Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 119846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
“Branson, please!” she gasped, tears springing to her eyes as his fingers tightened.
“Oh, there’s gonna be a world of hurt, you little cunt—” his voice turned sharp and gleeful “—for you and your grandmother both!”
Then, he shouted over his shoulder, “All right, boys! Get her!”
Noelle’s blood turned to ice.
Four men emerged from the shadows like ghosts—dressed head to toe in dark green camo, gaiter masks pulled high over their mouths and noses. All of them were armed…all of them moved with purpose. They jogged silently up the front steps of her grandmother’s house and began pounding on the front door with brutal fists.
“NO!” Noelle screamed desperately. “Please, she’s eighty-five! She’s weak—don’t hurt her! She’s innocent!”
But Branson just twisted her hair tighter, wrenching her neck back until she whimpered in pain.
“Break it down!” he bellowed. “Break down the door and drag her out! Come on—step to it!”
Glass shattered. A wooden panel cracked, splintering with a gunstock blow. Noelle could hear her abuelita’s frightened voice crying out from somewhere inside—
“¿Quién está ahí? ¡No! ¡Por favor, no!”
And then…a deafening BOOM rocked the street.
All motion stopped, the agents freezing in place.
The earth shook beneath their feet and Noelle almost lost her balance. A high-pitched shriek filled the air as wind screamed down from above, scattering leaves and sending dust and grit flying.
A massive ship—twice the size of a standard Kindred shuttle—appeared overhead, glowing purple and gold, its hull glimmering like an insect’s carapace in the Christmas lights.
It hovered for one perfect, breathless second…and then it landed—directly on top of the black SUV with a sound like metal tearing and the sky collapsing.
CRUNCH. The black vehicle flattened like a soda can under a boot. The SUV was obliterated in an instant, crushed beneath the ship’s massive bulk.
The agents froze. Even Branson dropped his grip, stumbling backward, his eyes wide with shock.
Noelle didn’t move. Her eyes were locked on the ship and she already knew who was inside.
They came for me, she thought. Thank the Blessed Virgin—they came!
78
BRIGHT
“Now I see why the Goddess told you to take the first shuttle you saw,” Bright muttered, peering out the cracked front viewscreen at the flattened wreck of what had once been a sleek black Earth vehicle. Smoke curled up from beneath the Trollox shuttle’s reinforced landing struts, and the smell of scorched rubber and gasoline filled the cockpit.
The SUV had been reduced to a crumpled pancake.
“But are you sure you were supposed to land on their vehicle like that?” he added, still half in disbelief.
“You heard the Goddess—she told us to do it,” Burn said grimly from the pilot’s seat beside him. His big hands were still clenched on the controls, though the ship was now stable, its landing sequence complete.
His golden eyes burned with purpose.
“She said these men are evil and they all deserve to be punished ruthlessly—her words, not mine.”
Bright nodded slowly. The Goddess hadn’t just been a presence—she’d filled the shuttle with divine weight and heat, guiding Burn’s hands on the controls, whispering directions like a fire in their minds.
“And if they’re trying to hurt Noelle—”
“Look—there she is!” Bright cried, cutting Burn off as he shot upright in his seat and pointed through the viewscreen.
Outside, just down the cracked stretch of Earth street, stood Noelle.
Their Noelle.
Her coat was half open and her long hair gleamed darkly under the streetlamps as she struggled against a man nearly twice her size. He had one meaty hand wrapped around her throat, his knuckles white with force, and he was yelling in her face, the sound muffled by the ship’s reinforced glass but unmistakable in its violence.
Bright’s heart stopped.
“Fuck!” Burn snarled beside him.
They both stared, frozen for a split second, as time seemed to slow.
“That must be that asshole ex mate she told us about—the one who used to hurt her,” Burn growled, already shoving back from the controls and reaching for the weapons locker behind their seats. “We have to get out there!”
Bright’s fingers shook as he undid the safety on his blaster. “Can you take him?” he asked hoarsely. “What if he’s armed?”
“Just keep him busy,” Burn said grimly, checking the charge on his own blaster. His face was a mask of fury and control—pure lethal focus. “Come on—let’s go.”
Bright followed the Dark Twin, heart pounding, boots thudding across the metal floor. The interior of the shuttle echoed with the sound of their urgency—doors hissing open, warning lights still blinking red from their collision-landing.
Outside, night had fully fallen.
The chill of Earth’s atmosphere wrapped around them like icy fingers as the outer hatch slid open and the boarding ramp lowered with a low hydraulic hissss.
“Move fast,” Burn barked, voice low and tense as he crouched and darted out first. Bright followed, muscles tight with adrenaline, every instinct screaming to get to Noelle before it was too late.
The cold air hit them like a slap. It was winter here, Bright thought distractedly.