Switched: Brides of the Kindred 17 (53 page)

“
What kinds of things?”
Kate asked, frowning. “Not—”

“
No, no,” Frankie said
hastily. “I mean, there
was
, uh, penetration but not with
his…you know.” She nodded at Kerov’s crotch.

“
Okay, but still…” Sophie
shook her head. “That’s not the Kindred way. They’re usually such
considerate lovers—they’ll do anything to give their females
pleasure.”

“
I didn’t say it didn’t
give me pleasure,” Frankie said. “It, uh, sort of gave me
too much
pleasure, if
you know what I mean. Plus it was really scary, being tied down
that way.”

“
I wonder what would make
him think that was okay?” Sophie frowned.

“
And why would he lose
control in such a way?” Kate added. “I don’t know much about the
Switch Kindred. Are they like the Wulven Kindred at all, do you
think?”

“
I don’t know much about
them either,” Sophie admitted. “Why?”

“
Because I know Rone has
an actual physical
need
to, uh, give me the ‘Kiss of Intimacy’ often.”
She cast a quick glance at her mate who was sitting apart with
Commander Sylvan. The two men were speaking in low voices into
comlinks, warning as many people as they could. They didn’t appear
to be listening to the girls’ conversation at all.

“
He does?” Frankie asked
with interest. “What happens if he doesn’t?”

“
The Beast inside him
comes out,” Kate said matter-of-factly. “Seriously, I know it
sounds strange but it’s a kind of werewolf situation the Wulven
kindred have going on. If they don’t, uh, taste their females often
enough, they literally lose control.”

“
Well, Kerov didn’t turn
into any kind of a were creature but he certainly
did
seem to lose
control,” Frankie said, frowning. “Afterwards he told me it was
because I looked different from every other female he’d ever been
with. Also, he’d never been allowed to, uh, go down on a girl
before.” She blushed as she said it and made sure she kept her
voice low. “The government of his world won’t allow it—they claim
it’s perverted.”

“
So he’d been repressing
his natural Kindred urges for literally
years?”
Kate raised an eyebrow at
her. “Wow—maybe that has something to do with it. Not that I’m
saying what he did was okay—it’s not,” she added hastily. “But a
Kindred—any Kindred—has the need to taste his female.”

“
She’s right—it’s built
into their DNA or something.” Sophie nodded and then frowned.
“He
still
shouldn’t have tied you up with his belt, though. That was
wrong.”

“
And
scary
.” Frankie sighed. “You know,
the thing is, I think I could have been okay with it if he’d
asked
first but he just
seemed to lose control and go wild.” She shook her head.
“Afterwards we both said a lot of things…things I don’t think
either one of us meant. And then we parted. I thought I’d never see
him again. And now look…” She gestured at Kerov’s still form, his
head still pillowed in her lap. “If he…if he only…” She shook her
head, unable to go on.

“
Aw, honey…” Sophie
squeezed her hand gently. “I can tell you’re still really confused
about what happened between the two of you but are you saying that
you wish you could give Kerov another chance?”

“
I don’t know,” said
Frankie sniffing. “I guess so. I’d at least like to
talk
about what happened
and why it happened instead of just leaving and never seeing each
other again. Never…never…” Her voice broke again and she had to
bite her lip to keep back a sob.

Over and over, the warning
Kerov’s parents had given them back on his home planet kept echoing
in her head.
If your host body dies, you
die with it.

Frankie looked down at him, stroking his
cheek, now rough with dark blond stubble since she’d never shaved
him the entire time she was in his body. His stern, handsome
features were still, making her wonder if he would ever open those
intense, pale gray eyes of his and look at her again.

Oh Kerov, why did you have
to go?
she thought desperately, wishing
she had a link to him the way the other girls had links to their
men.
What’s going on with you? Please,
please be careful! I’m sorry we fought. I wish I could take it
back—I wish we could talk about it, that I could tell you how much
I care…how much I…love you.

