Unbondable(Kindred Birthright #1) - Evangeline Anderson Page 0,3

was going on than anyone else somehow.

“Shad has his ways,” Daniel said, smiling mysteriously, showing white teeth, gleaming in the gloom of the artificial twilight. “But I have mine too—and I know the Goddess has someone for you, Kara. She has someone for everyone.”

“Everyone normal you mean.” Kara sighed and ran her mostly-healed tongue over her fangs again.

Daniel frowned.

“Kara—”

“Never mind.” She waved a hand at him and tugged with her other at Kaleb. “Come on—we need to get home. Mom and Dad will be worried.”

Despite being fully grown, the two of them still lived with their parents. Part of it was because the massive Mother Ship had begun to fill up with all the mated couples and part of it was because Kara just didn’t feel quite ready to leave the nest yet. She liked looking around the dinner table and seeing her family’s familiar faces. Her parents were in their mid and late forties now but they were still wildly in love—Kara couldn’t help wishing she could find such love for herself someday.

Not that it will ever happen with these, she told herself ruefully, running her tongue over her fangs once more.

“See you later,” Kaleb said to Daniel as Kara dragged him out of the parklands. “Talk to you tomorrow.”

“See you at the family dinner.” With a final wave, Daniel wandered off, probably following his sensitive Beast Kindred nose to sniff down War, Peace, and Ziza.

“Come on,” Kara tugged at Kaleb again. “I want to get home. I’m tired.”

“Okay.” Her twin shrugged compatibly and they walked in comfortable silence towards the public transport station, which was unusually crowded, Kara saw.

“Hey, what’s going on here?” she asked, watching as a trio of strange, long-necked aliens with purple skin ducked into the glass-walled transport beside them.

“The Convention of Acceptance,” Kaleb explained in a low voice as the transport hummed to life and started moving them smoothly through the Mother Ship. “Don’t you remember Dad talking about it? It’s the one time of year when the High Council accepts applications for acceptance from other species—especially ones we Kindred have made a genetic trade with. If the Council votes to recognize the trade, they can consider themselves a new branch of the Kindred with legal rights to representation, mediation, and protection from the Kindred as a whole.”

“Oh, right.” Kara’s eyes flickered around the crowded transport and lighted on a large male who was facing away from them. He stood a head taller than anyone else in the crowd—even Kaleb—and he had long, wild dark hair and very broad shoulders, made even broader by the heavy, silver-toned uniform shirt he was wearing. The shirt was trimmed in black and tucked neatly into tight black flight leathers, which most Kindred warriors wore as part of their uniform. Was he a Beast Kindred?

But when the male turned towards them, she saw that his eyes weren’t the pure liquid gold of a Beast Kindred but midnight-black ringed in pure silver. The strange combination gave the stranger a piercing look that made Kara want to drop her eyes the moment she met his.

But she didn’t like feeling intimidated. Instead of looking down or away, as would be polite on a crowded transport, she lifted her chin and gazed evenly at the big stranger, giving stare for stare and refusing to look away. She had the strangest feeling she had seen him somewhere before but that was impossible—she would have remembered such a striking-looking male, she was certain of it.

The silver-ringed black eyes, as dark as bottomless pits, widened slightly in apparent surprise, and then crinkled at the corners. The strange male had strong features to go with his striking eyes—a knife-blade nose and a full, sensuous mouth with naturally red lips framed in a neatly trimmed black beard and mustache. Seeing that she was still studying him, he bowed mockingly, as though saluting her bravery in some way.

“Kara, what are you doing?” Kaleb yanked on her hand, drawing her attention away from the handsome, irritating stranger.

“What?” Kara jerked guiltily. “What do you mean? I was just looking around.”

“Looking at that strange male, you mean,” Kaleb growled, frowning. “He’s a Y’lyn—one of the Unbondable.”

“Unbondable? What are you talking about?” Kara snuck a glance at the stranger again who appeared to be listening, though he was surely too far away to hear their conversation. There was a faint smile on his sensuous mouth, as though he found them amusing.

“Unbondable because they’re part demon,” Kaleb explained impatiently. “Demons have no souls.