Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred) (9 page)

“What are you doing?” Mei-Li cried. “You
can’t…I don’t…”

Methodically, Six walked around the
wailing man and planted one huge, booted foot on his right leg, right between
the knee and the hip. As Mei-Li watched, he stomped down, breaking Dungston’s
femur as casually as a man might snap a particularly stubborn piece of
firewood.

Randy had been trying to get up but this
stopped him cold. He lay on the porch and screamed and howled, begging Six to
stop. Six, however, was already planting his boot on Dungston’s other leg,
between the knee and the ankle.

Mei-Li watched in horror as Randy Dungston
flopped on her porch like a wounded starfish. All his limbs were bent the wrong
way, as though they had somehow turned to rubber. It made her sick to her
stomach and Six still wasn’t done.

“Stop,
stop!”
she begged, catching
one muscular arm and dragging on it. Though Dungston was a bastard, she
couldn’t stand to see him or anyone else tortured. “You can’t do this—you have
to stop!”

“Why?” Six’s face when he turned to her
wasn’t cruel or malicious—he didn’t look like he was enjoying this. He simply
looked determined, like a man who had to do a mildly distasteful job but was
set on seeing it through to the end.

“Why? Because we don’t do this here—we
don’t torture people!” Mei-Li exclaimed. “And…and I thought you said you wanted
me to come quietly—well this is
not
quiet!”

“True.” Six looked thoughtfully at the
squalling, flopping Randy. Mei-Li was certain that at any time one of her
neighbors was going to call the police. In fact, she couldn't understand why
nosey old Mrs. Hurley who lived next door hadn’t already. Having the police
come might be a good thing—maybe they could stop Six from taking her. On the
other hand, she thought, looking up at him, they would probably just get hurt
or killed trying.

As the thoughts swirled in her brain, Six
leaned down to the screaming man and squirted something from a small tube
between his wide-stretched lips. Randy’s eyes grew wide as a wad of gray-blue
foam suddenly filled his mouth. It looked like he was trying to spit it out but
it remained lodged firmly in place, effectively blocking his screams. The
sudden silence seemed eerie, especially since the source of the former noise
was still flopping around on her porch.

“That is better,” Six said, turning to
her.

“Oh, God…” Mei-Li felt faint. She stumbled
and would have fallen if Six hadn’t grabbed her arm.

“Don’t touch me!” She yanked away from
him. “What is
wrong
with you? Why did you do that?” She nodded down at
Randy, still writhing mutely on her porch.

Six shrugged his broad shoulders. “You
said I couldn’t purge or terminate him so I put him out of commission. In this
way you will know that the young ones you are leaving behind are safe.”

“You think Dungston is the only asshole I
have to deal with?” she demanded. “You think I’ll go with you because you broke
his arms and legs?”

“I think you’ll go with me because I have a
legally binding Claiming Contract which says I am entitled to take you,” Six
said, frowning.

“Oh my God…oh, God…” Mei-Li shook her
head, not sure whether to laugh or cry. The worst thing was, he had a point.
Though her father and the World Security Council had been talking about
abolishing their deal with the Kindred, it hadn’t happened yet so the draft
that allowed unmarried women to be called as brides by the big aliens was still
in effect. Six could take her and there was nothing anyone could do about it.

But surely she couldn’t be legally
obligated to go with someone who had just stomped a man nearly to death on her
front porch? Shouldn’t there be some kind of loophole for that kind of thing?

“I don’t….I can’t even think right now,”
she said, putting a hand to her forehead.

“You don’t have to think—you just have to
come with me.” Six motioned to her and Mei-Li stared at him in disbelief.

“You think I’ll come with you after
that?”
She nodded at Randy. “After seeing what you did to him, how could I ever feel
safe around you? How could I ever—”

His eyes blazed. “You think that I would
hurt
you?”

“Well…yes. After what you just did—”

“I did this for
you
, to set your
mind at ease.” His deep voice was fierce. “But I would
never
hurt you—I
am going to protect you. With my life, if necessary.”

“I…but I…” Her mind was a whirling blank.
Suddenly Six was bending down to get on eye-level with her. He searched her
face, giving her a long, level look.

“I do not wish to frighten you,
Mei-Li—that was never my intention. But you must come with me now. Will you
walk or must I carry you?”

