Falling for Kindred Claus Read online

  “Forget it,” she said tersely. “I don’t believe you, anyway. You just wanted a girl along so you could have a good time on your mission and now that it’s over, you’re trying to let me down easy. Well, I’m not buying it.” She stabbed a finger at him. “This is a shitty thing to do, Asher, and you know it. Especially on Christmas Eve. Even if the holiday doesn’t mean a damn thing to you, believe me—it’s shitty.”

  “Lisa—” he started again but she was already out of the ship and marching across the Docking Bay. They were expected and she could see Kat and Liv and Sophie waving at her down the long metal corridor lined with Kindred ships. “Lisa, please!” she heard him shout behind her. But she was damned if she was going back.

  She turned her head and shot him one last glare.

  “Have a nice life,” she flung at him and then she faced front resolutely and resolved not to look back again.

  Asher watched her go, feeling like someone had stabbed him in the heart with a dull knife and was twisting the blade. How had things gone so wrong so quickly? Maybe he shouldn’t have told her he never wanted to see her again.

  But it would have been too difficult, seeing each other all the time, he argued with himself. Too tempting.

  And ultimately too painful when she inevitably found another Kindred warrior to be with—one which could bond her to him in the way Asher could not. The idea of that—of Lisa with someone else—was more than he could bear. He had decided he would rather not see her at all than see her with another male.

  But maybe that had been the wrong decision. And he had certainly told her in the wrong way. But what else could he do?

  What you can do is spend your life alone, whispered a little voice in the back of his head. Because you’ll never find another female like Lisa and you know it.

  He looked down at the single chewchie egg left on the pillow and felt grief wash over him. Alone.

  He would always be alone and it was his own fault.

  Forty-One

  “Lisa, are you sure you want to go back down to Earth tonight?” Liv asked, frowning. “I mean, it’s almost midnight in Florida right now. Don’t you want to at least spend the night and go back tomorrow morning?”

  “No.” Lisa lifted her chin, willing herself not to cry. “I’d like to go tonight, please. I know it’s a pain in the butt,” she added. “But there are some things I need to get done.”

  The main thing being, to get as far away from Asher as possible, she thought. There was no way she was going to move up to the Mother Ship now. No way she would ever risk seeing him again—especially knowing he wanted nothing to do to her. She was going back tonight and never coming back again.

  “But don’t you want to wait to get your money?” Sophie asked. “I mean, you earned an awful lot, since you stayed that extra day and everything. But there’s no way Sylvan can get it all together tonight. If you’ll just wait—”

  “Sorry but I really don’t want to wait—I need to go now,” Lisa emphasized.

  “Well…” Sophie closed her eyes and appeared to be concentrating.

  “She’s talking to Sylvan using their bond,” Kat explained when Lisa frowned. “Asking him what can be done about the money, probably.”

  So Kindred were able to communicate with their mates via some kind of telepathic bond, Lisa realized. And Asher had been certain he couldn’t form this kind of bond with her—not that he would, even if he could, she thought bitterly. He wanted nothing to do with her now. Well the feeling was mutual!

  At last Sophie opened her eyes.

  “Sylvan says he can have a cashier’s check ready for you at the HKR building in downtown Tampa but not until the day after Christmas,” she said apologetically. “I’m really sorry but apparently it’s a pretty big sum so the High Council has to approve it and they aren’t meeting again until after the holidays.”

  “That’s fine,” Lisa said, though she couldn’t help feeling a touch of unease. She’d been planning to go back to her apartment, gather her things—especially the picture of her Dad—and get on the first bus out of town. Now it appeared she was going to be stuck in Tampa at least two more days.

  It shouldn’t be a problem, she told herself firmly. After all, Cameron thinks I’m in Miami and that’s a big city. He’s probably still driving around down there looking for me.

  She was sure it must be true—or at least she told herself she was. Everything was going to be fine—she just needed to get some distance between herself and Asher and she would feel much better.

  “Are you sure you have to go, doll?” Kat asked, trying one more time, even though her friends had failed. “You don’t really want to spend Christmas by yourself, do you? Why don’t you hang around here and come by my place? You’d be more than welcome.”

  “You’re very kind.” Lisa smiled at her. “But honestly, I just want to go home.”

  “Would this have anything to do with Commander Asher?” Liv asked, frowning. “Because I was sure the two of you were hitting it off.”

  “Yeah, I was sure of that too,” Lisa muttered.

  “Oh no—what happened?” Sophie asked.

  Lisa shook her head.

  “I’m sorry, but I’d rather not talk about it. I just want to go home.”

  “Well…” Liv and Sophie and Kat exchanged helpless glances and at last Liv nodded. “I’ll get my hubby Baird to fly you,” she said. She closed her eyes for a moment and concentrated before opening them again. “Okay, he says he’ll meet you at the Docking Bay in fifteen minutes. Have you got everything you need?”

  Liv patted the carry-all cube with her clothes and the precious chewchie egg inside it.

  “It’s all here. As long as I’m allowed to keep the clothes I wore on Helios Beta?” she asked, looking at Kat.

  “Of course, doll—they’re all yours.” Kat nodded. “Wear them in good health and come back and see us some time, all right?”

  Lisa promised she would, though she knew it was a blatant lie. There was no way she was ever coming back to the Mother Ship—not as long as Asher made it his home.

  She never wanted to see the big bastard again.

  Forty-Two

  The egg hatched around noon on Christmas Eve. Lisa had been sitting on the couch, watching a Christmas movie marathon on the boxy old TV which the previous tenant had left in her apartment when she’d heard a cracking sound coming from the tiny, postage-stamp sized kitchen table behind her.

  Lisa, who was sitting on the sagging couch, turned around to look. One of the reasons she’d taken the crappy little apartment in the bad part of Tampa—sometimes known as “suitcase city” because people moved in and out with such regularity—was the fact that it was fully furnished. Not that it was furnished very well—every piece of furniture from the ancient couch to the squeaky bed had been cheap to begin with and they were all aging badly.

  Which meant that the pink-speckled chewchie egg looked wildly exotic, sitting as it was on a ragged old pillow on the rickety table. As Lisa watched, a crack formed in the creamy shell and then the entire egg split in two with a sudden, loud crrrrrkk!

  “Oh my goodness!”

  Lisa jumped up and ran to the table. The newly hatched chewchie had bright pink fur—much like the speckles on its egg—which was still damp and sticking to its tiny, shivering body. It opened wide, dark, liquid eyes and immediately began sniffing around, as though it was looking for something.

  When it didn’t seem to find what it was looking for, it looked up at Lisa and gave a high, piteous cry.

  “Oh, you poor little thing!”

  Lisa brushed the broken egg shell aside and gathered it up—pillow and all, since she was afraid to handle the newborn creature—and cradled it to her chest.

  The chewchie cried again and for a moment, Lisa almost thought she heard words in its cry. It sounded like, “Where? Where?”

  “Where what, little girl?” she asked softly, for somehow she was certain the chewchie was a female, though she could