“How do you even know about this place?” she demanded. “It’s not on the official tour.”
In fact, they’d had to sneak away from their tour group to get here in the first place. Brandi hoped they hadn’t been missed.
“I work with a girl at the club who has a sister who knows a girl that has a friend who did it,” Crystal explained. “She said she got the ride of her life! And she ended up with a Kindred who could turn into a dragon. My hand to God—a real life dragon!”
“That doesn’t sound like any kind of Kindred I ever heard of,” Brandi said doubtfully. “Aren’t there just three main types? The Blood Kindred have the fangs…the Twin Kindred come in pairs…”
“And the Beast Kindred have a big old swole-up place at the bottom of their dicks that’s supposed to rub you just the right way,” Crystal finished for her. “Yeah, I know all that but the girl I heard about got a guy who turned into a dragon.”
“But—” Brandi started to protest but her cousin was losing patience.
“Look, don’t worry about it! It doesn’t matter if they have fangs or twins or dick-knots or what. The main thing is, these Kindred are hung like bulls!”
Well, that would certainly be a nice change from Earl’s rather skinny member, Brandi had to admit. But standing here in the room full of quiet “fuck puppets” as Crystal called them, she began to lose her nerve.
“I’m just not sure,” she said uneasily. “I mean, if you’re pretending to be one of these, uh girls, you can’t exactly ask the guy to wear a condom.” Having unprotected sex just once had changed her whole life—she wasn’t looking for a repeat. “I’m not interested in catching some kind of space venereal disease or giving Emmie a brother or a sister,” she pointed out.
“You’re on the pill, aren’t you?” Crystal demanded.
“Well…yes,” Brandi admitted reluctantly. Not that it did her much good since she never, ever found anyone who suited her to scratch her itch.
“So see—you’re protected from his little swimmers. And you don’t have to worry about getting alien AIDS or anything,” Crystal went on. “Because Kindred don’t get those kinds of diseases.”
“What?” Brandi frowned. “How do you know? What do you—”
But just then they heard heavy footsteps climbing the front steps.
“Oh my God!” Crystal whispered-giggled. “Here comes our first customer. Quick—grab a seat, Brandi!”
The two of them scrambled to find an open seat, reminding Brandi of a frantic game of musical chairs when they were younger. She found herself sitting between a curvy blonde girl with gorgeous skin on one side and a tall African American woman with a perfect figure on the other. A new thought occurred to her—
Suppose the Kindred customer—whoever he is—doesn’t even pick me? Suppose none of them do? Just look at these girls—they’re perfect. I mean, plenty of them are plus-sized but they all have gorgeous skin and hair and faces. Why would a Kindred pick me over any of them? And what if—
The front door opened, cutting off her thoughts. And then the most enormous man she’d ever seen walked in and Brandi had to bite back a gasp.
Her first thought was, Oh my God, he’s massive! He must be over seven feet tall! And his eyes…are they two different colors?
And her second was, Where do I know him from? Why does he look so familiar?
She had no answer for her question and then she had to stop looking because just then, the enormous Kindred turned and headed right for her.
Chapter Three
Slade was the first one in the door—not that there was a line or anything. In fact, he was the only male at the Pairing House this time of morning. Probably because the other Kindred were all still eating breakfast.
But Slade was hungry for something else entirely.
The minute he walked in, his eyes swept the room, looking for her—for the girl he had been dreaming of. Or at least, a Pairing Puppet who looked like her.
When he saw her, he gave a little grunt of surprise. Seven Hells—it was hard to tell without a closer inspection but one of the puppets appeared to look exactly like the one he’d been dreaming about! It seemed like a pretty big coincidence but he was too horny to care.
Slade walked over to take a closer look. She was one of the only ones without a book in her hands. Instead, she was just staring down at her lap and she seemed to be breathing kind of hard.
It really was amazing how life-like these puppets were! Slade had only been to a puppet house once before, back when he was a fighter in the Blood Circuit and before he met and joined with Cinda. The trip had been a treat by a previous master—not the one he had killed—for his success in the arena. Slade had had his pick of the puppets but none of them had been nearly as beautiful or life-like as the one he was looking at now.