Striker Read online

  It appeared they weren't even made from blood and bone, and therefore they most probably didn't have vocal cords. There were psychic species throughout the galaxies, but they never shared their ability with others, relying on technology to communicate. This was a first, having a voice speak from the inside of his head.

  “Who are you?” It didn’t look like the inhabitants of this world he remembered, but there was a sharp sentience about it that was puzzling.

  “We are part-Callistean. We integrated with the sentience of this world when the Reptiles sought to destroy us.”

  Striker frowned. “You mean you're still Callistean?” All Callisteans were tall, long-limbed, with a very small face. Although - when he looked closer at the creature, there were similarities. Bi-pedal, two long arms, elongated torso, and head. The features did have the same facial traits. Even the mannerisms were similar. If was as though they were hidden beneath layers of fauna.

  “Gods! You're really them!”

  The Callistean inclined its head. “It was the only way we could survive the invasion.”

  That was amazing, and it answered the questions as to why there'd been no contact since the Reptiles invaded this planet. This was a highly technological world, the species advanced. It seemed they were so advanced, they'd found a way to survive the unsurvivable.

  “What is your name?”

  “We have no name. There are no individuals. Only many.”

  That gave him pause for thought. He could clearly only see one of him - her? - on the other side of the stream.

  “Many? How many of you are here?”

  The creature gestured in a languid, slow movement. Around the cave, vines trembled. Faces of all sizes appeared from notches and shadows everywhere.

  Striker peered around, wordless and more than a little on edge. He was definitely outnumbered if things turned aggressive.

  “How long have you been here for?” He eyed the creature warily, almost not wanting to know the answer.

  “Now that we have integrated, our consciousness spans to the beginning.” It blinked at him, a slow movement. If he looked closely, he could almost see the cosmos reflected in its large blue eyes.

  Huh. That was the answer he'd not wanted to hear. He knew when dealing with different species, it sometimes took a while for understanding to develop. Usually, it involved ambassadors and diplomats. And time. All things he wasn't and didn’t have.

  “The beginning of… what?”

  “Since the conception of this world. Our memory spans to the start of time on this planet in this dimension.”

  That was a little more than he'd thought. And what exactly did they mean anyway? It was definitely an answer best explored at another time. He tried again.

  “How long have you known we've been…here? In this cave?”

  Another long, slow blink. “When you first came in with your female. She was very ill. We knew through the mix of our blood to your blood.”

  “Mix of blood?” The more he spoke to this creature, the more questions clogged his mind.

  The Callistean indicated the stream. They'd washed their wounds in the water. Could the water be what they meant as their blood?

  “The tingling.” It hadn’t been his imagination. Every time he'd drunk the water, cleansed his body, washed his wounds - combined his blood with their blood.

  “Yes, that is what this is. Our veins. Our blood. Our life force. Now joined.”

  “You can read my mind?”

  He nearly thumped his forehead with an open palm. Of course they could read his mind. They were speaking telepathically. They were in his head. But just how much could they read? He didn’t want an unknown entity rummaging around in thoughts and memories, accessing anything and everything.

  “We respect your personal privacy. We apologise if you feel violated. It was not our intention. It was the only way we could understand that you meant us no harm and are a true enemy of those who invaded this planet. We had no other way to understand your motives. We needed to communicate with both you and your female and had to work to integrate your systems so we could communicate.”

  Integrate? That was an in-depth conversation he didn’t want to have at the moment. And nothing that sounded very good. His priority was Vivien. Once she was safe, then he'd put his mind to try to understand what the hell had happened to the both of them.

  “Do you know where she is?” Maybe if they'd been sentient enough to know they were here and what they'd done, they'd also know where she'd gone.

  “Your female left when you were resting. We tried to warn her, but we don't think she heard us. We still are trying, but she is resisting.” The creature folded its hands passively in front of its body.

  “You're trying to warn her? How? Where is she? I need to get to her. Tell her to come back!” Urgency had him stepping forward and almost untangling the vine from his ankle. He stepped back, allowing the vine to tangle more firmly on his skin.

  “When she touches us, we try to communicate, but it is harder out of the womb.” The Callistean indicated the cave.

  “What? Wait. You mean when she touches a - tree? A piece of fauna?”

  The Callistean inclined its head, a habit he was coming to understand as an affirmation. “Yes. Everything on this planet is connected. The water. The leaves on the trees. The flowers. The fruit.”

  His mind was spinning with this new information. The fruit. He shuddered to think he might have eaten some sort of limb from them. “You mean - we ate - you?”

  “That was a gift made for your sustenance. It is not of our body, but from our free will. We provide nothing for the invaders, but we will feed you. It also helped with the integration.”

  “Thank you. I think.” His voice sounded a little weak as relief shot through him. He only hoped this - integration - didn't cause permanent damage to himself or Vivien. “But - Vivien - my…my female. Can you sense where she is? I need to get to her. I think she's gone to find my Starjet to send an off-planet signal for my people to rescue us.”

