Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred)
Read Enhanced: Brides of the Kindred 12 (The Brides of the Kindred) Online
Authors: Evangeline Anderson
Brides of the Kindred
Book 12: Enhanced
Evangeline Anderson
* * * * *
PUBLISHED BY:
Evangeline
Anderson Books on Smashwords
Brides of the
Kindred
Book 12:
Enhanced
Copyright ©
2014 by Evangeline Anderson
Kindle
Edition License Notes
This ebook is licensed for your
personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other
people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please
purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you're reading
this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only,
then you should return to Amazon.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for
respecting the author's work.
Dedicated to my sister—one of the bravest
people I know.
Author’s Note #1:
Many of the situations Mei-Li encounters in
this book are based on actual experiences of my brave and wonderful sister. I
would like to thank her for sharing some of the details of her work with me and
dedicate this book to her. Love you, Biscuit!
Author’s Note #2:
For those of you with friends who haven’t
tried the Kindred yet, I now have the first four books collected in one volume.
It’s called Brides of the Kindred Volume
One
and you
can find it on Amazon or at my
website
store
. It’s a great way to dip into the Kindred world and you save a couple
of bucks buying it as opposed to buying the first four books individually. If
readers seem to like it, I may put the next four into another compendium and
the next four once I have book 12, Enhanced written.
Author’s Note #3:
Please no piracy. The Kindred pay my
mortgage now and without them, I’d have to go back to doing MRI full time.
Since writing hot sex and complicated emotions is way more fun than shoving
people into a magnetic hole all day, I would ask that you please buy your book
instead of trying to find a pirated copy and encourage your friends to do the
same so that I can keep writing and you can keep reading. Thanks!
Hugs
and Happy Reading
to you all,
Evangeline
Anderson August, 2014
Table
of Contents
Chapter
One
“Who
are you?”
she whispered.
“Why am I here?”
“I…do
not know.”
Six’s voice sounded rough and uncertain in his own ears. The
slender, tiny shape of the girl who haunted his dreams stood before him, her
dark eyes wide with fright.
“I
don’t know why I can’t stop having these dreams.”
She
looked around her at his service room which was where she always seemed to find
him, when he was resting in his docking station.
Her
hair fell in a long, straight waterfall of black down her back and her big eyes
were partially obscured by strange glass and wire oculars. Six wondered what
they were for. They didn’t seem to have the range of his own ocular scanner,
the one he’d had implanted over his left eye. Could they be to correct her
vision? But if that was the case, why did she simply not have some enhancements
done?
“What
is your designation?”
he asked, since she continued to stand
there. Usually she faded almost immediately. It was disturbing to note that
this time she wasn’t leaving.
“My…designation?”
“I
am Six.”
He thumped the breastplate of his exoskeleton impatiently with
a metallic clang.
“What do you call yourself?”
“Oh.
Mei-Li. My name is Mei-Li.”
“May-Lee?”
Six
frowned at the strange mixture of syllables.
“It
means ‘beautiful flower’ or something like that, I think. My mother picked it
out when my parents adopted me from China because it sounded exotic
without being too hard to pronounce. I…”
She took a step back.
“I’m
sorry, I’m babbling. And I’m still here. These dreams never last this long.”
She
looked around.
“Why am I still here?”
“I
do not know why you remain or why you come at all,”
Six
said.
“You certainly do not belong—you have no enhancements and clearly you
are consumed by emotion.”
“Enhancements?”
For
some reason she looked down at her small, barely rounded breasts.
Through
the sheer white garment she wore, Six could see that they were tiny but
perfectly shaped. For a strange moment, he wondered what they would feel like
in his palms. Would the pink points of her nipples, pressing innocently against
the thin white fabric, feel good against his fingertips? And what would her
reaction be to his touch? Would she moan—illicit emotion overcoming her as he
stroked those delicate buds? Would she—?
He
shook his head, trying to clear the strange thoughts away. Where had they
come
from? And what had he been talking about with the little female? Oh,
right—enhancements.
“Enhancements
like my own.”
He motioned to his enhanced left hand and the ocular scanner in
is left eye.
“You have no enhancements. You are not authorized to be here.”
