Dark and Light: A Kindred Tales DUET Novel. Contains: Saved by the Drake AND Captured by the Kru'ell One, Page 3

  “Thank you. I’ve always liked animals—they’re often more trustworthy than people.” He smiled, which lit up his stern face, especially the mismatched eyes which crinkled at the corners in a very appealing way.

  “Uh…if you don’t mind me asking, what kind of Kindred are you?” she asked, trying to sound casual. “Are you a, uh, Beast Kindred?” She knew that Beast Kindred had golden eyes and Raze’s copper eye was sort of close to that—right?

  “Yes, in a way.” He gave a deep rumbling laugh at her confused look. “I’m kind of a mutt like Lady, there—half Beast Kindred and Half Drake Kindred.”

  “A Drake Kindred?” Luci frowned. “I’ve never heard about that kind of Kindred.”

  “Probably because they’ve only recently been welcomed aboard the Mother Ship,” he said.

  “Oh? Why is that? Do they have some kind of political or religious differences with the other Kindred?” Luci asked with interest.

  “No, we all worship the Goddess—the Mother of All Life. But in the past the other Kindred have considered Drake Kindred to be, well…dangerous.” Raze cleared his throat and looked away.

  “Oh.” Luci bit her lip. Should she ask? No, she really shouldn’t, she decided. But the next time she opened her mouth she heard herself say, “Dangerous how exactly?”

  “Dangerous because we have a beast inside.” He frowned. “Or most Drake Kindred do, anyway. Being a hybrid, I don’t know if I have one or not.”

  “Uh…a beast inside?” Luci felt a nervous tremor in her stomach. He was already so big and now he was telling her he had some other weird trait she hadn’t even known it was possible for Kindred to possess. A trait that made even other Kindred afraid of him. That was downright scary!

  “Now you’re afraid of me again.” Raze sounded sad. “Like you were when I came up on you unexpectedly outside.”

  “No, no!” Luci exclaimed, though to be honest, she really kind of was. “I just…didn’t know it was possible for someone to really have, uh, something like that inside them. I mean, what kind of a beast are we talking about? Are you like a…a werewolf or something?”

  He shook his head.

  “The beast I have inside me—well, if I have one—is what you would call a ‘dragon’ I believe.”

  “A dragon? Really?” Luci looked at him with wide eyes. “But…but those aren’t even real.”

  “They are on my mother’s home world of Yarren,” he said gravely.

  “Really?” Luci was fascinated. “That’s amazing. So then… why do the other Kindred consider that a problem? That you might have a, er, dragon inside you?” She couldn’t help thinking that if any other guy had told her he could turn into a dragon, she would have thought he was crazy. However, with the Kindred, anything was possible.

  Raze shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat.

  “The beast can be dangerous when it comes out—though most of my kind strive to keep it contained all our lives. And as I said before, I might not even have one. If I did, it surely would have come out during my manhood ceremony on Yarren.” He shook his head. “It didn’t, so the odds are very good I don’t have a Drake within at all. At least, I have never felt one stirring within me.”

  “Oh, okay.” Luci felt a little better. He seemed to take this very seriously, she thought. And though she barely knew him, he seemed like a good guy. At least, Lady approved of him and she could usually tell the good apples from the bad ones.

  “How often will I need to feed these, uh, cattens? Is that the right word?” he asked, clearly changing the subject.

  “It’s kittens,” Luci corrected him, smiling. “And let’s see…” She examined the kitten she was holding, who was almost finished eating, and nodded to herself. “Eyes and ears open and he’s pretty perky.” She looked under the tail. “Oops, this one’s a she, though,” she added. “Anyway, judging from the weight and size and the way these guys are so lively, I’d say they’re probably around four or five weeks old. Which means they need to be fed every five to six hours.”

  “All right.” He nodded gravely. “I can do that.”

  “Oh, but do you want to?” Luci was surprised. She had fully expected to take the kittens over—not many people wanted the trouble of caring for three fragile little creatures who needed round the clock care.