  The Callistean inclined its head. “That is her purpose, but her motive is very deep and comes from a place of profound grief and regret. She is also different from your physiology. There is something different about that one. Different from every other species throughout the known galaxies. We fear for her safety.”

  The hairs at the back of Striker's neck stood out. He feared for her safety, too. “How is she different?”

  “Her species has access to dimensions others can't see. It is untapped, but it is what the invaders need to progress with their plans. There is danger for all if the invaders unleash her power.”

  Striker's whole body flushed hot, then icy cold. Could this have anything to do with Lauren's abduction, and then the stealth and length the Reptiles had abducted Vivien? He didn’t understand the Calistean's full meaning, but the one thing he did understand was that Vivien was in great danger and he had to keep her from the Reptiles.

  Even if it cost him everything.

  Chapter Fourteen

  The whispers brushed her ear, circled around her head. She didn't bother even acknowledging it. She was scared to admit she heard anything, as though if she did, her pending insanity would be that much more real. Ignoring it was the most proactive thing she could do. It was the only thing she could do.

  She crouched beneath a bushy tree while twin moons rose over the ridge and hung high in the sky. She didn’t know if this planet snowed, but if she was on Earth, she knew she'd be thigh deep in ice and snow.

  If she was honest with herself, it wasn't just the cold making her uncomfortable. There was a subtle, intangible essence she didn’t understand, but she guessed if being on another planet, hiding from Reptile creatures didn’t put her out of her comfort zone, she wasn't sure what would.

  She shifted her weight, her muscles protesting, having stiffened with the chill factor and the fact that she'd been sitting on her haunches for hours now. She’d walked all day to find the jet, and n
ow she waited for the cover of darkness to get to the jet and send a message.

  She'd trained for this, but she never quite forgot quite how tortuous staying as still as the trees around her was. She wriggled her fingers and toes, trying to let the blood flow before it iced in her veins. The hardest thing was hiding her frosting breath as it condensed in the air in front of her.

  The Starjet glinted in the silver moonlight, almost within grasp. Several Reptile patrols sauntered about. There was no real pattern, but staying here for so long did reveal that the three patrols came together every hour or so before venturing in a wider circle. The last pair had gone and she’d waited an extra few minutes before slowly crawling out from beneath the tree limbs.

  The voices whispered again, almost urgently this time, but disappeared when she moved from the protection of the branches. She drew in a deep, calming breath, thankful her head had cleared at least.

  All she had to do was get to the Starjet and send a message off and find protection beneath the trees again. A quick in and out. Simple. She could do this. Maybe. Hopefully.

  What would happen after she sent the message, she didn't know. She could only hope it would get to Striker's people and they would come and rescue them. Somehow.

  It was a flimsy plan, but it was all she had at the moment. And if anything happened to her, hopefully Striker would be safe. She wondered if she'd ever see Striker again after all this. He probably would be happy to see the end of her. She'd be happy to see the end of her. She hadn't quite put her best foot forward, throwing herself at him like she did, reason unknown, then slinking away into the deep of night like she was ashamed.

  She was ashamed, but not of him.

  She sighed. She really didn’t need to be mulling this over right now.

  Keeping all her senses open, she slowly, tediously, carefully made her way to the Starjet, pausing beneath the wing. It was similar, yet so unlike the jets she'd flown in. Aerodynamic and sleek, it was made from a burnished black-grey metal that seemed to absorb the moonlight.

  She reached up and spread her palm against the underside of the craft. It was cool to the touch, but smooth. Striker's Seeker vibrated. She pulled her hand back, and the vibration stopped, but when she touched the Starjet, the device thrummed again.

  She swallowed a leap of excitement. The Seeker would unlock the Starjet. Maybe she might just pull this off after all. She cast a quick glance around and pressed the sides of the device. A schematic of the cockpit illuminated over her wrist.

  She gasped, turning it off quickly. The schematic was so bright, it had lit up the entire underside of the Starjet. After long moments of quiet, it looked like she hadn't been seen. By anything. The silence of the forest was oppressive.

  Usually when you wanted to unlock something, you needed to be close to it. Logically, that would mean she’d have to be close to the cockpit. She located the divets and handrails on the side of the raft and quickly scaled to the top. She rapped her knuckles against the hardest glass type material she'd ever come across. It was excessively hard. Too hard to smash.

  She started searching around the edge, where the glass kissed the metal, running her fingertips along the seal.

  “Come on, come on,” she muttered.

  Maybe the Seeker would open it. She turned it on, hiding it’s glow while pressing buttons. The sound between a hiss and a gurgle was the only warning she wasn't alone. She spun. Two Reptiles floated behind her on a completely silent hovercraft. She leapt over the side of the jet. A bolt of lightning struck her between her shoulder blades. Her entire body went numb, and black engulfed her before she hit the ground.

  * * *

  Cold seared through her body. Her legs hurt with it. Her backside was numb. The ice beneath burned her back and arms where she lay. If she wasn't lying on ice, then it was damn well something colder than ice.

