The Mating Call: Drekinn Series (7 page)

Kade smiled and said, "I can't when I'm with you, babe."

"Stop calling me those stupid pet names. My name is Calli, use it," she demanded and turned around and walked away. But she heard his reply; she just chose to ignore it.

"Sweetheart, you haven't even begun to be called all the names I could call you," Kade laughed.

Chapter 6

They found her in the second bar they looked. Calli stepped over to the bartender and asked for Kiki. The bartender obviously didn't want to share the information, and Calli was sure, given half the chance he would have told the Drag Queen to run. But as it was, she was busy and Kade was blocking for her. Maybe he did have some use after all. He could be her big, scary sidekick, who never spoke a word and always followed orders. Right, and monkeys will fly out of her ass. She loved that saying, ever since she heard it in a late 20th century movie.

"Why do you want to know?" the man asked for about the tenth time.

"Listen here, you little fuck wad, I'm sick of dancing around the issue, gimme her name, or I shut you down for any violation I can dream up," Calli snarled through her teeth. The small man backed up and looked around nervously.

"Fine, Kiki's working tonight in the front section. But she is very delicate and high strung. I mean, you need to approach her just right, or she will freak out. Maybe you should let me come with you to talk to her. She trusts me," the man said quickly, and Calli looked at him. Shit, he was the boyfriend, great, just what she needed.

"I'm sorry; we're talking about official business," Calli said and then turned away from the bar and went to where Kade was standing, watching Kiki move through the room and get her drink orders and flirt with the people.

Calli had not had a chance to tell him the bartender said she was fragile. Calli grimaced and flinched, waiting for the loud screams and crying to start. Instead, she heard, "Handsome, I will come anywhere with you. Just let me drop off this drink list to the bitch behind the bar, and we can find a nice little corner somewhere and talk all you want. You can even bring the skinny bitch with you, I don't think she's into that kind of thing from the looks of her, but maybe we can train her." Kiki said and laughed loudly. Her voice was husky and soft; she could pass as a woman if you didn't look at her hands. They were large, though they were perfectly manicured. Shit, she went to the same place they had been to earlier; she noticed the design as something that Cherri had gotten weeks ago.

Calli smiled to herself; she was gonna give Cherri shit about having the same taste as the Drag Queens. Kiki grinned up at Kade and ran her hand up his bare arm and squeezed his biceps. "Oh honey, you can lose the skinny bitch, and I will totally make all your dreams come true. Kiki would love to have a big, strong man in her bed again."

Calli once again was stunned, skinny bitch? Really? What the hell was wrong with her lately, she should have thrown the woman on the floor and beat the shit out of her, but instead she stood there and watched as she hit on her man. Calli growled, and Kiki looked at her slyly. Her grin widened and she snapped her fingers, "Bitch, don't even, I was just messing with him. I know he's your mate."

Kade laughed and held out his arm to let her know to lead the way. Kiki wore a short, red, shiny dress; it showed off her long toned, tawny-colored legs. Her skin was flawless, no five o'clock shadow for her. She must carry around a hair laser. Her grandmother used to use one every day for her chin. She had the same hair as the video they saw, only this time her hair was blue. It matched her eyes. And though she wore high-heeled shoes, she stood a head taller than Calli. Damn, she was a hot Drag Queen.

Kiki sashayed over to the bar and dropped her list off to the bartender and then slapped another waitress on the ass and pointed to her tables. Once she was done, she turned and cocked her hip and waved. Would this day ever end?

Kade led the way since Calli was too busy trying to shake off her feelings of inadequacy when she was next to Kiki, the Queen was built. Her bra size had to be at least a D. While Calli's was a respectable C, she wondered if Kade liked Kiki's chest more.
OMG
, she thought, I
did not just compare myself to a Drag Queen.

They ended up in the back of the bar at a round booth. Kiki slid toward the center and Calli and Kade each took a side. She grinned and said," I didn't know ya'll were into the sandwich thing, but I'm game if you are."

Calli rolled her eyes and then pulled out her communicator and pushed the button to show her the video. "Do you remember this?"

Kiki leaned forward and put her hand to her chest as she watched the two men. Calli had muted the sound, so she couldn't hear what was being said, but soon Kiki came into the picture. Kiki frowned, "Damn, my ass looks big in that dress; I have to throw that away."

Kade laughed, "Ma'am, can you tell us if you remember those two men?"

Kiki nodded and smiled at Kade, "Of course I do, gorgeous. I remember everyone who leaves a hundred dollars for no drinks. Fred and Barney, that's what I called them because the first guy, Fred, he was all growly and bossy. He had a scar across his face, but it made him look all handsome and dangerous. Then, there was Barney, he was kind of a goof, like he tried to act like he was a big guy, but you knew he was totally not in charge. He was a lackey. But he had the nose, you know, like he drank too much, red and shit."

Calli looked at Kade, who was listening and taking notes in his communicator. They were going to have to take her into protective custody. Somewhere that the
Ulfer
couldn't find her. She could lead them right to the
Bondi
King
, and she didn't even know it.

"Kiki, I hate to tell you that you have just become a federal witness of the Drekinn Agency," Calli said and then stopped when Kiki snapped her fingers in front of her face.

"Hey, hey, hey. Hang on for a sec there. I can't stop working; I'm barley hanging on to my apartment as it is, lady. Kiki can't afford to be a witness. Besides, I know what happens to people who go into your witness program. We all heard about the last shifter who went into the so-called program," Kiki said, and folded her arms across her chest. Yep, she was a cat alright.

Kade put a hand out to the Drag Queen, "We really don't have a choice. I'm sure we can make some arrangements for your apartment. But the first thing we need to do is get you out of here and safe. Then we can worry about everything else."

