Fractured Souls: Darkstar Mercenaries Book 3 Read online

  Fractured Souls

  Darkstar Mercenaries Book 3

  Anna Carven

  Copyright © 2019 by Anna Carven

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form, or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Created with Vellum

  Contents

  Author’s Note

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Also by Anna Carven

  Author’s Note

  This is the third book in the Darkstar Mercenaries series. It will make more sense if you’ve read Book 2 (Shattered Silence), although that’s probably not absolutely essential.

  A small warning, there are some triggers in the opening chapter (sexual assault, violence).

  I know it’s been a little too long since my last release. I promise I won’t keep you waiting quite as long for Lodan’s book (Book 4).

  Thank you for picking up a copy of my work. I hope you enjoy it. As always, I’m humbled and grateful for your support.

  x Anna

  One

  Two years earlier

  The guide-light in Detective Alexis Carter’s hand wavered as she stared at the ship, not quite believing what she was seeing.

  Is this for real?

  The ship mirrored the forest. If she hadn’t known what she was looking for, she would have walked right past it. Its surface wasn’t uniform dark metal as one might have expected. Instead, it was covered in a shifting, shimmering pattern of leaves and trunks and shadows.

  Cloaking.

  The technology was very, very good, much better than anything humans were capable of. To an unsuspecting passerby, it would have been invisible.

  She ran her hand over the sleek surface, surprised that the metal was slightly warm to the touch. But then again, that’s what had given it away.

  Bzzzt. A tracking drone hovered above her, its green indicator lights flashing silently in the shadows. The sun had only just dipped beyond the horizon, casting an eerie twilight across the forest. Really, they should have been out of here thirty minutes ago, but then the drone had picked up an irregularity in the surrounding heat patterns.

  So this is a Kordolian ship.

  Only the most subtle of variations had given it away.

  A chill ran through her. She’d been trying to track them down for months. This little afternoon expedition into the woods had been more of a formality; a routine search for clues.

  Another irritating check-the-box directive from her superiors.

  She hadn’t really expected to find anything.

  But this almost-invisible craft, this mirage, this menacing piece of alien technology…

  It was a precursor to something huge and dark and terrifying.

  Suddenly, the silence became oppressive, the shadows cloying. The darkness grew thicker by the second, concealing imaginary monsters.

  Get out of here, now!

  She’d heard the stories about Kordolians. They all had. Ever since the dark ships had appeared in Earth’s orbit, the human race had been thrown into a silent panic.

  Any day now, they were going to be invaded.

  Any day now…

  “You all right, Detective?” Beside her, Officer Del shifted uneasily, one hand on his gun, his blue eyes narrowed in concentration. “What the hell is tha—”

  “Don’t move, Del. I want you to turn and go back the way we came.”

  “Now why do you look so spooked all of a sudden, Carter? You’re starting to give me the creeps.” On her left was Officer Thomas, already wearing his night-vis glasses. He frowned, his mouth a dark slash amidst his tight black beard. “It ain’t like you to get spooked so easily.”

  “Take off the glasses, Thomas, and tell me what you see.”

  Thomas’s frown deepened as he lifted his night-vis glasses and stared at the cloaked ship. “I don’t get it. What did you want me to—”

  Alexis shone her light over the strange contours of the ship. The lines of the illusion wavered, and for a split-second, they caught a glimpse of seamless dark metal.

  Then it was gone.

  “What the hell?”

  “That’s definitely not one of ours,” Del hissed. “I think we just found ourselves a big-ass lead.”

  “A dangerous lead,” Alexis said dryly. “We’re not waiting around to tangle with its owners. Let’s fall back.” She activated her secure Link. “Station sixty-three, this is Detective Carter. Requesting backup. I have an unidentified spacecraft.”

  “Copy.” The voice on the other end was cool, neutral, and female. It was also artificial. Dispatch was manned by an AI called CLOE—Central Logistics Operations and Emergencies. The Agency loved their acronyms. “Your location has been tagged. Has the craft been secured?”

  “Negative. I see no evidence of occupancy right now, and I’m not going out of my way to find out. In fact, we’re backing off right now. I’m almost certain that the owners of the craft are Kordolian.”

  There had been reports. Sightings. Nothing confirmed, but the descriptions were always the same. Big. Intimidating. Armed. Dangerous. Pale hair. Silver-skin. Eyes that burned in all shades of the fiery sunset. Crimson. Amber. Startling orange.

  People disappeared. Women disappeared.

  And then there were the murders. They always occurred in the vicinity of the abductions. Some were brutally messy, some were clinically precise. Two different killers, probably. The victims were usually young, and always male.

