Divided: Brides of the Kindred 10 (53 page)

“Sorry, hon,” Di said steadily. “But you
know it’s true.”

“Yes, I know.” Tess took a deep breath.
“All right, I’ll do it.”

“You don’t have to, if you really don’t
want to,” Di offered. “You can always stay with me.”

“And put you in danger too? I don’t think
so.” Tess shook her head.

“I told you before—I’ve got a gun and I’m
not afraid to use it. Especially on an asshole like Pierce.”

“He’s got a gun too. He’s a cop—remember?
No.” Tess sighed. “I guess…I guess this is the only way.”

“Good. You’ll be fine.” Di grinned at her,
obviously delighted.
“And who knows—maybe you’ll meet a tall, dark, handsome Kindred who can pound
Pierce into the ground for you while you’re up there.”

Tess shook her head. “You know I’m not
looking to meet anyone. Honestly, after these last few years with Pierce, I
might just swear off men all together.”

“Ah, but these guys aren’t just
men—they’re
Kindred.”
Di winked at her. “It’s too bad all the ones my
age are already spoken for but you’re plenty young enough, honey. You could—”

“Di…” Tess raised an eyebrow at her.

“All right, all ready—I’ll stop. Just go
on over and join the tour group at the far end of the lobby.” Di gestured to
the small crowd milling around, ooing and ahhing at the various Kindred
warriors stationed around the HKR building. Many of them had whipped out
cameras and cell phones and several of the younger, obviously unmarried girls,
were posing for pictures with the warriors, who didn’t seem to mind.

It was a perfectly innocent sight but Tess
still felt her stomach knotting into a fist as she watched. Supposedly three
main types of Kindred—Beast Kindred who had golden eyes, Blood Kindred who had
pointed fangs, and Twin Kindred who always came in pairs. But honestly, all she
saw when she looked around were a bunch of big, muscular, potential threats.

Pierce was a big guy—not quite as big as a
Kindred but big enough to have played football in college and he was still an
intimidating specimen. Tess ought to know—he’d used his size to intimidate
her
often enough. It was scary to see guys who were even bigger and more menacing
than him walking around.

Di could talk all she wanted about how the
Kindred never battered their women but after what she’d been through, Tess
found it was hard to trust that was true. Or at least, hard to trust it enough
to go up and live among the huge alien males on their home turf. For her, right
now, every male was suspect. Every one of them could turn out to be just
another Pierce waiting to hurt her.

But if she
didn’t
go up to the
Mother Ship, where else could she go? Where else could she disappear to that
Pierce couldn’t find her and drag her back? She’d thought about the battered
women’s shelters but Pierce being on the Tampa PD complicated things. The
shelters were hidden from prying eyes but her ex had a way of finding things
out…

I’ll just have to take a chance,
Tess thought unhappily as she watched another smiling
girl take a picture with a grinning Beast Kindred.
There’s no other way.

Trying to look inconspicuous, she wandered
over to the gathered tour group and took a place in the back.
Mother Ship,
here I come.

Chapter Two

“Brother, I’m glad I found you.”

Truth looked up from the vegetables he was
chopping, clearly startled by his younger brother’s voice.

“Oh, Garron—what are you doing here? Did
you come for last meal?”

“Not exactly.” Garron cleared his throat.
“I, um, would like to talk to you. About something private.”

He shot a glance at Far, his brother’s
long lost twin, who was happily cooking something at the other end of the food
prep area. He had features that were remarkably similar to Truth’s but his hair
was long and blond instead of short and dark and his eyes were bottomless black
instead of Truth’s pale gray.

Despite their differences, the twins
really did seem to belong together. Though Garron had been initially surprised when
he met his older brother’s twin and mate—for they shared a female as all Twin
Kindred did—he now liked Far quite a lot. Still, what he had to say was
embarrassing and for Truth’s ears alone.

“It’s all right.” Far looked up and nodded
at them. “I’m done here for now. I’ll go into the living area and give the two
of you some privacy.”

“Thank you, Far.” Truth nodded back. He
waited until his twin had exited the food prep area to turn back to Garron.
“Now. What seems to be the problem?”

