Switched: Brides of the Kindred 17 (15 page)

“
I
do not think—”

“
Do you want to
fail?”
the
blonde girl demanded. “Come on—it’s now or never. Let’s
go!”

Her words got Kerov moving. Though he had only limited access
to Frankie’s knowledge about this yoga discipline, he couldn’t let
her fail through his inaction. She had at least
tried
to do what had to be done for him during his
mandatory sexual encounter with Xirnah—he could do no less for
her.

Quickly, he began
stripping off Frankie’s night clothes, even though he felt strange
about baring this new body in front of the other female. But the
blonde girl was too busy hunting around Frankie’s domicile to
notice what he was doing.

“
Well here’s your phone,” she announced as Kerov was trying to
figure out the small, lacy underthings she had provided along with
the trousers and shirt. “And no wonder you couldn’t hear me
calling—you have it turned on silent for some reason!”

“
I
am sorry if I caused you to worry,” Kerov said, trying to sound
apologetic. He had figured out how to get into the lacy bottom part
of the underthings—which were a bright blue. They went on like the
pink ones he had taken off. But the other garment was a complete
mystery. It had two loops and two straps in the back and two cups
in the front. What was it anyway? Evidently it went on under the
purple top—at least he
thought
it
did but he couldn’t see how to get it on. Eventually, he decided to
go without it. After all, he would have the top on—what difference
would it make if there was something under it?

“
Where are your keys? Honestly, Frankie, you know I love you
but you’re
so
disorganized!” The blonde girl was still searching the
domicile as he pulled on the short, tight purple shirt and turned
his attention to the trousers. They were made of some stretchy
black fabric that clung to his curves—well, Frankie’s curves
anyway—in a skin-tight fashion that was most
distracting.

As he adjusted the
tight trousers the blonde girl had called “lucky yoga pants,” Kerov
found a new distraction. The reason the trousers were tight was
because they had a lot to contain. To his surprise, he found that
Frankie was shaped differently from any woman he had ever seen. She
lacked the narrow hips and nonexistent posterior of a Tarsian
female. Instead, her hips flared into two, lush curves and her
behind…

Gods, so full…so soft and yet so firm!
Kerov stood there mesmerized, feeling
the anatomy in question and wishing he could get a better look at
it. As fascinated and turned on as he’d been by her breasts, he
was
twice
as interested in her
curvy bottom. The idea of a woman who had curves, who had something
to
hold on
to,
was new and
exciting and very,
very
arousing.

“
Uh…Frankie? Why are you standing in the middle of the room
groping your own ass? Are those yoga pants not fitting
right?”

The words made him
look up and he realized Frankie’s blonde friend was no longer
searching the domicile for the missing keys. Instead, she was
staring at Kerov with a quizzical look on her face.

“
Fine. They fit just fine.” He tore his hands away from
Frankie’s lush behind, feeling a hot blush creep into his cheeks.
Seven Hells, he was never going to be able to pass this test if he
kept letting himself get distracted like this!

“
Okay, good.” The girl sighed. “Then let’s just go. I’ll drive
you—I might as well. I’m up anyway and I can never get to sleep
once the sun is really up. Come on.”

She led the way to
the outer door and Kerov followed her silently, watching as she
locked the door behind them with a short metal rod. That must be a
key like the one she had been looking for. They had such things on
his home planet but they weren’t used for doors—only for locking
the manacles on prisoners and enemies of the State.

Down several flights
of steps they went and then Kerov found himself stepping outside.
He had to shield his eyes against the bright sunlight—a more
powerful glare than the Tarsian sun put out even at the height of
the growing season.

“
You okay?” The blonde girl was frowning at him. From
somewhere she had produced new eyewear with two dark lenses which
hid her eyes. They made her look like a slender, alien insect—at
least to Kerov.

“
I
am well—I mean,
okay,”
he
said, using one of Frankie’s words. “It’s just your sun is so
bright.” He shielded his eyes, annoyed.

“
Yeah, well, welcome to Florida. They don’t call us the
sunshine state for nothing—now come on.”

Half blinded by the
glare, Kerov nearly missed the small, blue vehicle the blonde girl
was heading for. It had four black wheels and see through shields
in the front and back and on both sides.

“
Come on,
hurry!”
Frankie’s friend insisted. She pointed a small black compact
device at the vehicle and pressed a button. Immediately the vehicle
made a soft
boop-boop
sound. “Get in—it’s unlocked,” the blonde girl
said.

Kerov headed for the
door she seemed to be indicating and tried to figure out how to
open it. Then a shiny silver handle caught his eye, gleaming in the
merciless sunlight. He grasped it and yanked, causing the door to
fly open, almost knocking him and the blonde girl behind him
over.

“
What are you doing?” the girl demanded. “You think you can
get us there faster?”

“
You said to get in,” Kerov pointed out.

“
Yes, but I didn’t say
drive.
Still, if you want to—here.” She handed him a bewildering
array of keys all held together by a number of round metal rings.
Then she went around to the other side of the vehicle, opened the
door, and slid in.

Kerov frowned,
feeling more and more out of his depth. Now he was supposed to
drive the alien vehicle? How was he going to manage that?

Frantically, he
rummaged through Frankie’s mind, trying to find out how to work the
vehicle. But it wasn’t like there was any kind of an orderly filing
system—Frankie’s mind was a jumble. It was as though he was in a
vast, open warehouse with colorful piles comprised of thoughts,
memories, opinions, wishes, hopes, and dreams spread all over the
floor and he was sifting through them, trying to find just the
right one.

