“He’sss going to die anyway,” the guard said, which caused a lot of hissing laughter from his fellows. “Just as sssoon as one of the Mistressesss comesss to buy you. You’ll be going to the Death Mines sssoon enough!”
The hissing words struck a dull kind of fury in Gaze’s heart, but he refused to give up.
“Well, the manager who runs this place won’t be too happy if you let one of your prisoners die before he can be sold,” he pointed out. “We’re worth nothing to anyone if we’re dead.”
The guards stopped their hissing laughter and muttered amongst themselves. Apparently Gaze’s words hit home because—at long last—one of them passed a bucket through the razor-wire fence.
“Here, Kindred,” he hissed. “Don’t drink it all at once—you won’t get any more than that.”
Gaze reached for the metal bucket, taking it carefully so to avoid the latticed wire that covered the outside of the yard. The last thing he needed was to be cut up and lose a lot of blood like Bound had.
Looking down, he saw that the bucket was half full of cloudy water which didn’t look especially good. He sniffed it carefully and then took a small sip, making sure it wasn’t poisoned. The water had a chalky aftertaste but it was still potable and Gaze didn’t taste any bitterness that might indicate poison. He wished he could drink more—he was thirsty too. But he had to save what he could for his brother.
“Here you are, Brother,” he said, coming back to where Bound was lying on his side on the stained stones. Gently, he lifted his twin’s head and tilted the bucket so that the water reached Bound’s lips.
At first he feared that Bound was too far gone. But then the other man licked his lips. Eyes still closed, he put one hand weakly on the side of the bucket, tilting it further. He took a few long, thirsty swallows which nearly drained the metal vessel and then let out a long sigh.
“Better?” Gaze asked him anxiously.
“A…a little,” Bound muttered. “Still so fuckin’ thirsty, though.”
“I know, Brother. I am too,” Gaze told him.
But he knew damn well it wasn’t really water the two of them were craving—just as he knew they weren’t going to get what they really needed.
Blood.
FIVE
Gaze—or Star Gazer as was his full name—and his brother, Earth Bound—were both Kindred warriors. Twin Kindred to be exact. But if they had only been regular Twin Kindred, they wouldn’t both be craving blood.
They were more than that though—much more.
Their mother had been a rare female Blood Kindred and their fathers had been Twin Kindred. Their parents had been expecting healthy Twin Kindred sons—possibly with fangs, as was the way with Blood Kindred.
But when the two of them were born, it became apparent that both brothers were afflicted with a rare malady. A mutation in the Blood Kindred gene they both carried led to them becoming Pitch-Bloods.
Pitch-Blood Kindred were greatly pitied by other Blood Kindred. Because, unlike the majority of Blood Kindred, who only used their fangs to inject their Essence into the females they bonded to them, Pitch-Bloods actually needed to drink blood to survive. And unfortunately, they could not give pleasure with their bite unless the female they were biting turned out to be their Fated Mate—a one in a million chance.
It was a terrible tragedy and a shame upon their very old family. And, since it seems as though tragedy cannot leave a family alone once it has touched them, not long after Bound and Gaze were found to be Pitch-Bloods, their parents were killed in a shuttle crash.
After that, they were raised by their stern maternal GrandSire. He had been against his daughter’s marriage in the first place and he raised his grandsons in the strict Tranq Prime ways. Most importantly, he raised them as Blood Kindred and not as Twin Kindred. Which meant that though Bound and Gaze had grown up together and lived together all their lives, they had never shared a female, as Twin Kindred are meant to do.
From a young age, their GrandSire had made them aware that such activities were forbidden and wrong.
“A Blood Kindred warrior does not share his female with another male,” he lectured them again and again. “It is forbidden—a twisted practice. The two of you have already brought enough shame on our house, turning out to be Pitch-Bloods! I won’t have you acting in the filthy, sordid ways of the Twin Kindred as well!”
So Bound and Gaze had never shared a female.
And now it looked likely that they never would, Gaze thought, looking down at his wounded brother. Gaze had long fought against the ideas their GrandSire had instilled in them, but Bound was more constrained. He refused to try sharing a female, even now that they had been of age for many years and were often off planet, away from their conservative older relative. Instead, the two of them had tried having separate relationships with different women…but it never felt quite right.