Devoured: Brides of the Kindred 11 (22 page)

“They can wait a little while. Just a
solar week…or a month…or two.” Terex/Ur frowned at him. “You can’t have it both
ways, Councilor Sylvan. You say that you don’t want to go to war with Earth but
when I suggest measures to placate our human friends, you object to those too.
Make up your mind.”

Sylvan frowned. “I could say the same to
you, Chancellor Terex.”

Terex/Ur spread his hands. “But my mind
is
made up. I feel that a gesture of
good will is called for in order to appease the humans.” He looked around the
table. “Now, all those in favor of ceasing to call brides for a little
while—just until this trouble is cleared up—knock once. Those who disagree,
knock twice.”

He looked around the table, fixing each
Councilor in turn with a steady stare. Slowly, one by one, each Councilor
knocked on the table. Most of the twelve knocked once. Councilor Sylvan and a
few others knocked twice.

Terex/Ur was satisfied to see that most of
the Councilors voted his way. Not that it mattered—he had the ruling vote. But
it would be difficult to carry his point if he didn’t have at least some of
them on his side. He would rule them with a firm hand and lead them along
little by little until they were under his complete control.

“Good,” he said, nodding as the vote was
finished. “We are in agreement—we will stop calling brides for the time being.”

“If we stop calling brides, then no other
Kindred faction must be able to call them either,” Councilor Gora pointed out.
“Including the Dark Kindred.”

Terex/Ur scowled but he could see no way
around it.

“Very well, I will concede that,” he said
at last.

Anyway, the damage with the human senator
had already been done, he consoled himself. The girl didn’t actually have to be
taken at this point. It was enough that her father thought she
could
be whisked away to some horrible
dark planet where females were hated and scorned at any second.

“The unmated males are not going to be
happy about this,” Sylvan said in a low voice. “The reason most of them agreed
to join this trade was the possibility of calling a bride.”

“Let them take out their stress at the
Pairing House,” Terex/Ur said dismissively. “That is what the Pairing Puppets
are for, are they not?”

“A Pairing Puppet has no soul. It may be
good for a physical release but it cannot truly bond with a warrior or fulfill
his need to connect with a female,” Sylvan said.

“But they’re good enough for relieving
stress for a week or so,” Terex/Ur reminded him.
Or at least until I take care of them,
he told himself, repressing
a grin.

“I suppose.” Sylvan didn’t sound convinced
but Terex/Ur didn’t give a damn. They had established something at this meeting
whether the other members of the High Council understood it or not—he, Ur, was the leader and
commander of this ruling body. Which made him the commander of the entire
Mother Ship—with it’s arsenal of devastating weapons and armies of trained
warriors. He was a force to be reckoned with.

“This Council is dismissed,” he said,
standing and rapping three times on the table with the Speaking Stone. “You may
go. Councilor Sylvan, as Speaker of the Council, I will leave it to you to make
the announcement that we are no longer calling brides from Earth.”

“Can I put any kind of time limit on it?”
Sylvan asked, his voice tight. “Can I get the unmated males
anything
to cling to in the mean time?”

“Just tell them it’s a temporary measure,”
Terex/Ur nodded at him. “You may all go.”

After the Councilors left, clearing out of
the Council room in ones and twos, he sank back into his chair and steepled his
fingers on his chest. It was good to be flesh—good to have a physical body. But
it was even better to have these damned Kindred exactly where he wanted them.

In the beginning, he had simply desired to
cause them pain in any way he could. He had started with petty gestures—not
allowing Truth’s brother to bring his bride back up to the Mother Ship for one
thing.

But a much larger plan had begun to form
in his mind. A plan that involved Kindred desperation and the Earth’s eventual
domination.

He slid up a panel in the Council table,
revealing a holographic screen. With a few quick movements, he had called up
the specs for the Pairing House. He split the screen in two and called up the
master circuitry plan for a typical Pairing Puppet.

