“In where? What are you talking about?” Her voice sounded terrible—so hoarse and deep. Was she getting a cold? That was all she needed just when the baby was about to arrive.
“In there,” the person beside her in bed said. “In my body.”
“What? What are you talking about, ‘your body’?”
Liv looked down at herself. Even in the dim lighting it occurred to her that something was wrong. Then she realized what it was—her stomach was completely flat.
“Oh my God!” She began feeling her abdomen frantically. “The baby? Where’s the baby?”
“It’s in me! I can feel it kicking—ow!”
Liv looked at the ceiling and bellowed, “Lights, bright!”
The resulting brilliance nearly blinded her but when her eyes finally adjusted she looked at the person who was sharing the bed with her and saw…herself.
“Who…who are you?” she demanded, staring at the doppelganger.
“It’s me—Baird,” the person who looked exactly like her said. “And you’re me—just look at yourself, Lilenta.”
The use of his pet nickname for her finally convinced Liv that it really was her husband in her body. But then if he was in her, where was she?
She was almost afraid to look down at herself in the bright light but she had no choice. Reluctantly she pushed back the covers and looked down the length of her tall, muscular body. Broad shoulders, washboard abs, and…
“Oh my God,” she said aloud. “I’ve got a cock. And it’s hard.” She looked up at Baird. “I’m you.”
“And I’m you,” he whispered and burst into tears.
“Oh no—no, don’t do that! It’s all right…everything will be all right,” Liv tried to comfort him by clumsily putting one long, muscular arm around his slender shoulders. It felt weird to touch herself from the outside but no matter what was going on, she couldn’t stand to see her mate so upset.
“I…I’m sorry,” Baird gasped at last. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me. I can’t…can’t seem to stop crying.”
“It’s the hormones,” Liv said, realizing it was true. “You’re super pregnant, which makes you super emotional.”
“But I don’t understand—how did this happen? Is it some kind of bad dream?”
“If it is, we’re both having it.” Liv hopped out of bed. “Come on, let’s see if we can get some help. Maybe Sylvan will know what’s going on. Uh…this isn’t some kind of a weird Kindred thing, is it?”
“Of course not!” Baird was trying to get out of bed too but in the extremely pregnant body he couldn’t manage it. “Uh—help me out, Lilenta. I can barely move!”
“Here you go.” Liv came around the side of the bed and pulled him to his feet. “Wow, it feels great to be able to move again. I can even touch my toes—watch.” She bent down quickly and rose with no problems. Her new body was big and a bit ungainly and so tall she felt like she was looking down from the top of a step ladder, but just being able to move with ease felt wonderful.
“Good for you, touching your toes. I can’t even see mine.” Baird grumbled. He put a hand to the small of his back. “Goddess, this is terrible. Everything aches and I have the worst indigestion—how do you stand it?”
“It’s not easy,” Liv admitted. “In fact, I’ve been pretty much miserable all the time for the past month.” She sighed. “I don’t know what’s going on but I kind of hate to trade you back.”
“You—ow! He kicked me again.” Baird pressed a hand to his rounded belly.
“Yup, he’s an active little guy,” Liv admitted. “Kicks all the time.”
“All the time?” Baird winced. “Really?”
“I’m afraid so.” She sighed. “Look, we need to get to the med center and get this taken care of. Come on.” She took a few steps and stopped. “Uh…”
“What is it?” Baird came waddling over, one hand pressed to the small of his back and the other cupping his belly.
“Your, uh, equipment.” Liv looked down uncertainly at the bulge tenting the front of her sleep pants. “It’s still hard. How do I make it go down?”
Baird sighed. “You probably just need to piss. If that doesn’t work, try jerking off.”
“Really? That’s what you’re doing every morning in the bathroom? I thought you were just taking an extra-long shower.”
“Well, I didn’t want to bother you, Lilenta. As you say, you’ve been so miserable this past month.” He looked sheepish and Liv couldn’t help thinking it was strange and surreal to see his facial expressions being made by her own face.
“Yes, well…” She sighed. “Okay. Let me go in the bathroom and see what I can do.”
