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.”
“Oh, okay.” Luci felt a little better. He seemed to take this very seriously, she thought. And though she barely knew him, he seemed like a good guy. At least, Lady approved of him and she could usually tell the good apples from the bad ones.
“How often will I need to feed these, uh, cattens? Is that the right word?” he asked, clearly changing the subject.
“It’s kittens,” Luci corrected him, smiling. “And let’s see…” She examined the kitten she was holding, who was almost finished eating, and nodded to herself. “Eyes and ears open and he’s pretty perky.” She looked under the tail. “Oops, this one’s a she, though,” she added. “Anyway, judging from the weight and size and the way these guys are so lively, I’d say they’re probably around four or five weeks old. Which means they need to be fed every five to six hours.”
“All right.” He nodded gravely. “I can do that.”
“Oh, but do you want to?” Luci was surprised. She had fully expected to take the kittens over—not many people wanted the trouble of caring for three fragile little creatures who needed round the clock care.
But the big Kindred was nodding.
“Sure. I’m on leave here, down on Earth. I was going to use my time to explore but I find without a guide, a lot of your culture is a mystery. So I don’t mind spending my time with animals instead of people.”
Luci thought about offering to give him a tour of Tampa…but then she bit her tongue. Raze seemed like a nice guy but she had her three kids to think about. Now wasn’t the time to be bringing a new man into their life when she and Tony had been divorced less than a year. Not that it would be a date or anything