2. Talia

Chapter 2

Talia

“ I locked the front door,” I said as I leaned against the open doorway to my sister’s office. “And I finished mopping. Tidying. The works.”

“Cool. Cool.” Maggie looked up with a smile, and I admired my sister’s high cheekbones and deep brown eyes all over again. I’d inherited the same facial structure, yet on her, it all worked. On me? I wasn’t completely sure.

“Everyone’s gone, then?” she asked.

“Yup.” I’d wrapped the last class of the day at our co-owned dance studio, Elevated Expressions , a half an hour or so ago. We’d come up with the name when we finally found the right place to rent on the fifth floor of a former warehouse that had been renovated for offices. The attic space had been left untouched, but with lots of work, we’d turned it into one of the most sought-after places to study various forms of dance here in our magnificent city. With our success, we were able to buy this level, and there was nothing better than owning something rather than just borrowing it from someone else.

Maggie handled the paperwork, though she also taught ballet, and I took care of the cleaning and the pole and expressive dance sessions. If one of us felt off on any given day, the other was quite capable of stepping in to teach just about anything.

It worked, though I would be grateful when our business was doing well enough to hire someone full-time to handle the cleaning. That time was coming. We were operating in the black, though we were sinking all our profits into advertising for now. And new equipment to replace the used stuff we’d bought when we first got started. Both of us had worked for another business in a city forty miles from here, and we’d scrimped and saved until we had enough to jump off the cliff and move into the attic of this place. A year later, and after plenty of hard work, we’d opened this business and took on our first clients. Three years later, our classes were full, and we had a waiting list. There was no ceiling we wouldn’t soon nudge past, and I couldn’t wait to sit back, take a deep breath, and savor the success we’d worked so hard for.

A bang rang out from somewhere nearby.

Maggie looked up, a frown creasing her face. “What was that?”

I shrugged. “Someone on the level below us partying too loudly?”

“It’s after seven. They’re closed. They shouldn’t—”

Stomps rang out from the hallway behind me, and my guts froze.

I turned and peered into the hall, my eyes widening. “Robocops?”

Maggie stood so fast, her wheeled chair flew backward, smacking against the wall.

A few years ago, a billionaire entrepreneur introduced robocops to general society. The company he started ran commercials for them at all hours of the day and night. I saw them so often; I could pretty much recite what they said.

Robocops are the future of law enforcement. They’re designed for unparalleled protection and efficiency. They don’t rust. They don’t break down. They’re indestructible, tireless, and incorruptible. These state-of-the-art units work 24/7 without fail. Say goodbye to human error and hello to perfect justice! Ensure your community’s safety with your own fleet of robocops—where high-tech technology meets trust.

And now three of them were marching down the hall toward Maggie’s office.

“Sis,” I barked, backing out of her office and into the hall, placing myself between them and my twin. “Hide,” I added with a hiss.

“Fuck that.” She grabbed a letter opener off her desk—the funny one I’d bought her and slipped into her stocking for Christmas. We’d laughed as she slashed the tiny sword through the air, then vowed to use it forever.

A bead of red light hit my chest—directed by the lead robocop. They kept coming, stomping toward me as I yelped and yanked Maggie’s door closed. I hoped she locked it, I hoped she slid under her desk and held her breath. And I hoped they left her alone.

“I didn’t do anything,” I whimpered, lifting my hands and backing down the hall. “You’ve got the wrong place.”

Would they kill me outright? I’d never heard of robocops coming after someone who’d done nothing wrong. These devices were supposed to be trustworthy—right?

Not these ones.

They must’ve gone rogue.

While one stopped at Maggie’s door and opened the door, stepping inside, the other two slammed forward and tackled me, flattening me on the ground. They quickly bound me while I screamed and arched my body up against them.

Maggie’s bellow rang out, and she appeared at the entrance to her door, her hands grasping the frame. The robocop hauled her back into her office, and she cried out in pain.

My sister. I had to get to my sister!

I struggled, bucking and shifting on the floor, trying to break through my bindings but like the ads said, they were indestructible.

I couldn’t get free.

“Maggie,” I shouted.

A prick on my arm, and the world swirled away . . .

“Wake,” a gentle, lilting voice said from somewhere nearby. “It’s time to meet your mate. ”

Mate? What was this, a wolf shifter romance dream?

“No mate,” I slurred, unable to open my eyes.

A grinding sound rang out overhead, and I slitted my eyes just enough to catch a glass panel moving to the side. What was going on?

Vague memories crashed through me of the robocops lifting me and carrying me down the back stairwell of our building. Maggie lay across the shoulder of the robocop behind me. I wanted to ask them where they were taking us, but my mind kept sliding away . . .

I woke as the robocop carrying me leaped over a very high fence and landed squarely on the other side. It ran toward . . . Nah, it couldn’t be the spaceship headed for Mars I’d seen on TV. This was a dream, and an odd one, at that.

The robocop took me inside the ship and laid me in a long glass cylinder. As my brain whirled, I peered around, watching as they laid Maggie in another cylinder beside mine. Beyond her, I spied other women lying motionless inside pods.