“You…I…” Slowly but surely it was becoming
clear that she had no choice about going with him. This time a few harsh words
weren’t going to send the big Kindred away—he was going to take her whether she
wanted him to or not.

“Well?” he demanded.

“I…I’ll walk,” she whispered.

“Good. My shuttle is parked just ahead of
your vehicle.”

“What?” She pushed her glasses up her nose
and squinted out at the street. The only car she could see parked there was her
own. “But I don’t…don’t see anything.”

“Naturally not. I have light refracting
technology that renders my shuttle invisible when necessary.”

“You have
what?”

But he was already headed for the porch
door. He stepped over the supine body of Randy Dungston, who seemed to have
fainted again, as casually as though he was stepping over a pile of trash.
Looking back, he nodded for her to follow.

Against her will, Mei-Li found that she
was doing exactly that.

Oh my God, am I really doing this? Am I
really going with him after seeing what he just did?

But what choice did she have?

Well, you could run,
whispered a little voice in her head.
You’ve still got
your purse with your phone in it. The minute you get clear of the porch you can
just take off. Hide somewhere and call for help.

It seemed like a good idea. Six was ahead
of her, already striding down the front sidewalk to where his invisible car was
supposedly parked. All she had to do was break right and run around the hedge
that separated her front lawn from Mrs. Hurley’s property. Then she could hide
in the bushes or bang on a neighbor’s door and call 911 and say she was being
abducted.

Mei-Li took a deep breath, determined to
try it. No matter how good his reasons were, she couldn’t go with Six after seeing
him calmly and methodically break someone’s arms and legs. He hadn’t even shown
a speck of remorse—it was as though crippling people was no big deal to him.

Her heart was pounding as she hobbled down
the last step. Her knee was still throbbing but that was okay—she could deal
with it later. Six’s broad back was to her and there was never going to be a
better opportunity. She turned and dashed to the right—

And her leg gave way completely.

With a cry of pain, she went down on the ground,
feeling like someone had jabbed a rusty wire into her knee. Her purse went
flying, spilling its contents everywhere, including her cell phone, which she
could see glowing on the sidewalk.

“Mei-Li?” Six was at her side in a flash.
He knelt to examine her knee and when he looked up, his face was grave. “This
requires immediate attention and you should not have attempted to run on it.”

“I…” Mei-Li bit her lip, uncertain of what
to say. Did he know she’d been trying to get away from him? “It really hurts,”
she whispered at last. “Maybe…I think you should take me to a hospital.”

Six shook his head. “I can mend this
injury on my shuttle once we are out of your planet’s atmosphere. I have the
latest in Tolleg medical tech in my stores.”

“But—” Before she could protest further,
he swung her up into his arms and was striding towards the street.

“Hey, what’s all this? What’s going on?”

Suddenly, Mrs. Hurley, her next door
neighbor, came around the side of the hedge that separated their property. She
was wearing a flowing muumuu with big purple flowers on it and her hair was up
in pink plastic curlers.

“Mrs. Hurley!” Mei-Li made frantic shooing
gestures at the old lady. “Go on, get out of here!”

“What? How dare you speak to me like that,
young lady? And what was all that screaming and carrying-on I heard coming from
your place a minute ago? I’ve called the police, I’ll have you know.” The old
woman put her hands on her hips. “This is a nice, quiet neighborhood and we’re
not putting up with whatever kind of sex and drug parties you’re having over
here.”

“Mrs. Hurley, I’m not having drugs or
doing sex,” Mei-Li gabbled. “I mean,
doing
drugs or
having
sex,”
she amended.

“Oh, yeah?” Mrs. Hurley frowned up at Six.
“Then what is
he
doing here and why is he carrying you like that?”

“He’s taking me away.” Mei-Li made her
eyes wide, trying to get the message across. “He’s taking me with him and I
haven’t even been able to
call
anyone and tell them. Like my father or my
friend, Claudia…” She cut her eyes at her cell phone which was still glowing
peacefully on the sidewalk like a discarded part of a life she would never see
again.

“Oh…” Mrs. Hurley took a step back, her
hand going to her chest. “I see.” She eyed the stoic Six mistrustfully. “Is he
taking you without your consent? Is he kidnapping you, dear?”

