Devoured: Brides of the Kindred 11 (7 page)

Tess couldn’t help it—she started
laughing.

“Are you guys always like this?”

“They pretty much are,” Becca confided. “I
haven’t known them as long as they’ve known each other but they took me in like
a little lost lamb.”

“Well we
had
to, Becca,” Kat protested, around a mouthful of éclair. “After
all, it was my fault you ate that big slice of horny cake at my wedding that
got you into trouble with Truth and Far in the first place.”

“My men—I’m mated to Twin Kindred, or I
will be as soon as we plan our joining ceremony,” Becca explained to the
puzzled Tess. “As a matter of fact, Garron is Truth’s half brother.”

“He is?” Tess put a hand to her throat.
“Then…he has a twin somewhere?” The big warrior was so intense she didn’t know how
any girl would handle two guys like him at the same time.

“Oh, no!” Becca exclaimed. “No, Garron
isn’t a Twin Kindred—he’s half Kindred and half Rai’ku.”

“Half
what?
I’m sorry—I’ve only heard of Beast and Blood and Twin Kindred,” Tess said.
“I didn’t know there were other kinds.”

“Most people don’t. And the Rai’ku aren’t
really a branch of the Kindred because the Kindred High Council has refused to
do a formal trade with them,” Becca explained. “That’s because they…” She
frowned. “Well, let’s just say that maybe it’s a good thing you and Garron
aren’t
together.”

“Why? Would he hurt me?” Tess remembered
the rage in the big Kindred’s jewel-like eyes. He’d looked every bit as angry
as Pierce got—positively enraged when he’d learned he had been telling his secrets
to a real girl and not just a Pairing Puppet. And yet, though he had grabbed
her by the arm, he hadn’t squeezed or pinched or bruised her as her ex had so
often done. And he
hadn’t
hit her,
not even when he looked mad enough to punch a hole in the wall.

“Oh no, of course not! Garron is a good
guy,” Becca said at once. “But that being said, he may still be dangerous. Or
his Rai’ku half might be. We’re just not entirely sure he’s
O’ahn.
I mean, we
think
so but—”

“Not sure he’s
what?”
Tess asked. “Sorry, but this is kind of confusing.”

“I thought so too when I went to Pax,”
Becca said. “That’s the Rai’ku home world,” she explained. “And it’s
not
exactly a nice place to visit.”

“Oh? Why not?” Tess reached for a cupcake—a
luscious looking chocolate one. Everyone else was eating and talking and no one
seemed to mind that she and Becca were having their own little conversation.

“Well, it’s freezing for one thing.” Becca
took a cupcake too—a vanilla one with pink frosting, and began pealing back the
paper. “And the inhabitants are judgmental assholes for another. Oops.” She put
a hand to her lips. “Sorry for the potty mouth. Would you believe I was going
to be a nun before I got mixed up with my guys?”

“Really?” Tess took a bite of cupcake
which seemed to melt in her mouth.
“Mmm.
This is delicious!”

“Uh-huh—Lauren’s like some kind of a
baking wizard. But back to the Rai’ku. You know the first time I met my
mother-in-law—well, Truth’s step mother, anyway—she called me a whore?”

Tess nearly choked on cupcake crumbs.

“What? Right to your face? Why?”

“She could smell that Truth and Far and I
had…” Becca cleared her throat delicately. “Had
been
together. The Rai’ku have this incredibly sensitive sense of
smell—even better than a regular Kindred’s.”

“I can
smell how hot and wet you’re getting. Can’t wait to taste your honey right from
the source,”
Garron’s deep voice
growled in her head. Tess felt her cheeks getting hot at the memory.

“Wow, that’s…amazing,” she said weakly, taking
another bite of cupcake.

“They’re
extremely
repressed people,” Becca said, taking a bite of her own
cupcake. “And this is coming to you from a former almost-nun who was raised
very strict Catholic. Seriously, the Rai’ku make the sisters in my order look
like party girls.”

“How so?” Even though she knew she would
never see the big Kindred again, Tess found herself fascinated by the subject
of Garron’s home world.

“Well, they don’t touch each other for one
thing. I mean,
not at all.
They don’t
even hug their
children
.” Becca’s
lovely eyes widened. “Can you imagine that?”

“That’s awful,” Tess murmured.
No wonder he was so upset and kept claiming
we’d done ‘forbidden’ things. If they don’t even touch each other, hugging must
be a big no-no where he comes from.