  But the big Kindred was nodding.

  “Sure. I’m on leave here, down on Earth. I was going to use my time to explore but I find without a guide, a lot of your culture is a mystery. So I don’t mind spending my time with animals instead of people.”

  Luci thought about offering to give him a tour of Tampa…but then she bit her tongue. Raze seemed like a nice guy but she had her three kids to think about. Now wasn’t the time to be bringing a new man into their life when she and Tony had been divorced less than a year. Not that it would be a date or anything but she couldn’t deny that Raze was extremely attractive—in a really big, intimidating kind of way.

  “Let me get you all the equipment you need and show you everything you need to do, then,” she said instead. “Kittens are fragile. Even when they seem healthy, they can go downhill quick. So you have to keep an eye on them.”

  “Thank you—both for the equipment and for your time tonight,” Rave said gravely. “How can I pay you?”

  “Oh, no—I can’t take your money!” Luci protested. Besides, did Kindred even use Earth money? She doubted it. “I love caring for animals—it’s my job,” she told him.

  “But I can’t just take all your supplies and not repay you somehow,” Raze protested. “Is there are least something I can do for you in exchange?”

  Luci sighed.

  “Not unless you know how to fix ‘Earth vehicles’ as you call them. Mine broke down today—that’s why I had to take the bus home.”

  Raze brightened.

  “Maybe I can. I’m a mechanic up on the Mother Ship—I work on all kinds of engines there. I can’t imagine yours would be too difficult considering…” He trailed off.

  “Considering what?” Luci asked, curiously.

  “Well…” He coughed. “I admit I was going to say, considering how primitive your technology is. But that kind of makes me sound like an asshole.”

  Luci laughed.

  “No, that’s okay—we are kind of primitive compared to the Kindred, I guess.” She shrugged. “You can take a crack at it if you want, but you’ll have to come to my work to look at it. I can’t afford to get it towed to a garage.”

  Raze nodded thoughtfully.

  “I can do that.” He raised his eyebrows. “As long as you don’t mind telling me where you work? And will you be able to tend the cattens—I mean kittens—while I work on your vehicle? I don’t want to leave them alone in my domicile—I mean, my apartment.”

  “Well, sure—that’s no problem.” Luci smiled at him tentatively, but then she thought of something. “Oh, but won’t you need tools? I mean, if you have to get down into the engine and do…whatever you have to do to fix it?”

  “Luckily I brought some with me” Raze said. “I was hoping to get to look at some of your primitive engines while I was on leave.”

  “Wow, that’s convenient!” Luci said. “I’m glad you brought them.”

  “I am too—though I haven’t had a chance to use them until now. I ought to be able to fix whatever is wrong with your vehicle without any other tools. Unless something needs to be replaced, of course,” he added.

  Luci didn’t want to think about that. There was no way she could afford a new carburetor or alternator or even a new battery right now. But at least she had someone who was willing to work on the car for free—that was something, anyway.

  “Of course,” she said, echoing his words. “But if—”

  Just then her front door opened and four voices called for her at once.

  Four

  Raze looked up and saw an older human female and three young human children—all under the age of seven cycles, he estimated—coming into Lucia’s apartm
ent. The minute she saw him, the older female gave a gasp and put her arms around the three children, who were calling for Lucia.

  “Dios mio,” she muttered, eyeing him mistrustfully. “Luci, what’s going on here?”

  “Oh, hi, Mami.” Lucia turned to look at the older woman, frowning. “What are you doing here? I thought you were afraid to drive at night.”

  “I got worried,” the older woman—who Raze guessed was Lucia’s mother—said. “You didn’t come home and I thought something awful might have happened.”

  “I’m fine,” Lucia said. “I know I should have called but my stupid cell phone died again. And besides, I got distracted with these little guys.” She nodded at the kittens. “And uh, this big guy,” she added, giving Raze a shy smile.

