“That’s sensible,” I agreed.
“With any luck she is heading for her domicile now,” the Commercian said, gesturing at the lightscreen where we could see our chosen female driving her strange little vehicle down a paved road filled with other such vehicles. “These Earthlings have many reflective surfaces in the places where they live—large, shiny, flat, glass panels which I believe they call them ‘mirrors’. Human females use them to check their appearance often—they are ideal for transportation.”
“Like a 2D viewer?” I asked.
“Exactly.” Char’noth nodded, his eyestalks bobbing. “We have only to wait until she gets to her domicile. Once she is there, I will lure her to one of the mirrors by playing discordant tones to get her attention. When she steps in front of the mirror, I will transport her directly to the station.”
“How does your transportation device work?” Drace looked interested. “Does it use a transdimentional portal or—”
“I’m afraid that is proprietary information,” Char’noth said stiffly in his high, squeaky voice. “We Commercians are extremely protective of our technology.”
“Naturally you are.” I frowned at Drace who shrugged.
“What? I like to know how things work.”
“It doesn’t matter how it works as long as it gets the female here to un-bond us,” I pointed out.
“You’re not saying anything I’m not already thinking.” Drace glared at me. “Can’t happen soon enough for me.”
“Gentlemen, please,” Char’noth waved several clawed hands for silence. “Look—she appears to be approaching her domicile. As soon as she is alone, I will lure the female to a mirror and transport her.”
I closed my mouth on the angry words I’d been about to say. Soon the Earth female would be with us and the unbearable irritation of being bonded to an unsuitable mate would finally be ended.
We all watched avidly as the female entered a large, rectangular building which appeared to house many smaller domiciles inside it. She walked down a long hallway, passing several doors, until she came to her own. Using a small, flat piece of metal which I assumed was a primitive kind of key, she opened the lock.
Soon she would be ours.
Chapter Three
Rylee
I walked in to my apartment to find an unwelcome surprise.
My ex, Phillip, was lounging on my sofa with a beer in one hand and a belligerent look on his face.
Great, not this—not now. After the day I’d had, a confrontation with Phillip was the last thing I needed!
“What are you doing here?” I asked, deciding to take the bull by the horns as my Aunt Celia would say. “You know you’re not supposed to be here. Did you forget something?”
“Yeah, babe—I forgot you.” Standing, he put down the beer and swaggered over to me with a cocky grin on his face.
When I first met Phillip about three years before, he’d had a bad-boy air that I had found irresistibly attractive. With his thick brownish-blonde hair tied back in a pony tail and his big brown eyes he was also easy on the eyes—or he had been before he started drinking too much and spending most of his paycheck on drugs and other women. Now he had a beer gut and a scraggly, patchy beard which made him look like a bum.
I should have given him the heave-ho long before I actually did, but I hadn’t known how deep his problems went. The drinking part was obvious because Phillip was a mean drunk. Not that he hit me—I wouldn’t stand for that. No, he just got verbally abusive calling me a “bitch” and a “fat cunt” and screaming that I was ruining his life. Which was ridiculous because he was doing a damn fine job of ruining it himself—he didn’t need any help from me. Afterwards he would cry and apologize and swear never to drink again—which usually lasted about a month before he ‘went out with the guys’ and got blackout drunk once more.
As for the drugs and the other women, I suspected both of them but I didn’t have actual proof until the day I walked into my bedroom and found Phillip in bed with a skanky waitress from one of the grungy bars he frequented. They were trying to have sex but both of them were high as a kite so they weren’t getting very far with it.
The waitress had a blissed-out expression on her face and she was laying flat on her back while Phillip crouched over her, fumbling with his crotch.
“Wow, babe, that’s so good,” she was moaning. “So good. Soooo goooood.”
Phillip had his dick in his hand—as limp as a week-old stalk of celery—and was trying to aim for the hairy forest between her legs. Only he kept poking her belly-button instead.
“How can it be good?” he asked peevishly. “I’m not even in yet. Why is your pussy so shallow? It’s like…only an inch deep.”
“It’s good—it’s really good!” she insisted. “Just keep doing what you’re doing, babe. It’s awesome.”
It was a ridiculous scene and I would have laughed out loud if I hadn’t felt so horribly betrayed. As it was I just stood there for a long moment, staring at them fumbling around in front of me before I swung into action.
I kicked them both out, threw their clothes after them and slammed the door in their faces. Later, after Phillip was finally gone, I dragged all his things out to the curb and left them there for whoever wanted them. I even got the locks changed.
As painful as the incident had been, I was glad it had happened. It had been a wakeup call for me—the boot in the ass I needed to get me moving. Up until I walked in on my ex and his hairy-waitress-whore, I’d been making excuses for him. But seeing them having sex in my bed—or trying to anyway—had snapped something inside me. The relationship which had started out sexy and daring and exciting had turned bad, I realized—had been bad for a while. That realization had enabled me to wake up, get out, and get on with my life.
