“What are you talking about? Leave me alone!” Anna gasped. But he was already pushing up her skirt and forcing her face down into the seat. His breath was hot and panting at the back of her neck.
“Turn over so I don’t have to see your fat face while I fuck you, bitch,” he snarled. “Gonna leave a load of my cum in your fat ass—something for you to remember me by!”
Anna cried out at the tearing pain but there was nothing she could do, nowhere she could go. She was trapped and there was no getting away…
“Anna? Anna, are you all right?” Dark’s deep voice sounded concerned. “You’ve been quiet for a long time, he added, when she finally looked up at him.
Feeling sick, she pushed the memory away.
“Sorry, I was just…thinking,” she said.
“About what we were talking about—the fact that I am only male in appearance? Does my lack of…equipment bother you?” Dark asked, looking at her.
Anna shook her head.
“I’m glad you don’t have that equipment,” she said thickly and realized, to her horror, that she was suddenly on the verge of tears. What Gorn had done to her…was doing to her…had become her new reality. But her Trollox captor had never pretended to love her and then betrayed her. With Gorn, what you saw was what you got. Lazlo had made her love him before he hurt her—hurt her so badly that even now she couldn’t bear to think of it too closely.
“Does it make you feel safe with me?” Dark asked.
She nodded. “Yes. You seem really nice but I’ve thought that before, you know. At least if you turn out to be a shit like Lazlo, I know you can’t hurt me. Can’t…can’t…” She shook her head, unwilling and unable to go on.
“He did more than just sell you to Gorn then.” His broad shoulders were tensed again, his bronze eyes narrowed.
“I don’t want to talk about it. If we talk any more I’ll cry and I hate crying.” Anna took a deep breath and was relieved when she felt the threatening tears retreat. She hadn’t allowed herself the luxury of weeping since the first night Gorn had owned her. If she did, the tears would take over and she would drown. It was better to take herself away, into the past when she felt sad. Better to think of a time before Gorn, before Lazlo, before all the pain and misery of her present and the worry of her uncertain future.
“What would you like to talk about?” Dark asked softly. “Would you like me to make you something special for Mid Meal?”
“For lunch, you mean?” She flashed him a grateful smile, glad he was changing the subject. “I’d love that.”
“Come back to the kitchen with me then.” Dark rose and pulled her lightly to her feet. “I’ve ordered some things I thought might work in the context of Earth cuisine but you’ll have to help me. As I said, I only know a few Earth recipes.”
“You mean…help you cook? I’m not much good in the kitchen but I’d like to try,” Anna said shyly, looking up at him. “I’ve always wanted to learn to cook.”
He looked so beautiful, standing there in the artificial sunlight, his bronzed chest bare and broad, his eyes with their startlingly thick black lashes trained on her, as though she was the most important person in the world.
A girl could fall in love, whispered a little voice in her head. If she wasn’t careful, that is…
Then she scoffed at herself. No matter how sweet and kind and caring Dark seemed to be, she had to remember he was only following his programming. Falling in love with a Replicant didn’t make any more sense than falling in love with a dishwasher or an oven. It was plain stupid. And anyway, she didn’t think she could trust any man enough to have those emotions again. Not after Lazlo and Gorn. Not after what had been done to her.
“I’d love to give you cooking lessons,” Dark said, breaking into her train of thought. “I can always use another sous chef—or any sous chef at all, since I’m alone in the kitchen.”
“That would be nice.” Anna smiled at him. “I’m usually so bored in this house. Bored or in absolute terror of Gorn when he’s home, I mean. I mostly just try to stay out of his way.”
“He doesn’t seem to come into the kitchen much,” Dark remarked as they walked back to the house. “And if he does, you could always hide in the pantry.”
“Good point.” Anna nodded. “All right—I’ll risk it. Usually when I’m out of sight, I’m out of mind for him. For the left head, anyway—I think the right one is smarter. It really hates me. It thinks Gorn should have bought another girl—one that wouldn’t take so long to get ready to…to breed.” The words stuck in her throat and she shook her head. “Anyway, I’d love to learn to cook. Thank you,” she said quickly.
