Switched: Brides of the Kindred 17 (58 page)

“
She’s bonded to Twin Kindred,” Sophie explained. “Try
explaining that you’re going to be married to not one but
two
big, hot alien men
to your super religious
parents who were all set to have a nun for a daughter.”

“
Yup, that’s a tough one,” Liv said. “But Becca managed—maybe
she can give you some pointers.”

“
I’d love to meet her,” Frankie said. “But right now I have a
date with my best friend, Lacy.” She sighed. “I have to get her to
understand about Kerov—she
really
doesn’t like him because she thinks he’s some kind of a body
snatcher. And she also thinks he screwed up my life—which he sort
of did but I messed up his pretty badly too. Lacy’s not as
forgiving as me though.”

“
Is she seeing anybody?” Liv asked.

Frankie shook her
head. “Well, no. She kind of has this crush on a doctor at work but
so far he doesn’t seem to know she’s alive.”

“
Then bring her up to the Mother Ship,” Liv advised. “Take her
for a drink in a restaurant near the Unmated Males area and see
what develops.”

“
Don’t
actually go
in
to the
Unmated Males area, though,” Sophie warned quickly.

“
Yeah, that can get kind of, uh, hairy if you’re not careful,”
Liv acknowledged. “But just give her a chance to get to know
Kindred culture…maybe meet a few Kindred first hand.”

“
It’s hard to hate them once you get to know them,” Kate
added, smiling at Frankie. “I think that’s something we all know
from personal experience.”

“
So…it’s okay to bring her up here?” Frankie asked. “I mean, I
thought they were really cracking down on security measures around
here.”

“
They are,” Sophie said. “But you have a Kindred mate—that
puts you pretty much above suspicion. If you have any trouble, just
call me and I’ll get Sylvan to talk to the guards at the HKR
building.”

“
Oh, I don’t want you to bother him on my account,” Frankie
protested. “Isn’t he still recovering?”

“
Already recovered…” Sophie’s pretty green eyes grew shadowed.
“Physically at least. Mentally…well, it might take a little longer.
Of course, what Two did to him wasn’t nearly as bad as what he did
to Commander Terex.”

“
Oh, yes—poor Terex!” Liv looked sad. “Sylvan says he’s in a
bad way.”

“
Well, he’s really had it tough,” Sophie acknowledged. “I mean
first he lost his mate, then he was possessed by that horrible
demon, Ur and then he was attacked and maimed by Two…” She shook
her head. “It’s really hard to understand the will of the Goddess
sometimes.”

“
I
don’t understand it either,” Liv said. “But at least he doesn’t
have to stay maimed. We have a Tolleg surgeon on board,” he
explained to Frankie. “His name is Yipper and he’s the absolute
best at replacing and repairing lost or damaged body
parts.”

“
But I heard that Commander Terex didn’t
want
his thumb and eye replaced,” Sophie protested.
“He told Sylvan that he wanted to keep his injuries as a reminder
of what had happened when he went to seek revenge.”

“
Revenge?” Frankie frowned. “But how can he get revenge if
Two’s already dead?”

“
Well, the clone of him that looked like Sylvan is dead,”
Sophie explained. “But Two told Sylvan, when he attacked him, that
he had another clone on the Scourge home world.”

“
So there’s
another
evil
clone of Commander Sylvan running around out there?” Kate asked,
raising an eyebrow. “That’s awful!”

“
Oh, no—not of Sylvan, thank the Goddess,” Sophie said
quickly. “This one is something Two grew in the Flesh Tanks where
the Scourge used to make all their warriors.”

“
It’s probably huge then—and mean and nasty and all kinds of
crazy if it has Two’s personality inside it.” Liv shuddered. “And
Terex wants to go
after
that
thing?”

“
He says he needs to be avenged,” Sophie said softly.
“Honestly, I don’t blame him. He needs closure. He…” She shook her
head. “I spoke to him—visited him in the med center when I went to
see Sylvan. He’s broken inside, Liv. He needs to find a way to heal
and this quest to find and kill the last Two clone might be the
only way.”

“
He will be going on a trip—but not only for vengeance.”
Kate’s voice had a hollow quality that made everyone look at her.
Frankie noticed that her lovely eyes had a faraway look to them, as
though she was seeing something none of the rest of them could see.
“He will seek that which cannot be found and find that which was
never lost before he returns. And he will not journey
alone.”

“
Um, what do you mean by that, Kate?” Liv asked
carefully.

“
Hmm?” Kate blinked her eyes and shook her head. “By
what?”

“
By what you just said,” Sophie said, frowning.

“
Did I just say something?” Kate asked, looking confused. “I…I
don’t remember saying anything.”

“
It was the Knowing,” Liv said quietly. “You just made like, I
don’t know, a mini-prophesy I guess.”

“
I
did?” Kate frowned and ran a hand over her face. “That’s
strange—that’s not usually how the Knowing works. I can tell things
about people when I touch them and I sometimes have prophetic
dreams but it doesn’t usually just…pop out in the middle of
conversation.”

“
That’s okay, hon,” Sophie said, reaching across the couch to
squeeze her hand. “Maybe it was the Goddess speaking through
you.”

“
Maybe you should tell Commander Terex about it,” Frankie
suggested. “Since it had to do with him.”

“
But I don’t remember what it
was,”
Kate protested. “God…” She sighed and ran a hand
through her hair. “This is weird, even for me.”

“
You’re not weird,” Liv promised her. “Or at least, no more
than any of the rest of us are. Look at everything we’ve been
through—weird goes with the territory when it comes to the
Kindred.”

