Stolen, Page 2

  It was so full and round and she had thick thighs and broad hips to match it. Her top was nice too—a little waist and full breasts but it was her ass his eyes kept going back to.

  She was shaped like a fertility goddess from Quorset Three.

  Everything else in the noisy, crowded bar seemed to fall away as he watched her move. The sharp smell of spilled Brantha gin, the shouts of the other bar patrons, demanding drinks, the low drumming of the hypnobeats playing over the sound system which was meant to keep fights to a minimum, the sweet-sour stench of tookla smoke, all faded into the background as he focused on her in the dim, crowded room.

  V knew lots of males had a “type” they always went for, and then there were some dogs who would just bed anything they could get their hands on. But he had always been picky. Maybe it was his half Beast-Kindred heritage, but he wasn’t interested in just anyone. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time a female had drawn his attention this way.

  He wondered if she was a working girl. She wasn’t really dressed like one. The tight-fitting bodysuit she wore didn’t show any skin and she wasn’t flashing her breasts the way most of the pros at the station were. They were all obvious—might as well have a flashing sign over their heads saying how much they cost by the hour. But this female was subtle—unlike the ones who were selling their wares.

  V hadn’t come into the bar looking for company, but he decided right then and there if she was for sale, he was buying. And not just for an hour—he would need at least a whole night to explore those lush curves. His hands itched to cup that juicy ass and squeeze while he filled her with his shaft.

  The little female must have felt his eyes on her because she turned for a moment and looked up. Their gazes met and locked and V saw she had a face to match the rest of her.

  Heart-shaped and pale with skin that looked as soft and delicate as Telethian silk, she was lovely. Her big eyes were a warm, true brown almost the exact same shade as her thick, chestnut hair, which was pulled back into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. Little tendrils of it had escaped, however, to frame her pretty, softly rounded face. They made her look even more vulnerable and uncertain.

  Her mouth was an innocent pink, unlike the dark purple and crimson red lip-stain favored by the pros, and she had a little button of a nose with a smattering of Goddess-kisses across the bridge of it. Fucking adorable.

  V let the lust show in his eyes, knowing their pale gold, mirrored irises would reflect the girl’s own image back to her. That was the other part of his heritage—his Kru’ell One side. He wasn’t able to read her mind and know her deepest desires like a full-blooded Kru’ell One could have, but if he got close enough and concentrated, he would at least be able to feel her emotions.

  But V didn’t have to use his special senses to know how the little female was feeling. After a moment of staring into his eyes like a wild creature caught in the headlamps of an onrushing vehicle, she turned even paler and dropped her gaze quickly.

  Damn! V swore to himself. Now he’d gone and frightened her. Clearly she was an innocent, but what the hell was an innocent doing in a place like the Hell’s Gate Space Port?

  He had the urge to go to her—to explain that he wouldn’t hurt her, he just wanted to spend some time with her. Not that he wanted to form any kind of permanent attachment, but maybe they could still work out some kind of arrangement. She looked like she was in trouble—like she needed help. There was a smudge of what looked like axle grease on one high cheekbone—maybe her vehicle had broken down.

  V thought about offering to help her—for a price. He wasn’t the kind of male to pretend to be kind and gentlemanly and fix her vehicle and then insinuate afterwards that she owed him. No, he would be plain about what he wanted—a night with her in exchange for his assistance.

  And he could be gentle—in fact, he enjoyed that. Taking his time with a female, giving her pleasure, making her feel like the only one in the universe as he looked into her eyes and made her come again and again… That was his Kindred side again. Of course, his Kru’ell One side would inevitably come into play as well. But not until she was ready to open up and let him sting her…

  Just the thought of it made his tongue sharpen and the blood rush to his shaft. Gods, to explore those lush curves, to feel her tugging his hair and hear her moaning his name as he brought her to the brink…

  He was about to get off his bar stool, which was hovering right by the long, sticky counter, and go to her, when a little male with a shiny bald head and bright orange skin inserted himself between V and his path to the luscious female.

