Switched: Brides of the Kindred 17 (21 page)

“
I
am sorry,” he mumbled, looking down at his barely touched plate. “I
don’t… feel very well.”

“
Ha—nice try.” Lacy pointed her fork at him. “You’re just
trying to get out of your waxing appointment, aren’t you? Well,
forget it sister—you’re
going.
That way you’ll be ready for your hot date with Professor
Ramlow tonight.”

Kerov frowned. “Hot
date?”

“
Oh, come on.” Lacy pressed his arm and sighed. “I know you
said it’s not a date but you and I both know he’s not coming over
to your apartment tonight with Thai food and a bottle of wine just
to talk about you being his new TA.” She grinned at winked at
Kerov. “And think how good you’re going to feel, all silky smooth
down there—hot and ready for action.”

“
Um, I guess so,” Kerov agreed, though he had no idea what he
was agreeing too. Inwardly, he told himself that he
had
to do a better job of pretending to
be Frankie.

When the server came back with a platter of chewy strips
coated in a spicy-sweet sauce, he ate them meekly with no comment.
Though they weren’t animal flesh, they
were
marginally better than the horribly slimy avocados
and he found that they gave him energy.

Energy he feared he
was going to need to get through the rest of Frankie’s day.

* *
* * *

“
It’s okay, mama,” Frankie whispered in a shaky voice as the
huge purple bear creature reared above her, growling. “It’s all
right—you know I don’t want to hurt your babies. Look, I’ll just
leave them alone and go, all right?”

But when she tried
to back away from the cubs, they followed her, nudging her with
their blunt little snouts, begging for more pets and scratches.
Ursa’s rumbling growl grew louder and she bared teeth as long as
Frankie’s fingers.

“
Dios,
you
naughty cubs—get! Get back now—back to your mama!” Frankie begged
in a low voice but the pastel babies were completely in love with
her and wouldn’t leave her alone. She looked over her shoulder,
trying to gauge the distance to the door. Could she get out before
the massive purple bear-thing charged? Would she make it before it
tore her head off?

Frankie was afraid
she wouldn’t. Well then, what could she do?

Take it easy,
she told herself.
Don’t make any sudden moves—just hold still a minute and maybe
the cubs will lose interest and go away.

It was her only
hope. Freezing in place, she prayed the pastel cubs would get bored
of her as fast as possible and go back to Ursa. As she stood there,
frozen, the pale lavender cub ran over the toe of Kerov’s big black
boot.

At
once, a memory rose from the depths of the Kindred’s mind—it was
another cub, the same pale lavender shade and Kerov was holding it
in his arms. Frankie watched in her mind’s eye as he cuddled and
fed it, raising it from a cub to the monster she saw before her
now. And then she saw him feeding Ursa something—a treat that was
saved only for special occasions. Something she craved that he only
gave to her when she was very,
very
good…

The memory gave her
an idea.

“
Hey Ursa, hey girl,” Frankie whispered through numb lips.
Reaching up slowly, she dug the squishy packet of raw meat out of
Kerov’s breast pocket. Praying this would work, she unwrapped it
from the blue leaves and held it out with one shaking hand to the
huge creature.

At once, Ursa
stopped growling and sniffed the air. She lumbered a little closer,
her sensitive black snout wrinkling with interest as she inhaled
the scent of the oozing, pine-green chunk of flesh.

“
That’s right, girl,” Frankie whispered, encouraged. “This is
your favorite, right? You only get it when you’ve been a very,
very
good
girl. So come on, take a
nibble.”

She tried to hold
the meat out flat on her palm and hoped like hell the massive Ursa
didn’t decide to bite off her hand along with the meat. Luckily,
there was no biting involved. The huge beast simply extended a
long, flexible black tongue and swiped the meat from Frankie’s palm
that way. Then she chewed it slowly, as though savoring the taste,
while making little grunts of pleasure.

“
There you go—good girl,” Frankie murmured. Now was probably
the best time to get out of here, while Ursa was still distracted
with her treat. But she had to ride this animal in less than an
hour—had to lead a parade on it!

Now is not the time to chicken out, Frankie,
she told herself
sternly.
Let’s see
if we can work this out somehow.

She was trying to
decide on the best way to approach the big purple bear creature
when Ursa approached her instead. With an affectionate grunt, she
pressed her massive head to Frankie’s chest and nudged, clearly
asking for attention in the same way the cubs had.

Tentatively, barely
daring to breathe, Frankie lifted her hand and scratched behind one
stubby purple ear. Ursa made more grunts of pleasure and rubbed
against her so strongly Frankie had to brace her legs wide apart to
keep from getting knocked over.

So
this is Kerov’s secret—he raised her from a cub,
she thought, still
scratching industriously, as that seemed to make the huge creature
happy. Now that she was feeling calmer, she was able to find and
access his memories from the filing cabinet marked
Ursa.

Apparently, Kerov
tried to visit the big animal at least every other day and had even
been there at the birth of her cubs. The other officers and
enlisted men looked at him in awe for having tamed a huge wild
beast but to him, Ursa was still the little purple cub he’d saved
after the death of her mother and raised by hand.

It gave Frankie a
whole new perspective on the big Kindred whose body she was
inhabiting. Who knew he was an animal lover? And fearless enough to
have tamed the Tarsian equivalent of a grizzly bear, too! He was
brave as well as handsome—too bad women like Xirnah were his ideal.
Frankie was the exact opposite of the tall, skinny blonde. Short,
curvy and dark would never turn his head. Still, they had shared a
very erotic moment together when she was touching him the night
before…

Then she realized what she was thinking and made herself
stop.
As if he
would be interested in you. And even if he was, what would be the
point? We don’t even live in the same galaxy—talk about a long
distance relationship!

