Cursed Read online

  “Oh, her mate.”

  “Yup.” She nodded. “And a skillet is a cooking utensil like a frying pan. A Slim Jim is a junk food type meat snack. They’re not very good but some people love them. This lady did, anyway.” She frowned up at him. “Hey, weren’t you stationed on Earth? Why don’t you know some of this stuff?”

  Stav shrugged. “We were instructed to stay mostly in the HKR building. Kindred almost never mingle with a native species—we only go out to claim our brides.” He sighed. “Maybe if we had gone out to mingle your people would know us better and there wouldn’t be so many misconceptions about the Kindred and what we do.”

  “What you do is make girls come up to the Mother Ship and do all kinds of sexual things whether they want to go or not,” she retorted, putting a hand on her ample hip.

  “Have you thought about the fact that we might be required to do something of a sexual nature while we are pretending to be a couple in need of help at J’lorgon’s Mind?” he countered.

  He had the pleasure of seeing her cheeks turn rosy pink but she shook her head firmly.

  “I told you, we’re playing a couple on the brink of divorce. That means no canoodling.”

  “No what?” Stav shook his head.

  “No fooling around. This may be an undercover operation but there are limits. I mean, I had to dress up as a prostitute once for a vice sting but—”

  “You dressed up as a female who sells her body for credits?” Stav raised an eyebrow at her, his imagination going into overdrive. “What exactly did you wear?”

  Her cheeks got pink again.

  “Never you mind. The point is just because I looked the part doesn’t mean I acted it. In fact, I think we need to set some boundaries right here and now.”

  “All right.” Stavros was beginning to be a bit irritated but he held on to his temper. “You’ve already kissed me, sat in my lap and put your hand down my trousers—what further boundaries do you wish to set that you are not willing to cross?”

  She rounded on him suddenly, hands on her hips, eyes blazing.

  “I was under the influence of drugs when I did all that. Well except for putting my hand in your britches but I couldn’t help that because I didn’t want a mess on my granny’s quilt.”

  “True.” He nodded. “But you cannot deny that you enjoyed the healing kiss that we shared and you were completely lucid then.”

  “I most certainly did not,” she protested, a bit too quickly.

  Stavros stopped in the hallway just outside the entrance to the vast docking bay.

  “I scented your heat, Charlie,” he said softly, searching her eyes with his own. “Kindred have an incredibly sensitive sense of smell. You cannot lie to me about what you were feeling when I healed you.”

  “You scented my what? Never mind,” she said quickly before he could explain. “Look, whether I enjoyed it when you, uh, healed me is not the point.”

  “And what is you point?” Stav demanded.

  “To save my planet! And I want it understood right here and now that is the only reason I volunteered to come with you on this mission. Not because I think you’re cute or because you have an amazing ass—”

  “I do?” Stavros looked over his shoulder to examine the area in question. “What’s amazing about it?”

  “Look, I’m trying to say I’m here in a professional capacity only,” she said, clearly exasperated. “So listen up, buddy—here are the limits: no kissing, no touching—at least not intimate touching—you know what I’m talking about, and no sex. Oh, and no more biting.” She eyed his fangs warily. “I’m your partner, not your personal pin cushion. Got it?”

  “You seem to have a lot of boundaries for someone who wants so badly to save their planet,” Stavros said coldly. Though he tried not to let it, her personal rejection of him hurt. Why did she have to be so angry and mistrustful of him?

  “Look, if it comes down to it, I’ll do what I have to do,” she said evenly. “But I really doubt that’s going to be the case. We’re probably just going to be sitting around talking about our feelings all day. That I can handle.”

  “Can you?” Stav growled. “It might be difficult as it would require you to admit that you have feelings in the first place.”

  “Hey, just because I don’t want to do that horizontal hokey-pokey with you is no reason to get nasty,” she snapped.

  “I refuse to argue with you anymore,” he growled, at the end of his patience. “If you do not wish to be touched then fine, I will not touch you. As for biting, please don’t concern yourself about that. Blood Kindred bite only to heal their mates or during bonding sex—neither of which I intend to do with you. Now come,” He jerked his head in the direction of their ship. “The control room has already folded space for us to the crab nebula. It is a massive waste of energy to keep them waiting.”

  Charlotte looked as though she wanted to say something but in the end, she kept her mouth shut and followed him silently through the cavernous, echoing docking bay to the waiting shuttle. They were both fuming silently as they climbed into the cockpit and Stav started it up.

  It doesn’t matter, he told himself as he manipulated the controls and pulled back on the steering yoke. It’s not as if you could have any kind of lasting relationship with her. You’re Cursed, remember? She’s right—you’re just going to work together, nothing else.

  Still, she could be a little less abrasive about it. He wondered what had happened to make her so distrustful and wary. The way she’d been staring at Commander Lock—could that have anything to do with it? She’d seemed to know him in some way—but how? Stav cut off the line of thought. Best put it out of your mind—you’re never going to find out. Just as you’re never going to have anything but a professional relationship with this female.

  He cast a glance at Charlotte but she was sitting very straight and still, wrapped in a layer of silence so deep it was deafening. Her eyes were directed away from him and her pink lips had become a thin, white line. The tension in every line and curve of her luscious body told him she was still angry and probably would be for some time.

  Stav gave a silent sigh. As the shuttle lifted up and out of the invisible atmosphere bubble that protected the Mother Ship and into the blackness of space, he reflected that this looked to be a long and irritating mission.

  Chapter Twelve

  The demon inside Two buzzed like an angry insect trapped in a bottle.

  “Why do you not shoot them down? Look—they are entering the fold! Do not let them escape!”

  “Patience my friend.” Two smiled, baring his metal teeth as he watched the small shuttle fly free of the Kindred Mother Ship and slip into the vast red gash which had opened in space.

  “You keep calling for patience but I am tried of waiting,” Ur snarled angrily from within him. “I want to see the Kindred of the Mother Ship suffer and burn! But instead of assaulting them or their pet planet, you’re allowing them to fold space and go in whatever direction they want while you just sit here and watch.”

  “I’m not just watching my friend—I am waiting to see what they’re doing. And I am not just ‘letting them go’—there is a tracking device in place on that shuttle. The moment it arrives at its destination, we will have a much better idea of what they have planned.”

  “Why do you care about their plans? Burn them! Burn them all and Earth too!”

  Two shook his head and made a tsking sound.

  “Now, now, you only feel that way because you’re all emotion and no reason. I suppose that is what comes of being an entity composed entirely of spirit.”

  Two glanced again at the viewscreen where the rift in space was now closing. He knew to an outside observer it must appear that he was having a rather animated conversation with himself in two strangely distinct voices. The demon Ur, whom he had allowed to inhabit him, had a deep, distorted tone which sounded strange coming out of his own mouth but Two was used to it by now.

  He was also growing used to