“Yes.” He had not realized it, not until this moment, but life without Isabella was not worth living. Not to him. Not anymore. He’d done his duty, spent millennia protecting the Lumerian royal bloodline, fighting for his people. For the first time, none of that meant anything without her. “I can’t lose her.”
Gareth’s gaze met his, and the look in his friend’s eyes was cold as ice. Deadly. Focused. “Then we won’t lose her.”
“Fuck yeah, bro. Let’s slice and dice.” Cassiel’s new attempt to master human slang actually made Falden grin.
Slice and dice.
He gripped Furon in his hand. “The others will be here soon.” The rest of his Knights were on the Caldorian base. Summoned by the emergency beacon, they would not waste time with human means of transportation and would arrive within minutes.
Falden tightened his grip, the weight of the sword nothing, as if the strange liquid-metal had forged to his flesh, become part of him. “Slice and dice. Vander. Cassiel. Meet us on the first floor. Isabella is below us.”
“Understood. We’re moving. Vander out.”
Falden nodded to Gareth, and they moved as one back toward the entrance, now guarded by two Darkoor and three human males, all firing stolen Caldorian weapons at the warriors outside.
Blue fire arced through the air as Falden swung his sword, decapitating the nearest human. The second was dead before the first body hit the floor. Next to him, Gareth swung up from the floor, the Darkoor nearest him sliced from crotch to throat. Gareth split the monster’s body in half before stabbing the remaining human through the heart.
Only one enemy remained, and Falden recognized him all too well, first from the bar where Falden had met Isabella, and then from Dagan’s interrogation room. Deactivating his Spectral Cloaking Armor before an enemy for the first time in centuries, Falden appeared out of thin air as the Darkoor scrambled for his weapon, his round rows of teeth bared so fiercely Falden could see down the asshole’s throat.
“Bhaosz. Where is Isabella?”
“Fuck you.” Bhaosz raised a Caldorian rifle. Fired at point-blank range. The burst of light bounced off Falden’s armor like sunlight off a mirror. Bhaosz raised the rifle to fire again and Falden snapped.
He lifted the sword and pointed the tip at Bhaosz. Made of an otherworldly material, the semiliquid blade swirled like smoke. Ancient runes engraved down the center glowed an electric blue.
Electrical fire raced from Falden’s hands and crackled along the length of the blade until the energy burst from him, from the sword, like lightning toward his enemy. With a scream, Bhaosz was lifted from his feet and thrown to the ceiling, held there by the steady current Falden was generating.
“Where. Is. She?”
Four more Darkoor raced toward Falden, all attempts at appearing human long forgotten as they fought with inhuman strength and determination to reach the Lumerian.
Two Caldorians burst through the front door, took in the scene with a glance and fired past Gareth to seriously injure one of the Darkoor before Gareth could slice the fucker in half. Irritated, he chopped off the other’s head and gave Falden his back. No one was getting past him.
“Where is she?” Falden growled.
Bhaosz screamed as bright blue and white flames licked around and through his body in a live electrocution. The sound coming from him was completely alien. No humanoid creature could make the twisted screech that exited the Darkoor’s round throat.
“Where is she?” Falden’s voice had not risen. If anything, it had gone soft. Dark. Merciless.
When Gareth and the two Caldorians dispatched three more well-armed Darkoor, Bhaosz gave up hope.
“First floor. Boss has her.”
“Why? Why does he want her?” Falden demanded.
Bhaosz laughed, the sound pure evil. “Sasha. Maju. Crystals. They know.”
“Fuck.” Gareth’s voice cut through the clutter in Falden’s mind like nothing else could have, echoing his own thoughts at the Darkoor’s statement. If the A’Nua Na-KI knew human females were being activated by microbes in the maju paste, knew that females like Sasha Tiranon and now Juliette Rosen had been transformed into women so similar to Lumerian women, even he would be hard-pressed to tell the difference, could summon powers lost to the near extinct Lumerian race, they’d swarm Earth, take every human woman they could get their hands on, kill as many as they had to in order to find what they wanted. Enemies of his people, powerful individuals who held seats on the Intergalactic Council, would be after the women as well. Looking for one who could give them dominance in the never-ending, universe-wide struggle for power and control.
They would hunt for more women like Sasha. Like Juliette. Like Isabella.
But Isabella was not bonded to a male. She was not anchored in her power. She was not Lumerian, not born with their gifts. Right this moment, she could be in agony. Suffering. Dying.
“Enough.” Done with the garbage of a life form before him, Falden released his hold on Furon’s energy. The lightning coming from the sword faded until there was not enough force to hold Bhaosz’s body suspended. Falden sliced Bhaosz in half as the Darkoor fell to the floor.
Behind him, the two Caldorian warriors who had taken up posts near Gareth looked confused. One kept an eye on the interior while the other felt around like a blind man, arms outstretched, grasping at empty air.
“What are you doing?” Falden asked.
The warrior, a strong young male named Yorek, did not divert his attention from his search. “There is someone here. A shot came from this area when we were being rushed by the humans.” He lowered a hand to indicate a pile of half a dozen dead on the floor before his partner. “We took them out, but we had help. I know we did. I’m not hallucinating.”
Falden sighed. “No, Yorek. You’re not.” He stepped forward. “Gareth, reveal yourself.”
On his right, standing less than a foot away from Yorek, Gareth appeared as if out of thin air, his sword brandished in one hand, a
