Circus Wolf (17 page)

She smiled at his mime antics and then met Hugh’s
questioning gaze. “Before we rehearse, how about a ride on the Ferris Wheel?
Being on top of our world relaxes me and clears my head.”

Hugh’s eyes glinted with amusement. “I love that
you’re a kid at heart. And I’d like very much to see the place from a hawk-eye
view.”

By the time they headed up the arcade, the clown had
disappeared. When they arrived at their destination, they didn’t have to stand
in line. Leroy, the attendant, wearing his red shirt and red cap, motioned them
forward. It wasn’t unusual for employees, needing to get back to work, to be
waved to the head of the line. The three of them exchanged pleasantries while
Leroy made sure they were strapped in. Then he saluted and shoved the gear down
with wiry muscled arms, and up they went.

She squealed at the rapid, exhilarating ascent. Hugh
closed his hand over hers and the simple joy of his touch cheered her soul as
they soared into the azure blue together. Happiness sometimes came in the small
moments and as a circus gypsy or vagabond, she’d learned to cherish every one.
Relationship wise
,
Hugh and I can’t have anything permanent, but we have now.

Up at the top, close to the puffy clouds stretching
over the hills, she inhaled deeply and viewed the bustling crowds in the arcade
below. They all looked eager to absorb the magic of the circus as she and Hugh
were doing.
Together.
For now.

Tigra breathed in scents of grilling dogs and
popping corn.

She glanced at Hugh. Taking this moment together was
therapeutic. They both needed to get away from their worries about the
repercussions that were sure to come from retrieving and returning the stolen
golden treasure to its rightful owner.

As if he’d read her thoughts, Hugh said, “Don’t worry,
we’ll handle whatever comes.” He lifted her hand and kissed it. “Thanks for
suggesting this.”

She warmed inside. When it came to men, she’d been born
without a patience gene and Hugh,
bless
him, was the
epitome of patience. It meant so much that right now he had the ability to
accept she needed this calming moment.

From below, music from the marching band floated
upward.
She recognized the song:
“You’re not alone.”
As though he was touched by it too, he squeezed
her fingers. It was ironic, since meeting Hugh, she’d felt a sense of
comradeship and understanding with someone for the first time in her life. He
was the only one she’d ever met who understood the challenges and loneliness of
living a dual existence. Even Grandy, who loved her deeply, couldn’t relate.
Not because he didn’t try.

Hugh
appeared to fully understand, perhaps because of his own curse. She closed her
eyes a moment against the threat of tears. Their budding relationship might
have had a chance if he was a tiger, but falling in love with a wolf was
fraught with disaster. Besides, her own curse made it unfeasible to seriously
consider mating with any man, human, or cross species. What made their
impossible relationship more difficult to accept was his uniqueness. He was the
first man who ever made her wish she were normal. And it was just her
unfortunate luck that besides being a fantastic man, he had the small problem
of being a werewolf.

The
Ferris wheel had stopped at the top longer than usual. The sun burned hot on
her back. There wasn’t a hint of a breeze. She glanced down. Leroy was no
longer at the controls. The crowd seemed to be scattering. She felt tension
radiating from below reaching up for them like arcing, electrically charged
fingers.

She
met Hugh’s questioning gaze. “I think we may have a problem.”

He pointed toward the red and white striped
menagerie tent that sheltered the animals. Flames licked the sky, and roars and
cries came from inside the refuge. “More than one,” he shouted as he unlatched
the safety bar. We have to get down there.”

“Follow me,” she said. “I’ve done this before. We’ll
be fine as long as the Ferris wheel doesn’t move.”

Sliding, shinnying, and walking girders like high
wire aerialists, they quickly made their way halfway down before the wheel
jerked and dropped downward, like a falling elevator. Tigra lost her balance
and tumbled forward. Alarm and stress triggered the morphing process. She felt
her hair growing wilder, her teeth elongating.
God, I don’t want to die caught between my dual worlds.

Barely in the nick of time, Hugh reached out and
grabbed her around the waist.

Their eyes met for an instant. The intense gray
reflected the same intensity of panic she felt. He was morphing, too, and his
shifting was proceeding faster than hers. Oh, God, they were in big trouble.
She had no idea how much until her weight and movement pulled him off balance and
apparently he had no choice but to jump.

On their foot-first downward plunge, he pulled her
against his body as if to protect her. Like a falling missile, they plummeted
straight for the top of the fortune teller’s tent.

As they sank into the sturdy canvas, she whispered,
Thank you, God, for providing this to break
our fall.

The wide-eyed mystic must have somehow untangled
herself from the fallen poles and buckled canvas because she ran
outside,
looking dazed to see what had collapsed her tent.

Tigra wasn’t surprised her Tigress appearance didn’t
seem to faze the mystic. It was the wily mystic who’d told her of her early
history before the circus became her whole world. But she was astonished Hugh’s
unruly hair extending down his back and his arched, thick eyebrows framing
piercing gray eyes didn’t cause any reaction.
Nor did his
dark, hairy jawline, or pointy ivory teeth that gleamed fiercely in the
sunlight.

“Fire!”
Hugh shouted to the mystic.
“At
the menagerie.
Get help!”

They had no time to wait and verify if she would do
as told. On the run, Tigra followed Hugh toward the flames. They were almost to
the inferno when a stampede of animals rushed toward them. Hugh dived out of
the way, taking her with him as he rolled under a still standing calliope and its
musical pipes.

 
As frightened
creatures of every kind zigzagged, bolted, galloped, grunted, and whinnied
around them, he said, “We have to morph back before anyone else sees us.”

She nodded and pressed her lips against his ear so
he could hear her over the chaos. “Later, if anyone saw us, I can convince them
the getup was merely costuming for a new act.”

