“There,” he said. “Comfortable?”
“I suppose so. It reminds me of the way you held me when we climbed up Rainbow Mountain,” Kara remarked, looking down at the way she was attached to him with her legs on either side of his hips and her arms around his neck. It was nice being so close to him again—close enough to breathe in the warm, spicy scent that smelled so good even if she was positive it couldn’t be his Mating Scent.
“It is like our first adventure together, isn’t it? Except for the harness.” He turned his head and grinned at her. “But this way we can stay together as long as we need to—no worries about you getting tired hanging on. Plus, we have to have four arms, like the natives.”
“Four arms and two heads,” Kara remarked. “But are you sure the holo-projection will really make us look like we come from Yi’pisselon?”
“Take a look for yourself and see.” Raak activated the holo collar he was wearing and, with a soft buzzing sound, they were suddenly covered in flowing green fabric which hid the fact that Kara was a separate person riding on Raak’s back.
She looked in the 3-D viewer to their right to gage the full effect and had to bite back an exclamation of surprise. It wasn’t just the holo-fabric that hid the fact that they were two instead of one—the shapes and coloration of their faces had been changed as well.
Instead of her blonde tresses and Raak’s wild black mane, they both had muddy-green hair now. The long, straggly strands looked like limp seaweed scraped over their scalps. Their eyes were different too—vivid yellow with slitted pupils like a reptile’s—they stared out of the 3-D viewer with an alien expression that was hard to read.
Their skin tones were now a muddy gray and scaled, a little like an alligator’s, Kara thought. Their arms—all four of them—protruded from the sweeping green holo-garment making them look like a single person with two heads and four upper limbs.
“We’re fucking gorgeous, right, baby?” Raak asked, grinning at her as she studied their new look in the viewer. “But this is the way the Yi’pisselons look. So we have to look the same.”
“It’s definitely different, all right,” Kara admitted, shivering as she took in their extremely altered appearance.
She still felt uncertain about the plan but she had to admit that infiltrating a closed planet and disguising themselves as one of the natives definitely fell under the heading of “adventure” which was what she’d asked for.
It was just that riding “piggy-back” on the big Unbondable’s back and pretending they were one person instead of two was a little bit weirder than any adventure she’d ever imagined.
Still, she decided to go with it. Even if being this close to Raak and his warm, enticing scent was kind of distracting…
Suddenly she felt a tingling in her upper jaw, where her fangs had been.
Oh no! Are they growing back out again?
Hastily, Kara felt her teeth with her fingertips. But to her utter relief, her fangs were still tiny and blunt. Hmm, the tingle must have been her imagination.
“Well, baby—are you ready to go down to the surface and do some trading?” Raak asked her.
“Of course!” Kara smiled brightly which looked awful in their current disguise. “Let’s go.”
She just hoped her former fangs didn’t start tingling again. It was a strange sensation and it bothered her more than she liked to admit.
Twenty-Four
“Okay, I’m going to be the main head and you’ll be the secondary,” Raak told her as they walked into the Yi’pisselon town he had chosen for trading. Or rather he walked and Kara rode on his back. “That means everything I say, you just agree with me. Got it?”
“How come I don’t get to be the primary head?” Kara objected.
He flashed a grin at her, which looked odd with his Yi’pisselon disguise.
“That would be because I know what I have to trade and what I’m looking for and you don’t, baby girl. I’m not being sexist—just practical.”
“All right.” Kara could see his point, though she still didn’t like just being the “yes man” of the two of them. Or would it be the “yes woman” or simply just the “yes head?”
Whatever you wanted to call it, she supposed she could put up with it since they were only going to be here a few hours. Just long enough for Raak to get some of the local art and then they were heading back to the Mother Ship.
She frowned. The thought of going home and never seeing the big Unbondable was stuck in her mind like a splinter in her finger. And like a splinter, the more she worried it, the more it hurt.
I don’t want to never see Raak again, she couldn’t help thinking. We make a great team! He’s funny and sweet and considerate and protective—he has everything any girl would want in a mate.
Well, except for a soul, she reminded herself. Raak didn’t have that and without a soul, no bonding was possible.
But even without a soul, she didn’t want to leave him, she realized. Just being near him made her body react. Especially when she was this near—plastered against his broad back as he carried her into the alien town. His warm scent was working on her again, making her heart pound and the place where her fangs had been tingle once more.
Surreptitiously, Kara felt the blunt little points again. Nope, they still hadn’t grown. So why were they tingling so much?
And it wasn’t just her fangs tingling at this point—the tips of her nipples were suddenly more sensitive too. As soon as she realized that, her pussy joined the chorus—it throbbed hotly between her legs, reminding her that she was spread open with her thighs on either side of Raak’s hips and her crotch rubbing against his lower back.
Kara suddenly wished she could get down from the big Unbondable’s back and press her thighs together to ease the ache that was growing there. She was still only wearing his spare uniform shirt and the thin fabric between her pussy and his back didn’t seem like enough of a barrier.
An awful thought occurred to her. What if she started getting hot and slippery as she pressed against him? Raak was sure to feel it and wonder what was going on. How embarrassing! What would she do if that happened?
