Enslaved (Brides of the Kindred Book 14) (60 page)

Kaylee wondered what Aunt J would have made of her purchase.
She had kept a whole stable of such slaves herself but they had not been passed
on to Kaylee. In her will, she had set the lot of them free and settled them on
different worlds where males weren’t looked down on as they were on Yonnie Six.
Kaylee thought that was nice. Though she had never gotten to know her aunt
before she died, she was developing an affection for the relative whose life
had been filled with so much adventure and excitement.

“All right,” Lyra said briskly, popping the doors of the little
ship open with a press of her finger. “Let’s take your new slave up to the
dungeon where he belongs and get started with his training.”

“Right away?” Kaylee’s stomach gave a nervous little flip.
She’d assumed the hard part was over for today. Her plans for the evening had
included a relaxing soak in the bubble pool and maybe a few entertainment vids
along with some of Aunt J’s excellent stock of Kiper 12 Star wine. But now Lyra
seemed to be saying they had to start “breaking” the new slave at once—a
process Kaylee was
not
looking
forward to.

“The sooner he acknowledges you as his mistress, the better,”
Lyra said, nodding at the back of the ship where the slave was still stowed in
the cargo hold. “We have to break him to your will and make him obey.”

“But do we have to start
tonight?”
Kaylee pleaded. “Honestly, Lyra, I’m worn out from that long trip to the slave
market already. Can’t we just…I don’t know, lock him up and start tomorrow?”

“No, it
has
to be
tonight.” Lyra’s bossiness was in full force. “Come on, Kaylee—I’ll show you
exactly what to do. Just follow my lead.”

Kaylee had no wish to do any such thing but there was no saying
"no" to her new friend. With a sigh, she got out of the ship and
walked around to the back. She was just about to pop open the hatch to the
cargo hold when Lyra put a hand on her arm.

“No—you can’t just let him out! Not until you’re prepared!” She
reached into her elaborately styled gold-cloth
Shirazz
handbag and pulled out the small, black, evil looking
remote to the pain collar the slave still wore.
“Now
we’re ready,” she announced. “Pop the hatch and then jump back
quickly—he’s bound to have a long reach.”

Kaylee wondered nervously why all this precaution was
necessary. Hadn’t the slaver promised this slave was well trained and perfectly
docile? So why was Lyra handling him like he was a wild animal in a menagerie
that might get loose and maul his new owners at any minute?

She opened her mouth to ask the question but Lyra was nodding
at her to open the hatch.

“Go on—do it,” she said in a low, tense voice, the remote
pointed steadily at the hatch.

Heart in her throat, Kaylee stepped forward and yanked quickly
on the hatch release level. Then she sprang backwards, nearly tripping over the
new
Doli-laRon
heels Lyra had insisted
she buy to go with the too-short skirt.

From the way Lyra had been acting, she half expected the huge
Havoc slave to spring out, snarling and try to attack them both though his
hands were still bound behind his back. So it was rather anticlimactic when the
hatch swung upward, revealing him lying passively on his side, simply staring
at them with a look of irritation in those jewel-like eyes.

“Oh…” Kaylee put a hand to her chest, trying to still her
pounding heart. “He
seems
quiet
enough.”

“Yes, he does.” For some reason Lyra didn’t seem pleased about
this at all. She frowned and made a threatening gesture at the slave with the
remote. “Well, come on, what are you waiting for? Get out here, slave.”

The slave just glared at them for a moment but then he began to
extricate himself from the cramped space. Apparently he wasn’t going fast
enough for Lyra because when he was only halfway out, she pushed a button on
the remote that made his back arch and his teeth clench in apparent agony.

“Lyra!” Kaylee protested. “What are you doing?”

“He’s not moving fast enough to suit me,” Lyra had an ugly look
on her snub-nosed face. “This’ll put a little spring in his step. There’s
nothing worse than an insolent male.”

“He’s been cramped up in there for ages—he probably
can’t
move any faster.” Kaylee tried to
grab the remote from her but Lyra pulled away, keeping a firm grip on it.

“Relax—this is only the medium setting. He won’t have any
permanent damage.”

“Turn it
off,”
Kaylee
insisted. “He’s my slave and I say stop hurting him!”

