Healing the Broken: A Kindred Christmas Tale Read online

  Sazar winced in the brilliant light which bathed the corridor and tried not to stare.

  Why did the old fool only send me vids of males? he wondered, glaring at the old Councilor’s back. I never would have brought Sarah if I’d known this was the way she would have to dress. How will she deal with this?

  He knew that she’d been raised in an extremely restrictive environment—the fashions of Alquon Ultrea probably seemed shocking and deviant to her. However, she said nothing but only stayed by his side, following obediently behind Minister Obglod and Chandra.

  Sazar wished he could close his eyes and find his way by touch instead of sight. Not just because it would be easier not to look at all the exposed female flesh but because the brilliant light was giving him a blinding headache and sapping his strength. Pitch-Blood Kindred had a sensitivity to sunlight or intense UV radiation which made functioning in it difficult. His throat felt dry and even though he had slaked his thirst with Sarah’s blood only the night before, he again felt the Blood Hunger clawing at him.

  He supposed the Alquons kept their undersea environment lit brightly to emulate the surface levels of sunlight which they had been used to before their world became submerged. But it was extremely unpleasant. How was he going to function when the environment around him aroused his thirst and sapped his strength?

  Sazar sighed inwardly. Well, he would just have to do his best—there was no other possible course of action.

  Chapter Ten

  “Here we are! This is the clothier I was talking about,” Chandra said brightly. She pointed at a small tunnel with a sign over it up ahead on their left.

  “Oh good,” Sarah said, trying to smile. She certainly hoped the shop they would be visiting would be a little less brightly lit than the street area. The long, underwater tube which housed the part of the city of Idd they were walking in was brightly lit from both above and below. Outside its glass walls, Sarah sometimes caught glimpses of what she assumed was the ocean but the bright illumination inside made it difficult to tell.

  It wasn’t just that the bright light was annoying, although it certainly was— but the blazing illumination was also making her worried about Sazar. The big Kindred strode along with a stoic look on his face but Sarah thought he looked paler and his eyes were narrowed in apparent pain. And had she seen them flash red—the same dull, almost-maroon color they’d turned the night before when he was so thirsty?

  This light really isn’t good for him, she thought anxiously. He’s beginning to look like he did when he needed blood so badly.

  Would she have to feed him again? The thought gave her a strange shiver in the pit of her belly. She was glad that Kat and Liv had given her the blood replenishment pills. If Sazar needed to bite her again he could without fear of draining her—she would be able to slake his thirst as often as she needed to.

  But where will he bite me? She couldn’t help dreading that initial moment of pain. Would it hurt less on the neck? Or maybe—

  Her thoughts were cut off as they entered the small side tunnel which dead-ended in a round bubble of glass that housed a cool, dim shop. Beside her, Sarah heard Sazar breathe a sigh of relief. She couldn’t help feeling relieved herself. It was like stepping out of the brilliant sunshine of a Florida day into a cool, dim, air-conditioned house.

  But not everyone liked the change.

  “My goodness, it’s so dark in here I can hardly see a thing!” Minister Obglod complained.

  “That’s just because the proprietor, Lemesh, has light sensitivity,” Chandra explained. “She spends most of her non-work hours in the depths. Don’t worry, Minister. We won’t be here long.” She raised her voice and called, “Lemesh? Oh, Lemmy—I have some customers for you here.”

  Her call brought a girl to the front of the shop, which was crowded with hanging swaths of fabric in every conceivable color. Like all the other females they had seen, she was dressed in a manner which showed off her assets, though her clothing wasn’t quite as bright as Chandra’s. Her skin was also a darker green and Sarah thought the gill slits at the sides of her neck looked much more pronounced. Chandra had said she spent a lot of time “in the depths”—did that mean swimming out in the dark ocean, which was much more visible in the dim bubble of the shop, than it had been in the brightly lit outer tunnel?

  “Hello, my dear.” Lemesh flowed forward with a graceful gesture that was almost like swimming and hugged Chandra, pressing her cheek to the other female’s for a moment. “What can I do for you? The Breeding Ball isn’t until tomorrow night and I thought you had your outfit all ready. Do you need to make an alteration?”

  “Oh, I’m not here for me, Lemmy dear,” Chandra said. “These nice people are Sarah and her pair partner Commander Sazar of the Kindred. They have come to visit us all the way from another galaxy.” She motioned to Sazar and Sarah who smiled and nodded politely. “Minister Obglod here is their host and he’s anxious that they should be, um, properly dressed for their meeting with The Lord Magnate.”

  “Oh my, another galaxy? Well, that’s certainly interesting. I just…” The clothier stopped short, her eyes flickering over Sarah. “Oh my dear—why are you dressed like a male?”

  “We, uh, didn’t know how females dressed here,” Sarah said, feeling her cheeks get hot. “I’m really very sorry—the only videos we had showed men, er, males only.”

  “I sent you very proper vids of our most famous law-making sessions,” Minister Obglod said, frowning. “If you had listened correctly, you would have heard our law about how males and females are to dress appropriately at all times with no exceptions.”

  Sarah wanted to exclaim indignantly that if he thought they had time to listen to hours and hours of old men droning on about laws he had another think coming but Sazar spoke before she could say anything.

  “Forgive me, Minister. The fault was mine—I did not interpret your laws correctly,” he said smoothly. He seemed much more at home in the dim shop and she noticed with relief that his handsome features had lost their strained expression and his eyes were no longer red.

  “Well, well, it can’t be helped,” Obglod grumbled. “Let’s just hope Chandra and her friend can make your female presentable.”

  “Oh, I’m certain I can. What lovely, unusual skin coloration,” Lemesh remarked, coming closer and tilting her head to one side as she studied Sarah.

  “Um…thank you. I think your skin is lovely too,” Sarah said with a smile.

  "Oh no," the clothier protested. "My skin is too green—my coloration is dark because of my blood." She smiled at Chandra. "But we can't all have such pure blood as my lovely friend here."

  "Oh, Lemmy…" Chandra made a shooing motion.

  “Well, it seems you have the matter in hand,” Minister Obglod announced, clearly bored of the female chatter. “I must go make some excuses as to the delay of our party to the palace.” He pointed at Chandra. “I’ll be back soon. See that she’s properly arrayed when I return.”

  “Of course, Minister.” She kissed him affectionately on the cheek and he tugged at the chain between her breasts almost absently and then left the shop in a fast, shuffling walk.

  “Well, you heard the Minister—we need to get moving,” Chandra said briskly. “What can you do for us, Lemmy?”

  The clothier was still staring at Sarah thoughtfully.

  “I think perhaps some lovely gold netting to set off the rings in her breasts—or maybe silver. Tell me dear, what color are your piercings?”

  “Oh…” Sarah felt the blood drain from her face. “I…I don’t have any, uh, piercings,” she admitted. And she really hoped she didn’t have to get any either! The idea of someone poking a needle in her nipples was not appealing.

  “What? No piercings? Let me see your breasts!” Lemesh demanded.

  “Um…uh…” Sarah stuttered, casting a glance at Sazar. She couldn’t just start stripping in front of her boss, could she?

  Sazar clearly saw the uncertainty on her face because