Frankie had to laugh
at that. “You’ve got that right! If someone would have told me two
weeks ago that I would be getting married to a man who could switch
bodies with me anytime we wanted, I would have thought they were
crazy or high.”

“
So you can do that at will now?” Sophie asked.

“
Yup. Anytime we want.” Frankie smiled. “It’s a lot better than
being
stuck
in each other’s bodies, I
can tell you that.”

“
Yeah, but have you used it for, you know, nookie purposes?”
Liv asked. “I mean not to pry but…”

“
Not quite yet,” Frankie said, laughing again. “I mean, we’ve
kissed when we were Switched but nothing else—not yet,
anyway.”

“
Ah, well…you’ve got plenty of time to try it.” Liv winked at
her. “A lifetime, in fact.”

“
You’re right—a lifetime. And it starts today.”

Feeling her heart
swell, Frankie smiled. A lifetime with the man she loved sounded
just about right to her. She was so glad and thankful that she and
Kerov had ended up together and that he hadn’t been killed when he
Jumped into Two. She just hoped that the other people who had been
wounded both physically and emotionally by the awful incident would
be able to heal—especially Commander Terex.

Frankie couldn’t
help remembering the way he’d looked at Elaina, the woman from the
HKR building back on Earth. At the time she and Liv and Sophie had
thought that maybe there might be a romance blossoming between them
but how was that possible now with Terex maimed and scarred by what
Two had done?

“
Please,”
she
prayed silently.
“Let him be healed. And let him find love and happiness as
great as what I have been granted with Kerov.”

Though she heard no
answer to her prayer, Frankie felt a sense of peace—a feeling that
somehow, no matter how difficult things seemed, all would be
well.

She only hoped it
was true.

THE
END…for now

If you have enjoyed
Switched, please take a moment to leave a quick review. Good
reviews are like gold for an author--they help other readers decide
to take a chance on a new book. Which in turn, gets me new readers
which means I can keep writing for a living to feed your Kindred
cravings. : ) Evangeline

**Author's note— I'm sure
a lot of you were expecting the next book to be about Y, Two's
hapless scion. Sorry, guys—my muse let me know early on that he
wasn't going to make it. I did receive a lot of e-mail, however,
asking me about Commander Terex. He's gotten a really raw deal
throughout the Kindred books and right now he's feeling hurt,
betrayed and broken. I think he's about due for some love so the
next book will be about him and Elaina who has a devastating secret
of her own.

But before Kindred 18
comes out, I'd like you to be on the look out for a whole new
series I'm starting called The AMI—short for
The Alien Mate Index.
It's going to
be a fast-paced, steamy Scifi epic and I'm already writing the
first book,
Abducted
. I also have books 2 and 3,
Protected
and
Chosen
all plotted out so you can
expect them as well.

Take a quick look at
chapter one of
Abducted
, which will be available for preorder soon. And then check
out some other fabulous reads from my author friends Avery Aster,
Celia Kyle, and Mina Carter that you can get right now.

Hugs and Happy
Reading!

Evangeline

The Alien Mate
Index

Be careful when you look
in the mirror—

You never know who might
be looking back.

People think that human
life on Earth just evolved—not true.

Our planet was seeded by
the Ancient Ones millennia ago.

Now the fruit of their
labors is ripe and ready to pluck.

Trouble is, that "fruit"
is Earth girls, like you and me.

And now it's
Harvest Time...

Alien Mate Index Book 1: Abducted

Or How I became an Alien Male Order
Bride

Part one: Through the Looking Glass (No, really—I'm serious. I
went through a freaking looking glass.)

All the hottest Mail
order brides come from Russia.

Russian or somewhere
over in the Ukraine. At least, that’s what it looks like if you’re
surfing the Internet late at night and you run across one of those
awful Bride sites.

All those women are tall and thin with sleek, perfect hair and
sexy smiles. Oh,
and
they’re
all willing to travel halfway around the world to get out of the
crappy place they’re living and start a new life.

Of
course, they might change their minds if they found out they’d have
to travel halfway across the freaking
universe
. That might be a deal breaker. I know it would have
been for me—if anyone had given me a choice.

I
didn’t get a choice though. In fact, I didn’t even know I
was
in
the AMI. (That stands for
the Alien Mate Index—which is the site full of women that Alien
males with a taste for Earth girl coochie can choose from.) Hell, I
didn’t even know there
was
an Alien
Mate Index at all!

Until I got
abducted.

Now, lest you go thinking that I’m some six-foot tall, hot,
blonde supermodel, let me set the record straight. I’m not.
I’m
so
not.

I’m five four in my stocking feet and I have curly auburn hair
that tends to frizz on a humid day. And since I live in
Florida,
every
day is
a humid day.

In
addition to not being tall with sleek blonde hair, I am also
not
thin. That’s okay though—I’m not
afraid to admit I’m plus sized. I own my curves and I love them. I
spent too many years at Weight Watchers counting points until I
felt like a freaking adding machine. Finally I decided, you know
what? Forget it. Me getting skinny just isn’t going to
happen.

Now I live by
the 80/20 rule. Eighty percent of the time I eat healthy and the
other twenty percent I eat a damn donut if I want it. So what if
I’m a size sixteen until the day I die? I can live with that as
long as I don’t have to eat nothing but kale and quinoa the rest of
my life.

I
guess what I’m trying to tell you is that I’m not exactly
mail-order bride material. I’m just an ordinary girl with a little
more junk in the trunk than usual, flyaway red hair, and too many
freckles. I’m
not
the kind
of girl a guy would point to on a website and go—“Her—oh my God,
I’ve got to have
her.”

At least, I didn’t
think so.

Again, until I got
abducted.