A/N: Okay, Brides of Kindred is my guilty pleasure. I do like all the females characters in the books. But, I wanted to pair Sylvan with a different female just for fun and see what happens. I also wanted to make her different from a typical Earth female in the books. I used my imagination with Reka and made her a Kindred born female with a somewhat unusual problem. Sylvan is my favorite Kindred and it probably has something to do with the fangs, lol.

Blood of My Blood

Chapter 1

I

Reka had never been so busy. A shuttle full of wounded Kindred warriors had come into the medical bay. A part of her cool exterior cracked to see the usually stoic Kindred in the visible grip of pain. Their faces were drawn from the effort of keeping the agony that they were experiencing to themselves. Her duty was to assess the incoming. That meant she must decided who needed immediate attention, who could wait to be administered to and, finally, to decide who was past the point of medical intervention. It was an immense responsibility to give to an intern and it was a sign that she had proven herself worthy to Commander Sylvan. She flicked a quick glance to him from across the room. With his pale blue shirt marred by bloodstains, he worked tirelessly on those who were the most injured. His normally impassive face was etched with concentration and strain. He was undeniably Blood Kindred and, like all Kindred, he was over six and a half feet tall with broad shoulders that tapered to a trim set of hips. His Tranq heritage was fully evident with his pale skin, pale blond hair and light blue eyes. Eyes so light in color that they reminded Reka of polished glacial ice.

She turned her own eyes back down to the Kindred male on the gurney in front of her. He was a twin Kindred. With his dark brown hair, she guessed him to be the dark one of the pair. His handsome face was twisted in agony, but his clenched teeth kept him from giving voice to his pain.

"Please, is he going to be alright?" came a rushed voice at her side.

Reke looked up to see another Kindred with blonde hair and soft brown eyes. The light twin of the pair, she guessed. His uniform was grimy and marked by several bloodstains, but he didn't appear to be seriously injured. His concern and love for his brother were plainly evident on his pretty face. The only problem was that he was hovering so closely that he was getting in her way.

"Stand back and allow me to assess his injuries," said Reka, a little too harshly.

The light twin's face faltered and the wounded twin managed to say, "Fast, step back and allow the healer to touch me."

Fast stepped away, but held onto his brother's hand as Reka cut his uniform down the middle and spread it wide. He had several shallow cuts on his torso, but one was jagged and deep. Blood was leaking out of it with a regular flow that needed to be stopped, thought Reka, or else this twin would die on this gurney. She grabbed a seal-tight bandage and ripped open the container. She activated it by pressing it to her forehead, cheeks and lips.

"Drink of this blood and be nourished. His body is thine to heal as thou will. A gift for a gift. A life for a life," whispered Reka.

She placed the bandage over the wound and held it firmly in place. Immediately the bandage molded itself to the size of the wound and sealed it. The injured Kindred had groaned at her touch, but now he lay immobile and was taking shallow breaths. She readied a syringe with painkillers and moved to give him an injection.

"That is not necessary. I can handle the pain," he said through clenched teeth.

"I never thought that you couldn't," replied Reka. "That's why I didn't offer to dull the pain before I treated you. Now, the worst is over and I can ease your burden of pain."

Not giving him another opportunity to object, Reka slid the needle into the tight muscles of his upper arm and injected him.

"The name is Stands Proud," he said. "Or just Proud."

The painkillers would just dull the edge of his pain and would leave him fully alert. She turned to his brother. Kindred Twins were beyond close, so having his brother beside him would keep him calm and stable until Commander Sylvan could see to his injuries. "He will live. You may stay with him," said Reka as she prepared to move on.

"Thank the Goddess," Fast said, in relief.

Reka smiled just a second before stepping away. As she reached another gurney, one of the techs said, "He is already gone. His wounds were too great."

Reka stared at the dead Blood Kindred. His blonde hair was matted with congealing blood that had seeped from a gaping wound in his skull that exposed his brain tissue. Those unique pale blue eyes were wide and unseeing. Reka covered him with a sheet.

"Go in peace, Warrior," she whispered.

