Hidden Rage: Kindred Tales

He had never seen hair that color, Dragon thought. But then, he’d almost never seen hair at all. The Saurians were hairless and the few times he’d seen other mammalian traders on Saurous, they were mostly males with short-clipped hair in dark colors like his own. But this female had long, wavy strands of flame-colored hair that seemed to go everywhere.

Why didn’t she control it, he wondered? He kept his own hair slicked back with the same shellac that his Saurian family used to oil their scales—it kept the stuff out of his face when he was fighting. He bound the bottom of it into a kind of club at the back of his neck and cut it off with a knife occasionally, when it got too long. In fact, it was almost time to cut it now, he thought. It was down to his shoulders when he unfastened it.

But the little mammalian female’s hair was even longer than his. Long and thick and wavy and shiny and silky…Dragon had the urge to reach out and touch it—to see if it was a soft as it looked. But he restrained himself. Clearly, the female didn’t want his hands on her—for which he could hardly blame her. It wasn’t like she was a Pleasure Girl who could be Claimed and taken home for the right price with no questions asked. In fact, if what she’d said to Zerlix was correct, it sounded like she was some kind of scientist.

She talked about other Kindred too—from some place called “The Mother Ship,” Dragon thought. But I thought all the Kindred were gone from the universe.

That was what his adoptive father, Rep. Vizlar had told him, anyway. According to him, Dragon’s birth family—whom Dragon couldn’t remember—had been the last of a dying breed. When the rival Clan shot them, they had killed off the last of the Kindred. Well, except for Dragon himself.

But this little female talked as though there were a lot of them somewhere. But where? They must be far away—but then, how did they get to Avria Pentaura? Do they have ships that can travel not only within their own solar system, but across the universe to visit other systems too?

He couldn’t imagine a ship like that. His own ship, which he had modified to go long distances on a small amount of fuel, still would have taken ages to reach the solar system nearest to their own. Such technology would be fascinating to study.

Dragon had always had an affinity for ships and their engines. He liked tinkering around in his spare time, building new things and modifying others. He had often reflected that if his birth family had lived and he had not been adopted by the Komendant of the Crimson Blades Clan, he probably would have made some kind of career for himself dealing with engines or flying ships.

But that future was closed to him now, he admitted to himself. He was an enforcer for his Clan—though he would probably never rise higher, because of Zerlix’s hatred of him. But still, he had sworn his oath of loyalty at the age of thirteen cycles, when a boy becomes a man, and had never looked back. The black live-tat on his neck marked him forever as an adopted Little Brother of the Crimson Blades and it was permanent. Everywhere he went, he would be known for what he was—there was no getting away from it. There was—

A low, agonized moan from the female beside him drew him back to the present. He looked at her in concern and saw that she was still clutching her head, but now she was shivering as well.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, leaning down to look at her. “Is your headache getting worse?”

“Yes, b-but it’s n-not just th-that. So c-c-cold,” she whispered, through chattering teeth.

“Cold? Really?” Dragon couldn’t keep the surprise out of his voice. True, it wasn’t as wretchedly hot and humid in the Clan’s transport ship as it had been on Avria Pentaura, but it was still pretty stuffy. After the humid heat of the other planet, he was looking forward to getting back to the cold, dry climate of Saurous. But the little female acted like they were already there. And she really must be cold—at least, from the way she was shivering.

“Y-yes, r-really,” she flashed at him and he saw a glimmer of that hot temper of hers that had put her on Zerlix’s radar. “It’s freaking fr-freezing in here! Wh-why does it have to b-be so c-c-cold? Do you have a blanket I c-could use?”

Dragon looked around but the transport ship didn’t have much in the way of creature comforts. It was a utility vehicle, used to go from one planet in the solar system to another—nothing more. But he had to do something for the little female, he realized, or she might shake herself to pieces.