Healing the Broken: A Kindred Christmas Tale Read online

  Then Sarah stiffened abruptly and pulled away. With a great effort of will, Sazar let her.

  “I…I’m sorry,” she gasped. “I don’t know what came over me. I think…I thought I was having a dream. I just…I don’t…”

  “It’s all right.” He saw that she was flustered and embarrassed. He was ashamed himself—he shouldn’t be taking advantage of a subordinate, especially not in her vulnerable state. What was wrong with him? He’d never had any desire to kiss from any of his other assistants. In fact, he hadn’t even wanted to take blood from any of them, though it was a necessity. None of them attracted him but Sarah, well…this curvy little human was a different case.

  Trying to cover his own confusion as well as hers, he offered her the cup again.

  “Here—you need sustenance.”

  Sarah swallowed obediently several times.

  “Orange juice,” she said with a weak laugh when he took the cup from her lips. “Isn’t that what they give you when you donate blood? But where are my cookies? I’m supposed to get some of those too, right?”

  Sazar frowned. “I asked my computer operating system for a natural Earth liquid full of potassium and sugar to revive you after your recent blood loss and this is what it recommended. Should you also require something else such as these ‘cookies’ whatever those may be, I can have them sent up the food delivery chute as well.”

  It was Sarah’s turn to frown.

  “You don’t know what cookies are? And I thought I led a sheltered life. Even in the Compound we had cookies. Mostly only Father Caleb got to eat them but sometimes we could sneak one or two…” She trailed off when she saw him watching her.

  “What is the Compound?” Sazar asked softly. “Is that the place you ran away from? Is it a facility run by The Brotherhood of Peace?”

  Her eyes flickered nervously away from his face and he sensed she didn’t want to talk about it.

  “I’m just saying you ought to know about cookies, that’s all. Look, the orange juice worked—I’m not a bit dizzy anymore. Let me sit up.”

  She struggled against him and Sazar helped her up obligingly. But the moment she got to her feet, she started to wobble and he had to reach out quickly to catch her and pull her back into his lap.

  “Just relax,” he ordered her. “Sip some more of this juice of the orange and try to regain your strength.”

  “Orange juice—it’s orange juice, not juice of the orange,” she mumbled as he put the cup to her lips again.

  She finished the liquid this time but Sazar wouldn’t let her up again—not yet. He told himself he didn’t want her to faint and hurt herself but far in the back of his mind he couldn’t help thinking how long it had been since he’d held a female in his arms. Especially such a soft, curvy, delicate little female. The scent of her hair and skin drifted up to him like the warm aroma of some exotic flower and the taste of her mouth was still on his tongue.

  Her kisses were as sweet as her blood—he wanted more.

  Well, you can’t have more, he lectured himself. It’s not right—it should never have happened in the first place!

  Still, he couldn’t help holding her close and telling her to be still.

  “This isn’t right, you holding me like this,” she protested weakly. “You’re my boss. This isn’t…isn’t in the contract.”

  “I’m only holding you until I’m sure you won’t get dizzy and fall over,” Sazar remarked. “And as for our contract, I’m afraid I have already violated it. I took much more of your blood than was legally mandated.”

  Her large eyes turned up to his looking vulnerable and uncertain.

  “Will you always need this much? I mean, I’m just asking because I might need to start taking iron supplements or something…”

  Sazar shook his head.

  “I should never need so much blood from you again. I was…exceptionally thirsty when you offered yourself. I had been in a state of semi starvation ever since…” He cleared his throat, looking away. “Ever since my mate died.”

  “I’m sorry.” The compassion in Sarah’s voice caught him off guard and he looked back at her.

  “Sorry for what?”

  “Sorry for your loss. Sorry that I…pushed you earlier.” Her eyes flickered over to the clay vranna. “I haven’t known you long enough to, uh, lecture you. I don’t know your past. I shouldn’t have presumed.”

  “I don’t know your past either—not much of it,” Sazar pointed out. Although he certainly wanted to learn more. The few tidbits she’d dropped intrigued him. What or who was she running from at The Brotherhood of Peace? What had made her so desperate to take this job with him, even knowing she would have to give him her blood?

  Sarah’s eyes flickered again and he sensed she didn’t want to answer his unspoken question.

  “Tell you what,” she said. “Let’s let the past be the past. I won’t bother you about yours if you don’t bother me about mine.”

  “For now,” Sazar agreed gravely. “But to answer your earlier question, no, giving me your blood will not always be like it was tonight. I’m afraid there will still be pain—”

  “It’s not the pain I’m asking about—it’s the pleasure,” Sarah exclaimed.

  Sazar raised his eyebrows at her.

  “Pleasure?”

  “You know…” Her pale cheeks were getting pink, though she’d given him too much of her blood for them to grow truly red. “The way I felt when you were…were sucking from me. I mean I didn’t just feel it in my arm. I felt it in…well…”

  She gestured with one hand, waving vaguely to her breasts and the area between her thighs.

  Sazar couldn’t have been more shocked if she’d slapped him. For a moment he was speechless, trying to collect his thoughts. Could it be that this little human female had experienced the Blood Pleasure when he drank from her, even though they had no prior physical connection? But that was something only a Fated Mate would feel!

  Not even Malinda, as much as he had loved her, had felt the Blood Pleasure when he bit her to feed from her. She had only been able to experience ecstasy from his bite when he bit her during bonding sex and injected his essence—something which was impossible during feeding.

  “Tell me more about what you experienced,” he said urgently. “Describe it exactly—I need to know.”

  Her cheeks went even pinker.

  “Never mind. I must have imagined it. Look, can I please get up now, Commander Sazar?”

  So she was returning to their formal relationship—it was definitely a hint for him to let her go.

  Reluctantly, Sazar helped her get on her feet again. She wobbled for a moment but this time she didn’t fall over.

  “Sarah,” he said gravely. “Do you still want to work for me? I know tonight as been…traumatic. I shouted at you and nearly drained you dry. I violated our contract. For that I am truly sorry.”

  She lifted her chin.

  “Yes, I’ll still work for you. You don’t know what—” She bit her lip and he got the sense she was choosing her words carefully. “This job saved me,” she said at last. “Being up here in the Mother Ship away from Earth—it’s the best possible place for me.”

  “So it’s better to be with a superior who shouts at you and drinks your blood than to be back down on Earth?” Sazar asked quietly. “Who are you running from, Sarah?”

  “I…I don’t want to talk about it…Sir,” she added. “I should just…I need to go to bed.”

  “Very well.” Sazar would let her keep her secret—for now. He was fairly certain it had something to do with The Brotherhood of the Peace, for which she had worked for five years. But they were supposed to be a religious organization devoted to peace and self sacrifice. How could that be a bad thing?

  “I guess I’ll see you in the morning?” Sarah asked.

  He nodded thoughtfully.

  “Indeed. I’ll expect to see you after mid-meal—what your people call lunch. We’ll have a short briefing and then we�€