“You have?” Raak frowned. “Not many people go to it, even to trade. It’s a fucking strange place. Takes some getting used to.”
But Kara was pacing around the fresher, running a hand through her hair excitedly.
“I remember where I heard it now! The doctor my Great Uncle and Aunt got to try and pull my fangs—Dr. ThrobGood—when I asked why he couldn’t just shrink my fangs, he said, ‘Oh my dear, I’m not a miracle worker or a Kaji from Xephron Five!’
“A Kaji, huh?” Raak frowned. “As a matter of fact, the being I trade with on X-5 has that title. He—or she, or it—it’s fucking hard to tell—just goes by the name Qi though.”
“Does he, er, it, have some kind of magical or medical power?” Kara asked anxiously. “Do you think it could help me shrink my fangs?”
Raak frowned. “I really don’t think they need to be shrunk, Kara.”
She scowled and put a hand on her hip.
“My body, my choice. Don’t be a caveman, as they say back on Earth, and try to act like you know what’s best for me. I want my fangs shrunk back down to normal at least—that’s not too much to ask, I don’t think.”
Raak held up both hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture.
“Whoa baby girl. Don’t worry about me trying to tell you what’s best for your body. I’m just giving you my opinion—your fangs are fucking gorgeous and they feel incredible when you sink them into me. But if you want them gone, we’ll try to find a way. Even though if you ask me, it would be like deciding you wanted to cut off your luscious full breasts for no reason or get rid of your soft little pussy.”
Kara looked stricken.
“You really think that?”
Raak nodded. “I’m not kidding or exaggerating, baby girl—your fangs are beautiful and they’re part of you—a very sexual part.” He shrugged. “But if you want to try and get rid of them or shrink them, I’ll try to help you.”
Her pale blue eyes softened.
“Thank you, Raak,” she whispered and threw her arms around his neck. Since the silver uniform shirt she was wearing was still unbuttoned and gaping open, this meant that her full breasts were pressed to his bare chest but for the moment she didn’t seem to mind.
“Mmm, baby girl,” Raak murmured in her ear as he pulled her even closer. “You feel so good against me.”
He wished he could change her mind about trying to shrink her fangs. He had meant what he said—they were part of her—a very sexy part and he hated to see them go. But Kara was determined and as she had said before, it was her body and her choice so all Raak could do was help and support her.
He just hoped that her quest to get her fangs to shrink didn’t go wrong somehow. Xephron Five was a fucking weird planet where anything was likely to happen.
Eighteen
“That’s it? But it looks like some kind of disco ball!” Kara exclaimed, as she watched Xephron Five growing in the viewscreen.
“A what?” Raak frowned at her for a moment before turning his attention back to the ship’s instrument panel.
“It was this big mirrored ball that hung from the ceiling during an ancient dance ritual down on Earth. My mom told me about it, though it was before her time.” Kara sat forward in the passenger seat and looked at the glittering, diamond-like planet more closely. Its many-faceted surface did seem to sparkle and shine the same way the round glowing ball had in the vids her mom had showed her.
Sophia had decided it was important for Kara to learn about the human part of her heritage as well as the Kindred side and was always giving her tidbits of strange but interesting information about life on the world the Mother Ship orbited.
“It sparkles like that because of the natural refractors in the vegetation,” Raak explained. “It can make looking around difficult—blinding. Which is why I have these.” He popped open a compartment in the pilot’s chair and took out a couple of pairs of large, bulky looking sun shades.
“Oh, sunglasses!” Kara exclaimed, taking a pair of them and putting them on. “Uh, really big ones, too,” she added. For as soon as they touched her face, the shaded lenses grew to envelope her entire orbital region, sealing themselves around her eyes just above her eyebrows and just below her cheekbones.
“They’re heavy-duty, all right,” Raak agreed. “But that’s necessary to keep the damned planet from blinding you. Believe me, the first time I came to trade here, I didn’t have any and I was seeing spots in front of my eyes for a solar month afterwards.”