“Oh, all
right,”
Lyra
muttered sulkily. “But only because he’s too heavy to drag to the dungeon
ourselves if he passes out.” She clicked another button on the remote and the
huge slave abruptly went limp. Kaylee bit her lip as she watched him slump
against the side of the ship, head hanging down, panting heavily.

“Is…is he all right?” she ventured uncertainly.

As if to answer her, the slave looked up. Kaylee recoiled from
the look in his green and gold eyes. Before, when they’d first opened the hatch,
he’d had am expression of bored irritation on his face. Now he was glaring at
them with unmitigated hatred.

For some reason, this seemed to please Lyra immensely.

“Now
he’s
ready to train,” she announced. “Come on, slave—on your feet.”

Slowly, the slave righted himself until he was standing tall.
And tall was really the word—even in her designer spike-heeled footwear, Kaylee
could feel him
looming
over her like
a mountain of muscle.
A mountain of
angry, malevolent muscle,
she thought.
Oh
dear…

But Lyra didn’t seem to notice the murderous glare in the
slave’s jewel-like eyes. She had a look of smirking satisfaction on her face as
she motioned for the prisoner to precede them from the parking area.

“C’mon, big boy, let’s get you trained,” she told him. “Walk
straight ahead and no funny business unless you want another taste of the
collar.”

She stalked behind the bound and collared slave like a sadistic
prison guard and Kaylee trailed reluctantly after them. Somewhere in the pit of
her stomach a bad feeling was beginning to grow. A
very
bad feeling indeed…

 
Brides of the Kindred
Glossary

AllFather
—the
evil head of the Scourge, a race that are the byproduct of a failed genetic
trade. The AllFather is one of the Old Ones and has the power to reach into a
person’s mind to harvest emotional pain and trauma. He lives for the
fulfillment of the Scourge Prophesy.

Ancient
Ones—
beings which live in the Deep Blue—the darkest and most inaccessible
part of the Rageron jungles. They are sentient but not related in any way to
the Kindred. Each Ancient One has two forms—a bipedal form which resembles a
human or Kindred and a beast form which can be deadly and they can change
between forms at will. The Ancient Ones predate even the First Kindred and
revere the
skrillix
plant, which they
guard jealously.

Bespeak
—to
contact someone mentally using a Think-me device. It is considered rude to
bespeak someone you don’t know intimately.

Beast/Rager
Kindred
—come from Rageron—a jungle planet full of beautiful but deadly
flora and fauna. They have dark hair, golden eyes, and hot tempers but their
most defining characteristic is the mating fist. The mating fist is an area at
the base of the Beast Kindred’s shaft which engages fully only during bonding sex
with his chosen mate. When engorged it swells to keep the Beast Kindred and his
bride locked together until she is completely bonded to him. This ensures sex
that is both extremely long lasting and multiorgasmic for both partners.

Blackness
between the Stars—
another name for the Hoard or
Grimlax,
an ancient enemy of the Kindred. These beings have no
souls and so are considered demonic by the Kindred.

Blood
Fever—
a condition suffered by unmated females on Tranq Prime, the home
world of the Blood Kindred. Blood Fever or Burning Blood as it is often called,
is caused by a parasite living on the icy world that affects only women. The
parasite—found in the
fleeta
or blood
beetle—reacts with a compound in the Tranq Prime water supply to cause the
fever. Symptoms include chills, increased sexual need and the feeling of the
blood heating in the veins as well as increased coloration of the nipples and
sex. If the fever is not treated in forty-eight hours, it will result in death.

Once a Kindred
male has had a female’s blood, he forms a natural antidote to Blood Fever which
he can pass on by sharing body fluids with her. The most effective way to get
the antidote into the female’s system is for a Blood Kindred to bite her,
thereby injecting it along with his essence. However, it is also possible to
pass along the healing fluid through sex.

Blood Fever used
to be very common on Tranq Prime which is what prompted the cold, proud natives
to initiate a genetic exchange with the Kindred in the first place. A recent
vaccine has nearly eradicated the disease, however, and the original
inhabitants of the ice bound planet have little reason to continue the trade. A
faction calling themselves Purists are against any further trade with the
Kindred.