“It’s just not a nice place at all.” Becca
sighed. “Luckily, I never have to go back since Truth and Far and I aren’t
welcome there any more. Not that I’d want to be. But enough about me…” She
nodded at Tess. “What about
you?
What
were you doing hiding out in the Pairing House?”

“And what’s it like in there?” Kat chimed
in, joining their conversation. “I’ve always kind of wondered.”

“It’s pretty boring, actually,” Tess said
honestly. “Although they
do
have some
good books since all the girls—the Pairing Puppets—pretend to read while
they’re waiting for, uh clients, I guess you’d call them. I got to reread
Pride and Prejudice
and
Wuthering
Heights
while I was there—there was nothing else to do.”

“So you just kind of…blended in?” Kat
still sounded skeptical.

“I hid whenever I heard any ‘clients’ come
in,” Tess explained. “It wasn’t hard.” She didn’t like to say too much about
her experience at the Pairing House or why she had been there because she
didn’t want to get her friend Di in trouble.

“But why were you there in the first
place?” Liv wanted to know. She and Sophie and Lauren were suddenly all looking
at Tess. “I mean, there have to be better places to hide.”

“Not where
he
couldn’t find me,” Tess said in a low voice. She thought of Pierce,
of the mean way his green eyes would narrow just before he hit her. Of the way
he always had to “punish” her for any infraction—real or imaginary.

“He?” Becca frowned. “He, who?”

“I…” Tess shook her head, realizing she’d
been letting herself get a
little
too
comfortable with her new friends. “I shouldn’t have said that. I just—”

“Excuse me, ladies.” The tall blond
Kindred Garron had brought her to see—the one Tess was pretty sure must be
married to the brown haired Sophie—was suddenly at her side.

“Oh, Commander Sylvan,” Becca said,
looking around. “I didn’t hear you come up. Do you want a cupcake? Lauren just
brought a fresh batch and they’re
amazing.”

“I’m afraid I’m not here for
refreshments.” The look on the blond Kindred’s face was grave and it was
directed at Tess. Suddenly, she felt like the cupcake she’d eaten was made of
lead.

“Is…is everything all right?” she asked.
“I mean, am I in trouble?”

“I’m afraid so,” he said quietly. “Forgive
me, but I’m going to have to ask you to come with me.”

Chapter
Nine

“She’s being extradited back to Earth. You
don’t have to worry about seeing her again.”

Commander Sylvan’s words rang in his head
over and over again as Garron paced up and down the short length of his room.
He never had to see her again. He ought to be happy—overjoyed—
ecstatic
.

So why did he feel like someone had dipped
his heart in lead instead?

Stop
being an idiot,
he commanded himself
angrily.
She was hiding in the Pairing
House under false pretenses. She pretended to be a Puppet and learned all your
darkest secrets and then no doubt repeated them to Becca and all her friends.
It’s a mortifying situation—you ought to be glad it was resolved so quickly.

But though he tried to be glad, he
couldn’t. He kept seeing the frightened look in the girl’s eyes when she backed
away from him—almost as though she feared he might strike her. As if he would
ever strike a female! The very idea was reprehensible to him—no matter how
angry he was.

I made
her fear me,
he thought, sinking
down on the side of the bed and burying his head in his hands.
I didn’t mean to do that.

Of
course she feared you—you shouted and raved at her when you found out what she
really was—that she wasn’t a Puppet,
a
little voice in his head pointed out.
But
is that what’s really bothering you, Garron? Maybe what’s upsetting you is the
way things were before you knew what she was…before you knew she was
real
.

Garron tried to push the little voice
away. Of course he should have known better than to think she was a Pairing
Puppet. Her reactions to him—the way she was so clearly nervous about his
desires—should have tipped him off. But he had allowed himself to be blinded by
her delicious scent. The scent that even now, still lingered in his small room.

Not only that, she had somehow succeeded
in calming the burning in his blood. As soon as he got close to her—the very
moment
he touched her soft skin—he had
felt the urgent demands of the beast lying dormant within him begin to fade. It
was almost as though she had been able to
tame
the
dr’gin
he was certain lived in
him. Even though he didn’t know her, the beast within had responded to her
gentle touch…

“Stop,” Garron muttered to himself. “Just
stop now. It’s late and she’s gone. She’s nothing to you.”

All of that was true but most importantly,
the girl wasn’t Nella. He shouldn’t even be thinking about her—not when he had
vowed to remain true to the memory of his lost love.

“Forget about her and get some sleep,” he
advised himself.