“That sounds intense.” Kara tugged at the dark glasses which immediately unmolded themselves from around her eyes sockets and let her take them off. “Why did you come here in the first place? Didn’t you say not many people do?”
Raak shrugged.
“I like adventure—like trying and seeing strange, new things. And believe me, baby girl, Xephron Five and its inhabitants are about as strange as it gets.”
Kara felt her heart pound as the disco ball planet grew bigger in the view screen.
I just hope one of those strange inhabitants can help me shrink my fangs, she thought. She no longer wanted them completely gone—she knew that now, after the awful encounter with Aunt Zeelah and Uncle Grennly on Tranq Prime. But she couldn’t go back to the Mother Ship with them in the state they were in now—so long and sharp and prominent and noticeable. It would be like a male walking around with an erection all day, right out in plain sight. It just wasn’t feasible.
If this Qi, whoever or whatever he was, could help her, Kara would be forever grateful.
But then I’ll have to go home and never see Raak again, she thought and felt a sharp dart of sadness pierce her. He won’t want to hang around the Mother Ship where everyone disapproves of him except me—not when there’s no way we can ever be together. Well, not permanently, anyway.
The memory of exactly how they had recently been together made her blush and squirm in her seat. Goddess, she’d never let a male touch her the way Raak had—and he had been so good at it. The few fumbling encounters she’d had with her last boyfriend—Jason, the human who had dumped her for biting him—had been nothing like that.
Raak had touched her with authority, as though he knew exactly how to make her body respond. And it certainly had, Kara thought, remembering how hard he’d made her come. Not to mention the hot, dirty way he’d talked to her while he touched her and sucked her nipples…
Just thinking of that made her nipples feel tight and her pussy feel wet all over again. Her fangs were throbbing too, as if they wanted to sink into his neck again…
No, stop it! Kara told herself firmly. You have to stop thinking like that—it only makes your fangs worse when you’re constantly horny for Raak.
But she could hardly help herself. Just the memory of the way he had touched her and made her come was enough to make her want it again and again…and again.
“I said, we’re about ready to land. Hey, you listening, baby girl?”
His deep voice snapped her out of her guilty fantasy and Kara looked up at him quickly, realizing she’d missed part of what he had been saying.
“Uh, sorry. I was, um, thinking,” she murmured, feeling her cheeks get hot with a blush.
“Thinking, huh?” Raak’s nostrils flared and he inhaled, clearly taking in her scent. “I bet I can guess what you were thinking, sweetheart.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “You need to bite me again before we go down there?”
“Oh, um…no. No, I’ll be okay,” Kara said quickly, though honestly, she wanted to take him up on his offer. But she was afraid that if she bit him and let him touch her again they might go further—might go too far.
She couldn’t help remembering the way he’d sucked her juices off his fingers and declared how delicious they were. It would be a short step from that to letting him get between her thighs and lap her pussy. And an even shorter step to letting him change the color of her eyes.
No, she had to be careful, Kara told herself. Had to keep herself in control. So she
shook her head more firmly and repeated, “I’m fine. Let’s get ready to go. But, uh, I can’t go looking like this, right? I mean, what am I going to wear?”
She looked down at herself. She was still wearing his silver uniform shirt and nothing else, since she didn’t trust the royal blue tharp, which was hanging up on a rack and drying out in the fresher. She knew it was a living creature which would die without contact from her but she had decided to wait a while before she went near it again.
She had considered getting rid of it completely but then it occurred to her that the tharp had been trying, in its own way, to resuscitate her when it seemed like she might be dying or frozen to death. The thought had kept her from pitching the royal blue fabric creature but it was still on what Kara thought of as a “time out.” She was going to wait a while before she touched it again—or let it touch her. It needed to learn a lesson about not molesting her when she was helpless!
“Believe it or not, you’re dressed just right for Xephron Five,” Raak told her.
