Taming Two Warriors: A Kindred Tales PLUS length Novel Read online

  Hopefully soon, she would get some. Although how she would manage it with the big Kindred in the house, she had no idea.

  Gods, had her scent gotten even stronger and sweeter?

  Vorn cast a sidelong glance at his passenger as she told him in a tight, annoyed voice how to get to her domicile. He hadn’t thought it was possible for her feminine fragrance to affect him more, but damn if his shaft wasn’t at full mast and snarling in his flight leathers for release just because she was nearby. He could practically smell her pussy getting hotter by the minute—almost as if she was going into some kind of fucking heat.

  Did that happen to Earth females?

  Vorn tried to remember if he’d learned anything about that when he was studying human anatomy and culture before being cleared to go Earth-side. But he couldn’t recall if he’d learned anything to that effect or not.

  Well, if she is going into heat, it’s got nothing to do with you, he told himself firmly. Probably she’s just been away from this fucking fiancé of hers she keeps talking about for too long. Probably she needs him to service her. That might lighten her mood, too. The Goddess knows it couldn’t get much heavier than it is now.

  Actually, Vorn was interested to meet the male in question. Jodi was a formidable female—it must have taken a real Alpha to bring her to the brink of Joining—or marriage, as the humans called it.

  Though the human idea of a life-long commitment was laughable, he thought. Over half of their relationships ended in divorce—a mutual parting of ways. This was a foreign concept to the Kindred. Vorn remembered how puzzled he had been when he first learned about it.

  Divorce, to him, didn’t make any damn sense. How could you abandon the mate the Goddess had chosen for you and take another? It would be like cutting off a foot or a hand and trying to find a new one to sew on in its place—an idea which was as stupid as it was strange.

  Still, that was humans for you—a big mass of confusing contradictions, Vorn thought, casting another side-long look at Jodi from the corner of his eye. He just hoped that her fiancé was home and could service her quickly when they reached her domicile.

  Not that he relished the idea of another male doing anything to the curvy little female sexually—that was actually a really uncomfortable thought. But something had to be done about her obvious need—Jodi was shifting her lush ass around like her seat was red-hot and rubbing her thighs together like she was trying to start a fire—or maybe put one out, Vorn thought dryly.

  He wondered idly if she was one of those females who could orgasm just by pressing their thighs together. They were rare, but he knew they existed. Maybe Jodi was trying to get off and ease the obvious need she felt before they got back to her domicile.

  If so, he wished she wouldn’t do it right here in the vehicle. It was hard enough being around her without having to witness her coming right in front of him.

  A sudden picture filled his head—Jodi naked, with her full breasts and delicious thick thighs on display. Her head was thrown back and all that long, lovely, silky black hair was trailing down the small of her back. Her lush mouth was open in a silent moan and her cheeks were flushed pink with desire as she rode his shaft, taking her pleasure with him, taking every thing she needed while he thrust up into her and she squeezed him so tightly with her soft, wet pussy…

  No! Fucking stop that right now! Vorn lectured himself sternly. She’s already attached to a male.

  And even if she hadn’t been, the first rule of Protection was never get involved with the one you were protecting.

  Second rule—never picture them naked and coming on your cock.

  Yeah, right. That wasn’t really a rule but in this case it should be.

  And it wasn’t like Jodi would want anything to do with him that way. Every breath he took seemed to be a personal insult to her. She wasn’t looking to become a Kindred bride—especially not his bride—which was just as well, Vorn told himself.

  Since he was here to guard her—not Claim and mate her.

  “Here we are,” she said tightly, and pointed out a row of neat buildings painted dark gray, which all seemed to have several dwellings in them. She frowned as she looked at the empty driveway. “And it doesn’t look like James is home yet.”

  Vorn guessed he would have to put off the pleasure of meeting the human male who had managed to subdue the formidable woman at his side and claim her as his own. But in the meantime, he and Jodi were going to be alone in her domicile.

  Well, at least it shouldn’t be as cramped as it was inside the vehicle, he told himself. Maybe if they got some space between them, the scent of her feminine desire wouldn’t be so maddening…so fucking tempting. And maybe his shaft, which was still painfully hard, would finally go down.

  He could only hope, anyway.

  Four

  “Here we are—this is my dorm.” Melinda pointed to a big tan building that looked like it could potentially house hundreds. There were students going in and out of the doorways at a steady rate and no guards anywhere—at least, that he could see—which made Liosh frown.

  This was a security risk and no mistake.

  He looked at her. “Will I be permitted to stay here with you? I am a stranger, after all.”

  “Oh, sure—it’s a co-ed dorm,” Melinda told him. “Though…” she bit her lip and eyed him thoughtfully. “It might be easier for you to blend in on campus if you had some more, uh, normal clothes. Not that there’s anything wrong with your uniform,” she added, looking at his tight black leather trousers, tall black boots, and the satiny pale blue button-down shirt which indicated he was a Blood Kindred.

  Though of course, the double set of fangs on either side of his upper jaw would prove that as well, for anyone looking closely enough.

