Battling Rapture

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.