Hidden Rage: Kindred Tales

What she didn’t know was that someone else was watching…and not liking what he saw.

39

“That mammalian girl has had a bad effect on Dragon.” Komendant Vizlar frowned as he watched the girl in question and his adopted son sitting at the First Meal table together.

Dragon was leaning down to listen to something she was saying and she was playing with those long fibers that grew from his head that mammalians called “hair.” His adopted son had used to keep the offensive stuff slicked back and out of the way but now—apparently at her urging—he was wearing it loose around his shoulders. It made a most unseemly display, as far as Komendant Vizlar was concerned. Most un-Saurian.

“He’s just a young male infatuated with a female for the first time,” his Advisor, Rep. Yariz said indulgently. “Remember, he has never seen a female of his own kind before. Well, except for his mother, but of course he doesn’t remember her, because of the memory block.”

“Are you sure the block can’t be breached?” Komendant Vizlar muttered, frowning. “If he remembers that we are the ones responsible for the deaths of his kin…if he dredges up the memory of me shooting his parents with my blaster—”

“Then all Hell would break loose,” Rep. Yariz said mildly. “But don’t worry—he won’t remember any of that. The memory block was the best money can buy and it’s held this long, hasn’t it?”

“I suppose,” the Komendant said, frowning. He was thinking of how large his adopted son had gotten—Dragon stood a good head taller than any other man in the Clan. Also, he was incredibly fast and strong—he could beat any rival who came against him. He just seemed to see their weaknesses instinctively and know how to exploit them, which made him an unparalleled fighter…and a deadly killer.

Up until now, all of these physical attributes had been strengths for the Crimson Blades Clan. But if Dragon should ever remember his past and his strength was turned against them…

“I don’t like the way she’s changed him,” he said, gesturing at the mammalian female with her absurdly pointed face and the mass of orange and red fibers all around her head. “He smiles too much now—I’ve even seen him laughing in public on occasion. It’s not seemly for an enforcer!”

“He’ll get over it once they’ve been married for a while,” Rep. Yariz said, shrugging. “You know yourself that a female is much more enticing before she becomes your wife. After that, we can send a pretty Pleasure Girl his way and he’ll forget about her soon enough.”

“I don’t think so,” Komendant Vizlar said, shaking his head. “He’s never shown much interest in Pleasure Girls—or any female—before now. I had assumed that maybe he was sexless, because of the fact that he’s a Hybrid Kindred.” He frowned at his Advisor. “Speaking of that, I thought you said that Hybrid Kindred weren’t able to form a bond with a female? That was what you told me when you advised me to take Dragon as the Little Brother to Zerlix.”

“Well, I have been known to be wrong from time to time,” Rep. Yariz said mildly. “But why should it matter, even if Dragon is able to bond with a female? He’s still loyal to the Clan, isn’t he? You even gave him his own crew to run not long ago.”

“Only because he and Zerlix can’t get along anymore—and all because of that female,” the Komendant growled. “She has caused a rift between my sons—a rift that grows wider every day. And now Zerlix has no trusted Little Brother to look after him and to…to temper his decisions.”

He didn’t like to say—even to his Advisor—that his biological son was a complete fuck-up when it came to making judgment calls. He hadn’t realized how much Dragon had been reining Zerlix in and curbing his worst impulses until the two were no longer working together on the same crew.

Now that Zerlix was on his own, he was constantly causing trouble. Customers were complaining that he was trying to collect their tributes to the Clan early or even that he was collecting two or three times a month—basically robbing them by extorting extra payments. Also, the borders of the Crimson Blades Clan were constantly in dispute now, since Zerlix kept picking fights with crews from other Clans that used to be their allies. Vizlar had so many complaints from rival Komendants that he didn’t know what to do!

It was all a fucking mess and all because of the mammalian girl, he thought grimly. Everything had been fine until she came into the picture. Now the peace of his home and his Clan had been disrupted by a mere female.

“I should have given the girl to Zerlix after all,” he growled, shooting the female in question a glare.