Switched: Brides of the Kindred 17 (8 page)

Dios, how do men walk with these things?
She felt awkward but hoped she looked
normal as she stopped in front of the woman.

“
I
have been waiting for twenty-three meems.” Xirnah tapped a small,
dull metal time piece that was embedded like a jewel in a
plain-looking ring on her right middle finger. “I was about to
leave, and would have been well within my State-mandated rights to
do so.”

Frankie looked her up and down. So this was Kerov’s dream
woman. Well, she was certainly
pretty
enough. In fact, she could have been a supermodel back on
Earth. She had high cheekbones sharp enough to cut glass and her
platinum blonde hair was swirled like an ice cream cone on top of
her head in an elegant up-do. The white coat was cinched around a
tiny waist and the rest of her figure was stick-thin—from her
prominent collar bones to her bird-like wrists and ankles. Even her
earlobes looked skinny.

But Frankie didn’t
have long to size up the woman she was supposed to have sex with
because Kerov was already talking in her mind.

“
Apologize,”
he ordered.
“Tell her you were unavoidably delayed at the base by a
superior.”

Frankie opened her mouth to repeat what he’d said but somehow
it didn’t sound right. “Unavoidably delayed” sounded like the kind
of excuse you’d give to a business associate—not a lover. And
treating Xirnah like they were just doing a business transaction
was
not
going to make her more
inclined to forgive and forget and get busy. At least, Frankie knew
it wouldn’t have worked on
her.
She tried to think how Carlos had sweet-talked her, back when
their marriage had still meant something.

“
Hey, baby,” she said casually, coming up and putting an arm
around the other woman’s shoulders. “Sorry I’m late—I got held up
at work. But you know I was thinking about you all the way home,
hoping you’d wait for me.”

“
What?” The blonde woman looked at her, wide-eyed. She had
very dark eyes that looked almost purple to Frankie but maybe it
was just the light from the weird blue hovering
streetlights.

“
I
said I missed you and I’m sorry I’m late,” Frankie flashed the
other woman what she hoped was a charming and contrite smile. “You
look beautiful tonight. Why don’t we go in and get out of the
cold?”

“
What are you saying?”
Kerov spoke up inside her head.
“Why are you speaking to her like
that?”

Frankie wanted to tell him she was being charming and to leave
her alone because it was working. At least, it
seemed
to be because Xirnah was coming with her up the
short flight of steps to the door of the gray brownstone-type house
she’d been waiting in front of.

Reaching the door,
Frankie had a moment of panic when she realized she didn’t have the
key. And a quick check of Kerov’s pockets revealed that he didn’t
either. How in the hell was she going to get them into the house?
Then her eyes fell on a black rectangular pad just like the kind by
the turnstiles in the subway station. It was mounted by the side of
the door, about waist height. Saying a quick prayer of thanks,
Frankie pressed her hand to the pad and watched as it was briefly
outlined in green. There was a soft clicking sound and the door
swung open to reveal a small, plain entryway.

“
Ladies first.” Frankie stepped to one side and gestured with
one hand, indicating that Xirnah should precede her into the
house.

Giving her a
doubtful look, Xirnah walked inside. She was wearing white boots
which clicked on the black floor. Frankie followed the other woman,
hoping she was doing all right. Kerov hadn’t said anything else so
maybe everything was okay.

Once inside the dark
house, Frankie felt for the light switch. Where was the damn thing?
And how was she supposed to—

“
What are you doing?”
Kerov demanded.
“Why don’t you illuminate the overhead
glows?”

“
How?”
Frankie
demanded, forgetting she wasn’t supposed to ask questions out
loud.

“
How what?” Xirnah asked, frowning at her.

“
How…uh, how have you been since the last time we, um, got
together?” Frankie said quickly as she continued to fumble on the
dark wall. Where the hell did they put the switches?

“
Just say ‘Lights’ in a loud voice,”
Kerov told her.

“
Lights!” Frankie exclaimed, her deep, masculine voice ringing
in the dark space. It was so loud it scared her and she
jumped—
Dios
it was strange to hear
such a deep voice coming out when she spoke!

At once the whole
house was illuminated with a harsh, glaring light that reminded her
of the glow of fluorescents.

“
I’ve been well, thank you,” Xirnah said stiffly.

“
You’ve been…?” It took Frankie a minute to understand that the
woman was answering her earlier question. Damn,
it was confusing to try and carry on
two conversations at once! Especially when one of them was private
and only in her head.

“
I
said I’ve been well. Now can we
please
get on with this?” Xirnah snapped.

Well she might be pretty but she’s kind of a bitch,
Frankie thought,
frowning. But still, she had promised to do her best with Kerov’s
girlfriend and she didn’t want to screw things up. She would just
have to try twice as hard.

“
Let me take your coat,” she offered, reaching for Xirnah’s
shoulders to try and help her out of the white coat she was
wearing.

“
Stop it!” Xirnah shied away from her hands as though her touch
was poison. “At
least
wait
until we’ve sat on the sensu-chairs a few meems! You know I can’t
do this without proper stimulation!”

“
Sorry.” Frankie felt like she was making a mess of this but
she didn’t know how to make things better. “Um, would you like a
drink?”

“
A
drink of what?” Xirnah demanded, her skinny nostrils
wrinkling.

“
Um…” Frankie looked around. Did Kerov keep any wine or beer
or anything alcoholic that might help lighten the mood?

“
What are you doing?”
Kerov exclaimed inside her head.
“You’re making her even more angry
than she already was! And why did you try to take off her sex
garment? That is against the protocol.”

“
I’m doing the best I can!” Frankie hissed. “Now will you just
shut up and let me do this?”

Xirnah glared at her. “How
dare
you tell me to shut up, you…you
Kindred.”

