Falling for Kindred Claus: A Kindred Tales Novel (Brides of the Kindred) Read online

  “You’re a big one, all right, ” the girl remarked. “Good thing they got the extra, extra large suit. Well, what are you waiting for?” she added when he just stood there looking at her. “Get undressed!”

  “What?” Asher looked at her blankly. “Why would I need to disrobe for this mission?”

  “Because this ‘mission’ includes wearing a heavy fur suit and if you put it on over leather pants and a long-sleeved shirt, you’re going to roast inside an hour!” the girl exclaimed impatiently, motioning to his flight leathers and the heavy, satiny uniform shirt he wore. “Honestly, didn’t they tell you anything about what you’re supposed to do?”

  “I was told you would give me all the details,” Asher said, frowning at her. She didn’t need to be so brusque with him. Dru hadn’t told him anything about a time limit on this assignment and anyway, he had come as soon as he got the coordinates!

  Though he had no idea why he would have to change clothes, he began undressing anyway. She was so insistent he hardly dared to do anything else, though he wasn’t used to taking orders from anyone but a commanding officer.

  The girl was peering out the small front windows of the house they were huddled in together, a look of anxiety on her lovely face.

  “Oh, there they go again throwing the fake snow and of course Gary won’t do a damn thing to stop them!” she muttered. Turning, she saw that Asher only had his uniform shirt half off, exposing part of his chest. “Hurry up, won’t you?” she exclaimed in apparent exasperation. “Here—I’ll help you.”

  She reached for him, grabbing one side of his shirt in one hand to pull it off and placing her other small hand on his bare chest.

  And that was when it happened.

  At the feel of her bare hand touching his exposed chest, an instant stab of desire, so intense he felt like he had been punched, suddenly ripped through Asher. His shaft rose to immediate attention, throbbing painfully hard against the fabric of his flight leathers. At the same time his double set of fangs, dormant all his life, suddenly came to life. They grew long and sharp and ached painfully, insisting that he had to grab the luscious little female and bite her at once—marking her as his and his alone.

  For a moment he stood there, completely immobilized by the sudden rush of painful desire. The punch of lust had left him breathless—not to mention aching for her touch.

  No, whispered a voice in his head. Not a punch—a strike. This is the first of the Three Signs—the Strike!

  He remembered his grandfather describing it to him, explaining how the sudden intense desire almost felt like a physical blow it was so strong. But it couldn’t be, could it? He was certain this little Earth female had no Tangala DNA, so how was it that his body was reacting to her this way?

  It must be my imagination, he thought uneasily. It’s been a long time since I visited a willing female to relieve my lusts. This little human is exactly the type I like and she’s touching me, so my body reacted—that must be all it is.

  In the meantime, it was apparent that his contact had no idea what was happening to him. She was efficiently stripping his uniform shirt away while Asher just stood there, letting her undress him. Looking up at his face, she appeared to notice his fangs for the first time—no doubt because they were suddenly much longer and sharper than they had ever been before.

  “What in the world?” she demanded, glaring at him. “Who do you think you are, Vampire Santa? You’ll scare the kids to death in those things! Come on—spit them out. This is Christmas, not Halloween, you know!”

  When Asher made no move to do as she said—indeed, he was afraid to move at all because he was still struggling to control the lust raging through him—she reached up as though to take the fangs out of his mouth herself. She must have thought they were fake because she reached confidently into his mouth…and promptly cut her thumb on the point of his right fang.

  The contact was only for an instant—she cried out and drew her thumb back almost at once. Yet it was long enough.

  Asher felt his fangs throb as some of his essence was automatically injected into her. And for a moment—just a moment—he had a vision of her riding astride him. Her full curves were exposed and her heavy breasts swayed, her nipples tight and pink as though someone had been sucking them.

  Me, Asher thought deliriously, I was sucking them—making her moan with pleasure as I teased her tender peaks until she could stand it no more and had to mount me and take my shaft deep in her hot little pussy!

  The vision faded but it had been so intense—so real—he had to blink his eyes several times to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.

  The Sight, whispered a voice in his head. The second of the Three Signs—you had a vision of her in the future—of the two of you together!

  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�€