Taming Two Warriors (Kindred Tales)

“Take them,” one of the Varians, who seemed to be the leader hissed. “Thessse are the femalesss we are looking for.”

“What about the male?” the one holding James asked.

The leader shrugged. “We have no quarrel with him.” He peered at James. “Unlesss you intend to cause a ruckusss when we take the femalesss?”

“What? Me cause a ruckus? Certainly not!” James held up his free hand in a “don’t shoot” gesture. “Take them—take them both. Just leave me alone.”

“James!” Jodi looked at her fiancé, clearly aghast.

“Sorry, Darling but really, what can I do?” he asked, shrugging at her. “They’re armed aliens. And we’re completely outnumbered.”

“What you could do is fight for me!” Jodi said fiercely. “That’s what Vorn would do!”

“Well, Vorn isn’t here right now,” James snapped. “But I’ll be sure to let him know you send your regards when next I see him.”

Even through her fear, Melli could scarcely believe her big sister’s fiancé was being such a coward! Not only that, he was being really nasty too—acting like he wasn’t sorry a bit that she and Jodi were about to be abducted by aliens that looked like a cross between an iguana and an alligator.

Jodi seemed to feel the same way Melli did—or else maybe the way James was acting was bringing some long-buried emotions up to the surface because she suddenly rounded on her fiancé.

“I cheated on you, you know,” she spat at James. “Not nearly as much as I wanted to but I most definitely cheated while you were gone.”

“Yes, I surmised as much from our earlier conversation,” James said dryly. “That’s quite all right, Darling—I spent every night of my conference with a very attractive female colleague myself. She’s so much more intellectually gifted than you.”

“What?” Jodi gasped. “But I only sort of cheated and only because I couldn’t help it. I mean, not at first, anyway. What excuse do you have?”

He shrugged again.

“Do I need an excuse? Dianne and I spend every conference together. I guess you could say it’s sort of our thing.”

“Your thing? How long as this been going on?” Jodi demanded. “Weeks? Months?”

“Years, Darling, and before you ask, no, I had no notion of stopping once we were wed. I didn’t think I should have to give up all the little pleasures in life simply because I had finally consented to make an honest woman of you.”

For a moment Jodi seemed at a loss for what to say. Finally, she said,

“I just hope you satisfied that skank Dianne better than you did me. Do you know I never once had an orgasm with you? I had to finish myself off after you went to sleep every time!”

At last she seemed to have struck a nerve. James’ face went red , then white.

“The reason I couldn’t ‘satisfy’ you was because of your perverted sexual appetites,” he spat. “Spanking and bondage and all that other filth. You disgust me, Jodi—you and your twisted sexual needs.”

“You uptight little asshole!” Jodi snarled. “Just because I’m not a prude who insists on only having sex in the missionary position with the lights out does not make me perverted. Lots of people enjoy alternative sexual practices!”

“Lots of sick people, you mean,” James hissed.

“Why you…” Apparently at a total loss for words this time, Jodi took off the large diamond engagement ring she’d been wearing for the past few years and threw it at him. It bounced off James’ skinny chest and tinkled on the floor. “The wedding is off. I never want to see you again!” she shouted.

James made a mock sad face.

“Well, I don’t suppose you ever will, Darling—considering that you’re being abducted by aliens.”

Melli couldn’t believe he was being so cold.

“What’s wrong with you?” she demanded. “Didn’t you ever love Jodi at all?”

“Well, what is love, anyway?” James began philosophically. “If one consults the writings of Aristotle and Plato—”

“Enough of thisss,” the leader of the Varians hissed. “We have no more time. Bring the femalesss to the sship.”

“Let us go! Let go!” Jodi shouted, struggling as two Varian soldiers came to grip both her and Melli by the shoulders.

“We don’t have the T’lix Kruthe,” Melli told them. “It’s up on the Kindred Mother ship. There’s no way we can get it for you.”

“Of thisss, I am aware,” the Varian leader hissed. “We have not come to get the ssacred artifact. We have come to exact revenge.”

“Exact revenge?” Jodi’s normally strong voice shook. “What…what does that mean?”

“It meansss that ssince you cannot produce the T’lix Kruthe, you sshall pay the price for it,” the leader hissed. He nodded at his soldiers. “Take them away!”

Thirty-Nine

“What do you mean, they’re gone?” Vorn demanded, glaring down at the skinny little asshole who was Jodi’s fiancé.

They’d been hours at the police station with Liosh being held just because he had done what any Kindred would do by defending his female. Despite his diplomatic immunity, the human peacekeepers had refused to release the Blood Kindred until Lizabeth Paige, the famed human attorney who ran the Kindred’s legal defense, came down from the Mother Ship and basically forced them to let him go.