Divided: Brides of the Kindred 10 (54 page)

Chapter Three

“So
this
is the perfect place you
have for me?” Tess looked up at the little pink house with its spotless white trim
skeptically. “What is it, anyway—some kind of boarding house for unmarried
girls?”

Di snorted. “In the middle of the Unmated
Males area?
Hardly.”

“Well then, what is it?” Tess insisted.

“Just come inside and I’ll tell you. Hurry
up!” Di hissed. “I think I see some Kindred on their way.”

The two women ducked into the little house
with Tess still protesting under her breath, and found themselves in a very
neat, old-timey looking parlor. There were floral print couches lining the
walls as well as some large, comfortable looking chairs. Vases of fresh flowers
were scattered throughout the room on little tables and there was even a
bookcase on one end which held an assortment of real old fashioned paper books.

“Wow…” Tess, who was a complete
bibliophile, wandered over to caress the spines of the displayed books. “Look
at this—they have all the classics.
Pride and Prejudice, Wuthering Heights,
Wide Sargasso Sea—”

Before she could go on, a girl came into
the room. She had long, blonde hair and wide blue eyes and she was wearing a
very pretty light blue dress which fit her slender figure to a T.

Tess tried desperately to think of an
excuse—any excuse—as to why they were trespassing on what appeared to be
private property.

“Oh, hi! Uh, we wandered in her by mistake
and then I saw you had real old fashioned books and we just…”

But the girl didn’t pay any attention to
her. Instead, she went and took a book from the shelf, seemingly at random, and
went to sit on one of the many couches. Then she opened the book—again,
completely at random—and stared down at the page. But Tess could tell she
wasn’t reading because her eyes didn’t move. She just sat there, staring
vacantly at the open book and not saying a thing.

Sidling up to Di, Tess nudged her friend
with an elbow.

“What the hell is
wrong
with her?”
she muttered.

“Nothing’s wrong with her,” Di said in a
normal tone of voice.

“Shhhh!”
Tess hissed. “She’s going to know we’re talking about
her!”

Di laughed. “You don’t have to whisper.
She wouldn’t notice if you broke a vase over her head.”

“What? What are you talking about?” Since
Di wasn’t whispering, Tess spoke normally too although it felt really wrong to
be saying things about the blonde girl right in front of her.

“I’m saying she’s not real. She’s a
Pairing Puppet for God’s sake.”

“A
what?
What the hell is a Pairing
Puppet?”

Just then the door knob rattled.

“Quick!” Di grabbed her and dragged her
into the back room the girl had come from, making sure to shut the swinging
door behind them.

“What—?”

“Shhh!” Di gestured to the crack between
the door and the wall. “Just watch—you’ll see.”

Making sure to stay hidden, they peeked
through the crack and watched.

The front door opened and large Kindred
warrior entered the parlor. From his golden eyes Tess could tell he was a Beast
Kindred. He walked in and came to stop in front of the girl on the couch.

The girl looked up, acknowledging him at
once.

“Good day, warrior.” Her voice was
slightly stilted—almost mechanical. “How may I serve you?”

The Kindred nodded respectfully at her.

“Forgive the intrusion but I need a
release.”

“There is no intrusion. You are most
welcome here.” The girl smiled at him but again, there was something
strange—almost
artificial
in her expression, Tess thought.

“Thank you,” the Kindred said.

“Would you like to come to my room or do
you require me to come with you to your own place of residence for a longer,
more thorough release?” the girl asked.

The Kindred cleared his throat. “Your room
will be fine.”

“Excellent.” The girl rose suddenly, all
in one motion. “If you will follow me, I will be most happy to accommodate you,
warrior.”

At first Tess was afraid she was going to
take the Kindred into the back room but to her relief, she led him across the
parlor to a staircase instead. They climbed the stairs and were soon out of
sight. As soon as they were, she turned to Di.

“Okay, what the hell was
that
all
about? Was he talking about what I think he was talking about? Is that girl
some kind of…some kind of
prostitute?”

“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Di said calmly.
“But I told you, she’s not a girl—she’s a Pairing Puppet.”

“Which means…?” Tess made a gesture for
her to go on.

“Which means a robot for all intents and
purposes. She’s not the only one either—they have a whole
bunch
of them.
They stay here in this house and service all the unmated warriors.”

“They what?” Tess made a face. “That’s
disgusting.”

“No, that’s
practical
,” Di
countered. “You’ve seen how big and muscular these guys are—you could cut the
testosterone with a freaking knife. If they didn’t have some kind of outlet…”
She shook her head. “It would probably get really ugly around here.”

“But…but they’re screwing these things?
These robots?”

“Pairing puppets.” Di shrugged. “And yeah,
they are. Unless you think that big guy just went up to her room to play a nice
game of Monopoly.”

“Very funny,” Tess muttered. “But I still
don’t understand why you brought me here.”

“To hide out, of course.”

“What?”
Tess nearly shouted.

“Shhh! That Kindred upstairs is horny, not
deaf!”

“Look, Di I can’t possibly stay
here.
I
mean, aside the fact that I don’t look anything like some guy’s robot fantasy
dream girl—”

“Don’t sell yourself short, hon—you have a
gorgeous face and a really cute figure. And your hair is to
die
for.”

“What you think is cute and what most guys
think is cute is two different things,” Tess pointed out.

“Well the Kindred guys might surprise
you—they have quite a few full figured Pairing Puppets here.”

“They do?” Tess asked, surprised.

“Uh-huh. They’re especially popular with the
Twin Kindred. Although a lot of the other guys like them too. In fact, they’re
some of the most requested ones.”

“That’s really—wait a minute, we’re
getting off track here.” Tess shook her head. “What I’m saying is that there’s
no way I’m going to…to stay here and ‘service’ Kindred guys all day and night.
Not even to get away from Pierce.”

