Keeper of the Flame Read online

  Kendall let her eyes roam from his exhausted face to the crying children he held lovingly on his chest. “What’s your name?”

  “Flame. My name is Flame.”

  Kendall let her hand linger on the baby boy. “Get some sleep now, Flame. You’re going to need your strength. Your children are safe here for now.”

  “Yes Mistress.” The lines bracketing his lips fading as the tension eased slowly from around his bruised-looking eyes. His face eased into a peaceful countenance as sleep overcame him.

  * * * * *

  The afterbirth came out in a neat little ball under Kendall's expert manipulation. With gentle fingers she massaged where his fundis would be if he had been a woman. The tiny placenta was expelled through the birth...slit.

  Kendall tossed it and the sheet that covered him into a red hazardous waste bag that she had brought home from the hospital. They were the perfect size and color for her guest bathroom. That bag she hid in a thick dark contractor bag that she used to clean up garden waste, then the whole bundle went neatly into the garbage can out back. As bloodstained as it was, the sheet was a total loss, and as for the rest, well, it had served its purpose. No need to have any messy reminders around the house. If his doctor wanted a peek at it, he could go out back and dig it out himself.

  Since the children had grown quiet, Kendall washed them and placed them in dresser drawers she had lined with pillows and a few sheets. She even sacrificed a few more of her sheets so that she could diaper the tired, red-faced babies. Then she did what she could for the new mom.

  He had begun to shake uncontrollably, his teeth chattering as his body was wracked with chills. Kendall placed a hand upon his brow, noting with some relief that there was no developing fever. It just wouldn't do to have him come down with childbirth-fever after this miraculous delivery. Most women did this after giving birth though no one knew just exactly why. Kendall noted his condition and vowed to keep an eye on him. There was nothing else that she could do. Using warm water and a mild soap, she began to clean him up as best as she could.

  He was made like any other man—a trifle on the large side, but normal. The slit that opened in his belly, his birthing pouch, had closed up tight, and the seam line was lost in the line of red hair that arrowed down from his navel. She couldn’t tell that it had ever existed. His stomach was flat as a board. Women should be so lucky!

  Shaking her head in awe, Kendall covered the sleeping man and went to make herself a pot of coffee. Her mind still struggled to accept the fact that she had just acted the part of midwife for a man.

  * * * * *

  As Flame drifted in a light but exhausted sleep, his frightened mind urged him to rise and flee from the house of this strange woman and take his children to safety. But his body refused to cooperate.

  And then too, he had felt almost safe as soon as Kendall had decided to aid him. He had never thought to feel this way, especially the presence of a woman.

  But that was dangerous. Kendall could behave like the very women he was running from. The best thing for all would be for him to gather his strength and depart at once. Unfortunately, his body was failing him.

  The warm water that she used to cleanse his sore body combined with the natural fatigue of child birth all helped cause his thoughts to spin chaotically before the relief of deep sleep finally overrode all else.

  * * * * *

  Flame jumped, sucking in a deep breath as Kendall shook his shoulder. “Hey, wake up!” a soft voice commanded.

  Flame fought to open his eyes and was almost frightened by the strange hazy vision before him. He blinked several times. Slowly his sleep clouded vision cleared to see the woman, Kendall, rocking his daughter in her arms.

  The woman's skin was the golden brown color of the finest Tarcas stones on his planet and her eyes were of a color to match—very expressive, very beautiful, and very rare.

  “What am I supposed to feed these babies?” she asked. “They have to eat.”

  “How am I supposed to know?” What did a man know of the care and feeding of a child? His duty was to bear them. His mind reeled in a shock so strong that it erased every ounce of sleep in his body. He was so very ill-prepared for this aspect of fatherhood. Would his children suffer for his ignorance? What was he to do? “What do you feed your children?”

  “I don't have any children and if I did, I would breast-feed.”

  Surprised, he struggled to sit up, despite his sore stomach. “Breast-feed? Breasts do that?” He eyed her bust with avid curiosity and quite a bit of wonder.

  Kendall stared at the man. She tried to reason through his responses, only winding up more confused. “Okay. Where do you come from? Who can I call to get you some help?”

  Panic shot through him. “Call no one. I will leave you shortly. I thank you for your assistance, but I must go.”

  “I don't think so!” Her stomach clenched into a knot of anxiety as she pictured him with these newborn babies, collapsing in the street. And even worse, what if he planned on abandoning the children here, with her? “You are going to give me some answers, mister!”

  Flame froze and dropped his gaze to the floor. “As you wish, Mistress Kendall Moore.”

  Kendall blinked at his quick change from worried, harried father to almost subservience. Had she done that? Who was he, and what was going on here? “Look, Flame. I only want to help you. Where are you from? Why were you pregnant? Where is the fathe...uh, mother of these children?”

  While there had been incredible advances in medicine and her hospital had always been a leader in research and development, nothing about a pregnant man had ever popped up on the gossip mill. Maybe a government experiment? But then, the government would have killed him before letting a prized specimen like this escape and possibly end up in the hands of an enemy.

