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  She shivered. Despite the pale green sunlight, this area of the ship seemed darker somehow, more forbidding. Dangerous. As the Take-me ambled past it, she tried not to look at any of the warriors entering and leaving the mysterious shops but she couldn’t help noticing that they were certainly looking at her. Several of them stared at her and lifted their heads, breathing deeply as though scenting the air. Weird… Liv shivered again and then, thankfully, she was past the area and the Take-me was entering a familiar looking warren of blank metal corridors.

  This was the area where most of the mated Twin Kindred lived and Liv was looking forward to seeing some up close since they were the only kind of Kindred she hadn’t met yet. She’d mostly seen Beast Kindred and the occasional Blood Kindred, like Sylvan, in the area where she and Baird were staying. She wondered if Jillian would dish more on having two husbands and how in the world such a three-way relationship worked. Liv could kind of see having a ménage a trois with two hot guys—she’d read it was the number one female fantasy in some woman’s magazine or other. But to actually marry two men and try to keep both of them happy all the time? It can’t be easy, she thought as the Take-me came to a stop in front of a flat silver panel door that looked the same as her own. Well, here goes.

  Leaning forward, she reached past the Take-me’s forward looking head and rapped sharply on the metal door. It slid open at once and there was Jillian Holms, looking only a little different than she had in high school.

  “Livvy!” she squealed, opening her arms for a big hug. “Get off the Take-me and come here.”

  “Uh…” It had taken a certain amount of maneuvering to get up on the shaggy green animal in the first place and Liv didn’t want to fall on her face getting off it. Awkwardly, she began to clamber down but Jillian stopped her.

  “Wait a minute—why are you doing it the hard way? Make it smaller before you try to get down.”

  “Make it smaller?” Liv stared at her blankly. “How?”

  “Like this.” Jillian addressed the two-headed creature sternly. “Take-me, half-as-big.”

  Liv gasped in dismay as the furry green back under her bottom suddenly began to shrink. In a second she was left standing with her legs still spread wide and a Take-me no bigger than a large dog between them.

  “I…I didn’t know it could do that.” Liv stepped carefully away from the placid creature who was looking up at her patiently with all six of its big purple eyes. “Can it get twice as big too?”

  “It can be any size you want—well, up to a point. The Take-mes can compress and expand their mass almost infinitely but you wouldn’t want to make it too big to fit in the ship, of course. Now come on.” Jillian tugged on her arm. “We don’t have all day and I’m dying to catch up with you.”

  Liv allowed herself to be led into the suite Jillian shared with her two husbands and the Take-me ambled in after them. Jillian put it in with her own Take-me which had apparently just come back from the Kindred version of the vet. It seemed to have a longer back than Liv’s. “It’s a three person model—bred especially for Twin Kindred families,” she explained when she saw Liv staring. “Speaking of which, you haven’t lived until you’ve done it on a Take-me. The way they rock when they walk…” She trailed off giggling. “But I’m sure you know what I mean.”

  “Well, no, actually. I had no idea there was any such animal, er, form of transportation, until you told me,” Liv reminded her.

  Jillian frowned. “Oh, that’s right. So strange that your guy hasn’t taken you on your Take-me to see the rest of the ship yet.”

  Liv felt uncomfortable. “Well, we’ve kind of been staying in a lot. Our, uh, claiming period isn’t even over yet—in fact, this is just the beginning of our third week.” She was not going to say tasting week but she didn’t have to because Jillian said it for her.

  “Oh, your tasting week. Well, if your guy is anything like mine are, you’re in for a big treat.” She giggled.

  “Right. Can’t wait,” Liv mumbled.

  “My goodness, I didn’t realize you were that new to the ship.” Jillian’s eyes widened and she tossed her perfect hair over her shoulder. “I can’t believe he even let you out of his sight.”

  “Well, like I told you, he’s away at some conference on the Moon.” Liv shrugged. “And I figured, what he doesn’t know won’t hurt him.”

  Jillian grinned. “That’s the spirit! Well, anyway, make yourself at home. The food got here right before you did and I’m dishing it up right now.”

  “Can I use your restroom?” Liv asked. Swaying on the back of the Take-me for the past hour with no hope of getting off had made her have to go.

  “Sure. Down the hall and to the right. Look around if you want—all the suites are decorated pretty much the same with us brides in mind. They want us to feel at home, I guess although from what my guys say, our concept of furniture is kind of strange to them. Did you know on Twin Moons they eat lying down and sleep sitting up? So weird.”

  “Yeah, that is weird.” Liv really had to go now. Making an excuse to get away from Jillian’s chattering, she ducked down the hall and went to find the bathroom.

  As far as she could tell, Jillian was right about the decoration. Her suite appeared to be done in the same style as the one Liv was sharing with Baird. The one different was that the massive furniture seemed to be even bigger. Of course, she thought as she peeked her head into the doorway of the bedroom and saw a bed so immense it dwarfed the one she and Baird slept in. Everything is built for three.

  The bathing pool was larger too—to the point where you could almost do laps in it. For a minute Liv wished for one that size and then she remembered that in order to get one, she would have had to put up with two huge Kindred warriors instead of one. No thanks, guess I’ll keep the one I have, she thought with a little shiver.

  After she finished in the bathroom, she found her way out to the living area which was just off the main hallway where she’d entered. There was a couch that was half again as long as the one Baird had but at least it didn’t have a creepy living blanket on it. Liv still refused to sit on the fuzzy blue couch cover, although Baird had explained several times that it actually liked to be used.

  In Liv’s opinion, household objects should not be able to fondle you or decide that they wanted you to use them. But the Kindred, being genetic traders, had developed a distressingly large amount of appliances that were alive and all too aware of their surroundings. Like that Touch-U thing…ugh! Just remembering the way the black massage mat had molested her still made Liv shiver. Well, at least there are a few useful and easy to use things. The Take-me was relatively simple and now that I know how to make it bigger or smaller even mounting and dismounting should be no problem.

  Stepping around the couch she saw a display of wall mounted holo frames, each displaying Jillian with two huge Kindred males. To Liv’s surprise, one of them had dark blond hair and green eyes while the other had brown hair and brown eyes.

  “Those are my guys,” Jillian said from behind her, making Liv jump. “Aren’t they handsome?”

  “Yes, they are,” she said honestly. “But, uh, I thought they were supposed to be twins.”

  “Yes, but not identical—fraternal. Otherwise, how would you ever tell them apart?” Jillian giggled. “Now this one is Happy.” She pointed at the blonde warrior who was slightly shorter than his brother. Not that a few inches mattered one way or another since both of them were over six four.

  “And you call him that because…?”

  “He’s the cheerful one—the light twin,” Jillian explained. “They’re like two halves of a whole, you know. So you always have a light twin and a dark twin—they compliment each other. Now that one,” She pointed to the Kindred male with the dark brown hair. “Is Grumpy, the dark twin. It took me a little while to warm up to him. But once I did…let’s just say he’s very…intense in the bedroom.” She gave a little mock shiver and grinned at Liv. “What do you think?”

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