Switched: Brides of the Kindred 17 (6 page)

“
Never mind—just get rid of that wanderer!”

But the ragged looking man with the scruffy beard was already
moving away without being asked. He cast side-long glances in
Frankie’s direction as he hastily exited the car and she suddenly
realized
he
was afraid of
her
. Or rather, afraid of the body she
was somehow inhabiting. Maybe there
were
some advantages to being bigger and stronger than
everyone else. Although it was likely he was just as frightened by
the fact that she had a massive gun strapped to her side and
appeared to be talking to herself.

“
Whew.” She sank down on one of the silver metal seats with a
sigh of relief. Now maybe she could finally get some answers.
“Okay,” she said to the voice in her head. “Where is this place,
who are you, and how did I get here…er, inside you, I
mean?”

She was hoping he
knew because she had no clue herself.

“
My name is Kerov—Kerov Volx, Battalion Commander in the
Forty-third Regiment. And this place is Yarnoth,”
he replied.

“
Yarnoth?” she asked blankly.

“
Yes, Yarnoth,”
he said impatiently. “
You know—the capital city?”

“
No, I don’t,” Frankie said honestly. “The capital city of
where? Someplace in the Middle East maybe?”

“
The Middle East? What are you speaking of? Everyone knows
Yarnoth is on the west side of the continent.”

“
Which
continent though?” Frankie demanded. “I live in North America.
Where is this?”

“
North America?”
The voice—no,
Kerov
she
reminded herself—sounded truly puzzled now.
“I have never heard of such a
place.”

“
Never heard of North America?” Frankie asked blankly. “What
about the United Sates…? Florida…? Tampa…?
Earth?
”

“
Earth? As in the planet that the Kindred Mother Ship is
currently protecting?”

“
Well, I don’t know if I’d say they were
protecting
us right now—they did when the Scourge
first came and after that we had some trouble but…” Then his words
finally sank in. “Wait a minute—are you saying you’re a
Kindred?
And that I’m not even on
Earth right now?”

“
Yes, I’m Kindred. And this is Tarsia Six. We are not even in
the same galaxy as your planet.”

“
Seriously?
Dios!”
Frankie put her head in her hands, feeling suddenly dizzy. “I
can’t believe this! This is the weirdest freaking dream I’ve ever
had in my life!”

“
This is no dream,” Kerov informed her grimly. “This is our
reality now—we’ve been Switched.”

Chapter Three

“
Switched? What does that even mean?” the female who was
currently inhabiting—and controlling—his body demanded. She sounded
slightly hysterical but Kerov guessed he couldn’t blame her—after
all, he knew what was going on, or thought he did—and it was still
a shock to him. If she had no knowledge of Switching or Trading or
Jumping as his people had called it, she would doubtless be doubly
upset. But he didn’t need her losing control and drawing a crowd on
the public transport, so he hastened to explain.

“
Switching is a curse—well some called it a talent—my people
once had,”
he told
her.
“It enabled
them to trade bodies with their bonded mates for a short
time.”

“
But…but I’m not your mate. I don’t even
know
you.”

It sounded strange
to hear his own voice speaking words he hadn’t thought of but Kerov
supposed he would have to get used to it—at least for now. And
though the voice was coming out in his own deep tones, the person
inhabiting him was unmistakably feminine. He could feel it as
surely as he could feel her inside him.

“
I’m aware that we’re not mated and we don’t know each
other,”
he told
her.
“And believe
me, I don’t have any idea how this could have happened. The genetic
trait for Switching was supposed to have been bred out of my people
long ago. In fact, there hasn’t been a true Trader or Jumper as
they were sometimes called, in over a century.”

“
So…this used to be normal for you? For your people?” she
demanded in a low voice—in
his
voice—Gods, he couldn’t get over how strange it was! “This…two
people inhabiting one body like this?”

“
No, no,”
Kerov told her quickly.
“I believe what we have here is what used to be
called an ‘incomplete Switch.’ In a true Switch the male completely
takes over the female’s body and vice versa.”

“
But we’re both in
your
body,”
she pointed out in a trembling voice. “So where does that leave me?
What’s going on with
my
body? Is
someone else inside it? Or is it…am I…
dead?”
She whispered the last word and Kerov could feel her
horror at the idea. “Am I stuck in here forever?” she demanded.
“Stuck in
you?”

“
You’re not dead,” he said quickly. “Most likely you’re only
sleeping. Or your body is, anyway.”

“
All right…okay. I’m okay then.” She drew in a deep, shaky
breath and Kerov felt his lungs expand even though he couldn’t
inhale and expand them himself. Gods, it was a bizarre sensation to
be able to feel and experience everything that happened to his body
without being able to control it!

“
As for if you’re stuck here, I don’t know. I hope not,”
he continued.
“I have heard of
incomplete Switches but only in legends and most of those have been
forgotten since the State started trying to eradicate the Switching
gene.”

“
Okay, legends are better than nothing—there’s often a lot of
truth hiding in them,” she said encouragingly. “Tell me about the
legends—what do they say about…about incomplete
Switches?”

Kerov
sighed—mentally anyway.

“
From what I remember, they are sort of an extreme kind of
Dream Sharing. But I don’t remember dreaming of you—I still don’t
know who you are or what you look like.”

“
I’m Frankie,” she said. “Francesca Benita Hermosa Rodriguez
but Frankie for short. And I
have
dreamed of you—just this morning.”

