Divided: Brides of the Kindred 10 (18 page)

Becca picked it up and burst out laughing.
“You actually made a furry bra?” She held up the undergarment which had white
fur covering the shoulder straps and the outside of the cups.

Kat frowned. “Well, I
wanted
a fur
lined one like we talked about but this was the closest thing I could find.”

“Looks like something a cavewoman would
wear in a really bad B movie,” Becca said, handing her the bra. “But this is
amazing, Kat! I had no idea the Kindred had technology like this.”

Kat grinned. “I know, right? We’re
grateful for all the advances they’ve given us in science and medicine but I
think this has to be my favorite piece of Kindred tech, hands down.”

“It’s great,” Becca agreed. “So can you
replicate me some warmer clothes?”

“Sure, doll. And why don’t I make you some
fur panties to go with the bra while I’m at it.” Kat winked at her. “If you’re
going on a secret mission with your two guys, you want to have something hot
and naughty to slip into—not just long underwear.”

Becca bit her lip and looked away. “No…no,
just some warmer clothes will be fine,” she said quietly.

“Hey…” Kat peered at her anxiously.
“What’s wrong? Are Truth and Far still at each other’s throats? I thought they
made some real progress yesterday.”

“They did.” Becca cleared her throat. “And
they made even more, uh, progress after we saved Truth from being possessed
last night.”

“What?” Kat demanded. “You should have led
with that instead of all the stuff you told me about the weird vision you guys
had! Tell me all about it and don’t leave out any details.”

Blushing, Becca recounted how she and Far had
claimed Truth and cast the demon out, then the way things had turned sexual
afterwards.

“Truth seemed to feel so close to us after
we came together to save him,” she said. “He was much more open to the idea
of…of sharing.”

“Sharing
you,
you mean,” Kat said.

Becca nodded. “But I don’t know, maybe it
went too far. I know
I
thought it did.”

Kat frowned. “You didn’t do the deed, did
you? I mean, you probably couldn’t have bonding sex without the fruit but you
could still…you know.”

“Oh, no—of course not! Nothing like that
but we did…do some things I might not have done if I wasn’t so…if being between
them didn’t make me so…”

“So horny,” Kat finished for her
matter-of-factly. “It’s all right, hon—you can say it. I like being between my
guys too.”

“But I shouldn’t.” Becca twisted her hands
in her lap. “I mean, I swore to myself I wouldn’t go too far with them. And
then I sort of just…lost all control.”

Kat grinned. “That tends to happen around
Kindred warriors for some reason. They’re so big and intense and sexy that
before you know it you’re out of your panties and having the time of your
life.”

“That’s exactly what I
shouldn’t
be
doing, though,” Becca exclaimed. “I know I promised to help them bond but this
is going too far.”

Kat looked thoughtful. “And yet,
after
you
went ‘too far’ is when you had the vision, right?”

Becca nodded reluctantly. “That
is
true.”
She frowned. “And this Vashtar person said that he was finally able to get
through to us because of the, uh, pleasure we took in each other.”

Kat snapped her fingers. “See? And that
follows what the Goddess said through Nadiah—she said that once the guys were
bonded they would have true visions. Didn’t she?”

“Um, something like that, I think.”
Nadiah’s words came back to her…
“Your
visions hold the key. When you are bonded then they will reveal more than
passing shadows.”

“So don’t you see? By allowing Truth and
Far to share you, you opened yourselves up to a vision that could possibly save
the lives of every unmated Kindred on the Mother Ship.” Kat sounded excited.
“So you’re doing the right thing, Becca, even if you feel guilty about it.”

Becca shook her head. “I guess. I just
can’t…I spent so much time trying to avoid these feelings. Trying to…to…”

“To keep your virginity?” Kat raised an
eyebrow at her.

“No.” Becca sighed. “I know you probably
have that idea of me because I was going to become a nun but I’m
not
a
virgin, Kat.”

“What? But isn’t that like, a requirement
or something?”

“For some orders, maybe. Mine simply
demanded chastity and virtue. I haven’t been doing very well in either
department lately.” Becca hung her head.

“But can you tell me—I mean, if you don’t
mind me asking—how…”

“How did I lose my virginity?” Becca
laughed sadly. “It’s a fairly standard story. My parents kept me in an all
girls school right through high school and I was never allowed to date.”

“Wow, strict,” Kat commented.

“Uh-huh. Like I said, my father was
determined to protect me. So of course when I went away to college, I
rebelled.”

“What—you became a party girl?” Kat looked
at her skeptically. “I have to say, you don’t seem the type.”

“No, I’m not. But I
did
finally get
a boyfriend.” Becca smiled. “His name was Kenneth. Kenneth Parker. And I was
completely in love with him. We met in English class and became study partners.
He didn’t have the guts to ask me out until the end of the semester and even
then he was so nervous he stuttered.” She smiled, remembering.

“Kenneth was such a romantic. He liked all
the cheesy cornball things you always think about when you think true love—walks
on the beach, picnics under the stars, candlelight dinners. Of course we were
college students so the dinners were mostly ramen noodles but still, it was
nice.”

Kat grinned. “Sounds great. So what happened—you
couldn’t help yourself and started doing the nasty?”

“Just once.” Becca looked away. “It was my
first time…and my last.”

“And then you freaked out afterwards and
broke it off?” Kat asked.

“No.” Becca cleared her throat. “He…I
don’t…I can’t talk about it.”

“That bad, huh?” Kat asked
sympathetically.

Becca nodded. Her throat was tight and she
was trying as hard as she could not to remember the awful details of that
night. The night…
No!
She pushed the thought away as hard as she could.

“Whatever it was, it still hurts, doesn’t
it?” Kat murmured sympathetically.

