Dark and Light (A Kindred Tales Duet)

When she finished rinsing the shampoo out of her hair, she called for conditioner. After working the cream into her hair, she washed her body, trying not to notice how her nipples were still tender and how her pussy throbbed and ached when she ran the cleansing glove over herself.

What’s wrong with me? she wondered, not for the first time since the dreams had started. They had begun about six months ago, just after she’d hired on as a consultant to the Kindred’s legal team. It was a big move for her career—a very prestigious position, and there had been talk recently of making it permanent.

Everything would be great if the damn dreams didn’t keep popping up every night, driving her crazy and costing her sleep. Was her subconscious mind trying to sabotage her conscious one? Were the dreams trying to tell her something, either professionally or personally?

Alli didn’t know. She only knew she wanted them to end. Which was why she’d been reading the book about lucid dreaming techniques.

“Not that it’s doing much good,” she muttered to herself as she shut off the water. “I knew I was in a dream and I still couldn’t stop it! Couldn’t make the man go away.”

The man. The shadow man with the mirror eyes and the weird tongue. What the hell was her subconscious trying to tell her?

Alli had no idea but she wished to hell it would just stop.

Two

“Maybe you’re Dream Sharing.” Sophia leaned across the coffee table and poured Alli a second cup of klava, the delicious coffee-like brew that was only available aboard the Mother Ship.

There were so many things Alli loved about the Kindred spaceship, she’d considered moving here permanently more than once. But if she did that, what would happen to her relationship with Douglas? It was one thing to take the job and only see each other on the weekends for a while but quite another thing to make the current situation her permanent reality.

“Dream Sharing?” She scoffed at the idea and then thanked her hostess for the refill. They were in Commander Sylvan’s suite. Lizabeth had already left—she and her husband, Lone, were the head of the Kindred Legal Team. But they were also new parents with twins to tend to.

It was the main reason Alli had been brought on board in the first place—to make sure the two of them had plenty of family time. The Kindred always prioritized family life over work—another nice thing about the alien species who now guarded the Earth.

Alli had stayed a little longer after the meeting, lured by the offer of klava. And since Sophie, Commander Sylvan’s wife, was such a sweetheart and so easy to talk to, somehow the dreams had just slipped out. Probably because Sophie had asked how much sleep she’d gotten the night before—apparently Alli looked as tired as she felt.

But she wasn’t tired enough to consider crazy theories like this one.

“How could I be Dream Sharing with anyone?” she asked reasonably, stirring a single teaspoon of sugar—all she would allow herself—into the piping hot klava. “I’m engaged, for God’s sake! And Commander Sylvan himself took my name off the Draft roster. Besides, the man in my dreams doesn’t look like any kind of Kindred I’ve ever encountered.”

“Describe him.” Sophie leaned forward eagerly. “What does he look like?”

Alli explained about the beautiful thug face and the strange, mirror-like eyes that seemed to glow in the dark and reflected her own visage back at her when she looked into them.

“But his tongue is the worst part,” she said as Sophie listened with interest.

“Worst how? What’s wrong with it?”

“It’s pointed—sharp. Like…like a needle or a stinger or something.” Alli waved a hand in the air, gesturing distractedly. “I can’t explain it but it scared the hell out of me!”

“As well it should.” The deep, grave voice made her look up.

Alli blushed when she saw that Commander Sylvan—the head of the Kindred High Council—had come back into the room. She didn’t mind confiding in Sophie about the weird dreams, but Sylvan was, in effect, her boss. You didn’t tell your boss you’d been having scary sex dreams about a guy with mirror eyes and a needle tongue who promised to make all your darkest fantasies come true.

“Oh, uh…” She cleared her throat, uncertain of what to say.

“Why?” Sophie asked, to her relief. “Do you think there’s some significance to what Alli is dreaming about?”

“I do and I think it’s very serious.” Sylvan frowned and settled himself on the couch beside his wife, across from Alli. “How long have you been having these dreams, Councilor Allisandra?”

“Um, six months—give or take,” Alli admitted. “Ever since I agreed to take the job as legal consultant that you offered me. I think I had the first one the night after I first visited the Mother Ship.”