Kidnapped by a Warrior Read online

  Evernight Publishing ®

  www.evernightpublishing.com

  Copyright© 2015 Ravenna Tate

  ISBN: 978-1-77233-233-9

  Cover Artist: Jay Aheer

  Editor: Karyn White

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  WARNING: The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. No part of this book may be used or reproduced electronically or in print without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, and places are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  DEDICATION

  To Aldous Huxley for Brave New World, and to George Orwell for 1984. Thank you for the inspiration.

  KIDNAPPED BY A WARRIOR

  Voyeur Moon, 1

  Ravenna Tate

  Copyright © 2015

  Chapter One

  It had been six months, seven days, and two hours since the world as Callie O’Doyle had known it ended. And she was still no closer to finding a decent job than she’d been before the day of the first invasion, so she could hardly blame her current state on them. They called themselves the Tyranns, but Callie called them the asshole aliens, like most people she heard talk about them did.

  Her parents and both sisters had been taken in the first invasion, and the few friends who were left and hadn’t gone into hiding were too scared to come outside any more than was absolutely necessary. But Callie still had bills to pay, at least until the water, electricity, and heat stopped worked in her apartment, so she needed to find a better job.

  Everyone referred to it as the first invasion because it was common knowledge the Tyranns had landed in other cities around the globe, but according to the news reports they’d been able to receive before most of the cable and local television stations went offline, their tiny city had been the site of the first landing.

  She stood in front of the squat, brick building, debating. This wasn’t her dream job. But then, there weren’t many of those left so she had to give this her best shot. It wasn’t like the world had a huge need for art history majors these days, any more than it had before they landed on the planet and changed human life forever. She’d take what she could get right now, and try to survive.

  The foyer smelled faintly of boiled cabbage, which made her wonder who lived upstairs. The door to the so-called gallery was open, so she walked in and glanced around. If the paintings on the walls were real, she was an eighty-year-old man. Just as Callie was about to turn around and leave, she heard footsteps from behind a partition.

  A woman Callie guessed was in her fifties but who walked like she was much older shuffled out, took off her glasses, and smiled, showing a couple of missing teeth. “Are you Callie O’Doyle?”

  Callie forced a smile to her face and walked toward the women, hand extended. “Yes, I am.”

  “I’m Lizzy Anderson. Welcome to my place. It’s not very big, but I’m afraid the space we used to occupy is … no longer there.”

  “Where was it?”

  The woman nodded in the general direction of the street. “Charles Street.”

  “Oh...” Charles Street, in addition to most of the harbor area, no longer existed. The first invasion had blasted it to smithereens, along with anyone who had been unfortunate enough to be close to or inside any of the buildings at the time.

  “It was a beautiful place, but we were new and I’m afraid I wasn’t able to save any of the works we had acquired, although I did try that day.”

  Callie glanced again at the bad reproductions on the walls, her heart going out to this sad woman who was trying to start a business at a time like this.

  “After I got out of the hospital, I found these pictures in the Walmart across town. You know. The one missing sections of roofing. They were just lying there. No one wanted them. I know they’re not real, but do you really think anyone will know that? I mean, we know it, but is there anyone left who will really care?”

  Callie put a hand to her mouth and stared at Lizzy. “You were there that day. It was your gallery on Charles Street.” New Concepts. That had been the name of the gallery, and it hadn’t even opened yet. She’d been drooling over it ever since she found out it would soon grace their once-beautiful harbor area, because they had desperately needed a real gallery in this town.

  The woman’s expression grew cold. “Yes. Yes, I was. But I was one of the lucky ones. I survived.”

  Her injuries that day explained the missing teeth and the reason she shuffled instead of walked, but since it didn’t look like she wanted to elaborate on them, Callie decided to ask for more details another day.

  A sudden wave of nostalgia washed over her, and she desperately needed fresh air. But it would be rude to simply walk out now, so she closed her eyes for couple of seconds and took several deep breaths to steady her thoughts. When she glanced at Lizzy again, the smile was back, along with an expression of hope in the woman’s eyes.

  Callie smiled in return. “Lizzy, I would love to work here, if you’ll hire me.”

  Lizzy actually clapped her hands. “Oh, that’s wonderful. Is the pay we talked about on the phone all right? It’s all I can do right now. And if you need a place to live, this building is empty except for me.”

  And that explained the boiled cabbage smell. “No, but thank you. I have a place a few streets over.”

  “Great. Well, when would you like to start?”

  Callie glanced around at the dust bunnies in the corners and the water stains on the walls. “How about right now?”

  It was well past six by the time Callie finished helping Lizzy clean the walls and the floor. They dusted the fake prints and adjusted several areas of track lighting so it showed off the paintings better, and then Lizzy invited Callie upstairs for dinner.

  “It’s not much. Just soup and bread, but it will fill you up.”

  “I appreciate it. Thank you.”

