Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred) (13 page)

“No,” he said seriously. “We cannot.”

Of all the irritating, obtuse men… Mei-Li
wanted to stamp her foot in irritation but somehow she stopped herself.

“Fine, we’ll follow the rules, whatever
they are and I’ll come down to the planet—to Z4 with you. Just don’t try to
pretend this is anything but business for you and don’t spout any more crap
about
protecting
me and how every hair on my head is
precious
because clearly that’s bullshit.”

She was surprised at how angry and hurt
she felt but she couldn’t help herself. After the tender way he had healed her
knee and the things he’d said on the ride over here, she had almost begun to
feel…to feel what? Special? Cherished? Mei-Li didn’t know and it didn’t matter
now anyway because obviously everything he had said and done was just an act.

She started to take the step down from the
shuttle, so angry she didn’t even care about her previous fears. But Six was
there, blocking her way. Though she was still standing in the shuttle and he
was on the ground, he was tall enough that they were eye-to-eye. She didn’t
want to look at him but he pinned her with his steel-gray gaze.

“Mei-Li…” His deep voice was almost a
growl. “It is true that I was ordered to claim you but it is also true that I
feel
extremely
protective of you. When I saw you during my rest and
recharging period—in my dreams—all I could think about was how tiny, how frail
you looked. It concerned me deeply.”

“Oh, this just gets better and better,”
Mei-Li snapped. “So you were ordered to take me but you also felt sorry for me,
right? Like I was some helpless little kitten that couldn’t take care of
itself. Well let me tell you…” She poked him right in his broad chest. “I am
fine.
I don’t need your help
or
your protection. Now let’s get this over
with so I can go back home when the month is up.”

Ignoring his outstretched hand, she pushed
past him and took the long step down herself to the pitch black floor. The fact
that her bare and rather dirty foot didn’t immediately sink into the shiny black
surface was little comfort.

Suddenly a new person appeared before
her—or rather, a creature. Mei-Li was so angry she nearly ran into it. She was
going to brush past it but it was so odd looking she did a double take and
stopped in her tracks.

The creature looked like a cross between a
hairy gray monkey and a dog. It moved with a chimpanzee’s scampering gait but
it had the long face, sensitive nose, and soft, floppy ears of a bloodhound.
She would have thought it was an animal—some kind of Dark Kindred pet
maybe—except for the fact that she couldn’t imagine an emotionless society
having pets. Also, its large, liquid brown eyes brimmed with intelligence when
it spoke to her.

“Yareg Yipper—selma
Tolleg, dar a si, dar a si,”
it said, nodding
eagerly at her.

“I’m sorry, what?” Mei-Li said. “I’m
afraid I don’t understand you.”

“Para turgl. Jarop tix, dar a si, dar a
si.”
It stuck out its tongue which was long
and had a strangely pointed end.

“Um, ooookay,” Mei-Li said edging away
from it. She didn’t want to act like a scared little girl and hide behind Six’s
bulk—especially not after her ‘I can take care of myself’ speech, but what the
hell
was
this thing anyway?

Before she could ask Six what it was, the
intelligent monkey-dog bounded forward and stuck something that felt like a
thousand tiny little pins into her left calf. Mei-Li screamed and tried to kick
it off but it hung on. Then, to her horror, she realized the sharp thing it was
sticking her with was its
tongue.

“Oh my God! Get it off! Get it off me!” she
gasped, reaching down to pry the furry creature away. She couldn’t get hold of
it though—it kept dodging her grip while somehow keeping its tongue firmly
lodged in the side of her calf.

Mei-Li felt like hear heart was going to
pound right through her ribcage. Every single alien or vampire or alien vampire
movie she had ever seen shot through her mind at once.

