Don't Call Me Kitten! Page 7

  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.

  “Call me Lena and while we’re doing this you can fill me in on how come your boss is living with my sister.”

  9

  George had just finished laying out the food and had lit the candles when there was a knock on the door. He opened it to a rather cautious looking Ally. She’d never been in his loft apartment before. “Come in.” He noticed Ally bent down to remove her shoes. “Hell, no. Be comfortable. Leave them on or off, doesn’t bother me.”

  “Oh, cool. I wasn’t too sure.” She opted for leaving them on. “Still getting used to taking them off when I go around to visit Doc and Kit.”

  “I think its an Asian tradition, even more so with those from Japan. Sudanese etiquette towards a guest requires that I slaughter a sheep in your honour.

  “Tell me you haven’t.”

  “Nah. Just some simple fare Simon helped me to put together. Truth be told I’m not that much of a cook but I gave him a few ideas and then helped him prepare it. The result is sort of a hybrid between traditional Malakim vegan and Sudanese cuisines.” He offered her a pyrex glass of hot steaming liquid karkadeyh, a vibrant red hibiscus tea spiced with cinnamon and cloves.”

  “Thanks. I thought this was an Egyptian drink.”

  “Not just Egyptian. Ready to eat?

  “Sure, but hey George. I have to know. This is just dinner isn’t it?”

  George did his best not to wince. “Of course. Why would it be anything else?”

  She eyed the romantic candles pointedly then glanced back at him. “Because you’ve always looked at me in a certain way.”

  “Hey, I’m a guy, I can hope can’t I?” A little honesty couldn’t hurt.

  “It’s just I wouldn’t want to lead you on. You’re a real good friend. You know that don’t you?”

  Damn, the only want to be friends talk. “Yes, I know it. And what about you?”

  Ally still looked awkward but nodded. “You know it too George.”

  “Well then, let’s eat.” He indicated the pillows at the edge of the low table. “Lentil soup spiced with cumin, lime juice and coriander. The salad is a mix of lettuce , red amaranth leaf, purslane, mango and mint. The main course is of green hamburgers which we call Tamayya, served with lightly sauteed okra seasoned with ginger. The dessert is a banana and date mouse. A lot of lentils and beans I know but they’ve all been partially sprouted.”

  Ally grinned. “So no wind. Now tell me what do you think of the electrical generation system I’ve proposed?”

  Phew! Looked like he still had Ally as his intellectual friend. He was glad he hadn’t tried to push things any further than dinner. They seemed past the initial awkwardness of the evening. He was just going to have to respect that was the way she wanted things and accept it. A piece of his heart was sad but his mind was still happy to engage with her. “Your proposal is sound. In theory anyway. The physics of using dark energy though... We’re going to have to advance the science before we can even think of the engineering to make it work.

  “Upal and Mendal might have some ideas. Din science is way ahead of our human knowledge. Their spacecraft propulsion systems certainly don’t run on fossil fuel.”

  Good grief. Was that a flash of lust he saw in her eyes as she said their names. If only she’d looked at him in that way. He wondered if the two ex-Din even knew. “If the four of us can put our heads together on this we might crack it. A new source of energy would certainly solve a lot of the planet’s problems, not just Boswell’s goal of getting off the grid. It’s a matter of how we tap into the source. We’ll need to create a small constant negative pressure within a vacuum...”

  Ally was relieved that George had accepted being kept in the friend category so easily. She loved him but not in that way. Not like she loved Upal and Mendal. She didn’t want to lose any of them from her life. She’d rather keep them all as friends and enjoy their time professionally rather than become intimate with one and lose what she had with the others. In her fantasies it was different of course. She often got wet late at night visualising what it might be like to be with Upal and Mendal. Imagination and modern sex toys were wonderful things. Of late she’d even been experimenting with a beginner’s butt plug so she could play at the dream of having both of them at once. But that was fantasy and this was reality. Sure Tyra had her close-knit relationship with Thex, Arion and Simon. That was different, the three guys were Malakim, none of them with any specific gender preference. Nothing seemed to be black and white with the Malakim.

  As for Upal and Mendal, they were the product of some kind of integration of Din and human she could hardly get her mind around. They’d been reptilian demons inhabiting their human hosts’ auras but had pledged themselves to the Earth goddess Ma in order to find redemption for their past. In return they served that same godde
ss, mostly by helping out around the town with their scientific and engineering knowledge. Upal was the scientist and Mendal the spaceship engineer keeping the town’s small but growing fleet of extraterrestrial craft in going order. Whatever, the fact was they weren’t entirely human. They were rumoured to still be able to shapeshift into their reptilian form, that and their eyes had orange irises that they kept hidden behind shades most of the time. There was simply no knowing what they would think of the depth of feelings she held for the two of them.

  The guys, including George, had worked with her on numerous projects the town needed, not the least working to get the town off-the-grid. If she couldn’t enjoy their bodies at least she’d enjoy their minds. She owed it to them all to keep it at that.

  10

  Tyra parked the Bentley right outside the council’s meeting room. That was the easy part. Getting out of the car was going to be something else again. She’d hardly turned the engine off by the time a small swarm of reporters had the car surrounded. “Damn.”

  Simon opened his eyes from his trance. His face serene. “Leave them to me. Thex, Arion?”

  “Yeah, we’ve got her covered.” Thex glared at the reporters and they parted like the red sea. Tyra followed with Arion bringing up the rear.

  Arion scanned the crowd for threats but spied none. He did sense the welcome presence of John, invisible but patrolling the vicinity. John had teleported ahead of them.

  Simon calmly walked up to the lead reporters. “You have questions.”

  A particularly pushy red head shoved a microphone in his face. “Is it really true that you share the new mayor with those other two men.”

  “Tyra has made no secret of her relationship with us. You should know that already.” He looked down at her meaningfully.