No, all she wanted
from Kerov right now was for him to come back to his own body so
she could go back home to hers. But since that didn’t seem to be
happening, she had better get ready to ride Ursa in the parade…

Chapter Nine

In
the heart of
Zlicth
, the abandoned home world of the Scourge, a transformation
was taking place. In a vast room with walls of pulsing red a single
figure stood, cocooned in a bubble of nourishing blood. When
the
dravik
had first formed around
him, the figure—a tall male of Kindred size with the broad
shoulders and heavy musculature of their race—had had thick black
hair and dark eyes.

Things had
changed.

As
the
Souda—
the
chamber of transformation and empowerment—did its work, the thick,
black hair fell out to scatter like macabre confetti on the red
floor around him. And the eyes, once so deep and dark were
changing…lightening.

A
change was taking place in the features as well. They were
mutating, molding themselves to meet a standard that had been
preprogrammed into the
Souda
before
the figure had entered.

Soon all would be
complete. Already a sparse stubble of light blond hair was
sprouting on the finely molded skull and the face was almost
finished—the bones molding into another configuration that would be
recognizable to anyone aboard the Kindred Mother Ship.

The process was, of
course, extremely painful but the one being thus transformed didn’t
mind. He had another with him—the original owner of the body which
he had hijacked for his own purposes. It was easy enough to shunt
the unbearable physical pain of transformation off to the body’s
original owner— easy enough to ignore the agony being borne by
another.

And so Two, the Dark
Kindred overlord, amused himself with plotting what evil he would
do once his transformation was complete while Y, his hapless scion
drowned in silent screams…

* *
* * *

“
No—
no!
” Kate
came suddenly awake, her heart racing and her palms sweaty. A sense
of dread so strong it was suffocating hung around her like a heavy
curtain, making it hard to breathe.

“
Kate?
Lalli?”
Rone’s deep voice in the darkness startled her but then Kate
turned towards her mate instinctively, seeking comfort.

He took her into his arms at once, cradling
her against his massive chest and stroking her hair as tenderly as
though she was a child.

“
It’s all right…all right
now, baby,” he murmured, cuddling her to him. “Was it the dream
again? The male standing in the middle of the bubble of
blood?”

“
Y-yes…” Kate’s teeth were
chattering as she pressed close against him. She’d been having
these nightmares for weeks now—ever since they’d moved from their
own ship, The Finder, onto the Kindred Mother Ship. They weren’t
exactly Knowing dreams—meaning she didn’t go into a trance and
speak the future—but they were horrible because of the sense of
dread they brought.

“
He’s coming,” she told
Rone, her voice muffled against his broad chest. “He’s coming and
there’s nothing we can do to stop him.”

“
Who?” Rone peered down at
her urgently. “Two, the Dark Kindred? The AllFather?
Who?
”

“
I don’t know—that’s the
thing. I don’t know who it is, I only know he’s dangerous. And
Rone…” She looked at him anxiously. “I don’t think we’re going to
know him when we see him. I think he’s disguising himself
somehow.”

Her mate frowned. “What else did you see?
Anything about the prophesy?”

A few weeks before, Kate had had a Knowing
dream—in it, she had been given a strange verse…

An old threat made new

Within silence grew

Can only be solved

By one who jumps True

She into he and he into she

Unless they are one

Apart they’ll not be

Exchange of the souls

A switch of the roles

But jumping between

Will take a harsh toll.

The rhyme seemed to warn about the future
and promise some kind of help but she couldn’t tell from where that
help would come.

“
No,” she told Rone. “Not
that I could see. I just keep seeing
him
over and over in my mind’s eye.
And I can feel him wishing evil on us all—plotting to hurt us. But
not just
us
—the
entire Kindred race.” She shivered. “It’s
horrible.”

“
Do you want to speak to
Commander Sylvan about it again?” Rone asked seriously.

Kate shook her head. “No—what good would it
do? It’s just the same as all the other dreams. No new
information—just me freaking out.”

Rone frowned. “I’d still like to talk to him
and see if he can prescribe you some kind of safe sedative. You’ve
been having these bad dreams almost every night—I’m afraid it might
be bad for the babies.”

He put a large hand on
Kate’s abdomen which wasn’t rounded yet but
was
beginning to look a little
fuller. She was thrice expectant—carrying triplets thanks to a
meeting with his Beast and the two passionate nights that followed.
She wasn’t due for almost a whole year but Rone was already in
protective father mode when it came to their little
family.

“
It’s because of the
babies that I don’t want to take anything,” Kate protested. “What
if it hurts them?”

“
I’m sure Commander Sylvan
wouldn’t give you anything that would harm them—he’s a very good
doctor,” Rone told her soothingly. “And I’m worried that you being
under so much stress and not getting a good night’s sleep will be
bad for their development.”

Kate sighed and nodded. “All right, we’ll
talk to him tomorrow. For now let’s just get back to sleep.”

Rone looked at her critically and
frowned.

“
How do you expect to get
back to sleep when you’re shivering like that? I think you need to
be warmed up. Come on—I’m taking you to the bathing
pool.”

“
But it’s the middle of
the night,” Kate protested as he rose effortlessly with her in his
arms.

“
That doesn’t make any
difference. You need to warm up and relax. It’s all right, baby.”
He kissed her cheek tenderly. “Just let me take care of
you.”

Sighing, Kate relaxed in his arms. Because
of her petite stature, she was a fiercely independent woman. But
Rone loved to care for her in every way and she had learned to
relax and let him. It added another dimension to their already
loving relationship and made her feel safe and secure to be held in
his strong, muscular arms.