It’s drinking my blood…it’s infecting
me…it’s impregnating me with some weird alien creature that’s going to come
bursting out of my sternum at any moment…

“Six, help!” she pleaded, turning to him.
She didn’t want to admit she needed his assistance but at this point, she had
no choice. And even if he was upset with her for the way she’d talked to him,
surely he hadn’t brought her all this way to let her be mangled and infected by
some weird animal—had he?

But the big Kindred didn’t even look
annoyed—let alone worried for her safety.

“Be calm,” he said. “This is Yipper, one
of the Tollegs I told you about.”

“Be calm? He’s
biting
me!”

“No, he’s injecting you with translation
bacteria. A process which probably wouldn’t take nearly so long if you would
simply hold still.”

“What?” she demanded, looking down at the
furry monkey-dog clinging to her leg.

At that moment, it finally detached itself
and skipped a few feet back from her.

“My apologies if I startled you, my lady.
I am sorry, so I am, so I am,” it said in a high, piping voice.

Mei-Li stared at it. “I…I can understand
you.”

“Of course you can.” It nodded vigorously.
“Six asked that I meet you with a dose of the bacteria so that you could
understand us, yes he did, yes he did.”

Mei-Li turned on Six, furious all over
again. “So you
told
him to meet us here and bite me? Are you crazy?”

“He did
not
bite you—he injected
you. And I told you I would ask that an injection of the bacteria be brought
for you. I do not understand why following through on a promise I had made you
would call my sanity into question,” Six said, frowning. Clearly he had no idea
why she was so upset.

Yipper seemed to, though.

“Forgive us, my lady, if you would, if you
would. I thought that Six had explained to you our form of medicine. We Tollegs
are natural surgeons, so we are, so we are. And we do most of our surgery with
our tongues.”

“With your
tongues?”
Mei-Li
couldn’t believe it. Then she remembered the way Six had licked her to heal
her—hadn’t he said something about it being necessary because of the Tolleg
medicine he was using? Actually, it was a little hard to remember since she’d
been trying so hard not to squirm all over her chair at the time…
Not that
you should have gotten all hot and bothered in the first place,
she
reminded herself.
Since it was all just business to Six. Probably he just
didn’t want to bring damaged goods back to his home planet.

“We do surgery with our tongues. So we do,
so we do.” The Tolleg named Yipper nodded eagerly. “But I would not have
injected you if I had known you weren’t expecting me to, no I wouldn’t, no I
wouldn’t.” He looked up at Six. “You should have warned her, Six, so you
should, so you should.”

Six shook his head. “Forgive me,” he said
stiffly. “I thought I had.”

“
No
, you said you would get someone
to give me a shot of translation bacteria. I was picturing someone in a white lab
coat holding a syringe. Not a…a…” She gestured at Yipper. “A Tolleg with a
surgical tongue.”

Six shook his head. “Clearly I have much
to learn still about your culture, ideas, and beliefs. I am truly sorry you
were startled. I will try to avoid such confusion in the future.”

“I
hope
so.” Mei-Li looked down at
her leg—there wasn’t so much as a scratch or a red spot where Yipper had
bitten—no,
injected
her and the translation bacterial
did
seem to
be working so she supposed she ought to let it go. Honestly, it was no worse
than finding out that this entire claiming thing was just business to the big
Kindred.

It was, as Six had said, a cultural
difference. He would probably have been mystified if she had taken him to an ER
on Earth where they had doctors who used their hands instead of their tongues
to do procedures.

I’m okay,
she told herself.
A little shaken up but okay.
Everything is going to be fine. I’m going to get through this and someday back
on Earth when I’m an old lady I’ll have a crazy story to tell my grandkids.

“So you forgive us? So you do, so you do?”
Yipper was looking up at her anxiously.

“Yes, I suppose.” Mei-Li nodded and took a
deep breath. “I forgive
you
anyway, uh, Yipper, was it?”

“Yes, indeed, yes, indeed.” The little
Tolleg looked pleased. “And you are…?”