Wait—
did
she love him?

Frankie thought of all they’d been through
together. The crazy things she’d seen and done in his body and the
things Kerov had done in hers as well. She hadn’t liked him at
first—had felt like he was too dictatorial and overbearing.
But…he’d changed during the time of their Switch. And she began to
see him for who he really was—brave, loyal, self-sacrificing,
protective, handsome…the list went on and on.

When she finally admitted it to herself, it
seemed obvious—somewhere along the way she had fallen for the big
Kindred. Oh, she’d tried really hard not to. She’d told herself
over and over that she wasn’t his type. That they lived too far
apart. That her family would hate him and that he could never care
for a girl like her when he had girls like the perfect, skinny
Xirnah back home. But somehow, despite all her excuses, she had
still fallen hopelessly, helplessly in love with him.

I wish I
wasn’t
in love with him,
though—this is awful! What if something happens to him? What if he
never comes back?
she thought
desperately.
What if I never get to talk
to him again? What if this is the end?

As if some dark entity had heard her fear
and decided to make it a reality, Kerov suddenly made a choking
sound and stopped breathing.

“
Kerov?” Frankie patted
his cheeks anxiously. When his breathing didn’t resume, she slapped
him harder…with no result. “Kerov!” she cried. “Come
on—
breathe
!”

“
What’s wrong?” Sophie
asked urgently.

“
He stopped breathing!”
Frankie exclaimed.

“
I don’t feel a pulse,
either,” Kate said grimly, holding up the big Kindred’s
wrist.

“
No pulse…no
breathing…crap!” Frankie looked at him frantically.

“
Sylvan?” Sophie looked at
her husband hopefully.

“
Unfortunately we don’t
have an external heart massage unit here,” he said grimly. “And my
arms are still half paralyzed or I would examine Kerov more
closely. But time is of the essence now—we’ll have to try and
revive him the old fashioned way.”

Frankie was already swinging into action.
She’d taken a CPR class recently because it was a requirement to
work at the Lotus Pond. Pushing Kerov’s head gently off her lap,
she knelt over him and tilted his chin. “I’m going to start with
rescue breathing,” she told Sophie. “You and Kate and Rone can take
turns with the chest compressions!”

“
I’ll call for a medic
team at once.” Sylvan said. “All you have to do is keep giving him
oxygen and keep his blood pumping until they get here.” He began
speaking rapidly into the comlink.

“
Got it.” Sophie was
already kneeling over the big Kindred’s prone form and finding the
xiphoid—the little nub of bone that stuck off the end of the
sternum—clearly she was up on her CPR as well.

“
All right.” Frankie
filled her lungs, pinched Kerov’s nose closed, sealed her mouth
over his and breathed.

Kerov’s broad chest rose and fell exactly
once…then stopped the moment she ceased breathing into him.

“
No,” Frankie whispered.
“No, no,
no!”

Quickly, she fit her mouth to his again and
breathed once more, filling his lungs again and again and then
sitting back to watch anxiously as Sophie, her fingers laced
together, pressed in a hard, steady rhythm for the chest
compressions.

Kerov,
Frankie thought frantically as she breathed into him.
Kerov, please…please don’t be gone. Don’t be
dead!
And suddenly she found she was
praying.
Please,
she thought frantically, sending her prayer out, hoping that
someone,
anyone
might hear.
Please don’t take Kerov
away from me. I believe there is a reason we were brought
together…a reason we were Switched. Please don’t take him from me
just as I’m finally figuring that out.

All at once, a warm, peaceful presence
seemed to envelope her like a comforting blanket.

“
My child,”
murmured a strong yet feminine voice in her
ear.
“Your prayers have been heard and
they shall be answered.”

Oh, thank you!
Frankie thought frantically.
Thank you. Thank you. Thank—

Suddenly she found she was staring up at her
own face as someone breathed into her mouth.