Of course, Phillip had called me on the phone and ranted and raved and begged and pleaded. He called me plenty of nasty names—not the least of which was the N word which he had hadn’t previously dared to use, even when he was drunk—but I held my ground. I refused to talk to him, refused to see him, refused to even think about him if I could help it.
Which was why it was so disconcerting to walk into my apartment and find him lounging on the couch like he still lived there.
“What are you doing here?” I asked, frowning. “How did you even get in?”
He grinned, showing teeth which hadn’t been brushed in a while.
“Called a locksmith and told him I locked myself out. He let me in—no problem.”
“That’s illegal,” I said tightly. “They can’t just let you in because you claim to live here.”
“Hey, my name’s still on the lease. This copy of it, anyway.” He waved a piece of paper in my face. “Had a copy in my email. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner.”
“Maybe because you knew I never wanted to see your sorry ass again?” I said, crossing my arms over my chest. “Seriously, Phillip—after the day I’ve had, I don’t need your shit right now.”
“C’mon now, babe.” His voice took on a wheedling tone I used to think was cute. “Don’t be like that—I really miss you.”
“Translation, you miss having a roof over your head. What happened, did that skanky waitress you were trying to screw kick you out?”
His face went dark and his eyes narrowed for a moment but then he made a visible effort to smile genially.
“She didn’t mean nothin’ to me—you know that. That was a mistake—I never woulda gone with her if I hadn’t been drunk.” He spread his hands. “But I’ve changed now—that’s all over with.”
“Let me guess—you’re turning over a new leaf and you’re never going to drink again and now you want me back because we belong together forever,” I recited, giving him his old excuse almost word-for-word. I knew it by heart—I ought to, considering how many times I’d heard it.
“Well…yeah.” Phillip stared at me earnestly. “I’m serious this time, babe—I even went to AA. Look, I got one of tho
se chips they give you for attending the meetings.”
He pulled a chip out of the pocket of his battered leather motorcycle jacket and held it out to me. I bent down and studied it briefly before looking back up at him.
“How stupid do you think I am, Phillip? This is a poker chip. Real AA chips have a triangle with ‘Unity, Service, and Recovery’ printed on them. I know—my uncle was an alcoholic.”
Which was probably one reason I’d been drawn to one myself, since my Uncle Carl had been the only man in my life. Well, until Aunt Celia kicked him out for being a drunk, that was.
“They were out of that kind the night I went. That’s why they gave me this one.” Phillip scowled and shoved the poker chip back in his pocket.
“Yeah, right. You just can’t stop lying, can you?” I shook my head. “Forget Alcoholics Anonymous—you need Liars Anonymous. Now get your lying, sorry ass out of my apartment before I call the police.”
I held up my cell phone threateningly but Phillip darted forward and batted it out of my hand. It skittered into the corner of the living room and when I started to go after it, he blocked my path.
“I don’t think so, babe,” he snarled. “You and I belong together—you just need a little encouragement to see it.”
He made a grab for me but I darted away.
“Get away from me!” I shouted, hoping the neighbors on either side of me would hear. “Leave me alone!”
“I’m not leaving.” Phillip started advancing on me, arms outstretched to catch me. “We’re back together, Rylee—you just need to accept it.”
“You can’t just say we’re back together and have it be true,” I argued, dismayed at the gleam in his bloodshot eyes. Was he on something? “I never want to see you again and that’s not going to change no matter how many excuses you give or how many fake poker chips you wave in my face.”
“We’re back together,” Phillip repeated doggedly, as though he could make it true by saying it enough. “Things are gonna be just like they were—even better, babe—you’ll see.”
“No! Now get out!” I shouted. If the neighbors could hear my shouting, nobody was doing anything about it. Was anyone hearing me at all?
Phillip continued to advance and I kept backing away, afraid to turn my back on him. I wanted to run out of the apartment but he had gotten between me and the door.
“We’re gonna be together, Rylee,” he snarled and reached in his pocket again. “One way or another we’re gonna be together because I can’t live without you.”
“What are you talking about?” I demanded and was upset to hear how my voice was shaking. “What do you—”
“I can’t live without you, babe,” Phillip repeated. “And you sure as hell can’t live without me.”
Then he pulled something much bigger out of his pocket and pointed it at me.
A gun.
Chapter Three
Drace
“Get her out of there!” I bellowed at Char’noth. “Right fucking now!”
“Drace is right—that’s some kind of weapon, you can tell by the way he’s holding it.” Lucian—the arrogant bastard—sounded like he was losing his cool for once. Not that I could enjoy his momentary meltdown—I was too busy having one of my own.
My temporary bond-mate and I had been watching with increasing unease as the female we had picked out was menaced by an Earth male who had apparently been waiting in her domicile for her to come home. From the gist of their conversation I gathered that she had ended their relationship but he didn’t want it to stay ended. Though she repeatedly told him she wanted no part of his “sorry ass” as she put it, he wouldn’t leave and now it looked like she was in real danger.
“Bring her through,” I told Char’noth. “Or send us down there to defend her.”
I felt a surge from Lucian through our link.
“Yes—send us!” he exclaimed, stepping forward. “We’ll kill that bastard who dares to threaten our female!”