“Really?” Kara didn’t try to hide her surprise. “But how can that be?”
“You’ll see, baby girl.” he nodded mysteriously. “As soon as we dock and get out there, you’ll see.”
And he wouldn’t say another word about it, no matter how Kara tried to get answers, as they docked on the silvery planet’s surface.
Nineteen
It turned out to be a really good thing Raak had the big adjustable sunshades because the surface of Xephron Five was even brighter than it had appeared on the viewscreen.
Everywhere Kara looked she saw nothing but reflective surfaces. It was, she thought, like walking through the hall of mirrors at a carnival she’d visited with her mom once, down on Earth.
It was really hard to tell where they had landed and what was around them due to the fact that all the surfaces were covered in the mirror-like finish but Kara thought they might be surrounded by some kind of plants. Plants with really big leaves that showed her own reflection when she tried to examine them, which was beyond strange.
“Where are the people?” she asked Raak as she carefully touched one of the leaves to see if the mirrored surface was hard or soft. To her surprise, it was, in fact, soft and flexible, just like a plant leaf back home.
“You’re touching one right now.” Raak sounded amused.
The leaves of the “plant” Kara was touching rustled and a high, tinkling voice like glass wind chimes said,
“Greetings, visitors.”
“Oh!” Kara dropped the “leaf” she’d been fondling and jumped back, her head swirling with questions.
What if the leaf wasn’t a leaf at all? What if she’d just been groping a strange alien like some kind of pervert? Maybe she’d actually been stroking a breast or a…but it didn’t bear thinking about.
“I’m so sorry!” she babbled to the creature she’d mistaken for a mirrored plant. “I didn’t know you were sentient! I’ve never been here before.”
“No offense is taken, visitor,” the tinkling voice told her. “We are unlike your kind and you are unlike us, as you sadly have no reflective surfaces.”
“Oh, um, yes. Very sad,” Kara agreed quickly, trying to be polite. She was relieved the plant creature didn’t seem to think she’d been groping it.
“Greetings,” Raak said to the mirrored plant person formally. “We have come to make exchanges with your Kaji, Qi.” He pronounced the name like “Kwi” with a long I sound.
“Ah, yes—I am certain our Kaji will be pleased to see you,” the plant person said, rustling its leaves again. “But you must be willing to enter his Palace of the Unseen. Will you do so?”
“Gladly,” Raak said, nodding again. “If you would please lead the way?”
“Of course.” The mirrored leaves rustled again. “Come.”
It started moving off from them and Kara hastened to follow. She was trying to keep her eyes on the plant person and not lose it in the forest of other, almost exactly similar creatures, but it was almost impossible. Everywhere she looked, there were plant people with huge, mirrored leaves that reflected her own image back to her.
It really is like a hall of mirrors, Kara thought as she and Raak made their way through the bewildering maze. How in the world does anyone know where they’re going around here?
But no matter how strange it was, Raak seemed to know exactly where he was headed. He strode confidently along and Kara followed, anxious not to lose him in the shiny, reflective crowd.
As they went, many of the leaves brushed against her arms and her bare legs, since she still just had on Raak’s spare silver uniform shirt. She wondered if the plant people—the Xephronians—were touching her on purpose. Maybe they were as curious about her as she had been about them when she was touching their guide’s leaf.
The touches were constant but soft and gentle, barely brushing her skin, so Kara tried not to mind.
It’s just like walking through a forest, she told herself uneasily. A forest with lots of trees all crowded together and really thick branches.
But the branches of normal trees didn’t touch you on purpose. And besides, the Xephronians didn’t seem to be shaped like regular trees anyway. They were more like the tropical plants that sometimes grew in Florida, the place on earth that was her mother’s birthplace, with their broad, fan-like leaves which were almost as big as Kara’s head.
She heard some of them murmuring in their rustling, tinkling voices. However, it was difficult to understand what they were saying even though she’d had a dose of the translation bacteria the Kindred gave to all females who were human or half human that allowed them to understand almost any foreign or alien language.
