Fate Unexpected (Earth Defender Book 1) Read online

  Fate Unexpected

  Marisa Chenery

  Edited by Marisa Chenery

  Cover design by April Martinez

  Copyright 2015 Marisa Chenery. Published by Forever More Publishing, 31 Wycliffe Place, Kitchener, Ontario, N2M 5J6, Canada. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author.

  ISBN: 978-1-92785-971-1

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  This is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents and dialogues in this book are of the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is completely coincidental.

  A summer storm of red rain changed life as Kylah knew it, and her in ways she couldn't imagine. Humans around the world sickened and died, or turned into wild creatures with red eyes that hungered for flesh. Her planet was on the verge of extinction, and there was nothing anybody could do about it.

  Rune, a Dracan mercenary, had signed on with the Xphens to fight for them during the Earth conquest. Having Kylah capture him changed everything. She had him questioning which side he wanted to be on.

  Kylah finds herself drawn to the large cat-eyed alien. Fleeing with Rune to the Cascade mountain range, she lets her feelings for him cloud her judgment. From two different planets, theirs is a relationship that could end before it had a chance to start.

  Chapter One

  Kylah sped down the main street of the small town of Republic, Washington, where she’d lived for all of her twenty-three years of life. She was late for her job at the local drugstore. Her damn alarm clock hadn’t gone off. She’d slept in twenty minutes longer than she should have, and she usually cut it pretty close when she woke up when she was supposed to.

  She parked her older-model compact car behind the building of the drugstore, turned off the engine and quickly climbed out. Kylah ran to the back employee entrance and then used her key to open the door. She raced inside.

  Her boss, Mary, met her once Kylah reached the backroom doorway. Mary was in her fifties, and was the owner as well as the pharmacist. The older woman smiled and shook her head.

  “Had a slow morning, Kylah?”

  Kylah nodded. “Sorry about being late. My alarm clock decided not to go off. I swear I set it before I went to bed.”

  Mary chuckled and waved her words away with a flick of her hand. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not as if we’re overrun with customers. Besides, you’re usually on time. Now that you’re here, you can take over the store while I get to work on filling prescriptions.”

  She nodded and walked past Mary into the main part of the drugstore. While Kylah went toward the front, Mary headed to the back area where the pharmacy counter was located.

  Kylah did a walkthrough of the aisles to see which items needed to be restocked. Republic had a population of slightly over a thousand. So the store wasn’t large, by any means. Besides her, there was only one other employee, a woman who worked the evening shift. Deidre was in her mid-thirties, and was a single parent of two small children, a boy and a girl, ages two and three.

  After restocking the few shelves that needed it, Kylah went to the very front of the store to the check-out counter. From there, much of her day passed in its usual way in serving customers and anything else that needed doing. She hadn’t aspired to work in the drugstore while going to school, but with so few jobs in Republic, she’d counted herself lucky to have it, and she enjoyed working with Mary.

  It was a half hour before her shift ended that loud thunder boomed outside. Kylah just about jumped out of her skin. She looked out the large plate-glass window. Her brows drew together. That was weird. The sun shone brightly, and when she peered at the sky, there wasn’t a cloud to be seen. In a blink of an eye that changed, though.

  Kylah walked closer to the window as the clear blue sky turned to thick, dark red clouds. Lightening streaked across them, followed by another loud boom of thunder. She’d never seen the weather change so dramatically so fast, or the clouds take on that color.

  “They weren’t calling for rain today,” Mary said as she came to stand beside Kylah and looked out the window.

  “They weren’t,” Kylah replied. “What’s up with the red clouds?”

  “I have no idea.”

  The sky was split with more lightning, which was followed by thunder that was louder than the other two. It rattled the window she and Mary stood in front of. Kylah noticed they weren’t the only ones who were curious about the weather conditions. People had stopped on the sidewalk or came out of other businesses to stare at the sky. It grew darker with a funny reddish tinge to the remaining light.

  After one more flash of lightning and crack of thunder, the clouds opened up. The rain didn’t start off in a light shower. It came down in buckets. People scattered, running to any spot where they’d be sheltered and wouldn’t get drenched. The water quickly gathered in the street, forming large puddles. Just like the clouds, the rain was tinged red. Even those people who hadn’t gotten out of the storm were spotted with red wetness. Kylah couldn’t help feeling this was no ordinary summer rainfall.

  Deidre came running through the drugstore entrance, looking like a drowned rat. She only lived a block away and walked to work every day. Red water dripped down her face and had plastered her short, brown hair to her skull. Her clothes were also drenched.

  “Holy crap, that storm came up fast,” Deidre said as she wiped the wetness from her face. She looked down at her hands. “I’ve never seen rain this color.”

  “Nobody has,” Mary replied. “You’d better dry off in the backroom.”

  “And wash up.” Deidre scratched her forearm. “It’s itchy. It’s a good thing I keep a spare set of clothes in my locker.” She looked at Kylah. “I won’t take too long.”

