Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Epilogue
Authors’ Note
Other Titles
A Son for the Alien Warrior
Treasured by the Alien 2
Honey Phillips
Bex McLynn
Copyright © 2019 by Honey Phillips and Bex McLynn
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the authors.
Disclaimer
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or people, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover Design by Cameron Kamenicky and Naomi Lucas
Edited by Lindsay York at LY Publishing Services
Chapter One
Mariah pulled her beat-up old Camaro into the parking lot for the city park and let it shudder to a halt. She clenched the steering wheel in an attempt to keep her hands from trembling. Too much caffeine, she tried to tell herself. But even though she’d been guzzling coffee all night, she knew that wasn’t the reason she was shaking.
Forcing her hands to release the wheel, she reached for the small bouquet of flowers sitting on the passenger seat. They weren’t much—just a cheap bouquet from the last gas station—but she had wanted to bring something, some token to acknowledge that this was the last place where her sister Judith and her nephew Charlie had been seen.
As she climbed out of her car, her collection of bracelets jingled, the sound startling in the still morning air. With a muttered curse, she pulled off all but the frayed friendship bracelet her sister had tied around her wrist not five days before she disappeared. Judith had laughed and tugged one of the braids scattered throughout Mariah’s long blond hair as she displayed her own bracelet.
“There. Is that hippie enough for you?”
Mariah’s eyes filled with tears as she remembered that morning in her sister’s small townhouse, as neat and organized as her sister. Why hadn’t she stayed with her for just a few more days? But she had already been restless, the same restlessness that had kept her on the road for more than fifteen years pulling at her. Despite the joy of spending time with her sister and her new nephew, she’d left that day for a gig in Detroit. The police had contacted her a week later.
Now she took a deep breath, wiped her eyes, and turned towards the park. Even though the summer sun hadn’t yet crept above the horizon, the parking lot wasn’t entirely deserted. A big black Escalade stood guard at one end and two mom vans were parked by the walking trail. Mariah gave them a wistful glance as she passed by, noting the car seats and the colorful assortment of toys. Judith had a similar model, still sitting in her townhouse driveway. Mariah hadn’t been able to bring herself to sell it.
The path led into the woods, still cool and dim in the dawn light. Her sandals made no sound on the asphalt and nothing disturbed the hush that lay over the park. She started to hum, but the sound was so unnerving that she stopped and focused on reaching her destination instead. Around the next curve, a meadow opened up, leading down to a small lake with a bandstand perched on the shore. That was where the police had found the jogging stroller.
As she emerged into the meadow, she paused. Mist drifted up from the water, obscuring most of the open area, and the same unnatural quiet persisted. A breeze whispered past, like cool fingers against her skin, and she shivered. The mist cleared for a fraction of a second and… what was that? Her heart started to pound.
All her life, she had been addicted to stories of the supernatural, of the unusual, and that included UFOs. She had no doubt about what she had seen in that quick glimpse. A huge spaceship, gleaming in dark metal, hovered over one end of the meadow with a ramp descending to the ground. No wonder the police had never found any trace of Judith or Charlie.
Straining to see through the mist, she moved closer. Her heart was pounding so hard she felt sick but a spaceship here in the same place, exactly one year later? It had to be the same aliens. And maybe, just maybe, there was a chance that her sister and her nephew weren’t lost to her forever.
A slight rustle penetrated the fog-muffled air and she dropped down into the long grass lining the shore, not caring that the wet grass instantly dampened her long skirt and peasant blouse. A man appeared, dressed in a severe black suit and facing away from her. She started to call out, to warn him, but then he raised his hand and her mouth went dry. It was not a human hand. Six long fingers, impossibly smooth and white, manipulated something that looked oddly like a radar detector.
He scanned the area but just as he turned in her direction, a low call sounded from behind him. A second man—no, a second alien—appeared and they had a brief conversation in a clicking language. Her pulse racing, she automatically reached for her phone, but it was completely dead, not even a flicker of light appearing despite what she knew had been a full charge.
While she was trying to decide what to do, two more aliens came down the ramp. Three of them disappeared off into the mist, while the fourth one stayed behind, examining a tablet-like screen with a disinterested air.
Probably checking alien Facebook, she thought half-hysterically. If he would just move a little farther away, she might be able to sneak onto the ramp behind him. Wait a minute. Was she seriously going to try and sneak aboard? Even as she wondered, she knew the answer was yes. She twisted her bracelet ruefully. Her sister would have been the first one to tell her she was being impulsive and reckless, but Judith and Charlie were her only family. If there was even a small chance that she could find them, she was going to take that chance.