“That’s
what you always say—that I’m not authorized to be here… That you’ll hunt me
down and make me pay…”
She began to back away from him, fear
growing in her eyes.
“Because
you are not.”
Six reached up to disengage himself from his docking station and
took a step toward her. His exoskeleton made a mechanical
hiss
and his
boots
thudded
heavily against the metallic floor panels.
“No—please!”
She
backed away from him, almost stumbling in her haste.
“Please don’t!”
She
looked around.
“Oh God, I just want to wake up! Just let me wake up…”
Suddenly
Six’s eyes opened and the dream—if that was what it had been—was over. He
looked around, searching the room with his scanner but it was empty—it was
always empty. The girl in his dream was nothing but a figment—an insubstantial
wisp who disappeared the moment he opened his eyes.
But
he could no longer dismiss her as nothing but a figment and the dream as
nothing but a slight aberration during his recharging period. It was coming
more frequently for one thing—the girl was disturbing his sleep on an almost
nightly basis now. And for another, the dream seemed to be lasting longer. He
had been able to have an actual exchange with her this time—not a good sign.
Reflexively,
he reached behind his head and felt the small metal button of his emotion
damper, embedded in the flesh of his neck, just below the base of his skull.
Still
in working order,
he assured himself.
I feel nothing.
But then why
did the dreams keep recurring? And what could he do about it?
Suddenly
the speaker at the door of his service room buzzed to life and the voice of
Ter, his domicile’s informations system, spoke.
“Six,
you are requested in One’s domicile at once.”
For
some reason, Six’s heart began pumping harder.
“Why?”
he demanded. “It is not my day to communicate with One. Please clarify.”
“No
clarification possible,” Ter’s mechanical voice said. “One has requested your
immediate presence. He has given no reason for this request.”
Nor
did he have to. As the Mouthpiece of the Collective—the group of mechanoids
which ruled Zeaga Four with an iron hand—One was entitled to make any request
he desired and expect immediate obedience.
“Will
you come?” Ter asked.
“I
will. Tell One he may expect my presence momentarily.”
“Very
good.” With another buzz, the speaker fell silent.
A
vague feeling of unease settled over Six as he left his domicile and entered
the busy, dark streets of Prime, the main urban center of Zeaga Four. Six
frowned to himself as he walked, threading his way through the busy traffic of
wheelers, trackers, and mechanoids as well as the organic Enhanced that made up
the diverse life in the city. High walls of metal and tempered glass rose all
around him, blocking out the sky but he was so used to the view—or lack
thereof—he barely noticed it. Instead, his thoughts were turned inward. This
unease that would not leave him…it was almost like…like an emotion.
But
that was foolish, surely. He was simply concerned for his future, as any
rational being would be. And possibly the dream, which kept coming over and
over again, was getting to him.
Not
that he planned to do anything about it, he reminded himself. The girl was
light years away and obviously a Feeler. There was no place in his neatly
ordered life for such as her.
Still,
his thoughts kept returning to her slight, frail form and her large, frightened
eyes. What if someone threatened her, so far away on that tiny planet where she
lived? How could she protect herself? She didn’t even have an exoskeleton…
Before
he knew it, he found himself standing outside the featureless metal door that
led to One’s domicile. It was exactly the same as any other organic’s
residence. There was no class distinction among the inhabitants of Prime—not
even for those close to the Collective.
He
pressed a sound activator in the center of the door and waited for the
resulting alert to ring within.
“Name?”
the voice of the domicile’s informations system demanded.
“Six.
One is expecting me.”
“He
is with Two, now. A momentary delay.”
“Understood.”
Six crossed his hands behind his back and stood at ease, waiting impassively.
Only
a moment later, the metal door panel slid open. He started to step inside but a
low, robotic form suddenly appeared, blocking his way. It looked up at Six and
growled, a metallic buzzing sound that vibrated its entire body from its blunt
snout filled with jagged metal teeth down to the tip of its segmented tail.
A
sniffer.
Six
stood perfectly still, eyeing the mechanoid impassively. It growled again and
sidled closer. The metal portals in its snout that comprised its nostrils
irised open and began inhaling air.
The
process reminded him of his induction into the Collective—when, as an
adolescent, he had first had his emotion damper installed. Had he failed that
test, the jagged metal teeth would have closed around his throat and his life
would have been over.