“Please, just go,” Mei-Li begged her.
“Just leave. It’s not safe.” She hoped the old lady would go back to her own
house and then come back for her cell phone when she and Six were gone. To her
relief, Mrs. Hurley did just that. She scampered across the front lawn with
surprising speed for a woman in her seventies, and only turned to point her
finger at Six when she was safely on her own sidewalk.

“You won’t get away with this, young man,”
she shouted. “Mei-Li’s father is on the World Council! He’ll hunt you down. And
the police are coming too!”

As if to emphasize her words, the sound of
blaring sirens could suddenly be heard in the distance.

But any hope that she might be rescued at
the last minute was dashed when Six made a gesture and a door opened in midair.
Mei-Li had a confused image of what looked like the interior of some kind of
cockpit filled with complicated controls and then Six was putting her inside
and strapping her down.

“You won’t get away w—” Mrs. Hurley’s
voice was abruptly cut off when the door slammed shut.

Mei-Li looked wildly around as Six climbed
in the other side of the strange vehicle. She could see flashing lights pulling
up in front of her house and Mrs. Hurley running out to talk to the cops but it
was too late. The vehicle—ship?—they were in was suddenly rising straight up
into the air. In another moment, her house was no bigger than an ant and the
police lights looked like fireflies in the darkness.

Mei-Li closed her eyes, unable to watch
anymore. This was it—she was being taken from Earth by the huge Kindred who had
been haunting her dreams for months.

Who knew if she would ever get home?

Chapter
Nine

Six watched Mei-Li from the corner of his
eye as he guided the shuttle up and away from the Earth’s atmosphere. She had
turned her face away from him and her thin shoulders were shaking. Was she
feeling? More to the point, were her feelings negative? He very much feared
they were.

Well, so much for your plan to claim her
without threatening or frightening her,
a little voice whispered in his head sarcastically.
It
worked almost as well as your plan to take her without causing a scene.
Despite
High Chancellor Terex’s orders, he hadn’t wanted to make a big commotion when
he took Mei-Li away in his shuttle. But considering the screaming sirens and
flashing lights of the official vehicles that had been pulling up as they
lifted off, not to mention the older female shouting threats, Six was very much
afraid that Chancellor Terex was getting exactly what he had asked for.

Well, maybe he could talk to her, explain
a little more about what was going on.

“Mei-Li,” he murmured. When she did not respond,
he put out a hand and brushed her arm with his fingertips.

“Don’t touch me!” She jerked away from
him, huddling into a tiny ball in the passenger seat as though she could get
away from him if only she could make herself small enough.

She fears me—she thinks I’m going to hurt
her.

For some reason the thought made his heart
contract painfully in his chest. It wasn’t as if he had emotions for her or
felt sorry for her pain but still…he didn’t want her to be afraid of him.

“Mei-Li,” he said in a low voice. “I would
not have hurt the elderly female who came looking for you.”

“What?” she half turned towards him and he
saw that her eyes were red, as though she was trying not to let her eyes leak.
What was that called again? Crying—yes, that was it. She was trying not to cry.
“You mean Mrs. Hurley?” she asked.

“You told her it wasn’t safe—that she
should go,” Six said. “But I would not have hurt her—not unless she threatened
you. Also, you could have taken your personal communication device if you
wished to speak to those who are important to you.”

“So I could have taken my cell phone?” She
gave a jagged little laugh that made the tightness in his chest worse. “Thanks
but even though they have awesome coverage, I don’t think my cell provider can
handle long distance calls from outside the freaking planet.”

“Be that as it may, I would not have tried
to stop you from taking it,” Six said quietly.

“No, but you’re perfectly fine with
dragging me away from everyone I love and taking me to some planet in a distant
solar system where I’ll never see them again.”

“Actually, my world is located in a whole
other galaxy from yours,” he corrected her. “And the Claiming Period is only
for one lunar month.”

“Only one month?” She turned to him,
looking suddenly suspicious.

Six nodded. “One month.”

“But if I go with you, even for just a
month, everyone I love will be dead by the time I get back,” she protested. “I
might have chosen social work as my major but that wasn’t because I couldn’t do
the hard sciences—I made an A in physics. Even traveling at light speed it
would take so long to get to another star—let alone another galaxy—that
everyone I love will be long dead and gone by the time I get back. If I ever
do
get back,” she added darkly.