“You’re welcome,” he said, nodding. “Now come with me—your first lesson starts now.”
Chapter Nine
“So you’re definitely moving to the Mother Ship?” Sophia passed one of Lauren’s delicious chocolate chip muffins to her new friend and smiled as she brushed crumbs off the picnic blanket they were sitting on.
Nikki was visiting the Mother Ship again and this time she had brought her three sons up with her. The three of them and her new mate, Malik the Volt Kindred, were playing some kind of game on the rolling green lawn in the recreation area in the center of the Mother Ship.
It had seemed like the perfect opportunity to introduce the new girl to some of the other brides so Sophie had decided to throw a picnic, not far from the Sacred Grove. So far she and Nikki and Liv were the only ones there but Kat had promised to come too and Lauren had already dropped off some muffins and cupcakes and apologized that she couldn’t stay.
“We’re coming up here this summer after the boys finish the school year. That way Malik and I can have our joining ceremony before they start back again,” Nikki said, smiling as she took a bite of muffin. “Oh my goodness, this is amazing. Your cousin is so talented!”
“Yes, Lauren makes the best goodies.” Liv smiled and took a bite of her own blueberries and cream muffin. “So are you going to be joined right here in the Sacred Grove?”
“Did I hear someone say Joining Ceremony?” Kat settled on the blanket beside them and shooed her three boys away. “No—go on, Mommy needs some grown-up time. Go play with your fathers!”
The three ran off, laughing and shouting and she turned back to Nikki.
“So you must be the new girl Sophie’s been telling us about. Tell me where and when you want to have the ceremony, doll, and we’ll make it happen.”
“Kat’s our resident party planner,” Sophie explained, smothering a smile at Nikki’s rather startled expression.
“Oh, and she does a really good job—she planned both our ceremonies,” Liv said. “If you let her help you won’t be sorry.”
“Help? Hell—I’ll take over if you let me.” Kat grinned. “But I’m also willing to butt out completely if you’ve already got everything settled and you don’t need any help. Either way works for me.”
“No, but I do need help,” Nikki protested. “I hardly know anything about the Mother Ship or how to book the Sacred Grove or where to get the decorations and food and cake or anything.”
“Then Kat’s your girl.” Liv smiled and patted their oldest friend on her arm. “She loves planning a party.”
“Can you fit me into your schedule?” Nikki asked anxiously. “We were hoping to get joined in August, right after we get settled up here and before the schools start up again.”
“Oh, I don’t really have a schedule—I’m more of an unofficial party planner,” Kat said, smiling. “The nice thing about living on the Mother Ship is that all our guys make more than enough to support a family. So we girls don’t actually have to work—although we can if we want to, of course.”
“It just means that you’re able to do what you want for a living, even if it doesn’t pay much,” Sophie explained. “Like, I love my art, but I’ll be the first to admit I’m not the next Andy Warhol or Georgia O’Keeffe.”
“Don’t sell yourself short, womb-mate!” Liv exclaimed
. “Your paintings are amazing! I have five hanging in my suite,” she added to Nikki.
“Thanks, Liv.” Sophie nodded at her twin sister. “But you have to admit that back down on Earth, I couldn’t live on the proceeds of my art. I’d have to have a ‘real’ job.”
“You do have a ‘real’ job,” Kat protested. “You teach art to the little ones too. That’s important. And it pays as well as her husband’s job,” she added, to Nikki. “And he’s the Head of the High Council.”
“The Kindred are big believers in investing in the education of the young,” Liv explained. “It’s one reason the schools up here on the Mother Ship are so good. All the teachers are paid as much as any of the warriors—even the upper level ones like my husband, Baird, who heads up the Kindred Fleet.”
“That’s wonderful.” Nikki got a look of wonder in her dark eyes. “I am so excited to move up here! And my boys are pretty pumped up about it too.”