“Well…” Garron took a deep breath, trying
to think how to approach the topic he wished to discuss. “You know that my name
day is coming soon…”

“So it is!” Truth smiled. “We must
celebrate in the Earth way which Rebecca has been telling me about. We can have
a party—a gathering of friends to wish you well. Also, we will have an Earth
confection known as a…as a…” He frowned. “Seven hells, it is either a pie or a
cake. Or maybe it’s a pake. Yes! That’s it—we will have a pake with many little
flame stalks and you must blow them out and we will all sing to you and bring
you gifts and humorous sentiments called ‘greeting cards’ and—”

“Brother!” Garron held up a hand
impatiently. “Could you please stop talking about Earth customs for a moment?
Have you forgotten what I am? What I may have stirring within?” He put a fist
to his chest.

“Apologies,” Truth said. “I did not
think.”

“No, because you don’t have to.” Garron
couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his voice. “Because you aren’t really
Rai’ku the way I am. You have no
dr’gin
within. No deadly beast that
might come out and kill…” He shook his head, unable to finish.

“But it has been so many years since you
came of age,” Truth said. “So many times the virgins were gathered for you and
nothing happened. Do you really think you have a
dr’gin
at all?”

“I feel it stirring within me. Or
something
stirring, anyway,” Garron said darkly. “I have been having…urges lately.
Cravings.
Desires.”
He closed his eyes briefly, unable to look at his
brother as he spoke. “Some of them…some of them very unlike what we were raised
to believe are normal or right.”

“Is that all?” Truth sounded so
lighthearted than Garron had to open his eyes and look.

“What do you mean ‘is that all?’” he
demanded. “You don’t even know what desires I’m talking about.”

“I am sure I can guess.” Truth nodded
knowingly. “Does it have to do with wishing to…ah…
taste
certain parts of
the female anatomy we were told never to touch unless mating?”

Garron felt his cheeks go hot. He cleared
his throat.

“Possibly…I know I should not wish such
things,” he hurried on. “It is wrong but I—”

“It’s
not
wrong. It’s
Kindred.
The
Kindred part of you coming out,” Truth countered. “Look, Brother, I felt the
same way. I longed to do things with my lady—things we were taught were
perverted and degrading. Things that—”

“Please…” Garron held up a hand. “No
details or I will never be able to look Becca in the eyes again.”

“I’m not going to give you details, I’m
just letting you know that what you desire is natural and right for our
people—for the Kindred. Look…” Truth put a hand on his shoulder. “I know for a
fact there are already some Rai’ku beliefs and teachings you reject. The way
the Rai’ku treat their females, for instance…”

“You mean the way they demean and devalue
them.” Garron frowned. “No—I could never believe that was right.”

“No Kindred male could,” Truth said
gently. “It’s in our nature—in our very DNA—to revere our females. Even our
father—as cruel as he could be when he was drinking—never raised a hand to
Ama.”

“That was because he took his anger out on
you instead,” Garron said in a low voice. “And just because he didn’t hit her
didn’t mean he didn’t abuse her. The things he said when he was drunk—”

“Scarred us all,” Truth finished quietly.
“I’ve come to understand something, Brother—when a male suffers the things we
suffered, he either repeats the pattern he saw as a child or he makes a
conscious decision to break it. I made that decision and I know you did too.”
His voice dropped to a softer note. “I saw the way you treated Nella—you loved
and revered her as a true male should.”

“I would rather have cut off my hand than
hurt her,” Garron said honestly. “And I miss her still. I
grieve
for
her. That is why…” He cleared his throat. “Why I find these, ah,
urges
both frightening and confusing. I want no other female but Nella and yet I find
myself burning—on fire with these strange
needs.
”

“Quench the fire,” Truth advised. “Find a
willing female to align your mind and body with.”

“I told you—I want no one but Nella and
she is gone,” Garron protested. “But say I decided to take your advice and
take
another female. What if these strange urges presage the coming of my
dr’gin?
What if when I started to make love to her, I
turned?”

Truth frowned. “That
would
be a
problem. Every life is precious to the Kindred—especially female life. You
would not be allowed to kill and eat several virgins on your first turning as
is the normal way among the Rai’ku.”

“Nor should I be,” Garron said. “The
entire process is sickening—I have always thought so. But you and I both know
the
dr’gin
is a mindless beast when it first emerges and the older it
grows, the hungrier it gets. If mine should come out now after all this time,
it would be
ravenous
. I might…” He shook his head.

“You might cause all kinds of destruction,”
Truth finished for him.

Garron snorted. “That’s a nice way of
saying I’d kill and eat every unmated female in my path, Brother.” He ran a
hand through his hair. “My name day is coming up very soon—what am I to do?”

“I don’t know.” Truth frowned. “I don’t—”

“Why not use one of the Pairing Puppets?”
The new voice came from Far, who had come back into the food prep area.