Six began to see why she was so worried.

“I understand your concern. But don’t be
afraid—we will not be traveling to my planet using linear flight. We will fold
space which allows us to emerge in my sector of the universe almost at the same
time that we leave yours. And the same will be true in reverse.”

“So…we can go there instantly and come
back instantly without losing any time?” Mei-Li asked uncertainly.

He nodded. “Exactly.”

“And the Claiming Period is only a month?”

“One lunar month,” he repeated, nodding.

“
Whose
month?” she asked, sounding
suddenly suspicious. “Because I know that, for instance on Venus, a day is
longer than a year because the planet rotates around on its axis a lot slower
than Earth does. So if the months on your planet—on Z4—are five of my Earth
years long or something like that—”

“Actually, I believe our solar month is
somewhat shorter than the one you have on this planet,” Six said. “Your
calendar usually has a cycle of twenty-eight to thirty-one solar days, does it
not?”

“Yes,” Mei-Li said cautiously. “And yours
is shorter?”

He nodded. “We have two natural satellites
or moons on Z4. Depending on their phases, we divide our year into thirteen or
fourteen lunar units or months, as you call them. Not twelve, as you do.”

He was glad now he had taken the time to
learn a bit about Earth, although he still wished he had been permitted to
spend some time on the Mother Ship learning human customs. If he had, Mei-Li
might not be looking at him so mistrustfully right now. Was she really so
unhappy that he had incapacitated the violent male that attacked her? Six
couldn’t understand why this should upset her so, but who could understand
anything to do with emotions?

“Okay,” Mei-Li said at last. “But what
happens when the month is up? Do I…have to stay with you forever? I mean, I’ve
heard all about how the, uh, Kindred persuade the girls they take to stay with
them on the, uh, Mother Ship…”

Her voice sounded strange and tight and
his ocular scanner indicated she had elevated breathing and heart rate. Six
glanced at her and saw that her cheeks were flushed and she was biting her lip.
What emotion could that facial expression signal? Was she worried? Scared?
Embarrassed?

“What is concerning you?” he asked.
“Forgive me but I have difficulty interpreting emotions as I have none myself.”

“What, none at all?” She shook her head.
“Commander Sylvan said something about you Dark Kindred not having feelings but
I thought he just meant you were stoic or repressed or—”

“We have no emotions,” Six assured her.
“Thanks to this.” He tapped the small silver and black button at the back of
his neck.

“What
is
that?” Mei-Li asked. “And
how does it keep you from having feelings?”

“An emotion damper enhancement. It allows
me to live without the inconvenience of emotions through a complex interaction
with my brain and neurochemicals. But you never answered my question. What are
you feeling and why?”

“Why should I tell you? Why do you even
want to know?” She looked away.

Six opened his mouth but he didn’t have an
answer for her. Why
should
he care about what emotions she experienced?
Actually, he shouldn’t. And yet…he still didn’t want her to have negative
feelings about him. It was foolish but undeniable—he wished for her good
opinion. And so far it seemed he was doing a poor job at earning it.

He looked back at the controls and
realized they were far enough from Earth now that they ought to be out of the
immediate range of the Mother Ship. He could send a signal at any moment to
alert the medical barge back by Z4 to fold space and open the rift. Yet, he
didn’t want to do that yet, for several reasons.

Mei-Li was still unsettled for one
thing—he could tell by the set of her shoulders as much as the elevated levels
on his scanner that she was having strong emotions—almost certainly negative ones.
If he’d had a sniffer with him, he could have been certain exactly what she was
feeling…but no, that would be a disaster.

Mei-Li’s intense emotions would have sent
a sniffer into immediate overload and caused it to try an immediate purge. Six
frowned to himself. He would have to be certain that the dispensation for her
emotional state was in a prominent place. It would be important for her safety
once they went to the surface of Z4. First, however, they had to go to the
medical barges to get her enhanced.

He wondered what sort of enhancement she
would choose—somehow he doubted it would be an emotion damper although that
would be the logical choice. In his recent encounters with Feelers, it seemed
that those with emotions preferred to keep them, no matter how many
difficulties they caused.