Blood/Tranq
Kindred
—are blond with pale blue eyes and come from Tranq Prime where ice,
snow, and arctic-like temperatures are the norm. To combat the severe weather
conditions, the Blood Kindred have higher than normal body heat with double the
human amount of red blood cells. They have developed specific biting rituals to
share their supercharged blood and take the blood of their mates during their
own version of bonding sex. They have a set of double fangs located where a
human’s canine teeth would be. These fangs do not develop fully or become sharp
enough to pierce flesh until a Blood Kindred is with a woman he wishes to mate
and bond with.

Bonding
Ceremony
—a wedding-type ritual which takes place after the Claiming Period
if the bride chosen by a Kindred warrior has allowed him to have bonding sex
with her and joined her mind to his.

Bonding
Sex
—the extra step a Kindred warrior takes to bind his bride to him
permanently during intercourse. For the Beast Kindred, it is the use of the
mating fist. For the Blood Kindred, bonding sex means sex during penetration.
Twin Kindred bind a bride to themselves by entering her and coming in her at
the same time.

Claiming
Ceremony
—a sort of engagement service that takes place when a bride is
first claimed by a Kindred warrior. He declares his intentions toward her and
she vows to obey the laws of the Claiming Period.

Claiming
Period
—women who are drafted are required to go up to the Kindred
Mothership and spend a thirty day “claiming period” with the warrior who has
chosen them. If, at the end of that time, they have managed to resist the
charms of their Kindred mate, they are allowed to go back down to Earth and
resume their normal life. However, if they succumb to their Kindred male’s
seduction, they are mated for life and must move to the Kindred ship to live,
leaving everything else behind and seeing their family and friends on Earth
only infrequently. Of course, many women are unwilling to give everything up at
the drop of a hat, draft or no draft. But the Kindred have a secret weapon—devotion
to their female’s pleasure and attention to detail during incredibly hot sex.

Claming
Period Rules
—The Claiming Period lasts for four weeks during which the
Kindred warrior attempts to seduce his chosen bride and she tries to resist
him:

The Holding Week
:
the Kindred warrior may hold his bride.

The Bathing Week
:
the warrior and his bride bathe together and he is allowed to
massage her with scented oils and make her come.

The Tasting Week
:
the warrior is allowed to perform oral sex on his bride.

The Bonding Week
:
sex is allowed but it is completely up to the bride whether she
will take things a step further and allow bonding sex which is a special and
specific process to the three different types of Kindred males. (Most women
have given in well before this point but a few do resist.)

The only way out before the
claiming period is up is a breach of contract. This can happen if the Kindred
warrior does not strictly follow the rules and tries to skip forward in the
order of allowed events or by breaking one of the rules laid down by the
Kindred High Council. These rules—mostly to do with restrictions on
communication with Earth—are for the safety of everyone aboard the Mothership
and are nonnegotiable. Ignorance is no excuse for breaking them and will result
in immediate termination of the claiming period.

Convo-pillar—
A
half inch long insect which resembles a brightly colored caterpillar.
Convo-pillars were genetically engineered by traders on the fringe colonies
around Rageron to translate alien languages by communicating via thought waves
to their wearer’s brain. They have been outlawed by the Kindred High Council
because their notoriously unreliable translations cause more conflicts than
they solve.

Dark
Kindred
–also known as
Enhanced Ones—
this
faction of the Kindred race broke off centuries ago when there was a shortage
of viable females to call for brides. Vowing to overcome their sexual urges,
the Dark Kindred made a genetic trade with the cyborg-like residents of Zeaga
Four who are ruled by a group of sentient machines called the Collective. Since
all emotion is prohibited on Zeaga Four, the organic inhabitants get emotion
damper implants to keep them from committing Feel-crime. Anyone found guilty of
Feel-crime without a special dispensation from the Collective may be summarily
purged.

Deep
Blue
—the darkest and most inaccessible part of the Rageron jungles

Dream
Sharing—
occurs when a Kindred warrior’s mind aligns with that of his bride
and they begin to see each other’s day to day activities and memories in their
sleep. However, the alignment of the two (or three in the case of the Twin
Kindred) minds can take several forms and is not limited to sleep.

Fireflower
Juice
—an alcoholic beverage made from the Fireflower plant native to
Rageron. It resembles milk in appearance but has the flavor of honey, vanilla,
lavender and blueberries.

