Don't Call Me Kitten! (9 page)

“Well that
last one you’re on your own with but even with the other two it
would create a strong bond between us.”

“But you’re
not Meta’s mate.”

“No. But I am
connected with him on a very deep level. I think that’s why my
immortality came with shapeshifting and healing abilities. It means
I’m already part way to being at his evolutionary level. He knew
I’d been John’s mate in many lives. He didn’t want either us
burdened by an evolutionary mismatch.”

“I can see
that it would be kind of cheating to give me and Mendal those kind
of abilities. Well apart from the shapeshifting which we can can
do. We’ve barely redeemed ourselves for our past lives. But
becoming a Malakim ...”

“ … has to be
worked at. While humans in the town have taken the treatment and
are for all intents and purposes now immortal they will still need
to work at growing their awareness of the oneness that connects us
all if they want to raise their vibration rate to ascend to Malakim
level.”

“So no
shortcuts”

“No, no
shortcuts, sorry.”

“Bugger. Oh
well. Better give me the damned shot then Jnarn.”

“Actually you
can roll down your sleeve. I came up with an aerosol delivery
system before we gave the treatment to the town’s kids.” Jnarn
passed him an inhaler. “All you have to do is breath in as you
press the plunger.”

“Easy-peasy!”
He took his fill of it. “Okay what now?”

“It should
only take a few moments for the retrovirus to start invading your
system.”

“Nah, nothing
happening... ah, shit!” A wash of heat flowed through him followed
by a freezing cold as his blood rushed to his vital organs. He
clutched his chest as pain seized his heart. Blackness took
him.

With a mixture
of guilt and self-preservation Helena used her size to intimidate
her way off the plane, towards the front of the chaotic queue that
was jostling for overhead luggage. She made her way purposefully to
the nearest rest room in the gate lounge arrivals area. She needed
a moment to make a call. To the casual observer she just looked
like another tourist hurrying between flights, not like someone
running for her life. She had little doubt that things would get
difficult if her trailing mobster caught up with her. Hopefully he
was still held up in the exit queue on the plane.

It was then
that fortune played her a card. She spotted someone she knew. Janic
Jasinski, if she remembered rightly. A Polish cinematographer who
had come to her university one time to document the research
breakthroughs they were making. His father had been in the Polish
anti-bureaucracy people’s movement, Solidarity. Rumor had it that
Janic was cut from the same cloth. She wondered if he might
recognize her. Did she even have a right to put him in danger?
Before she could make her decision he noticed her and came walking
over.

“Helena
Ivanova, a delight to see you again. I noticed you on board the
plane but didn’t get a chance to catch your attention. You were
rather jammed in between the other two in your row.”

“Yeah jammed
is the word.” She cast a quick worried glance up the walk way.

Janic frowned.
“Something wrong?”

“You could say
that. Hell, Janic, I’m being followed. I don’t want to bring the
mob down on you if that’s who it is. You might want to forget you
know me and get yourself away. I’m not safe to be around.”

Janic
practically beamed with joy. Like a wolf that had just spotted a
juicy morsel. If Helena was to guess she’d say she’d just given him
a purpose.

“Hah! The mob.
Is that all. A little fun would be good. Why don’t we have a drink
at the cafe bar over there and see if your admirer surfaces. I’d be
more than happy to have a little chat with him.”

For a movie
maker he seemed a little too blase about the mob. “Well, if you're
okay with it. I could do with the backup. I have a contact in ASIO
but I doubt he could get anyone here quickly.”

Janic raised a
brow at that but said nothing. They quickly found a vacant table
and settled down to share a rather luscious looking flourless
orange cake dripping with liqueur and cinnamon flavored chai
lattes.

“So Helena,
tell me how you happen to have friends in the Australian security
system and the interest of the mob.”

“Long
story...” She concentrated on giving him the briefest of facts but
became distracted when she spied her stalker openly staring at them
from the opposite gate lounge, “Shit he’s here.”

Janic glanced
over his shoulder, his smile growing evil. “Allow me to deal with
this Helena. I’ll catch up with you more another time.” He took her
hand and kissed it then turned and walked away.