“Hmmm,” he murmured, staring at both for a
long moment. “Yes, this should be exceedingly simple…”

Once the unmated males heard that they
were no longer calling females from Earth for brides they would be upset. And
when the rumors of the angry Earth senator storming out of the Council members
circulated, they would begin to put two and two together. Doubtless they would
assume that the ban on Earth brides was because of unhappy humans—humans who
wanted to break the treaty which had been made back when the Scourge threat was
immanent.

The unmated males would become uneasy and
restless but as long as they had the Pairing Puppets to help them achieve the
occasional release, they wouldn’t revolt.

“But they won’t have them for long,”
Terex/Ur murmured to himself. “And then let’s see how much they object to
declaring war on Earth. Let’s…just…see…”

Chapter
Twenty-two

“Well, hello there, pretty lady. Haven’t
seen you around here before.”

At first Tess thought the strange voice
behind her must be talking to someone else. After all, she was wearing a pair
of jeans that she usually gardened in and a dark blue t-shirt that had been
through the wash a few too many times. The outfit was grass-stained and faded
but comfy. Also not a bit sexy, which was why Tess had picked it. After the
tension between herself and Garron that morning, she’d decided that the less
provocative her outfit, the better. Not that she had many sexy clothes to
choose from—Pierce had seen to that. But still, the stained jeans and faded
shirt combo was definitely on the far end of the seductive spectrum.

“Pretty lady? I’m talkin’ to you,” the
voice said again. Someone tapped her on the shoulder and Tess turned around.

“Um, hi,” she said uncertainly, looking at
the guy who was speaking to her. He was standing right in the middle of the
potted, jerked, and canned meat isle—only in the South could you have a whole
aisle of a grocery store devoted to such food stuffs, Tess thought—and leering
at her in a way that showed two missing teeth.

The rest of him wasn’t much more
appealing. He had thinning brown hair, small, squinty eyes and he was wearing
blue jeans so stained and ripped they made Tess’s own jeans look practically
pristine in comparison. A white t-shirt which was more gray than white was
stretched over his prodigious beer gut.
Fat
Chick Wanted!
it proclaimed.

“Hi, yourself, girlie.” He grinned
delightedly. “You new in town? Haven’t seen you around before.”

“I just moved here,” Tess said, before she
thought about it. “Uh, I mean, I’m just passing through,” she corrected herself
hastily.

He frowned. “Well which is it? If you just
moved to town I can show you around. If you’re just passing through, well, I
still have some things I can
show
you.”

“Um…I…” Tess shook her head. Was this guy
for real? Was he actually coming on to her in the middle of the Piggly Wiggly
grocery store? Instinctively, she looked around. Back when she had been with
Pierce, any man flirting with her or even looking at her too long would have
earned her a “punishment.”
You’re not
with that asshole anymore,
Tess BP reminded her.
You don’t have to worry about him “punishing” you anymore.
But even
the mental reassurance couldn’t stop the flutter of panic she felt around her
heart.

“Well, what do you say?” The man acted
like he thought she was just going to leave the store on the spot and go right
to his car with him. Was he crazy or just desperate?

“Thanks for the offer but I’m with
someone.” Tess gave him a cool but polite smile and turned to go back down the
aisle.

“Don’t see you with anybody.” Quick as a
flash, the man got in front of her, blocking her way.

Tess was beginning to wish she’d gotten a
shopping cart instead of just a hand basket. That way, at least, she would have
had something substantial to put between herself and this jerk.

“That’s because he’s in the men’s room,”
she said, improvising. Actually, she had no idea where Garron was. Probably he
was exploring another exotic part of the Piggly Wiggly. Apparently they didn’t
have grocery stores on the planet he came from, preferring instead to grow and
make all their own food. He found the idea of processed, prepackaged food
intriguing so she had left him to wander the aisles while she got a few things
for supper and some staples to stock Uncle Jacks’s cabin.

The cabin—which they had finally reached
in the late afternoon—was surprisingly neat and clean—but it had nothing to eat
except for a few dusty cans of beef ravioli. Not surprising considering that
Di’s uncle had been a resident of the Happy Rest nursing home for several years
before he died.

