“So you’re a mutt, huh, Lady? But I bet you’re a good girl, aren’t you?” Raze rumbled softly, talking to the dog. Transferring the kittens to one palm again, he bent down and let Lady sniff the back of his hand. “I know I’m a stranger but I mean no harm to your mistress,” he told the dog in that same low, soft voice. “I promise Lucia will be safe with me.”
After a moment, Lady seemed satisfied. She stopped growling and gave a short, friendly bark. She even licked Raze’s big hand.
Luci was a little surprised.
“She doesn’t usually take to people so quickly,” she remarked to Raze. “It always takes her some time to warm up to someone new. And she never warmed up to my ex.”
“Your what?” He frowned as he stepped into the apartment with her and looked around.
“Oh, my ex-husband,” Luci said. “Lady hated him.”
He frowned. “Really? What did he do to you to make her hate him?”
Luci shot him a look of surprise.
“What would make you say that?”
He shrugged, his broad, bare shoulders rolling.
“Just what I’ve observed of dogs, ever since I came to Earth. They’re loyal companions and a damn good judge of character. When a dog attaches itself to you, it tries to keep you safe.” He laughed, a rumbling sound that came from the very bottom of his deep chest. “Guess they’re kind of like Kindred that way.”
Luci wasn’t sure what to say about that so she just excused herself to fix the kitten formula and get a few more supplies. When she got back, she saw that Raze was wandering around her small living room, looking at everything with deep interest glowing in his mismatched eyes.
“You must really love animals,” he remarked, nodding to the rabbit hutch and guinea pig cage in the corner. There were two gray bunnies that Frannie had named “Hippy and Hoppy” which had been abandoned at the clinic, as well as a black and white guinea pig named Oreo with bumblefoot, a condition caused by chronic neglect. Purring in the corner was Lucky, a one-eyed, one-eared, orange tomcat who had somehow attached himself to Luci after she’d moved into the apartment building. In another corner was a terrarium with several tiny turtles.
“I really do love them,” she admitted to Raze. “Some of these I’m just watching for the clinic and some of them I own but I love all of them.” She smiled fondly. “The little girl down the hall—well, I call her little but she’s twelve or thirteen—comes in to feed them and takes Lady out for a walk for me everyday or I couldn’t mange them all with the hours I keep.”
And of course, she couldn’t have afforded to keep any of them if Dr. Canody hadn’t let her have pet food for them all—a fact that Luci appreciated immensely. She really did have a great job and a wonderful boss—it was just too bad that it was so hard for a single mom to make ends meet.
She put down the supplies she’d brought on the slightly battered coffee table in front of her.
“Here,” she said to Raze as they settled on her worn, second-hand couch which she had found at a yard sale. “Let me have one of those little guys so I can feed him.”
“All right.” He opened his hands again and Luci took one of the kittens—a black and white one which was crying the loudest—and gave him the bottle. He latched on at once and began nursing hungrily—a good sign for his survival, she thought with satisfaction.
“Can I try? These other, uh, ‘little guys’ as you call them, are still upset,” Raze said.
“Sure. But there’s a trick to feeding them right,” Luci instructed. “Never, ever hold them like a human baby when you feed them—I mean, you can’t hold them lying on their back. It’s only safe to feed them when they’re belly down with their head up. See?” She nodded at the kitten she was feeding, holding it firmly in her left hand while she gave the bottle with her right. “Also, don’t try to force them to drink the formula, just put the nipple in their mouth and let them go to town. These guys are old enough to know how to suck so that’s good.”
“All right.” Raze had been watching her intently and now he nodded. “Can I try?”
“Of course. Here, this guy is almost done so I’m going to put him in the box.” She wiped the mouth of the kitten she’d been feeding with a baby wipe, making sure to get all traces of the formula off. He now had a rounded tummy, she saw as she transferred him into the small cardboard box she had brought with her. It had a warm hot water bottle covered in a towel at the bottom. He settled down at once, seemingly contented and soothed by the warmth of the water bottle.
Luci nodded with satisfaction. She would check in a moment to make certain the kitten had peed and pooped and if not, she would stimulate him with a clean tissue until he did. But she thought these kittens were old enough to go on their own.
She held out her hand.
“Here, give me the smallest one and you can feed the other one,” she told the big Kindred.
“All right.” Carefully, he transferred another of the kittens—an all black one—to her lap. She cradled the kitten gently in her left hand and then gave the third bottle to Raze.
“Good—now go ahead,” she said. “Always feed with your dominant hand so you can be sure to control the flow if you need to. Just put the nipple in his mouth and he should go for it.”
“All right.” He took the bottle from her and carefully gave it to the last kitten—all white with just one black spot over his left eye.
Luci watched him, thinking how strange it was to see such a huge male being so tender and careful with such a tiny little scrap of a kitten. It was kind of sweet, actually. Her ex, Tony, would never have had the patience or the kindness to bottle-feed a kitten. Their incessant, hungry mewing would have made him angry and he might have hurt one or all of them.
Luci sighed to herself—sometimes she wondered how she had ever fooled herself into thinking Tony was a good guy in the first place.
“Are you well, Lucia?” Raze’s deep, rumbling voice startled her and she realized that she’d been sitting there staring at the big Kindred as he fed the third kitten. He had looked up and caught her and now his piercing, mismatched gaze was directed right at her.
“Oh, uh, fine! I’m fine,” Luci said quickly, feeling her cheeks heat with a blush. “I was just thinking, er…thinking you’re really good at that.” She nodded her chin at the kitten he was holding. It had latched onto the nipple well and was sucking strongly. “You’ve got a great touch.”
“Thank you. I’ve always liked animals—they’re often more trustworthy than people.” He smiled, which lit up his stern face, especially the mismatched eyes which crinkled at the corners in a very appealing way.
“Uh…if you don’t mind me asking, what kind of Kindred are you?” she asked, trying to sound casual. “Are you a, uh, Beast Kindred?” She knew that Beast Kindred had golden eyes and Raze’s copper eye was sort of close to that—right?
“Yes, in a way.” He gave a deep rumbling laugh at her confused look. “I’m kind of a mutt like Lady, there—half Beast Kindred and Half Drake Kindred.”
“A Drake Kindred?” Luci frowned. “I’ve never heard about that kind of Kindred.”