“But...” She
was on the point of telling him she wasn’t entirely helpless in
these situations but she was wise enough to know that the alpha
males of the East European culture liked to protect women. She’d
let him take charge but she’d have his back if things started going
awry. Keeping one eye on Janic she used the other to get her mobile
out of her bag, rebooted and made a call. Might be good to have
security on their side if this went wrong. “Hello Andrew. I’ve got
a problem.”

While she
quickly brought Andrew up to date she was rather amazed to see her
Polish rescuer simply taking a firm hold on her would be accoster,
steering him to the men’s loos. Two went in, only the Pole came
out. He gave her a thumbs up and a wave then filtered off into the
crowd, leaving the scene as quickly as he could probably. “Um scrub
that, I think the problem’s been dealt with.” Then she looked at
her watch. “Damn, I think I’ve missed my connecting flight.”

“No matter,
I’m sending you help anyway. We want you getting to Boswell in one
piece. See you when you get here.” Then Andrew hung up.

Strange. Did
that mean she’d be seeing Andrew in Boswell? Last she’d known he
was based in Canberra.

“He was. He
lives with your sister now.”

Stunned,
Helena turned to the voice, spying a petite but rather dangerous
looking Asian female. “Who are you? You read my mind?”

“You’ll get
used to it. Andrew sent me.” The woman noted the two passengers
entering the male toilet across the way. “We should get out of here
before all hell breaks loose.”

She had a
point. The place would be crawling with security soon if there was,
as she believed, a body in the men’s loos. “Good idea. How the hell
did you get here so quick anyway?”

Unfortunately
her flight really had flown. They tried to get her on a standby
list but it was the peak of the tourist season. The best the
airline could do at short notice was an early bird flight, six the
following morning. They headed towards the taxi rank outside the
airport. They’d have a lot of time to kill. Going into the Sydney’s
central business district for a bit seemed the thing to do. A bit
of sightseeing and then they’d find somewhere to bed down for the
night. As they piled into a waiting cab Kit finally introduced
herself.

“Kit doesn’t
sound very Asian.” Helena noted.

“It’s short
for Kitsuneko. My mum must have thought I looked like a cute little
fox cub.”

Yeah right!
Cute wasn’t exactly what came to mind when Helena looked at Kit.
Small yes but words like wiry and ‘hard as steel’ seemed more apt.
But if she remembered what little she knew of Japanese folklore
correctly foxes were something like the patron saints of
travellers. It seemed appropriate that the spirit of one was with
her now. “So you work for Andrew McCullum?”

“Sort of,
mostly I work with my adoptive father Jnarn. I’m a geneticist like
you. Andrew’s side of thing’s all hush hush and unofficial you
understand. Andrew and Simon both say we can trust you though so I
guess I can tell you a little. Andrew did a thorough background
check on you and as for Simon, his hunches are never wrong. He’s
kind of a seer.” She looked to the cab driver. “Could you turn the
music up a bit?” As the driver turned up the radio Kit snuggled
closer. “We work for a special branch called Sentient Species
Liaison or SSL for short.”

“You're
kidding me!”

Kit raised an
eyebrow. “Do I look like someone who jokes?”

Helena
assessed her. No not a joking person. “Perhaps not, still. Who do
you liaise with?”

“Malakim
mostly, they’re the good guys. Arion’s got a fragile alliance going
with the Delphines. They don’t much like ‘two-legs’, as they call
us, but we’re working on that. We tend to stay away as much as
possible from the Din. There’s also the Shang but they’re pretty
elusive. Simon’s got a bit of a contact with one though.”

Helena had no
idea who the hell any of the groups Kit was talking about were but
she had to wonder if they knew about her special friends. “What
about the Feya?”

“The who?”

“I think you
call them fairies.”

“Never met
any.”

“Well I
have.”

“Interesting.
Tell me more.”

They paid the
taxi driver and headed out to roam around Darling Harbour and the
Rocks. They took in the sights of the Opera House, the Harbour
Bridge and the Chinese Gardens. Helena wasn’t much into shopping
and they still had a few hours to spare. “Don’t suppose there’s a
tattooist around here.”