Now,
as he had so many years ago, Six looked impassively into the glaring red
mechanical eyes and waited for its decision. The sniffer continued to inhale,
stalking around him on stiff, metal legs until at last it seemed satisfied.
With a final buzzing growl, it backed away and sat on its haunches by the side
of the domicile.
“Well,
well—so you passed the test.” The voice belonged to Two—the Eyes of the
Collective. He was second only to One and they were often in company with each
other, consulting on matters of importance. He was a tall, skeletal male with a
skull-like face and an advanced multi-spectrum scanner that took up his entire
right eye socket as well as the right side of his face. It was permanent—not
built over the existing structure like Six’s was. Instead of an exoskeleton, he
wore a long, black leather coat which buttoned at his boney chin and fell to
the tops of his black boots. When he spoke, he appeared to have too many teeth.
Two
was also in charge of the sniffers—the mechanoids whose sole job it was to
ferret out Feel-crime in the general populace. Six supposed he should not have
been surprised to see one of Two’s pets in attendance but nonetheless, it bothered
him. He had not been so thoroughly inspected since his first initiation into
the Collective. It was almost as if Two was
hoping
to find something
wrong with him. Something illegal.
“Yes,
I passed.” Six spoke without rancor though he did not enjoy the other male’s
company. “What did you expect? That I would be guilty of Feel-crime?”
“I
would not be surprised.” Two’s mouth stretched in a humorless rictus of a grin
showing his many sharp, yellow teeth. “After all, One informs me you have been
dream sharing with a female.”
“Why
would he inform you of that? It is none of your concern.” Six’s heart began
beating faster again and the sniffer, which was lying down now, its snout on
its metal paws, raised its head and whined.
“That’s
right, Grix.” Two snapped his fingers and the sniffer came to heel at his feet.
“Six protests much for one whose innocence is in question.”
“I
have done nothing wrong,” Six said stolidly, willing himself to be blank once
more. “The dreams came to me—I did not seek them out.”
“Of
course you didn’t,” One said from the doorway of his domicile. The clear skull
cap which showed the electrodes of the Collective implanted in his brain
glinted faintly in the weak sunlight which had somehow made its way between the
towering buildings of Prime. “Your guilt or innocence is not in question here.
I merely wished to speak with you, Six,” he said.
“One.”
Six looked up with something like relief. “May we speak privately of this
matter? I do not feel it concerns Two.”
“
Everything
approaching Feel-crime concerns me.” Two gave him that grimacing, humorless
grin again which showed too many teeth.
“There
is no Feel-crime here,” One said, frowning slightly. “You may go, Two. I will
speak to you at a later time.”
“Of
course.” Two nodded slightly and glided away, the sniffer jogging at his heels.
One
nodded at Six. “Please enter my domicile and make yourself comfortable.”
“Thank
you.” But Six cast a last glance over his shoulder at the thin, retreating
figure. He did not care for the Eyes of the Collective. The male was too eager
to find wrong-doing and he displayed smug satisfaction when he was able to
punish those found guilty of Feel-crime.
Six
touched the back of his neck again, almost without knowing he was doing it. The
emotion damper implanted there was a good one—installed by the best Tolleg
surgeon aboard any of the medical barges. Even a sniffer with the most
sensitive olfactory apparatus would never scent Feel-crime on him. He was safe.
Two couldn’t touch him.
One
stood aside and allowed him to enter the cool, dark domicile and then sealed
the door behind them.
“Now,
Six,” he said, leading the way down the long, dim hallway to his work room. “As
Two said, I understand you have been dream sharing with a female.”
“Not
on purpose!” Six protested. “The dreams come and I cannot make them go. They
don’t mean anything, though—they simply disturb my rest during my recharging
period.”
“Dream
sharing is a Kindred phenomenon,” One said, seating himself behind a plain
black metal desk with a smooth, clean, empty top. “It is to be expected that it
would happen to you eventually.”
“What?
But why?” Six took the stool in front of the desk, reflexively hooking the leg
sockets of his exoskeleton into the power grids along the metal sides of the
stool. It was like One to have such a seat for the recharging of a guest’s
armor. He was thoughtful in that manner.