Awaken Me Darkly (Alien Huntress 1)

I spent two hours inside, questioning employee after employee—but it was wasted time. Mostly they confirmed what I already knew. That several of the abducted men had voluntarily submitted sperm samples for payment. That Rianne had worked here.

The only new piece of information I received was that each male donor had had a very healthy sperm count.

I was feeling frustrated—until I stepped outside. A wave of familiar energy hit me square in the chest. I froze. Heart hammering against my rib cage, I darted my gaze in every direction, searching for Kyrin. And then I found him. He stood off to the side, his back to me. He was facing a young, dark-haired couple.

Damn, I loved this new energy-sensing gift of mine.

I slowly reached for my new pyre-gun and moved toward the group. I held the weapon at my side, not wanting the couple to see it and give Kyrin warning.

“Do not come here again,” I heard Kyrin tell the couple. “Do not let your names be entered into their database. People in that database are dying.”

“You’re crazy, ET,” the guy said. “Something like that would be all over the news. Now, for the last time, get out of my way.” He dragged the pale-faced female along as he pushed past Kyrin and strode into the building.

I waited until they passed me before taking aim, yet Kyrin’s words echoed in my mind, giving me pause. Do not come here again. Do not come here again. He’d risked implicating himself by coming here. He’d tried to warn potential victims away. Neither was something a bad guy would do.

That knowledge almost kept me from squeezing the trigger. Almost.

I had lucked out by finding him so quickly and unexpectedly, and I wouldn’t spit in the face of that luck. I was going to stun him, take what blood I needed, then lock him up and question him.

Zeroed in on him, I squeezed the trigger.

Nothing happened. My mouth dropped open, and I squeezed again. And again. And again. Still nothing. Frustrated and growing more furious by the second, I glanced at the weapon. The crystal had somehow been knocked out of range. Shit. Shit! Had I tested the damn thing before I signed it out of A.I.R.? No, goddamn it, I realized. I hadn’t.

Kyrin’s shoulders stiffened. He spun around, giving me a glimpse of tense features and haunting shadows under his eyes. “Mia.”

I didn’t panic. I kept my weapon steady. He didn’t know my new gun wasn’t working properly. I’d use it to keep him docile, then find some other way to knock him out. “I’ve been looking for you,” I said, holding my ground. “We’ve got unfinished business.”

He opened his mouth to reply, but a blue beam of pyre-fire suddenly lit a path just behind him—and it wasn’t mine—silencing his words. Someone screamed. Footsteps pounded. I caught a glimpse of a lithe, white-haired female as Kyrin shouted, “Get down!” and jolted forward, slamming into me and knocking me down.

The moment we hit, I lost my breath, and sharp rocks dug into my back. Kyrin rolled off me and crouched to his knees. I followed suit, and we scrambled to a car, using it as a shield as another beam flew at us.

Kyrin peeked over the hood. “Where is she?”

I set my gun to kill and prayed that setting would work. He ducked as another beam shot past him, hitting the ground just beyond his feet. Dirt and gravel spewed in every direction.

“Want to tell me why that woman’s trying to kill you?” I said, rising slightly and firing. Click. Click. “Damn it,” I cursed as I sank down. The gun wouldn’t work on kill either.

“Perhaps she doesn’t like that I wish to atone for past sins.”

I slid my old kill-only gun from my ankle holster, popped up, and fired. I hit a dark blue vehicle and shattered the front window. “Yeah, what kind of past sins?”

“The bad kind.”

“Your sarcasm sucks.” I flicked him a glance, but he kept his profile to me. “Don’t worry. I won’t let her hurt you. If anyone gets your blood, it’s me.”

“I suddenly feel warm and giddy inside.” His tone was as dry as the air. “Are you trying to make me fall in love with you?”

I snorted.

He removed a pyre-gun from the waist of his pants. My old gun, I noticed.

“How appropriate,” I said.

He grinned, kissed the barrel with a mocking wink, lifted it, and fired over the car. “Who would have thought Mia Snow would be working with me instead of against me?” A fourth shot whizzed past him, this one nearly singeing his shoulder.

Just then, I felt something…swirl inside me. Tingling inside my veins, pulsing through my entire body. I don’t know what it was, or what caused it. I blinked in confusion. As I watched with wide eyes, the world around me began to slow down.

A fly entered my line of vision, its wings moving so leisurely I could see every flutter, see even the ripple of air. I had to be hallucinating, but…Frowning, I reached out and plucked the insect from the air. No, no hallucination. I could feel him. What the hell was happening to me?

Three more shots soared over our car, and as I released the fly, I watched the fire meander toward Kyrin, watched him leap out of the way, moving inch by inch. I watched that fire slam into the ground behind us. I could have danced around those rays, they moved so slowly.

“Fire, Mia,” he shouted, the sound deep, almost distorted, and as slow as his motions.

I popped up, my every action fast. Too fast. My gaze blazed over the parking lot. The shooter was in mid-duck, her white hair floating above her head, her delicate features fixed in place. She moved like Kyrin, by gradual degrees. I took in her lavender eyes, which were radiating intense fury, her dainty nose, and her startling familiar high cheekbones. I’d seen her before. I knew I had, I just didn’t know where.

And then, just as suddenly as the odd swirl had hit me, it abandoned me. The tingling abandoned my veins, the pulsing left my body. Everything leaped into high gear, and for a split second, my gaze locked with the female Arcadian’s and surprise darkened her face before she disappeared behind the car.

Gasping, I hunched down and eyed Kyrin. “Holy shit.”

He was watching me with a strange, unreadable expression. I shook my head, suddenly tired, hoping an explanation for what just happened would slide into place. Nope, didn’t work. Then another blast soared past us, claiming my attention. “Do you know that woman?”

“Atlanna en Arr.”

Atlanna. The hairs on the back of my neck rose, and I grinned, pushing the weird slowdown thing out of my mind. I loved when suspects made my job easy.