Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 67092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67092 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 335(@200wpm)___ 268(@250wpm)___ 224(@300wpm)
Kara couldn’t help the small sigh that escaped her lips. I’ll probably never see him again.
Then Kaleb’s hand was on her elbow.
“Come on.” Her twin’s voice was low and tight. “Let’s go home.”
Five
“What were you thinking, Kara?” Her father ran a hand through his short blond hair, his eyes filled with concern. He wasn’t shouting at her—there was honest bewilderment in his pale blue eyes, so much like her own.
“Father, I…” Kara started and then trailed off—she honestly didn’t know how to explain. They were in Sylvan’s study with the door shut, just the two of them and she felt like a little girl all over again, in trouble with her father.
“You’ve been perfectly behaved all your life and then I get two formal complaints about you in one day.” Sylvan shook his head. “You’re far past the age of adolescent angst and rebellion. Yet the Fr’Enson elders said that you laughed at them and mocked them openly. Then directly afterwards you go and risk your life by climbing up the side of Rainbow Mountain with a very unsuitable male. Why, Kara?”
“First of all, I didn’t mock anyone,” Kara said, finding her voice at last. “I only laughed because I couldn’t help it—they were all puffed up and poking each other with their…anyway, they looked ridiculous,” she ended lamely and cleared her throat. “But I didn’t mean to insult them.”
“All right.” Her father nodded thoughtfully. “And the other stunt you pulled?”
“It wasn’t a ‘stunt’,” Kara protested. “I’ve always wanted to know what the mechanisms inside Rainbow Mountain look like—how they work. You know that—I remember asking you when you took Kaleb and me there when we were little.”
Sylvan sighed and ran a hand through his hair again.
“Yes, I remember,” he said reluctantly. “You always did want to know how everything worked. I remember when you took apart the chronometer your mother gave you for your tenth birthday—how upset she was. She thought you were being destructive but I told her it was just your natural curiosity.”
“Exactly.” Kara felt a surge of hope that her father would understand. “That was all it was—curiosity.”
“It was more than that, Kara.” Sylvan spoke in a low, gentle voice. “It wasn’t just the fact that you climbed up Rainbow Mountain—it was who you climbed it with.”
“Raakshas isn’t a bad male,” Kara protested. “Just because he’s a Y’lyn Kindred—”
“He’s an Unbondable.” Her father’s voice went suddenly harsh. “He can’t form a permanent bond with anyone—he’ll only hurt you, Kara.”
“It was nothing like that,” Kara protested. “Raak is just a friend.”
Sylvan frowned. “I know males like that and friendship isn’t what they’re after.”
He thinks Raak wants to change the color of my eyes, Kara thought and felt a mortified blush creep into her cheeks.
“Father, please.”
“Sweetheart…” Sylvan sighed, putting a hand on her shoulder. “I know you’ve been having some…problems lately. But you’re a beautiful, special female. You don’t have to stoop to consorting with a male who only wants sexual favors. You’re better than that.”
“Goddess!” Kara felt ready to burst with embarrassment. Her father never spoke to her about these kinds of things. He had left “the talk” to her mother who had spoken to Kara about the birds and the bees and her changing body years before. But now her father went on relentlessly, as though he was determined to have his say.
“I should have spoken to you before this,” he said, studying her face, which felt as hot as an oven. “I did speak to your brother about it but I didn’t know…exactly how to broach the subject with you.”
“What…what subject?” Kara’s mouth was dry and she wished she could sink through the ground and disappear. Anything to end this embarrassment.
“It’s about your fangs,” her father said heavily. “Sometimes when they start growing in they can give you…urges that are hard to control. And you might feel—”
“I don’t want to talk about this!” Kara burst out, yanking away from his hand on her shoulder. “I shouldn’t have to. I shouldn’t have these stupid fangs in the first place—everything always comes back to my fangs!”
“Well, sweetheart…you’re unique.” Sylvan raised his hands, palm up. “No one has ever heard of a Blood Kindred female with fangs before. Personally, I believe it’s an effect of the way your mother’s human DNA mixed with my Kindred DNA.”
“I don’t care why I have them! I just wish they were gone. Or I could…could shrink them somehow.” Kara felt tears stinging her eyes.
“Don’t wish to be someone you aren’t, my daughter.” Her father’s voice was low and grave. “You are beautiful and perfect and precious—so precious to me and your mother. You are exactly as the Goddess intended you to be.”
“Then why does everyone talk about me?” Kara burst out. She remembered the hurtful words of the women at the Rainbow Mountain—the way they’d talked about her being “deformed.” And the way Jason had broken up with her—the way every male she knew looked at her like there was something wrong with her. Everyone but Raakshas had looked at her that way.