Cursed: Brides of the Kindred 13 (30 page)

“It didn’t taste unclean. It tasted…amazing,” Charlie admitted. “Completely different from what I’d expected. It was so strong and wild and sweet—it almost made me feel
drunk
. I think…I’m pretty sure that’s why I acted the way I did. Which was…” She cleared her throat. “Very unprofessional of me.”

“It was my fault for offering you my blood in the first place,” he said in a low voice. “I should have guessed that it would arouse my instincts to breed and bond.”

“Well, we’ll just have to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Charlie said briskly. “We’ll forget about it and just go on with the mission.”

“Agreed,” he rumbled. “And now we should probably get some sleep. I think tomorrow if we have any time unsupervised, we should try to get to the inner circle.”

“The Circle of Oneness by the Heart? Good idea—the sooner the better.”

He nodded. “But for now we should try to get some sleep—it’s been a long night.”

“A
very
long night,” Charlie agreed.

He cleared his throat. “And…are you warm enough?”

“Still toasty. Your blood really did work miracles,” she said. “I guess I should be okay the rest of the time we’re here.”

“Well…” He cleared his throat. “The effects wear off, unfortunately. If you get cold in the night…”

“I’m
not
biting you again,” Charlie said flatly. “I think we agreed that’s a bad idea.”

“No, I was going to say if you need to draw warmth from me, you don’t need to fear. I will not…touch you inappropriately. I swear it.”

Since they had already been almost as inappropriate and unprofessional as it was possible to be that night, Charlie had to stop herself from laughing.

“Uh, yeah, thanks. I’ll keep it in mind,” she said dryly.

“Do that,” he said seriously. “Good night, Charlotte.”

Then he turned on his side, so that his broad back was facing her, and settled down to sleep.

Charlie tried to do the same but despite the physically and emotionally exhausting night she had already been through, it took a long time for sleep to claim her. When she finally drifted off, she had strange dreams. Not of the two headed monster that had haunted her dreams as a child—but of a pair of glowing red eyes, low to the ground, watching her from the corner.

Watching and waiting for something…only she didn’t know what.

Chapter Twenty

“
Ahh, so now you sleep.”
The unnaturally deep voice was muted as it came from the thin, liver-colored lips. Ur did not wish to wake his host—the host whose body had become a prison cell. Two was proving to be much stronger and more stubborn than he had hoped when he first invaded the Dark Kindred’s flesh. But even an opponent as formidable as Two had to sleep sometimes—or recharge, as the Enhanced Ones called it.

Two was currently in his docking station—a large upright metal shell that somewhat resembled a steel coffin stood on its end. It had plug-in ports to keep all of his many enhancements charged and functional, though he didn’t wear the exoskeleton armor most of the other Dark Kindred did.

It
also
gave access to all the information feeds Two was currently monitoring which was how Ur was able to view the scene through the eyes of the little spy-bot Two had somehow planted on the Kindred shuttle.

Unfortunately, he still wasn’t sure what the Sin Eater Kindred and the human female were up to. Near the end they had made some mention of “The Circle of Onenness” and “the Heart” whatever that was but no other explanation was forthcoming.

Ur had thought of alerting the authorities at the resort that they had imposters in their midst. From what he had learned as he gleaned information about J’lorgon’s Mind, the leaders there—the Joined Ones—would be
extremely
upset to learn that their sacred rituals were being thus profaned. The punishments for such acts were said to be severe.

But two things held him back. First, he still didn’t know what the Kindred and his female were up to—he wanted more concrete information on their plan before giving up their secret. And two, he did not wish to tip his hand too soon and let his host know what he was up to until he was ready. Right now, Two still thought that Ur was a completely helpless prisoner, unable to move or have any effect on anything outside the prison of Two’s mind.

Wouldn’t he be surprised to learn differently?

Slowly, Two’s left arm—long and ropey with muscle—lifted clear of the docking station. The left leg flexed at the knee. Then the left side of that thin, liver-colored mouth turned up in a sneering grin.

“
Soon,”
Ur whispered to himself.
“Soon you will see, my host. Oh yes, soon you will see…”

Chapter Twenty-one

“What the hell
are
these things?” Charlie stared at her plate as she and Stavros sat down at their table beside
Hsssthnk
and
Ssstha.
She had thought the multicolored cha-cha balls for dinner were bad, but breakfast at the alien couples resort was even worse.

In order to get the food, they had gone through a line holding trays in a way that reminded her weirdly of a high school cafeteria. A pair of cheerful, translucent-skinned
Hossans
who seemed to be literally joined at the hip, had served them scoops of two different foods. One scoop consisted of long thin tubes that looked a little like penne pasta except they were purple and about twice as long. The other scoop was little orange balls the size of peas or a bit smaller.

“This is a traditional
Hossan
breakfast food,”
Ssstha
said. “Peenees and wees. We have them almost every morning here.”

“Peenees and wees? Seriously? How do you eat them?” Charlie looked down at the utensils she had been given—two pairs of long, thing tweezers that reminded her of forceps you saw surgeons using on medical dramas.

“The wees go up inside the peenees. In this manner.”
Hsssthnk
demonstrated, grasping a long thin purple tube with one pair of forceps and then using the other pair to delicately insert the bright orange wees into the opening at the end.

“That looks like it’s going to take forever,” Charlie objected. “But let me guess—you have to do it just exactly that way or it’ll taste like crap.”

