Healing Cherri (6 page)

Kade watched as the man nodded and stood up. He had to give it to him; he was definitely going to make a fun addition to the Pack. If what he said was right, he was going to be the newest member of the Pack, and his new Beta at that. Now Kade just had to figure out what the hell a Beta was supposed to do. Declan seemed to think that taking over the lab was going to be his first priority. He hadn’t broken it to him yet that it was not going to work out like that.

They all walked together to the next level where Cherri had helped build a state of the art medical wing. There were fifteen beds in the facility designed to service the shifters and magical creatures that could not get the proper care at a normal hospital.

Although shifters healed quickly and were not very often in need of medical care, there was the exception. Cherri obviously took her job very seriously and made sure she had every medicine on hand to treat shifters. If she didn’t have it, she could fabricate it in her lab. She was a genius, whether people seemed to know it or not. However, Kade and the others knew.

When they hit the doors to the medical wing, they could hear a commotion in the hallway. Kade quickened his pace, and Declan was right on his tail. He wanted to make sure there was nothing wrong. Kade instantly thought of Kiki’s parent’s, they had called them to let them know he had been hurt. But since they had disowned him for his choices in life, they didn’t think it had really mattered when they said they would not be coming to the hospital.

But there in the hallway stood a strange man and woman, going head to head with his mate and Rissa, who were both yelling at them to back off.

Kade stopped and roared, “What the hell is going on here?”

Everyone stopped yelling and Calli turned to him with a scowl and pointed at the man and woman and ground out, “Mr. and Mrs. Parents of the Year showed up this morning insisting on ‘pulling the plug’ on their son who was in a coma. They didn’t have enough decency to actually call one of us and talk to us first.”

The man stood up straight and looked at Kade like he was a piece of gum under his shoe. “I am Kristopher’s father, and this is his mother. We have every right as the next of kin to do what we think is right.”

Rissa stepped forward and snapped at him, “You are not his family. As of last week, he became a member of our Pack and is under our protection. By Drekinn Agency guidelines, you gave up those rights when you kicked him out. By the way, he is still the same amazing man he was before you kicked him out.”

Kade stepped in between the girls who seemed ready to tear Kiki’s parent’s apart limb-by-limb. He said over his shoulder calmly to Declan, “Can you please take my mate and Rissa into the room and sit with them to make sure they don’t come back out here?”

Declan nodded and held out his hand to the two women indicating they were to go into the room first. Calli growled over her mate's shoulder at Kiki’s parents one more time before walking with her head held high into the room.

***

His mate, she was in the room. Declan stood in the doorway shocked for a moment before he remembered that Kade asked him to do something. Feeling the need to follow orders, he shut the door and leaned against it so no one could get in or out, unless he moved. Thomas and Sabrina were in the corner whispering as Cherri moved around the bed checking the IV’s.

She was amazing, he thought, and watched her move with grace. He wanted to laugh when she bit her lip in concentration, and mumbled to herself, something about dosage sizes. Finally, she turned and seemed to notice for the first time someone else was in the room. Her gaze connected with her friends first and then swung to him. Her eyes widened as she took in his appearance, and he grinned.

It was the first time she actually looked at him for more than three seconds. He knew what she saw; his dark brown hair went to his collar. His eyes a deep green, and he could feel them changing with his wolf riding him so hard. He was muscular because of throwing hay and working the cattle on the ranch. Declan knew he didn’t look like a Lab nerd.

“
Uh, I need a nurse to come and assist,” Cherri said and looked at her friends.

“
I can help. Thomas, can you guard the door? Kade doesn't want these two let back out into the hallway,” Declan said with a commanding voice. He saw Cherri shiver at his tone, interesting.

Thomas stood straight up and followed his directions.
Wow, something was going on
. Although he was used to the people he employed following his directions, to have an Enforcer and a stranger jump to do his bidding was a little unsettling.

“
Oh, well, that would be fine, I suppose,” Cherri said a little out of sorts, he thought, and grinned.

He walked to the bed and looked down at the man who laid there, he was handsome. Declan could tell how being a Drag Queen would have been a good place for him to work. He had a classic beauty that even Declan, who was very straight, could appreciate.

“
What do we need to do?” Declan said, crisply falling into his doctor mode.

"I have determined that the drug we gave him to help regenerate was causing him to have a reaction. I need to flush it out of his system and then reintroduce this other drug. The regeneration has already worked, so now we can put him on the synapses building, I believe he will wake up quickly once it is flushed. I wish we would have thought of this sooner, I'm not sure if there will be any damage because of it,” Cherri said just as briskly, like she was referring to a colleague not her mate. For now he would allow it. But later, he would be talking to her about the reaction she had to him. Declan was a little concerned that she really didn’t want a mate, well, he had been waiting for one hundred and thirty five years, so like it or not, here he comes.

“
Which would you like me to do, there has to be some type of overlapping so that the brain doesn’t totally reject what has already happened,” Declan said.

Cherri nodded. “You take that side and begin the flushing, when you reach eighty percent then tell me and I will start the new drug. Calli and Brina, you may have to come up and hold him. If Kiki wakes up, he will be disoriented and we need to keep him still until we're done.”

“
Hey, what about me?” Rissa said.

Cherri rolled her eyes. “Right, you pass out at a little paper cut, I don’t have time to deal with your sorry ass too.”

Rissa frowned. “That was only one time you bitch, and it was a little more than a paper cut, remember, I had a knife sticking out of my thigh.”

“
Whatever, you remember it your way, I will remember it mine. Now are we all ready?” Cherri said and looked at everyone to make sure they were on the same page.