“Far! This is a private matter.” Truth
frowned. “Although actually, that is not a bad idea…”

“Yes, I know. I’m sorry for invading your
privacy—just had to make sure my sauce wasn’t sticking.” The light twin
gestured to a pot he had set up on an Earth style cooking top which was very
different from the Kindred Wave appliance most used aboard the Mother Ship.
Perhaps Becca had requested it specially.

Garron waited uncomfortably for the light
twin to finish tending his cooking. At last, when he showed no signs of
leaving, he could stand it no more.

“What is a Pairing Puppet?” he demanded.

Far looked at him, clearing surprised.

“You don’t know? But you live in the
Unmated Males area.”

“I haven’t been there that long,” Garron
defended. “I am still finding my way around the Mother Ship.”

“Well in your tours, I am certain you must
have noticed the small pink building near the back of the Unmated Males area?”
Truth raised an eyebrow at him. “The one with females coming and going out of
it occasionally.”

“Oh, I did notice that place. I thought it
was some kind of exclusive club,” Garron said.

Far snorted. “It is. The club for males in
need of release.”

Garron frowned.

“What are you saying? That it is a house
of ill repute? I thought the Kindred didn’t hold with such things.”

“They don’t. But the females that stay in
the Pairing House aren’t technically females,” Truth said.

“What he means is that they aren’t really
alive
,”
Far explained. “They’re robots.”

“Robots? As in machines?” Garron was
disgusted. “I have no wish to have relations with a machine.”

“They’re more like…like what the humans
call cyborgs in their fictional science tales,” Truth said. “They have soft,
supple skin and real flesh but it is grown over a metal skeleton. They can
understand simple commands and carry on extremely limited conversations but
mostly they are made for…”

“For relieving the needs of unmated
males,” Far said. “For those who have yet to align with a female mind on
Earth.”

“I see…” Garron frowned. “And they
are…accommodating to any Kindred male?”

“That is their sole purpose. Without them,
the Unmated Males area would be a much more tense and unhappy place,” Far said.

“But the important thing for you is that
they are artificial,” Truth said. “They don’t think, they feel no pain. And
they do
not
judge. You could explore your new…Kindred urges…” He cleared
his throat. “And if your
dr’gin
did manifest itself, you wouldn’t have
to worry about hurting a real female.”

Garron shook his head.

“I don’t know, brother. As badly as my
desires ride me, I have no wish to copulate with some soulless, mechanical
puppet. It just seems…
wrong.”

“Well, as I see it, that is your only option,”
Truth said matter-of-factly. “Unless you wish to take your chances back on pax
among the Rai’ku.”

“Out of the question. T’lar told me never
to even make orbit around the planet again.”

“T’lar is an overbearing fool,” Truth said
shortly. “You shouldn’t let me keep you from going home if you want to.”

“No.” Garron looked away. “Now that Nella
is gone I cannot imagine mating with another. I have no wish to go back to
Pax.”

“Then you should really consider the
Pairing Puppets,” Far said gently. “If you have needs that are too dangerous to
relieve with a real female and you cannot bring yourself to form a relationship
with a real female, then a false one is your best choice.”

“I…will think on it.” Garron sighed and
pinched the bridge of his nose, trying to push back the headache that was
threatening. Gods, if only he could control these urges better! If only he
could push them down, push them back inside where they belonged…

The way you’ve been pushing them down for
years? The way you buried them each time the virgins were called for you
because you feared to hurt Nella?
whispered
a little voice in the back of his head.
The way you—

“…stay and eat with us when Rebecca
returns?”

Garron looked up, realizing that his
brother was asking him a question.

“I’m sorry—what?”

“I said the food is almost ready. It’s an
Earth specialty Far and I learned to cook just for Rebecca.”

“You’re welcome to stay if you want,” Far
added. “You’re always welcome here, Garron—you know that.”

“Thank you.” Garron smiled at his
brother’s mate or tried to anyway—the desires inside him were growing worse
again which made it hard to think. “But I think there is something I must do.
Not
go to the Pairing House, though,” he added quickly. “Something…else.”

“Of course.” Truth nodded gravely. “Be
well, Brother. And please don’t hesitate to ask if you need anything that Far
and Rebecca and I can provide.”

“Thank you,” Garron said again and bowed.
Truth returned the gesture as did Far, though less expertly. “I take my leave
of you,” he said and headed for the door as fast as he could.

He needed to be alone for awhile and
think.