Brides of the Kindred Volume One Read online

  “Again?” Detective Rast gave her a disgusted look before turning to Baird. “Commander, I’m going to change back into my clothes and then I’d like to get this interview over with.”

  “I think that’s a good idea,” Baird rumbled.

  “Thank you. And best wishes on your wedding.” Rast nodded at Sylvan.

  “Thank you.” Sylvan frowned. “But Detective?”

  “Yes?” Rast turned back for a moment.

  “Don’t disrespect things you don’t understand.” Sylvan’s ice blue eyes glinted dangerously. “I know there are many things beyond the realm of human experience but that doesn’t excuse rudeness toward my kin. The Sight runs in my family. If Nadiah says she saw Lauren, then she did see her.”

  “You can believe what you want,” Rast said shortly. Then he strode off toward the male’s changing area where, presumably, he’d left his clothing.

  “Whew.” Lock shook his head. “He’s a prickly male.”

  “And a rude one.” Deep frowned.

  “You’re one to talk about that.” Kat elbowed the dark twin with a small smile. Deep returned her smile with one of his own but his twin brother, Lock, looked troubled.

  “Nadiah,” he said, turning toward her. “Forgive me, but we know Lauren was headed for the Maw Cluster. Did you happen to see the planet she was on during your vision?”

  Nadiah frowned. “I don’t think so.”

  “You said she was in O’ah, wherever that is,” Olivia volunteered.

  “O’ah?” Lock looked even more troubled. “That would be on Primus Six, I think. And you said she was wearing red and blue?”

  Nadiah nodded. “Yes, and blue shoes with crimson red soles. They were very pretty, actually.”

  Lock shook his head. “I was afraid of that.”

  “Afraid? Why are you afraid?” Kat demanded.

  “Yes, why?” Nadiah felt the fear threatening to close her throat again.

  “Because.” Lock frowned. “I believe that on Primus Six, those are the colors of the skin trade.”

  “The skin trade?” Sophie asked at the same time Olivia said, “What’s that?”

  Deep answered for his brother. “Prostitution,” he said, his black eyes troubled. “If what you saw was accurate, Nadiah, somehow Lauren has been sold into sexual slavery.”

  Chapter Seven

  The girl with the orange skin led Lauren to the mouth of the alley and then turned right, into the marketplace. Things seemed to be winding down now at the end of the day, but there were still plenty of strange things to see.

  Lauren watched wide-eyed as what looked like a walking tree with purple bark glided down the middle of the street. To her right, a tiny gnome with bulging iridescent eyes haggled with an insectile creature with two heads and broad, glittering transparent wings that buzzed angrily. Further down across the road, she saw what appeared to be a vending machine selling amputated fingers. Ugh! she thought uneasily. I hope those are just some kind of macabre candy. Like the gummy eyeballs you can buy to give out at Halloween back home.

  Just as she was beginning to think her eyes were going to pop out of her head from the strangeness of it all, the orange girl stopped so abruptly Lauren almost ran into her. “What—?” she began.

  “We’re here.” Her guide nodded at a small, dusty booth with a faded red awning. Behind the counter sat Blix. He was in his human form again with pale blond hair and eyebrows. When he looked up and saw Lauren, he smiled broadly.

  “Well, well, my dear,” he said, rising and coming around the front of the booth to greet her. “So here you are. I had hoped you would take me up on my offer.”

  “It seemed…reasonable.” Lauren nodded guardedly and crossed her arms over her chest. She wished she hadn’t let Vlanka rearrange the red scarf-like tok so that it exposed her breasts through the sheer light blue shirt.

  Blix laughed. “Don’t worry about exposing your lovely breasts, my dear. It’s quite common here on O’ah. Especially with those in the trade.”

  “The what?” Lauren frowned but he waved her question away.

  “Unimportant. Did you bring me some cubes?”

  “A few.” Lauren pulled the handful of food cubes out of the pocket of her skirt and held them out for him to examine. “Uh, fair warning though,” she said, feeling suddenly guilty. “Most of these feature live worms as their main entrée. So…” She shrugged. “I don’t know if you’re interested in that or not.”

  “Worms?” Blix frowned and plucked several of the cubes out of her hand. “What kind of worms?”

  “Well that’s just it—I don’t know. I mean—”

  “Stop!”

  Both their heads turned and Lauren felt a surge of relief so great her knees almost buckled. Xairn was striding towards them.

  “Xairn!” Lauren took a step toward him… and stopped. He didn’t look nearly as happy to see her as she was to see him. In fact, he looked positively furious. His broad shoulders were tensed and his big hands were curled into fists at his side. The look in his red-on-black eyes was terrifying and that was saying something considering that his eyes looked forbidding at the best of times.

  The minute he reached Lauren, he grabbed her by the upper arm and pulled her close to his side. “What in the seven hells are you doing?” he demanded, looking her up and down. “And why are you dressed like that?”

  “She is dressed like that because I gave her the clothes.” Blix came forward, his pale purple eyes glittering.

  Xairn turned to her, his face so fierce it was frightening. “Is that true?” he demanded. “You accepted the clothes from him?”

  “Well, yes,” Lauren admitted. She could tell she’d done something completely wrong but she didn’t know what it was. “I’m sorry, Xairn but I—”

  “Strip.”

  “What?” Lauren stared at him, uncomprehending. Surely he didn’t mean—

  “You heard me. Strip.” Xairn glared at her. “Take off every single piece of clothing the Spider gave you right now.”

  “But…but I can’t just—”

  “Undress now or I’ll undress you myself, Goddess damn it.” His eyes flashed and when Lauren was a little slow to obey him, he reached for her and started unknotting the long red tok himself.

  “No!” Lauren tried to push his hands away. “We’re in public. I don’t want to be naked in front of all these…these people.” If walking trees and gnomes and talking insects could be considered people, anyway.

  “You have a choice,” Xairn growled. “Get naked now in public or spend the rest of your very short life getting naked over and over in private.”

  “What are you talking about?” Lauren protested as he unwound the tok and threw it at Blix’s blond head. He turned back and started immediately on the elaborate buttons running down the front of her pale blue blouse.

  “There’s no time to explain. Here.” He stopped undressing her long enough to strip off his own shirt. “Take that off and put this on. Hurry.”

  There seemed to be no point in arguing with him. Wondering what kind of alien custom she’d broken by accepting clothes from a stranger, Lauren stripped quickly out of the pale blue blouse and shrugged into Xairn’s shirt instead. It was much too large and drooped down to her knees. Which suited her fine, since the lovely cobalt skirt was the last thing to go. She was bare beneath the shirt but at least she was covered.

  Xairn took each item of clothing as she handed it to him and tossed it back to Blix. The blond alien caught the blouse and skirt in turn but there was a strange little smile playing around his lips that Lauren didn’t like.

  “You might as well have saved yourself the trouble, Scourge,” he said, passing the outfit to Vlanka who folded it neatly. “In return for the clothing, your little pet gave me these.” He held out the three food cubes he’d plucked from Lauren’s palm.

  Xairn’s face was suddenly as impassive as stone but his deep voice sounded strangled when he talked. “That’s all? She gave you nothing more?