Daria sighed as she heard her parents through the thin, orange walls of her room that were decorated with moving posters of the bands she’d listened to with Xed. Tears of guilt and sorrow choked her as her parents continued speaking in that low, whispered tone. They always did that. Neither of them knew that whenever they were in the kitchen below her room, she could hear them plainly.
Didn’t matter if they whispered or not. Their voices came straight up the air duct, into her private space.
“Did she really do it?” Her father’s voice carried the same condemnation she felt.
“Yeah, she did.”
“Oh my God, Zarrah! How could she?”
“Shh, Zadriel. Don’t you dare make her feel any worse than she already does. She’s devastated!”
“She should be! More than that, she should be ashamed of what she’s done to that poor boy! Has she any idea what they’ll do to him and his family? Our friends?”
Her mother sighed. “She knows. But she had no choice. Frayne would have turned her in, too, had she not. She did what she did to save us.”
“I told her to stay away from the Erianes! You see what happens when you mix with their kind!”
Her mother let out a tired sigh. “Our kind. Their kind. I get so sick of that talk! Why must everything and everyone be split into sides? Haven’t we learned our lesson as to where that gets us? We should be pulling together. Not breaking apart.”
“Zar—”
“Don’t, Zadriel. Just don’t. There’s nothing to be done for it now. Maybe Joey can—”
“Zzz!” Her father made a peculiar hissing noise. “Never say that. Not here and not now. Not ever. Forget what you’re thinking. And don’t you dare risk it. Not for anything!”
Daria scowled at her father’s untoward reaction to the unusual name, and wondered who Joey was. She’d never heard that name before.
Was it a male or female?
Were they family or friend?
“You’re right. Sorry. I wasn’t thinking. It’s been a frightening day and my head’s not in the right place.”
“I know, my love. This has us all rattled.”
As if they heard her father’s words, someone pounded on their kitchen door. Which they never did. The rapid fire knocking thundered through the house and left her heart racing and her body trembling. More than that, it left her parents silent.
That sudden silence was terrifying.
She sat up in bed and listened for any sign of life. What’s going on?
“Are you sure?” Her mother’s voice barely reached her eager ears.
No response whatsoever.
Not until she heard feet shuffling up the stairs, coming closer to her room.
“Daria?”
“Pala?” she gasped, thinking it was her father come to get her.
As she moved to unlock her door, it opened. Instead of her father, there was a man there covered from head to foot in a black uniform. She could see nothing of his features.
Gasping, she stepped back toward her dresser to look for a weapon.
“It’s all right, Daria.” Her father came in behind the man with two women who were also garbed completely in black. “They’re friends. And they’re—”
Someone shined lights into their front windows.
“Zadriel!”
The man in black cursed. “We’re too late. They’re here.”
Her father’s eyes widened. “Get Daria to safety. We’ll hold them off.”
Daria went weak at his words. “What?”
“Mia?” The man growled.
“On it.” The shorter woman grabbed Daria as she headed for her father.
One moment she was almost to him. In the next, everything went black.
Daria panted in panic as she tried her best to get her bearings in an ever-shifting darkness.
Finally, she stopped falling and landed on her feet in a strange room where old fashioned monitors were mounted on steel walls. Industrial and dark, the room reminded her of some underground pit, the likes of which she’d only seen in horror scenes or games.
Hissing, she pushed herself away from the woman who’d grabbed her, then shrieked as the other two literally appeared out of thin air beside them.
What the .. ?
How did they do that?
Stunned and terrified, she turned around, looking for a door. Window.
Anything.
There wasn’t one.
Breathless, she turned on her rescuers who seemed more and more like captors. “Where am I? Where are my parents?”
The woman who’d grabbed her and brought her here, looked toward the man. “Who wants to explain this to her?”
“I vote Lobo. He’s on the Suicide Squad for a reason.”
Lobo snorted. “Not funny, Ky.”
Daria frowned at them and especially at his dire tone. “Who are you Matens?”
The male hesitated before he pulled his hood off to reveal a mass of messy golden blond hair and pale skin and eyes. “Not Materians. We’re humans. And your parents are most likely taken or dead.”
Chapter 4
Daria’s world spun out of control so fast that she would have fallen had two arms not caught her from behind and held her steady. Better still, they kept her on her feet.
“Breathe, little sister. Just breathe.”
That deep, resonant voice stirred her hair and reverberated through her entire being. Somehow it grounded her despite the panic that threatened to tear her to shreds. In spite of the tears that blinded her as she faced her worst fear and wanted to scream in terror of it all.
They were human ...
Her heartbeat picked up speed as the women removed their hoods to show her their foreign faces. One who held dark skin and hair that was a warm shade of brown that matched her eyes. While the other had skin the color of caramel and eyes of hazel and hair as black as Daria’s.
She swallowed hard as she realized that she was in the hands of her enemies.
Humans.
And if they were human, it could only mean the one holding her was one of their dreaded breed, too.
Tilting her head back as dread filled her, she looked up over her shoulder. She’d expected him to be around the height of the others. Somewhere around her own size.
But not this one.
He was exceptionally tall. Muscular, and built to exquisite steely proportions. His masculine features had been carved to perfection, and had his deep tawny skin been silver or gray, he would have been as highly sought after as Frayne. If not more so. Indeed, he possessed that rare male sexuality that women dreamed about, but seldom, if ever, saw in reality.
“There, now,” he said in that same even tone. “Deep breaths.”
Daria stumbled away from him. “Where’s the door?”
“There’s not one.”
Her eyes widened.
The human glanced to the other three who’d kidnapped her. “You’re excused.”
Ky hesitated. “Crow—”
“Your mother’s waiting, Kyisha. Allay her fears that you weren’t eaten by the Remnants or Drabs. Besides, our friend here will do better with only one of us in her face. She needs a moment to adjust to what I’m about to tell her.”
The other two vanished while Ky passed an empathetic grimace toward Daria. “I’ll be nearby if you need me.” Her frown deepened. “Sorry about your parents, Drab. We tried.” And with that, she vanished into thin air.
“How do they do that?” Daria was barely holding her hysteria in check as she tried to understand this. “Is it some sort of tech you have?”
Crow laughed bitterly. “Not exactly.” He stepped closer.
She retreated, making sure to put more space between them until she knew what he intended.