fangs?”
Raak frowned. “I really don’t think they need to be shrunk, Kara.”
She scowled and put a hand on her hip.
“My body, my choice. Don’t be a caveman, as they say back on Earth, and try to act like you know what’s best for me. I want my fangs shrunk back down to normal at least—that’s not too much to ask, I don’t think.”
Raak held up both hands in a “don’t shoot” gesture.
“Whoa baby girl. Don’t worry about me trying to tell you what’s best for your body. I’m just giving you my opinion—your fangs are fucking gorgeous and they feel incredible when you sink them into me. But if you want them gone, we’ll try to find a way. Even though if you ask me, it would be like deciding you wanted to cut off your luscious full breasts for no reason or get rid of your soft little pussy.”
Kara looked stricken.
“You really think that?”
Raak nodded. “I’m not kidding or exaggerating, baby girl—your fangs are beautiful and they’re part of you—a very sexual part.” He shrugged. “But if you want to try and get rid of them or shrink them, I’ll try to help you.”
Her pale blue eyes softened.
“Thank you, Raak,” she whispered and threw her arms around his neck. Since the silver uniform shirt she was wearing was still unbuttoned and gaping open, this meant that her full breasts were pressed to his bare chest but for the moment she didn’t seem to mind.
“Mmm, baby girl,” Raak murmured in her ear as he pulled her even closer. “You feel so good against me.”
He wished he could change her mind about trying to shrink her fangs. He had meant what he said—they were part of her—a very sexy part and he hated to see them go. But Kara was determined and as she had said before, it was her body and her choice so all Raak could do was help and support her.
He just hoped that her quest to get her fangs to shrink didn’t go wrong somehow. Xephron Five was a fucking weird planet where anything was likely to happen.
Eighteen
“That’s it? But it looks like some kind of disco ball!” Kara exclaimed, as she watched Xephron Five growing in the viewscreen.
“A what?” Raak frowned at her for a moment before turning his attention back to the ship’s instrument panel.
“It was this big mirrored ball that hung from the ceiling during an ancient dance ritual down on Earth. My mom told me about it, though it was before her time.” Kara sat forward in the passenger seat and looked at the glittering, diamond-like planet more closely. Its many-faceted surface did seem to sparkle and shine the same way the round glowing ball had in the vids her mom had showed her.
Sophia had decided it was important for Kara to learn about the human part of her heritage as well as the Kindred side and was always giving her tidbits of strange but interesting information about life on the world the Mother Ship orbited.
“It sparkles like that because of the natural refractors in the vegetation,” Raak explained. “It can make looking around difficult—blinding. Which is why I have these.” He popped open a compartment in the pilot’s chair and took out a couple of pairs of large, bulky looking sun shades.
“Oh, sunglasses!” Kara exclaimed, taking a pair of them and putting them on. “Uh, really big ones, too,” she added. For as soon as they touched her face, the shaded lenses grew to envelope her entire orbital region, sealing themselves around her eyes just above her eyebrows and just below her cheekbones.
“They’re heavy-duty, all right,” Raak agreed. “But that’s necessary to keep the damned planet from blinding you. Believe me, the first time I came to trade here, I didn’t have any and I was seeing spots in front of my eyes for a solar month afterwards.”
“That sounds intense.” Kara tugged at the dark glasses which immediately unmolded themselves from around her eyes sockets and let her take them off. “Why did you come here in the first place? Didn’t you say not many people do?”
Raak shrugged.
“I like adventure—like trying and seeing strange, new things. And believe me, baby girl, Xephron Five and its inhabitants are about as strange as it gets.”
Kara felt her heart pound as the disco ball planet grew bigger in the view screen.
I just hope one of those strange inhabitants can help me shrink my fangs, she thought. She no longer wanted them completely gone—she knew that