Mei-Li moved slightly and made a muffled
noise of pain, reminding Six of the second reason he didn’t want to fold space
to Z4 yet. She was injured and he wanted to tend her wound. Of course, he could
wait until they reached the medical barge and allow a Tolleg to heal her.
Tollegs were a race of natural surgeons the Dark Kindred employed to staff the
medical barges where they offered free medical care in exchange for DNA. But
somehow, Six didn’t want to do that. He wanted to tend to her himself—to treat
her injuries and ease her pain with his own hands.

He frowned to himself. He worried about
her injuries and he didn’t want her to have a negative opinion of him. In a
very short time, this little female had become very important to him. Why?

It’s simply the Kindred instinct again,
he told himself.
The urge to care for and protect the
female I am claiming—that’s all.

Another glance at Mei-Li’s stiff bearing
and the way she was turned as far from him as she could get made him wonder if
she was willing to be treated. Well, she would at least have to let him examine
the wound—he couldn’t allow her pain to continue—not when he could stop it. But
was there any way to put her at ease so that she would be amenable to his
treatment? A way to allay her fear and distrust?

Suddenly, Six had an idea.

* * * * *

Mei-Li stiffened when the big Kindred
first got up from the pilot’s chair but he didn’t make any moves towards her.
Instead, he went past her, into the back of the ship which was much bigger than
it had at first appeared. Mei-Li wondered what he was doing back there but she
was too proud and too angry to ask.

She stared out the windshield at the front
of the ship at the cold blackness of space, feeling sick with uncertainty. Part
of it was fear for the kids on her caseload. She knew Claudia would deal them
out to other caseworkers and take as many onto her own load as possible but
Mei-Li still worried about Kristen and her sister and all the others that
depended on her.

That was the fear she allowed herself to
admit anyway. In the back of her mind, she was wondering how far exactly Six
was taking her. Also, would he ever bring her back? He had never answered her
question about what happened when their month together was up and Mei-Li was
afraid to ask again. Would he let her go back to Earth? Back home? She doubted
it.

Though the Claiming Period was only a
month, the girls who got called up to the Kindred Mother Ship almost
never
came
back—why should it be any different for her? Also, what exactly was going to
happen to her during that one month? She and every other girl she knew had
heard the rumors of wild Kindred sex. Just thinking of that, imagining being
with Six that way, made her shiver. He was so
huge
and she hadn’t been
with anyone in so long she was practically a virgin again. He would probably
split her in half if they—

Her embarrassing thoughts were interrupted
when Six suddenly appeared before her, holding a bowl of blue liquid and some
supplies in his hands.

“Oh, you scared me!” Mei-Li put a hand to
her pounding heart.

He bowed his head. “Forgive me. I did not
mean to startle you.”

“I’m fine.” She pushed her glasses up her
nose and did a double take—there was something different about him. Suddenly
she saw it—he had taken off the bulky, black metal armor he always wore. It was
the first time she had seen him without it since he was always wearing it, even
in the dreams they had shared. “You changed!” she exclaimed. “You took off your
armor.”

“My exoskeleton,” he said, nodding. “I was
told by another Earth female that you might find it frightening. I would not
have worn it during your claiming except I thought I might have to go into a
combat situation and I wished to be prepared. Here on my ship we are safe and
so I removed it. Do you find it…pleasing?”

Mei-Li looked him up and down. He was
still huge, even without the armor and he still had the red scope thing over
one eye and the one metal hand but somehow he looked more human now. Well, he really
wasn’t human at all so maybe
approachable
was a better word. Which was
to say, he looked a little less like a killer robot from the future sent to
eradicate her and her unborn children.

As for “pleasing…”

Pleasing isn’t exactly the word I’d use
, whispered a little voice in her brain.
Try
mouthwatering.

Mei-Li had to admit it was true. Even with
the red eye and the metal hand, there was no denying that Six had a killer
body. The plain black shirt he was wearing emphasized his broad, muscular
shoulders and chest and clung close enough to his torso to show that he had abs
of steel. The muscular yumminess didn’t stop at the waist, either. He had on
tight, black leather trousers that proved he didn’t skip leg day—in fact, one
of his thighs was probably the same diameter as her waist. He really was
huge
.