“What are they saying about us?” she whispered to Raak. “And why do they keep touching me?”
“They’re just curious, baby girl,” he assured her. “Don’t worry—I’ve been to Xephron Five several times now—nothing here is going to hurt you. The natives just like new things, that’s all.”
In fact, after a moment, Kara realized that was what the rustling mirrored plant people were saying.
“New,new,new,new,new,” they tinkled and chimed over and over in a kind of harmonious chorus as they continued to brush her lightly with their “leaves.”
“Why do you come here, other than the fact that you like to explore?” Kara asked the big Unbondable. “I mean, what do you get from the, uh, Xephronians in trade?”
“Their leaves,” he told her.
“What?” Kara was momentarily horrified. “But isn’t that like trading away a hand or a limb?”
Raak shook his head.
“Nah. They shed them the way you and I shed pieces of hair or clip our fingernails. They can always grow more, and the flexible, highly reflective leaves have a lot of uses in the tech industry—especially when focusing lasers or scopes.”
“Oh, I can see how that would be true,” Kara said thoughtfully. “But…what do you give them in return for their, er, hair and fingernail clippings?”
He shrugged, his broad shoulders rolling.
“Pretty much anything, actually. They have an insatiable thirst for new things—they’ll sit and contemplate a dish or a boot or whatever you have for hours.” He shrugged again. “It makes them happy and their old leaves are valuable to me so that makes me happy. It’s a win-win situation.”
“I see.” Kara was fascinated that he’d managed to not only make contact with such a disparate species, but also to make a lucrative trade deal with them as well. “How did you make the deal with them in the first place?” she asked, wanting to know more.
“I decided to land here—even though a lot of traders avoid Xephron Five like the plague—and check it out. At first they didn’t know what to make of me—a whole bunch of them surrounded me and started stroking me all over and chanting “New,new,new” like they’re doing now.”
Kara’s eyes widened.
“That must have really freaked you out!”
“A little
,” he admitted. “But I realized pretty quickly they weren’t hostile. I asked about making a trade with them and they told me I would have to speak to their Kaji first. Once they took me to him, er, it, and Qi approved me, I was free to trade with them as much as I wanted.” He grinned at her. “And I’ve been coming back ever since. It’s a pretty lucrative deal and the Xephronians are nice people, when you get to know them.”
Once more, Kara was impressed with his nonchalance and open-mindedness. Of course, the Kindred were genetic traders by nature but they mostly made contact with other people they could possibly mate with or found animals with little or no sentience they could modify genetically to suit their purposes. She liked that Raak didn’t rule out an entire species just because they weren’t genetically compatible or biologically useful.
“So this Qi,” she said, keeping her voice low, though they were speaking in the Kindred Standard tongue, so she was pretty sure none of the Xephronians could understand them. “What is he, um, it, like? I mean, what does it look like? Is it the same as the rest of the people here?” She motioned at the sea of reflective plant people they were still wading through.
“Couldn’t tell you what it looks like because I’ve never seen it,” Raak told her.
“What? But then how…I mean, I don’t understand.” Kara shook her head.
“Qi is one of the Unseen,” Raak told her. “He has achieved what all the Xephronians hope for—complete invisibility. And here we are at his domicile now,” he added as they came to a halt.
Kara looked to where he was pointing but saw nothing…literally nothing. There was just a very large square of cleared land, about as big as a football field, with nothing to see but hard-packed dirt. Or was it dirt? She frowned and squinted her eyes at it. It was black, whatever it was, providing a strange contrast to the silvery reflective surfaces of the Xephronians all around it.
She reached down to touch some of the black stuff to see what it actually was…and found that she somehow couldn’t reach it. Though she could see it plain as day, when she reached for it, her seeking fingers encountered something hard and smooth that wouldn’t let her make contact with the black stuff.
Unbondable: Book 1 of the Kindred Birthright Series (Brides of the Kindred) Page 11