He let himself fall back on the bed and
turned over, burying his face in the blue coverlet to try and get some rest.

That was a mistake.

The girl’s sweet, feminine scent was still
strong, clinging to the coverlet like a secret perfume meant only for him.
Garron couldn’t help himself—he took a deep breath, inhaling her essence as
though it was a drug.

Gods!
His cock was instantly hard, throbbing against the tight
confines of his black flight leathers for release. His blood, which had been
cooled by her touch, began to heat again with desire. Though he tried not to, Garron
couldn’t help remembering how the girl had felt in his arms.

She’d been so supple and curvy—warm and
soft and rounded and she’d fit perfectly against him. When their bodies had
lined up, he’d been able to feel the soft crush of her ripe breasts against him
and the roundness of her hips and pelvis pressed to his. Gods, he’d loved her
lovely, full figure! The feel of her against him, the way she had relaxed into
his arms when he held her…and then later, when he had pressed his face to her
chest, the way she had stroked his hair…

I
should have known she was real right then,
he admitted to himself.
No Pairing Puppet would have done such a thing.
There had been real
tenderness in her gesture. A wish to comfort and caress that couldn’t be faked
by any machine, no matter how cunningly it was crafted.

Stop
it!
Garron rolled over on his back and threw
an arm over his eyes.
Just stop…you have
to forget about her now. She’s gone back to Earth. And she was some kind of
criminal if what Sylvan says was right. You’re better off rid of her. Remember
Nella—remember your vow to honor her memory!

He tried to shut out the memory of holding
the girl and breathing her scent and instead concentrate on the other things
Commander Sylvan had told him.

“Apparently she’s wanted by the local
police department—the authorities who keep peace down on Earth,” Sylvan had
said. “I received a call on the viewscreen from one of them—a Detective Pierce
Hughes. He said that Tess was wanted for some crimes she’d committed in Tampa, Florida.”

“Did he say
what
crimes?” Garron had been unable to help asking.

Sylvan had shaken his head. “No and I
didn’t ask. But no doubt that’s the reason she was hiding here in the Pairing
House—to escape prosecution back on Earth. She’s been deported now and she’s
banned from the Mother Ship so don’t worry, Garron—she’s never coming back.”

“Thank you,” Garron had said.
“I…appreciate your actions, Commander Sylvan.”

“I’m glad
someone
does.” Sylvan had sighed.

“What do you mean by that?”

“Sophia was most upset with me about the
matter. She said that Tess didn’t strike her as any kind of criminal and that
she’d said something about hiding from someone on the Mother Ship because it
was the only place she couldn’t be found.”

“Hiding? From who?” Garron’s heart had
begun beating faster for some reason.

“Who knows?” Sylvan shrugged. “I assume
from the Earth authorities. Anyway, she’s going back to Tampa within the hour. So rest assured you
will never have to see her again.”

“Thank you,” Garron had said again. Sylvan
had taken his leave and Garron had been left alone in his room to think…or to
try
not
to think ever since.

This
is ridiculous. I need to sleep. I can’t keep thinking about the girl.
About…Tess,
Garron told himself
firmly. He rolled over again, burying his face in a pillow she hadn’t used and
tried to get to sleep.

Instead he kept remembering how she’d
looked in those tiny little undergarments. Her skin had been so pale and creamy
against the black, shiny fabric. And when he’d kissed his way down her
trembling belly to the crotch of her panties…

Garron groaned and rolled on his back
again. Was he
never
going to get her
out of his mind? She was probably gone by now—on her way back to Earth. And
good riddance—she was a common criminal. Running from the law on her own planet
after having committed who knew what horrible crimes.

But though he tried to picture her doing
despicable acts that ought to be punished, all he could see was the full
figured Earth girl spread out on his bed. All he could remember was her sweet,
feminine scent and the way she’d gotten so hot and wet when he told her exactly
what he wanted to do to her.

She
was afraid too, though,
he remembered.
Afraid but aroused at the same time. Why?

Her scent had told him about both her
arousal and her fear and Garron’s nose never lied to him. Had she been nervous
about the forbidden sexual act he had wanted to perform on her? Even now the
idea of spreading her creamy thighs and licking her plump pussy made his shaft
rock hard. Or had she been fearful of something else? He flashed on the small
white scar he’d found on her thigh. It had looked deliberate. Who had put that
there? Why was she afraid? And why couldn’t he stop thinking of her and
remember his vow to Nella?