“Not until I get in there.” Baird winced. “My bladder is bursting! It feels like he’s resting right on it.”
“That’s because he’s head down now—he’s ready to come out any day,” Liv reminded him.
Baird went suddenly pale. “Gods, you’re right! This baby could come at any minute.” He began waddling as fast as he could toward the bedroom door.
“Hey, where are you going?” Liv demanded. “The bathroom’s that way.”
“Forget the bathroom.” Baird was already panting with exertion but he showed no signs of stopping. “We have to see Sylvan and get ourselves switched back now.”
* * * * *
“But there’s no switching back—at least, we haven’t found a way yet,” Olivia, who met Saber and Lissa at the docking bay, explained. Of course, she was wearing Baird’s body but Lissa had gotten to know her well enough to recognize her speech patterns. Also, she moved like a woman. It was strange to see the massive warrior’s body walk with a sway in the hips and even stranger to watch as Olivia forgot her hair was short and tried to sweep it back over one shoulder.
“No wonder you’re worried,” she said. “This must be so frightening for you.”
“It takes some getting used to,” Olivia admitted, in her deep, growling voice.
“Liv—there you are.” Sylvan—or rather Sophia in Sylvan’s body—came mincing up to stand by her sister’s side. “Baird said you were here explaining everything to Lissa and Saber.”
Lissa couldn’t help staring again—it was so strange to watch the blond Kindred doctor’s face making his mate’s facial expressions.
“They just got in, as you can see.” Olivia gestured at the two of them. “What’s up? What does Baird need now?”
“He says to find out if anyone is going down to Earth so they can bring him back a gallon of Ben and Jerry’s Brownie Batter ice cream—not the yogurt kind, the real ice cream.”
“Got it,” Olivia muttered. “The real stuff. But it only comes in pints—not gallons.”
“He knows that.” Sophia nodded. “He says he wants at least eight of them—a gallon.”
“God,” Olivia shook her head. “All right, tell him I’m on it. Anything he wants, he gets. After all, he is twelve months pregnant.” She looked over her sister’s broad shoulder. “Oh, and speaking of pregnant, here’s your better half.”
“Sylvan!” Sophia turned and Lissa watched as the Earth girl’s mate—who was, of course, wearing her body—came striding across the docking bay. Once again, it was strange to watch him walk. The small feminine body moved with masculine purpose and for some reason, he wasn’t wearing any shoes.
“Sophia, sweetheart.” Sylvan reached up to give her an awkward embrace. Sophia tried to hug him back but it looked to Lissa like she wasn’t quite sure what to do with her long, muscular arms.
“I thought you were in the med lab,” Sophia said, looking down at her husband. “Is something wrong?”
“I had something important to tell you but now I can’t remember what it was.” Sylvan looked irritated. “Damn it, I can’t think in this body.”
“It’s the pregnancy hormones,” Olivia said. “Did you know that you lose ten IQ points with every baby you have?”
“Yes, the pregnancy hormones!” Sylvan exclaimed. He looked up at his wif
e. “I felt them.”
“What? You felt what?” Sophia frowned.
“The babies—I felt them move for the first time.” Sylvan stroked the softly rounded curve of his abdomen.
“You did? Oh my God!” Sophia dropped to her knees and pressed her cheek to his belly. “When? Where?”
“Just a few minutes ago, on my way up here.”
Sophia looked up at him, her face a mixture of joy and disappointment. “That’s wonderful, honey. But, well….I wanted to be the one to feel them kick the first time.”
“Don’t worry about that,” Olivia said dryly as Sophia finally got to her feet. “You’ll get kicked plenty once we get switched back into our right bodies. Just ask Baird.”
Saber cleared his throat. “So has everyone aboard the ship been affected?”
“Almost everyone,” Sylvan said, still stroking his belly. “The mated Beast Kindred and Blood Kindred have all swapped bodies with their brides. The unmated males seem to have swapped with whoever they were closest to at the time that whatever is causing this phenomenon first happened.” He frowned. “I’m afraid there have been some savage conflicts in the unmated males area because of it.”
