Stolen (Brides of the Kindred #26) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,3

a question first,” the little male said. Or was he female? It was difficult to tell by his facial features. Despite his bald head, he might be either male or female—not that V cared.

“What question? What do you want, anyway?” he demanded.

“Am I right in thinking that you are extremely fertile?” the little male asked. He was looking from the screen of his hand-held device, up to V, and then back down at the screen again.

“What?” V looked at him in disbelief. “What kind of a question is that?”

“One I must answer before I can know if you are prime breeding stock or not,” the little male—or whatever it was—replied. He scanned V with his instrument again. “According to my readouts, you have the ability to engender intense physical pleasure in females. Is that right?”

“What in the Seven Hells?” V growled, glaring down at the little male. Was he talking about V’s stinger? And if so, how would he know about that?

The Kru’ell Ones weren’t even from this universe—and nobody would know just by looking at V what his physical differences were. It wasn’t until he opened his mouth and allowed his tongue to elongate into the needle-sharp barb which delivered his lust-honey that it was obvious he was different from any other Hybrid Kindred.

“It’s clear you are reticent to speak of your special abilities,” the little bald male remarked. “But my readouts assure me that you can bring females vast amounts of pleasure, which will surely lead to greater fertility and the insemination of many wombs.”

“What? Get the fuck outta my face.” V wasn’t listening to any more of this. A glance around the room showed him that while he’d been distracted with this weird little bastard, the female he’d been so focused on was disappearing into the back of the bar. If this bald, babbling idiot had cost V his chance with her, he would wring his neck!

He started to push past the little male but as he did, he felt a sharp stinging sensation in his hip. Looking down, he saw a tiny needle poking out of the male’s sleeve. It retracted quickly, but not before V saw a drop of something that was deep, poisonous green glittering on its tip.

“Hey, what—?” he started to ask but then he suddenly felt dizzy. As the noisy bar started to spin around him, he felt himself falling.

V hit the floor like a sack of stones, bumping the back of his head and making him see everything in doubles. How else could he account for the fact that there were now two of the little bald males standing over him? They were soon joined by another two so that now four almost identical faces were staring down into V’s own.

He frowned. Wait—was he seeing double or were there more of these weird little fuckers?

“Stand back,” one of them said loudly to the other bar patrons who were looking in surprise at the way V was now flat on his back. “We are a medical unit. We will care for this fallen one.”

This seemed to satisfy everyone and they went back to drinking. V wanted to shout that this wasn’t right, that he hadn’t fallen down by accident—that it was the little bald male’s fault. But when he tried to speak, nothing came out of his mouth. Trying to move led to the same result—nothing.

“A prime specimen,” one of the little bald mutants said to another.

“He is indeed.” The other one nodded. “My instruments indicate he has special abilities in sexual pleasure. This will lead to many inseminations.”

“Our Glorious Leader will be so pleased,” another one of them said. “But I think he is still awake—see how he watches us. Another dose of sleeping juice perhaps?”

“That is an excellent plan,” the second one concurred. “I should have doubled the dose in the first place. This male’s immense size must make him resistant to the effects.”

He leaned down and the retractable needle shot out of the sleeve of his sliver jumpsuit again.

V wanted to jerk away, wanted to shout and flail and most of all punch the little mutant bastard, but he couldn’t move.

He couldn’t do anything but lie there as the needle stung him a second time and everything faded to black.

Two

Oh my God, is that him? Is that the guy Kat was warning me about?

Penny stared in mute horror at the man with the mirrored golden eyes who was looking at her from across the crowded bar. He was huge—even