  “Take your time. I’m in no hurry to go out in that. I’ll end up soaked to the skin just making the short walk from the store to my car. I’ll wait for it to stop.”

  Kylah turned back to the window. The rain came down even harder. The street was now flooded. It looked as if a light red river ran down it. She hoped it ended soon. The sewers wouldn’t be able to keep up with the runoff at this rate.

  It continued to rain for another fifteen minutes, then as if someone had turned off a faucet, it completely stopped. In seconds, the sun came out as the red-tinged clouds quickly dissipated. It was a little bit freaky.

  Deidre stepped out of the backroom and came to stand in front of them. She was in dry clothes, and she must have used the hot air hand drier in the washroom to dry her hair. Since she wore a t-shirt, red marks, almost like hives, were visible on her forearms. They looked itchy. As if to prove her correct, the other woman scratched the ones on her left arm.

  “I can’t believe how itchy these are,” Deidre said. “I washed them with soap and everything, but it won’t go away. Even my face is itchy. I wonder if acid rain had to do with that weird storm.”

  “Stop scratching,” Mary said. “You’ll give yourself an infection if you break the skin. Come on, I’ll get you some cortisone cream to put on it.”

  As the other two women walked toward the pharmacy counter, Kylah went to the bac
kroom to head out. She expected to find a flooded parking lot at the back of the building as she stepped through the employee entrance. Much to her surprise, it wasn’t. The rain had dried up as if it’d been hours since the water had been there. Her car was no longer wet either.

  Kylah slipped into the driver’s side, started the engine and backed out of the parking spot. As she drove home, she noticed groups of people standing outside, talking and gesturing toward the sky. Some scratched exposed skin just as Deidre had. Could acid rain give someone a rash like that, and so quickly?

  She arrived at the two-story house where she lived with her parents. Kylah had moved out for a year with a roommate, but that had ended when her friend had decided to relocate to Washington, D.C., in search of better job opportunities. Kylah hadn’t been able to afford the rent on her own. And since there weren’t a lot of rental places available, back home she’d had to go. That had been over six months ago.

  Kylah parked her car in the double driveway, then went inside the house. “Mom, I’m home,” she called as she closed the door behind her.

  “I’m upstairs,” her mom called back.

  She hung her ring of keys on the rack next to the front door before she went up the stairs to the second level. Kylah found her mother in the bathroom, rubbing her hair with a towel.

  “Did you get caught out in the rain?” Kylah asked.

  Her mom chuckled. “How could you tell? Yes, I did. I’d decided to go for a walk for exercise. I was about a block away when the sky opened up and wanted to drown me. I’ve never seen anything like that storm.” She shook her head. “Red rain. That will have all the environmental activists shouting, ‘I told you so.’ They’ll blame it on global warming.”

  Her mother put the towel on the counter, then scratched her neck. There was the same bumpy rash-like hives on her skin Kylah had seen on Deidre.

  “Don’t scratch,” Kylah said as she tugged her mom’s hand away.

  “I know I shouldn’t, but it’s really itchy.”

  “Deidre had the same reaction to the rain. She was caught in it as she walked to work. Mary was going to give her some cortisone cream to put on it when I left the drugstore.”

  “Good idea. I have some that’s over the counter. While I’m busy with that, do you mind getting the chicken breasts ready to go into the oven for dinner? They’re in the fridge. You know what seasonings I use.”

  “Sure.”

  Kylah headed downstairs to the kitchen. She’d just finished with the chicken and had put it into the oven when her dad came into the room with a long, slim box tucked under his arm.

  “What do you have there?” she asked as she dried her hands from washing them.

  He smiled and placed the box onto the table. “Remember that sword I told you about? I broke down and ordered it. I had to pick it up at the post office.”

  She came to stand next to him as he took a pocket knife out of the front pocket of his pants and then proceeded to cut open the box. He looked like a kid opening his presents on Christmas day. Her dad was nuts about swords. He had a pretty impressive collection, ranging from different sizes to different types from around the world and many eras. So far, he’d only purchased replicas with the edges blunted. Kylah had inherited some of his interest in the antiquated weapons, especially since he’d been getting her to practice using them with him since her early teens.

  This new sword was a bit different from the others. It wasn’t blunted, and could have been used by a long-ago knight on a battlefield. Her dad had paid a pretty penny for it. She wondered if her mom knew he’d ordered it. Kylah had a feeling he hadn’t told her.

  Her dad opened the flaps on the box and almost reverently took the sword out of the packing material. He pulled it out of the black leather, hand-tooled scabbard that was attached to a wide matching belt. The blade shone in the sunlight that filtered in through the window.

  He took a few steps back, then swung it. Even though they’d taught themselves the art of sword play, Kylah thought they were pretty good at it. And it was a great workout.

  “It’s beautiful, Dad.”

  “It sure is. Here, you give it a go.”

