Mama and the Alien Warrior (Treasured By The Alien #1) - Honey Phillips
Chapter One
“Fireworks, Mama!”
The excited little voice finally penetrated Abby’s sleep-fogged brain. She cracked open an eye to see her daughter standing by the bed in her pink fuzzy jammies, her long blonde hair tangled around her face.
“What is it, baby?”
“There’s fireworks! I sawed a big flash of light outside my window.”
Abby opened her other eye and squinted at her clock. Three o’clock in the morning? Running a maternity home meant that it wasn’t the first time she’d been awakened at this hour, but it was usually due to one of her girls going into labor.
She peered out the window but could see only darkness. “I think you must have dreamed it, Lucie.”
“I didn’t, Mama. Honest.”
“Okay, sweetie,” she said yawning, then lifted the covers. “Why don’t you crawl in here with me then and we’ll wait to see if the fireworks come back?”
Lucie didn’t hesitate. She dove under the covers, snuggling against Abby when she drew her close. Abby loved having the warm little body tucked against hers. She buried her nose in her daughter's silky hair, catching the scent of baby shampoo and bubblegum. Lucie had been sleeping in her big girl bed for over a year now, but Abby had to admit that her own bed felt less lonely with her daughter at her side. Especially since she hadn’t shared it with anyone in the past, what was it—more than three years now? Three and a half years since she’d adopted her niece, and three years since John had walked out on her, unable to handle a child interrupting his lifestyle.
Abby didn’t regret her decision in the slightest, especially now with her daughter safe in her arms, not left alone by a drug-addled mother.
She dropped a kiss on Lucie’s head. “Go back to sleep, baby.”
Abby’s own eyes were just closing when a blinding flash lit up the room.
“See, Mama, I tolds you!”
That flash had not resembled fireworks in the least. What’s more, it had seemed to come from inside the house. Was one of the girls playing some kind of game?
“Stay here, Lucie,” she ordered as she climbed out of bed.
The air was cool enough that she pulled an old sweater over her sleep pants and tank as she headed for the door. Her bedroom and Lucie’s room were at the back of the rambling old house, behind the shared kitchen, dining, and living areas. The girls’ bedrooms were all on the second floor and she headed for the grand staircase that led upstairs. When she reached the big archway leading from the dining room to the entrance hall, shock held her motionless as she tried to understand what she was seeing.
Two strange men dressed in severe black suits stood at the bottom of the stairs, two more at the top. Amber, her newest resident, floated between them, her eyes closed and her long dark hair dangling as her body drifted down the stairs. As soon as she reached the bottom, one of the men pressed an instrument to her wrist and stepped back. The faintest burning smell reached Abby just as another flash of light filled her vision. As soon as she recovered from the searing impact to her retinas, she realized Amber was gone. That realization finally broke through her paralyzed shock and she stepped into the hallway.
“Who are you? What the hell are you doing?”
At her words, the men turned towards her and she was suddenly completely certain that they were not men. Their skin was white, not merely pale like human skin, but rather the smooth, flawless white of plastic. Matte black hair could perhaps have passed, but their eyes glowed with an unnatural red light and their features were just a little too long and angular to read as normal. This close, she could see that what she had taken for a suit was actually a uniform of some kind.
“Who are you?” she repeated, her voice shaking.
One of the men said something in a language she was quite sure didn’t exist anywhere on Earth, and the other stepped towards her. She tried to back away, but he grabbed her with an abnormally fast movement, his grip cold and unbreakable. With his other hand, he lifted a syringe and jabbed it into her arm. The burning pain scorched through her, followed by an overwhelming dizziness as her vision started to fade. Just as she began to pass out, she heard Lucie’s voice.
“Mama!”
Desperate to protect her daughter, she tried to struggle but her limbs wouldn’t respond.