Falden, a calculated risk, assuming the warriors guarding the female would remain in place.

  He was correct. They did not move because she clung to them now, her fingers like clamps on their shoulders as she used them to hold herself upright, to stare at the creature, to maintain the connection between them.

  “Lumerian.” The Dark One’s voice was worse than its scream, and Isabella winced as the raspy tone struck inside her skull like fingernails on a chalkboard.

  She blinked, and that fast the Dark One broke free of her control. It raised its bone-colored talons to strike Falden dead.

  “No!” Isabella screamed the command, her lifeforce in that one word. Her heart. Her soul. Everything.

  Caught in her power once more, arm raised to attack, the dark creature backed away from Falden, unable to strike. To fight. To defend itself. Falden wasted no time. With a mighty leap, he slashed at its throat, his sword sizzling with electric-blue fire as the Dark One’s grotesque snarl tumbled, with its head, to the floor at Falden’s feet. Sparks of current wrapped around the head like a bizarre lightning storm for several seconds until what little life had been present in the Dark One’s eyes faded to nothing but empty space. Blank nothingness.

  The body remained standing for several seconds longer, as if by pure muscle memory. Isabella would have gagged if she’d had the energy, relief swamping her as the body crumpled at last. No blood, just the sickly smell
of burned meat and bone, a testament to mighty Furon’s true power.

  Isabella’s legs collapsed with relief, and the two warriors caught her. Falden was running, yelling her name, as everything went dark.

  Falden raced to Isabella’s side, scooping her up before she hit the floor, a death rattle escaping her blue-tinged lips. He let out a bellow of pure rage. Pain. Anguish. “No!”

  King Dagan appeared next to Falden. “There’s still time to save her if you hurry.”

  Falden’s icy blue eyes were overbright as he nuzzled Isabella’s long hair, his injuries and blood loss making his head swim dizzily. The Yielding. Yes.

  Gently he lowered her to the floor, uncaring of the battle still raging outside. His woman was dying.

  Cleaning his sword, he placed it between them. “Your Majesty, I may need your help.”

  “Anything,” King Dagan replied.

  Falden nodded, then placed a few drops of his blood across a small digital display on his armored forearm and tapped in a series of Lumerian symbols.

  “Identify,” said a disembodied female voice in Lumerian.

  “Falden Corshival,” he said brusquely.

  “Scanning,” said the voice. A blue sheet of light panned Falden from head to toe.

  “Artifact?” asked the voice.

  “Lumerian Orb.”

  “Retrieving,” said the voice.

  Falden waited impatiently for the orb to materialize, appearing first as a tiny pebble, then expanded until it fit perfectly into his hand. The inside of the crystal swirled mysteriously with sparkling silver and gray mist. He watched as the orb levitated from his open palm, expanding in size until the silver light encompassed Isabella’s entire being inside its frigid interior, before stepping through the light to join her. Their warm breath crystallized and mixed with the swirling mist as they exhaled. All the noises from outside the orb were muted. Far away.

  Taking a drop of his own blood, he smeared it over the blue crystal embedded in his sword, then smeared a drop of Isabella’s blood directly over his before slamming the sword, tip down, into the center of the orb. Immediately the cold air inside the orb crackled with electricity. The hair on their bodies stood on end.

  “Isabella,” Falden whispered gently. “This will link our life forces. I can only hope that you will choose me as I have chosen you. If not, we will both die here today. You are my heart. My soul. My existence.”

  Falden placed his lips gently to hers, kissing her sweetly before lying down next to her. He took her hand, linking their fingers. “My Bella. Can you hear me?”

  Slowly her eyes drifted open, full of pain. “I’m dying,” she croaked.

  “Then we die together.” Falden squeezed her hand. “You used the maju paste, didn’t you?”

  Her nod was barely perceivable. “I’m sorry.”

  Falden cleared his throat, emotion choking him for the first time in thousands of years. “Maju paste or not, I choose you, my Bella. Your body is changing. Becoming more like mine. Lumerian. You will need an anchor for your power. I don’t have time to fully explain, but you will die without one. I would be that anchor for you, if you’ll have me.”

  “How long?” she asked, coughing up blood.

  “Forever. I would be yours forever, just as you would belong to me. Forever.”

  Isabella nodded. “But…”

  Falden raised their joined hands to his lips and kissed her softly. “I love you, my Bella. Please. Stay with me.”

  She turned her head to face him, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes before flowing, unchecked, toward the floor. “Yes.”

  He would have sighed in relief or leaped with joy, but her grip was weak, fading. “We must go through a Lumerian Yielding. We may both die if it doesn’t work. Isabella, you must yield all that you are to me—your heart, your mind, your soul, your life—and I must do the same for you. Together, we become something stronger. Good or bad, it’s forever. Do you understand? We live together. Die together.”

  Isabella nodded. Yes. She wanted that. His words, his love would sustain her through this life or the next. She didn’t believe him. She knew she was dying. Her heart stuttered, fighting to beat. Her chest hurt. She could barely breathe, every bit of fresh air a struggle to claim and release. She was tired. So damn tired. Everything hurt.

