“Well it sounds like someone is on their way to find it now,” Rast said grimly. “The Goddess told me we must warn Sylvan and that someone has to go dig it up and destroy it before…” He hesitated, not wanting to scare his wife again.
“Before what?” Nadiah demanded. “Come on, Rast, tell me!”
Rast could see she wasn’t going to let up until he told her.
“She said the Eye of Ten’gu must be destroyed,” he repeated. “Before it awakens.”
Nadiah didn’t reply. She just buried her head in Rast’s chest and shivered.
A time of darkness was coming. The question was, would the Kindred be able to stand against it?
One
The first thing V’rex noticed about the little female, when she walked into the Hell’s Gate Spaceport Lounge, was her ass.
Gods! he couldn’t help thinking as his eyes followed her every movement. That ass…
It was so full and round and she had thick thighs and broad hips to match it. Her top was nice too—a little waist and full breasts but it was her ass his eyes kept going back to.
She was shaped like a fertility goddess from Quorset Three.
Everything else in the noisy, crowded bar seemed to fall away as he watched her move. The sharp smell of spilled Brantha gin, the shouts of the other bar patrons, demanding drinks, the low drumming of the hypnobeats playing over the sound system which was meant to keep fights to a minimum, the sweet-sour stench of tookla smoke, all faded into the background as he focused on her in the dim, crowded room.
V knew lots of males had a “type” they always went for, and then there were some dogs who would just bed anything they could get their hands on. But he had always been picky. Maybe it was his half Beast-Kindred heritage, but he wasn’t interested in just anyone. In fact, he couldn’t remember the last time a female had drawn his attention this way.
He wondered if she was a working girl. She wasn’t really dressed like one. The tight-fitting bodysuit she wore didn’t show any skin and she wasn’t flashing her breasts the way most of the pros at the station were. They were all obvious—might as well have a flashing sign over their heads saying how much they cost by the hour. But this female was subtle—unlike the ones who were selling their wares.
V hadn’t come into the bar looking for company, but he decided right then and there if she was for sale, he was buying. And not just for an hour—he would need at least a whole night to explore those lush curves. His hands itched to cup that juicy ass and squeeze while he filled her with his shaft.
The little female must have felt his eyes on her because she turned for a moment and looked up. Their gazes met and locked and V saw she had a face to match the rest of her.
Heart-shaped and pale with skin that looked as soft and delicate as Telethian silk, she was lovely. Her big eyes were a warm, true brown almost the exact same shade as her thick, chestnut hair, which was pulled back into a loose bun at the nape of her neck. Little tendrils of it had escaped, however, to frame her pretty, softly rounded face. They made her look even more vulnerable and uncertain.
Her mouth was an innocent pink, unlike the dark purple and crimson red lip-stain favored by the pros, and she had a little button of a nose with a smattering of Goddess-kisses across the bridge of it. Fucking adorable.
V let the lust show in his eyes, knowing their pale gold, mirrored irises would reflect the girl’s own image back to her. That was the other part of his heritage—his Kru’ell One side. He wasn’t able to read her mind and know her deepest desires like a full-blooded Kru’ell One could have, but if he got close enough and concentrated, he would at least be able to feel her emotions.
But V didn’t have to use his special senses to know how the little female was feeling. After a moment of staring into his eyes like a wild creature caught in the headlamps of an onrushing vehicle, she turned even paler and dropped her gaze quickly.
Damn! V swore to himself. Now he’d gone and frightened her. Clearly she was an innocent, but what the hell was an innocent doing in a place like the Hell’s Gate Space Port?
He had the urge to go to her—to explain that he wouldn’t hurt her, he just wanted to spend some time with her. Not that he wanted to form any kind of permanent attachment, but maybe they could still work out some kind of arrangement. She looked like she was in trouble—like she needed help. There was a smudge of what looked like axle grease on one high cheekbone—maybe her vehicle had broken down.
V thought about offering to help her—for a price. He wasn’t the kind of male to pretend to be kind and gentlemanly and fix her vehicle and then insinuate afterwards that she owed him. No, he would be plain about what he wanted—a night with her in exchange for his assistance.
And he could be gentle—in fact, he enjoyed that. Taking his time with a female, giving her pleasure, making her feel like the only one in the universe as he looked into her eyes and made her come again and again… That was his Kindred side again. Of course, his Kru’ell One side would inevitably come into play as well. But not until she was ready to open up and let him sting her…
Just the thought of it made his tongue sharpen and the blood rush to his shaft. Gods, to explore those lush curves, to feel her tugging his hair and hear her moaning his name as he brought her to the brink…
He was about to get off his bar stool, which was hovering right by the long, sticky counter, and go to her, when a little male with a shiny bald head and bright orange skin inserted himself between V and his path to the luscious female.
“Excuse me,” he said in a high, androgynous voice and pointed a strange-looking instrument at V’s broad chest.
“Get out of my way,” V snarled, glaring down at the intruder.
“Forgive me, friend, but I must ask you a question first,” the little male said. Or was he female? It was difficult to tell by his facial features. Despite his bald head, he might be either male or female—not that V cared.
“What question? What do you want, anyway?” he demanded.
“Am I right in thinking that you are extremely fertile?” the little male asked. He was looking from the screen of his hand-held device, up to V, and then back down at the screen again.
“What?” V looked at him in disbelief. “What kind of a question is that?”
“One I must answer before I can know if you are prime breeding stock or not,” the little male—or whatever it was—replied. He scanned V with his instrument again. “According to my readouts, you have the ability to engender intense physical pleasure in females. Is that right?”
“What in the Seven Hells?” V growled, glaring down at the little male. Was he talking about V’s stinger? And if so, how would he know about that?
The Kru’ell Ones weren’t even from this universe—and nobody would know just by looking at V what his physical differences were. It wasn’t until he opened his mouth and allowed his tongue to elongate into the needle-sharp barb which delivered his lust-honey that it was obvious he was different from any other Hybrid Kindred.
“It’s clear you are reticent to speak of your special abilities,” the little bald male remarked. “But my readouts assure me that you can bring females vast amounts of pleasure, which will surely lead to greater fertility and the insemination of many wombs.”