“Apparently the guys don’t want anybody else, er…” Olivia cleared her throat. “Handling their equipment, if you know what I mean.”
“Of course.” Lissa nodded. “That, uh, makes sense, I guess.”
“Pretty much the only unaffected ones are Lauren and Xairn,” Sophia said. “Sylvan thinks that’s because Xairn is Scourge, not Kindred.”
“What about Merrick and Elise?” Olivia asked. “I thought you said they might have been unaffected because Merrick is a hybrid.”
Sylvan shook his head. “I checked on them earlier—they’ve swapped all right. They’ve just decided to stay in their suite and try to ride things out until we can set this right. Speaking of that…” He turned to Saber. “You said you got the scroll?”
“Here it is.” Saber handed it over without meeting the other male’s eyes. “I hope it helps,” he muttered.
“So do we.” Sophia put a hand on his arm. “Thank you so much for getting it. You two are heroes.”
“Thank you,” Lissa whispered through numb lips. Saber said nothing—he only stared at Sophia’s large hand on his arm until she murmured,
“Sorry,” and withdrew.
Lissa didn’t want to cry so she tried to turn back to the conversation at hand. “You said how this, er, swapping has affected everyone else. But what about the Twin Kindred?”
“Oh, we’re affected all right.” Suddenly Deep and Lock, Kat’s mates, came around the corner to stand with them.
Sylvan frowned. “What is this—some kind of docking bay meeting? What are you two doing here?”
“We’re here to meet our lady Kat,” Deep said courteously. “She’s being flown up from Earth on a shuttle—which is probably that one landing now.” He pointed at a small silver shuttle touching down in the landing area. “We put off bringing her back for as long as we could so as not to confuse and frighten her but…”
“But she’s going to find out somehow. And the longer we keep her in the dark, the angrier she’s going to be,” Lock, the light twin finished. He frowned at Sylvan. “Hey, Brother, you mind me asking why in the seven hells you’re running around barefoot?”
Sylvan looked down at his bare feet and grimaced. “I had on some of Sophia’s shoes—you know the kind with heels? But they felt horrible. My arches were killing me—I had to take them off.”
“Wait a minute.” Sophia rounded on him, putting a ham-sized fist to her narrow hip. “Were you wearing the red ones with the little tiny bows?”
“Well…yes.” Sylvan looked uncomfortable.
“Honey! Those are my favorite pair of Jimmy Choos!” Sophia’s blond brows drew low and her deep voice boomed. “Where did you leave them? Those were expensive.”
“I don’t know—all right?” Sylvan burst out. “I can’t remember. Just like I can’t remember what I came down here to tell you in the first place. This ridiculous body—”
“Is carrying your twin babies, which is why it’s so forgetful.” Sophia had a dangerous glint in her ice blue eyes. “And if you ever want to touch it again once you get out of it, you’d better watch what you say, Mister!”
“I’m sorry!” Sylvan looked like he might cry.
“Stop it, Sophie! Apologize now,” Olivia demanded, grabbing her sister by the arm. “You can’t yell at Sylvan like that—he’s pregnant.”
Lock shook his head. “Wow and I thought we had it bad. At least we still have the right equipment—even if it is someone else’s.”
“Don’t be insensitive,” Deep chided his brother. “Sylvan and Sophia are going through a lot right now. They don’t need you gloating and making things worse.”
“Who’s gloating?” Lock demanded. “You think I like this? Even if we are twins, it’s still weird.”
Lissa frowned as she tried to follow this exchange. Clearly something had happened to the two of them since she had last seen them. Deep, the dark twin had always been more argumentative and cantankerous while Lock was the soul of courtesy.
“So did the two of you…?” She frowned at them and made a back and forth motion with one hand.
“Yup.” Lock sighed. “It’s a real pain.”
“The only pain I feel is the damage you’re doing to my reputation,” Deep who was apparently Lock snarled at his brother. “Everyone thinks I’m an insensitive bastard now because of you.”
“So?” Lock who must be Deep smiled lazily. “What’s the big deal about that?”
