On a positive note, it looks like one of the security guards has come to. Off in the distance, I hear more sirens— the familiar sound of police cars and ambulances. They must be headed here.

There’s a crash and a slam from behind me. I startle, whipping around in time to see black clad figures swarm through the roof access door. A scream rips from me before I have any sense to think that being quiet might have been a better course of action.

Immediately, a gun is pointed my way. I clap my hands over my mouth and freeze. All the figures look to be men and they are wearing classic black masks with cut out eye holes. There are six of them in total— three with guns, three holding duffel bags.

“Hands up,” the man with the gun demands. I obey, slowly, trying not to provoke them.

“What do you think?” he says, nodding at one of the other guys. Behind him, one of the men with duffel bags has begun setting up some kind of rope on a propeller on the opposite edge of the building, the side that leads to the small back parking lot.

“Shove her down the stairs. No need to get messy,” the other replies.

Well, at least I’m not getting shot but I might still be dead in about five minutes. The man tucks the gun he pointed at me into his pants and moves toward me. I flinch involuntarily.

“Don’t fuck with me, or this fall will break your head open,” he growls at me. I nod, shivering all over. When he gets close, I see that they’ve even painted black around their eyes where the holes are to fully disguise themselves. “And don’t even think about screaming, or I’ll shoot you.”

He clamps down on my arm so hard I whimper and then begins to drag me to the door. The whole handle is jacked up from their forced entry to the roof. He swings it open and I tense up, bracing myself for the impact—

Then, nothing. He’s hesitating, still bruising my upper arm with his grip.

“Hey, look over here,” he shouts to his crew. “This is that bitch from the news. She’s the one, the one that talks about that bullshit race nobody’s ever seen.”

Then the others all turn to stare me down, and I wish I could disappear. I can’t bring myself to speak, afraid anything I say will result in pain or immediate death. Oh God, I think, stomach roiling. These are the people Vic tried to tell me about. They were planning something and they’ve done it. I almost freaking survived but now I am so dead— dead, dead, dead because I fucked an alien. Hey at least it was the best sex I ever had. These are the sad desperate thoughts of a woman who believes she’s about to die.

“Take her,” one of them says. I didn’t think I could get any more afraid. Wrong again. My fear expands until there’s nothing in my brain but a silent scream, the scream I can’t let out of my mouth. “We’ll see how long she can keep up the lies.”

“No… No, no, no,” I murmur, starting to wriggle and break away from his grip. “I don’t know anything. Please just leave me here—”

The man backhands me so hard that I see stars. The right side of my face begins to pulse as he hefts me over his shoulder. The other man takes off his glove and shoves it into my mouth until I’m choking on it, tasting the sweat. One by one they start to scale the back wall of the building, and the last one to go is my friendly captor.

“Here’s the deal,” he whispers. “If you try to screw around while we go down, I’ll drop you so fast you won’t have a chance to say you’re sorry, okay bitch? In fact, the game from here on out is what I like to call Survivor. The rules are, do what I say and maybe you’ll survive.”

He doesn’t wait for a reply and heaves me into a more balanced position. I’m faced with a wobbly view of the approaching ground as we propel downward. My mouth opens to scream but it only causes the glove inside to tickle my throat. I feel like I’m going to choke to death or throw up and be forced to swallow it. I don’t know whether it’s the fear, the pulsing pain in my face, or the ten stories between me and the parking lot, but I black out then and there.

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 21

KILA

I open my eyes, and everything around me is white.

“Ella,” I say, thinking we are in her bed, somewhere in her sea of white pillows and thick blankets. My voice is groggy and the inside of my mouth tastes like rubber.

“Kila.” There is a gentle tug at my arm. “We are in the operating room.”

I narrow my eyes on the face before me and try to make it not so blurry. There’s a blue spot of hair bobbing in front of me. “Oh, Kiva,” I say distantly. “What are we operating?”

A sigh. “It is a human phrase. This is where the surgeon did your procedure. Remember?”

“He’ll need a minute to recover his senses,” a foreign voice says.

“Thanks, Dr. Vaxxon. We’ll handle it from here.” That sounds like Pakka. The brightness begins to fade slightly, so that I can take in the silvery faces surrounding me. My team. All four of them.

I lift my arm, but it can’t quite move.

“Ah, will I be able to move soon?” I ask. Kiva comes into focus. He’s hanging over me, inspecting my face. I feel something tugging at my skin, followed by a little popping sound. It seems he’s removing some stabilizer cords from my head.

“The good news is that the procedure went well. All your brain activity is perfectly normal, and the cut site healed up nicely. Suppressor removed without issue,” Pakka is telling me.

I try to sit up, but I cannot. I try to pick up my leg, but I cannot. “Does this mean there’s bad news?” I say. I can’t possibly be paralyzed, otherwise I don’t imagine ‘without issue’ would be an honest assessment.

There is a pregnant pause while I begin trying to wiggle my fingers and toes. The room is coming into focus. It’s a sterile box with only an equipment cart and a light fixture overhead. Kiva, Pakka, Mori, and Vala are all at my side, wearing matching grim expressions. I realize that my fingers are responding just fine, so I tug at my arms and legs again.

And then it’s clear. I look down at my body and see I’m strapped tight to the gurney. Strong leather cords are crisscrossing me all over. Is this some strange dream?

“What is this?” I demand.

“Take a breath and relax, Kila. We need to tell you something,” Pakka says.

“Let me up,” I say, testing the strength of the cords by straining against them. “Where is Ella? If this is some attempt to take her away from me, I swear I’ll —”

“Please relax,” Kiva insists. His voice has a calming effect, and I realize vaguely that Kiva would never be a party to anything that would hurt Ella. His presence gives me a sense of trust. “This is about Ella, but it’s not what you are thinking. We’ve taken precautions strapping you here because we don’t want you to hurt yourself or others.”

I go limp and suck in a sharp breath. “Tell me where she is,” I grit out.

Mori gets straight to it. “She’s been taken. There was a security breach while you were under, and while a team of six men infiltrated the computer system and crashed the cameras, they also found Ella and took her with them when they escaped.”

I blink for a moment. Then, all at once, rage fills every nerve in my body with electric energy. I snarl and growl, nostrils flaring as I desperately tear against the bonds that keep me in place. Mori and Vala fall on my arms and chest, pressing me down.

“Let me up, you Ka-forsaken spineless Deviant-born bastard shika trash—” I shout curses at them in an unfiltered stream. “Cave-dwelling rat-eating shikava… Ka-forsaken scum worse than the bottom of an Azza boot —”

“Look at his eyes,” Kiva says. “They’re absolutely black! Greak Ka, he’s lost his mind.”