Truth be told, Tess had been happy to let
Garron go his own way during their shopping expedition. All day long he had
been getting more and more tense and withdrawn until she felt like she was
sitting next to a ticking time bomb rather than another person. She wasn’t sure
what was the matter with him—was he regretting his decision not to go back to
the Mother Ship without her? Or did driving in the mountains around Asheville—traversing the
steep, narrow, winding roads—make him nervous? He was, after all, a relatively
new driver, at least here on Earth. Whatever the reason, she had been happy to
let him go explore the frozen foods section while she headed for the meat and
produce.

Now, however, she had apparently taken a
wrong turn into the potted meat aisle and was beginning to wish the big Kindred
was with her.

“Excuse me,” she said, trying to get
around her persistent suitor again.

“I don’t think so, girly,” the guy with
two missing teeth and the
Fat Chick
Wanted!
shirt said, blocking her path. He leaned forward and whispered in a
low, hoarse voice, “I think you’re just a little
nervous
. You don’t haveta be though—I can be real sweet when I try
and I’m sure willing to try for a juicy little girl like you.”

“Thanks but no thanks.” Tess winced away
from his breath which was heavy with the scent of stale beer. Okay, so
that
was why he was coming on so
strong—he’d probably wandered in from the bar across from the Piggly Wiggly. It
was called The Sore Elbow—she had seen the cheap neon sign with a badly drawn
skeletal elbow and hand holding a beer mug as they drove by it. “Look, I just
need this,” she said, grabbing blindly and coming up with a can of chunk light
tuna packed in spring water. “And then I have to go meet my…my…” What was
Garron to her? Not her boyfriend, certainly. Her bodyguard? Her protector? She
supposed she could say man but Garron wasn’t a man—not a human man anyway. He
was a Kindred male. “My guy,” she finished at last, a bit lamely.

“Why don’t you just admit there ain’t no
guy?”
Fat Chick Wanted
demanded.
“Then come on with me—I’ll show you a
real
good time.” Before Tess could turn him down again and get away, he grabbed her
hand and entwined their fingers. “See? Isn’t that niiice?” he slurred.

“Hey!” Her heart began to beat harder.
Fat Chick Wanted
was falling down drunk
but he was also a foot taller and way stronger than her. “Get off me!” she
demanded, trying to shake off his hand. “I don’t even know you!”

“But we’re gonna
get
to know each other.” He leered at her. “Get to know each other
real good,
honey.”

“Raymond? Raymond Jason Calhoun!” An
angry, heavy-set woman with improbably bright purple-red hair who looked to be
in her fifties came bustling up before Tess could say or do anything. She was
wearing a Piggly Wiggly smock and a disapproving scowl on her thickly made-up
face.

“Uh…Miss Tabby?”
Fat Chick Wanted
didn’t let go of Tess but he did turn quickly to
face the angry woman.

“Raymond, what the
hell
do you think you’re doing?” the woman demanded. “Didn’t Bob
tell you if he caught you in here again harassing the female customers he’d
call the law?”

“I wasn’t harassing her none!”
Fat Chick Wanted
protested, looking
guilty. “We were having a conversation—getting along real nice.” He held up
Tess’s hand, which he still had a firm grip on, as though to prove his point.
“See?”

“You stop that and let the nice lady go!”
the woman exclaimed. She turned to Tess. “I’m real sorry, Miss. RayJay don’t
mean anything by it. He’s just got a thing for fluffy gals like you and me.”
She nodded at her own ample physique. “He gets to drinking down at the Sore
Elbow and then he comes in here and—”

“Let go of her.
Now.”

The voice behind Tess was familiar and yet
strange at the same time. It was deeper somehow—with more than a hint of an
animalistic growl—but the threat in those quiet, menacing tones couldn’t be
disguised. Her stomach seemed to drop down to her shoes and she turned her head
slowly to see Garron looming over her.

Now
you’ve done it!
whispered a panicked
little voice in the back of her brain.
He’s
seen you with another man’s hands on you! You’re in trouble now—so much trouble!

She tried desperately to drop
Fat Chick Wanted’s
hand but if anything
his grip had tightened as he looked up at Garron.

“I said
let…her…go.”
The big Kindred’s voice was definitely a growl now and
his eyes were glowing with rage. He seemed to have somehow grown twice as big
as he normally was—which made him freaking
enormous
.