The alien wandered a little farther away, still focused on his screen, and she crouched on the balls of her feet, ready to make a dash for it. A startled cry came from the far end of the meadow and then the unmistakable sound of a gunshot. The alien took off at a run in that direction.
Mariah paused for just a second to make sure no one else was coming, then took a deep breath and darted up the long metal ramp, her heart thudding against her ribs.
Inside, she found a dim, cavernous space more than half-filled with a wide variety of containers, some of them resembling huge packing crates much taller than her, while others were stacks of what looked like Tupperware boxes. All of them were strapped into place in some complicated arrangement that she didn’t quite understand. Based on every science fiction movie she had ever watched, this must be the cargo hold.
She immediately ducked down one of the narrow pathways between the containers, anxious to get out of sight in case someone else appeared. Should she stay here? There didn’t appear to be anyone else around and there were a number of little nooks and crannies where she could hide. But then she remembered that even on an Earth plane, the cargo area was unheated and unpressurized. In the case of a spaceship, it might not even have oxygen.
Biting her lip and trying to keep her damp sandals from squeaking on the metal floor, she sidled back behind the stacks, then edged along the white metal wall until she came to a door panel. No one had appeared, so she took a deep breath and pressed the button next to the door. With a soft whoosh, the door slid open to reveal an empty white corridor and a whiff of antiseptic air. As soon as she passed through the opening, the door slid shut behind her and she had to suppress a surge of panic. There was nowhere to hide in the open hallway, and she needed to find somewhere where she could conceal herself as soon as possible. One side of the passageway was lined with half a dozen door panels, while the other side held only two. Did that mean that they opened into larger areas, with more room to hide? Or were they just more likely to be populated?
Shuddering at the thought of opening a door to a sea of alien faces, she opted for the first of the six doors. Crossing her fingers that her assumption was correct, she tentatively pressed the button next to the door. A small storage room met her gaze, but the walls were lined with floor-to-ceiling cabinets and there was nowhere to hide. Her heart thudded and sweat began to dampen her palms as she moved to the next door and she had to force herself to press the open button. This looked like a better option. It resembled a small lab, with a counter along one side that included something resembling a sink, and rows of tall shelves perpendicular to the counter on the other. She thought she could conceal herself between the shelves and as she looked at the sink, it occurred to her that she would be able to at least have something to drink.
The practical thought of food and drink brought her to a sudden stop. What the hell was she thinking? She didn’t have any supplies; she didn’t have a plan. All she had was a desperate hope that this ship, appearing in the same place where her sister and nephew had disappeared exactly a year earlier could somehow lead her to them. She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders.
Yes, it was foolish, it was reckless, but they were the only two people in the world who she loved, and she was going to take this chance.
Her resolve was tested almost immediately when she heard voices in the corridor. In a cold sweat, she rushed to the rear of the room and wedged herself behind the last set of shelves. It was a tight fit, but no one would be able to see her unless they were standing directly in front of her. A second later, she heard the door panel open.
Chapter Two
As Mariah heard the door open, she slid down the wall of her hiding place as quietly as she could until she was huddled in a small heap. Her heart sank as at least two voices filled the small room, the clicking sounds of their language reminding her uneasily of insect noises. From the increased volume and rapid exchange, she suspected they were having an argument.
Great. The last thing she wanted was to be discovered by aliens who were already angry.
As if in response to her thoughts, a figure appeared at the end of the shelves bordering her hiding place. She peeked up over her bent knees, praying that he would not look in her direction. Like the aliens she had seen outside the ship, he was tall and thin with flat white skin and matte black hair. The severe black outfit she had mistaken for a suit appeared to be some type of uniform. He wasn’t looking in her direction. Instead, he was waving his hand at his unseen companion. His six-fingered hand, she noted again, and for some reason that difference more than any other drove home to her just how alien these beings were and sent a shudder up her spine.
The alien made a frustrated gesture, then she watched in slow-motion horror as he turned until his glowing red eyes looked directly at her. His eyes widened as she froze, too afraid to move. She braced herself for his outraged cry or for a weapon to appear in his hand. Instead, he wiped his face blank of expression and turned back to his companion. His voice dropped to a soothing level and she could tell that the argument seemed to be coming to an end. A few moments later, she heard the door panel open again.