  She was trained to come back to consciousness quickly, but this was one time where being unconscious was a blessing. She swam back into her senses, all the while careful to keep her eyelids closed and body still and limp. There were tight straps at her upper and lower arms, across her shoulders and waist, neck, head, and upper and lower legs. She was strapped down tight. She was also naked.

  She allowed panic to drain from her. Panic didn't let you think properly. Panic was only an emotion that stopped the brain and body from working and doing what you wanted it to do. She drew in a deep, silent breath, concentrating on sounds.

  There were beings around her. Nearby. Sounds of objects picked up and moved on a metal surface. The clicking and clacking that sounded like fingernails down a blackboard conversed in a room that echoed.

  Shuffling sounds and a shift in the air alerted her they were close. Claws scraped on the skin of her neck. She lay still but couldn’t stop the prickle of perspiration or sudden acceleration of her heart. She'd defy the best of anyone to do that.

  There was a prickle along her carotid artery. The drip of something sharp that dimpled her skin and a pop as it broke through. A heated, chemical burn in her vein that shot through into her brain in the next heartbeat.

  Her eyes snapped open, body straining against the restraints. She looked right up into the black, emotionless eye of a Reptile creature standing above her.

  The creature jerked back in surprise before a chuffing sound came from between its parted maws.

  “Let me up, and I'll really give you something to laugh about!” Anger tore through her, wild and unabashed, but all she could do was strain uselessly against the bindings.

  Panic threatened to resurface, but she ruthlessly shoved it aside. She'd been here before. Tied down. Unable to stop anything that happened to her. Her only option to stop the beatings, the cuts, bruises, the water treatments, the electrocution was to talk against her will. Tell them everything she knew. Blabbered it all. In the end, she'd hadn't really been fully conscious when she'd talked, couldn’t even remember what exactly she told them, but she knew how it had ended.

  Now though, she had nothing to tell. Nothing to lose.

  Except… Striker. She'd die this time before she gave away his location. They could torture her all they wanted, but she'd take that to the grave.

  The Reptile peered over its shoulder and clacked and hissed. Two others came from across the room and stood over her, clutching various tubes and needles.

  One stuck suction cups to her forehead while the other lined up a long needle that was connected to a thin tube to her temple. She started to thrash when she realized it was going to thread the needle right into her brain.

  “Cowards. Do this to a woman tied down and unable to fight. Fucking arseholes!”

  She panted, her heart flailing wildly in her chest. There was a pop as the needle broke through her skin. A moment passed before blinding pain erupted in her head and blackened her vision.

  She heard someone screaming and vaguely realized it was herself. There was a flood of more cold in her neck, then more chemical burned in her vein and merged with the blinding pain in her brain. Every muscle in her body tensed and locked. Her lungs snapped shut as though they were in a constricted cage. She couldn't move. Couldn’t breathe. The pain was indescribable.

  She welcomed the black edging her vision as an end to this suffering, but her senses didn’t dim. The darkness became a winding tunnel. She flew down, following its dips and curves, helpless to the slipstream she was caught in. Electric, glowing colours of the rainbow passed in a blur. She no longer had a body. Her mind was a mere fracture. All there was, was here and now, and the twists and turns of the tunnel speeding past.

  One more turn, and she tumbled out into a black abyss. She cartwheeled in space, spinning head over heels. She reached out, struck a surface. Her palms caught, slowed her tumbling, before she landed in a quivering heap.

  After a few deep breaths, she managed to lift her head, and what she saw made her crave the death she thought was coming. She screamed, and the blackness trembled as though it fed off her. Again and again she
screamed, the air around her vibrating and convulsing until there was no more sound to be made. Until all she was, was a trembling mess incapable of movement, sound, thought. Until all she knew was terror. Until she became the terror. Until she could only hope for the death she thought was coming.

  Because death would have been a blessing against the creature that morphed from the darkness and bore down on her.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “I need to go. Now.” Striker went to move out of the cave when the agitated rustling leaves at the base of the creature stopped him.

  “We cannot sense her.”

  He stopped mid-stride, turning back to the Callistean. “What do you mean?”

  “We cannot sense her movements. They have ceased.”

  His chest constricted. There could be many reasons why she wasn't being detected, and none of them good ones.

  “Where was she last?”

  He already knew the answer, and the sick feeling in his gut intensified when the creature confirmed it. “In the second valley beyond the ridge. It is in the same location that we first detected your energies.”

  He cursed under his breath. The location of the Starjet. “Can you detect the Reptile presence in the area?”

  “It has also ceased.”

  This time, he cursed out loud. He tugged his ankle away from the vine, then paced about, kicking the sand, mind racing.

  It could only mean one thing. She had been found. And taken. But where? He had to get a grip. Vivien's life depended on him. Think, damnit. Think. Losing it wouldn't help her at all. He clenched his teeth, fought to rein in control.

  If the Callisteans could detect where Vivien was - or wasn't - maybe he could work out where she might be. He stopped pacing to stand in front of the creature again and waited impatiently for the vine to twirl around his ankle once again, a far corner of his mind grateful it came back.