  Speaking of his fangs, they were sharp enough to cut through anything—including his own tongue—as Liosh had learned to his detriment on the drive over here. It had happened when Melinda had been making a point and she reached over to place one small, soft hand on his thigh for just a moment.

  She’d been telling him which way to turn, Liosh thought, but at that moment he couldn’t focus on anything except how good she smelled and how much he wanted to hold her again.

  As a consequence of his inattention, he had bitten his tongue—hard enough to draw blood—and turned the wrong way—which made their trip longer than it needed to be.

  He had apologized, of course, with an excuse about misunderstanding her. But the truth was, he was thinking about his fangs and the fact that they had suddenly grown sharp for the first time in his life.

  Any Blood Kindred knew what it meant when their fangs first sharpened—it showed you were in the presence of the female you wanted to Claim—wanted to mate. Of course, this really wasn’t a surprise to Liosh—he had felt an instant affinity for Melinda. It was more surprising that his fangs hadn’t sharpened the first minute he saw her.

  Though he was grateful they hadn’t—he would have had a difficult time fighting the Varians effectively if he’d had to worry about his newly sensitive and sharp fangs.

  He supposed that now he would start producing essence—the pale blue liquid which was secreted by the fangs of sexually mature males in order to heal their mates of any small injuries or bond them to the Blood Kindred who bit them.

  No, don’t think about it! Don’t think about biting her! Liosh told himself firmly. It’s wrong—you’re here to protect her, not Claim her.

  Besides, there was that something fragile about Melinda that he had noticed right from the start. She might not want to be Claimed—by him or by anyone. He needed to keep himself in line and not do anything to upset or frighten her.

  “…your clothes?” she said and he realized he had missed what she was talking about in his effort to rein himself and his newly sensitized fangs in.

  “Forgive me, my Lady—what?” he asked, frowning.

  “Oh, I said, do you mind changing your clothes?” she asked, looking at him anxiously. �
�I just thought—since Commander Sylvan said you and Vorn should try to blend into the background…”

  “Oh, right—of course.” Liosh nodded. “No, I don’t mind. Do you have a place where I can get new clothing that would fit me?” He looked doubtfully around at the puny human males he saw outside the vehicle. The Earth species was definitely on the small size.

  Melinda pursed her pretty pink lips.

  “Well, I think there’s a big and tall men’s store in University Mall. We could go there, um, if you have any money,” she added, rather apologetically. “I’d offer to pay but I’m kind of strapped for cash right now. I got let go from my job and I’m still looking for another one.”

  “Commander Sylvan has given Vorn and myself an unlimited line of credit in the form of this small, flat card.”

  Liosh took the small, rectangular piece of plastic from the breast pocket of his uniform shirt and showed it to her.

  Melinda’s eyes went wide.

  “Wow! A platinum card?”

  “Is that good?” Liosh asked.

  She nodded, apparently awed. “Very good.”

  “Excellent.” He smiled with satisfaction. “Well then, as long as I’m staying with you, please let me pay for all the food and other necessary items. And I can pay for my own clothing as well. Er…should we go and get some right now? Am I too conspicuous?” He looked down at himself again.

  Melinda laughed.

  “You might as well have ‘Kindred Warrior’ tattooed on your forehead. Which wouldn’t be a problem, except if you’re going to stay in my dorm with me, you’ll need to blend in more. You know, in case Security comes snooping around.”

  So there was some kind of security system—or at least guards—somewhere on the sprawling campus. That was good, Liosh thought with some satisfaction. It made him feel a little better about Melinda staying in such a crowded place.

  “That’s fine,” he said. “Should we go get the new clothes now?”

  “Well…sure. Why not?” She shrugged and smiled shyly at him. “I don’t have any classes today and there’s nothing else to do but watch TV or surf the Internet. Not if I want to stay off my leg, anyway. Oh, but—” She paused, frowning.

  “What’s wrong?” Liosh asked, immediately concerned.

  “Nothing. It’s only that…” She nibbled her lush lower lip pensively. “Only that the mall is a big area with a lot of shops in it, so there’s a lot of walking involved. So I’m not sure—”

  “I can carry you again,” Liosh offered.

  “Really?” She looked at him uncertainly. “I mean, it’s a really long way. You might get tired of lugging me around everywhere.”

  “I could never get tired of that.” Liosh offered her a smile, which she returned with a rosy blush in her cheeks. “Honestly, my lady, you weigh so little I could carry you all day and never get tired of it,” he told her.

  He hoped she would let him. He loved cradling her close to his chest, loved the feel of her small, soft body pressed against his much larger, harder one.

  Melinda seemed to like it too, because she nodded after a moment.

  “If you’re really sure you don’t mind?”

  “My Lady,” he murmured, looking into her eyes. “It would be my very great pleasure.”

  Her cheeks got even pinker and her big blue eyes sparkled.

  “All right then,” she said. “To get to the mall you just have to follow that road up ahead and turn left…”

  As he followed her directions, Liosh admitted to himself that he couldn’t wait to hold her again—and that he never wanted to put her down.

  Five

  “So this is it.” Jodi opened the door with a flourish—at least her apartment was always kept spotlessly neat, unlike her little sister’s dorm room, as she happened to know. She liked to keep a tight rein on her environment—a place for everything and everything in its place. Whereas Melli was more catch-as-catch-can when it came to housekeeping.