  “Excuse me,” he said in a high, androgynous voice and pointed a strange-looking instrument at V’s broad chest.

  “Get out of my way,” V snarled, glaring down at the intruder.

  “Forgive me, friend, but I must ask you a question first,” the little male said. Or was he female? It was difficult to tell by his facial features. Despite his bald head, he might be either male or female—not that V cared.

  “What question? What do you want, anyway?” he demanded.

  “Am I right in thinking that you are extremely fertile?” the little male asked. He was looking from the screen of his hand-held device, up to V, and then back down at the screen again.

  “What?” V looked at him in disbelief. “What kind of a question is that?”

  “One I must answer before I can know if you are prime breeding stock or not,” the little male—or whatever it was—replied. He scanned V with his instrument again. “According to my readouts, you have the ability to engender intense physical pleasure in females. Is that right?”

  “What in the Seven Hells?” V growled, glaring down at the little male. Was he talking about V’s stinger? And if so, how would he know about that?

  The Kru’ell Ones weren’t even from this universe—and nobody would know just by looking at V what his physical differences were. It wasn’t until he opened his mouth and allowed his tongue to elongate into the needle-sharp barb which delivered his lust-honey that it was obvious he was different from any other Hybrid Kindred.

  “It’s clear you are reticent to speak of your special abilities,” the little bald male remarked. “But my readouts assure me that you can bring females vast amounts of pleasure, which will surely lead to greater fertility and the insemination of many wombs.”

  “What? Get the fuck outta my face.” V wasn’t listening to any more of this. A glance around the room showed him that while he’d been distracted with this weird little bastard, the female he’d been so focused on was disappearing into the back of the bar. If this bald, babbling idiot had cost V his chance with her, he would wring his neck!

  He started to push past the little male but as he did, he felt a sharp stinging sensation in his hip. Looking down, he saw a tiny needle poking out of the male’s sleeve. It retracted quickly, but not before V saw a drop of something that was deep, poisonous green glittering on its tip.

  “Hey, what—?” he started to ask but then he suddenly felt dizzy. As the noisy bar started to spin around him, he felt himself falling.

  V hit the floor like a sack of stones, bumping the back of his head and making him see everything in doubles. How else could he account for the fact that there were now two of the little bald males standing over him? They were soon joined by another two so that now four almost identical faces were staring down into V’s own.

  He frowned. Wait—was he seeing double or were there more of these weird little fuckers?

  “Stand back,” one of them said loudly to the other bar patrons who were looking in surprise at the way V was now flat on his back. “We are a medical unit. We will care for this fallen one.”

  This seemed to satisfy everyone and they went back to drinking. V wanted to shout that this wasn’t right, that he hadn’t fallen down by accident—that it was the little bald male’s fault. But when he tried to speak, nothing came out of his mouth. Trying to move led to the same result—nothing.

 
; “A prime specimen,” one of the little bald mutants said to another.

  “He is indeed.” The other one nodded. “My instruments indicate he has special abilities in sexual pleasure. This will lead to many inseminations.”

  “Our Glorious Leader will be so pleased,” another one of them said. “But I think he is still awake—see how he watches us. Another dose of sleeping juice perhaps?”

  “That is an excellent plan,” the second one concurred. “I should have doubled the dose in the first place. This male’s immense size must make him resistant to the effects.”

  He leaned down and the retractable needle shot out of the sleeve of his sliver jumpsuit again.

  V wanted to jerk away, wanted to shout and flail and most of all punch the little mutant bastard, but he couldn’t move.

  He couldn’t do anything but lie there as the needle stung him a second time and everything faded to black.

  Two

  Oh my God, is that him? Is that the guy Kat was warning me about?

  Penny stared in mute horror at the man with the mirrored golden eyes who was looking at her from across the crowded bar. He was huge—even bigger than a normal sized Kindred, and they were big enough already. He had long black hair which was wild around his shoulders—and what broad shoulders they were. Penny thought they had to be at least twice as wide as her own.

