Battling Rapture Read online

  Battling Rapture

  Stormie Kent

  Niki is captured by hostile aliens after Earth is invaded. Once a soldier, she is now a slave. She is sold to the highest bidder, and then lost in a game of cards to a tall Ordanian spaceship captain, who claims to have been sent to rescue her. They work together to survive the dangers of the United Universe, while Niki battles her desire for the only man to ever enflame her mind, body and soul.

  Captain Rhine’s mission is to reunite the Earth woman with her family. Outmaneuvering beast shifters and a crazed stalker are the very least he is willing to do to keep her by his side. Her touch ignites his passion. Her scent drives his lust. Her strength eases his soul even as she challenges him every step of the way. In the end, Rhine understands, the biggest battle is for her heart.

  A Romantica® futuristic erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

  Battling Rapture

  Stormie Kent

  Chapter One

  Peering at the sheer drop to the ground was gut wrenching. One wrong move and she’d topple through the floor or fall out of the missing wall of the hospital wing. Niki wished for a hood as the wind blew debris and dust around her. Unfortunately, she needed her peripheral vision sharp and not hidden by hooded edges. Animal, alien or human, anything or anyone could be hiding in the rubble.

  She filled bags with medicines, needles and bandages. She saw a pile of hospital gowns and shoved those in too. She had a little of everything loaded into the packs, including soap, hospital toothbrushes and sheets. Their third salvage mission might be their last. The next time they came, the entire place could be vaporized. This was the only city for miles which still contained the original architecture and infrastructure—even if it was in ruins.

  She walked to the gaping hole in the wall. Craters dotted the landscape. Some were filled with buildings, others with vehicles. The building across from her had the top two floors collapsed in. All the windows were blown out. She looked down. Movement caught her eye, and she quickly hid behind what was left of a pillar. She carefully peered down again and relaxed when she noticed it was only a pack of stray dogs.

  At least it isn’t a lion or tiger from the zoo.

  She heard a whistle, and then a man stepped into the doorway.

  “You ready, Niki?” Antoine said.

  “Yes, let’s get these down to the wagons and go get the others. I hope they found baby formula and ammunition.”

  Dragging the heavy packs down the emergency exit stairwell was slow work. When they reached the ER entrance, they began loading the bags in the carts.

  “I wish I knew how the aliens track us when we use cars and trucks. This would be so much easier without the horse and cart,” Antoine said.

  “Just be happy we don’t have to hike back up the mountain with this stuff on our backs or pulling it behind us on a makeshift gurney.” She was slightly out of breath. Some of the bags she’d packed weighed more than she did. She pulled her gun from her hip. “You steer the cart. I’ll be lookout.”

  There were four teams spread out all over the city. They needed to pick them up and make it back to the mountain by late afternoon without stumbling onto an alien hunting party.

  She scanned the rubble for dead bodies. They tried to burn them when they could. If not, the animals—well, it was better if they burned the bodies. She refocused. She had a job to do. To make it back to camp safely, they all needed to use their heads, stay sharp and work as a team.

  Their survival depended on it.

  *

  “You Niki?”

  She looked up at the man in front of her. He was about six feet tall, sunburned, rangy and obviously new to camp. The camp had water for bathing and the man didn’t appear to have seen bathing water in many months. Only the blue of his eyes looked clean.

  She’d been flipping her pocket knife open and closed as she sat, feet braced on the ground and elbows propped on her thighs. Staring at the man, she slowly leaned back so her back rested on the picnic table behind her. She didn’t flinch as her ponytail caught between her spine and the table. No weakness was too small to be preyed upon by others. Her hair snagged and tore on the ragged wood of the table. The pain was fleeting, yet sharp.

  The man’s eyes darted around and he had trouble meeting her gaze. Shifty. She didn’t have time for this. It was late summer, and even in the Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, it was damn hot. Her sleeveless t-shirt molded to her body with sweat and when she moved, her dog tags shifted uneasily against her breasts.

