Bonded by Accident Read online

  “Why not?” Slade asked.

  “Oh, I was just…” She cleared her throat and blushed. “I was just thinking it’s not exactly good first date food. But it’s not like this is really a date. We’re just…working through some issues.”

  “It can be a date…if you want,” Slade offered softly. “If by date you mean a meeting to get to know a romantic partner better.”

  “We’re not really partners though,” Brandi pointed out quickly. “We just kind of…got stuck together by accident. Um…what other Earth food cubes do you have?” she asked, clearly wanting to change the subject.

  “Let’s see.” Slade frowned at the food cubes on the shelf labeled “Earth food.” “Looks like you can have…tacos or sushi or tuna salad or pizz-ah. Did I say that right?”

  Brandi stifled a giggle. “That last one is supposed to be pronounced ‘peet-zah’ but that’s okay. Um, sushi might be nice. I can’t afford it very often but I really like it when I can get it.”

  “All right—sushi coming up.” Slade popped the tiny white cube into the re-hydrator and pressed the button. In a moment the small machine let out a ding.

  When Slade opened the re-hydrator, he found a large round white plate with many colorful little circles placed on it in an artful design. There was also a tiny bowl of black liquid, a lump of green putty, and a mound of thin pink shreds. Included with the meal was a small white vessel with a pour spout, a tiny white cup, and two long, thin wooden sticks.

  It looked pretty strange to be honest.

  “Hmm…” He frowned at it and showed the plate to Brandi. “Does this look right to you? Because if not I can always make you something else.”

  “Oh, that looks perfect!” Her eyes lit up and she took the plate from him eagerly. “And it even has some saki to go with it! Not that I ought to drink much in the middle of the day but I’ll have a sip.”

  Slade shrugged. Well, to each his or her own. The Earth food looked strange to him but Brandi seemed delighted with it, which gave him a deep glow of satisfaction. He realized it was just his natural Kindred instinct to want to feed and provide for his mate but it made him happy just the same.

  Putting a cube in the machine for himself, he turned it on and waited for the ding. When he opened the door again, a mound of blue and purple tubes in pink sauce, each about the size of his longest finger and garnished with tiny, orange, crunchy crustaceans called tikis, awaited him.

  Slade felt his stomach rumble as the fragrant scent of the chando-chando drifted to his nose. It was a dish he’d learned to love while fighting in the Blood Circuit because it was almost pure protein, since the tubes were actually muscle from the inside of a ker-dragon’s fire throat. As such, it was a spicy dish but completely delicious as far as Slade was concerned. He was surprised but pleased to find the dish aboard the Kindred shuttle’s food stores.

  “Wow,” Brandi murmured, watching as he brought the plate to the table. “That’s uh, really colorful.”

  “Delicious too.” Slade dug in with the multi-tined utensil that had come with his meal. “Would you like a bite?” he asked, offering her one of the tubes.

  “Well…my grandma Ida always did say it’s good to try new things.” She hesitated for a moment, then opened her mouth and took the bite he was offering. She chewed for a moment, a look of surprise coming over her face. “Hey, that’s pretty tasty. I thought it was going to be like multicolored mac ‘n cheese but it’s really more like calamari.”

  “Don’t know what that is,” Slade remarked. “But if it’s anything like chando-chando I’ll give it a try. Is yours good?”

  “It’s great.” Brandi sounded surprised. “Although how the Kindred managed to shrink fresh sushi down to a tiny cube and then grow it up again and make it taste like it was just made, I’ll never understand.”

  Slade frowned. “I can try to explain the technology, if you want. Are you at all mechanically minded?”

  “Not a bit,” Brandi said cheerfully. Then she sighed. “I wish I was though. I’d like to be able to fix my old clunker myself instead of always relying on someone else. Back before Earl went to jail, he kept it running pretty regularly but now that he’s gone it just seems to break down all the time.”

  “Earl is your…former mate?” Slade asked, stabbing another bite of chando-chando and popping it into his mouth. “And now he’s in prison?”

  She nodded. “He got busted for dealing and it wasn’t exactly the first time. I begged him to quit. I even quoted him statistics on how much harder kids with dads in prison have it and I warned him I wasn’t going to bring Emmie to see him if he got sent off.” She frowned. “I won’t expose my child to that environment. I thought maybe he’d quit for Emmie’s sake.” She shook her head. “Nothing stopped him, though. Not until they sent him away for good.”

  “To be unjustly imprisoned is fucking hard but I’ve known plenty of males who deserve it too,” Slade growled. “But I take it this Earl is no longer part of your life?”

  “Nope.” She shook her head. “He got sent up for a good long time and then he got into some fights in prison and killed somebody. So now he’s got a life-sentence tacked onto his time.” Her face went hard. “I promised myself that I’d never get involved with that kind of guy again. Not just for my sake but for Emmie’s too.”

  Slade thought uncomfortably that her ex-mate’s situation sounded not unlike his own past. He wondered what Brandi would think if she knew that—he should probably reveal it at once to be perfectly honest. But he was afraid it would end their “date” and they were getting along so well now. Reluctantly, he decided to wait until later to inform her of his own past incarceration.

  “Are you still enjoying your ‘sushi’?” he asked, eyeing her plate where over half of the colorful black and white and orange and green pieces were gone.

  “It’s wonderful. Want a piece?” She picked up a small black and white piece with a green and pink-white center in the two long, thin sticks and offered it to him across the table. “This is California roll—it’s about as mild as sushi gets,” she added. “I mean, if you don’t like trying new things.”

  “I like new things,” Slade told her. Opening his mouth, he allowed her to put the piece of food between his lips. He chewed and was surprised at how flavorful it was. The texture was soft and chewy and the taste was salty and a tiny bit sweet—many flavors, actually, working together to create something that was almost indescribable but very good. The only thing it lacked was a little spice, in Slade’s estimation.

  Brandi was watching him with interest as he chewed and swallowed.

  “So? What do you think?” she asked, raising her eyebrows.

  “Very good,” Slade admitted. “I like the way the textures and flavors meld together. It doesn’t have much heat though.”

  “Well, I told you it was mild as sushi goes,” she pointed out. “If you like spice, I can always give you a piece with wasabi on it.” She indicated the little mound of pale green putty-looking material which was mostly untouched on the side of her plate.

  “Is wazzabee hot?” Slade asked. “If so, I’ll be happy to try it. I like spice.”

  “You could say that.” She chose a new piece and put just a dab of the green paste on it.

  “More than that.” Slade made a “come on” gesture with one hand. “I can handle it.”

  “Okay—you asked for it.” Shrugging, Brandi slathered the new piece of sushi liberally with the green paste and then fed it to him using the long thin sticks again.

  The moment it hit his tongue, Slade felt his eyes begin to water and his taste buds started to sing.

  “Mmm!” He chewed appreciatively as the strong spice filled his mouth and opened his sinuses. “Delicious!”

  Brandi looked at him uncertainly.

  “You liked that? That’s enough wasabi to use on like, twenty pieces of sushi. Isn’t it burning your mouth?”

  “Yes, but in a good way,” Slade told her, grinning. “This green stuff