  But it wasn’t just his size—or his eyes—that tipped her off to the strange Kindred’s identity. It was the black and gold tattoos she could see on the strong column of his neck and his muscular arms. The arms were obvious because he was wearing a black vest that showed them clearly, as well as tight black leather flight trousers and high black boots. The neck tattoo was a little more difficult to see, through the long, silky black strands of his hair.

  He looked like a space pirate, Penny thought—a dangerous man who might do anything at all. And the intricate tattoos with golden ink that matched his strange, mirrored eyes marked him as V’rex—the Hybrid Kindred criminal who had been causing trouble in the Teklan sector.

  At least, that was what Kat had warned her…

  “Whatever you do, doll, stay away from the Hell’s Gate Spaceport,” she’d lectured as she got Penny ready for her mission. “I know it’s the biggest port in the sector and it might seem like the best place to refuel or get supplies, but they run a sex slave trade out of there that’s always on the lookout for pretty young girls. And lately it’s been getting worse.”

  Penny privately had her doubts about anyone wanting her for a sex slave. Oh, she was pretty enough and relatively young, but her wide behind and childbearing hips made most guys think twice about asking her out once they saw her from the waist down. She’d tried posting on dating sites after she had broken up with Garret, her last serious boyfriend, but it just never worked out. It was easier and more rewarding, she had decided, to be married to her work—why else would she accept such a distant assignment where she wouldn’t even see another human for ages?

  “I won’t be the only one there,” she reminded Kat. “Even if we were forced to go to the Hell’s Gate port, I’m sure Commander Rive would be with me.”

  Commander Rive and his wife, Y’lla were the two lead Kindred archeologists on the dig they were going to. They were both Blood Kindred and very kind, if somewhat wrapped up in each other.

  Penny was a little nervous about spending so much time working with a married couple—she was afraid she’d be a third wheel. But both Rive and Y’lla had assured her she was welcome and she didn’t want to pass up this assignment—after all, an archeological dig on an alien planet wasn’t something most people could put on their resume. It was the opportunity of a lifetime.

  Not that this opportunity came without drawbacks. It was going to be a hazardous dig—mostly owing to the climate. They were going to the frozen world of Yown Beta, which was just barely inside the habitable zone of its yellow dwarf star sun. There were other planets in the system that were more temperate, but apparently Yown Beta had been chosen because it was a frozen waste land by the ancient Kindred ancestors who had hidden the artifact she and the other two archeologists were going to seek.

  “Yes, I guess Commander Rive would be with you if you wound up at Hell’s Gate.” Kat had looked somewhat comforted at the thought. “It’s just that V’rex has been spotted in that area lately, which makes me nervous for you, doll. Because he showed up right at the time the number of abductions spiked. Coincidence?” She made a sour face. “I don’t think so.”

  “V’rex? Who’s he?” Penny frowned.

  “He’s a rogue Hybrid who’s been causing quite a lot of trouble in the Teklan sector,” a new voice said.

  Looking up, Penny saw that Commander Sylvan, head of the Kindred High Council, was poking his head in the door of Kat’s home office. Since it was her job to get anyone going on a mission away from the Mother Ship ready to go, the curvy redhead needed her own space, as she had explained to Penny.

  “Otherwise my two husbands and three sons would drive me crazy!” she’d said with a grin.

  Penny had returned her smile, but she couldn’t imagine having three kids of her own. Not that she had anything against having babies, it was just that they were generally incompatible with a serious career in archeology—at least, if you wanted to do a lot of field work, which was what Penny lived for.

  It was kind of hard to pick the kids up from school and help them with their homework if you were on a dig in Egypt—or in this case, on an alien planet light years from Earth.

  “I hope I’m not interrupting anything?” Commander Sylvan asked, looking from Penny to Kat. “I just wanted to be sure Penelope is almost ready to go. Commander Rive and Y’lla are headed for the long range shuttle and I offered to come fetch her.”

