“Yes…yes,” Anna wailed. Throwing her arms around his neck and grinding shamelessly against him, she worked to make him come.
But what she was doing seemed to work a little too well.
“Gods, baby—slower,” Dark begged. “Slower or I can’t hold back—I’m going to flood your little pussy with my cum.”
“Do it!” Anna begged him. It was what her body needed, even more than another orgasm, which she sensed was also close. “Do it, Dark—come in me!”
“But I want you to come first,” he ground out, clearly holding himself back by sheer force of will. “Your pleasure comes first with me, baby—always.”
“Bite me then,” Anna told him. “You know that always makes me come. Bite me while you come in me, Dark. While you give me what I need.”
“If I bite you while I come in you, I bond you to me for life,” he warned softly. “Is that what you want, Anna? Because it’s sure as hell what I want.”
In answer, Anna shook her long auburn hair over one shoulder, baring her throat for him. Holding his eyes with hers, she leaned forward, offering herself to him.
“Bite me,” she breathed. “Take me all the way, Dark and never let me go.”
“Gods, baby…” His bronze eyes blazed and with a low, hungry growl, he leaned forward and sank those long, shining fangs into her neck.
As his essence flooded her bloodstream, Anna could feel his cum flooding her pussy. Hot, wet spurts pulsed against the mouth of her womb as her inner walls contracted helplessly around him, as though she was trying to milk more of his seed deep into her pussy as she came with him, her pleasure peaking again.
“Anna—oh Goddess, baby, I love you! Love you so much,” she heard Dark say, even though it ought to be impossible for him to talk with his fangs still buried in her throat. “Love you forever and now we’ll never be apart!”
The bond, she realized through the haze of pleasure. We’re bonded now—that’s how he can talk in my head.
“That’s right—we’re bonded now. For life.” Dark’s voice spoke in her head again and she felt his mental presence, safe and secure and comforting.
“I love you,” she thought at him, trying out the new link. “Oh Dark, I love you so much! Love you forever! I never want this to end.”
“It doesn’t have to,” he sent back. “Kindred don’t need any recovery time which means I can bond you to me again and again all night long.”
“Do it then,” Anna told him. “Make love to me all night.”
So he did.
Chapter Thirty-seven
At last the Knower had found the right body—the right vessel to store its consciousness in until it could build itself another. The body it had found was perfect to let it move unmolested through the people of the Mother Ship. And thanks to its connection to the communications system of the ship through the AI it had co-opted, it knew exactly where everything it needed was stored…and exactly where to go to use it.
Soon the Kindred of the Mother Ship would bow to the Knower’s will and then its great work could begin. Recording their personalities within the Shannom-rah and then redistributing them into the bodies of Replicants which could be more easily controlled. Of course, their present physical bodies would have to die first, but that was of little matter to the Knower.
It’s only objective was subjugating those that had defied its will. And soon it would be done…
Chapter Thirty-eight
Anna didn’t know how much sleep she’d gotten but a soft tapping on the door of her guest suite woke her up.
“What?” She sat up, blinking sleep from her eyes. She was deliciously sore between her legs. Not sore and bruised as she had been from Gorn’s awful spreaders, though. This soreness was the result of being opened and lovingly stretched by her lover’s shaft—no, her mate’s shaft—she realized. She and Dark were bonded now, just like her mother and Brex were. Which meant they would be together for life.
The thought made joy flood into her heart and she turned to see Dark lying on his stomach, his long arms thrown out carelessly and an open, vulnerable look on his sharp features. He had the look of a man who had done a hard night’s work and was completely worn out by it.
Well, he did bond me to him over and over again, Anna thought, blushing. She forgot how many times they had made love but it was a lot. The overdose of bonding fruit had required him to breed her and bond her again and again and Dark had proved himself more than up for the job.
The light tapping sounded on her door again and she realized she was just lying there in bed, staring lovingly at her new mate and not doing anything about getting the door.