At last, though the questions continued to
circle his brain, he found himself growing tired. No, not just tired—weary…
exhausted.
It had been an extremely
trying day. He had to get some rest. He shucked off his leather trousers and
tried to get more comfortable.

“Lights off,” he muttered and the automatic
sensors plunged his room into darkness. With a sigh, Garron turned on his side
and closed his eyes. It was time to let the little Earth girl go now. Time to
forget all the puzzling things about her and just get some sleep…

* * * * *

The next time he opened his eyes, he was
in a different world.

“So, Princess, I finally found your little
hiding spot.” A tall human with brown hair and sharp green eyes greeted the
Earth girl, Tess, as she got out of the Kindred shuttle.

Wait—what?
Where am I?

Garron stared around himself in confusion.
He appeared to be in the middle of some kind of holding area where many Kindred
vehicles were parked. There was a hard black surface underfoot and some kind of
metal fence surrounded the entire lot.

Though it was past midnight on the Mother
Ship, it was clearly some hours earlier here. The sky was a soft blue deepening
to dusk near the horizon and several white, puffy clouds floated above. There
was a warm breeze blowing that ruffled the long, flowing fronds of the alien
which that stood at the end of the lot.

Wait—a
breeze? A parking area? Didn’t I just turn out the lights and go to bed? Where
is my room? What is this place and how did I get here? And where
is
here, anyway?

Garron looked around some more and realized
he couldn’t see his own body. All right, so he was invisible—that was strange.
As for
where
he was, judging from the
fact that the Earth girl, Tess, was stepping out of a shuttle and a human was
waiting to meet her, he must be on Earth. Probably in Tampa where Sylvan had said she was being
extradited to. And this man waiting for her must be the authority who was
taking her into custody. What had Sylvan called him? Detective…Directive…?
Something like that, Garron couldn’t remember.

“Pierce,” Tess said flatly.

Detective
Pierce Hughes—that was it!
Garron remembered.

“Hello, Princess.” His smile was more of a
sneer.

Garron frowned. If the man was an
authority sent to pick her up, why did he address her in such a familiar way?
Was that normal on Earth? But no, it seemed as if they knew each other.

“What are you doing here?” Tess asked him.
Though her voice didn’t tremble, Garron thought he could see fear in her eyes.
Was she afraid because she was going to be punished for her crimes? Or for some
other reason?

“Oh, I think you know the answer to that,
Princess.” The man walked forward and took her by the arm—or tried to. Tess
jerked away from him and looked back at the shuttle driver.

“Please! This man—”

But the shuttle was already lifting
off—apparently the driver was eager to get back to the Mother Ship.

“This
man
is here to collect you, Tess.” Pierce’s green eyes narrowed. “And don’t get any
cute ideas—I have a warrant for your arrest.”

“On what grounds?” she demanded. “I’m not
the one who breaks into other people’s apartments and…and…” She shook her head,
clearly unable to continue.

“Ah yes, I did make kind of a mess, didn’t
I?” He
tsked
. “Sorry about that. But
you had to know that getting some mangy mutt wasn’t going to keep you safe—keep
me from taking back what’s rightfully mine.”

“I’m
not
yours. I never was,” she shot back.

Pierce’s green eyes narrowed again and his
hand snaked out. Tess must have seen the move coming because she tried to duck
out of the way but he was large for a human and had a long reach. His palm
cracked against her face hard enough to snap her head to one side.

Garron had been standing passively up
until now, watching and trying to make sense of their conversation. But at the
sight of this male hitting Tess, his blood suddenly boiled and a red curtain of
rage dropped over his eyes.

“You
bastard!”
He surged forward…only to find he had
nothing to surge with. Though he could see and hear and smell the scents of
this new world, he didn’t seem to be able to affect it in any way. He was not
just invisible but incorporeal—in other words, helpless to protect the little
female.

“Leave me alone!” Tess took a step back,
her hand going to the red mark growing on her creamy cheek. “I’m not going with
you.”

“Oh yes you are, or did you forget I have
a warrant?” He took a step towards her.

“Stay away.” Now her voice trembled as she
backed away, trying to put distance between them. “I…I’ll tell everyone in the
entire HKR building what you are—what you do. I won’t go quietly!”

“Oh yes you will.” Pierce continued to
advance. “Because I’ve already given everyone a heads up that I’m here to
escort an escaped lunatic back to where she belongs. I told them not to worry
if you shouted or screamed or made crazy accusations—after all, delusional
people do that sometimes.”