  After promising to come in around seven the next morning so they could start tackling the minor repairs that needed to be done, Callie walked along deserted streets toward her apartment. This time of year, the sun set around eight, so it was nearing dusk as she made her way home.

  She’d been out walking in the dark since the invasion, but for some reason tonight the air seemed different. She told herself it was only because she’d met someone who had survived that day, and had been in the middle of it, but as she rounded a corner and heard a distant drone, she knew that wasn’t what had her spooked.

  They weren’t gone. Everyone knew that. They’d left behind drones that circled the streets and countryside at random intervals, never keeping to one schedule. Since the defense systems on Earth had been wiped out in the invasions, no one could track them with any degree of accuracy. All attempts to rebuild a crude defense network had failed so far, with the satellites gone from orbit. They’d blasted those apart, too.

  There was an official curfew, but no National Guard troops in their tiny city to enforce it. Their own local police force was too busy in the outlying farms, trying to keep what little order was left. But despite the fact Callie was free to walk around at night, she didn’t want to be followed by a drone since nobody was sure what it actually meant.

  What were they watching for? What did they intend to do with the information they collected? The fear of the unknown was as great for those still on the planet as the horror of that day, six months and seven days ago.

  Callie could see her building now. Several windows were lit, which made her feel safer. She wasn’t alone in the building, but Lizzy was alone in hers. She should have taken her up on the offer t
o move in. What difference did it make where she lived? Her landlord hadn’t collected rent in three months, and no one in the building was sure where he was at the moment. Several apartments had recently been broken into and were occupied by squatters.

  The mechanical noise was louder now. She tried to keep walking at a normal pace, but the urge to run was strong. Not that it would matter if she did. She’d seen them fly over her before. But for a reason she couldn’t identify, tonight it felt ominous, as though she shouldn’t be seen this time. Since she wasn’t one to have premonitions, the fact she felt this uneasy made her anxiety even worse.

  Callie focused her thoughts on getting inside her building. There was no reason why tonight should be any different than the last six months and seven days had been. The one working radio station in this city hadn’t reported any new developments. She and Lizzy had listened to it in the background while they’d worked. Then again, they usually received their news hours or sometimes days after it actually occurred, so for all she knew, they’d landed again.

  She was less than three hundred feet from the building’s entrance when the drone flew directly overhead. She swore it slowed down slightly, but that could have been her imagination. She breathed a sigh of relief once it was gone, but within seconds another motorized noise split the night air, only this one was much louder and deeper.

  Callie’s heart nearly stopped. She froze in her tracks and glanced up at the sky. What the hell was that? It sounds like an airplane. None of them had flown since the invasion. With the radar systems messed up, all commercial and private flights had been cancelled indefinitely. And it had been months since she’d spotted a military plane in the sky.

  So what was it?

  She swallowed hard as the noise grew louder. There was no mistaking it now. She could make a run for it, but her legs suddenly felt like lead, and she started to cry. She’d never been so afraid in her life. Why hadn’t she gone and retrieved her belongings earlier and moved in above the gallery? She’d be safely indoors right now.

  As the aircraft started to descend, Callie moaned loudly, but it was no use. Her legs would simply not move. It wasn’t a military plane, and she knew it wasn’t manned by anyone from Earth. It looked like a fighter jet, but the propulsion unit on the bottom was exactly like the gigantic ones she’d seen on the news. This aircraft, whatever it was, belonged to them.

  ****

  Special Retrieval Commander Jakara frowned as he scanned the readout from the drone that had flown over the girl seconds ago. Her sisters and parents had definitely been taken in the raid six months ago. She was on the list, so she had to be taken.

  Jakara shook his head. This was the part of his mission he hated, because as much as he knew his superiors tried to disguise their real reason for rounding up the female relatives of those already taken as a political one, the true reason they wanted them had nothing to do with these remaining women being a threat to any cause.

  This woman lived alone, she had no special technical or computer skills, and she worked at a dry cleaners’, which was nearly out of business because no one was worried about their clothing right now. She had earned an advanced art history degree over a year ago.

  Art history. What a silly, useless thing to fill your mind with.

  She was no threat to anyone, but she was on the list and he was here. His movements could be tracked. He couldn’t back out now. She was alone, outside, in the dark. He’d never have a better time to take her than now. The stun beam he’d trained on her was working, because although she could easily reach the building where she lived before he could find a spot to land this thing, she wasn’t moving.

  He landed his aircraft in the middle of the street, between two abandoned pick-up trucks, and opened the top of the cockpit. He glanced up and down the street. If anyone was watching, he couldn’t see them. As he approached the girl he cursed the stars under his breath. She was crying. Perfect. As if he didn’t already hate this mission enough.

  At least he’d have to put her to sleep for the ride back. Jakara only wished she wasn’t so attractive. All the Earth women were. That was why they’d targeted them, after all. But this one tugged at his heart, with her big blue eyes and curly dark hair. She had a vulnerability to her that made him wonder why he continued to do this.

