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“Alaina,” I yelled out loud and all went quiet.
“Reveal the woman,” Alaina’s voice demanded, sounding slightly hopeful, and my captors very reluctantly moved aside. And that’s w
hen I saw her.
Surrounded by four Vakarrans of her own, one with a wicked scar and a set of striking blue eyes, was my sister. I rushed toward her and her to me, and the eight Vakarrans with us tried to react in time, but I wasn’t going to let them stop me from getting to her. She threw her weapon aside, running for me at full force.
When we finally reached each other, we came together in a hug, embracing each other with all the strength we could muster.
“Danika,” she breathed. “I can’t believe it’s you. I wasn’t sure I’d ever see you again. Is Kaela here with you?” she asked, and I shook my head.
“A lot has happened in the time that you’ve been gone,” I replied, and she nodded, her eyes searching mine.
“I can imagine,” she said, her eyes drifting over to the four Vakarrans at my side.
“You as well,” I said with a laugh, looking pointedly at her four as well.
“Who’s this?” Roan demanded beside me. He couldn’t hide his wariness.
“This is Alaina. She’s my older sister,” I said. Roan nodded curtly and took a step back.
“It’s so good to see you alive,” Alaina murmured.
“I thought you were dead,” I said, my relief clearly apparent in my tone. “I’d heard Kira was alive, but nothing about you.”
“Believe me, Ryder, Aarom, Morgn, and Davon here have ensured that I’m very much alive,” she laughed. One of her four sent a rather stern glance in her direction, but she ignored him. Her eyes drifted instead around us, looking for signs of life. “Let’s get out of here though. We need to move. Too many of us in a single area is sure to activate their satellites,” she said, and everyone rushed to obey her.
My four Vakarrans and I were led off into what looked like a tall apartment building. We took a still running elevator up to the penthouse on the top floor, which was vast, filled with all sort of technological advancements that the rich could afford before Atlanta was abandoned. Alaina gave me a quick tour and I was astounded at the richness that I saw. There was at least five bedrooms, five bathrooms, and a bunch of extra rooms and what she described as closets. There was even a room with an extravagant amount of jewelry on display.
She sat down on an oversized plush couch in a large sitting area and I joined her. My men and hers began speaking off to the side, in hushed tones that we couldn’t quite hear, but neither of us really cared. Instead, we took the time to catch up with each other.
She told me how she’d been captured by the Vakarrans and how they’d hidden her away from Commander Nix. She even told me how they had hidden here, hiding out in various locations in the city in order to remain safe. She mentioned a human resistance that had been here once and the men she described strangely reminded me of Neil and his goons.
I told her everything, how Kaze had been killed, how my four had rescued me and what had happened when Nix had captured me. Anger, sadness, and fear passed over her features, but she stayed silent, letting me tell my story while her hands held onto mine.
“And now, we’re here with you,” I finally finished, and she smiled softly and nodded.
“They’ve been good to you then, I take it?” she asked while pointing at my captors, and I nodded.
“The four of them have saved my life now. Twice,” I replied, gazing back at them with fondness. “I have some things to tell them though, although I’m afraid they’ll be upset with me,” I added after a moment, thinking about how all four of them still thought I’d betrayed them when I had run away.
“Tell them. You’ll feel better after it’s all over,” she replied, and I nodded. I knew she was right, but I was nervous of what quite a few heavy palms would do to my poor ass.
Thankfully, Alaina quickly changed the subject after that, bringing me over to the still focused Vakarrans in the kitchen area.
She introduced me to her four Vakarrans.
The one with the blue eyes was Ryder. She said he was the leader of what was once known as the Second Battalion. The other three—Morgn, Aarom, and Davon—nodded their greeting then.
“We’ll monitor the network bandwidth for Nix’s activity now. It may be time for us to begin to consider reactionary measures,” Ryder said.
“Nix already has a hunch you guys are here,” Roan replied.
“We’re aware, but all his evidence that we’ve seen places us on the opposite side of the city, so we’re safe for now. We’ll build more observational points as a fail-safe and put more of us on network monitoring duty, so that if Nix moves an inch or sends a message, we’ll know,” Ryder said, crossing his arms.
“Until then, we should lay low,” Roan agreed.
“You five should rest up. Take one of the bedrooms and get some sleep. The training camp is a good distance from here. I’m sure you were running all night,” Ryder said.