“Mei-Li.” Mei-Li held out her hand to
shake without thinking about it. Yipper seized it affably enough but instead of
shaking, he licked the back of her hand with his long tongue.

“Well met indeed, well met indeed,” he
said, releasing her.

“Um, yeah. Well met.” Mei-Li tried to wipe
her wet hand on her dirty skirt without being too obvious about it. “So, is
this the only reason we came here? So I could get injected and be able to
communicate down on your home world?”

“Naturally not, naturally not.” Yipper
shook his head, making his long ears flop. “You are here for the same reason
anyone stops at the medical barges before they go down to Z4.”

“And what reason is that?” Mei-Li
demanded, looking at Six. She had a feeling she wasn’t going to like the
answer.

“To get an enhancement, of course,” he
answered. “No one is allowed on the surface of Z4 without an enhancement. The
Collective demands it.”

Mei-Li shook her head. “Uh-uh, no way.
Look, I’m sorry if you don’t like my chest—I’m not wild about it either. But I
am
not
getting a boob job just to make you happy.”

Six frowned. “I believe we have had this
misunderstanding before in the last dream we shared. Why do you think I would
wish you to change your breasts in some way?”

“Well, because they’re…not very big.” She
could feel her cheeks getting warm. “But I have this thing about elective
surgery because my—”

She broke off because Six was studying her
chest with an intense interest that made her feel hot all over.

“Your breasts may not be large but they
are perfectly formed,” he murmured. “And quite beautiful, from what I can see.”

“How would you—” Glancing down, Mei-Li saw
that her ripped blouse had come open again, showing her lacy white bra. It was
nearly see through and the outlines of her nipples were clear behind the white
lace.

Oh God!
She clutched it closed quickly but Six’s steel gray gaze
remained pinned to her chest.

“Hey—my eyes are up here,” Mei-Li snapped.

He looked up at last, clearly puzzled. “I
am aware of the placement of your eyes but at the moment I am studying your
breasts. Or I was before you covered them.”

“Why…you…” Mei-Li was at a loss for words.
“This is unbelievable! You can’t just
stare
at my
breasts.”

“Why not?” The big Kindred was still
frowning in apparent confusion. “You were the one who mentioned them and said
you felt they were too small. I thought you were soliciting my opinion of them.
Which, by the way, is favorable—
very
favorable. They are perfect for
your size.”

“Yes, I got that.” Mei-Li blew out a
breath in frustration. “But look, this is another one of those things we just
don’t do on my planet. We don’t comment on each other’s body parts—especially
not in public.”

“Not even if the other person brings them up
first, as you did?” Six asked. “I am simply trying to learn what offends you so
that I don’t do it again,” he added quickly when Mei-Li glared at him. “I am
assuming from the levels my scanner is reading that you are angry right now.”

“You’re damn right, I’m angry!” God, he
was the most
frustrating
man! Mei-Li took a deep breath, trying to calm
herself. “Look, we’re getting way, way,
way
off topic here. Let’s try to
get back on track. You were telling me I have to get enhancements before I can
go down to the surface of Zeaga Four. But apparently, not breast enhancements
so what do you want?”

“I believe the question is what do
you
want?” Yipper said, breaking in. “Would you like a—but no, perhaps I am getting
ahead of myself. So I am, so I am. Maybe it would be better to show you what
you can choose from.”

“Show me what I can choose from?” Mei-Li
wanted an explanation but the hairy little Tolleg was already scampering away
from her, over to a solid black pole set in the middle of the floor.

“Come and stand, come and stand,” he said,
gesturing to her. “This lift goes directly to the medical complex. So it does,
so it does.”

Mei-Li didn’t like the sound of that but
there didn’t seem to be much choice. Reluctantly, she followed Yipper and went
to stand close to the pole, which was about as thick as one of her thighs. Six
came to stand beside her as well. He held the pole with his metal hand and
wrapped the other firmly around Mei-Li’s upper arm.