Reka forgot her sorrow because there were too many still alive who needed her attention. She moved on to the next. This one was so badly wounded that blood had dripped down from the gurney and was pooling underneath it. He would soon be past the point of helping if his bleeding couldn't get under control. He was a Beast Kindred and his normally tan skin was pale. As she felt for a pulse, his amber colored eyes flickered open. They were a beautiful tawny golden color that still shined brightly and showed that he wasn't going to give up without a fight.

She grabbed a can of sealant foam from the supply tray and, with a quick movement, she ripped off the tatters of his shirt. A huge gash just under his ribs was visible as the culprit responsible for his steady blood loss. She paused. She couldn't seal the wound without being sure that his organs weren't damaged. She looked into his pain-filled and still beautiful eyes.

"I need to probe your injury," she said. "It will hurt."

"Pain means that I still live," he gasped. "Go ahead."

Reka suctioned away some of the blood so that she could see and then thrust her fingers into the wound. The Kindred let out a soft cry and gripped the sides of the gurney. But, he did not move an inch. Her fingers quickly weaved through his slick insides and found no nicked organs. But, she did find a large vein that had been nicked. Lucky for this warrior that it was a vein and not an artery, or else, he would have already bled out. Grabbing a sonic sealer in her hand, she pulled the edges of his wound apart and tried to see through the red, wet mess of his anatomy. Suctioning again, she aimed the device and, with a skillful blast, closed the cut in his vein. It immediately stopped the blood loss and Reka sealed the edges of his wound with the foam. The Kindred lay panting on the table, but he had remained motionless during the entire procedure. He was brave, she thought. She wheeled him farther up the line and prepared to leave, but he weakly grasped her wrist.

"Are you unmated?" he asked.

She gave him a lop-sided smile. Here he was on death's door and he was asking if she was single. Kindred males never change.

"Careful, you don't know the trouble you might be getting yourself into," she cautioned.

"You look worth it to me," he said, slowly caressing her hand.

Reka gently extracted her hand. "You have a bad case of falling for your medic," she said. "It will pass."

She prepared a shot for him and gave him some painkillers, a little more than the one before. Hopefully, he wouldn't remember her through the haze of his pain. His eyes closed in relief as the drug took effect. She moved to the next Kindred. And so the day wore on until every wounded male had been taken care of. The medical bay was littered with empty containers and blood-soaked towels. She moved to help with the cleanup when Commander Sylvan appeared before her.

"Commander?"

His eyes seemed to rove over her and Reka was sure that he somehow knew just how weak and tired she was.

"You can take your leave, now," he said.

"Oh, but there still is so much to finish," replied Reka.

"The techs and I can finish up," he replied. "Everything is under control."

She looked up into the pale, blue eyes and knew that he had already made up his mind. He was several inches taller than her, but she was six feet all. Tall for a human, but she wasn't exactly a human. Her father was a Blood Kindred and it was probably why she had an affinity for Sylvan. Her mother had been called as a bride from New Zealand and her background was just as exotic. Maori and Welsh blood had flowed through her mother's veins. She herself was the rarest of the rare, a female child born to a Kindred warrior and his mate. It happens in less than five percent of all Kindred pregnancies.

"Yes, Commander," said Reka as she moved to leave the medical bay.

But, Sylvan's voice followed after her. "You did a good job with the wounded."

That was high praise indeed from the usually stoic Sylvan and Reka flashed a smile of pride before turning to leave.

II

Commander Sylvan watched his intern pass out the automatic doors with a whoosh of air. She had worked diligently without even taking a break. She was extremely intelligent and skilled and she was probably the best intern that he had ever been given. She was also good with the patients. Her calm demeanor and gentle hands did more to relax the frightened patients than any amount of drugs. The fact that she was a pretty female also took their minds off their injuries. And that was part of his problem with her. He understood why she had requested to join the ranks of the Kindred. She was after all a Kindred herself. We were her kind and she did belong with us, he thought. It's just those exotic looks of hers were distracting. And her unmated status. But, you could do something about that, came a tiny voice in his head. Sylvan tried to banish that thought. It was highly inappropriate, plus he was her superior. Don't forget your vow to remain single. Unbidden the image of Feenah popped into his mind. Once upon a time, he had been so captivated by her cold Tranq beauty. He could see her pale blonde hair and pale blue eyes that were so like his own in his mind's eye.

