Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 88235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88235 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 441(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“Spread out among the trees and pick as many off from the front as possible,” Chain said. “When we’ve cleared that area, follow me into the domicile. Set your blasters to incinerate and shoot to kill—these bastards have to be stopped.”
“Got it.” Liosh nodded and the three of them spread out silently until they had the front covered. At a signal from Chain, they all opened fire at once.
The Varians never knew what hit them. They jerked and screamed, their slitted yellow eyes rolling wildly as they searched for the source of the attack. Some of them ran into the trees which ringed the front of the domicile, but Chain and his two fellow warriors picked them off easily. Both Liosh and Vorn were excellent shots—a fact Chain appreciated immensely.
In a matter of moments, the front lawn was clear of Varians—though the grass had suffered considerably and gained a fair number of greasy black patches in the process.
They came back together and Chain gave the other two warriors a grateful nod.
“Good shooting! Let’s head inside.”
They went cautiously through the front door but no one tried to stop them. Once they got in, Chain could see why. The front of the house had already been thoroughly searched—and thoroughly demolished in the process.
What a mess! Chain thought as he looked at the ripped and broken furniture…the shattered picture frames…the scattered books… It seemed the Varians were endlessly destructive in their quest for the T’lix-Kruthe—they were tearing up everything.
Not everything, I hope, he thought. He prayed to the Goddess that Vicky herself would be intact when he found her.
They made their slow, careful way through the house but it seemed that most of the invaders had either been outside or were upstairs. Chain wanted to go up to where the action was, but he needed to be certain Victoria wasn’t down here somewhere first. It was impossible to track her by smell because she had been everywhere in this house—so her scent was all over, making it difficult to tell where she might be at this exact moment.
Liosh incinerated two Varians in the food prep area—what the humans called a kitchen—who seemed intent on breaking every dish and bowl in the cupboards. There was white dust coating everything too, which seemed to be coming from a small paper sack with the word, “flour” printed on it. It looked like one of the lizard aliens had stomped on it and sent it flying everywhere because there was a boot print right in the middle.
When the two invaders were nothing but grease spots on the floor, Chain looked around the wreckage, his boots crunching on the broken shards of crockery. Victoria wasn’t here—wasn’t anywhere on the first floor. So she must be upstairs, where he could still hear more of the Varians—unaware that their comrades were dead—trashing the place.
Liosh and Vorn seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“They must be upst—” the Blood Kindred started to say. But his words were interrupted by a crash and a scream that came from outside the house.
Chapter Forty-one
Vicky heard the crash from outside the window and then a scream of pain that sounded like Melli. She struggled harder against the alien holding her.
“Let me go! It’s not here—I swear it’s not! The T’lix-Kruthe was taken to the Kindred Mother Ship. Now let me go—let me get to my daughter!” she begged.
“Ssso the thief took it to the Kindred ssship, did he?” the Varian hissed.
It was hard to read his expressions since his face was a cross between an alligator and an iguana but Vicky had the bad feeling he was looking at her with something like skepticism.
“Yes, I swear!” she exclaimed. “Please, just let me go—there’s nothing for you here!”
She struggled to get closer to the still-open window but her Varian captor wouldn’t allow it. He dragged her out of the spare room and into the hallway where she could see two or three others of his kind tearing her bedroom to pieces.
“Where did you hide it?” he demanded, poking the snub-nosed end of his weapon into her ribs. “Where? Tell usss!”
“Look! Sssloar has a captive!” One of the other Varians announced, catching sight of them from inside her bedroom.
His announcement caused a quick exodus from the bedroom and Vicky saw that there were five of the scaly green lizard men coming towards her. Not to mention the one which was still holding her wrists in his repulsive, seven-fingered alien appendage.
As they came towards her, she wanted to scream but the sound seemed to stick in her throat. They would kill her now—she was sure of it. Kill her and she would never know if Melli was okay and if she and Jodi had gotten away. She would never see he daughters again.
The thought made her want to fight—she had to get to her girls! She was just about to hike a knee into her captor’s crotch and hope that the Varians kept their balls in the same place humans did, when one of the other invading aliens suddenly dropped to the ground, half incinerated.