“Coming,” she called softly, pulling on the long blue robe that went with the nighty Liv had given her. The nighty itself was a little worse for the wear. Dark had torn it in several places during their strenuous marathon bonding session. But Anna didn’t think her new doctor would mind.
She closed the bedroom door all but a crack and went to the front door of the suite.
“Who is it?” she called softly, still trying not to wake Dark.
“Just Liv and Sophie here to check on you,” Liv’s voice called back. “Are you okay, Anna?”
Anna opened the door, smiling.
“More than okay,” she assured the two sisters, who were standing there with anxious looks on their faces. “Come on in if you want—but we have to keep it down—Dark is still asleep.”
“We won’t take long—I just wanted to check on you,” Liv said as she and Sophie came into the room.
“Well, you’re certainly looking better than last time we saw you,” Sophie remarked, winking at Anna. “Would I be correct in guessing that you and Dark bonded last night?”
“Look at that grin on her face,” Liv remarked, grinning herself. “You really have to ask?”
“We did bond,” Anna admitted and found that she couldn’t stop smiling. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so happy and at peace. “And it was wonderful.”
“Bonding always is,” Liv remarked, as she started taking Anna’s vitals. “So I guess you’re feeling better now? Got all the bonding fruit out of your system?”
“I don’t know if it’s all out,” Anna admitted. “But I know I’ll have help to take care of it, if I have another, um, attack.”
“I’m sure you will,” Sophie remarked. “Kindred males have remarkable stamina.”
“Much better than human men,” Liv agreed. “Well, all your vitals look great. I think you’re going to be just fine, Anna. And you’ll have some good news to tell your parents when they get home too.”
“Oh, my mom!” Anna exclaimed. “She barely got a chance to meet Dark in the first place and now we’re mated!”
“Well, she’ll have plenty of time to get to know her new son-in-law,” Sophie said. “And I’m sure she’ll be happy because you’re happy.”
“I hope you’re right,” Anna said, smiling. “In fact, I’m sure you are. She’s just kind of overprotective sometimes, that’s all.”
“Well then, she should be glad you’re with a Kindred,” Liv said practically. “They’re extremely protective of their mates. You can’t be safer than with a Kindred warrior for a husband.”
“Speaking of that, do you want our friend Kat to help you plan your Joining Ceremony?” Sophie asked. “She’s kind of the unofficial party planner around here and she does a fabulous job.”
“Oh—I hadn’t even thought of it,” Anna exclaimed. “My mom and stepdad had their Joining Ceremony here. It would be wonderful to have ours here too. But to be honest, we haven’t even talked about where we’re going to live. I think maybe Dark might want to go back to his restaurant on Rigelus Prime.”
“Oh, too bad!” Sophie sighed. “We were hoping to keep you two around here. You know, we’re always looking for new cuisine up here on the Mother Ship and I know of a good restaurant space that just came open. It’s right beside our cousin Lauren’s bakery shop down in the common area.”
“Really?” Anna’s eyes widened. “That would be wonderful! But again, I don’t know what Dark wants yet so we’ll just have to see.”
“I can bespeak Sylvan and ask him to have the Council hold it open just in case,” Sophie suggested. “He’s in a Council meeting now to try and decide what to do about all our AI equipment going berserk.”
“What?” Anna had a sudden uneasy feeling in her gut. “What do you mean?”
“We think it’s some kind of bug in the system,” Liv explained. “But everything that’s run by AI on the Mother Ship has suddenly, uh, grown a personality, I guess is the best way to put it. And some of them are personalities we know—which is really weird, believe me.” She made a face.
“It all seemed to start happening back when the Shannom-rah came on board the ship,” Sophie added. “We think the two things might be connected, but we’re not sure how.”
“What about the Shannom-rah?”
Dark’s deep voice made Anna jump and she looked over her shoulder to see that her new mate was standing in the bedroom doorway, wearing only his black trousers and a sharp expression on his face.