She wanted desperately to ask him to stop so she could get down and adjust herself somehow. But they were almost to the town’s borders now, and they couldn’t risk being seen out of disguise by one of the Yi’pisselons. Reluctantly, Kara decided she would just have to try and ignore the distractingly sexual sensations.
“Hey, baby girl—you all right?” Raak turned his head and she saw his nostrils flare, as though he was scenting her. Knowing how easily he could smell her heat made her feel flustered and embarrassed.
“Fine,” she said quickly. “Just…a little nervous—that’s all. I’ve never gone undercover like this before.”
Raak shrugged.
“I do it all the time when I land on closed planets. The trick is to imitate the mannerisms and speech patterns of the person you’re talking to. People like it when you mirror them—even if they don’t realize you’re doing it. It also helps to agree with their opinions and throw in a few compliments. You get them to like you and before you know it, you’ve got a lucrative deal.”
“You make it sound so easy,” Kara remarked. “I thought you didn’t care what other people thought of you?”
“Oh, I don’t.” He laughed. “But it’s good to pretend you do when you’re making a deal. You know, baby girl, once we make a few trades here, you’ll have enough credit to do anything you want—go anywhere you want,” he told her.
Kara thought about saying she didn’t want to go anywhere except with him, but she managed to bite her tongue and not speak the words aloud. After all, it wasn’t like they could be together on any kind of a permanent basis.
Instead she just nodded neutrally and looked around the town.
At first glance, the Yi’pisselons didn’t seem to be a very advanced society. They lived in wooden huts with straw roofs and the few vehicles Kara saw on the packed dirt roa
ds didn’t even have motors of any kind. Instead, they were drawn by animals—large, slow-moving beasts that looked a little like a giant tortoise from Earth with the head of a Bassett Hound.
The Yi’pisselons themselves appeared to be in no hurry to get much of anywhere either. They plodded along, their lumpy, two-headed bodies almost seeming to move in slow motion. Some of them were bartering in the market square she and Raak were approaching, but even there, the speech was slow and ponderous, punctuated with much wagging of heads and deliberate gestures.
“Where is this amazing art you were talking about?” Kara muttered in Raak’s ear. “All I see are wood huts and primitive vehicles.”
“Look closer,” Raak told her. “Have you noticed the carvings on the sides of the huts or the paintings on the shells of the beasts that pull their vehicles?”
Kara had to admit she hadn’t. She narrowed her eyes, focusing on the side of the hut they were passing.
To her surprise, she saw a geometric pattern of multi-dimensional prismatic shapes carved into the simple wood. It was done with incredible precision and accuracy and had a subtle but complex beauty she would never have seen if she hadn’t looked harder at it.
Looking around, she saw that the other huts and buildings had the same kinds of carvings, though no two were exactly alike.
A closer examination of the shell of one of the huge Bassett-tortoises pulling a cart beside them, showed the same kind of thing. The shell was a pattern of grays and greens and browns that Kara had assumed were just the animal’s natural coloration. But now she saw that their real shell color was black and the subtle pattern of colors had been painted on—again in rows and columns of geometric patterns that must have taken ages to do.
“Oh,” she murmured in Raak’s ear. “I see now—it’s subtle but it’s really beautiful in a minimalist kind of way.”
“Exactly.” He nodded approvingly. “Just because something doesn’t scream, ‘look at me!’ doesn’t mean it’s not worth looking at.”
Kara could see his point.
“Got it,” she whispered. “So what kind of art are you looking to buy here?”
“That.” Raak pointed to a stall where a slow-moving Yi’pisselon merchant was standing behind a table filled with carved wooden bowls and serving platters.
“Oh.” Kara stared curiously at the display. “They’re beautiful but why those things specifically?” When he’d said he was looking to buy art, she had imagined a more literal interpretation like a painting or a sculpture.
“Because,” Raak murmured back. “It’s exactly the kind of thing the bored house-mistresses of Tava Prime will go crazy for. They’ve got nothing to do all day but spend their husbands’ credits and compete with each other over who has the most exclusive possessions. I bring them something like this—a set of serving bowls and platters from a closed world that no one else can get—and they’ll start a damn bidding war to see who can get them. The winner will pay me ten times what they’re worth so she can host a dinner party for the losers and make them eat off the plates they couldn’t get for themselves. They’ll all have to pretend to be happy for her while inside they’re eaten up with envy.”
“Sounds like a charming society,” Kara said dryly. “I’m glad I don’t live there.”
“No, you wouldn’t like it at all,” Raak told her. “Bunch of back-biting, back-stabbing females who hate each other and pretend to be best friends. But right now, we need to concentrate on Yi’pisselon, not Tava Prime. After all, we have to get the platters and bowls before we can sell them.”
“And I suppose you’re the master dealmaker?”
“Just watch and learn, baby girl,” Raak told her. “Watch and learn.”
Twenty-Five
Kara kept silent as they approached the merchant with the beautifully carved bowls and platters. She wondered how long it had taken to make each one—for all she knew the intricate carvings could have taken years.
There was another customer ahead of them, so Raak stopped and waited politely, his eyes flitting over the array of dishes while the merchant transacted his business.
