Twisted: Brides of the Kindred 23 Read online

  The wedge-shaped tub beside the bloody one she had found herself in had a dark blue liquid in it. The one beside it was holding bright green fluid. Beside it, was another wedge-shaped tub filled with what looked like molten gold. The last one appeared to hold clear water.

  In the center of the spiral formed by the triangular tubs was a towering fountain which had all of the various liquids the tubs were filled with gushing down its sides. Strangely, the fluids never mixed and each one flowed directly into the tub it was designated for.

  Nikki would have spared a moment to wonder at the strangeness of it all, but she was still completely preoccupied by being drenched in blood.

  “Ugh!” she moaned again, trying in vain to brush the sticky red liquid off her arms and legs. I must look like that scene at the end of Carrie! I need to get this off of me!

  “Mistress? Are you well?”

  The deep growling voice startled her so much she jumped and slipped on the slick surface underfoot. She would have fallen and probably gashed her head open, adding her own blood to the nauseating mess in the tub, but a strong hand caught her under the arm and steadied her before she could go down.

  “Oh!” Nikki gasped and turned to see who had caught her. To her immediate discomfort it was a man—but not just any man.

  This guy was seven feet tall if he was an inch and he was in incredible shape.

  Oh my God, his muscles have muscles, Nikki thought, taking him in. It was easy to see his muscular form because he was bare from the waist up—his broad shoulders and brawny chest on display. Below he seemed to be wearing tight leather trousers and some kind of a loincloth, which was weird.

  He had long, wheat-blond hair which he wore braided in the back and piercing eyes which seemed to see right through her. They were a strange, pale color which almost looked silver but that must be a trick of the light, Nikki was sure. Nobody had silver eyes—not even seven-foot-tall muscular man-candy guy who looked like he belonged in a Magic Mike movie.

  “What? Who…who are you?” she gasped, and then realized she was still naked and tried to cover herself with her bloody arms.

  He frowned, his dark brows, which seemed at odds with his blond hair, going down in an expression that made him look even scarier than he had been to begin with.

  “What do you mean, who am I? I am Malik, your bodyslave, my Mistress. You know that.”

  “Bodyslave? What’s that?” Nikki demanded. “And where am I? I was just on the beach a minute ago and now I’m here. Also, who took off my clothes? Was it you?”

  He frowned even more. “Naturally, I helped you disrobe as I always do. As your primary bodyslave, it is my duty to dress and undress you for your daily rejuvenation treatment.”

  He still wasn’t making any sense and from the way he was looking at Nikki, he was thinking the same about her.

  “Forgive me, my Mistress, but did you perhaps slip and bump your head in your yerba-blood bath?” he asked. “It is the only reason I can think of that you would become suddenly disorientated in your own domicile.”

  “Did I slip and hit my head?” Nikki repeated stupidly. “Of course I didn’t! I—"

  “Because the only other explanation I can imagine for your apparent confusion is that you are an imposter who has claimed Mistress Hellenix’s place.” He glared at her, his strange silver eyes flashing. “If that is so, I must inform you that the penalty for impersonating a Mistress of Yonnie Six is death.”

  “Death?” Nikki stared at him, uncomprehending.

  “Yes, you know it is,” he growled. “You lobbied the Sacred Seven yourself to pass the law so that none should infiltrate your ranks and claim to be a Mistress if she was not. So now, any who are caught pretending to be a Yonnite Mistress must be summarily executed.”

  Finally what he was saying began to sink in. Clearly, he thought she was this “Mistress Hellenix” and if it turned out she wasn’t, he was fully prepared to kill here right here and now.

  Eyeing his huge hands, which were clenched into loose fists at his sides, Nikki was certain he could do it with no problem. He looked like a freaking Norse God straight out of a Viking legend—he was only missing a giant hammer that came flying to his hand when he called it. Probably he could snap her neck like a pretzel stick so she’d better straighten up and at least pretend to be who he thought she was until she could figure out how to get home.

  “You know, I think I did hit my head,” she said, putting one sticky, bloody hand to her scalp and wincing while she tried to keep herself covered with her other arm. “I slipped in the tub when I was taking my, uh, blood bath. Maybe I’d better get out and rinse off now.” She made a face. “I really need to get this off me, uh….” She snapped her bloody fingers. “You know, I can’t remember your name? I know that I know it but—”

  “I am Malik of the Volt Kindred. You have known this since the day you bought me and put your collar on me.” The Norse God frowned at her and for the first time, Nikki noticed that he was wearing a thick black collar around his brawny throat.

  “Of course—Malik! Sorry.” She cleared her throat. “Wow, my head really hurts. I think I need to rinse off and go lay down somewhere dark and quiet.” And hopefully private, so she could try to figure out what was going on without him staring at her.

  “Why do you simply not finish your treatments, my Mistress?” He gestured to the other tubs in the spiral seashell spa-fountain, which was the best way Nikki could describe the odd setup. “You know the brantham bile in the next pool will cleanse away the yerba blood.”

  “Oh…um…bile?” Nikki said weakly, looking at the triangular wedge tub beside her which was filled with dark blue liquid. Presumably that was the “bile” he was talking about.

  “Yes, of course. And then the zoil slime softens the skin and smoothes away wrinkles…” He pointed to the bright green tub. “After which the lengua tongue oil youthens and burnishes your hair and nails… “He pointed to the tub which appeared to hold melted gold. “And finally, a refreshing rinse in the tears of a thousand shau-pins cleanses you of the residue from the other baths.” Here he nodded with finality at the last tub in the spiral seashell, which Nikki had assumed contained water.

  Silly me, she thought faintly. Whoever this Mistress Hellenix is, it’s clear she wouldn’t bathe in anything as common as water.

  In fact, she was beginning to get the idea that the woman she had been mistaken for must be a real bitch—or maybe a vampire, considering the blood bath thing. And of course, someone like that wouldn’t hesitate to finish the treatments in the other triangular wedge-tubs since she had certainly ordered them in the first place.

  Nikki didn’t like the idea of taking baths in bile and slime and tears and tongue-oil—whatever the hell that was—but she also didn’t like the idea of being killed by the massive Norse God bodyguard named Malik who was staring at her like he suspected she was an imposter.

  “Of course,” she said and swallowed hard. “I’ll just…continue the treatments and uh, take my bile bath next.”

  “That would seem to be best,” he rumbled and folded his arms over his broad chest as he watched her narrowly with those strange silver eyes.

  Nikki stepped gingerly over the dividing wall between the dark red blood bath and the deep blue bile bath and slowly lowered herself down into the liquid. It was thinner than she had expected—wasn’t bile supposed to be thick and viscous? Also, it fizzed wherever it touched her skin. It didn’t hurt though—it just felt like taking a bath in dark blue Coca-Cola. Which she was certain was something the soft drink company would advocate if they thought they could get people to pay for it.

  The blood was everywhere. So, taking a deep breath, Nikki dunked under the fizzing blue liquid completely and stayed as long as she could, hoping to get it all off.

  The result, when she came up and looked at herself, was a limited success. The blood was gone from her skin and hair and from under her fingernails, but her pale skin had turned a delicate shade of blue