“We’ll worry about that later,” he shouted as the
mass of wild animals scurried behind tents and leapt over carts, drums, and
anything in the way, knocking things over. It was obvious they were as panicked
as the terrified escaping crowd. Stripes, the gentlest of their big cats slid
lithely though the opening into the Big Top and disappeared before they could
stop him. Bumped tent awnings trembled and the arcade exploded with the
thunderous sound of running human bodies shoving against bodies, trying to
escape the sea of animals trampling anything and anyone in their path. The air
crackled with the sound of burning wood supports and a cacophony of cries of
pain and fear. The mass of animals suddenly changed direction. The fencing
around the property could never hold back the rushing stampede of elephants,
horses, tigers, lions, and zebras. If the animals escaped the grounds, it would
take days to round them up, not to mention the damage to the community. Was
this disaster the end of the circus?

Fire engines roared onto the site; the screaming
sirens increased the animals’ panic.

“Thank God, the fire crews are here to contain the
fire,” Hugh said.

“But the fire isn’t our biggest problem. Containing
crazed animals is like trying to stop the flood waters after a dam breaks. And
if the mayor sends in the animal control people, our animals will very likely
be injured or killed.”

Hugh nodded. “Surely the boss has emergency plans in
place to end this rampage.”

“I think the berserk, running-amok stampede is too
far out of control for the usual methods. But it’ll be wise to get his input.”

Tigers were feared, despised, or worshiped depending
upon where they lived and roamed. Here in the city-limits the emotions would be
icy fear and crazed panic.

Just as the Boss’s office caravan came in sight, an
elephant ducked his trunk and rolled the structure over. They found him inside
bleeding and in shock. Tigra snapped open her cell phone and called the
paramedics and the on-site veterinarian.

When the medics arrived, Tigra and Hugh left their
boss in good hands, determined to go where they were needed most. With chaos
swirling around them, they ran through the arcade, rounding up as many of the
more docile animals as possible.

Tigra did a Tarzan-like call, praying her tigers
could hear over the cacophony. Stripes, Alex, and Queenie came bounding toward
her. She led them to a large covered outside cage in the training arena and
quickly gave them extra food and water. When each animal was treated properly,
the large-hearted regal creature with limitless courage, secretive habits, and
a solitary nature was no more dangerous than she was. But when abused or
hungry, anything could happen.

Tigers, Predator and Assassin, were still out there
somewhere. And it was nearing feeding time. Searching for food consumed much of
the tigers’ lives, and they were willing to work hard and even kill for meals.
She rubbed her forehead. Each tiger needed fifteen to twenty pounds of food per
day. She leaned against a turned over cotton-candy wagon, breathing hard and
trying to gather her wits. “We can’t just run crazily. I need to think.”

Hugh shook his head. “No time. Action is our best
bet of slowing down the stampede and capturing as many animals as we can before
dark. We can’t let animal control get into the act and start shooting darts and
maybe even bullets at innocent animals. ”

He was
right.

 
“The tree
leopard will be even more dangerous after the sun goes down,” he said. “We need
to find him and
the two Bengals ASAP
.

She glared at him. “You’re telling me what I already
know, so I assume you have a brilliant suggestion.”

“You decide whether it has merit. One of us morphs
and herds the animals back to their cages with intimidation. While the most
experienced,
you,
encourages them
back to their cages.”

“You want to morph into a werewolf again and risk
being seen?” She couldn’t keep her voice from rising. “That’s a dumb plan. The
authorities still aren’t sure if the women and girls in the community were
killed by a werewolf, vampire, or tiger. All they need is a glimpse of a
werewolf, Hugh, and they’ll use
you
for target practice.

****

Tigra fought her instinct to hug Hugh for offering
up himself for the benefit of the circus and the community. “Setting yourself
up to be a dead hero is useless.”

He stared at her for several heartbeats.
“All right.
I guess you’re right.”

She gave a sigh of relief.

She thought they were at an impasse but rather than
give up and admit defeat, he gathered all the unhurt circus people and carneys
and formed a posse. The elephant trainers were the first to get all their
charges back and staked down.

Hugh was good at organizing and by midnight they had
rounded up all the animals except the tree leopard and the two tigers.

“The cats are good trackers and may have headed for
the caves,” Hugh said.

Skully came up behind Tigra and put his arm
possessively on her shoulder. Her skin crawled, but she was too exhausted to shake
him off.

“Hugh’s right, Tigra.
I saw your cats heading for the hills. Want me help
round them up?”

She needed help, but not from Skully. He was high on
her list of suspects. “Thanks, Skully, but Hugh and I are trained to handle the
cats.”

Suddenly Skully grabbed her and kissed her hard and
possessively.

She struggled and stepped back. “What the hell is
that about Skully?”

“For luck.”

“Thanks. But keep your hands and mouth off of me. I
don’t want to have to tell you again. Got it?”

“That’s one of the things I like about you, Tigra.
You’ve got fire.”

She sent him a dirty look and strode away, forging a
path through an arcade that looked like it had been used for the running of the
bulls. Hugh followed her. She appreciated that Hugh hadn’t interfered by playing
the macho, testosterone game men sometimes played. The sparks in his darkened
gray eyes suggested he didn’t like Skully kissing her any more than she did.
But the fact he let her handle it showed a certain confidence and control that
appealed to her.

She switched her thoughts away from her assistant
and collided with a more dangerous worry. “It isn’t just animal control I’m
worried about. This disaster has been on the news, alerting hunters. Hunters
want tigers for their pelts, penis, and other body parts. And they don’t care
that they belong to the circus. They’ll assume anything running loose is fair
game.”