  No, the three of them definitely weren’t going to engage with Kordolians, even though there was no question that Del and Thomas could hold their own in a gunfight.

  She wasn’t a half bad shot, either.

  “A reinforcement unit has been dispatched,” Cloe announced in her perfectly serene electronic voice. “ETA thirteen minutes.”

  Thirteen minutes? That was a long time in the Enforcer world. “I need you to speed it up, Cloe.”

  “Negative. All units are currently occupied due to heavy rioting in the Lightside District. ETA twelve minutes and forty one seconds. Stand by.”

  The Link went dead.

  “Shit.” Alexis reached into her deep jacket pockets and fumbled around. Her fingers closed around something cold and flat; a small, flexible disc.

  A standard-issue tracking node.

  Just in case.

  She quickly removed the seal and pressed the node against the invisible body of the s
hip, counting to five in her head to allow the polymers to bond to the hull.

  “Let’s move,” she snapped, taking stock of their surroundings as she slipped on her night-vis glasses. She blinked. Through the glasses, the world around her became a monotone place of silver lines and ghostly shadows. The Kordolian ship disappeared completely, leaving nothing but slender tree trunks and scattered leaves and the rough earth below.

  This was… trippy. Night-vis smoothed out all the tiny refraction errors that had given the ship away in the first place.

  “There.” Around fifty yards away, a series of large granite boulders rested amongst the trees, as if thrown by some careless god. “Let’s get out of sight.”

  It was Del who hesitated. “Sure you don’t want us to scope out the ship?”

  “Oh, hell no, Del. You got a death wish? We’re waiting for backup. Come on. Let’s move.” A sense of urgency welled up inside her.

  As far as she could tell, the ship was empty, but she couldn’t be certain. What if there was someone inside, watching them? What if the ship had some sort of motion detection sensor that had alerted its owners to their presence?

  Probably.

  Shit.

  They were alone, at night, in the middle of the forest, and they’d just stumbled across a cloaked alien spaceship.

  A ship that was probably linked to the disappearances of dozens of young women in the area.

  If she’d been able to see it from a distance, she would have approached the alien craft with more caution, but its damn cloaking technology was just too good. She’d really only become aware of the ship when she was nearly on top of it.

  A trickle of fear entered Alexis’s chest as she made a beeline for the boulders, Del and Thomas following close behind.

  Kordolians were vicious killers. They had highly advanced technology.

  Did the human race stand any kind of chance against them?

  Alexis forced herself to breathe slowly as she crouched down behind an egg-shaped boulder. Heart pounding, she drew her bolt-gun and flicked the charge to max. Her other hand went into her pocket, where her fingers curled around a UV flashbang grenade.

  Some dark-suited spook from Nonhuman Affairs had dropped by the Agency last week and distributed the frags to everyone working on the case. Apparently, UV light was harmful to bare Kordolian skin, and the techs at NA had found a certain wavelength on the spectrum that was particularly damaging.

  How they’d figured that out, she had no idea.

  It was a minuscule advantage, but she would take it.

  Shhshh.

  A harsh scuffle in the leaves made her jump. What was that? Footsteps? An attacker? Fingers trembling, she raised her gun, but then she realized it was just the night critters scuttling around on the woodland floor.

  Alexis froze, almost forgetting to breathe as she listened carefully for signs of life.

  She put a finger to her lips, shooting Del and Thomas a meaningful glance.

  Voices drifted through the cold night air, crystal clear and speaking a language she’d never heard before in her life.

  Kordolian?

  Del raised his eyebrows. Thomas gave her a tense look.

  The voices came again, deep and guttural, louder this time. Two of them. Male. One of them laughed; a cold, grating sound that chilled her to the bone.

  She’d never heard anything so positively inhuman before.

  “Unghh…”

  Then she heard it; a soft, terrified whimper.

  That voice was unmistakably human.

  “Kachara!” one of the aliens snapped harshly. This was followed by the crunching of gravel and leaves; the sound of someone stumbling.

  Alexis shifted her body slowly, silently, until she was able to peek around the side of the rock.

  Four figures came into view. Two males, two females. Kordolians. Humans. Holy shit. Alexis went very still, her eyes drawn to the tall, otherworldly figures that flanked the women.

  She’d seen the datafiles; she knew what Kordolians looked like, but this was her first time seeing the aliens in the flesh.

  She knew they were silver and tall and imposing, but she wasn’t prepared for the way the night-vis accentuated their strange luminous skin, making their faces flash like beacons in the shadows. Their black combat armor was perfectly seamless, covering their lean, powerful bodies from neck to toe.

  She counted at least six guns between them, and at least a dozen blades. The weapons were unlike anything she’d come across before; sleek, obsidian, organic looking, almost an extension of their lean, muscular bodies.

