Sharing a Mate Read online

  “It’s dark, though.” Sorin put up a hand in warning. “And I hear some strange noises down at the far end. I’ll go first, then Kayla. Bron, you take up the rear.”

  The Beast Kindred gave her a look and Kayla was certain he would make a joke about how he had done that earlier. But somehow Bron restrained himself and just nodded.

  “All right, Brother—lead the way,” he rumbled.

  Sorin did, leading them slowly into the dark tunnel that twisted and turned and seemed to go on and on. As they left the cacophony of the copulation floor with its blaring music behind, Kayla began to hear the strange sounds Sorin had talked about. They grew louder and louder until she began to make out a kind of melody.

  “Hey, that sounds like some kind of classical music,” she remarked, as they walked.

  “It sounds like a cello being played,” Sorin agreed. “It’s very soothing.”

  “I think we’re about due for some soothing after everything that happened in that damn fuck-club,” Bron growled. “Not that I minded pounding those assholes.”

  “Shhh…” Sorin held up a hand for silence and Kayla realized they had finally reached the end of the tunnel. There was yet another velvet curtain hanging in the doorway and a pale pink glow was coming from under its hem.

  “Be careful,” she whispered to the big Blood Kindred. Sorin only nodded and then pushed back the curtain, making certain to keep his body between Kayla and the entrance. The music stopped abruptly.

  “Well, hello esteemed customers!” piped a high, squeaky voice. Kayla couldn’t see the owner of the voice because Sorin was too tall to see over but it didn’t sound very threatening.

  “Are you Y’ax, the dealer of controlled substances?” Sorin asked.

  “I am,” the squeaky voice announced. “Why do you not come into my parlor that we may conduct business which is mutually beneficial to us all?”

  “All right.” They all filed in and Kayla was finally able to see the owner of the voice.

  She had been expecting another one of the Carnalians with pastel skin and brightly colored hair. Instead, Y’ax was a whole other kind of alien. He was about as tall as her but only, she saw, because he was standing on a kind of desk. In reality, he was probably no taller than a meter high—and squat, with rolls of greenish skin hanging off his body. His large bulging eyes were a muddy brown and he had a wide, lipless mouth and two slits for nostrils.

  Altogether Kayla thought he looked like a very ugly cross between a toad and a Shar-Pei.

  “Welcome, honored guests,” he said, ushering them into a large, opulently furnished room which seemed to be decorated primarily in shades of green. He turned to another alien who looked like him but was much smaller and had gray skin, sitting in one corner of the room. “B’now, we have guests! Why have you stopped the music?”

  “Forgive me, Y’ax,” the other alien murmured.

  Kayla looked for some kind of musical instrument but there was none. Instead, B’now pursed his wide, lipless mouth and began to whistle—or that was what it looked like he was doing. But instead of a whistling sound, the beautiful, cello-like music resumed. It was extremely soothing after the pounding techno-type beat of the copulation floor.

  “Lovely.” Y’ax nodded approvingly. “Now, please, do have a seat.” He indicated three chairs which seemed to be made for regular humanoid type people across from the green desk-type structure he was standing on.

  Bron and Sorin sank down into two of the chairs but Kayla just stood there.

  “Leelah?” Sorin turned his head, frowning at her. “Why are you still standing?”

  “Why do you think? I can’t exactly sit with this thing in me,” Kayla muttered, pointing to the tail she was still wearing.

  “Sure you can. Here, Brother—move closer to me.” Bron moved his chair closer to Sorin’s so that their long thighs were touching. “There you go,” he said, indicating both of their broad knees. “Go ahead, small one. One cheek on my knee and one on Sorin’s. That should work.”

  Kayla saw that he was probably right. Sitting in a regular chair would have shoved the elaborate feather-tail deeper into her but perching on their knees would keep the feathers and their harness out of the way.

  “Thanks.” She sank down gratefully. Without speaking, Sorin and Bron each put a hand on her thighs—Sorin on the left and Bron on the right. It was beginning to feel really natural to have them in that position, she realized—it just seemed to be the way they all fit together.

  “Ah, I see you have one of that bawdy club’s notoriously difficult to remove ‘tails’ in.” Y’ax sounded disapproving.

  “Excuse me, what?” Kayla frowned. “What do you mean, ‘difficult to remove’?”

  “No matter, no matter…” He waved one flat, flipper-like hand dismissively. “Now then, as you have braved that den of iniquity out front, I assume you are serious buyers. So what can I get for you? Perhaps some Love-Flower that both of you may fit into your lady’s orifices at once?”

  “That’s not what we’re actually here for,” Sorin said, frowning. “In fact, we are Kindred and we have…our own methods of sharing a mate.”

  “Not that our kinds of Kindred ever share,” Bron put in quickly.

  “No, not that we do.” Sorin shot him an annoyed look. “But that is beside the point.”

  “We need some Lust Blossoms,” Kayla said, cutting to the chase. “Can you help us out? We know they’re a controlled substance but it’s really important that we get some.”

  “Lust Blossoms!” Y’ax shook his head in apparent horror. “Oh no, my dear—you don’t want those! The results are extremely unpredictable. Why, your breasts might swell with nectar one moment and the next your, ahem, your nether regions might feel like they are on fire and only a male with a patient and willing tongue can help you. Or worse, you could develop an insatiable thirst for male seed that is almost impossible to quench without debasing yourself with two or more partners.” He made a face. “Just as they do on that horrendous copulation floor out front.”

  “We know all that,” Sorin said blandly. “Because it’s already happened—not just to us but to our entire ship.”

  “All our females of mating age have been affected,” Bron rumbled. “Every fucking one of them.”

  “What?” Y’ax looked startled. “But how can that be?”

  “We had a kind of…terrorist attack,” Kayla explained. “Someone who hated our people made a substance called Xi-46 from the Lust Blossoms and had it painted on every air vent in the ship. When the vents began to blow…”

  “We were all fucked,” Bron finished for her.

  “Literally and figuratively,” Sorin said.

  “My, my, my!” Y’ax looked most distressed—if an alien toad can look distressed, Kayla thought. He paced back and forth on his desk, shaking his head as the beautiful cello-whistling played on in the background.

  “It’s a mess,” she confided to him. “But the three of us are scientists—although I know we really don’t look it right now.” She nodded at her own exposed breasts and Bron’s and Sorin’s exposed shafts. “But we’re here hoping to get some more of the Lust Blossoms so we can analyze them and try to develop an antidote.”

  “Antidote? But there is no antidote!” Y’ax burst out. “At least, none that I have ever heard of. The Lust Blossom causes a kind of virus which is impossible to eradicate—it stays with the female it infects for life.”

  Kayla felt her stomach drop at his words.

  “Please,” she whispered. “That…that can’t be true.”

  “Ah, I perceive that you are affected by it yourself, my dear.” Y’ax looked at her sympathetically. “My deepest condolences to you. I hope that these two males are willing to service you always in order to control the symptoms and the pain.”

  “We’ll help Kayla as long as she needs us,” Bron growled. “But we don’t accept the idea that there’s no antidote.”

  “Just let us have some of the blossoms ours