Page 101 of Destined For Her Alien Daddy

Sira tries to speak. The collar flashes, cutting off her voice.

Anita moves toward her.

I catch Anita around the waist and drag her back as a shot burns across the wall in front of her. She fights me instantly, wild with panic.

“Let me go!”

“They want you to break cover.”

“They have Sira!”

“I see that.”

The words taste like ash. I see it all. Sira being hauled toward the breach. Brakk bleeding from a cut along his ear while trying to hold the line. Anita clawing at my arm because compassion is trying to get her killed. The Choir soldiers withdrawing with professional coordination, firing just enough to keep us pinned.

Sira’s eyes meet mine across the corridor.

She is terrified.

She is also telling me not to waste the others.

I hate her for that wisdom.

Anita sees the look too. Her body goes rigid against my arm.

The lead Choir soldier activates a field shield at the breach. Behind it, the two attackers drag Sira through the wall opening. The black stone begins sealing after them like flesh closing over a wound.

“No!” Anita screams, the sound breaking through the gunfire.

I fire into the closing seam until my weapon overheats. Brakk slams the fusion cutter against the wall, but the stone hardens faster than the beam can cut. Silver light flashes once through the sealed surface.

Then Sira is gone.

The remaining Choir soldiers retreat through side apertures, leaving smoke, scorched stone, and a small disc-shaped transmitter on the floor. It activates with a soft click before Brakk can crush it.

A calm female voice fills the corridor.

“Archive carriers, your companion lives. Continue resisting, and she will learn why silence is mercy.”

The transmitter dies.

For several seconds, none of us speaks.

Anita is still in my arms, shaking with rage and horror. Brakk stands over the sealed wall with his cutter trembling in both hands. Blood runs down the side of his face, and his expression has gone flat in a way I recognize from soldiers about to do something unforgivable.

I release Anita slowly.

She turns toward me, tears bright in her eyes and fury sharpening every line of her face. “We are getting her back.”

There is no question in her voice.

I look at the sealed wall where Sira vanished, then at the dark passage ahead where the lower ruins continue descending. My faith may be collapsing. My purpose may be ash. The universe may be older, stranger, and crueler than any priest ever warned me.

But the Choir has made one thing simple.

“Yes,” I say, checking the heat gauge on my weapon. “We are.”

CHAPTER 15