Ascendant Saga Collection: Sci-Fi Fantasy Techno Thriller by Brandon Ellis (easy to read books for adults list txt) 📕

She gasped. Were they headed for slaughter? She couldn’t let this happen. Above all else, saving these kids was her priority.

A memory surfaced and with it heat surrounded her heart. Her father had chained her up when she was a child for neglecting their dog, for forgetting to feed their border collie on a particular morning. Her father made them change places. The dog went into the house while she was chained to the dog house.

It lasted two days. Two days in the freezing rain, with nothing but dog food and dirty water.

She’d do anything to change positions with these children. No one deserved what they were about to face.

Except the asshole who’d sold them out and forced them to leave Earth on the back of a damned lie. Colonel Slade Roberson had said there was a habitable planet, ready and waiting for them out in the stars. Callisto was there for the taking, he said. A land of milk and honey, he said. There’d be no more war or famine or suffering, he said. But it was all smoke and mirrors. Slade thought only of himself and his powerful chums. Earth was in danger of eco-collapse and massive flooding and he wanted off-planet, asap. He’d evacuated the rich and powerful and left the rest of humanity to rot. He was a primo asshole and if she ever saw him again, she wouldn’t hesitate for a second. She would take him down, in shackles and chains, and force him to grovel at her feet.

Shit, why am I thinking about that loser? These kids need me.

Rivkah shook herself and racked focus. She had to stay inside her vision, altered as it was.

Her eyes shifted from the warehouse to a castle. She panned in on a tower that sat in the middle of it. There a man stood. No way. He was a human, strong and toned. It couldn’t be. She zoomed in more. How in the name of all that is holy is that possible? Rage hit her like a bullet train slamming into a wall at two hundred miles per hour. It was him.

It was Slade.

Her subconscious had raced ahead and brought him up from the deepest recesses of her memory. She screamed, then jerked as she came back to her present location. She was staring at the fur on Abdu’s back as she jostled up and down, her stomach and hips bouncing uncomfortably off and on his shoulder.

“We have to get to Slade,” she informed them.

“Who?” questioned Abdu.

“The son of a bitch who betrayed us.” She couldn’t find the words. How do you describe the man who sold the world? He’d gone a step further. She cleared her throat. “Now he’s done worse than merely betray us. He’s not just a self-serving jerk. He’s a collaborator, a puppet for the enemy. He’s become a Kelhoon human farmer,” growled Rivkah.

“First, we must find safety,” said Bogle.

She ignored Bogle. “Where is he?” whispered Rivkah, asking her vision, or her Chi, or whatever it was that had sent her traveling across Callisto to the walled city encircling a large castle. And just like that, she knew where he was. “Once we get out of this cavern, we head south to kill that bastard.”

The tunnel dipped and inclined.

“Uh oh!” Abdu came to a screeching halt. “Your legs work yet, Rivkah?” he asked.

Rivkah wiggled them. “A little. Why?”

“We’re at the exit and there are several—”

An explosion rocked Abdu backward and off his feet, tossing Rivkah off his back and onto her side. She rolled and gingerly pushed herself up, her legs wobbly, her head pounding from a god-awful headache.

She twisted around to face whatever it was that pushed Abdu off his feet.

She raised her arms, slow and heavy, her eyes narrowing at the abomination before her.

It was a thick man with blue-gray skin. Dark blue veins bulged on his short, stalky neck. He took three fast paces forward and placed his cold, damp hands on her throat. He squeezed and lifted her high above him. He smiled and pressed her against a rocky wall.

“Who…are you?” she asked, her breath short, her words forced through the Being’s strong grip around her neck.

He opened his mouth. His tongue was blue, his breath metallic, his words emotionless and monotone. “I’m an Agadon. C-gen-gen-43 is my name. You can call me C-gen.”

5 J-Quadrant, Solar System - Namuh Farms, Callisto

Slade bolted up, his body drenched in sweat. He was breathing hard. He looked around, wondering where he was. Silk sheets and a heavy blanket covered his legs. His hands, behind him and holding him up, pressed against a pillow where his head had been a few seconds ago. A woman stirred next to him.

The light was dim and he rubbed his eyes, getting sleep out of them. He glanced at the woman. “Rivkah?”

The woman slid her naked body closer to his. She put her arm around his waist, then pulled away. She blinked several times and wiped her arm on the top blanket. “Why are you so wet?”

Slade relaxed. It was Dr. Andrea Cross. They had celebrated last night when they arrived at their new home on Callisto, drinking too much Cargasacchi Pinot Noir. Crap, and he’d slept with her? Bad idea. The worst idea. She was now going to get too close, too personal. Then emotions would come into play, but not his. Never his.

He touched the lamp next to his bed and the light turned on and he eyed the large, marble walls and ceilings that filled this majestic room. The Kelhoon had promised him “rooms fit for a pharaoh” and they had delivered. “I had a bad dream and she was in it.”

Andrea sat up, the sheets sliding off her chest, and leaned her head against his shoulder. “Who was in it?”

Slade didn’t move, didn’t lift a finger to let her know she was wanted. “Rivkah was in my dream.”

Andrea pulled away.