“Hello, boys, what did I miss?” Kat came striding up, a frown on her face. “And why the hell didn’t the two of you visit me in the hospital? Some fiancés you are. I had to make all kinds of excuses to my grandma about why you couldn’t come.”
“Forgive us, my lady.” The dark twin went to one knee before her and kissed her hand gallantly. “It was inexcusable for us to not visit you. But your grandmother assured us you were safe. And well, things aboard the Mother Ship…”
“Are all fucked up at the moment,” the light twin finished for his brother with a frown. He came forward too and gave Kat a hug. “Welcome home, little Kat.”
“Wait a minute, wait a minute…” Kat pulled out of the embrace, frowning at her males. “What’s going on here? Why are you two talking like that? It’s like invasion of the body snatchers around here or something.”
“Actually, that’s not far off,” Olivia said. Rapidly, she recounted what had happened to everyone aboard the Mother Ship while Kat gaped at her.
Finally she shook her head and looked back at her males. “So you’re Deep?” she asked, pointing at the light twin. “And you’re Lock?” pointing at the dark twin.
They nodded in unison.
“But we don’t have it nearly as bad as everyone else,” Lock who was actually Deep put in. “Sylvan and Baird are pregnant and Baird could go into labor at any time.”
“Not to worry though, my lady,” Deep who was Lock said soothingly. “Saber and Lissa have returned with the missing scroll. Since we’re almost certain this is a Hoard attack, we’re hopeful that the scroll will contain information about how to best the Hoard Master and switch things back to normal.”
“Got the scrolls, did you?” Lock who was Deep smirked annoyingly at Saber. “Interesting. And what exactly did you have to do to get them?”
“You son of a bitch,” Saber growled. Stepping forward he punched Lock in the jaw, causing the light twin to stagger backward. Then he elbowed his way through the little crowd and stormed off, away from the docking bay.
“Saber? Saber, wait!” Lissa tried to run after him but he was walking fast, his broad shoulders set in lines of angry tension. And though she was sure he heard her call his name, he never even turned around once. After a moment she gave up and slowly made her way back to the little group in the docking bay.
“Look what you did,”
Deep who was Lock was complaining as he examined his brother’s jaw. “That’s going to leave a mark. Can’t you stop being an arrogant bastard at least while you’re in my body?”
“Sorry.” His brother winced and rubbed his jaw. “Damn, those Touch Kindred pack a punch! All I did was ask what he had to do to get the scroll.”
“He did much more than should ever have been required of him. Of either one of us.” Lissa’s voice trembled. “It…I think it broke something in him. I know it broke something in me,” she added as the tears stung her lids.
“Oh, Lissa, hon…” Kat put an arm around her shoulders and shot Lock who was Deep a dirty look. “It’s all right,” she said. “Everything is going to be all right, doll.”
“I’m sorry,” Lissa whispered in a choked voice. “I…I don’t have any right to be upset. Not with everything all of you are going through.” She sniffed and swiped at her eyes. “Did…does anyone know what caused this body swapping in the first place?”
“We think it has something to do with the imposter we accidentally brought up from Earth,” Deep who was Lock said. “It impersonated my lady Kat and fooled us into bringing it aboard. We’ve searched the entire ship but we can’t find it—probably because it can change forms at will.”
Sylvan snapped his fingers. “That’s what I was coming to say. I’ve been doing some research and the only kind of creature I’ve read about who can mutate their body to assume other forms is a shadow caster—they come from the splicing district on O’ah.”
“Wait a minute—isn’t that where Lauren and Xairn went to get their DNA altered?” Olivia asked.
Sylvan nodded. “Yes, it is.” He shook his head. “The strange thing is, that shadow casters are usually clones. Because only a clone has the necessary genetic elasticity to mutate their shape at will.”
Sophia frowned. “But Kat hasn’t been cloned, have you, Kat woman?”
Kat shook her head slowly but Lissa noticed that her face had gone suddenly pale. “I wasn’t but Lauren was. And that thing…before it took my face and looked like me, it looked like her first.” She looked at Sylvan. “It looked just like Lauren.”