Brides of the Kindred Volume One Read online

  “It really is big,” Sophie agreed. “I’m so glad you got here in time but we have to hurry, we only have a minute to change you into your dress before the ceremony starts.” She nodded at the long pale gold gown hanging from the rack which was the twin of the one Olivia was wearing. “I hope I got the right size. I had to guess so—”

  “Oh, no need for that.” Standing directly across from Liv, Nadiah stared hard at the bridesmaid’s dress she was wearing. “See that?” she murmured, stroking the sleeve of the dark green jumpsuit she was wearing. “Emulate.”

  The dark green jumpsuit shifted and then shivered like a live thing—which was exactly what it was, Sophie realized. Nadiah was wearing a tharp—a living furry blanket-type creature that fed on body heat and could be worn as clothing. But she had never seen a tharp like this one.

  It didn’t look furry, for one thing. And though she knew an intelligent tharp could be trained to configure itself into almost any kind of garment, she’d never seen one that could change color like this one was doing. It actually went from dark green to pale gold as she watched—even its texture changed. In less than a minute it was an exact replica of Olivia’s dress—right down to the lace on the sleeves and the deeply scooped neckline.

  “Wow!” Sophie smiled in admiration.

  “That’s amazing,” Liv, who usually didn’t care for tharps, which she referred to as ‘creepy living blankets,’ exclaimed. She stared at the dress Nadiah was still wearing in astonishment. “I didn’t know tharps could do that!”

  “Well they can’t, generally.” Nadiah grinned. “This is a new kind they’re breeding and Mamam got the very first one. It was going to increase her social status immeasurably—only I got to it and imprinted it first.”

  Sophie didn’t care much for Nadiah’s mother, who also happened to be Sylvan’s aunt, so she laughed. “I bet she loved that.”

  “Almost as much as she loved me hitching a ride to the Mother ship right before what was supposed to be my own bonding ceremony.” Nadiah sighed dramatically. “Of course I’ll have to go back eventually. Yo-dah and I have the bond of blood between us—my parents saw to that when they enacted our engagement.” She shook her head. “I still remember crying when they pricked my finger with the stylus. I was just a little thing and it scared me to death.”

  “Wait a minute.” Kat held up a hand. “Did you just say your fiancée is a guy named Yoda?”

  Nadiah nodded. “Yo-dah Licklow. He’s the son of the local magistrate in my grotto.”

  “Yoda Licklow?” Kat was cracking up. “Seriously? That’s his name? So if you married him you’d be Mrs. Yodah Licklow?”

  “Well, not exactly. When speaking formally, we break up the names to show the possessive of bonding,” Nadiah explained. “So my formal name would be Lady Lick Yo-dah Low.”

  “Lick…lick Yoda…low…” Kat dissolved into a fit of giggles and Sophie and Liv couldn’t help laughing too.

  Nadiah smiled at them quizzically. “I’m not sure what’s so funny. I got a shot of translation bacteria but maybe they’re not working right.”

  “They’re working fine,” Sophie assured her with a smile. “Sorry—I’ll explain why it’s funny later but right now the ceremony is about to start.” She sighed. “I’m afraid there’s not going to be anyone for you to do the luck kiss with, though. It looks like Sylvan’s friend couldn’t make it.”

  “Oh, he’ll be here.” Nadiah was unexpectedly serious. “I know he will—I have forseen it.”

  “You what?” Liv asked, frowning.

  “I forsaw him.” Nadiah blushed and looked down at her fingers. “It’s a new thing for me—I just came into my powers when I came of age. But so far it’s always been accurate.”

  “Your powers?” Kat asked blankly. She had finally stopped laughing and was dabbing at the corners of her eyes.

  “The Sight. It’s hereditary in my family,” Nadiah explains. “It skips every other generation. My Grandmaman had it and I have it too. Basically it just means I can see things before they happen.”

  “So…you’re psychic?” Liv sounded skeptical.

  Nadiah lifted her chin. “Call it what you want, but I do have the Sight. And before I came here I saw myself standing in the sacred grove during Sophie’s bonding ceremony and kissing a Kindred male. He’s big and powerful and he has truegreen eyes.” She gave Sophie’s arm a squeeze. “Don’t worry, Sophie—he’ll be here. And when he shows up, I’m going to give him a luck kiss he’ll never forget.”

  * * * * *

  Detective Adam Rast had the strangest sensation of coming home the moment he set foot on the Kindred Mother ship.

  Of course, that made no sense. He’d never even been off the planet before—let alone aboard an alien ship. The closest he’d come to leaving mother Earth was during his stint in the marines where his squadron had been taught to sky dive. Rast hadn’t cared for that much—he preferred to keep both feet planted solidly on the ground. So being in a ship a fourth the size of the moon orbiting high above the planet he’d been born and bred on should have been an uncomfortable experience. Instead it seemed…oddly familiar.

  He tried to shake the ridiculous feeling as he climbed out of the shuttle and thanked the Kindred pilot who had ferried him up from the Human/Kindred relations building in Tampa. Say what you wanted about the aliens who were protecting Earth, but they were damned polite. And no-nonsense, which Rast approved of. Time spent in both the military and the police force before he’d left to start his own detective agency had left him with little tolerance for any kind of foolishness. He appreciated the precision and dignity that seemed to be innate to the Kindred.

  Of course, he wouldn’t be aboard the Mother ship at all if his latest job hadn’t led him in the strangest direction imaginable. Rast specialized in missing persons cases which meant he was usually tracking down runaways or kidnapped children—usually taken by an estranged parent during or after divorce proceedings. When Abigail Jakes had approached him about finding her missing daughter, Lauren, he’d known that the case was different right from the start. It had appeared that she’d disappeared into thin air, vanishing right out of her clothes which were left in an oddly orderly heap on the floor.

  In fact, that was exactly what had happened. After a lot of probing, Rast had discovered that Lauren Jakes had been taken by the AllFather himself—the leader and overlord of the evil Scourge. He’d been assured by Lauren’s cousins, Olivia and Sophia, that she was in fact well and on her way home, but he would believe that when he saw it. In the mean time, Lauren was still technically missing and the Kindred seemed to have more information about the case than anyone else. Rast was hoping that meeting Commanders Sylvan and Baird face to face would help him establish a working relationship and maybe even get Lauren home faster—if they knew more than they were saying.

  Speaking of Commanders Sylvan and Baird, where were they? Frowning, he looked around the huge, echoing docking bay. Someone was supposed to meet him and escort him somewhere they could talk. Just as he was thinking he would have to find someone to ask for directions, a tall blond Kindred came over to him.

  “Are you here for Sylvan?” the warrior asked, looking at him anxiously. “I certainly hope so because everything is about to begin.”

  Rast nodded. “Yes, I’m here to see Commander Sylvan. Can you show me to him?”

  “I can but there’s no time to use a Take-me. I’ll have to send you in a transport tube. This way.” The warrior began walking through the docking bay, weaving rapidly through the rows of ships. His black boots echoed in the vast space.

  Rast was every bit as large as the Kindred warrior and his stride was as long but he still had to hurry to keep up. His guide seemed to be in a terrible rush for some reason. “Where are we going?” he asked as they came to a row of round, tubular structures at the end of the bay. Each of them looked like an oversized pipe and was a little larger than an old fashioned telephone booth.

  “To the sacred grove.