“Good morning, Dark,” Liv said. “We were just telling Anna that we’ve been having some problems with all of our appliances and equipment that runs with an AI interface and it started around the same time you two came on board with the Shannom-rah.”
“But I gave it to Commander Sylvan and watched him lock it in a lined safe,” Dark protested. “I don’t see how it could…wait a minute.” His bronze eyes widened and Anna felt a wave of anxiety coming from him through their new link.
“What is it, Dark?” she asked, jumping up and going to him. “What happened?”
“I hadn’t even thought about it but something did happen while I still had the crystal in my possession.” Dark frowned. “I had it in my pocket and it shocked me when I leaned back against one of the control panels near the tram station. Right after that, the trams stopped working. At least the one that Commander Baird and I got on did.”
“They all pretty much did,” Liv confirmed. “Along with everything else that’s run by AI. They all seemed to suddenly get personalities.”
“Doesn’t the Shannom-rah store personalities?” Dark asked. “I was told it had billions or trillions already stored on it—all the people who had been studied by the alien race that made it. Some, I believe, were even from your home planet,” he said to Liv and Sophie.
“Oh my God—Nana!” Sophie’s eyes grew wide.
“I’m sorry, who?” Anna asked, frowning.
“Our grandmother,” Liv explained. “She was always a little quirky and then, when Sophie and I were around ten or eleven, she claimed to have been abducted by aliens on her way to the library.”
“She said they ‘recorded her essence’ and sent her back home again,” Sophie explained. “Our poor mom thought Nana was going senile—we all did. But now I wonder…”
“Was her personality stored and recorded in the Shannom-rah?” Liv continued for her.
“And then somehow when the Shannom-rah touched that communications panel, a bunch of the personalities it was storing got out and went into whatever they could find!” Sophie finished.” Including Nana Ruth!”
“Forgive me,” Dark said, frowning. “But what would make you think that your ‘Nana’—I don’t know that term—was one of the personalities stored in the Shannom-rah?”
“Because we met her last night!” Liv exclaimed. “She’s in the body of a pairing puppet and dating a Beast Kindred.”
“We’re having dinner with her tonight,” Sophie said. “It’s going to be kind of like a family reunion.” She looked at Liv. “Well, if this is true, at least now we know how Nana got into that pairing puppet.”
“And we know it’s really her.” Liv breathed a sigh of relief. “I just wasn’t one hundred percent sure. I feel better about her meeting the kids now.”
“But aside from your Nana, what other personalities might have been let loose in the Mother Ship when the Shannom-rah touched that control panel?” Dark asked.
Liv frowned. “Well, I know the one in my blood Analyzer is a guy from Ohio.”
“And my house cleaning bot Roombie told me this morning that she’s a stripper from New Jersey,” Sophie put in. “I had to ban her from talking to the twins!”
“It sounds to me like it was mostly Earth personalities that got distributed into the Mother Ship,” Anna said, frowning. “I wonder why?”
Liv shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe they were the last ones collected and stored? Last in, first out?”
“I don’t like this…” Dark was pacing up and down, his broad shoulders bowed and his brow furrowed in concentration. “If the last personalities that went into the Shannom-rah are now coming out, what else might have come out with them?”
Anna felt cold. “What do you mean, what else?” she demanded. “Dark, you don’t think—”
Just then a knocking sounded on the suite’s outer door again.
“Yes?” Anna jumped up and went to the door.
“Excuse me,” a feminine voice said. “I’m really sorry to bother you but is Olivia or Sophia Waterhouse in there? I really need to speak to them!”
Anna didn’t know her new friends’ last names but she opened the door anyway and saw a woman with wide blue eyes and long blonde hair standing there. She looked slightly too perfect to be real and she had an anxious look on her pretty face.
“Nana?” Liv and Sophie had jumped up as well.
“What is it, Nana?” Sophie asked as they ushered the blonde woman into the suite. “Is something wrong?”