Becca nodded and sniffed, pressing the
back of her hand to her eyes. The hot tears stinging her lids were proof that
some pain never really fades.
Oh, Kenneth…

She cleared her throat and made herself
continue.

“After that night was when I decided to
become a nun. I felt like…like God was punishing me for giving in to my lust.
It was the only way I could think to redeem myself.”

“Oh, honey…” Kat shook her head. “I’m not
the most religious person in the world but I don’t think that’s how God works.
Or the Goddess, either. She put you together with Truth and Far for a
reason—you don’t have to be ashamed of anything you do with them or be worried
that something awful is going to happen if you give in and let yourself love
them.”

Hearing her own secret fear put into
words— a fear she had buried so deeply even she had not acknowledged it—made
Becca feel better somehow.

“Yes,” she said, her voice trembling.
“That’s
exactly
what I’m afraid of. Not just of losing my virtue but
that if I let myself go too far—let
them
go too far—something will
happen to one or both of them. I just…I can’t lose them like that.”

“You won’t,” Kat assured her softly. “You
have to trust the Goddess on this one—she gave you these two guys to love and
to bring together. She’s not going to yank the rug out from under you.”

“I guess…” Becca wasn’t convinced. She
sighed. “It doesn’t matter anyway—it’s not like we’ll be doing any more
‘sharing’ in the near future. Or at all, for that matter.”

“Why not?” Kat asked. “Look, before you
answer that doll, give me your sizes. We need to start replicating you some
clothes if you’re going to be ready for your secret spy mission.”

Becca gave her sizes and Kat began typing
busily.

“Okay, so tell me what you meant,” she
said. “I thought you said Truth and Far made a
lot
of progress. So why
aren’t the three of you raring to go?”

Becca sank onto the couch as Kat continued
to type on the replicator’s screen. “We had a fight after the vision, although
I don’t know how
I
got involved in it. Far let it slip that he had been
uh, researching Truth’s past and Truth got all bent out of shape.”

“What did he do? Call his old high school
buddies and try to dig up some dirt?” Kat asked.

“Close. He talked to Truth’s stepmother.
But apparently digging into someone else’s private business is a big no-no in
Rai’ku culture.”

Kat snorted. “Show me something that’s
not
a no-no in that stiff-ass culture. They don’t hug their kids, they don’t
touch each other—it’s
ridiculous
. I mean, they’re supposed to be like
these were-type creatures that turn into animals and run in a pack. Wouldn’t
you think they’d be more touchy like wolves or dogs are?”

“Apparently not,” Becca said dryly. “And
we don’t really know
what
they turn into, remember?”

Kat sighed. “I guess not. So go on—Truth
got mad because Far was digging the dirt on him…”

“Not digging dirt—trying to get to know
him. And also, trying to find information on their father, Feels Pain.” Becca shook
her head. “That’s when things got
really
ugly.”

Kat looked up from the replicator screen.
“Oh? What happened?”

“Well, all this time Far has been longing
for his real father and jealous that Truth got to know him and he didn’t. But
it turns out…” Becca shook her head. “It’s not really my story to tell so I
can’t give details but it turns out that Feels Pain was, well… abusive.”

“And Truth told you all this?”

“More like he
shouted
it at us,” Becca
said in a low voice. She closed her eyes for a moment, remembering the pain in
the dark twin’s face. The memory twisted her heart—she yearned to heal him. To
make things right. But to do that she would need Far, and Truth wanted nothing
to do with his brother right now. Or ever again, for that matter.

“So he
shouted
personal information
like that?” Kat’s eyes widened. “I wouldn’t have thought he was the type to be
a big emotional sharer.”

“He’s not,” Becca said flatly. “Which I
think is why he’s so mad at Far and me now. Because he thinks we forced him
into sharing something way too personal.” She sighed. “Although I don’t know
why he’s making me out to be the enemy too. I can see why he’s mad at Far—he
feels betrayed and violated that Far went behind his back to find out personal
details. But
I
didn’t do anything like that.”

“No, but he
wants
you. You tempt
him so much he has to push you away,” Kat said. “It was the same with me and
Deep. He nearly got the three of us killed before he would admit we all
belonged together.”

“At least he didn’t hate his twin,” Becca
said. “That’s what makes this so hard—I’m already conflicted about being with
two guys at once that I’m not married to. But Truth feels even more strongly
than me that what we’re doing is wrong, which puts me and Far on his bad side.
And he has such
a
heavy
bad side.”

“Truth doesn’t hate Far,” Kat said with
quiet certainty. “He wants a bond with him—every bit as much as he wants a bond
with you.”

“He could have fooled me,” Becca said. “I
mean, with all his homophobic talk about not touching another male or sharing a
female…”

“He doesn’t just want to be bonded to
Far—he
needs
to. It’s part of the Twin Kindred sex drive—they
need
to
be connected and they need to share a female.” Kat shrugged. “Truth just
doesn’t want to acknowledge that because of the way he was raised. He hates
himself for wanting the two of you and then he hates you for tempting him. It’s
a vicious cycle.”

“One that’s not going to end anytime soon,
I’m afraid,” Becca said sadly. “You know, even though I felt guilty about it
afterwards, the, uh, experience I had with them before we all started fighting
was…well, I’ve never felt anything like it before—not even with Kenneth. It was
amazing.”

“Of course it was, doll. Nobody knows how
to make a girl feel good like a Kindred. It’s in their blood. And when you get
two of them working together and completely focused on making you happy…watch
out!” Kat winked at her. “Okay, now look at these and tell me what you think…”

She got up and went around to the tray of
the replicator which was now filled with garments in Becca’s size.

“Nice,” Becca said, stroking a thick, warm
coat that would fall past her knees. “I like the color too.”