“The little missuss might like this one,” the customer’s main head said as he lifted a large, carved serving platter in his first pair of hands.
“Ayup—that she might,” his secondary head said, nodding vigorously.
“That’s a good choice, that is,” the merchant remarked. “Good craftsmanship and built to serve a fair few guests if you’ve got ‘em.”
“That’s so, yes it is,” the merchant’s secondary head agreed, also nodding.
“Well then—I think we’re all in agreement,” the first head of the customer said. “We’ll take it!”
“Yes, we will. Yes indeedy-do!” the second head said, nodding enthusiastically. “We’ll take it—we surely will.”
“We’ll wrap it up for you,” the merchant said and his own second head nodded in complete agreement as he moved slowly to wrap the carved serving platter with all four hands.
Credits changed hands—all eight of them, Kara saw—and at last the transaction was done. She was relieved to see that they were finally next. Though Raak seemed confident in what he was doing, she most certainly was not.
All you have to do is agree, she reminded herself. Just agree with everything he says. You can do that—how hard can it be?
Not hard at all, she was certain. So she opened her eyes wide and smiled a bland but pleasant smile, which was the expression she had observed on many second heads around the marketplace.
“Good morrow,” the merchant said to Raak as they approached. “How may I be of service to you on this fine day that Gooshen has created for us?”
Gooshen must be their deity, Kara thought as Raak nodded back to the merchant.
“Good morrow,” Raak responded. “To begin with, you can show me some of your finest serving platters. I’ll be wanting to buy a fair few if you’ve got them.”
Wow, he really sounds like a Yi’pisselon,” Kara thought. She didn’t say anything but then Raak surreptitiously elbowed her and she remembered she was supposed to be agreeing with him.
“Oh! Uh, yes—yes we do. We want to buy a bunch of your fine platters and bowls,” she said quickly.
“Well, that’s a fine thing to hear on such a lovely day,” the merchant’s first head said.
“Isn’t it though? Just the finest day Gooshen ever created,” his second head agreed.
“Gooshen must be praised for this fine day,” Raak said, nodding piously.
This time Kara was ready.
“Gooshen really is the best,” she said, nodding as well.
“So he is. So he is,” the merchant’s first head said. “Well now, which platters were you looking at?”
He and Raak bent over the array of finely carved platters and bowls and Kara tried not to look too bored. Some adventure this was turning out to be. Despite being in disguise, all she got to do was nod and agree while Raak bought tableware. That wasn’t very exciting at all!
Just then the place where her fangs had been began itching again—then throbbing.
Kara frowned and rubbed the blunt little points with the tip of her tongue, willing them to stop. What was wrong with her, anyway? She’d thought that her fangs were cured completely in Qi’s Palace of the Unseen so why were they still bothering her?
But in just a moment, it wasn’t only her fangs that were itching. The strange sensation moved down to her nipples and then to her pussy. These parts of her had felt sensitive before, but now they began to throb and ache fiercely—almost as though someone was tugging and twisting her stiff, sensitive peaks and reaching between her thighs to stroke her pussy.
“Oh!” Kara gasped, writhing against Raak’s broad back. “Oh, what in the world?”
Her exclamation brought an astonished look from both of the Yi’pisselon merchant’s heads.
“Are you quite all right there, friend?” the first head asked and the second one frowned in concern as well.
“Just fine,” Raak said heartily, shooting a glance back at Kara.
“Sorry,” she muttered, trying to find a reason for her sudden outburst. “I think something just, uh, stung me.”
“No it didn’t,” Raak said pointedly, frowning. “Or I would have felt it too.”
Of course he would have, since they were supposed to be two heads attached to the same body, Kara realized. Feeling stupid, she tried to salvage the situation.
“Have you noticed what very fine clouds Goocher put in the sky today?” she asked, pointing up towards the pale purple sky where some silvery wisps were drifting by.
“Goocher?” The merchant’s first head frowned.
“Oh, uh, Goochy,” Kara quickly corrected herself. No, that wasn’t right either, she realized when both the merchant’s heads looked at her blankly.
Damn it, what was the name of the Yi’pisselon deity again? Somehow it had flown right out of her head! It would probably be easier to remember if her nipples and pussy weren’t aching so fiercely. She was beginning to be in real pain here!
“Gooshen, is certainly good to us,” Raak said, agreeing with her, even as he shot her a baleful look.
“Right, right—Gooshen,” Kara said quickly. “He is the absolute best weather deity anybody could ask for. I mean, I don’t know about you guys but he’s right at the tip-top of my list. Am I right?”
But her words didn’t seem to have the calming effect she hoped for on the merchant. Both his heads were frowning now.
“Gooshen is not the god of weather!” the first head said, frowning. “He is the god of being and belonging as all devout Yi’pisselons know. Pooper is the god of weather!”
Pooper? Seriously?
But of course she couldn’t comment on the ridiculously named deity without giving herself away.
“Oh, uh, for sure—of course,” Kara said quickly. “Um, praise be to Pooper for the really nice weather today.”
Unbondable: Book 1 of the Kindred Birthright Series (Brides of the Kindred) Page 14