  Raze felt his heart squeeze in his chest. He’d been trying not to notice too much—trying to concentrate on the kittens—but Lucia was a truly beautiful female. With her short, curvy figure and her long, curly brown hair and big brown eyes, not to mention her caramel colored skin, she was lovely.

  “Hello, I’m Raze,” he said, nodding politely to Lucia’s mother and the children—which had to be hers as well, since they looked so much like her. He liked young ones and didn’t want to scare them.

  The older woman was still looking at him mistrustfully but suddenly the little female—little girl, that was what humans called it, Raze thought—broke away and came towards him.

  “Can I see your kitten?” she asked shyly. “If you don’t mind?”

  “I don’t mind.” Raze smiled back at her. The kitten was finished eating so he put down the bottle and held it out for the little girl to see.

  “Oh, she’s got formula on her face.” The little girl looked up with big brown, serious eyes that were just like Lucia’s. “Here—I can help you clean her up.”

  She took one of the soft-looking, disposable wipes Lucia had used on the other kittens and carefully wiped the tiny face as Raze held the mewing kitten still.

  “You have to clean their fur after they eat,” she explained, speaking in a surprisingly adult way, Raze thought. “You don’t want dried formula getting stuck in the little hairs around their mouth.”

  “Very good, mija.” There was definite pride in Lucia’s voice as she smiled at her daughter. “She helped me with the last batch of kittens we were fostering,” she explained to Raze. “She can do a feeding all by herself as long as I’m nearby. My big girl is such a big help.” These last words were directed at the little girl herself, who smiled at her mother.

  “Thanks Mami. I love kittens.”

  “Of course you do, mija.” Lucia smiled approvingly.

  The younger males—boys, Raze reminded himself of the Earth term—had been hanging back, looking at him with wide eyes. They had identical curly mops of black hair and eyes like Lucia’s as well. Clearly, they didn’t know what to think of Raze. But when their big sister was brave enough to approach him, they seemed to lose at least some of their fear as well.

  “Wanna pet kitty,” one said, boldly stepping forward.

  “Me too!” the other chimed in. “I be careful! I know how!”

  The little girl frowned at them.

  “One at a time! And only one finger,” she said, pointing at them bossily.

  As Raze watched, bemused, she stood over her younger brothers and directed them as they stroked the kitten—who had stopped crying at last and was now snuggled securely in Raze’s cupped palm—with one finger each.

  “All right—that’s enough,” she said imperiously after both of them had gotten a turn. “You have to be careful with kittens. They’re fragile.”

  Raze looked at Lucia who was smiling proudly at her daughter.

  “She’s very knowledgeable for someone so young,” he remarked.

  “Oh, yes—she’s five going on forty, is my Frannie,” she said, laughing. “But she’s been helping me with all the animals ever since we moved in here.”

  “When I grow up, I’m going to be a Vet Tech just like Mami,” the little girl piped up. “That way I can help animals all day long—just like she does.”

  “No, mija, you want to be a veterinarian,” Lucia corrected her. “An animal doctor—not just a helper. They know more so they can help more animals.” She sighed. “And they make better money.”

  Raze wondered if having enough money was a problem for her. Looking around the living area, he could see that most of her furnishings were worn and shabby—though they were also clean and neat. Lucia’s clothing and the children’s clothing as well, also looked as though it had been washed and worn multiple times. The colorful print of Earth animals on her clothing was faded though still cheerful.

  All the signs pointed to the fact that there was not enough money to go around in the little family, and yet she had refused to let him give her any monetary compensation for her time or the supplies she’d given him for the cattens—no, kittens, Raze corrected himself.

  Her pride must be very strong, he thought. But in a culture where a male and female could dissolve their union and leave each other, so that they had no one but themselves to depend on, he supposed strength was a necessity.

  Like most Kindred, Raze found the notion of divorce strange and alien. When a Kindred warrior Claimed a female, he bonded her to him for life and the two of them were only parted by death.