“I do not know what ‘crap’ is,”
Ssstha
said. “But it will not be a pleasurable eating experience unless you prepare the peenees and wees for your partner exactly as you are supposed to.”

“Oh, so I’m making Stav’s breakfast and he’s making mine?” Charlie couldn’t say she was exactly surprised after their experience at dinner the night before.

“I’ve already made one for you. Here.” Stavros used one of his forceps to grasp the bulging purple tube he’d been working on and set it delicately down on her tray.

“Thanks. Here, let me just…” She worked at pushing the tiny orange pill things into the purple tubes. The result of her efforts wasn’t nearly as uniform and neat has his, but she picked it up and put it on his tray anyway. “There.
Bon appetite.”

“Thank you.” Using his forceps, he lifted it and popped it into his mouth. Charlie did the same with the peenee-wee tube he had made for her.

She was hoping for the various different flavor combinations they’d had with the cha-cha balls but with her first bite, she was severely disappointed. The texture of the peenee was bland and chewy—like overcooked pasta. It was also cloyingly sweet with a flavor that reminded her a bit of a glazed donut. The wees, on the other hand, were juicy and crisp. They popped in her mouth when she bit into them, releasing a thin liquid that tasted like dill pickle juice.

“Ugh!” With some difficulty, Charlie finished chewing and swallowed. “Glazed donuts and dill pickles—
not
my favorite breakfast combination. Did a pregnant woman make this menu?”

Across from her, Stavros was chewing too. He swallowed with a look of distaste.

“I must agree. These flavors do not seem to go together at all.”

“You get used to them,”
Ssstha
said philosophically.

“But they’re really strange,” Charlie protested. “Don’t they have anything else? I mean, it’s not like I expect a full Southern breakfast with biscuits and sausage gravy but I wouldn’t say no to some scrambled eggs right about now. Or oatmeal. Or
anything
else, really.”

Hsssthnk
shook his head. “The
Hossans
consider this fare to be health food. They claim the peenees and wees promote good digestion, mental health, and emotional truthfulness.”

“All that from a donut-tasting pasta tube filled with dill pickle peas, huh?” Charlie muttered. “Huh. Guess I’ll wait and see what lunch is like.” She pushed her tray aside.

“No, no—you
have
to eat it all.”
Ssstha
looked alarmed. “If one of the Joined Ones sees that you have not finished your morning fare there could be…trouble.”

Charlie shivered at the thought of the Joined Ones. Though she knew damn well it was irrational to fear them, she couldn’t help thinking of her childhood nightmare every time she saw one.

“Come, Charlotte, let us just make the best of it,” Stavros rumbled. He had already made her another one of the stuffed tubes and laid it gently on her tray.

“Oh…all right,” Charlie grumped, pulling her tray towards her and beginning to stuff a long purple tube with the bright orange spheres. “But I didn’t know I had to be a member of the clean plate club to stay here.”

“It helps to talk of something else to distract your mind from the odd flavor combinations,”
Ssstha
said, smiling at her. “So tell me—did you sleep well last night? And did you wake with grace and light?”

“Umm…” Charlie nearly choked on the peenee-wee tube she’d just shoved in her mouth. The way she had actually woken up was plastered against Stavros’s side, naked as a jay bird. Apparently during the night the effects of his blood had worn off and she had gravitated to him as a source of heat.

At first all she’d been aware of was the sensation of being deliciously warm despite the fact that it was cold outside. It reminded her of waking up in her snug down sleeping bag in the nippy fall air when Daddy had taken her on hunting trips.

Then she became aware that her “sleeping bag” was breathing.

When she opened her eyes she had been curled against his big body, her head pillowed on his chest with his long, muscular arms wrapped around her. Charlie was mortified to find that her bare breasts were pressed against his side and that she had even thrown one leg over his lean hips as though she was trying to climb him like a tree.

She would have tried to extricate herself gracefully without waking him up but Stavros was already awake. He was looking down at her with an unreadable expression on his face which somehow made her feel even more naked that she already was.

“Oh my God,” she’d groaned, scooting away from his warmth in a hurry and wrapping a sheet around herself. “I’m
sorry.”

“Why should you be sorry?” he’d asked in obvious confusion. “I told you to come to me for warmth if you needed it.”

“Yes, but I didn’t mean to…to wrap myself all around you like that.” Charlie’s cheeks had been hot with embarrassment. After the events of last night, she had promised herself firmly that
nothing
else even remotely improper was ever going to happen between herself and her partner again. And then the very next morning, she found herself pressed against him naked, trying to climb him like a tree.
Ugh, I’m an idiot!
“I’m just…really sorry. It won’t happen again,” she babbled.

“I did not mind,” Stavros said quietly. “And if it does happen again, that will not bother me either.”

“Well it bothers
me,”
Charlie had said and then fled to the bathroom and cursed herself for a fool the entire time she was taking a shower.

She looked up from her breakfast to see Stavros staring at her, as if he too was remembering the undignified way she’d woken up all wrapped around him.

“Here.” She shoved another stuffed peenee-wee tube in his direction. “Eat up.”

He took the tube and ate it without comment then deposited one had had made for her on her tray.

Somehow the rest of breakfast passed and Charlie choked down all the donut/dill pickle flavored pasta-pea tubes. When they had all cleared their trays, she turned casually to
Ssstha
.

“So you guys know this place better than we do. What’s next on the agenda? Maybe some free time?”