“How are they getting along with Malik?” Sophie asked. She knew that Nikki’s three sons—two who were in their tweens and one who was already a teenager—had gone through a massive upheaval when their biological father had been whisked away to an unknown galaxy after Mistress Hellenix of Yonnie Six had taken him as her personal slave. Of course, he’d been about to leave Nikki and run off with her cousin, after cleaning out their mutual bank account, so he pretty much deserved what he’d gotten, but it was still hard on the kids.
“See for yourself.” Nikki pointed to the vast, grassy, open space which was located in the center of the Mother Ship. Overhead, the artificial green sun beamed gently down and a soft breeze circulated, making it feel like a balmy day back home on Earth.
Malik and Nikki’s two youngest sons were playing some kind of game which seemed to involve a soccer ball, a football, and some antigrav-heels which they all had strapped to their feet. The flat, black heels allowed them to jump high in the air and hover about two to three feet above the ground for a short time before coming back down again. They were laughing and tossing the balls in a complicated pattern and weaving back and forth through the air.
Nikki’s oldest son was on his cell phone but the moment Malik called to him, he shoved it in his pocket and powered up his own anti-grav heels to join the game. Soon all of them were shouting and laughing and generally having a good time.
“Look at that.” Nikki was smiling but also wiping a tear from her eye—a tear of joy, Sophie was pretty certain. “Their real father would never get out and play with them. All he wanted to do all day was sit in his man cave and watch sports on TV. And during dinner, he would never make conversation—he was just always on his phone, texting.” She frowned. “Now I’m pretty sure I know who he was texting but she’s not a part of our life anymore either, so it works out fine.”
“It looks like they’re getting along great. Malik is really good with them,” Liv remarked.
“Yes—he helped raise three younger brothers,” Nikki answered. “My younger boys adore him. My oldest is still kind of finding common ground but Malik told me he asked him for advice about girls the other night—so I think it’ll be okay.”
“You’re going to have a wonderful life up here,” Kat assured her. “And it all starts with the joining ceremony. So tell me now—what kind of joining are you planning? Big? Or small and intimate? Do you want the boys involved? Maybe they could be best men? I think they’re too old to be ring bearers…”
“Well—” Nikki began but just then they were interrupted.
“Excuse me?” A woman who looked to be somewhere in her forties with a worried looking face and red hair with silver strands in it, spoke to Sophie. “Are you Sophia, the one who’s mated to the head of the High Council?”
“Well…yes.” Sophie stood up and offered her hand to the woman who shook it distractedly. “I am. And you are…?”
“I’m Camilla and this is Brex, my husband.” The woman pointed to a Beast Kindred standing beside her, who nodded at Sophie and growled a terse greeting.
“It’s nice to meet you,” Sophie said politely. “How can I help you?”
“We’re hoping you’ll talk to your husband for us,” Camilla said earnestly. “We need some help and we thought if it came from you, well, he might be more receptive.”
“Well, I’ll do what I can, though I promise you Sylvan is a very fair male,” Sophie told her. “I’m sure he’ll be happy to listen to your problem.”
“Our daughter has been taken,” the Beast Kindred growled, his golden eyes flashing. “That is, she is Camilla’s daughter, but I feel she is my own as well, since she was younger when we were first joined.”
“Taken? Taken where? By who?” Kat exclaimed.
“We don’t know but we have our suspicions,” Brex growled. “She was taken from the Aka’ja mining colony where we live. And right before she disappeared, there was a filthy Trebban hanging around her.” His face twisted angrily. “Slaver scum! I should have killed him when I had the chance.”
“A…Trebban?” Nikki asked Liv in a whisper.
“They’re a sentient species in a different part of the quadrant, I think,” Liv whispered. “We don’t see many of them around here because they don’t get along with the Kindred.”
“I thought the Kindred got along with everybody,” Nikki remarked.
Liv shook her head. “Not if they don’t like the way the other people treat their females—that’s very important to the Kindred. And Trebbans have a reputation of slaving out their extra females—selling them to the highest bidder.”
“That’s horrible!” Nikki murmured.
Liv nodded. “The Kindred think so too—which is why the two species don’t generally get along and they aren’t considered a fit genetic match, even though they’re humanoid.”
