Falling for Kindred Claus Read online

  But no—surely that couldn’t be right! The Sight was a twofold sign and so far he’d only had the first part of it. Probably he had just been daydreaming—fantasizing about the sexy little human. It was nothing, really, he told himself uneasily. Nothing at all.

  And then he looked down into her face and saw the second part of the twofold sign.

  “Ouch—that really hurt!” She had put her thumb in her mouth and was sucking the small wound to ease it. When she looked up at him, Asher saw that her eyes—formerly deep blue—had gone the same brilliant green as his own eyes.

  The color only lasted a moment—he hadn’t injected enough of his essence to change them for long—but even as they returned to their normal blue, he knew what he had seen was no mistake—no accident or trick of the light.

  A change of eye color after an injection of essence was the second part of the twofold sign—the Sight—by which a Tangala Kindred knew his fated mate. The first part, of course was the intense vision of the future. And the fact that the Sight had followed so quickly after the Strike, which was the first sign, seemed significant.

  But this couldn’t be happening to him, Asher thought again, feeling bewildered. She had no Tangala DNA—she couldn’t. So there was no way she could be his fated mate—no way he could bond her to him. And anyway, he was there to do a mission, not bond with anyone. What in the Seven Hells was going on?

  “So I guess those are real, then?” she asked, motioning at his fangs. “I though you’d gotten Halloween and Christmas mixed up and you were wearing a fake pair. I didn’t know you were a Blood Kindred—sorry.”

  “I am…Tangala Kindred.” His voice was a hoarse croak and he cleared his throat and tried again. “We are related to the Blood Kindred—an offshoot of them,” he went on. “But we are too far removed to really be called Blood Kindred anymore.”

  “Okay, well just try to keep your mouth closed,” she said, frowning. “You don’t want to go scaring the kids. Some of the little ones are already frightened of Santa enough as it is. If they thought you were going to bite them, they would need all of the therapy.” She shook her head. “Though I’m sure the beard and mustache will probably hide them as long as you’re careful.”

  Asher frowned.

  “Beard and mustache?”

  “Come on,” she said, not answering his implied question. “Get your pants down—we need to get you dressed. At least your boots will work with the outfit.”

  Asher was reluctant to continue disrobing—mostly because his shaft had yet to go down. He tried willing his erection away but it refused to go. Some of that probably had to do with the fact that the tiny structure they were in was rapidly filling with her sweet, warm feminine fragrance and part of it was the way her green uniform clung to her curvy hips and full breasts.

  Gods—he wanted her! Only his years of rigid self control and discipline kept him from grabbing her and dragging her close for a kiss. His body was insisting they needed to be together and every moment in close proximity only made him want her more.

  So much for having ice water in your veins, a jeering little voice in his head said. You’ve done hundreds of missions and assassinated Kindred enemies by the dozen without blinking an eye, yet it’s taking all your strength not to grab this curvy little Earth girl and take her right here against the wall!

  Forcing himself to look away from her, Asher turned to face the wall and began unfastening his flight leathers. Thank the Goddess he was wearing undershorts—though to be honest the tight black fabric didn’t do a thing to hide his embarrassing problem. The huge bulge in them made it more than evident how aroused he still was.

  “Okay, are you ready?” his contact asked. “It’s time to put on the suit.”

  “What suit?” Turning his head, Asher saw that she was holding out a strange looking outfit—a suit made of red fuzzy material with large white fur cuffs at the wrists and ankles. “You want me to put this on?” he asked, bewildered. Why would wearing this be part of his mission?

  But his contact was glaring at him as though he was being deliberately obtuse.

  “Yes, I want you to put it on!” she exclaimed. “Some of those kids have been waiting for over an hour to see Santa. Now hurry up! Or do I have to help you again?”

  “No, no—I can do it!” Asher said quickly. He didn’t want her to see his embarrassing erection, which was still painfully hard.

  Grabbing the suit from her hands, he pulled on the furry trousers—which thankfully hid his throbbing problem—and pulled them on. They went up easily but it was clear the outfit had been made for someone with a much bigger waist. Asher tried to fasten them tighter but the minute he took his hands away, the furry red trousers dropped down around his ankles.

  His contact seemed to see his problem at once.

  “Oh, no wonder the pants fell down—you need some stuffing!” she exclaimed. “Santa isn’t supposed to look like a fitness model, after all. Here, let me help.”

  She grabbed two fluffy pillows which had been sitting in the corner and brought them over to him at once. In a businesslike manner, she knelt down and tugged the trousers back up to his thighs.

  “All right now—turn around,” she told him, frowning. “I can’t stuff the pillow in if you’re facing the wall like that.”

  Asher froze. This was going to be fucking awkward.

  Reluctantly, steeling himself for her reaction, he turned to face her.

  Her pretty face—which had been set in a businesslike frown—suddenly changed. Her eyes—which just happened to be right on the level of his engorged shaft, which was still straining against the black fabric of his under briefs, went wide and disbelieving.

  “What the…” She scrambled backwards and got shakily to her feet. “What is that for?” she demanded, pointing at his erection. “Please tell me you’re not one of those sickos who gets off on the idea of kids sitting on your lap!”

  “What?” Asher demanded. “Who did you say would sit on my lap?”

  “The kids! You know—the children.” She motioned out the two small front windows of the house and when he looked, Asher did indeed see a long line of children and parents waiting. But were they really waiting for him? To sit on his lap? The idea made no sense.

  “Why would they wish to sit on my lap?” he asked suspiciously.

  “Because you’re playing Santa Claus!” The girl’s exasperation was back in full force. “Don’t you know anything about Santa Claus?”

  Asher thought of the details Dru had given him.

  “He is a portly male who wears red fur and is dragged through the sky by flying ruminants,” he recited rapidly. “He enters people’s domiciles without permission and leaves gifts for children who he deems have exhibited acceptable or ‘nice’ behavior. But ‘bad’ children who exhibit unacceptable behavior are given dirty lumps of carbon.”

  For a long moment his contact just stared at him.

  “Wow…just wow.” She shook her head. “Okay, you have the general gist of it though the way you said it sounded really weird. I don’t have time to correct everything because the crowd is getting really restless.” She pointed out the window again. “But the point of this is that you dress up like Santa, the kids sit on your lap and tell you what they want for Christmas. Then Gary, there—the photographer—takes a picture and we move on to the next kid. Got it?”

  Asher felt completely bewildered.

  “But…I am a member of the Elite Espionage Corps. How can my mission be to impersonate Satan Clause and allow children to sit on me and tell me what gifts they want for your Earth holiday?” he demanded. “This is most irregular.”

  His contact’s big blue eyes flashed.

  “Listen, Mr. Kindred Warrior,” she snapped, glaring up at him. “It’s your mission because they sent you here and I’ve been waiting for you to show up for over an hour. So you’re damn well going to finish putting on the suit and get out there! But first you have to do something about that…that problem of your