One
“Ow—you bit me! Again.” Jason jerked away from her, abruptly breaking their kiss.
Kara put a hand to her mouth, horrified at what she’d done.
“Oh, I’m so sorry, Jason. I didn’t mean—”
“Look, Kara, I just don’t think this is working out.” He took a step back from her, shaking his head. “We’re just…not right for each other. Maybe it’s a cultural thing—you being Kindred and me being human…”
“I’m half human too,” Kara reminded him. “My mother, Sophia, came from Earth.”
“Well, whatever. You look a lot more Kindred than human.”
His eyes hovered on her mouth and Kara closed her lips self-consciously, so her decidedly un-ladylike fangs wouldn’t show. Surreptitiously she ran her tongue over the sharp, double points on either side of her mouth where a human’s canine teeth would be, but she didn’t taste any blood. She hadn’t even broken the skin—so why was Jason breaking up with her?
“Jason, please,” she began. “If you’ll just give me a chance—”
“Look, I’m just not into biting.” He eyed her mouth again. “And let’s be honest, Kara—with fangs like yours, that’s bound to happen at some point.” He shrugged. “Maybe you should find a guy who’s into pain or something.”
Kara wanted to protest that the pain was only momentary—that the instant she sank her fangs into his flesh she would inject a pale blue liquid called “essence” that would give him immediate pleasure. But she held her tongue…because she didn’t know if that was true.
Certainly, those facts applied to male Blood Kindred—her father, Sylvan, was one and her mother Sophia had told her how she had feared his fangs until she learned the truth about how it really felt to be bitten by a Blood Kindred. But to Kara’s knowledge, there had never been a female Blood Kindred with fangs. They were strictly a male trait and the fact that she had them made her an anomaly…and extremely unfeminine, at least in the eyes of most of the warriors aboard the Mother Ship where she lived.
None of them wanted to date her—though they were all polite about it. At first Kara had thought it was because her father was the Head Chancellor of the Kindred High Council or because her twin brother, Kaleb, was extremely over-protective. But gradually she came to realize that it wasn’t her status or her family that was scaring off the unmated males of the Mother Ship…it was her fangs.
I don’t know why I thought dating a human would be any different, she thought dismally as she watched Jason walk away. He had seemed like a nice enough guy, even though he was about an inch shorter than her. Kara was tall—6’1”. But she also had curves in the right places, long, pale blonde hair and her father’s ice-blue eyes.
Jason, who was on a work assignment from a company based on Earth, had seemed willing to overlook her fangs at first. But over time he had gotten tired of being “nipped” when they kissed and he was always extremely nervous when Kara nibbled his neck, even though she was always careful not to break the skin. Apparently, their kiss tonight had been the last straw.
Kara sighed and looked up into the darkening sky of the parklands in the center of the Kindred Mother Ship. The artificial green sun, the power source of the ship, was dimming as it did every evening to simulate a planetary nighttime, and a soft breeze rustled through the green and purple leaves of the trees of the Sacred Grove to her left.
For a moment, Kara considered going into the Grove and asking for guidance…but uncertainty held her back. She always felt that the priestesses, who were also Kindred females, disapproved of her because of her distinctly masculine fangs. No other female had such a male trait—it was almost as bad as having a penis! No, not quite as bad, Kara admitted to herself, but still—it was bad enough.
Why do I have to have these things? I hate them! Savagely she bit her own tongue but the only result was a mouthful of blood and a needle-sharp pain that made her gasp. Apparently, her essence didn’t work on her own body—and who knew if it would work on a male either? If she could ever find one that wanted to be bitten—which was doubtful since it was seen as submissive and emasculating—maybe she could find out.
She spat blood onto the green and purple grass and sighed as she felt the healing tingle in her tongue. At least she healed like a Kindred—quickly and cleanly. That was definitely a plus for her heritage.
“Hey, Sis—what are you doing out here?”
Looking up, Kara saw a tall, broad-shouldered shape coming towards her out of the dimness. It was her twin brother, Kaleb who had the same dark brown hair and deep green eyes as their mother.
“Not much,” she said as her twin reached her. “Just getting dumped…again.”
“What? That asshole human dumped you?” Kaleb’s eye flashed angrily. “You want me to teach him a lesson?”
Kara sighed and smiled as she shook her head. Her twin wasn’t usually violent but he had always been extremely protective of her, especially after puberty hit them both and she started to grow fangs, making her different from all the other females aboard the Mother Ship.
“It wasn’t Jason’s fault. He had good reason to dump me.”
“There’s no reason good enough to hurt my sister,” Kaleb growled. “Seriously, Kara, let me go find him and pound him.”
“Now you sound like War,” Kara said, half-laughing. “With Peace running after him, trying to calm him down.” The Twin Kindred brothers were almost like siblings to her and Kaleb—they had all grown up together here on the Mother Ship.
“I just get upset when someone hurts you.” Kaleb offered her his arm. Kara took it and they began walking compatibly through the whispering grasses of the parklands, heading by mutual unspoken consent for the edge of the park nearest to the public transport. “Why did he break up with you?” he asked.
“I…I bit him,” Kara admitted, her voice little more than an embarrassed whisper. “I swear I didn’t mean to, Kaleb but sometimes the urge to bite someone is so strong…” She looked at him hopefully. “Do you know what I mean?”
Kaleb cut his eyes to the side and shook his head quickly.
“Sorry, no. You know a male’s fangs don’t sharpen until he meets the female he wants to bond to him. Guess I just haven’t found the right girl yet.”
“Um…yeah.” Kara wished she could take the shameful admission back. It was kind of like saying that she felt constantly horny, which was not something she wanted to be talking about with her brother, even if they were really close.
But to be honest, she’d been having the almost overpowering urge to sink her fangs into male flesh for the past two years since she came of age and it was only getting worse. Maybe that was why she hadn’t been able to keep herself from nipping Jason when they kissed. She just wanted to bite someone so much but it was completely socially unacceptable—a need that had to be suppressed at all costs.
“Well…” Kaleb looked down at her hand on his arm. “It’s going to be okay, Sis,” he said uneasily. “You’ll find somebody—you’ll see.”