  “We just have one more fitting and we’ll be done,” Kat promised. “I was just warning Penny to steer clear of Hell’s Gate Station, no matter what.”

  “That’s excellent advice.” Sylvan’s pale blue eyes grew somber. “I’m sorry to say the slave trade there has grown exponentially in the last solar year, not to mention the smugglers and pirates that make that particular port their home base.”

  “Like that, uh, V’rex person Kat was telling me about?” Penny asked.

  Kat nodded. “He might be anywhere in the Teklan sector, so watch yourself.”

  “But how can I watch out for him if I don’t know what he looks like?” Penny protested.

  “Oh, you can’t miss him, doll,” Kat said dryly. “He’s got these black and gold tattoos all over his neck and arms and he’s even bigger than a regular Kindred—because he’s a Hybrid, you know. A mix of two separate Kindred races. He’s half Beast Kindred.”

  “But it’s his other half that makes him so dangerous,” Sylvan said seriously. “We believe that V’rex is half Kru’ell One.”

  “Kru’ell One?” Penny frowned. “I’ve never heard of that kind of Kindred before.”

  “That’s because they don’t come from our universe,” Sylvan told her. “They come from a parallel universe where the Kindred were not created by the Goddess we all worship—the Mother of All Life. Instead, the Kru’ell Ones were brought into being by the Cruel Father—a being as powerful as our own Goddess. But the Cruel Father is as malevolent and evil as the Mother of All Life is good and kind.”

  “And the beings he created take after him,” Kat added. “They’re the only Kindred we know of who don’t respect and revere women.”

  “The only Kindred who could or would take a female by force against her will,” Sylvan added gravely. “Which, as you must know by now, is anathema to our kind.”

  “But…if they come from a different universe, how do they even get over here? Into our universe?” Penny asked, frowning.

  “They don’t very often,” Sylvan said. “But we believe a small number of them crossed through a dimensional rift about thirty solar years ago. Anyway, it was around that time that several unmated Kindred females were stolen away from their
homes. One of them was a rare Beast Kindred female—whom we believe to be V’rex’s mother.”

  “So his father basically kidnapped his mother and raped her?” Penny’s eyes widened. “That’s terrible.”

  “No, that’s a Kru’ell One for you,” Kat said grimly. “I should say, though, that they aren’t all bad—we actually met one recently who wasn’t. But V’rex has proved he’s trouble.”

  “He’s been harassing Kindred ships for the past five years,” Sylvan said, nodding. “It would be remiss of us to let you go on this mission without warning you about any kind of danger you might encounter. And in the Teklan system, he’s a big one.”

  “Well, hopefully she’ll be able to steer clear of Hell’s Gate,” Kat remarked. “I mean, they’re going to have plenty of supplies and we’re sending extra fuel.” She sighed. “I just wish it was easier to get to them out there!”

  “Unfortunately, the entire Yown solar system is surrounded by temporal anomalies and subspace distortion fields,” Sylvan said. “Which makes it almost impossible to fold space there. We believe our First World ancestors actually chose the Yown system because of these difficulties—they wanted the Eye of Ten’gu to be as inaccessible as possible.”

  “What is the Eye anyway?” Penny asked. “I mean, I know it’s an ancient Kindred religious relic but other than that, you’ve told us hardly anything about it. What is its significance? What, if anything, does it do?”

  She knew she probably should have asked all this when she’d gotten a call from the Mother Ship offering her the job. But the minute the words “interstellar archeological dig” had come out of Commander Sylvan’s mouth, she’d just about fallen over herself saying “yes!” She would have done anything to be on such a prestigious and exciting expedition—it had only occurred to her to ask what exactly they were looking for after the fact.

  Sylvan shook his head.

  “I wish I knew. I only know that my niece, Nadiah, who is the High Priestess of the Goddess on First World, which is the Kindred’s home planet, was given a vision about it. She was told where we could find it and that we must get to it before anyone else did.”