What had happened? She knew that he had seen her—his reaction had been quite obvious. A horrible possibility occurred to her. What if he intended to go and get more of the aliens? After a moment’s thought, she decided that didn’t seem likely. While he was definitely slender, he was easily a head taller and she suspected he would have little trouble subduing her. Whatever his reasons, what mattered now was finding a new place to hide while he was gone.
As she pushed herself upright, she realized to her horror that he hadn’t left after all. Once again, he stood at the entrance to her little hideaway. She braced herself, prepared to fight even if the effort proved futile, but he merely stood there and looked at her. She stared back, waiting for him to take some action but he didn’t move. Eventually the tension proved too much for her.
“What are you going to do to me?” she whispered, then groaned inwardly. It was a silly question, but it was all she could think to say.
He regarded her thoughtfully for another moment, then disappeared. Had she chased him off?
Before she had a chance to feel relieved, he reappeared and this time he had a long silver syringe in his hand.
“No! No, I won’t let you.”
She scrabbled frantically at the wall behind her, trying to get away from the threat of the needle even though she had nowhere to go. The shelves next to her contained a variety of boxes and jars and she slid her hand across them as discreetly as possible, trying to find something she could use as a weapon. The alien made what looked like a gesture for her to calm down, patting the air in front of him.
“No! I’m not going to relax. I won’t let you stick that thing in me.”
Her voice rose as she spoke and this time, he cast a quick look over his shoulder and then pressed a hand to his mouth. He wanted her to be quiet? But why?
The obvious answer was that he didn’t want anyone else to know that she was here, but she couldn’t decide if that was an advantage or a disadvantage. Did he just not want to share her with the rest of the crew? Even though that was a horrible thought, a single alien would no doubt be easier to handle than a group of them. And at least so far, he had done nothing threatening, although she still eyed the syringe with suspicion.
“What is that for?” she asked in a much quieter voice.
He pointed to his mouth and then to his ear, then pointed at her and repeated the gesture.
“Do you mean you want to talk to me?” It was the only way she could interpret his gestures, although she had no idea how a shot would help her understand.
He nodded and took a step forward.
“No!” she cried again, trying to press back against the wall.
He stopped immediately, casting another nervous look over his shoulder and pressed his hand to his mouth again. He obviously did not want anyone else to overhear her, and that was a good thing, right? She remembered her earlier fear of being surrounded by a sea of alien faces as every sci-fi horror movie she had ever seen flashed through her mind.
Taking a deep breath, she did her best to keep her voice low and reasonable. “That thing you’re holding, are you saying it will help me understand you?”
He nodded eagerly. The fact that he seemed to understand English was both alarming and encouraging. Obviously, he had encountered humans before, and what if he even knew something about her sister? That hope was enough to make her gingerly move away from the wall.
“Are you going to hurt me?”
He hesitated, then nodded his head. Holding up one hand, he unclenched two fingers, with a brief pause between each. Hopefully that meant the pain would not last longer than it took him to display his fingers. Straightening her shoul
ders, she stepped forward. How Judith would have laughed to see her voluntarily taking a shot. Throughout her childhood, she had fought her sister every time she had needed any type of inoculation. This is for you, Ju, she thought as she held out her arm.
Instead of taking her outstretched arm, the alien clamped his fingers on her shoulder—long, cold, surprisingly strong fingers. Before she could object, he raised the syringe to her neck and there was a brief flare of agony as an icy cold current raced through her body.
“Ow!” she cried, but she remembered to keep her voice low.
“I am sorry for the pain that I caused,” the alien said apologetically, and she gaped at him. She could understand him perfectly. “I am afraid that less painful methods of inserting a translation implant are not available on a Vedeckian ship.”
Trying to wrap her mind around the fact that she was actually talking to an alien, she rubbed the place where he had inserted the syringe. As he had promised, the sting was already fading.
“A Vedeckian ship? Is that what we are on?” she asked uncertainly.
“Yes, it is, and I need to get you off of it as soon as possible.” He tilted his head, red eyes glowing. “Why did you choose to come onboard? Did you not realize that the ship was not native to your planet?”
“Of course I knew that the ship didn’t belong on Earth. But unless I’m wrong—” how she prayed she was not wrong “—a ship like this took my sister and my nephew away last year.”
“You are searching for your kin?” He stepped back with an appalled look on his face. “You must know that is not possible.”
“Why isn’t it possible?”
He shook his head. “You must leave the ship now. I could possibly find out about your kin, but…”
A low, penetrating hum filled the room. Her new companion seemed to sag.
“I’m afraid it is too late. We are leaving.”
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