  “Who are you?” It was time to speed up this little conversation.

  A familiar deep voice intruded on her conversation. “Why are you looking for Niki?”

  She peered at Mark as he walked toward them, rifle strapped to his back. He had his nose in her business. Again. She almost sighed. He used to be family, with strong emphasis on used to. The connection didn’t give him the right to interfere.

  He’d given up the privilege through the use of falsity and defamation. She tightened her jaw until her back teeth hurt. It was no lie that he loved her cousin. It was the only break she would cut him. Since they had lost Camryn, he had been guarding Niki as if he were a drunk with his last bottle of whiskey. She was tempted to put him on his ass just to remind him she wasn’t a lightweight.

  “I’m Blue,” the drifter said. The taller man almost bowed to Mark. If he’d had a hat, she bet he would have doffed it. “I heard you was looking for information on someone you lost when the aliens came.”

  She was looking for information. Her heart raced. This could be another dead end or it could be the break she needed. She’d lost Camryn. Niki would find her. People came to the camp from time to time. Some claimed to have seen Camryn or heard where she could be found. It didn’t matter how many false reports she received. She had to look.

  She opened her folding knife, and rubbed her thumb along the swirling pink tiger lily handle. “What do you have for me?”

  “You still paying?” he asked. He was almost belligerent where he’d been mild mannered before.

  “I have a day’s rations for good information.” He looked as if he needed it.

  “There’s a female in a camp close to what used to be New Haven in the Metacomet Ridge Mountains. She’s black, and has long, curly, brown and black hair.”

  He’d just described Niki. Which meant the description would match Camryn as well.

  “He’s lying,” Mark said.

  “I seen her myself. Sweet little thing. Kind to everybody.” Blue’s eyes darted from Niki to Mark.

  “Can you show me on a map how to get to this camp, Blue?” she asked.

  “Niki,” Mark said.

  She clenched her jaw and continued to stare at Blue. Mark could just butt out. The information the man brought was family business. Mark had thrown away his chance to be family.

  The drifter cleared his throat. “Yes, I can show you.”

  “Good, come with me.” She rose from the bench and walked with purpose toward her tent. She put her knife in her pocket.

  “How did you get here without Trogo on your tail?” Mark asked. He crowded Blue.

  That was a good question. The Neanderthal-like aliens were the best trackers there were. She and Mark had barely escaped the aliens as they searched for Camryn.

  “I stayed on the mountain. I haven’t seen one come in the mountain ranges yet.” Blue edged away from Mark.

  She hadn’t seen an alien on the mountain either.

  “Wait here.” Niki entered her tent and grabbed the United States map she had stretched across the dirt floor.

  When she returned to the men, she spread the paper out on the ground before Blue and Mark. She pointed to the spot where their camp was located.

 
“We’re here.”

  Blue traced a circuitous path northeast. “Camp was here. It’s hard to tell really. Them aliens destroyed everything.”

  The aliens had destroyed almost every town, city and landmark in the area. From the reports they received from drifters like Blue, the Nestvur, Orpuwanou and Trogo had somehow vaporized what had taken hundreds of years to build in a matter of months. They flattened the land and created alien ports where human captives were sold.

  Her heartbeat was steady and strong. She felt urgency, but not the desperation she’d felt when she and Camryn had first become separated. This was better. She could plan properly.

  “Niki, you can’t believe this guy. How did he even hear that you were looking for Camryn? Probably from the last wanderer who conned you out of a day’s rations,” Mark said.

  She flipped him the bird in her mind and went back into the tent. The obscene gesture wouldn’t sway him from saying whatever he’d come to say anyway. She gathered the rations and took them out to Blue. The man thanked her quickly and left. Niki refolded her map and pushed past Mark. She turned to enter the tent.

  He grabbed her arm. She looked down at his hand, and then into his eyes. He was only slightly taller than her. She raised her eyebrow. It was the only warning he would get. He released her immediately.

  “At least wait and let me come with you,” he said.

