Twisted: Brides of the Kindred 23 Read online

  “Ugh—I cannot imagine being mated to a male!” Mistress Hellenix exclaimed. “I have to inform you, Nicole, that I will not allow a male to penetrate me. I must draw the line somewhere—I will kill him if he tries.”

  “Don’t worry about that,” Nikki said dryly. “He hasn’t had any wish to, uh, penetrate me for the past couple of years. In fact, he’s leaving me for another woman so he can penetrate her. I just found out yesterday—so you might not see him around at all.”

  “What? You’re allowing him to leave you?” Her evil twin looked shocked. “Why do you not give him a good shock with his pain collar and lock him in your dungeon for a while? That will teach him a lesson!”

  “He doesn’t wear a pain collar because he’s not a slave,” Nikki explained again. “Also, I don’t have a dungeon—not even a basement. You can’t really have them in the Tampa Bay area because we’re too close to sea level. If you dig a hole in the ground, you just made a swimming pool—not a dungeon.”

  That reminded her—their backyard pool was in really sad shape. It was full of leaves and needed to be shocked. She’d been trying to get Jude to take care of it—the leaves at least—for some time. But since she couldn’t even get her boys to do their own laundry or pack their own lunches, the pool duties usually fell to her, along with everything else.

  Well…she would just have to deal with it when she got home. Her evil twin certainly wasn’t going to play pool boy on top of everything else. Nikki had the idea that she wasn’t used to any kind of manual or domestic labor at all.

  “I would not allow any male who belonged to me to defect to another female,” Mistress Hellenix announced, glaring at her disapprovingly. “Not unless I sold him to her in the first place.”

  “It’s not like Gary’s been the best husband lately,” Nikki pointed out. “He’s cheating on me, like I said. And he never helps out around the house or helps the kids with their homework or does anything, really, but watch TV and play his fantasy football league.”

  “What fantasy is this?” Mistress Hellenix asked, raising an eyebrow. “Is it sexual?”

  “Hardly.” Nikki couldn’t think of anything less sexual than football—or sports in general for that matter. She just wasn’t a fan. “It’s just this thing he does where he gets together with a bunch of his friends and they all pretend they own football teams and pick which players they would use and—”

  “So he lazes around while you do all the work?” The alien dominatrix sounded both appalled and disbelieving. “Nicole, it sounds to me as though you are the slave in this relationship—a slave in your own domicile. Why do you allow him to put you in bondage? You are a female and therefore superior—you should rise up and strike him down! Force him to grovel at your feet and beg for forgiveness—then punish him anyway!” There was a fierce light in her eyes that made her look downright scary.

  Nikki had a vivid mental image of her soon-to-be ex-husband kneeling at her feet and begging humbly for forgiveness. A bitter laugh rose in her throat.

  “Never going to happen,” she told Mistress Hellenix. “Just leave Gary to his own devices—he won’t bother you.”

  “I still think—” the other woman began but just then she was interrupted by a burst of static or what appeared to be static anyway. It made the mirror hazy and for a moment Nikki lost sight of Mistress Hellenix. Then it cleared again but the other woman was frowning.

  “I believe we are soon to lose this connection,” she told Nikki. “Are you clear on what you have to do?”

  “Go to the Banquet of Pain and pretend to be you, then come to Earth in your long-range ship so we can switch back,” Nikki said quickly.

  Mistress Hellenix nodded.

  “Exactly. And I will go to your place of employment and pretend to do your duties before going to the meeting of the Plan numbered five hundred and four at the school of your progeny.” She made a face. “Ugh—not only a male mate but male children as well—how do you stand it?”

  “It’s not easy sometimes,” Nikki said grimly. “But I love my kids, even if they are a pain in the ass. So don’t hurt any of them.”

  Mistress Hellenix’s eyes flashed.

  “I’ll make certain they all have a proper respect for you by the time we switch back, Nicole—never fear.”

  “Now, wait a minute—” Nikki began. Knowing how the alien dominatrix felt about males made her worried. Also, Mistress Hellenix needed to know that no matter how angry she got at someone, she couldn’t get away with torturing anybody or bathing in their blood. And she needed to tell the other woman to put on her bra. There was no way she could go to Rosy Ray’s Realty or the 504 Plan meeting at the twins’ middle school with her nipples poking out like that!

  But before she could go on, there was another burst of static and the image of Mistress Hellenix and the rest area bathroom behind her dissolved into nothing.

  “Hey, wait a minute—wait!” Nikki protested. She looked down at the purple M&M E’lo stone she’d been holding clenched in her hand. It had been buzzing quietly throughout her talk with Mistress Hellenix. But now it was flat and dead—lifeless.

  “Damn it!” Nikki swore, shaking it and then rubbing it vigorously. “Come on—work you stupid thing! I wasn’t done talking!”

  But the stone remained stubbornly silent and dull. She was left with nothing but her own reflection for company and an uneasy feeling in her gut that the next couple of days were going to be the most dangerous and difficult of her life.

  Chapter Four

  “Mistress, are you well?” Suddenly the vast double doors of the room swung open and Malik entered, a worried look on his face. Scampering at his heels was the strangest creature Nikki had ever seen.

  It had a head that looked a little like a bull’s, with curving horns and flaring nostrils, but on its back was a bright orange and red shell like a turtle’s. Its eyes were the same, angry orange-red color and it had a spiked, whip-like tail and long, spindly legs that ended in seven-toed hands with sharp claws on the ends of its many-jointed fingers. But the worst thing about it, at least in Nikki’s opinion, was the mane of purple snakes rising around its head—seven of them at least—all hissing and flicking their forked tongues in the air.

  It was about the size of a Chihuahua and thank goodness it wasn’t any bigger! If it had been, say, the size of a Pit-bull, Nikki was certain she would have run screaming. But she knew that if Malik wasn’t bothered by the strange creature scrabbling over the black fur carpet towards her, she had to pretend she wasn’t scared either.

  After all, maybe the Medusa-Chihuahua was Mistress Hellenix’s pet—although she certainly could have said something about it when they were talking, Nikki thought resentfully. After all, she had warned the other woman about Gary—her evil twin could at least have shown her the same courtesy!

  “Mistress, I heard shouting,” Malik said, frowning at her. “And Slinker was worried about you.”

  “Oh, um…” Nikki steeled herself not to react as the weird animal came forward and started sniffing her. “I…I’m just fine. I had a bad dream, is all.”

  Suddenly the Medusa-Chihuahua started growling and all seven of the purple snakes in its mane reared up and hissed at her.

  Oh my God, it’s going to bite me! It knows I’m not her!

  It took all Nikki’s courage not to scream and run. Instead, she edged away as gracefully as she could.

  “You naughty boy!” she said, shaking her finger at the hissing, growling creature who was stalking towards her, stiff-legged. “Settle down and behave yourself now!”

  Malik frowned. “What can be the meaning of this? Slinker is usually so devoted to you, Mistress.”

  “I, uh, think the tears in that last tub in the spa were off somehow,” Nikki said, thinking fast. “He probably doesn’t like the way I smell because of that.”

  “Is that so? Let me see.” Without warning, the huge bodyslave put an arm around her waist and swept her close to his big, muscular frame. Leaning