  Victim of radiation? Nope, no loss of hair, glowing blood, missing teeth or any lesions that might tell if he was radioactive.

  Then it hit her. The lights on the water, a pregnant man, a pouch that had disappeared as if it had never existed moments after giving birth! There could only be one explanation. She gaped at him. “You're an alien, aren't you?”

  He raised his head and she saw defiant silver sparkles flashing in his eyes. He wouldn't melt the woman who had delivered his kids, would he?

  Then the defiance was gone, and the sparkles faded from his eyes, leaving her wondering if she had imagined them there. “I seem to have need of your assistance once again, Mistress.”

  “Kendall. Call me Kendall.” She gathered her courage again as she looked at the child she cradled in her arms. “Where in the universe are you from?”

  “Two-hundred light years from your sun. I left my world looking for a safe haven, but I fear they have found me.”

  “Who?” Was this man some type of intergalactic space criminal?

  “The Execution Squad. With my mistress dead, there is no longer a use for her children.”

  “What?” Kendall shrieked, the outburst startling his daughter in that shocking, jerky way that all newborns have.

  “I will explain.” He raised his arms for his crying daughter. Looking her over with liquid swimming in his gray eyes, he placed the infant on his shoulder where she instantly quieted.

  Kendall was speechless. Execution Squads were way out of her jurisdiction, but then so were pregnant men. She shook her head ruefully. All of those “damns” she'd spat like gunfire had finally come back to haunt her. She looked up and saw that he was waiting for her attention. Once he saw he had it, he began to speak.

  “On my world, Testrious, the women rule. The men had been captured and forced to labor for the women long before I came to be. Our role is worker, child-bearer and protector. We have no control over our lives. We work because our bodies are built for it. We bear children because the Matriarch decided that men would bear up better under the strain. Some of us were herded up and given the honor of being altered. They said that we should be proud of this because we were sp
ecial.” He snorted derisively at this reasoning.

  “I was chosen because of my hair. It is considered special on my world. Usually, I would have served as a member of the Brotherhood, but the woman who wanted me was head of one of the five ruling houses. My family”—the word sounded ugly on his lips—“decided to make an alliance. So, I was sold to increase my mother's power. I was taken to my new life-mate and impregnated.” He paused for a moment and a tortured expression crossed his face.

  “In the beginning, there were five original ruling houses, and then my Mistress died. After scanning revealed that I carried a boy child, my mother claimed my Mistress's house and then there were four ruling houses on Testrious. Later I discovered the girl hiding behind her brother.” He smiled at the irony of a male protecting a female even before birth. “I knew I had to escape. By their own laws, the laws of the Matriarch, my daughter would be my Mistress' heir. My family did not want to give up the properties and power that came with my mating.”

  “I discovered their plans shortly after someone, a spy no doubt, told of my secret. So I ran. The Execution Squad will kill me and my children when they find me. They managed to track me to this planet and this area. I evaded them for now, but they will find me. They are ruthless.”

  He turned to her, his voice urgent. “I must leave soon or they will find me here and then you also will be in danger. I tell you this, Mistress, because you have ordered me to do so. You must be on guard at all times. Tell no one you have seen me. I will disappear from your life.”

  Stunned, Kendall stared at the picture the father and child made sitting wrapped in sheets on her floral print couch. “Where will you go?”

  “I do not know.”

  Before Kendall could gather her wits enough to respond to him, the second baby began to cry. Reacting to the distressed cry, Kendall reached for the child. “Before we do anything, they ought to be fed and named.” Her voice was rather shaky, and she cleared her throat several times before turning to Flame.

  “Ember. Her name is Ember. And his is Spark.”

  “I detect a theme here,” Kendall mused, though inside, her mind was blown away by his words.

  He looked up as he answered. “My family are known as Keepers of the Flame. It is a talent that we of the red hair possess.”

  Shrugging, Kendall rose to her feet and made her way to her immaculate country-style kitchen. What did little fire-keeping babies eat anyway? Ever practical, she decided it was easier to cope with the children's needs than to try and deal with his story, especially when the proof was wailing in her arms.

  “Ah, Flame?” she called over her shoulder. “We need to feed these children. What do the women at home use? Think!”

  “I do not know,” he replied with a worried frown. Spark had now joined Ember and together they continued to wail, almost in harmony.

  Kendall eyed her counters full of useful gadgets, but found none to aid in her quest. Finally, she opened a cabinet and spotted salvation. It came in the form of a few starter soy formula kits that she had gotten from work for a friend. At the last minute, her friend had decided to nurse, so Kendall had no use for the kits, yet was reluctant to throw out food that was still good. She had never had to prepare formula for her work, but after quickly reading the instructions, Kendall soon had two bottles ready for the children. She made her way back to the living room and handed Flame one of the little four-ounce bottles before seating herself on a chair.

  “Food goes in here,” she instructed as she carefully placed the square tip of the bottle into Spark's mouth. Instantly, his cries stopped as he latched on to the latex nipple.

  “It's feeding time, Papa.” She nodded to Ember's open mouth. “Remember to support her head, neck, and back.”