  The apartment was a little nicer than most student housing—the duplexes up and down the street were mostly occupied by grad students and professors waiting to make tenure—all of whom were serious about their studies. It was, however, on the small side and the big Kindred had to duck his head as he came in.

  Holding the door for him as he passed, Jodi was struck again by just how huge he was. It was like hosting a pro-basketball player crossed with a professional wrestler in her tiny, snug little apartment.

  She and James fit here nicely, since she was the normal height for a woman and he was much less than the normal height for a man. But Vorn looked like a giant standing in the middle of her postage-stamp-sized living room.

  Most of the apartment was decorated in a severe black and white motif with a black loveseat with white cushions, a round, braided, black and white rug on the floor, eggshell-white walls, and black curtains in the windows. The ebony end tables on either side of the loveseat held elegant black porcelain lamps with white shades and the pictures on the walls were framed Ansel Adams prints.

  Jodi had done the decorating herself and all her friends admired it and talked about how sophisticated it looked. So she waited for Vorn to say something complimentary as he looked around her living area speculatively. But all the big Kindred said after staring around for a minute was,

  “Huh.”

  “Huh?” Jodi asked, frowning. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Nothing. Just wondering if this is how you see the world.” He waved one ham-sized hand around. “In black and white—in absolutes.”

  Jodi glared at him, offended.

  “Why you…look, the way I decorate my apartment reflects my taste—not my world views!”

  “In my experience, the two usually go hand-in-hand. But whatever…” He shrugged, his big shoulders rolling under the crimson uniform shirt which looked annoyingly spectacular against his dark tan skin. “I’m here to protect you, not criticize your design choices.”

  He looked down at the loveseat, which looked a little like a child’s toy beside his muscular bulk.

  “I take it that’s my bed while I’m here? Or would you rather I slept outside the front door on the ground?”

  “Of course I’m not going to make you sleep on the ground and there’s no way you’d fit on the loveseat. Not without breaking it,” Jodi snapped. “Just give me a minute and I’ll get my, uh, office ready for you. There’s a spare bed in there.”

  Without waiting for his reply, she marched into the spare room and closed the door firmly behind her.

  God, why did he get on her nerves so damn much? What was it about the big Kindred that was so damn irritating?

  Well, maybe it was the fact that she was going to be losing her “play room” as she privately called it, for as long as he stayed here. Speaking of which, she needed to get a lot of things cleared away before she let him in.

  Jodi stared around the small room in dismay as she realized this. She was neat to a fault, but due to lack of storage space and the complete disinterest James displayed in her more…esoteric interests, she had let herself spread out in here which left a lot of things on display.

  Things that really shouldn’t be on display. At least not in polite company.

  Well, they would all have to go, she decided. And since there was no way she was going to carry them out right under the big Kindred’s nose, they were all going to have to go into the tiny closet at the far end of the room.

  The closet was unfortunately, already packed with seldom-used winter clothes, however. She was going to have to get creative with the space.

  Well, never let it be said that she couldn’t pack creatively—or quickly. Marching to the closet, Jodi threw it open and began bundling away the contents of her playroom where Vorn would never, ever find them.

  She was damned if she’d discuss her private hobby with the big Kindred—it was none of his damn business.

  Six

  Melli felt like a princess in the arms of her prince, being carri
ed down the wide hallways of University mall in Liosh’s strong arms. A few of the mall patrons stared but the fact that she still had a light cast on her leg seemed to answer any questions. Most people just smiled at the considerate young man carrying the sweet young lady instead of using a wheelchair or crutches to get her around.

  They found the big and tall men’s shop in the middle of the mall with no problem and Liosh carried her around to the different racks so she could pick out some clothes for him. After she’d selected several pairs of jeans and some XXX-L t-shirts she thought would fit him, he asked the store manager for a chair and made sure she was settled comfortably before going into the dressing room to try some of the things on.

  He came out in the first pair of jeans and a T-shirt which had the Nike logo on it and turned slowly around for her benefit.

  “Well? What do you think?”

  Melli clapped her hands and smiled up at him.

  “You look perfect! Way more human now. Well…” She hesitated. “Except for your size and your, uh, fangs.”

  “Ah yes, my fangs.” He ran the tip of his tongue over the sharp ridges thoughtfully.

  Melli couldn’t help thinking that the double set of fangs on either side of his upper jaw were much more prominent than they had been when she first met him. They looked longer and sharper—almost savage now.

  She suppressed a little shiver and looked away. She’d heard that Blood Kindred liked to bite their mates when they made love but that idea bothered her so she tried not to think about it.

  “Well, you’re all set,” she said brightly, putting his fangs out of her mind. “I mean, except for some shoes. You can’t wear your boots with those jeans.”

  “I guess not.” He looked down at his feet doubtfully. “But do humans have footwear that will fit me?”

  It took a little time but they did, indeed, find some shoes for Liosh to wear and afterwards they had lunch in the food court. Liosh insisted on getting something from each of the vendors and Melli couldn’t help gasping at the mountain of food he brought back to the table.