  The way they moved--swift, silent, fluid—sent a shiver down her spine. There was no way they could be anything but alien.

  Everything she’d heard about Kordolians suddenly materialized right before her very eyes.

  Ruthless warrior-race? Check.

  Advanced alien tech? Check.

  History of enslaving other races? Check.

  The latter was happening right now.

  Alexis’s grip on her gun tightened as she observed the two women walking alongside the Kordolians. They walked quickly, but every now and then there would be a hitch in their steps—as if something was causing them pain. Although their hands and feet were unbound, they kept their eyes lowered to the ground.

  They radiated pure terror.

  One of the women—a tall, willowy blonde—started to stray off the path. Alexis watched in horror as her guard produced a long, thin implement and prodded her in the back, eliciting a gasp of pain.

  The Kordolian chuckled; a hollow, mirthless sound.

  They marched on.

  Alexis trembled as a strange emotion coursed through her—a mixture of anger and fear and horror and sympathy. Those poor women would barely be able to see in the darkness. To be forced to walk at that pace, prodded like cattle, with two monsters at their sides…

  We have to do something. The clock was ticking. Backup would be here soon. By her count, they had about ten minutes until reinforcements arrived. Could the three of them take on these sinister looking creatures?

  She glanced at Del, then at Thomas, making quick signals with her fingers. Thomas, you circle around from behind. I’ll distract them. Del, cover us.

  Of the three of them, Del was by far the best shot.

  Alexis’s adrenaline began to spike, turbocharging her heartbeat. Her palms were slick with sweat. Time slowed and her thoughts became crystalline as she planned her attack.

  She would use the flashbang, hoping the brilliant UV flare would be enough to momentarily stun the Kordolians. Then she would go straight for a kill-shot. They couldn’t afford to try and take these creatures alive. Not when there were human lives at sta—

  Thud. One of the dark shadows became a blur, and suddenly he was right over the top of them, crouching on top of the boulder.

  How did he…?

  Fast. She’d never seen a creature that could move so impossibly fast.

  “What the fu—?”

  Boom! Thomas raised his gun and fired, the bolt-blast hitting the alien square in the chest.

  It had almost no effect, seemingly absorbed by the Kordolian’s pitch-black armor. A full-face helmet started to descend over the Kordolian’s head, emerging from the back of his armor-suit in hexagonal segments.

  No! Without thinking, Alexis pulled out one of her flashbangs and threw it in the alien’s face.

  She closed her eyes.

  Click.

  There was no boom, no explosion, just a grunt of pain from the alien as intense blue-purple light engulfed them, penetrating through the thin skin of Alexis’s eyelids and turning her world red for a fraction of a second.

  She opened her eyes and found Del standing behind the alien, his arms locked around the Kordolian’s neck. The alien’s lower face was still uncovered, and the silver skin over his cheeks and jaw and lips had melted away, revealing burned flesh and vicious fangs.

  The alien’s helmet was only halfway closed. For som
e reason, the mechanism had stopped.

  “Q-quick,” Del gasped. “Fucking do it, Lex.”

  Something was wrong. There was too much pain in Del’s voice.

  The Kordolian flexed his arms, preparing to shake Del off, but Del grunted and held on, drawing inhuman strength from some deep place. The Kordolian began to wheeze—obviously the flashbang had done some serious damage.

  Shoot him!

  But Del was behind, and he would cop the blowback. A close-range blast from a bolt-gun could kill him.

  “Do it!” he screamed.

  Suddenly, his arms gave out, and Del slumped to the ground, clutching his belly. Blood glistened on his armor-gloves. He’d been stabbed.

  Alexis raised her gun and fired, just as the alien’s helmet snapped shut, closing over seared flesh. She fired again, aiming for the creature’s head.

  The Kordolian froze, grunting in pain. To her disappointment, he didn’t go down. Her shots merely had the effect of slowing his movements.

  But the flashbang had hurt him good. It was that split-second, that element of surprise, that gave them the tiniest sliver of a chance. But any moment now, the second Kordolian would be—

  “Shoot him again,” Thomas whispered in her ear as he tapped on her shoulder.

  Without thinking, Alexis aimed and fired, and Thomas became a shadow as he ran around to the Kordolian’s side and fired with his own gun, narrowly missing Del as the Kordolian lurched forward.

  Closer, he went, closer…

  Thomas, what the fuck are you doing?

  Then she realized. Thomas was a bull of a man, an ex-college footballer who was deceptively quick on his feet and impressively strong. He rammed into the Kordolian’s side and managed to push the alien back as he reached forward and…