  Flame quickly caught on to this method of feeding his daughter. She immediately quieted down to the serious business of eating. Flame looked amazed as his daughter savaged the latex nipple the kit had provided. “And your women voluntarily do this to their breasts?” he asked as if only a fool would put themselves through this torture.

  Unable to help it, Kendall burst out laughing. It did seem a little masochistic but nature had intended the ultimate usage of breasts as feedbags. She motioned Flame to hold Ember's head a bit higher while Spark just as violently consumed his first meal. Soon both babies were full, content and blessedly asleep.

  Kendall rose from where she had placed a sleeping Spark in his makeshift bed, then sat beside Flame. “I want you to come with me on my trip, Flame.” When he started to protest, she cut him off. She couldn’t in all good conscience send them off to die in a strange place, all alone.

  “You have no idea what you are going to do next. You're very weak and your children are too young for you to start wandering around lost and alone. If the Execution Squad is still after you, you need a guide. I had planned to leave the area anyway. I was going off to the mountains tomorrow for a vacation.”

  There was so much at stake here. She paused for a minute and stared into his eyes trying to convey her feelings to him. She needed him to understand the importance of her decision. “I want you to come with me. It'll be much safer than hiding here and you can have some time to decide your next move. But you need to get away if they can track you to here.”

  Flame considered her words. She was a woman, but still, she had delivered his babies, his new reasons for existence. He looked at his children, safe, fed and content. He would sacrifice anything to keep them that way. He had never loved anything more than the two babies sleeping in their makeshift beds. If the woman would help him he would give her his very soul. “I would be grateful to you for any help, Mistress.”

  “Kendall. Call me Kendall.”

  All too soon he would have to face the dawn and the problems that it brought with the new day. Flame closed his eyes and let sleep overtake him. For now, at least, he and his children were safe.

  * * * * *

  Kendall stood by her bedroom window and contemplated the stars. There were people living out there! Real people with real problems and real lives. People so similar to mankind here on Earth, yet so different.

  She turned slowly, making her way to the canopied bed, thinking about the joys and sorrows experienced by this other culture. It was almost too farfetched to believe, but it was true. She looked around the sanctuary of her bedroom and wondered what Flame's people would make of it. Her bedroom, a contrast to her dogmatic nature, was an Arabian paradise. The sheer white canopy that draped her black iron bed was reminiscent of the tents used by great Bedouin warriors as they wandered the mysterious deserts of their homeland. The walls were painted a pale peach color that picked up the sun's rays in the early morning and transformed the room into a glowing desert landscape.

  Other than the bed, the only pieces of furniture were a cedar chest at its end and a full-sized standing mirror draped with dozens of colorful scarves. As she lay there in the midst of all that was feminine, she thought on everything that Flame had revealed.

  A whole planet ruled by women. Men giving birth. The power to soar through time and space. What marvels they could teach my people, she thought with excitement, estimating the possibilities.

  As she drifted off into a deep slumber, the soft sound of her door opening caused her eyes to pop open.

  “Flame?” she asked as she struggled to sit up. “Is something wrong? Is it one of the children?”

  “No Mistress.” His wonderfully deep voice almost purred as he stepped into the room.

  “What's wrong? You shouldn't be out of bed!”

  “I have yet to thank you properly, Mistress. This is a grave offense.”

  “You thanked me once, Flame. That is enough.” Kendall sighed as she relaxed back into her bedsheets. “You really scared me.”

  “I wish only to please you.” He stepped further into the room, leaving the shadows that hid his form and Kendall caught her breath at his beauty.

  “Oh my!”

  Flame was totally naked.

>   The moonlight toyed with the shadows, all that alternately covered and revealed him as he walked towards her.

  His bright red hair draped across his shoulders and framed the massive chest that heaved with his deep even breaths.

  His eyes glittered, the bright red sparks growing in intensity as he approached the edge of the bed. His stiff cock glistened in the darkness, clear drops of pre-cum on its tip shining as it brushed against his navel.

  “For you pleasure, Mistress,” he purred as he ran his large hands over his well defined chest to his thighs, then jerked the covers away from her nude body. “All for your pleasure.”

  Before she could protest, Flame was between her legs, forcing them open so that he could explore her suddenly wet womanhood.

  “Wait!”

  But before she could protest further, one large rough finger was running across her rapidly swelling clit as his face tilted up to hers, an expression of extreme pleasure crossed his handsome face.

  “Flame!” She gasped as she tossed her head back, groaning out her passion as she fought to stay somewhat upright. She wanted to watch what was going on.

  “I thank thee, Mistress,” he breathed as his fingers parted her wet slick folds to expose her engorged pink opening. “And I take thee.”

  “Flame!” she groaned as she shuddered with need.

  She was one to enjoy sexual contact, but this was amazing. The man but touched her and she was wet and ready to go. Fire coursed through her body, teasing her nerves as she peaked up and saw him lower that fiery red head towards her.

  First his breath touched her, hot and damp, grazed against the moisture that was pouring from her body. Then there was the lightest brush of his tongue, as if he were testing for flavor.