“
You have?”
Kerov was surprised. Dream Sharing was another trait the State
had somehow managed to eradicate among the Kindred population. In
fact, he only knew about it because he’d heard his parents speak of
it.

“
Yes,” she said firmly. “I remember now—I dreamed of you in
your uniform—
this
uniform.
At least, I
think
it was
you. I guess I won’t know for sure until I see your
face.”

“
Look to your left—the glass here is dark enough to act as a
reflective surface,”
Kerov told her.

She turned her head—
his
head, Gods, he still couldn’t get used to this—and looked at
the reflective surface.

“
Oh…” Her hand went to her cheek (Kerov decided it was easier
to think of his body as hers for now, though he was by no means
giving it up for good) and her eyes widened. “Oh my—it’s
you.
You really are the guy in my dreams!”
An expression of bewilderment crossed her face. “Or now
I’m
the guy in my dreams.
Dios,
this is so
confusing.”

“
You’re not the only one who’s confused,”
Kerov assured her dryly.
“I didn’t think Switching
was possible anymore and I certainly never expected to Switch with
a female who isn’t even in my same galaxy.”

“
Okay but we
are
Switched,” Frankie said practically. “So what can we do about
it? How can we fix it?”

“
We can’t,”
Kerov said bluntly.
“At least, not right away. Since a partial or
incomplete Switch is an extension of Dream Sharing, all we can do
is go to sleep and hope that when we wake up, we’ll be in our right
bodies.”

“
So
that’s
your
prescription for the whole Body Snatchers thing—just
sleep
on it?” she demanded.

“
Do you have a better idea?”
Kerov growled.
“Because if you do, I would love to hear
it.”

“
No.” She sighed. “No, I don’t. Okay, so let’s go back to your
place and…and try to sleep it off, I guess.”

Kerov shifted
uncomfortably—mentally, at least.

“
Well, we can’t exactly do that yet.”

“
What? Why not?” she demanded. “Wouldn’t you agree that the
sooner we get me out of your body the better? I think we should go
to sleep right away! In fact, do you guys have sleeping pills here?
Maybe some melatonin?”

“
We can’t go to sleep yet because you came at the worst time
possible,”
he
growled.

Well, maybe that wasn’t
exactly true.
It would have been worse if she’d taken him over in
the middle of a battle with the Swarm. Then she might well have
gotten him killed. But still, Switching just at the time of his
State-mandated sexual encounter was pretty bad. How in the world
was he going to manage tonight without alerting Xirnah?

Kerov knew his State-assigned sexual partner was looking for a
way to get out of their partnership. If she had even an
inkling
that he had Switched with
a female—even an incomplete Switch—she would have all the
ammunition she needed to sever their relationship. And in the
process, she would get him discredited and ruin his career. She
might even get him imprisoned or executed! The State wasn’t known
for its leniency in such matters.

He could
pretend he was sick—but any refusal of a State-mandated sexual
encounter was met with an automatic investigation. Refusing to
couple with her would result in several higher order Peace Keepers
coming to his house and demanding legitimate proof of why he had
been unwilling or unable to service her. He couldn’t risk that kind
of detailed inspection. Having sex with Xirnah in this state was
incredibly risky but refusing was even more so.

In
short, there was no way around it—he would have to go through with
the sexual encounter—or Frankie (what a strange name) would have to
do it for him. Inwardly, he sighed. This was going to be
incredibly
awkward—as if having sex
with Xirnah wasn’t already awkward enough.

“
So what are you talking about I came at the worst time?”
Frankie asked, breaking his frantic train of thought. “Like there’s
any
good
time to suddenly wake up
inside someone else’s body
while
they are still inside it?”

“
It’s probably a good thing we have an incomplete
Switch,”
Kerov
pointed out.
“It’s
easier to undo—at least, I think it is. And if we’d had a complete
Switch and you woke up inside my body
without
me to guide you, you wouldn’t have had any idea what
to do on my world.”

“
I’m pretty sure my world would be damn confusing to you too,”
she snapped. “Now tell me why I came at the wrong time and what it
has to do with
not
going
straight to sleep to switch us back.”

Mentally, Kerov took
a deep breath.

“
You came right before my State-mandated sexual
encounter,”
he
explained stiffly.

“
Your State-mandated
what?”
He could hear the incredulity in her voice. “Please tell me
you’re not saying what I think you’re saying.”

“
I
don’t know—what do you think I’m saying?”
Actually, he wished he
did
know what she was thinking—he was able to catch
some of her emotions but her thoughts remained elusive.

“
I
think
it
sounds like you’re saying that your government or State or whatever
ruling body is in charge here, tells you when to have sex,” Frankie
said cautiously. “But that can’t be right, can it?”

“
It can and it is,”
Kerov admitted heavily.
“The Ministry of Matching matches each
individual to a partner for weekly conjugal visits as soon as they
reach sexual maturity.”

“
I
can’t believe this,” she said blankly. “It’s just…too weird. So
you’re saying I dropped into your body just when you’re about to
have your weekly sexy times?”

“
I’d hardly call it ‘sexy’”
Kerov said dryly.
“But yes, that’s what it amounts to.”

“
Then I guess we have to make an excuse to your, uh, partner.”
Frankie cleared her throat. “Um…is it a man or a woman if you don’t
mind me asking?”