"I'm sorry, Sylvan," she had said as she broke his heart and refused to be his bride. Even after all these years, the pain was still there. But, he had noticed that the wound wasn't quite as painful as it used to be. When had that happened? Maybe, when the lovely Reka had joined his staff, came that voice again in his head, Reka with the lovely dark, gray blue eyes that were so unlike his own.

III

Reka quickly moved to her quarters. She had a small, but functional space. There weren't any Kindred females for her to bunk with, so she was given her own place. In fact, the only other females on this ship were all the brides of Kindred males. Since this ship patrolled the sector of space around Earth, most of the brides were human girls. Sort of like her, she thought. As she stepped out of the shower and examined herself in the mirror, she realized that no one would probably mistake her for a human female. She had gotten her height from the Tranq heritage of her Blood Kindred father. Her frame was slender in the manner of Tranq females and, though she didn't have the musculature of her father, she was surprisingly strong. Much stronger than a human female, she thought. Her skin was a creamy pale color. But, there, her human mother's genes had manifested. She had dark honey colored hair that was many shades darker than the platinum color of blonde that was common to Blood Kindred males. She stared in the mirror at her dark, blue eyes. So, dark that sometimes people didn't notice that they were blue at all. Like the deep sea of your mother's world, her father had said. So appropriate he had said since her mother's people came from an island that they had crossed a treacherous sea to find.

Reka opened her mouth and removed the dental appliance from her front teeth. She examined her teeth and thought that this was part of the reason that she didn't date or wasn't interested in finding a male. She had fangs. Short ones, but still fangs. But, they weren't like a male Kindred's fangs. Male Blood Kindred had a double set of fangs located where a human's canine teeth would be. Reka only had a single fang where her canine teeth were. Like a regular vampire, she thought, with a shiver. Since a female child born to a Kindred couple was so rare, no one had seemed to know if it was normal or not. The fangs had a purpose in male mating rituals. But, females weren't supposed to do the biting. The very notion of a female with fangs was an abomination to many Kindred. Some of the relatives on her father's side of the family, in fact, had wanted her fangs removed. But, her parents wouldn't hear of such a thing. Still, their daughter had to fit in to a society that might reject her. So, they had decided to conceal her difference behind a dental appliance. After so many years of hiding her unusual teeth, Reka felt insecure without it. In adulthood, she had considered having them pulled out and every once in a while the thought would enter her mind again. Yet, that thought left her so conflicted. She felt that neither human nor Kindred culture would accept her difference. But, those fangs were still a part of her and she knew that they had surely shaped the person she had grown into being.

Kindred born females were very rare and most female decided to serve the Goddess in some function. All Kindred worshipped The Mother of all Life and she had been taught her mysteries by her father. But, her mother had also taught Reka about her own Earth religion. Though the religions of her parents were different and seemed to worship a different deity, Reka suspected that they had much in common. Like most children of mixed parentage, she learned how to straddle the divide between the two cultures. Reka had not wanted to become a priestess for the Goddess, so she had chosen a field that allowed her to immerse herself in her love of science. She was still a healer and, perhaps, the Goddess had influenced her choice, after all.

Reka gave one last look at the triangular points of her fangs. Their length was barely past that of her other teeth and they weren't sharp enough to easily pierce skin. Supposedly, a Blood Kindred's fangs only grew and sharpened when he found a mate that he wanted to bond with. So, stay away from boys, and you should be fine, she told herself. But, that was getting harder and harder to do.

With a sigh, Reka left her bathroom and moved into her bed. She snuggled with her tharp and immediately felt herself cocooned in warmth. It was a pale lavender color and it had been with her since she was a child. Tharps were native to Tranq Prime, the homeland of her father. They resembled a blanket but could change form to almost any manner of clothing. They were also live creatures that imprinted on only one person and were unable to survive without their host. They multiplied a person's body heat and provided warmth to their hosts. A very delicious warmth, thought Reka, as she absently stroked the edge of her tharp like the old friend it was. Before she closed her eyes, her thought returned to the brave Kindred males that she had tended to earlier. She said a brief prayer for the living and for the dead. She closed her eyes. And for Commander Sylvan, she added. His eyes always held a trace of sorrow. Someday, she would find out why.