“We’ve looked everywhere—we’ve done as much as we can on our own and we’re getting nowhere,” Camilla was saying, through her tears. “Please, do you think the Kindred of the Mother Ship can help us find our Anna?”
“I’m sure they can,” Sophie said firmly. “Come on, I’ll bespeak Sylvan right now and ask him to meet us back at our suite.” She looked down at Nikki. “I hope you don’t mind if I leave you with Liv and Kat for a bit?”
“Of course not!” Nikki exclaimed. “Go—go!”
“Thank you.” Sophie smiled at her and nodded at her sister and best friend. “You two take care of Nikki. Oh, and Liv—will you keep an eye on the twins until I come back?”
“We’ll be the soul of hospitality, doll,” Kat promised and Liv said,
“That’s fine—they’re playing with Daniel anyway. They probably won’t even notice you’re gone.”
“Thanks, Sis.” Sophie smiled gratefully and left with the human woman and her Beast Kindred husband in tow.
“Those poor parents,” Nikki whispered after they were gone, putting a hand to her throat. “To have a child go missing like that—it’s the worst thing a parent can go through.”
“The mom in me doesn’t even want to think about it,” Liv said quietly. “Mine is still young and it sounds like the daughter they had go missing is older but it doesn’t matter how old they get—they’re still your babies.”
“That’s true. Even when my three are aggravating the pee out of me I still love them to pieces.” Kat sighed. “I hope Sylvan can help them find their daughter. I’d say that Deep and Lock and I could try doing a seek and find for her but none of us know her and we don’t know where to start looking, which can really complicate the process. The universe is a big place.”
“And just think, not that long ago, we thought we were alone in it,” Liv remarked. “Remember that? How we thought because we had never had any contact with extra-terrestrial life that we were the only ones out here? It seems laughable now.”
“Yup. Because then came the Scourge and right after them, the Kindred,” Nikki remarked.
“There were some people who tried to tell us we weren’t alone,” Liv said thoughtfully. “Remember how peop
le used to say they were ‘abducted’ by aliens and then put back on Earth?”
“We all thought they were crazy,” Kat said. “Now I wonder…”
“Do you remember my Nana Ruth?” Liv asked. “She died not long after you met me and Sophie so you might not.”
“I mostly remember the amazing banana pudding she used to make,” Kat said. “But wasn’t she supposed to be crazy? That’s what my mom always said,” she added apologetically. “No offense, doll.”
“Oh none taken, don’t worry—my whole family thought she was crazy,” Liv said candidly. “But she always swore she was taken by aliens and held in their spaceship for weeks—and then set back down in the exact same place and time where they’d taken her from in the first place. She said they scanned her and recorded her ‘essence’ to study later—whatever that means. She would go on and on about it for hours if you’d listen to her.”
“I think everybody has a crazy relative or two,” Nikki remarked. “My grandfather was certain that thieves were breaking into his house to steal his paper plates. Not the TV or the jewelry or anything else of value, mind you—just the precious paper plates.” She laughed and shook her head.
“Well, I don’t have any crazy relatives,” Kat protested.
“You know what that means, don’t you?” Liv elbowed her lightly. “It means you’re the crazy one, kat-woman.”
“Hey!” Kat plucked the chocolate frosted cupcake from her friend’s plate and threatened to take a bite. “Take that back or the cupcake gets it!”
“Go ahead.” Liv grinned at her. “Lauren left us two dozen. I’m sure there’s another Deep Dark Chocolate Devil’s Food one in there.” She nodded at the bakery box her cousin had left for them.
Kat laughed and took a bite before turning back to Nikki.
“All right, doll, about that ceremony…”
Liv watched as they planned but one corner of her brain was still preoccupied with the people who had come asking for help to find their child. Goddess, she didn’t know what she’d do if her Daniel went missing! He was growing up to be such a fine young man—she was really proud of him and since it looked like she and Baird weren’t having any other kids, even though they’d been trying, he was their only one.
Deceived Page 9