“This is a mistake,” I slurred. “Not an astronaut.”

I knew nothing more.

My pod jolted, and I woke, gasping as mechanical arms reached inside to scoop me up. My arms and legs didn’t seem to want to work, and my head kept spinning as I was lifted from the cylinder and carried through a stark white room. The mechanical being took me out into a hall that was equally white. Other arms carried women I’d never seen before in a row behind me .

“Maggie,” I whimpered. “Maggie?” I made my body work, crooking my head around, seeking her.

There. Another mechanical being was carrying her. Where had our leotards, skirts, and ballet flats gone? We now wore white nighties that skimmed our mid-thighs, and I could tell this new “boutique” had forgotten to dress me in undies. Cool air rushed up my nightie, finding my privates, and I squirmed.

“Let me go. Stop,” I cried out, unable to find enough energy to scream. But I could barely move.

A door opened on my right, and the arms took me into a much smaller room with another clear pod. They gently laid me inside, and the top closed, blocking out all sound but my ragged breathing.

“No,” I whispered. “Stop.”

A panel by my feet opened on the outer wall, and my pod slid down a chute and launched into . . . space.

Stars unlike any I’d seen before sparkled around me, and a planet made up of varying shades of purple loomed ahead. My tiny space shuttle flew toward it, as did others holding the women I’d seen back on the ship.

This wasn’t a dream. It was our new reality. But why?

Our spaceships burst through the planet’s outer atmosphere and flew in the same direction toward a large lavender landmass. It was only when I could make out purple forests and broad stretches of open land that we split apart, most going toward a lake with a large island while a few of us were carried in other directions.

“Maggie,” I cried. “Maggie! ”

I was finally waking up, and it was too late to help my twin sister. What would happen to her?

What would happen to me?

My spaceship swooped over forests and fields and finally reached a broad sandy area—a desert—and kept flying, carrying me for at least ten minutes or so before I felt the hum of the engines slow.

The ship dove down, plowing into the desert’s surface. Sand flew up and over the glass ship, and I cringed, figuring this was it. The ship would explode, and I’d die. I’d never see my sister again.

When the ship came to a stop, the lid slid open. Sand dumped in, and I coughed, waving my hand to move the dust clouding my lungs. Dry heat dumped inside along with the sand, and the sun soon seared my exposed arms and legs.

I struggled to sit up and peered around.

What was that pack of tall, two-legged things racing across the sand in my direction? As they got closer, I made out a group of ten or so . . . lizards. At least twice my height, they ran on their hind feet, their tails swaying behind them. Alien alligators, because this was no planet Earth.

Damn. They’d seen me and this wretched space pod, and they were going to grab me, and nothing good ever came from alien capture. They’d eat me. Or hurt me in other ways.

I bailed out the other side of the ship, falling to my hands and knees. With considerable effort, I got to my feet, swaying and clutching the spaceship while the world whirled around me.

The lizards kept coming, only now they were shouting in guttural voices I couldn’t understand.

My eyes stung with tears as I spun and stumbled across the sand. I had to run. Had to hide, but where?

The lizards rounded the ship and spread out in an effort to surround me.

Fear bolted through me, making my pulse roar in my ears. Sweat slithered down my spine, and I kept going, running as fast as my legs could take me.

I’d crested a tiny hill and started sliding down the other side when they cut me off. With their lips peeled back along their snouts to reveal jagged fangs, they were nightmares come to life. Their dark green scales were almost black under heavy brown armor which clung to them like second skins. Warrior alien alligators? Their sharp eyes glinted in the sunlight with terrifying intelligence, and they held long, deadly spears with practiced ease. As they surrounded me and moved closer, my skin prickled with dread. Why had I been stolen from Earth to be dropped among creatures I suspected would soon kill me? Kidnapping me from my home suggested a purpose, but unless these lizards were vital to the survival of this planet and they were out of food, it made no sense to transport me all this way to dump me in front of them. Send canned goods or something, not a skinny woman like me.

They grunted in unison and rushed me, grabbing me and flinging me to the ground.

One of their spears raked across my right arm, slicing through the skin. I cried out and bucked, but there were too many of them, and they were much stronger than me. In no time, I found myself bound at my ankles and wrists. Blood trickled down my torn arm to plop in the sand.

They lifted me by my arms and legs and started trotting, carrying me across the desert and away from the pod that had brought me here. The pod didn’t matter. I wasn’t sure I mattered. All I wanted was to find my sister.

I passed out, waking to night and the bone crunching jog of the lizards still transporting me across the desert. Two moons shone overhead, and the stars swam in my blurry eyes. My arm burned, and I swore it seeped, blood or something worse. How long had I been unconscious?

As they carried me through the night and into the next day, my head throbbed. I kept flashing between hot and cold. I lifted my head and groaned when I saw my arm. The wound scraped from my shoulder down to my elbow and redness surrounded it. It pulsed with my heartbeat and goo slithered along the gash.

It was rather ironic that I’d been sent all this way only to die of a flesh wound in the middle of an alien desert.

My body hurt, but my chest was one big ache.

Death almost felt like nothing. What hurt the most was that I’d never see my twin sister again.