  Her dad passed her the sword. Kylah hefted it a couple times. The balance was really good. It was a broadsword, but no larger than some of the other replicas in her father’s collection. It had a little more weight to it, though. She swung it in front of her from side to side and up and down.

  Her mom stepped into the kitchen right at that moment. She came to a stop when her gaze landed on them. “Is that another new sword?” she asked as she turned her full attention on to her husband.

  He gave her a guilty-looking smile. “Yes. I picked it up at the post office on the way home from work.”

  Her mother shook her head. “How much did this one cost?” She held up her hand. “Wait. I don’t want to know.”

  He went to her and gave her a kiss. “I promise this is the last one, for now.” Her dad looked closer at her mom. “When did you get the rash?”

  “After I got caught out in that weird rain.” She held her arms out. “Wherever it hit, I broke out in hives. Did you get stuck in it?”

  Her dad shook his head. “No. I was at the post office when it started, and I stayed in there until it let up. I didn’t want to get the box wet. And it was weird. Hopefully we don’t get another storm like that one.”

  Kylah picked up the scabbard where her father had left it on the table and sheathed the sword in it. This one she wouldn’t have mind having as her own. There was fat chance of that happening. Her dad wouldn’t let this one go anytime soon.

  * * * *

  Kylah woke up to the sound of her mom coughing. She glanced at her alarm clock. It was four in the morning. She closed her eyes. It was too early to get up.

  She lurched upright as her mom continued to cough and then her father called Kylah’s name in an anxious voice. She threw back the covers on her bed before she ran out of her room and then to her parents’ bedroom.

  The sight that met her eyes made her breath catch. Her mom sat up in bed, almost doubled over, as a deep, racking cough held her in its grip. What worried Kylah more was the blood that ran from her mother’s eyes like tears. Her cheeks were stained with it, and the tissue she held to her mouth was saturated with the same fluid.

  Kylah rushed to her mom’s side. “Mom!” As her mother continued to cough, she looked at her father. “We have to do something, Dad.”

  “I want you to call for an ambulance. Now!” her dad shouted as he rubbed her mom’s back.

  She picked up the cordless phone that sat on the nightstand next to her mom’s side of the bed and dialed 9-1-1. The other end was picked up after the second ring.

  “Please state your emergency,” the woman said.

  “I need an ambulance right away. It’s my mom. She’s coughing up blood and having a hard time breathing. And blood is running out of her eyes.”

  “We’ll get one there as soon as we can, but all the ambulances are already out on calls for the same condition. Normally, I wouldn’t suggest this, but it’ll be faster if you can drive your mother to the hospital.”

  “Okay.”

  Kylah hung up the phone and told her dad what the woman had said. He scooped her mom up into his arms and then hurried toward the bedroom door.

  “That doesn’t sound good,” he said. “I’m leaving. You can get dressed and meet me at the hospital. We can’t wait.”

  “Go!” she said. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  She followed her dad down the stairs to the front door, which she unlocked and held open for him. She stood in the doorway and watched her dad put her mom into the passenger seat of his car, then run around to the driver’s side. Once he was inside and had the engine running, he floored it out of the driveway before speeding down the street.

  Kylah shut the door, then ran up the stairs two at a time. She hurriedly pulled on articles of clothing, really not paying much attention to what they were.
Once she was dressed, she raced downstairs before grabbing her keys. She tore out of the house, only pausing long enough to lock the front door behind her.

  The drive to the hospital seemed to take forever. It wasn’t until she came closer to it did the traffic increase. The entrance to the ER had cars lined up all the way to the street. Even the parking lot was almost filled. She’d never seen the place this busy before. How many people were sick like her mother?

  She managed to find an empty spot and parked her car. Kylah ran toward the ER entrance. There was a jam of people trying to get inside the building. She was shocked to see many of them had the same symptoms her mother had—crying blood and coughing it up as well. When she noticed they all had the familiar rash on their exposed skin, she had to wonder if the red rain had anything to do with what was happening.

  After Kylah finally managed to get into the hospital, she was staggered by the number of sick people who filled the waiting area and lined the walls. Some lay on gurneys as nurses flitted from one patient to another. It was utter chaos.

  She searched the crowd with her gaze until she spotted her parents. Kylah pushed her way through the press of people to reach them. Her mom was one of the patients lying on a gurney against a wall. She no longer coughed, but she loudly wheezed with each breath she took. The blood continued to well from the corners of her eyes. Her mother gave her a weak smile.

  Kylah met her father’s gaze. “Has a nurse or doctor seen her yet?”

  He agitatedly ran his hand through his hair. “A nurse has, but not a doctor. The nurse said it could be a few hours before one can see your mom. They’re not equipped to handle an outbreak like this. Plus, I don’t think they have any idea what it is.”

  She scanned the large room again. Her dad was right. It was an outbreak. Every person in there who waited for medical attention had what her mom had. Whatever the hell it was, it’d spread through the town’s population like wildfire.