Page 142 of Wrapped in Their Arms

Noelle’s blood turned to ice.

Four men emerged from the shadows like ghosts—dressed head to toe in dark green camo, gaiter masks pulled high over their mouths and noses.Allof them were armed…all of them moved with purpose.Theyjogged silently up the front steps of her grandmother’s house and beganpoundingon the front door with brutal fists.

“NO!”Noellescreamed desperately.“Please, she’s eighty-five!She’sweak—don’t hurt her!She’sinnocent!”

ButBransonjust twisted her hair tighter, wrenching her neck back until she whimpered in pain.

“Break it down!” he bellowed.“Breakdown the door and drag her out!Comeon—step to it!”

Glass shattered.Awooden panel cracked, splintering with a gunstock blow.Noellecould hear herabuelita’sfrightened voice crying out from somewhere inside?—

“¿Quién está ahí?¡No!¡Porfavor, no!”

And then…a deafeningBOOMrocked the street.

All motion stopped, the agents freezing in place.

The earth shook beneath their feet andNoellealmost lost her balance.Ahigh-pitched shriek filled the air as wind screamed down from above, scattering leaves and sending dust and grit flying.

A massive ship—twice the size of a standardKindredshuttle—appeared overhead, glowing purple and gold, its hull glimmering like an insect’s carapace in theChristmaslights.

It hovered for one perfect, breathless second…and then itlanded—directly on top of the blackSUVwith a sound like metal tearing and the sky collapsing.

CRUNCH.Theblack vehicle flattened like a soda can under a boot.TheSUVwas obliterated in an instant, crushed beneath the ship’s massive bulk.

The agents froze.EvenBransondropped his grip, stumbling backward, his eyes wide with shock.

Noelle didn’t move.Hereyes were locked on the ship and she already knew who was inside.

They came for me,she thought.ThanktheBlessedVirgin—they came!

78

BRIGHT

“NowIsee why theGoddesstold you to take the first shuttle you saw,”Brightmuttered, peering out the cracked front viewscreen at the flattened wreck of what had once been a sleek blackEarthvehicle.Smokecurled up from beneath theTrolloxshuttle’s reinforced landing struts, and the smell of scorched rubber and gasoline filled the cockpit.

TheSUVhad been reduced to a crumpled pancake.

“But are you sure you were supposed to landontheir vehicle like that?”he added, still half in disbelief.

“You heard theGoddess—she told us to do it,”Burnsaid grimly from the pilot’s seat beside him.Hisbig hands were still clenched on the controls, though the ship was now stable, its landing sequence complete.

His golden eyes burned with purpose.

“She said these men are evil and they all deserve to be punished ruthlessly—her words, not mine.”

Bright nodded slowly.TheGoddesshadn’t just been a presence—she’dfilledthe shuttle with divine weight and heat, guidingBurn’shands on the controls, whispering directions like a fire in their minds.

“And if they’re trying to hurtNoelle?—”

“Look—there she is!”Brightcried, cuttingBurnoff as he shot upright in his seat and pointed through the viewscreen.

Outside, just down the cracked stretch ofEarthstreet, stoodNoelle.

TheirNoelle.

Her coat was half open and her long hair gleamed darkly under the streetlamps as she struggled against a man nearly twice her size.Hehad one meaty hand wrapped around her throat, his knuckles white with force, and he was yelling in her face, the sound muffled by the ship’s reinforced glass but unmistakable in its violence.