I nodded at him approvingly. For once we were in complete agreement. We might not see eye-to-eye on much else but at that moment we were ready to act as one to protect our chosen female—and pound the male who was menacing her into the ground.
But Char’noth was shaking his head.
“The equipment is sent to receive a subject—not send. Therere is no time to recalibrate for the two of you. What is needed is a distraction. Watch.”
He worked some of the glowing controls and we heard high, tinny notes echoing in our chosen female’s domicile.
On the lightscreen, we saw the male who had been menacing our female with his weapon frown and cock his head to one side.
“What’s that?” he demanded. “You got somebody in here?”
“What? No! I don’t know.” The female—whose name was either “Ry-lee” or “babe” (it was hard to tell since the male had called her both)—shook her head distractedly.
Char’noth played the notes again—he was trying to lure them to the large, flat surface he’d called a mirror which was located in another room of the domicile.
“There it is again—it’s coming from the bathroom.” The puny, scruffy-looking Earth male who had skin which was an unhealthy dirty-tan color, several shades paler than our female’s warm brown tones, glared at her. “You do have somebody in there. Is it another man?”
“What—you think I have a hidden lover who plays the trumpet on the toilet for the hell of it?” she demanded. “I don’t know what that is.”
“You’re lying. Go.” He motioned with his weapon for her to head towards the source of the noise. I clenched my hands into fists as I saw the muzzle of the primitive but effective-looking firearm sweep towards her face. If he hurt her…
An answering surge of rage and anxiety came from Lucian. Glancing briefly at my temporary partner, I saw the fear we both felt for our female on his face. It almost made me like him better. Almost.
Char’noth played the notes a third time and the two Earthlings finally entered the area the male had called “the bathroom.” It looked like a fresher to me with an area to collect and dispose of waste and a booth with a nozzle mounted on the wall which might have been a personal cleansing unit. But none of that mattered—what caught my eyes was the large, flat glass mirror hanging on the wall. When the two humans stared into it, it was almost as though they were looking through a window right at us—although they couldn’t see us.
Or could they? I saw both their eyes widen as they leaned forward and the female breathed,
“What the hell? Blue…green…what?”
I figured she must be talking about our skin color. I have dark blue skin tones with green eyes like most of the males in my clan and Lucian has light green coloring with blue eyes which was usual for the Fang Clan. Neither of us would be remarkable on our home world of Denaris but to Earthlings who were only used tan and brown skin, it probably looked fucking strange.
I don’t know why Char’noth decided to show us to our chosen female and her attacker—maybe as another distraction. But it only made the situation worse.
“I knew it!” the male shouted, waving his weapon wildly. “You’ve got other men in here. You’re cheating on me!”
“I don’t know who they are or what they’re doing in my mirror!” the female protested.
“Yes, you do—you lying bitch!” The male leveled his weapon at her head. “If I can’t have you, they sure as hell can’t!”
“Bring her through!” Lucian shouted at the same time I growled,
“Now, Char’noth! Now.”
“Transporting,” the high, ridiculous voice of the Commercian informed us.
There was a shimmer of light and both our chosen female and the male who was menacing her disappeared from the lightscreen…and reappeared at our feet.
Want to read more? Of course you do! You can preorder Severed HERE and look for it to come out October 29th. And don't worry Kindred fans, Brides of the Kindred 18, Uncharted, is on the way too.
Hu
gs and Happy Reading!
Evangeline
Also by Evangeline Anderson
Brides of the Kindred books (in order)
Claimed (also available in print and audio)
Hunted (also available in print and audio)
Sought (also available in print and audio)
Found (also available in print and audio)
Revealed (also available in print)
Pursued (also available in print)
Exiled (also available in print)
Shadowed (also available in print)
Chained
Divided
Devoured (also available in print)
Enhanced
Cursed
Enslaved
Targeted
Forgotten
Switched (also available in print)
Uncharted: Coming Fall of 2016
Mastering the Mistress (A Brides of the Kindred novella)
Alien Mate Index Series
Abducted: (also available in print)
Protected: (also available in print)
Descended: (also available in print)
Severed: Coming October of 2016
Stand Alone Novels
Purity (also available in audio)
The Institute: Daddy Issues
The Institute: Mishka's Spanking
The Academy (YA novel)
Hunger Moon Rising (coming Sept 2016)
Born to Darkness Paranormal series
Crimson Debt (now available in audio)
Scarlet Heat (now available in audio)
Ruby Shadows (now available in audio)
Cardinal Sins (coming soon)
***The above books are just a small sample of Evangeline's work. For a complete list of books from all publishers, please visit her website***
About the Author
Evangeline Anderson is the New York Times and USA Today Best Selling Author of the Brides of the Kindred, Alien Mate Index, and Born to Darkness series. She is thirty-something and lives in Florida with a husband, a son, and two cats. She had been writing erotic fiction for her own gratification for a number of years before it occurred to her to try and get paid for it. To her delight, she found that it was actually possible to get money for having a dirty mind and she has been writing paranormal and Sci-fi erotica steadily ever since.
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