“Service them? Oh, honey, no—of course
not!” Di looked suitably horrified. “Don’t be silly—I wouldn’t expect you to do
that. I said you could
hide
here—not
work
here.” She laughed. “If
you can call that work. Well, I guess you can…”

“Are you sure this is a good place,
though?” Tess looked around doubtfully. They seemed to be standing in some kind
of kitchen area. At least, there were countertops and counters and a sink and a
big silver machine mounted on the wall that looked kind of like a microwave.
There was also a large wooden table with chairs that looked like they had been
built for people slightly larger than human. It made Tess think of the story of
Goldilocks and the Three Bears. “
Who’s been sitting in my chair?” growled
Papa bear…

“This is the
perfect
place.” Di
pressed her arm. “Look, just think about it. There’s a well stocked kitchen
here—see?” She opened one of the cabinets revealing rows and rows of tiny white
cubes.

“Uh…they eat sugar cubes?” Tess looked at
them doubtfully.

“No, silly—these are Kindred meal ration
cubes.” Di frowned. “I
think
that’s what they’re called. Anyway, you
just take one and put it into this thingy here…” She opened the silver microwave
looking thing and placed a random cube inside. “Press the button and in a
minute or two…ta-da! A fresh, delicious meal.” She put the cube back in the
cupboard. “I’m not going to do it for real but you get the idea.”

“Seriously? They eat real food? But I
thought they were robots.”

“The Paring Puppets have real flesh over
their robotic bodies,” Di said. “But I
think
they mostly live on some
kind of protein paste. The food is for the warriors. I guess sometimes they,
uh, work up an appetite, if you know what I mean.” She winked.

“Very funny,” Tess said dryly. “So there’s
plenty of food but where do I sleep? And more importantly, how do I keep from
being noticed?”

“Just keep out of sight. It should be easy
enough—aside from the kitchen there are tons of bedrooms upstairs with big,
comfortable beds. And in a pinch, you could hide in the maintenance and
recharging room.” Di gestured to a small, dark hallway at the other end of the
kitchen. “Come see.” She led the way and Tess put her head through the doorway.

“What
is
this?” she muttered when a
long, shadowy room met her eyes. Then she saw a pair of eyes gleaming at her
from the darkness. “Ahh!” She jerked back, her heart pounding. “There’s
something in there!”

“Probably just a malfunctioning puppet waiting
for repairs.” Di looked in and nodded. “Yup—that’s it. Oh, and look—it’s one of
the plus sized ones, like I told you. Come look.”

Reluctantly, Tess allowed herself to be
led into the dark, narrow room. There were giant silver claws placed at intervals
along both walls. Most of them were empty but one was clamped down over the top
of a girl’s head.

No, not a girl—a Pairing Puppet,
Tess reminded herself.

The girl was simply standing there,
staring straight ahead, with the three pronged claw attached to the top of her
head. She was, as Di had said, quite full figured with large breasts and hips
and big thighs too, which could be seen through the simple white dress she
wore.

“Wow,” Tess murmured, staring at the
puppet. “You weren’t kidding.”

“Of course not—the Kindred like women with
some meat on their bones.” Di grinned. “So see—if push came to shove and you
were accidentally seen, you’d blend right in.”

“Thanks a lot,” Tess muttered. “I still
can’t believe you brought me to a robot brothel to lie low.”

“It’s a great hiding place,” Di protested.
“And don’t think I didn’t check it out thoroughly before I brought you up here.
I stayed here one night myself, just to make sure everything was okay.”

“And?” Tess raised an eyebrow.

“And it’s
perfect,
like I said. The
perfect camouflage. Plenty to eat, a nice place to sleep—they changed the
sheets after every, ah, encounter by the way, so you don’t have to worry about
it not being clean. All you have to do is go hide in the kitchen if a warrior
comes in looking for comfort. And if they come in the kitchen—which, by the
way, doesn’t happen very often that I could see—just duck into the recharging
room. It’s easy.”

“Wow…” Tess looked at her admiringly.
“You’ve really got this all planned out.”

“I knew eventually you’d need a place to
run to, to get away from Pierce,” Di said seriously. “Men like him are hard to
throw off the scent. But this should do the trick.”

“I agree.” Tess nodded slowly. “It’s a
little—well, a
lot
weird—but it might just work.”

“It has to.” Di looked suddenly serious.
“You can’t go back to him, Tess, and you can’t let him find you. He’ll kill you
this time. After what he did to poor Gus…”

“I’m not going back.” Tess lifted her
chin. “And like you said, this is the perfect camouflage—he’s never going to
find me.” She sighed. “I just wish I hadn’t had to lie to my job about where I
was going. I hope Mrs. Henshaw will be okay without me there to find her false
teeth. She gets so upset when she loses them.”

“You’re an angel, hon. I know the folks at
Happy Rest are going to miss you. But Pierce knows you work there,” Di pointed
out. “It would be the easiest thing in the world for him to wait out in the
parking lot one night when you’re working a late shift and then—”

“Stop!” Tess put up a hand. “Please, I
don’t want to think about it. I have enough nightmares as it is.”

“Sorry,” Di said sympathetically. “Are you
really still having bad dreams?”

“Not
all
bad.” Tess frowned. “And
not all about Pierce either. Lately, I…never mind.”

“Lately what?” Di probed.

“Nothing. It’s just this weird dream I
keep having but I can’t remember it when I wake up.”

“Then how do you know it’s the same
dream?”

Tess shrugged. “I just
know.”

“It’s probably just stress.”

“Probably,” Tess agreed. “Look, don’t you
think you should be going? The hour of free time you gave your tour group to
wander around the parklands is almost up.”