She used the word as though it was a curse and Frankie knew at
once she was in big trouble. She took a deep breath, trying to
think of how to salvage the situation. She hoped that Kerov would
offer some advice but he was silent now. Either he was sulking
because he thought she was ruining things or else he was afraid if
he talked to her she would talk back again. Frankie took a deep
breath, she
had
to do
better!

“
I’m sorry, baby,” she said, stepping forward and putting a
hand lightly on the other woman’s thin shoulder which was strangely
chilly to touch. “I didn’t mean that
you
should shut up. I was, uh, talking to myself. I was…trying to,
uh, psych myself up for our…our date.”

“
Our
date?
You
mean our State-mandated sexual encounter?” Xirnah raised one
white-blonde eyebrow. Her lashes were the same colorless shade of
white which had the effect of making her look almost like she had
no lashes or brows at all.

“
Exactly.” Frankie decided to go back to the script Kerov had
given her. “Our State-mandated sexual encounter. Hey, why don’t we
go sit on the sensu-chairs for a little while?” she said
soothingly. “I think that would be nice, don’t you?”

Xirnah sniffed. “I
suppose that would be acceptable.”

“
Great, uh…” Frankie suddenly realized that she had no idea
what the sensu-chairs looked like or even what they did. “Ladies
first,” she said again, making a sweeping gesture with one
hand.

Giving her another
strange look, Xirnah stepped past her, out of the small entryway
and through an archway into a larger room.

Frankie looked
around the new room surreptitiously, wondering where the
sensu-chairs were. The room had a plain black floor and white walls
and appeared to be bachelor-neat—almost bare.

There was a single
holo-picture of a Kindred couple hanging on one wall. The man
looked enough like Kerov that Frankie thought it must be his
father. The woman staring lovingly up into his face must be his
mother. Well, at least he had a picture of his parents—that was
nice. But there were literally no other decorations.

One entire wall
appeared to be a huge TV-type screen, very much liked the ones
she’d seen down in the subway station. There were two pointed,
conical blue things positioned in front of it that were about as
high as her waist but she didn’t see any kind of chairs to sit in.
She wanted desperately to ask Kerov what to do but just then Xirnah
walked over to one of the blue conical things and positioned her
bottom right over the point.

Dios—she’s going to impale herself on that thing!
Frankie thought. Aloud
she said, “Hey, you can’t—”

“
Can’t what?” Xirnah asked, looking at her as she sank down
onto the cone-shaped thing. Immediately it melted around her,
forming a kind of armchair that appeared to be supporting her
perfectly.

“
Can’t get any prettier,” Frankie said, thinking fast. “I
mean, you’re more beautiful every time I see you.”

Xirnah gave her a
withering look.

“
There is no need for such compliments as you well know. I am
obligated to be here whether I like it or not. You do not have to
flatter me in order to get me to have relations with you.” She
frowned. “And you’ve never spoken like this before.”

“
She’s right,”
Kerov said inside her head.
“Cease this useless flattery. You’re only making her
suspicious.”

Frankie started to tell him that some girls actually
liked
compliments but she caught herself in
time and didn’t answer out loud. Instead she said to
Xirnah,

“
I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I know the, uh, State
put us together but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re very
beautiful. And if I’ve never told you that before, well, maybe I
should have.” There—take that, Kerov!

“
Well…” Xirnah was giving her an appraising look now—almost as
though she was seeing Kerov for the first time. And she certainly
was, Frankie thought, at least
this
version of Kerov. “You’re very courteous tonight,” she said at
last. “Very…attentive.”

Ah-ha—now they were
getting somewhere! Frankie felt a surge of triumph.

“
Well, you’re worth attending to, baby,” she said, smiling at
Xirnah.

“
Thank you.” A soft pink blush actually rose on the other
woman’s pale cheeks. “Why do you not join me on the sensu-chairs
and let us watch erotic entertainment together?” She gestured at
the huge wall-sized TV screen and gave Frankie a small
smile.

“
That sounds great.” Frankie smiled back. “You pick the
program, okay?” she said courteously. Because, of course, she had
no clue how to turn on the enormous screen.

“
With pleasure.” Xirnah snapped her fingers twice and the
screen blinked into life. A woman was on the screen saying
something while a list of numbers scrolled behind her—a stock
report of some kind?

Before Frankie could
figure it out, Xirnah made a waving motion with one hand. The
screen flickered and the scene jumped to some kind of race with
several men balanced on top of each other’s shoulders while the
bottom one rode a weird motorcycle without wheels, which seemed to
hover quickly through the air.

“
Ugh,
sports.”
Xirnah waved again and there was a program with a man and
woman staring into each other’s eyes and singing loudly as they did
a complicated dance in tall wooden stilts which were strapped to
their feet.

“
Honestly,” Xirnah muttered. “Why is it so hard to find decent
programming?”

Another wave
produced a show where two women appeared to be riding mechanical
ostriches (or something that looked like ostriches anyway) through
the desert and carrying a picnic basket between them. Suddenly the
top of the basket popped open and a furry creature that looked like
a rainbow-colored teddy bear stuck its head out and began to sing
in a voice so deep it would have put James Earl Jones to shame.

The women screamed
and dropped the basket whereupon the bear promptly climbed up one
of the mechanical ostrich-things and sat on its back, behind the
woman riding it. Something unrolled from between its legs and
Frankie realized it was the rainbow bear’s penis—but it was four or
five feet long.

The bear—which was
still singing in a ludicrously deep voice—used its ridiculously
long rainbow schlong as a lasso which it threw around the other
ostrich’s neck. Both women screamed again and jumped off their
mechanical mounts which galloped away, side by side taking the
singing, penis-wielding, rainbow bear with them.