“I dare because it’s true and it’s not fuckin’ filthy—it’s natural for Twin Kindred, which is what we are!” Bound growled.
“You’re Blood Kindred!” GrandSire declared. “I’ve raised you as such and I expect you to act like it!”
“Guess what, GrandSire—we’re not following your rules any longer,” Bound told him. “Gaze and I have found the woman who’s right for us and we’re gonna share her if we fuckin’ feel like it!”
Gaze wanted to point out that the sharing part was up to Alexa, but he couldn’t get a word in edgewise between his GrandSire and Bound.
“That’s it—get out of my domicile—both of you!” GrandSire pointed at the front door, his face a white mask of fury. “I’ve tried to raise you right—tried to live with the shame of having the two of you turn out to be Pitch-Bloods. You’ve been a burden to me all my life, ever since your mother died and I have tried to bear it. But I will not allow you to live under my roof when you admit to such filthy practices!”
“GrandSire, try to understand,” Gaze began. “We had Twin Kindred fathers, that makes us at least half Twin Kindred, so sharing a female is actually natural for us!”
“I don’t want to hear another word, get out!” their GrandSire bellowed. “Get out and stay out. I never want to see the two of you again!”
“Come on, Gaze—let’s get the fuck outta here,” Bound growled. Grabbing Gaze by the arm, he pulled him through the doorway of the domicile they’d been raised in and out into the main corridor.
Gaze became aware that the children, who had been playing and laughing happily just moments ago, were watching the scene with serious, frightened faces. They probably didn’t see adults fighting much, since Kindred households were usually happy ones.
He felt bad for making the kids upset, but Bound was already dragging him down the corridor towards the main entrance to the grotto.
“Come on, Brother,” he growled at Gaze. “Let’s go—we’ll move someplace else and live as Twin Kindred—somewhere far away from Tranq Prime.”
“What about our business?” Gaze protested.
“We’ll start fresh,” Bound told him. “Or get jobs as pilots somewhere. Whatever we do, it’s better than living here one more fuckin’ minute!”
They left the grotto, braving the freezing temperatures to get to their ship, which was parked not too far from the entrance. Speech was impossible as they tramped over the ice, due to the howling, freezing wind, but the moment they got inside and were warming up the ship, Gaze turned to his brother.
“I never knew you were so angry with GrandSire.”
“You know…I never knew it either.”
Bound sighed as he fired the ship’s engines and took them up, away from Tranq Prime and into the darkness of space. Once the viewcreen showed nothing but stars, he turned to Gaze again.
“I think maybe I was willing to put up with his bullshit as long as there was nothin’ on the line. But now…” He shook his head as he began to feed coordinates into the Nav Com. “Now it feels like everything’s on the line. And if I have to choose between him and Angel, I’ll choose her every time.”
“But she hasn’t chosen us,” Gaze said gently. “She hasn’t—”
Suddenly, the cabin of their ship filled with a presence that was both undeniably female and completely overwhelming.
“Warriors!” The strong, feminine voice reverberated through the air, making them both jump.
“Goddess? Gaze gasped at the same time Bound said,
“Mother of All Life?” in a low, hoarse voice.
“The female I sent to save the two of you on Yonnie Six is in peril,” the Goddess—for who else could it be?—told them. “It is your turn now to save her—you must go at once to Zetta Prime.”
“She’s in peril right now? But Goddess, Zetta Prime is in a whole other part of the galaxy and we don’t have space folding capabilities in our ship!” Gaze exclaimed.
“I will make a way for you. Look.”
Outside the viewscreen, a swirling blue vortex suddenly appeared in the blackness of space. It started out small but it grew and grew until it was quite big enough to encompass their ship.
“Take this wormhole which will lead you straight to Zetta Prime,” the Goddess told them. “You remember the name of the township she lives in?”
“Joannesville,” Gaze said at once.
“Good. Once you find it, look for a small pink cottage on the outskirts of town. There you will find her. Now hurry—there is not a moment to lose!”
And then, just as suddenly as it had come, the overwhelming feminine presence was gone.
Gaze and Bound looked at each other and then Bound grabbed the controls.
“Come on, Brother,” he said hoarsely. “Our Lady needs us.”
THIRTY-FIVE
At first, Lexi thought the scratching behind her closed closet door was just a yibbetz. The small rodents, which could fit into the palm of one’s hand, were a pesky nuisance, especially when the weather got cold. They crept into homes through crannies and cracks and gnawed anything they could get their teeth into.
“I really must get a felicus to deal with these damn things,” Lexi muttered to herself, as she marched over to the closet door, which was at the far end of her bedroom.
Felicus were small, domesticated pets with furry blue pelts and glowing green eyes. They were ferocious hunters, with long, stalk-like antennae growing out from the tips of their pointed ears which helped them locate pests like the yibbetz.
Plus, a felicus might offer some companionship—a little company for when it gets lonely around here, she thought.
She’d never felt the need for a pet before—or had time for one, spending her whole day, morning ‘til night at the bakery. But now her shifts were much shorter, since Grettah and Clemmie were both working full time as well. Lexi found herself at home earlier and earlier with nothing to do and no one to see…
Face it, Lexi—you’re lonely, she told herself, as she reached for the closet door. Not just lonely—you’re sad. Sad because you miss them. It might be time to admit that you made a big mistake when you let Gaze and Bound go. You should never have—
But her thoughts stuttered to a stop when she opened the closet door and saw the thing that was waiting for her inside.
THIRTY-SIX
The thing in the closet had the same blank stare as Mistress Crueltongue’s bodyslave, Karnivore. But this time the weird, empty expression was multiplied because there were three blank faces looking out at Lexi when she opened the door—a trio of heads upon an enormous, heavily muscled body that must be three meters tall at least.
It had arms that were too long, even for its enormous height. The hands ended in long, black claws that dragged the wooden floor of the closet—that was the scratching she’d heard, Lexi thought numbly. Between its heavy thighs was a shaft so large it put even Kindred equipment to shame. It was bigger than Lexi’s entire arm and it was perilously close to dragging the ground as well. Three, heavy, pendulous balls swung in a sac behind it, as big as a normal male’s entire head.