Dark and Light (A Kindred Tales Duet)

Speaking of forbidden desires, Allisandra had so many of them. Kane had read her heart of hearts and what he found made him hungry—hungry to taste her, hungry to possess her, body and soul.

It wouldn’t be long now, he promised himself. He only had to pinpoint her exact location and then use his intra-dimensional wormhole generator to open a rift between her universe and his. After that, it would be only a matter of swooping in and collecting her. And when he brought her back to his Palace of Shadows…

Kane licked his lips, his shaft growing hot and hard between his thighs. Gods, the pleasure he would take in her—the heights of ecstasy he would drive her to! He would take her to the brink of desire and leave her there, dangling, begging for release while he feasted on her need and desperation, her never-ending pleasure…

Already his tongue throbbed, filled with the lust-honey he would use to inject her most sensitive areas. After he did that, she would moan and cry his name—begging him to take her—begging him to make her his.

“But I won’t,” Kane murmured to himself, smiling a little in the darkness. “I won’t give her any fucking release. I’ll just tease her until she cries with frustration and desire. Can’t wait to see those pretty green eyes filled with tears.”

He thought of Allisandra saying that he was only a dream—that he wasn’t real. Thought of the way she believed her life was perfect—all neat and orderly and settled with that fool of a fiancé she believed made her happy. Well, he was coming to unsettle her. Soon, very soon, he would take possession of his reluctant little concubine.

The Kru’ell Ones did not take brides—only a series of concubines from among the human women available to them since they had conquered the Earth. But Kane found them lifeless and boring—the energy they gave off was as dull and gray as the constant clouds that covered the planet’s surface, now that the Kru’ell Ones had terraformed it to their liking. (Too much direct sunlight was painful to eyes that could see into the darkest recesses of another’s soul.)

In contrast, he knew that Allisandra’s emotional and sexual energy would be as bright and fiery as her lovely red hair. He could almost taste her already—taste the flavor of her pleasure, the essence of her desire.

Oh yes, he would have fun with his new acquisition, Kane promised himself. Soon he would find her and bring her here.

And then he would feed.

Four

“I’m home,” Alli called, as she walked in the door of the nicely appointed townhome she shared with Douglas in the Old Town district of Alexandria, Virginia.

Their shared residence wasn’t too far from DC, where Douglas worked as a tax attorney and private consultant for some of the biggest names in Washington. Senators and Congressmen, conservatives and liberals—Douglas was fond of saying that everyone had something to hide. And it was his job to help hide it—at least from the prying eyes of the IRS.

What he did wasn’t exactly illegal—more slightly unethical, as he had explained to Alli on their first date. A “moral gray area” he called it. The fuzzy boundary where the taxpayer’s expectations of their representatives met the cold reality of Washington politics. It was a high stakes game and he loved playing it.

Alli had been intrigued when he first told her all this. Not because she liked the idea of anybody cheating on their taxes—but because it seemed like maybe Douglas was a kind of outlaw. A bad boy who might say or do anything unexpectedly—both in the boardroom and in the bedroom.

Five years with her fiancé had put that fantasy to rest, however. Douglas was as buttoned-up as they came. He was about five foot nine, had short, neatly clipped brown hair, mild gray eyes, and a businesslike manner, even in bed…

“I’ll be frank with you, Alli,” he’d said, when he first asked her to marry him. “You’re not my exact ideal. You’re a little plumper than I’d like and you’re a bit free with your opinions. But you have a lovely face, a good career, and a fine professional reputation. Plus, you don’t want children and neither do I. We’re both happy devoting ourselves to our careers and not spending every spare minute together. But before we plan our union, I’d like to know what you think about our possible marriage?”

Alli had tried not to be offended by this dry little speech. She and Douglas had been dating for over a year by that time—they had matched up on a website especially for professional people with busy lives who wanted a minimal commitment. Aside from the part about her being “too plump,” she told herself that Douglas was more or less right about her.

She liked Douglas pretty well. She didn’t love him passionately, but he was generally nice to be around. And what he lacked in the bedroom, he made up for in stability and practicality in their everyday life. And if part of her—a part buried so deep she had almost forgotten about it—cried out for something more—something passionate and exciting—well, what of it? Alli could ignore that part of herself—she had been doing so since college, after all.