  Because war is war, and there are always casualties. But he wasn’t at war with her, or with Earth. He was at war with his own conscience.

  “Leave me alone,” she whispered as he reached her.

  Damn this. “I won’t hurt you. You’ll be asleep during the journey and won’t dream. The time will pass in the blink of an eye for you.”

  “Why? Why do you have to take me?”

  What would be the harm in telling her? She couldn’t do anything about it, and once they reached Voyeur Moon she’d be taken to the holding cells and reunited with her family. Until one or more of your superiors claims her for a slave, that is. That much was a given. She was far too pretty for them not to notice her.

  Did he really want to condemn her to such a fate?

  It’s your job. And her eventual fate wasn’t his concern. “My mission is to find family members and close friends of those already taken who escaped the first round.”

  She wiped her face, and a sudden urge to do it for her overwhelmed him.

  He would appear human to her eyes, even though his DNA was vastly different. That was why they had to put the Earthlings to sleep for the journey to the Alpha Centauri system. Even if the people of Earth had a spacecraft that could make such a journey, it would take them over one hundred and sixty thousand years. He and his kind could make the journey in an hour via a hyper jump and not be harmed, but it would kill an Earthling if they were awake during it.

  But to her eyes, he had all the same outward appearances of a human male. That realization made it a bit easier, because at least she wasn’t frightened by the way he looked. But he also knew he couldn’t screw this up. He was far too lenient with the humans as it was, and he was already being watched. He couldn’t risk another reprimand because his Section Chief, Logan, would demote him so many grades he’d be cleaning latrines the rest of his life.

  The humans were already rebuilding their communications systems, and if that happened despite their efforts to block them, they risked annihilating everything on the planet before they could retrieve everyone worth saving. He had to do this. He was a soldier, and he had to answer to his Section Chief. The drone report wasn’t something he could hide. If he let her go, he’d have no way to explain why he hadn’t taken her tonight.

  He reached into one of his flight jacket pockets and pulled out a pre-filled syringe. “I’m going to prick your arm with this. It will only sting for a second, and then when you wake you will be reunited with your family.”

  She looked confused. “What? I’ll see them again?”

  “Yes. I’m taking you to them.” It wasn’t a lie, and there was certainly no point in telling her it was unlikely she’d be there long. That wasn’t his doing, and he couldn’t control what the others did. His mission was to gather everyone on the list, and that’s what he had to do now. No matter how much he’d rather protect this one from what he was certain would be her ultimate fate on Voyeur Moon.

  Chapter Two

  Callie blinked a few times, not daring to sit up yet. She remembered two things. Looking into the alien’s deep brown eyes, and a burning sensation in her left upper arm. He’d said he was taking her to family, and that she’d be asleep for the journey but would not dream. He’d been right about that, but where was she now? Was her family here?

  She sat up slowly because in addition to feeling disoriented she was dizzy, and her mouth was dry. The room was lit by one small lamp on a table next to her. Once she focused her eyes, she realized she was in a bedroom, although certainly not a luxurious one. It looked more like the dorm rooms she’d spent six years in.

  Callie stood, and when the dizziness finally passed, she surveyed her surroundi
ngs. The bed was a single with a metal headboard, a chartreuse spread, and a pre-formed pillow with a coarse linen case. Next to it was the table with a lamp, a pitcher, and two glasses on a linen napkin.

  She crossed to the desk and pulled out the chair, taking a seat. The desk was dusty, and so was the lamp on it. Both drawers were locked, and the clock next to the lamp showed the digital time of twenty-three hours, seventeen minutes. Did that mean the same as it would in military time? How much time had passed since he’d taken her?

  Where the hell was she? And where was her family, like the alien had promised? Had he lied to her? Where was he right now? And why had he spoken perfect American English to her? That realization finally hit her. She’d understood everything he’d said, and he’d understood her. How was that possible?

  She tried to fight her rising panic, but it was pointless. She crossed the room again and opened the pitcher, taking a sniff. No smell at all. But what if it wasn’t water? What if drinking it killed her?

  Why was it here, then? If he’d wanted to kill her, he could easily have done so. She poured a small amount into one of the glasses and sipped it. Not the best-tasting water, but then the water at home hadn’t tasted all that great for the past six months. If fact, they’d recently been advised to boil it first, but she hadn’t always done that.

  When nothing happened except her mouth was no longer dry as a desert, she drank an entire glass of it, and then she walked around the rest of the room. There were no pictures on the walls, and two doors, one of which was locked. It was metal, and when she pressed her ear against it she couldn’t hear a thing.

  The other one opened into a tiny bathroom with a shower, a toilet, and a sink. All metal, and nothing fancy. It looked more like an army barracks than a dorm room. She was about to draw back the drapes against the far wall to see if they hid a window when the sound of a lock opening stopped her.