  She played out backhanding him in her mind. It was difficult not to follow thought with action. She restrained herself. Barely.

  He’d lost the love of his life in the invasion. Unfortunately for him, he hadn’t been the love of Camryn’s life. She averted her gaze. Cleared her throat. The same event that had cut his marriage short had made him and Niki enemies for a while. Dull pain speared her chest and she breathed through the moment.

  Yet she didn’t expect any less from him than his desire to protect her and look for Camryn. When men loved Camryn, they always loved her.

  “You’re needed here. Who will run the camp?” Attachment was weakness. Look at how she stood having a useless conversation when she could have spent the time packing and forming a plan.

  “How will we run the camp without you? Every time you disappear, things fall apart.” He ran his hand through his dark-brown hair. “She wouldn’t want you to get killed looking for her, Niki. You were all she ever cared about.”

  “She’s my only family, Mark. If you were raised as we were—”

  “I tried to know both of you, Niki. Neither of you would let me in. Even though you pretended not to care for her, you both only ever saw each other.” His face was intense. His eyes blazed.

  If he cries, I’m punching him.

  “Mark, you tried to separate us and it didn’t work. She would have been loyal to you forever.” She waited until that truth curbed his attitude. He hunched a little as though she’d punched him in the gut. “She would look for me. You know she would. I will find her.” She kept her voice low as two camp members walked by.

  “You two were closer than cousins.”

  That’s because we weren’t just cousins.

  “This conversation is over, Mark.”

  “Just wait for me. I need to leave orders and then I can be ready at dawn.” He began walking backward toward the camp’s command center.

  She stared at him.

  “Niki?”

  “Fine. Don’t be late. I will leave you.”

  At midnight, she passed the patrol on the northern edge of camp. She’d trained the male and female pair herself. They didn’t attempt to stop her and she didn’t volunteer any information. She needed to put distance between herself and camp before dawn. Mark was going to be angry. She didn’t want him following her.

  She needed to find her cousin on her own. She didn’t think he would put finding Camryn above his own life. She would.

  She followed existing trails where she could. Each mountain range had been changed by the damaging blasts from alien fire power. The mountains still stood, but new caverns had emerged and many trails were blocked by fallen rock and felled trees. Where lush foliage once grew, now the ground only supported dirt and jagged rock.

  Her pack was heavy against her spine. There was little safety where she was headed. The path led her on a downward narrow spiral toward the base of the mountain. Leaving the mountain meant becoming alien prey.

  She needed to find Camryn.

  Initially, she’d felt a sense of urgency in locating her. Camryn had been in trouble and Niki knew it. She and Mark had searched, dodging Trogo and air patrols. It was as if Camryn had disappeared. Either she was absorbed into a camp or she’d been captured.

  There was a faint whoomp. A large shadow wavered on the path in front of her. Niki looked up through the sparse trees at the camel-colored, triangular-shaped aircraft. Air patrol. There was nowhere for her to go, balanced on the grassy edge of the cliff.

  She broke into a jog. Her heart pounded in her ears. Her focus narrowed to the only plan that made sense. Run. Escape. Hide.

  If she could find a cave, she might possibly wait the air patrol out. They wouldn’t come onto the mountain to get her. They couldn’t, right? She looked down. She was closer to the valley below than was safe. Where was the imaginary line which kept the aliens off the mountain? Had she passed it? Was she safe? She needed to hide before the shooting started.

  Maybe they haven’t seen me.

  The path before her exploded in laser fire. Her heart skipped a beat before galloping faster than before. She couldn’t decide if her heart wanted to get lodged in her throat or explode from her chest. Niki pulled up quickly and reversed course. They fired on the path in front of her again. Bits of rock ricocheted, and sprayed her legs. Without her fatigues, she would have been cut. It hurt like hell anyway.

  The air patrol craft hovered above her. She remained still and alert. Her eyes darted around. There were only two directions left, up or down. She could see ground hover vehicles floating over the earth in the distance.