“
What the…” she coughed
and choked, pushing the person who looked just like her aside.
“What are you doing?”

“
I don’t know.” The girl
looked confused. “One meem I was inside of Two and the next I woke
up here with my mouth over yours…or mine, I guess.”

At last Frankie realized what had
happened.

“
Kerov,” she whispered
hopefully. “Is that…is that really you?”

“
Of course it’s me…or
rather,
you.”
He
looked down at himself. “I seem to be in your body again and you’re
inside mine.”

“
I know—we
Switched
. And you’re
back! Isn’t it wonderful?” Frankie sat up and grabbed him, pulling
him into a tight hug in her excitement. “The Goddess heard my
prayer!” she told him, squeezing him tight. “She heard me and
brought you back to me—I’m so glad!”

“
I…heard her too. But…
can’t…can’t breathe. You’re crushing me!” Kerov protested,
gasping.

“
Oh, sorry—I forgot how
strong your body is.” Frankie let him go reluctantly but instead of
struggling out of her arms, he pressed closer and took her face in
his hands.

“
I thought I’d never see
you again,” he said gravely, looking into her eyes.

Frankie thought she had never seen her own
face look so serious.

“
I thought so too,” she
confessed. “Oh, Kerov…”

“
A-hem.” Behind them,
Commander Sylvan cleared his throat. “Kerov, I don’t mean to
interrupt a tender…if somewhat confusing moment. But we really need
to know what happened to Two. Did he succeed in poisoning the water
supply?”

“
I don’t think so,” Kerov
said. “He was about to—he had already dumped the contents of the
test tubes—nanobots, I think he said—into the main tank. But he
said he needed to add a drop of his own blood to activate them. I
stopped him from doing that.”

“
How?” Sophie asked
urgently.

“
And where is he now?”
Rone asked darkly.

“
Dead, I think,” Kerov
said. He cleared his throat. “There was another inside his body—one
called Y.”

“
We saw him—that must be
Two’s henchman,” Kate exclaimed.

“
Not anymore—he is his
prisoner. Or
was
his prisoner,” Kerov said grimly. “Two stole his body and
altered it to look like Commander Sylvan’s.”

“
We wondered how Two
continued to live even after we found evidence of his death!”
Sylvan exclaimed. “I swear the bastard has nine lives like a cat
from Earth. What did this Y say?”

“
That he was dying—that
Two had altered the body too much for him to continue to live in
it, even if he had been able to get rid of him,” Kerov said. “He…he
offered to help me kill Two.”

“
What?” Frankie exclaimed.
“But…but that would kill you also!”

“
I’m aware of that.” He
looked down at his hands. “But there was no choice. Two was
incredibly strong and though I tried, I couldn’t get complete
control of his body. He was near to infecting the entire water
supply. I knew if I didn’t kill him there would be no stopping
him.” He looked up at Frankie. “Please understand—it was the only
way.”

Frankie felt like crying.
“So…you were going to sacrifice yourself?” she demanded. “Kerov,
how
could
you?”

“
I did what I had to do.”
He looked away from her. “But just before I jumped I heard a
voice—a woman’s voice—telling me that my sacrifice would be
rewarded. It must have been the Goddess.” He looked at Frankie.
“Maybe this is what she meant—sending me back to you.”

“
Maybe…” Frankie was half
laughing, half crying.

“
I just hope it worked,”
Kerov continued. “I don’t know though—if his body is dead, it seems
that my soul should be dead with it. But at the last moment I felt
as though someone pushed me—pushed me out of Two’s body. Maybe it
was Y. Anyway, then I wound up back here.”

“
Hang on a moment.” Sylvan
listened intently to the comlink in his hand. “Good—that’s good
news. Take the body to the med center and put it under quarantine.
Yes—I know it looks like me but it’s
not
me, Commander Havers. I’ll
explain later. Sylvan out.”