Driving…driving…driving a vehicle. A…a car—yes, a car.
The word came to him and
with it, images of Frankie being taught to drive by her father who
squeezed his hands into fists and muttered something that sounded
suspiciously like a prayer in another language as the car they were
in lurched all over the road.

That memory led to
another—her father as a younger man teaching Frankie to ride a two
wheeled contraption. He ran along beside her, giving her
instructions as she wobbled and tried not to fall over.

“
Well? Are we going or not?” Frankie’s friend demanded,
breaking his concentration.

Kerov opened his
mouth to make some excuse as to why he couldn’t drive but just
then, a memory clicked into place.

Put the key in and turn it…press the pedals to stop and go…use
the wheel to steer,
Frankie’s mind informed him. Apparently she had driven her
friend’s vehicle before because Kerov was somehow able to pick the
right key from the bewildering array.

“
Yes, we’re going,” he said shortly, twisting the ignition key
and hearing the alien transport roar to life. Kerov pressed the
pedal and the little car jerked forward, causing the blonde girl
beside him to gasp. “Sorry,” he muttered, twisting the wheel in
front of him forcefully to get from the small parking area onto the
road which stretched like a black ribbon in front of
him.

“
Hey, Lotus Pond is
that
way!” the girl shouted.

“
All right.” Kerov twisted the wheel again, forcing the
vehicle around in a 180. There were cars coming from the other
direction and their drivers made angry beeping and honking noises
as he veered into their lane. Some even made hand gestures which
Kerov was reasonably sure weren’t complimentary but none of them
hit him.

“
What are you
doing?”
The
blonde girl looked at him with wide eyes. “My God, Frankie—you’re
going to get us killed!”

“
No I won’t. Let me concentrate.” Kerov thought he was getting
the hang of it now. The Kindred genes in his DNA made him a natural
with alien dialects, machinery, and modes of transportation. Though
he had never had to use these gifts before, he found they came more
easily than he had expected.

“
Concentrate all you want but that’s a red light up ahead,”
the girl said flatly. “And that semi coming through the
intersection isn’t stopping for anyone.”

Kerov frowned, wondering what she was talking about. He
searched Frankie’s memory…
semi—a huge truck usually carrying goods from one
place to another.
Ah—now he saw it! It was a vast gray vehicle, rectangular in
the back, and it was moving ponderously through the intersection
ahead. In fact, many cars seemed to be moving back and forth while
others were stopped.

“
Red light!” The girl sounded panicked now. “Red light,
Frankie!”

Kerov looked up and saw that there was indeed a red light
hanging from a yellow rectangular box above them.
Hmm…red light…red light.
It means…

“
Stop!” his passenger screamed.

Instinctively, Kerov
stamped down on one of the pedals—unfortunately it was the
accelerator, not the brake. The blonde girl screamed breathlessly
as the car jumped forward, right into the middle of the
intersection.

More horns blew and
curses were shouted. Kerov had to twist the wheel quickly this way
and that to avoid getting flattened. They barely missed the huge
semi, the little car whipping around it at the last moment while
Frankie’s friend shrieked in his ear.

And then they were
through to the other side without even a scratch. It was blind
luck, and Kerov knew it. Understanding how the mechanism worked
wasn’t enough. He shouldn’t have agreed to drive the alien car
without knowing the rules of the road here.

His companion seemed
to think he shouldn’t be driving either.

“
What’s
wrong
with
you?” she gasped, looking at him with wide, terrified eyes. “I know
you’re worried about being late but we could have
died.”

Kerov had had more
brushes with death than he could count on the battlefield so he
wasn’t as badly shaken as the blonde girl. But he knew he had
frightened her and she was Frankie’s friend. Doubtless she would be
suspecting there was something wrong—he was certain Frankie didn’t
usually drive this recklessly.

“
Forgive me,” he said, turning his head briefly to give her a
sincere look. “I pressed the accelerator instead of the braking
mechanism by mistake. But I didn’t mean to frighten you,
truly.”

The girl shook her
head.

“’
Accelerator?’ ‘Braking mechanism?’ You’re just acting and
talking so
weird
today!
What’s gotten into you?”

More like ‘who’?
Kerov thought but didn’t say.

“
I
had a strange dream,” he said aloud, still concentrating on the
road ahead of him. Frankie’s memories were informing him that he
had to turn left in two more lights. This time he was being careful
only to drive through the intersections if the lights were green or
yellow—although her memories informed him this last was somewhat
risky.

“
A
dream? A dream is why you’re acting so weird?” Frankie’s friend
asked. “What was it about?”

“
It was about a male—er, a man—from another planet,” Kerov
said. After all, Frankie
had
told him that she had dreamed of him. “He was tall and had
light hair and eyes. The dream was…disturbing.”

“
Was he a Kindred?” the girl asked. She seemed to have settled
down some now that Kerov’s driving had improved, which was good.
But her question startled him.

“
How did you know that?” he demanded, turning to glare at
her.

“
Easy—there’s no need to stare daggers at me! It’s just that
they say some girls start dreaming of the Kindred warrior who comes
to claim them right before it happens, that’s all.” She sighed. “Of
course, I
know
you
don’t want anything to do with being a Kindred bride.”

“
I
don’t?” For some reason this piece of information made Kerov’s gut
knot into a fist.

“
It’s your worst nightmare—you were just telling me it would
give your grandma a heart attack.” The girl frowned at him. “Don’t
you remember?”

“
Of course,” Kerov lied, looking straight ahead. So Frankie
wanted nothing to do with the Kindred. She must feel the same way
about his people as Xirnah did. The knowledge made him clench his
jaw. For some reason, he’d thought she was different. That she
didn’t hate the Kindred as many of the Tarsians of his home planet
did. But it looked like he had been wrong. She—