  If she made it to the ground, she might have enough time to kiss her freedom goodbye before they were on her. So, up. She turned and found finger and toe holds. She began her climb. They would need to capture her alive. Surely there wasn’t a current market for corpses.

  They fired one blast above her head. Pebbles tumbled down over her. She averted her eyes quickly.

  “Damn.”

  The dust caused her to cough uncontrollably. She wiped her face and turned to the aircraft. Niki raised both her middle fingers at it, then looked around. The only way left was down. She wasn’t going on her own.

  She went to the cliff edge and sat down with her legs dangling over the side. They would have to come up the mountain if they wanted her. She pulled her .45 from her waist, released the safety and waited. The handgun wouldn’t do much against air patrol, but she could pick off any Trogo who climbed the short incline to reach her. For a while, at least.

  “What I wouldn’t give for some hard liquor and an automatic assault rifle right now.”

  She imagined she was engaged in a faceoff with the air patrol craft. The drop to the ground wasn’t far. For now, she would wait them out. The ground hovercraft stopped below her. Khaki uniforms and scraggly hair were all she could make out of the aliens below.

  They didn’t climb up.

  The air patrol craft shifted positions, lowering to her line of sight. Then it fired repeatedly on the area of rock directly below her perch. The ground shook and she fell back. The ledge gave way and she grabbed hold of the loose boulder with her free hand and hugged the edge with her other arm. She and the boulder slid down the incline.

  If it flips, I’ll be crushed.

  The speed at which she traveled was mind blowing. She felt every bump as the boulder careened down the slope. Brown and green blurry images of trees whizzed past. Her stomach and its contents rolled, fell and rose again. The boulder scraped and clattered against rock, yet all she heard was the whoosh of air passing her ears.

  Sudde
nly, the boulder stopped and pitched forward. She was flung through the air. What was probably seconds felt closer to minutes of freefalling. She landed on her side. Hard. She was shaken, but managed to raise her gun hand. Her fingers were numb. She fired off two shots. Purple blood sprayed from the chest of the first Trogo to reach her.

  Pain lanced through her body and she almost dropped her arm. Almost. She fired until the clip was empty. Snarls and yells greeted her ears. Bodies littered the ground, but more came. She couldn’t make her body get up. Behind the Trogo, she could see men and women trapped in the cages on the rear of the ground hover vehicles. She’d stumbled onto a patrol.

  Adrenaline coursed through her system. Niki had her knife out before the next Trogo grabbed her. She missed his heart as he twisted and she only managed a gut stab. That wouldn’t kill him.

  She was jerked roughly to her feet and handcuffed before she could throw her first punch. Her knife was stuck in the Trogo’s belly. She leaned back against the Trogo holding her upper arms, lifted both of her feet, and kicked the one before her with all her strength. He fell back against his comrades. They went down as though they were bowling pins.

  The one holding her jerked her forward and to the rear of the hovercraft. She spit on the pile of Trogo attempting to stand on the way past.

  “It took twenty of you to subdue one girl. You suck and your friends are dead.” For once having the last word didn’t make her feel better.

  *

  He wouldn’t tell Venn he had brought his younger sister to an almost lawless casino. Rhine looked around the B’wor’s Luck. It had all the prerequisites of a place to lose your money or your life. The walls were dark enough to hide anything which might splatter on them. The lights stayed dim. The haze of tryzu smoke created an artificial fog which secluded pockets of tables.

  The old, sturdy tables were dented, watermarked tiont wood. The chairs looked comfortable, black, ergonomic and obviously designed to keep players in their seats for long hours. The scantily clad barmaids who pushed subpar liquor were the hallmark of any low rent establishment on a casino moon.

  In the front room, hawkers enticed players to play at their game tables and try computer games. As Rhine scanned the room, he occasionally caught the hawkers’ eyes. He made sure his teeth were bared. The longer, sharper and harder teeth of a hypersensitive were common knowledge. The hawkers looked away quickly.