Here There Be Tigers (29 page)

Minutes ticked by as white and orange streaks
continued throwing themselves at each other. They separated and
paused long enough for her to get a brief look at each. There was
blood on Mitch, but she couldn’t tell if it was his or Jim’s. Jim’s
white coat was covered in blood along one side. They lunged
together again so fast she couldn’t see any actual
wounds.

As the tigers came together, their growls and
roars increased. They whirled across the floor in a tangled heap,
and when they stopped, Jim was on top of Mitch, pinning him to the
ground.

Nila choked on her scream as Jim dove his teeth
toward Mitch’s neck. Then more movement blurred the scene and a
moment later, they were lying at her feet, this time with Mitch on
top of Jim, Jim’s neck already in Mitch’s mouth. Jim hissed and
thrashed beneath Mitch, attempting to dislodge Mitch with his hind
legs and slashing at Mitch’s sides with his forepaws. Mitch
shifted, just a little, and Jim fell still beneath him. Blood
trickled out of Mitch’s mouth, staining the white fur of his
opponent.

Gregory’s hand flexed on her shoulder. Jim
stared up at Gregory. She couldn’t read the expression in those
tiger eyes, but she knew he was waiting for something.

After a breathless moment, Mitch stepped back
from Jim, once again moving to the opposite side of the circle and
crouching down. He moved slowly though, and she stared in horror at
all the blood covering him. He seemed to be bleeding from a wound
on his right flank and one on his left shoulder. Claw marks crossed
his snout. Again she tried rising, wanting to go to him, help him
with the injuries, but Gregory kept her in place.

Jim rolled slowly to a standing position. He
looked as bad as Mitch, his white fur covered in pink and red
splotches. An ugly gash tore up his side and another laid open part
of his chest. Blood dripped from the puncture wounds on his
neck.

“
Enough,” Nila spit up at Gregory.
“Mitch needs medical attention. So does Jim. Stop this nonsense
now.”

Gregory’s fingers dug into her shoulder, making
her wince.

“
Dr. Yin will see to Jim’s
wounds.”

“
And Mitch?”

“
He has to prepare for
me.”

She wanted to call him a coward again, to slap
him or punch him in the nose and make him bleed, too. But his grip
on her shoulder had made her entire arm go numb and she knew she’d
only make matters worse if she said anything more. Instead, she
tried catching Mitch’s gaze, to see if he was okay. He didn’t look
at her. He focused on a spot at the center of the circle and stared
as if in a trance.

Gregory finally released her and moved away.
The two men who’d walked her into the room took up positions
surrounding her again, standing close enough to restrain her but
fortunately not touching her. Several moments passed in silence.
She glanced around, trying to find Gregory. He didn’t seem to be in
the basement anymore. Then she saw a huge Amur tiger move out of
the shadows and knew instantly who he was.

Mitch continued staring at the center of the
circle, showing no signs of awareness that Gregory was even
entering the combat area. Panic swirled through her stomach, making
her nauseous again. Mitch was hurt, seriously hurt. He’d just
fought off two strong opponents and he’d been beaten up the night
before. He wouldn’t stand a chance against Gregory now.

Gregory paced slowly around Mitch, moving inch
by inch closer, keeping him in sight but not lunging. Mitch didn’t
look up or even stand from his crouch. Blood dripped onto the floor
beneath him, creating a small puddle of red, the slow
plink
plink
of blood into the puddle the only sound in the
room.

While still several feet away, Gregory launched
at Mitch, swiping his unwounded shoulder with outstretched claws.
Mitch didn’t even flinch from the injury as Gregory bound away. The
younger male paced around the circle again, keeping his gaze on an
unmoving Mitch. With a low growl, he flew at Mitch again, too fast
for her to follow. Blurred movement and a flash of gleaming claws
and Gregory was once again at the opposite side of the circle from
Mitch.

Mitch still hadn’t moved.

More blood appeared, along his side this time,
a nasty looking gash that showed some of the muscle beneath his
flayed skin.

What was he doing? Why wasn’t he fighting back?
Was he hurt that badly? She stood, unable to stay seated.
Surprisingly, her two guards didn’t try stopping her. But when she
made a move to enter the circle, Gregory snapped his head around
and growled at her. She took a startled leap back.

That’s when Mitch attacked.

She never saw him move. One instant she was
staring at Gregory, the next, two flashes of orange spun away
across the floor. The angry roars and hisses echoed in the large
chamber, but the two tigers moved faster even than the previous
fight. She could barely follow even the blurred color of their
fur.

A flash of red and orange, another shock of
white from their underbellies, but even the shape of their tiger
forms was lost in the speed. Around her, the men stepped closer to
the circle, and it seemed to her as if everyone in the room held
their breath.

She had to do something. She had to help Mitch.
Blood trails marked the passage of the fight, turning the cellar
floor red. He would never survive if he kept losing so much
blood.

She looked around, desperate for a weapon, a
way to distract the others, something, anything she could
use.

When she edged back from the circle, her guards
didn’t move to stop her. She attempted a little more space and
realized they were too focused on the fight to notice she’d moved
behind them. Could they see what was happening?

Since she couldn’t, and the sight of all that
blood was turning her panic into near hysteria, she focused on
finding a way to help Mitch. When she looked toward the door at the
base of the stairs, she saw a flash of movement.

Damn it, what now?

Her first thought was of Petrov, and she wanted
to scream at the universe for putting them into this mess. But
Petrov might be at least enough of a distraction that she could get
Mitch out of the house. She edged farther around behind her guard
and when she was sure they didn’t notice her, she worked her way
slowly toward the stairs. She kept behind the other men, but near
enough to the circle that she could move in and drag Mitch out the
instant they had a clear opening.

