Page 12 of Alien Knight Blind Date Disaster

Whirling so fast her head spun, faster than a human could move, Falden lifted her off her feet and twisted around so his back was to the building they’d just left. Coming out the back door was one of the attackers. He looked human, but there was something off about him. The way he moved was just…wrong. She squinted, trying to figure out what was making the alarm bells go off in her head when he pointed a gun of some kind and aimed at Falden’s back.

“Look out!” She yelled the warning in his ear, but all that did was cause him to lower her toward the car and curve his taller body around her as the sound of a shot being fired exploded through the parking lot.

Falden’s body jerked as if he’d been hit, but he calmly nudged her down and into the driver’s seat, his hand reaching behind the seat as she swung her legs into the car and faced the steering wheel. “Get this thing started. I’ll join you in a moment.”

The attacker was moving quickly in their direction, snarling, “Not so tough without all your buddies around, are you?”

“Start the car, Isabella,” Falden reminded her gently.

“First I’m going to kill you, and them I’m going to take the female.”

Nodding, hands shaking, fingers numb, she dropped the key fob into the cupholder and pressed the ignition button as Falden turned to face the attacker. He closed the driver’s side door behind him, his large body blocking her view of what was going on outside.

Scared for him, wondering if he’d been shot, she looked up but could only see the back of his head as he turned away. When he reached over his shoulder, his muscles bulged as if he were lifting something heavy, but she couldn’t see anything. In fact, she couldn’t see his hand. It had disappeared.

As ini-n-v-i-s-i-b-l-e. “I knew it!” she mumbled to herself as she put the car in gear. The rumors were true. The information she’d worked the last few weeks was proving to be true, at least part of it. The Caldoriansdidhave technology to make themselves totally invisible. She thought she’d imagined seeing the other one disappear. But two of them? She wasn’t just seeing things. Falden’s hand was gone. Poof. Which was both disturbing and fascinating. Kind of like Falden himself.

Isabella didn’t have time to jump around and shout in triumph at the proof right before her eyes. Falden move away, facing off with their attacker. Whatever he was holding was freakinginvisible.She wanted to let out a girlish squeal of delight but held back. She was a professional. Staring at where his hand should’ve been, she saw a light flicker. Then another. She squinted as big, fat drops of rain plopped onto her windshield. What the hell? Her eyes glued to Falden, she watched in fascination as a long, smoky sword with electric-blue runes flickered in and out of sight in his hand. He shouted something, and the sword solidified. Crackled with blue fire.

The cold, wintry night air seemed to drop several degrees as she watched. Shivering, she let out a long, slow breath as every hair on her body stood straight up. What she was seeing was unreal. Amazing. Incredible.

A blast of lightning hit the corner of the building behind Falden’s attacker, and the man jerked out of the way in reflex.

Falden didn’t move, and he didn’t seem surprised.

The blast of light momentarily blinded her. Blinking to clear her gaze, she fumbled with the controls until she figured out how to turn the windshield wipers on high. Rain poured from the sky in huge drops now, a deluge.

“Great. Can’t see anything. What the hell?” The rain was annoying, but she’d driven in worse.Never one to sit still and wait to get shot, Isabella gave herself a mental and physical shake, slammed the car into reverse, stomped on the gas and had the tires squealing as she backed up and swung the car in a tight circle so that he could get in. Slightly behind Falden, she hoped the headlights would make it difficult for the attacker to see Falden’s movements.

Falden stood before her, literally blocking bullets with his sword as she watched in fascination. Was it even fair to call it a sword? The blade was long and pointy, but even that didn’t look like any kind of sword she’d ever seen. She could literally see something swirling around the runes, a smoky, silvery liquid inside what should have been solid steel. There was no doubt that the sword was an alien weapon, with alien technology inside of it. The humanoid attacking Falden fired his weapon over and over until it began to smoke. Falden never faltered.

He raised the sword now, pointing it at the sky like some kind of sorcerer.

Lightning flashed again. Struck a few steps behind the attacker, the crack of thunder so loud her entire body shook from the blast.

Lightning. He is calling down lightning.And wind. And rain. Not. Possible.

Was he some kind of space Jedi right out ofStar Wars? An alien wizard out ofLord of the Rings?

She didn’t like the idea of frying anyone with a lightning bolt. Seemed a horrible way to go.

Still, that asshole firing the gun had shot at her, too.

The attacker recovered from the blast of thunder, and Isabella saw dark fluid seeping from the man’s nose. But it wasn’t red. Wasn’t even close to red. More like a sickly green sludge. When he turned, shaking his head from side to side as if to clear it, she saw the same dark fluid leaking from one of his ears. Served him right.

Even that didn’t stop him. He held still for the briefest of moments, adjusting something on his weapon, then lifted it up and took aim once again, right at Falden’s chest.

“Oh no, you don’t.” Zero to sixty in four seconds, that’s what the GT could do, and she didn’t hesitate. She hit the gas, gunning for the asshole attacking Falden. She cranked the wheel at the last second, slamming the front side panel into Falden’s attacker from the driver’s side. The impact threw the man back and away, his body flying into the side of the building. He hit hard enough that she heard the thud over the storm Falden had somehow brought down on them in seconds.

“That’s gonna leave a dent,” she cringed, patting the dash like it was her new best friend. “Sorry, baby.”

Her apology was to the beautiful piece of art that others referred to as a car, not the alien who owned it. If Falden complained, she would remind him that she had been saving his life.

Shoving the gearshift into reverse, she backed away from the attacker as quickly as she’d rammed into him, giving a satisfied grin when the car spun around.

A glance at the unmoving attacker made her feel only the tiniest bit of guilt. “That’s what you get for shooting at us, you asshole.”

Falden stood like a legendary hero in the dark, sword blazing, a look of complete shock on his face as he stared at her through the windshield. He wasn’t moving. Why wasn’t he moving?

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