“Y-you heard the man, RayJay.” The Piggly
Wiggly clerk’s voice shook. “Let his lady friend go and step away.”

No wonder she sounded scared—the enraged
Kindred was terrifying to behold. Tess felt her own mouth grow dry with fear as
well.
A punishment,
whispered the
little voice in her head.
Oh, you’re
going to get such a punishment for this…

“I…I…”
Fat
Chick Wanted’s
hand at last unclasped from Tess’s and he took a faltering
step back.

Apparently this gesture of defeat wasn’t
enough for Garron. He stepped forward and grabbed the drunk by the throat.
Lifting him with one hand as easily as if he was a doll, he shook the big man
until his remaining teeth clicked together in his head.

“You dare…” he snarled, glaring up at the
other man’s face which was now going purple. “You dare to touch
my
female? She’s
mine!”
He shook the man again, who made choked, strangling noises.
“Mine!
Understand? You don’t lay a
fucking hand on her.
Ever.
”

Tess backed away from the terrifying
sight, her heart pounding, her stomach clenched into a sick fist.
You’re mine,
whispered Pierce’s voice
inside her head.
Mine, you little slut!
Mine to punish, mine to fuck, and I’ll
never
let you go!

“Stop it! Stop!” screamed the Piggly
Wiggly clerk. “He don’t mean no harm—he’s just drunk! You’re gonna kill him!”

Her words seemed to fire something in
Tess. This scene was going to end badly if she didn’t do something to stop it.
Shoving the panic she felt down into a dark corner of her brain, she ran
forward and grabbed Garron’s arm.

“Stop it! Let him down, Garron. Now!”

At the touch of her fingers on his bicep,
the big Kindred seemed to come back to himself somewhat. Some of the rage
leaked from his eyes and his big hand—which had been clenched in a death grip
around the drunk’s throat—suddenly released.

With a gasping wheezing sound,
Fat Chick Wanted
went sprawling into the
shelf beside him. Cans of potted meat and Vienna
sausages came raining down on his balding head and bounced off his round beer
belly. He put a hand to his throat where Tess could see fingerprints already
forming.

Garron’s
fingerprints,
she thought sickly.
And even though the big Kindred had done the violence for her, she couldn’t
help the cold, shaky feeling she got seeing the marks of his hand appearing on
flesh. Couldn’t help remembering all the times she’d seen similar marks on her
own body…

“I’m so sorry,” she said to the clerk who
was kneeling by the gasping drunk, fanning him with her apron.

“Ya’ll better go.” The woman looked up at
her briefly. “I’m not gonna call the law—I can understand why your man got
upset. But this…this can’t happen again. I think you’d better go up the road a
piece to the Wal-Mart if you want groceries.”

“Um, of course. Of course we will.” Tess
nodded at Garron who was standing there, breathing hard as though he’d just run
a race. “Come on. We need to leave.”

* * * * *

Garron followed her without comment,
stalking stiffly out of the human food store though every bone in his body was
screaming that he had to stop—had to go back and finish the male who had been
menacing his female. But Tess had told him to leave.
We have to go. You can’t kill him. Can’t even challenge him to a
Y’grin. That isn’t how they do things on Earth,
he told himself. But the
tension wouldn’t dissipate.

Nor would the
dr’gin
. He had felt getting closer and closer to the surface all
day and now it wouldn’t be quiet. It snarled and snapped inside him, coming
forward, wanting to take the lead, to take over. Grimly, Garron pushed it down.

They got into the ancient truck and he
stabbed the key into the slot and gave it a vicious twist, causing the engine
to roar in protest. Then he slammed the truck into gear and took off, gripping
the steering device so tightly he could feel it creaking under his fingers.

My
female—he had his hands on her—tried to hurt her. She’s mine!
Mine!
The
dr’gin
roared
inside him seconding his rage. He could feel it building to a head, coming to a
breaking point.

Breathe,
he ordered himself.
Remember your vow. Remember Nella.
But the girl he had loved was
gone now—a faceless shadow in his memory. All he could see—all he could think
of—was Tess.