How she thought she might drag a grown male
Amur tiger up stairs and out of the house, she had no idea. But she
had to try something, and details like that were trivial next to
her desperation.

She checked on the doorway again. There was
another slight movement. She bit her cheek to keep from calling
attention to either herself or whoever was in that room. She was
sure all the other males she’d seen at the house were watching the
fight. This had to be either Petrov and his tigers, or another
young male she hadn’t met yesterday. But if it was a male who
belonged here, why wasn’t he coming out to watch the fight? It had
to be Petrov.

She hesitated within sprinting distance of the
stairs. She didn’t want to get close enough to the doorway to make
herself vulnerable. If Petrov wanted to get at her, he was going to
have to come into this room full of males and go through them
first. A definite distraction.

She hoped.

Her gaze flicked back and forth between the
doorway and the fight. Tension kept her muscles tight and she
forced herself to relax, keeping her balance on the balls of her
feet so she could move instantly.

Almost before she realized what was happening,
despite her attention, a blur of several large orange shapes
charged from the doorway into the middle of the cellar. Male
shouts, the sound of tiger roars, blurs of movement, flesh and
fur.

Nila searched for Mitch in the chaos and found
him crouching, face to face, with Gregory. An instant later, a
large orange flash of fur barreled into Gregory, throwing him over
and spinning them both across the room. Mitch launched up and ran
toward her, but she could see he was limping and the amount of
blood in his fur horrified her.

With a nudge of his head, he pushed her toward
the stairs. She didn’t need any further encouragement. She charged
up the steps, taking them two at a time. Running through the main
room to the front door, she was aware of Mitch loping beside her,
but she didn’t dare look at him. The sight of his injuries would
slow her down.

They tore out of the house, heading into the
wood without hesitating. Mitch nudged her thigh, angling her in a
specific direction and she followed his lead. A moment later, two
new tigers moved up next to them. Nila would have screamed if she
had enough breath. Instead, she tried running faster, though
already she was moving at the edge of her endurance. Terror clawed
at her insides, pushing adrenaline into her blood and forcing her
muscles to move.

But on two feet, an empty stomach, and a system
overloaded with fear and panic, she couldn’t manage the uneven
ground smoothly. She lunged over branches and through the detritus,
but her limbs grew heavy and one branch caught her. She hit the
ground hard, her ankle twisting painfully, her left wrist jamming
from the impact, and what was left of the air in her lungs whooshed
out.

With a gasp, she sucked in oxygen and tried
scrambling up, but it was too late. The two tigers giving chase
surrounded them. Mitch stood just in front of her, facing the
others. Nila tried breathing, panting as her chest burned and her
body refused to move any further. She stared at the two strange
tigers.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT

One of the tigers looked beyond Nila and Mitch,
toward the direction of the house, and let out a soft growl then
looked back at Mitch. Nila watched in fascination and
fear.

Mitch circled around behind her and with his
head nudged her, as if trying to get her to stand. As he did, the
other two tigers moved closer. She tried scrambling away, but her
ankle protested and she cursed as pain shot through her. Mitch
nuzzled her leg then looked up at the other two animals.

To her amazement, one of the tigers crept up
next to her and crouched down parallel to her. Even more startling,
Mitch nudged her toward it.

“
Are you serious? What’s happening?”
She shook her head. “I know you can’t answer and we don’t have time
for you to change, but…”

The second tiger crouched down too, and the
first made a soft sound almost like a purr.

The help Elizaveta promised, she realized.
Relief flooded through her but only for a moment.

“
My ankle’s twisted. I can’t run
anymore. But I might be able to walk. Are we being
followed?”

Mitch growled and nodded his head.

“
Close?”

He shook his head no.

She made an effort to get to her feet, but
Mitch bumped her, urging her closer to the tiger crouching nearest
her. “What do you want me to do?”

He pushed her again so that she was almost
touching the strange animal. Then he made a head gesture, a sort of
shooing motion.

Frowning, she glanced between him and the tiger
behind her. “You want me on its back? Are you nuts?”

Mitch growled again and pushed her none too
gently with his head. She nearly fell over.

Fine. She could take a hint. She scrambled onto
the tiger’s back, riding astride as if on a horse. This was never
going to work. They might be strong and she might be small, but the
tiger beneath her was never going to be able to run fast enough to
escape the others with her as a burden.

When the animal stood, Nila leaned forward and
wrapped her arms around its neck, holding on for dear life. No not
like riding a horse at all. The animal was tall enough for her feet
not to brush the ground, but she pulled them up higher and kept
them pressed against the animal’s flanks.

She still didn’t think this would work. She
continued thinking it wouldn’t work right up until the tiger
started running.

The world around her blurred as they sped
through the trees. She realized with a shock that in all the
previous running, away from Petrov and the young males, all the
tiger shifters had been moving much slower than they were capable.
The others had been toying with her.

A strange sort of terror for what might have
been rolled through her stomach. She clenched the fur beneath her
fingers and kept her head down, afraid a low branch at this speed
would kill her.

Alternating sun and shadow made their run even
more disorienting, almost surreal as the ground blurred beneath
them. She lost all sense of direction and distance within minutes
and she could no longer hear much above the sounds of the tiger’s
breath and the steady thump of paws on the ground. She risked a
glance over her shoulder. Mitch was there, keeping pace
surprisingly well given his injuries. The second strange tiger came
in and out of her view, guarding their backs as they
ran.

She tried looking ahead, to see where they were
going, but the wind of their passage made that impossible. Tucking
her head again, she concentrated on keeping her balance. Riding a
tiger back wasn’t all that easy. Especially when the animal jumped
sideways and changed directions suddenly, making its loose skin
shift under her so she almost slid off.