Healing the Broken: A Kindred Christmas Tale Read online

  Eventually…she hoped.

  * * * * *

  Had he really heard her cry his name? Sazar turned over in bed, getting closer to the thin wall which connected their sleeping chambers.

  At first he’d thought she must be in trouble and was crying out for him. He’d been halfway to the door when he heard her again…and identified the soft, husky tone in her voice.

  Sarah wasn’t crying out in pain or fear…she was crying out in pleasure.

  Gods, is she thinking of me? Picturing me the way I’ve been picturing her?

  He lay back down on the bed and listened again.

  “Oh!” he heard her moan softly. “Do you…do you really want to drink from me there?”

  Immediately his shaft was almost painfully erect. Gods, was she imagining what he thought she was imagining? A picture formed in his mind—the image of his own hand pulling off the deep red shirt she’d been wearing, baring her full, lush breasts for his mouth…for his fangs.

  Calling a vein to drink from such a delicate area wasn’t often done. His mate, Malinda, hadn’t liked it very much—saying it was uncomfortable and too intense—though she had loved it when he bit her neck and injected his essence during the peak of passion.

  Regular Blood-Kindred were able to give pleasure with their bite when they bit at a conventional spot—like the neck or the inner thigh. That was because they were injecting their essence when they bit—a chemical compound which brought intense pleasure and marked a female as that Kindred’s own.

  Pitch-Blood Kindred, however, were biting to feed, not to pleasure. Without the injection of essence, their bite could be extremely painful during the feeding process unless they were also touching a female sexually. Only during Bonding Sex were they able to inject essence because that activity was linked to claiming and bonding, not feeding. It was one reason Sazar’s own peculiar sub-set of Blood Kindred were considered to have a disability by the rest—the fact that they could not make their bite pleasurable all the time.

  Pitch-Blood did have one special ability that normal Blood Kindred did not, however—the ability to give a deep sexual pleasure—the Blood Pleasure it was called—when piecing the most delicate spots on a female's body with their fangs. But this was only possible with a Fated Mate. As much as he had loved Malinda, she hadn’t been a Fated Mate—so when he’d tried drinking from her breasts, she hadn’t enjoyed it.

  Now he wondered—would Sarah be able to draw pleasure from his bite in such an intimate area? And was that what she was picturing as she…what? Touched herself? Yes, it must be that—as she touched herself on the other side of that wall which separated them.

  The thought set him on fire and he couldn’t help himself—he pulled down his black sleeping trousers and fisted himself in one large palm. Gods, the idea of biting her there…of drinking from one of her tender pink nipples or even the soft, sweet spot between her thighs…

  He could imagine how it would be…spreading her pussy lips open to reveal her swollen, wet folds…lapping and sucking her, circling the throbbing button of her clit with his tongue and then…

  “Ah…Gods!” He managed to muffle his cry in a pillow at the last instant as the pleasure arched through him like a bolt of lightning. Hot cum spurted from the tip of his cock, the shaft pulsing in his hand as he came again and again. It wet his belly with its profusion—Gods there was so much of it.

  It made him realize he was hungry for more than just blood. How long had it been since he’d had any kind of sexual contact?

  Since Malinda died, he thought and felt a fresh wash of sorrow. Perhaps he shouldn’t be thinking of another female this way. Was he being unfaithful to the memory of his dead mate?

  Even if you aren’t, you damn sure shouldn’t be thinking of your assistant that way, he told himself sternly as the pleasure ebbed. Sexual harassment, remember? You don’t want to be guilty of that.

  But Sarah had been thinking of him that way—at least, he thought she had been. How else to explain the hot little sounds coming from her side of the wall? The way she had been calling his name?

  Don’t think of it—don’t think of any of it, he ordered himself. You have a mission to conduct—an important one. Just go to sleep so you can be well rested when you meet with the Alquons tomorrow.

  Deliberately, he turned his back to the wall and closed his eyes. But in his mind’s eye, he continued to see himself with Sarah, baring her sweet luscious body and taking her ripe nipple deep in his mouth as he prepared to give her the Blood Pleasure again.

  Chapter Seven

  “Now these are the clothes I made on the replicator,” Kat said as a large pink cube was loaded into the sleek silver, long-range shuttle Commander Sazar was going to fly them to Alquon Ultrea in. “Of course, I only had a few vids to go on,” she told Sarah apologetically. “And they were almost all just a bunch of old guys talking so Commander Sazar’s clothes might be slightly more authentic than yours.”

  “I’m sure it will be fine,” Sarah said warmly. “Thank you so much for taking the trouble! And I’m sure Commander Sazar will be thankful that you made some for him too.”

  “Well, I did my best. And this is my friend Liv—she’s a nurse. She’s also the twin sister of Sophie, who you met yesterday,” Kat said.

  “Oh, hello.” Sarah held out her hand to the pretty blonde girl with silvery gray eyes. She looked so much like Sophie in the face it was clear to see they were twins, although identical or fraternal it was impossible to tell. “It’s nice of you to come and see me off,” she said smiling.

  Liv smiled back.

  “Oh, I didn’t just come for the fun of it—I have something for you.”

  “More clothes?” Sarah asked. “But Kat already packed me more than I’ll ever be able to wear!” She wished she could have had a look into the large pink cube Kat had packed the clothes in but there was no time—Commander Sazar had told her sternly that they needed to get going as soon as possible

  “Not clothes—something that’s going to help you deal with your new boss.” Liv nodded at Sazar, who was speaking to a tall, blond Kindred he had called Commander Sylvan. Kat had informed her that this was Sophie’s husband and he was also a Blood Kindred, although apparently a different kind than Sazar.

  “Really? What is it?” Sarah dropped her voice uncertainly. What in the world could Liv have for her?

  “It’s something Commander Sylvan developed—he’s also a doctor in addition to being the head of the Kindred High Council,” Liv told her. “Here.”

  She handed Sarah a small packet filled with blood red capsules.

  “Um, thank you,” Sarah said, frowning. “But I don’t know how Commander Sazar would feel about taking medicine without going to see a doctor first.”

  “Oh, it’s not for him, hon!” Liv exclaimed, laughing. “It’s for you.”

  “For me? But…what are they?” Sarah frowned at the baggie of blood red capsules. “What’s in them?”

  “They’re a compound Sylvan developed especially for the prospective mates of Pitch-Blood Kindred,” Liv explained. “They’re blood replenishers—the chemicals in each pill will encourage your body to make more red blood cells and more blood in general. This way Commander Sazar can bite you and feed from you as often as he needs to.” She made a face. “I mean, if you want him to. Sylvan did tell me that a Pitch-Blood Kindred’s bite can be much more painful than the bite of a regular Blood Kindred because they’re biting to feed so they’re not injecting their essence.”

  Sarah thought of the intense first pain of the big Kindred’s fangs sinking into her arm…and the deep, pulling pleasure that had followed and spread throughout her body.

  “It’s…not so bad,” she said in a low voice. “It hurts at first but then it gets better. But…” She cleared her throat. “I don’t really think I’ll need these. Commander Sazar took a very, uh, deep drink last night and he doesn’t anticipate needing any more for quite some time.”

  “Take them anyway,