Kiki smiled, "If you're guarding my body, I'll go where you want."

Calli rolled her eyes; they rose from the table and followed Kiki into the back to get her things and talk with her boss. The man was a fat, lazy asshole that fired her when Kiki said she had to leave.

Kiki flipped him off and then went into the changing room to change out of her work outfit and grab her stuff. Kade leaned against the wall and watched as his mate began to get pissed. She had bristled when the boss had treated Kiki like shit. He knew she was going to say something, and he couldn't wait. Calli could feel his gaze on her back as she turned.

Calli had never actually given a shit one way or the other, what the bosses of her witnesses said. Often she had seen this and stood back, ignoring them. But there was something about Kiki that had grown on her. Calli stepped up and flipped out her badge, got nose to nose with the foul-smelling man, gritted her teeth and then showed her fangs for a second. "That would be a very unwise decision for you to make. The Drekinn Agency is in full support of Kiki coming back to work when all is said and done."

The fat man blustered and turned red, "Of course, what I meant is that I would tell people she was fired until she returned. It's a good cover, huh?"

Calli laughed, "Sure, just remember
I
will be bringing her back."

Calli turned and ignored the smirk that Kade had on his face. The door was flung open, and a tall man walked out. Calli stopped and looked closer. It was Kiki; she was now a he and Calli had no idea what the hell to call her. Shit, he was handsome too. Tall and thin, with short, black hair and smooth, make-up free caramel skin. He still had delicate features, and she could tell he still liked to dress with a flare. His purple, silk shirt was open to the waist showing off his chest, as she looked closer she could see the nipple rings through the material. He wore hip hugging, worn jeans that showed off his great legs. But when he opened his mouth, he still sounded like Kiki.

"Don't go getting any ideas, Ms. Thing, I still don't swing your way. But I figured this would be a good disguise. Usually, I would change into my lovely after work dress. Now," he said and cocked his hip the way that he had in the bar, and Calli saw the shoes he was wearing and grinned. He was wearing purple stilettos. "Where the fuck we goin'?"

Calli laughed out loud and then led them back through the bar to the exit. She was trying to think where the hell she was going to put Kiki and who she was going to be assigned to him when she felt the air around them change, and her head snapped up.

In the entrance to the club stood four
Ulfer,
and they were staring right at them. Calli reached backward and pushed Kiki back into the bar, right into Kade, who was following closely. They both let out a yell of surprise, one high and one low, if she had time, Calli would have laughed at the picture they made. But because she pushed them back and didn't follow, it caused her to be trapped in the small entry with the four beefy
Ulfer
. She grinned and moved her shoulders around a little getting ready to kick some ass when the first one laughed and shifted into a fuckin' tiger.

She had dealt with tigers before, and they were the worst of the cat family, besides the lions. Calli jumped to the side and then raised her gun, which she had loaded with real bullets, thank goodness, and fired. She hit the tiger in the ass and grinned. That was going to hurt, if he managed to make it out of this place alive, he would be limping for a week. Her bullets had silver in them. Even though a shifter could heal at accelerated rates, when silver was involved, it took longer. She loved the bullets that she had designed herself.

One of the other
Ulfer
shifted into a wolf and attacked. The entry was small enough she didn't have a lot of room to work with, so she raised her leg and pushed off the wall and flipped over the wolf and tiger that both hit each other and fell into a mass of fur on the floor. She was done screwing around. Looking at the two
Ulfer,
who were standing there waiting, she raised her gun and shot one of them between the eyes, dropping him where he stood. The other one looked at her with a shocked expression, raised his hands and backed out of the door.

Nice, it left only the two that shifted. They would not have enough control to shift back, so she turned the gun to them, but she wasn't quick enough and the wolf bit down on her arm, hard. She could feel the bones snap, and she growled.

Then she heard a loud growl, and she looked over her shoulder to see a huge wolf and smaller cougar enter the entryway. He was gorgeous. Kade's wolf was all black and had his eyes. And he was huge. She could not believe that his wolf was so big. He had to come up to her waist at least. His coat was sleek and shiny. He treated his wolf well, she could tell.

Some shifters did not groom their wolves like they should. Calli had learned from her mother the wolf liked to be pampered, just like the cats. Her wolf liked to run through the fountain and then rub against a tree until her coat was smooth. There were even nice salons now that you could go into, shift, and they would pamper your animal anyway you wanted.

Kiki's coat gleamed also, so she knew that she went to the salon, there was no way a cat could get that shiny by licking himself. Wait a minute.

Oh shit, he did not just bring a witness to a fight;
she thought. She was going to have to have a serious talk to Kade about protocol. But she watched as the cougar jumped on the tiger's back and dug his claws into the shoulders of the tiger, causing it to rear up and try to throw Kiki off, it didn't work. Kiki was clawing and biting the tiger while it ran in circles bucking.

Kade didn't waste any time; he grabbed the
Ulfer
wolf by the back of the neck, which caused him to release her arm. She raised her gun again but couldn't get a good shot of either one of them. Kade had the
Ulfer
on the ground and pinned, while Kiki held on to the tiger. It was like a comical show.

Finally, some of the Enforcers busted through the front door with silver collars and stun poles. They took the
Ulfer
down as Calli leaned against the wall and held her arm. She was going to have to shift to start the healing, but the damn
Ulfer
had broken it good. It would take over night before she was a hundred percent. That meant that Cherri was going to make her drink the green shit she created for healing.

With loud pops and shimmering, the cougar and wolf turned back into Kade and Kiki. "Woo Hoo, that was fuckin' awesome!" Kiki screamed. All the Enforcers stopped to watch the handsome and completely strange man dance in a circle.