High
Councilor
—the rightful ruler and defender of the Kindred home planet, First World. Only the High Councilor may sit upon the
throne of wisdom and see with the eye of foreknowledge. Without a High
Councilor in place, First World and the rest
of the Kindred race cannot be adequately protected against the evil
machinations of the Hoard.

Hoard—
an
ancient enemy of the First Kindred also known as the
Grimlax
or the Blackness which eats the Stars, they are evil,
demonic beings with ravenous appetites and a desire to conquer, devour, and
destroy every living thing in the universe. They are divided into tribes with
the lowest echelon being the most numerous and primitive. The elite or upper
echelon tribes are more sophisticated and intelligent but also much more
dangerous. They are notoriously manipulative and able to change their
appearances using a technique called “shadowing” to look like anyone or
anything they choose.

Kindred
—a
race of genetic traders who have traveled the universe for centuries looking
for viable matches to expand their gene pool. Since a genetic anomaly ensures
that their population is ninety-five percent male, they are specifically
looking for women.

The three genetic trades the
Kindred have already made have resulted in three very specific types of men.
But though they take on some of the physical characteristics of the race they
are trading with, the Kindred gene always ensures three things: physical prowess,
extremely large and muscular body structure, and undying loyalty to the female
of their choice.

Krik-ka-re—
a
Scourge tradition in which the mind life of one being may be traded for or
ransomed by another.

Kusax—
a
special knife made from the tainted metal at the core of the Scourge home
planet. One scratch can be deadly as it infects the wounded person with a soul
poison which ensures a slow, agonizing death.

Law
of Conduct—
the
Kindred law which
says every warrior is responsible for the good behavior of his bride and gives
him the right to punish her—within reason. Often the “punishment” is sexual in
nature and some brides become serial offenders simply to experience their
Kindred warrior’s particular form of discipline. ; )

Luck
Kiss
—a kiss performed by the best man and maid of honor at a Kindred
Bonding Ceremony in order to bring the happy couple good luck.

Mate
of my kin
—the way Kindred warriors refer to the brides chosen by their
brothers. It is analogous to the English term sister-in-law.

Marks
of Possession—
the Scourge way of marking a female as their mate. The Marks
of Possession include a close-fitting collar, piercings in the nipples and
clitoral hood, and a brand on the inner hip or the top of the buttocks. Scourge
with Kindred blood also desire to scent-mark their mates but they require the
traditional marks of their kind to really feel bonded to the female of their
choice.

Mother
of All Life
—the main Kindred Deity, a kind and benevolent goddess whose
teachings include respect and reverence for all things female.

Numala—
a
Blood Kindred name which means “liquid pussy.” It refers to a female who
produces more than the regular amount of lubrication when aroused.
Numalas
are much prized by the Blood
Kindred and sought after as mates because they are more likely to be able to
accommodate a Blood Kindred warrior’s larger than average cock.

Psychic-Knife—
a
torture device developed by the Scourge which is able to break the mental and
emotional bond between a Kindred and his bride.

Rage—also
Protective Rage or Berserker Rage—
a state of altered consciousness that
comes over a Kindred warrior when his bride is threatened. It floods the
bloodstream with endorphins and causes such intense anger and aggression that a
Kindred in this state becomes a killing machine who will die to protect the
woman he has claimed.

Sacred
Grove
—an area of green and purple trees that houses the temple of the
Mother of All Life. The Kindred Mother ship has been equipped with an
artificial green sun like the one on their home world in order to allow these
holy trees to grow and flourish.

Scourge
—a
genetic trade gone wrong, these menacing outsiders have twisted desires and
sexual needs fierce enough to frighten away even the most adventurous. Their
need to dominate and possess their women completely has led to a strange
prophesy that they must fulfill…or die trying.

Scourge
Prophesy
—“One of two, alike and yet different—the double fruit of a single
womb from the third planet of a yellow sun. She shall be marked with a white
star between her breasts.” These words were spoken by Mee’ah—the last living
female of the Scourge race who was believed to be a great seer. The Scourge are
a dying race, forced to create new members in artificial wombs called flesh
tanks or vats because they have no females. Yet, because they have some of the
same genetic characteristics as the Kindred, they are able to create only male
children and each new generation is weaker than the last. The prophesy refers
to the woman the Scourge believe will be able to mate with the AllFather and
bear only daughters to rejuvenate their race.