Not that it will ever happen with these, she told herself ruefully, running her tongue over her fangs once more.
“See you later,” Kaleb said to Daniel as Kara dragged him out of the parklands. “Talk to you tomorrow.”
“See you at the family dinner.” With a final wave, Daniel wandered off, probably following his sensitive Beast Kindred nose to sniff down War, Peace, and Ziza.
“Come on,” Kara tugged at Kaleb again. “I want to get home. I’m tired.”
“Okay.” Her twin shrugged compatibly and they walked in comfortable silence towards the public transport station, which was unusually crowded, Kara saw.
“Hey, what’s going on here?” she asked, watching as a trio of strange, long-necked aliens with purple skin ducked into the glass-walled transport beside them.
“The Convention of Acceptance,” Kaleb explained in a low voice as the transport hummed to life and started moving them smoothly through the Mother Ship. “Don’t you remember Dad talking about it? It’s the one time of year when the High Council accepts applications for acceptance from other species—especially ones we Kindred have made a genetic trade with. If the Council votes to recognize the trade, they can consider themselves a new branch of the Kindred with legal rights to representation, mediation, and protection from the Kindred as a whole.”
“Oh, right.” Kara’s eyes flickered around the crowded transport and lighted on a large male who was facing away from them. He stood a head taller than anyone else in the crowd—even Kaleb—and he had long, wild dark hair and very broad shoulders, made even broader by the heavy, silver-toned uniform shirt he was wearing. The shirt was trimmed in black and tucked neatly into tight black flight leathers, which most Kindred warriors wore as part of their uniform. Was he a Beast Kindred?
But when the male turned towards them, she saw that his eyes weren’t the pure liquid gold of a Beast Kindred but midnight-black ringed in pure silver. The strange combination gave the stranger a piercing look that made Kara want to drop her eyes the moment she met his.
But she didn’t like feeling intimidated. Instead of looking down or away, as would be polite on a crowded transport, she lifted her chin and gazed evenly at the big stranger, giving stare for stare and refusing to look away. She had the strangest feeling she had seen him somewhere before but that was impossible—she would have remembered such a striking-looking male, she was certain of it.
The silver-ringed black eyes, as dark as bottomless pits, widened slightly in apparent surprise, and then crinkled at the corners. The strange male had strong features to go with his striking eyes—a knife-blade nose and a full, sensuous mouth with naturally red lips framed in a neatly trimmed black beard and mustache. Seeing that she was still studying him, he bowed mockingly, as though saluting her bravery in some way.
“Kara, what are you doing?” Kaleb yanked on her hand, drawing her attention away from the handsome, irritating stranger.
“What?” Kara jerked guiltily. “What do you mean? I was just looking around.”
“Looking at that strange male, you mean,” Kaleb growled, frowning. “He’s a Y’lyn—one of the Unbondable.”
“Unbondable? What are you talking about?” Kara snuck a glance at the stranger again who appeared to be listening, though he was surely too far away to hear their conversation. There was a faint smile on his sensuous mouth, as though he found them amusing.
“Unbondable because they’re part demon,” Kaleb explained impatiently. “Demons have no souls. You can’t form a soul bond with someone who has no soul.”
“Oh…I guess not. How can you tell, though?” Kara risked another glance and the stranger gestured subtly at his eyes, as though trying to answer her question.
“The black, silver-ringed eyes,” Kaleb said at once, though he was looking pointedly away from the stranger and hadn’t seen the gesture. “As well as the extra height and mass. Unbondables are always on the larger side.”
“Shouldn’t you call them Y’lyn Kindred instead?” Kara asked. The term “Unbondable” seemed rude to her, especially since she was fairly certain the stranger was hearing their conversation.
“No,” Kaleb said shortly. “Because they haven’t been recognized by the High Council as a legitimate branch of the Kindred. And they won’t be, either,” he added. “The Council will never allow Unbondables the legitimacy they’re seeking—that would send a clear signal that it’s all right for other Kindred males and females to mate with them.”
“Are they really so bad?” Kara couldn’t help looking at the stranger again. He wiggled his bushy black eyebrows at her and made a mock-evil face, pretending to twirl his mustache. She started to giggle and put a hand over her mouth self-consciously to hide her fangs.
“They’re unbondable,” Kaleb repeated patiently. “That means they can abandon their mate at any time.”
“Humans do that when they mate with other humans,” Kara pointed out. “They call it divorce.” The concept was completely alien to Kindred, who mated for life because of their soul bond but she knew it was fairly common on Earth.
“It’s not just that,” Kaleb said darkly. “The soul is the source of morality—of decency. Without a soul, a person can be as evil as they want without a pang of conscience. Which means that all Unbondables are essentially sociopaths—they don’t give a damn about anyone but themselves and they don’t care who they have to hurt to get what they want.”
“Oh,” Kara said in a low voice. The handsome stranger at the back of the transport no longer seemed quite so intriguing. Still, she couldn’t help risking one more glance at him.
This time he was standing quietly, the grin wiped off his face. When Kara looked at him, he nodded once, soberly. She wondered if he was confirming what her brother had said about him. Was he admitting that he was an evil person? Or at least, an amoral one? But would a truly evil person admit they were evil?
She made herself face front and look away. Soon after, the transport came to their stop and she and Kaleb made their way out. Kara didn’t allow herself to look back at the Unbondable male but she could swear she felt those strange eyes, the silver-ringed pools of blackness, staring at her back until the transport pulled away.
Two
“I’m worried about her, Sylvan.”
Her mother’s voice made Kara freeze in the hallway and hang back instead of entering the family living area on her way to find a midnight snack in the food prep area as she had planned.
“She’ll be fine, talana. She just has to find her place, that’s all.”
“But she’s so different…she can’t even keep a human boyfriend because of those awful fangs!”
Peeking around the corner, Kara saw that her mother had tears in her large green eyes. Though she was forty-five now, Sophia still looked like she was in her early thirties. Kindred aged slowly and anyone soul-bonded to one aged slowly as well. Sylvan, her father, looked distinguished with just a hint of silver at his temples—it was nearly invisible in his pale blond hair. Besides that, he had a few wrinkles around the corners of his eyes which made him look wise.