Kit’s eyes
widened in surprise. “A tattooist?”

Helena
shrugged her shoulders, giving up on the fleeting idea. “Yeah. I
know. Not the done thing is it? It’s just I always wanted to get
one but Petrov banned any of his staff from having them. You know,
pain of death and all that.”

“You’ve got me
all wrong. Take a look down the back of my tshirt. I know it’s hard
to see but I’ll give you a better look later when we can find
somewhere more discreet.”

Her curiosity
tweaked Helena fingered the back neck line of Kit’s shirt and
pulled it out a bit. Peering down she saw what looked to be a
stunning scene of a sword wielding goddess standing regally in a
forest with a fox at her feet. “Wow.” She let go of the neckline
and came back around to face Kit. “Well actually I wasn’t thinking
of anything as vast as that but that’s amazing.”

Kit smiled,
pleased that Helena liked her tat. “So what are you after?”

“I’ve always
had an affinity with birds. There’s this condor that sort of
watches over me but I kind of fancy an eagle.”

Interesting.
Kit vaguely remembered there was some South American myth about a
condor and an eagle. “Why don’t you get both. If you’re serious I
can make a quick call. The guy that did mine happens to work not
far from here. We can catch a ferry over to Balmain where his shop
is and still be back in time to catch a train to get back to the
airport. But I have to warn you. It’s really is going to hurt and
you won’t be able to go swimming for a couple of weeks until it’s
healed.”

“Um Kit, I
don’t know how to tell you this. There’s no way of making it sound
palatable but ... hell...I like a little pain.”

“You’re full
of surprises Helena. You don’t come across to me as a submissive.
Switch?”

“Pain slut
actually.”

“Such a
derogatory term don’t you think? Personally I think normal is so
overrated. I’ve never met anyone who exactly fitted that fictional
mould.” Kit had a sudden inspiration about what they might do for
their evening’s entertainment. “I have an old acquaintance who has
a discrete place in Surrey Hills, nearby. I’m sure she’d let me use
her dungeon there if you’d care to explore our mutual
boundaries.”

“Ah, I’m not
looking for a relationship Kit,”

“Neither am I,
my boyfriend is the doctor in Boswell, he’s everything I’ve ever
wanted in a mate. I’ve been waiting nearly four hundred years to
find his like. I’d like to find him a collar while I’m shopping.
But back to us...I was thinking more along the lines of some
non-sexual play. Just two people with a mutual itch to scratch out
having a good time. I’m known for my shibari. Let’s share our
knowledge.”

Four hundred
years? She’d cross check everything the woman was telling her
later. “Sharing sounds fine by me.” Rather fine indeed. That on her
first day in her new homeland she’d meet a shibari master just blew
her away. “So if you're after a collar for the boyfriend I guess
he’s into kink. I didn’t think a healer would like pain.”

“Oh he’s into
the kink alright, even if he didn’t know it until he met me. He’s
still learning all its pleasures. We’re still testing our mutual
limits. At the moment I’m concentrating on showing him the joys of
relinquishing his control to my care. I’m not in a rush. I always
figured that if I found a mate it would be worth taking my time
with forming our bond, growing it like it was the world’s rarest
flower. I-Wayan and I have all the time in the world to find out
what we each enjoy.”

“So you’d like
to play a bit rougher in the meantime. Won’t your boyfriend
mind?”

”Good point.
Just a sec.” Kit closed her eyes for a moment. When she reopened
them she smiled. “He’s happy for me. Said ‘don’t get caught’. I
think he’s afraid of what your sister might do to me if I leave a
mark on that fine body of yours. Oh, and he wants me to try
anything new I learn on him when I get home.”

Helena
shivered at the thoughts that flashed through her mind,
anticipating what their play might involve. She felt a moment’s
jealousy but quickly squashed it. Where the hell did you find an
understanding partner like that? One who totally accepted you as
you were and willingly enjoyed what you had to offer. “You can just
communicate like that? You both mind read each other. Distance
doesn’t matter?”

“Distance is
just a construct of the mind.”

“If you say
so.”

“Says she who
talks with fairies. Come on Helena let’s go find you a
tattooist.