  Well, that was how it worked for most Kindred warriors, anyway, he reminded himself bitterly. As a hybrid, he himself was very unlikely to be able to form a bond with anyone. Not that he had ever tried. The Drake Kindred—his mother’s people—reviled him because he didn’t have pure blood and no Drake had manifested at his manhood ceremony, so there was no finding a possible mate there.

  The Beast Kindred—his father’s people—were more accepting. But he could see the pity on their faces when they saw his mismatched eyes and realized that he was forever locked out of what every Kindred warrior longed for—finding the mate the Goddess had set aside only for him and living out his life with her.

  Of course, some hybrids were able to bond with females, but it was rare and unusual and much more likely to occur if they didn’t have the genetic mutation which caused their eyes to be two different colors. Which Raze had, of course.

  Which is why there’s no point in thinking about how beautiful Lucia is or how engaging her little ones are, he told himself sternly. This little family could never be his, no matter how strongly attracted to Lucia he was.

  It was a lonely existence, knowing he would probably never find a mate or father children of his own, but Raze tried to make the best of it. Right now, he told himself that at least he could try to make friends with Lucia and help her as best he could by fixing her vehicle. His leave was almost over, but he could extend it for as long as it took to care for the kittens. Maybe in that time he could build a relationship with the curvy little Earth female as well.

  “Well…” Lucia sighed. “It’s been nice meeting you, Raze. But I’m afraid we need to get the kids to bed. Since my car is broken down, I’m going to have to get up really early and take my mom to work before I can drop the kids off at school and then get the car back to her and take the bus to my own job.” She rubbed her forehead as though just thinking of all that made her tired.

  Raze frowned.

  “That seems like a lot of trouble. Why don’t I just give you a ride tomorrow? I need to go to your work anyway, to see what’s wrong with your vehicle and I don’t mind taking your young ones to their places of education first.”

  “Oh, I don’t know…” Lucia bit her lip uncertainly. She looked like she wanted to accept his offer but wasn’t quite sure she should, Raze thought.

  Her mother also seemed uncertain about the arrangement.

  “Lucia,” she said urgently and then followed it up in rapid Spanish.

  It was one of the languages that Raze had studied before taking his leave on Earth. As a Kindred with a natural aptitude for foreign tongues, he had picked up all the Earth languages he ha
d studied with relative ease. But he had found Spanish considerably easier than English to learn because everything sounded like it was spelled.

  “Look, my darling,” Lucia’s mother said to her in Spanish. “I don’t think this is safe. You barely know this man and he is so big! He could break you in half with his little finger!”

  “He could but he’s not going to,” Lucia argued, also in Spanish. “Look at how gentle he is with the kittens! And Lady likes him. You know she can always tell when a man is bad or good. Besides, he’s Kindred. They don’t hurt women.”

  “I have heard good things about the Kindred and how they treat their women like queens,” her mother admitted, grudgingly, Raze thought. “But you only just met him!”

  “I know but I have a good feeling about him,” Lucia told her.

  “A good feeling?” Her mother frowned and put a hand on her hip. “Like the good feelings you had about Tony?”

  “Mom, that’s not fair.” Lucia frowned. “I was young and stupid. You tried to warn me but I didn’t listen.”

  “Like I’m trying to warn you now!” her mother insisted. “This man is too big, Lucia! And you’re so small. Plus, he’s offering to take the babies to school—I don’t know how I feel about that! What if he has a wreck? You know he’s probably not used to driving down here—especially in Tampa traffic during rush hour!”

  “I have driven on Edoris Prime without any problems,” Raze informed them, also speaking in Spanish. He ignored their wide eyes and went on. “On that planet, there is air traffic and ground traffic to contend with, as well as underground tracks for shuttle-trams that occasionally surface at intersections. So the traffic is coming at you from all directions at once. But I never had a ‘wreck,’ as you call it,” he finished, speaking to Lucia’s mother.

  “Dios,” she whispered.

  “I’m so sorry!” Lucia said quickly, in English. “We didn’t know you spoke Spanish. We didn’t mean to be rude—my mom is just worried about me, that’s all.”