“Well, it could be nothing…” The blonde woman frowned and Anna suddenly realized she must be Liv and Sophie’s grandmother who had come back in the body of a pairing puppet. No wonder she looked too perfect to be real—she wasn’t. Or at least her body wasn’t, though her mind seemed to be completely genuine.
“Go on, Nana—just say it,” Liv urged.
“Well, I’m probably being foolish but I wanted to tell you just in case and the Med Center said this is where I could find you, Livvy,” the Nana pairing puppet said. “I was down at the Pairing House this morning, getting some new clothes, and I saw one of the other dolls there acting really strange.”
“Strange how, Nana?” Sophie asked.
“Well, she was fooling around with the computer terminal thingy which seemed weird to start with since none of the other dolls seem to mess with it. And she was muttering to herself, something like, ‘soon they will all be mine and I will rule them all,’” Nana said, frowning. “And when I tried to talk to her, she said, ‘I hope you are enjoying your time in that body. Soon you will be recalled and placed in a superior vessel.’ When I told her I liked my new body just fine, she said, ‘Do not presume to circumvent the will of the Knower.’ After that, I got away from her because she seemed pretty loony.” She twirled one finger around her ear expressively.
“The Knower! Oh my God, the Knower!” Liv exclaimed and Dark cursed loudly.
“Oh my!” Nana put a hand to her mouth and gave him a disapproving look. “I don’t know you, young man, but please watch your language!”
“Forgive me,” Dark growled. “But this is very bad news. The Knower must have inserted itself into the Shannom-rah.” He looked at Anna. “It must have happened when Gorn’s last Replicant attacked me and then just collapsed. I didn’t understand what was going on but I’m guessing the Knower moved from the body of the Replicant into the Shannom-rah—and I brought it aboard the ship!”
“You couldn’t know what had happened—it wasn’t your fault,” Liv said quickly.
“But we still need to warn the guys,” Sophie put in. “Nana—what did that pairing puppet who was acting so strange look like?”
“Well, she had long dark hair and big green eyes.” Nana nodded. “Oh, and she was kind of skinny compared to the rest of the dolls. Myself included.” She nodded down at her own full-figured frame an
d smiled.
“I’m going to bespeak Sylvan right now,” Sophie exclaimed. “He can put a ship-wide APB order out on her!”
She closed her eyes and Anna could see that she was concentrating, no doubt using the mental link she had with her mate. Then her eyes fluttered open and her face drained of all color.
“What is it Sophie?” Liv exclaimed, grabbing for her sister’s hand. “What’s wrong?”
“He says…” Sophie’s eyes filled with fear. “Sylvan says it’s too late—she’s already there. And she’s holding them all hostage!”
Chapter Thirty-nine
The Council meeting had started normally enough, Sylvan thought as he eyed the pairing puppet standing in the middle of the High Council’s chambers, holding a deadly device in its hand. How had it all gone to the Seven Hells so quickly?
He had begun the meeting by introducing Commander Naught, a specialist in AI tech, since he was nearly half AI himself. Sylvan supposed that a sci-fi fan from Earth would probably call Naught a “cyborg” since about half his body was prosthetic—the left half, to be exact.
Naught had started life as one of a Twin Kindred pair. He had been the dark twin—Fears Naught and his brother, Speaks Peace, had been the light twin of their pair. An airlock explosion had taken Naught’s twin from him and decimated the left half of his body and face, leaving him free-floating in space and inches from death.
Fortunately, the accident had happened not far from the Dark Kindred home world and had been seen by a passing freighter. They had rescued Naught just as his life was fading. A quick evac to one of the medical barges had put the wounded warrior in the hands of the very capable Tolleg surgeons. They had saved Naught’s life—and repaired or replaced the left half of his body with silver enhancements—limbs that were a hundred times stronger than his old ones had been.
The left half of his face was an unfeeling silver mask but the right side was no less expressionless. The Tollegs had compassionately given Naught an emotion damper, which Sylvan speculated he probably kept turned all the way up, to avoid the inevitable, paralyzing grief over the loss of his twin.
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