Declan nodded and started to gather the things he needed. Although Cherri had set out a tray with all of the instruments on it, he had to have it a certain way. He caught his mate smiling when he rearranged things.

“
What?” he asked.

“
Nothing, I just did the same thing before you came in. We move things around similarly,” Cherri said shyly.

“
Girl, flirting time is not now,” Calli muttered and Cherri flipped her off over her shoulder.

Declan shook his head, life was certainly not going to be boring, if this morning was any indication what his new life was going to be like. “Ready.”

Cherri nodded. “Begin,” she said and watched as he began to flush out Kiki’s system. She watched the monitor closely, making sure they were not putting too much of a strain on his system. But Kiki was doing fine. Declan moved with smooth and confident movements.

“
Sixty…seventy…eighty,” Declan said and then Cherri began to give him the different drug. It was only moments before Kiki first began to move around, moaning and groaning. Calli and Sabrina each took a leg and they held on, while Cherri and Declan made sure that his arms were held firmly.

Neither of them heard Kade knock gently on the door and enter. He came and helped his mate and Sabrina hold Kiki’s legs. The man was thrashing around good now.

“
Hold him,” Cheri said and looked down at her friend and Pack mate and frowned. He seemed to be fighting waking up. “Kiki?”

She spoke to him softly. Finally, he opened his eyes and Declan saw the cloudy look of confusion that most patients had when they woke up. “Kiki, you're fine, we’re at the Drekinn Agency in the med ward. We're here and want to help you. But you have to try and stop moving. We're changing the meds a little; you had a reaction to one of them. That's why you were in a coma. Do you understand what I'm saying?” Cherri said softly.

The eyes of her friend fixated on her. He frowned and then opened his mouth, and nothing came out. “Thomas, get us some ice chips,” Declan asked softly and Kiki’s eyes flew to him. He frowned again and then looked back at Cherri.

Chapter 5

Ms. Praton and Brooks arrived back to the Drekinn Agency in silence. When they finally reached her office and they could talk, Brooks didn't waste time.

“
So, what do you really think is going on?” Brooks asked and looked at his boss. He had known for some time the older woman was hiding something from him. During meetings, he would feel a burst of energy coming from her, and he couldn’t quite explain it. Also, he felt something else, something he had not been ready to actually define. It seemed like at times they were closer than they should be. Not surprising, since they had worked together for so long, but she was older than him. She had been here for a lot longer, and had a lot more power than he did with the humans.

The Drekinn Agency was designed to have their Board of Directors oversee the day-to-day operations of the Agency. They still did that, but Ms. Praton and Brooks were so much more. Together they ran the covert end of the Agency, and he had a feeling that Ms. Praton knew something she wasn't telling him.

“
I think we need to have a back-up plan. We have discussed for a long time what would happen if the humans decided they wanted a change. I think they're being manipulated into doing just that. I don’t know who yet, but I'm sure we have someone working behind the scenes trying to change things. Although I'm not sure what the purpose is, it's no accident that Calli and Kade found each other when they did. The beginning of the Pack again, and the things that are happening are all intertwined. The powers that be will let us know when the time is right. Until then, we'll have to be patient.”

“
Talking in fucking riddles again at this point isn't going to help the situation,” Brooks said angrily and stood up. “We have to know what the threat is and what we have to do about it.” He was a Warlock for goodness sake. He could use his powers to find out certain things. But Ms. Praton always kept him reigned in. Like she didn’t want people to know exactly what powers he had.

It was simple. Most Warlocks could control certain things, like the weather and produce simple spells that could help people. The humans had banned the use of those spells, and had a tight rein on the magical energy that Warlocks could expend. It was one of the areas that the Drekinn monitored. The energy a Warlock sent out when he used his powers could be detected instantly.

The reports were sent directly to the humans. Witches and Warlocks were closely monitored because of their abilities to mess with physical things. Brooks wanted to laugh, the humans never really understood what they did, or the powers they had. They looked at the outcome of a situation and thought they got it. But they didn’t. Warlocks could do all the things that the humans thought they could, but so much more. Brooks never wasted his time on using his energy to mess with simple things. ‘It’ did show up on the radar.

No, he used his powers to help maintain the Drekinn. Brooks could see the aura of people, and also know their intentions. If someone came to him and said they were going to go to the store and buy a hamburger, he could tell if they were lying and were really going to go and meet a contact they were selling information to. It was a great trick, and one Ms. Praton had caught early on when he joined the agency. No one knew the full extent of his powers.

“
Brooks, we need to have Kade and Calli begin to prepare. I fear that my dreams have become something more than what I thought. If it's true, then we're going to lose the vote in the Senate, and the Drekinn will only be a support agency for the new one. In other words, they will be able to use our people to do their bidding. Not something I really want to happen, but I'm not able to change it right now. The only good part is, I can minimize the effect on our people, but they're not what I'm worried about. This agency that is trying to take over wants something. Something we don’t even know we have. We need to protect the Pack, and Kade and Calli need to be prepared to move quickly if things go down like I think they will. We have a week I think; things are still very unclear. We need to use that time to prepare.”

Brooks nodded, and they began to plan.

Chapter 6

“
Why are you calling me Kiki?” her friend asked her, and she looked around the room with an astonished look on her face.

“
Uh, that’s your name, duh,” Calli said dryly and looked around the room. “What?” she said when everyone frowned at her. “Am I gonna freakin’ lie to him? Hell, I don’t even lie and tell Cherri her hair looks great when it looks like shit, why would I lie to Kiki about his name?”