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“Here, give me the smallest one and you can feed the other one,” she told the big Kindred.
“All right.” Carefully, he transferred another of the kittens—an all black one—to her lap. She cradled the kitten gently in her left hand and then gave the third bottle to Raze.
“Good—now go ahead,” she said. “Always feed with your dominant hand so you can be sure to control the flow if you need to. Just put the nipple in his mouth and he should go for it.”
“All right.” He took the bottle from her and carefully gave it to the last kitten—all white with just one black spot over his left eye.
Luci watched him, thinking how strange it was to see such a huge male being so tender and careful with such a tiny little scrap of a kitten. It was kind of sweet, actually. Her ex, Tony, would never have had the patience or the kindness to bottle-feed a kitten. Their incessant, hungry mewing would have made him angry and he might have hurt one or all of them.
Luci sighed to herself—sometimes she wondered how she had ever fooled herself into thinking Tony was a good guy in the first place.
“Are you well, Lucia?” Raze’s deep, rumbling voice startled her and she realized that she’d been sitting there staring at the big Kindred as he fed the third kitten. He had looked up and caught her and now his piercing, mismatched gaze was directed right at her.
“Oh, uh, fine! I’m fine,” Luci said quickly, feeling her cheeks heat with a blush. “I was just thinking, er…thinking you’re really good at that.” She nodded her chin at the kitten he was holding. It had latched onto the nipple well and was sucking strongly. “You’ve got a great touch.”
“Thank you. I’ve always liked animals—they’re often more trustworthy than people.” He smiled, which lit up his stern face, especially the mismatched eyes which crinkled at the corners in a very appealing way.
“Uh…if you don’t mind me asking, what kind of Kindred are you?” she asked, trying to sound casual. “Are you a, uh, Beast Kindred?” She knew that Beast Kindred had golden eyes and Raze’s copper eye was sort of close to that—right?
“Yes, in a way.” He gave a deep rumbling laugh at her confused look. “I’m kind of a mutt like Lady, there—half Beast Kindred and Half Drake Kindred.”
“A Drake Kindred?” Luci frowned. “I’ve never heard about that kind of Kindred.”
“Probably because they’ve only recently been welcomed aboard the Mother Ship,” he said.
“Oh? Why is that? Do they have some kind of political or religious differences with the other Kindred?” Luci asked with interest.
“No, we all worship the Goddess—the Mother of All Life. But in the past the other Kindred have considered Drake Kindred to be, well…dangerous.” Raze cleared his throat and looked away.
“Oh.” Luci bit her lip. Should she ask? No, she really shouldn’t, she decided. But the next time she opened her mouth she heard herself say, “Dangerous how exactly?”
“Dangerous because we have a beast inside.” He frowned. “Or most Drake Kindred do, anyway. Being a hybrid, I don’t know if I have one or not.”
“Uh…a beast inside?” Luci felt a nervous tremor in her stomach. He was already so big and now he was telling her he had some other weird trait she hadn’t even known it was possible for Kindred to possess. A trait that made even other Kindred afraid of him. That was downright scary!
“Now you’re afraid of me again.” Raze sounded sad. “Like you were when I came up on you unexpectedly outside.”
“No, no!” Luci exclaimed, though to be honest, she really kind of was. “I just…didn’t know it was possible for someone to really have, uh, something like that inside them. I mean, what kind of a beast are we talking about? Are you like a…a werewolf or something?”
He shook his head.
“The beast I have inside me—well, if I have one—is what you would call a ‘dragon’ I believe.”
“A dragon? Really?” Luci looked at him with wide eyes. “But…but those aren’t even real.”
“They are on my mother’s home world of Yarren,” he said gravely.
“Really?” Luci was fascinated. “That’s amazing. So then… why do the other Kindred consider that a problem? That you might have a, er, dragon inside you?” She couldn’t help thinking that if any other guy had told her he could turn into a dragon, she would have thought he was crazy. However, with the Kindred, anything was possible.
Raze shifted uncomfortably and cleared his throat.
“The beast can be dangerous when it comes out—though most of my kind strive to keep it contained all our lives. And as I said before, I might not even have one. If I did, it surely would have come out during my manhood ceremony on Yarren.” He shook his head. “It didn’t, so the odds are very good I don’t have a Drake within at all. At least, I have never felt one stirring within me.”