  “Are you hurt?” She knew he was bleeding, had seen the creature strike at him over and over, but he seemed to move like water. Fast. A storm on two feet. He had injuries, but that wasn’t what she was asking.

  “I will heal. Do not waste time worrying about me.”

  “Matthew?” The boy, her boy. Her little brother. Well, he wasn’t technically hers, but she’d claimed him, so he was hers now.

  Falden’s gaze, already softer than she had ever seen it, deepened as he looked at her, wrapped his fingers tightly around hers and squeezed. “He is fine. He is with my Knights.”

  “Knights.” How romantic. She was like a queen now, dying and bleeding in the final scene of a soap opera, a roomful of Knights wearing swords and armor standing around as if she were the most important person in the world.

  “Bella. Listen to me. Stay with me.”

  I already said yes.

  “Bella?” Falden pulled her into his lap. She was not moving. Barely breathing. Her eyelids fluttered as the sound of battle dimmed around them, then faded to silence.

  A shift in his field of vision and Falden looked up to see Dagan kneeling just beyond the silver sphere. “Do it now, Falden. She’s dying.” He lifted a vial. “I have maju water, but it won't be enough to save her if she won’t yield to you now.”

  Falden understood. The maju water would heal her, but only if he could keep her alive long enough for the healing elements in the water and the crystal remnants running around in her body to do their jobs.

  “Bella.”

  “Falden.” Isabella smiled. She’d actually managed to say it out loud this time. And he was touching her, stroking her cheek like he loved her. Like she was beautiful.

  Wait, he did say that he loved her, didn’t he? Had she imagined that?

  “Bella, look at me.” She did, and Falden’s heart was in his eyes. “Do you yield to me? Will you stay with me?”

  “Yes. Yes, I yield.” Her voice was sure. Confident, even if full of pain.

  Yield. What a funny word. But then, he was an alien, after all. And she was dying. Maybe she hallucinated that, too.

  At her words, one-half of the ancient runes on the blade began to glow with an eerie blue light. An arc of lightning lashed out from the pommel and struck Isabella in the heart, holding the connection between her body and the sword like a continuous flash of lightning. Her small body convulsed, arching back from the electrical current.

  “Isabella,” Falden spoke the ritual words he’d never believed he would speak and willed the woman he loved to hear him. Believe him. Feel him. “I yield all that I am to become something more with you. I yield my heart to you. My mind. My soul. My life.”

  The second half of the ancient runes lining the pommel lit up with the same eerie blue light. A second arc of lightning lashed out from the pommel and burrowed into his body, into his heart, holding the connection between him and the sword…and her. He convulsed, the electrical current running through his body contorting his muscles.

  A third arc of lightning lashed out from the Lumerian crystal in the pommel and struck the top of the orb, spreading jagged fingers of lightning throughout the crystalline shell. The heat from the energy made the air vibrate all around them. Deafening thunder cracked within the sphere.

  Falden and Isabella rose, as if by an unseen hand, to hover in midair. Forks of lightning wrapped around their bodies, binding them ever more tightly together.

  Their spirits lifted. Soared. Connected, just for a moment of pure bliss. “Falden,” she whispered.

  My Bella.

  Isabella felt rather than heard the words. Falden! She reached for him with her mind. This was Falden.
At once, scenes of another world flashed through her consciousness like memories. But hey weren’t hers. They were his. His loss. His pain. His love for her. His every sacrifice. She cried out.

  I can’t live without you, my Bella. Don’t leave me.

  It’s too late. Her body would not obey her. She could not speak, could not open her eyes. She was too weak. I’m sorry.

  No. Yield. Show me who you are. Yield all that you are to me.

  It hurts! She wasn’t sure if her thoughts would reach him as she screamed, her breath crystallizing in the frigid air inside the orb.

  Bella, love. Give me your pain. I can make it all go away. Yield, Bella! Yield!

  Blood suddenly gushed from Falden’s nose and ears, and he heard his Knights bellow in outrage as he gave his life to her. Breathed for her. With her. Linked his life force to hers.

  She would stay, or she would go.

  Where Isabella went, he would follow.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Falden was dying.

  She felt him fading, the vibrant light of him flickering around her heart somehow, or maybe her soul.

  Fire connected them. Hot. Burning. It hurt, striking at her body again and again, trying to get in, to break her, to get through her walls. That fire wanted to inside her, everywhere. Her spine. Her heart. The beat of her pulse. The little sparks of thought inside her mind. It was like a wall of water trying to break over her, swallow her whole, leaving nothing behind. It would consume her. Every bit of her.

  She fought like she always did. That was her life. Fighting. Struggling. Never give up, that was her motto. That attitude was what got her through life, through work, through loss and pain and all the bullshit in the world.

  She knew the fire was in Falden, too. She could sense it. But he accepted the pain. Welcomed it. The fire seemed to be in some kind of circuit, moving through him and back to her, pounding at her skull, at her soul like a giant fist pounding down a small wooden door.