Jade Tiger (15 page)

She closed her eyes.

Her skin tingled, each nerve awakening as if from a deep sleep. The smooth, cool fabric of Ian's jacket brushed her shoulder blades. She could feel each button of his shirt pressed against her spine. He reached around her waist and unhooked her slacks. With slow, graceful fingers, he slid down the zipper. Shan's breathing deepened, her whole chest expanding and contracting with each breath. Ian's hands found her hips and slipped under the rim of her pants, the thin line of her underwear. He pulled her clothes down along her thighs, grazing the back of her knees with his thumbs. His hands spread heat in a fiery trail along her legs. Down he went, until her shackles lay in a pile at her feet. His touch lingered only a heartbeat on her ankle until its searing caress vanished, too, leaving her naked.

Free
.

Her body vibrated, shivered, hummed. Warm mist from the grotto swirled around her, teasing every inch of her bare skin. The wig was gone--the pins, the tightness pulling at her temples, the strange face in the mirror. Gone, gone, gone, along with the rest of those false trappings.

"The water," Ian whispered, his voice thick. "Go."

Shan's eyes opened under heavy lids. She stepped into the pool, and they almost fluttered shut again. The heat of the water matched her own, welcomed her like a sister. The smell of plants and wet rocks and
life
overwhelmed her senses. She became an ancient goddess as she stepped into the pool, naked, deeper and deeper.

Frustration, anger, pain... The feelings didn't disappear, but they ceded their strength to another deeper, ancient power growing stronger with each moment...

The power of desire.

Shan stood waist deep amidst hot, swirling water. Ian hadn't moved. He crouched by the edge of the pool near the mound of her discarded clothing, and she knew he could feel it, too. It was in his eyes and the way his breathing matched her own. His flesh burned red along his cheeks and ears. Yet he waited.

"Join me," she said. Her voice felt as if it had clawed its way up from her gut--deep and too powerful to be denied.

He stood, his gaze meeting hers, and gave her what she'd been waiting for. The drop of his jacket. The pale line of his smooth, toned chest revealed by long fingers that never hesitated or fumbled. Nothing hurried, nothing slow. His belt. The final trappings that kept his body separate from hers. It all slid away to join hers on the floor.

Graceful, he stood on the banks of her private world. Steady, he stood, and strong. Her Ian, in all the ways that counted.

Shan arched back and dipped her hair into the water. It clung to her, long and sleek and dripping.

Ian inhaled sharply. He stepped into the water, his lean body submerging with each pace. Shan watched the water as it climbed up his flesh, from foot to calf, knee to thigh. She growled softly. From thigh to waist. She circled him, put his back to the natural stone wall alive with its steaming tendrils of water. Shan wanted the rest of the world--everything outside of this secret place--to disappear.

She wanted only Ian.

She wanted
all
of Ian.

When finally she touched him, flesh on flesh, her need erupted into action.

Her fingers explored, drawing trails of water across his chest that her mouth followed and reclaimed. His hands followed her curves, traveling down her neck to linger on her breasts. Shan groaned and bit his lower lip. He gasped and pulled her into a deep, primal kiss that stole the breath from both of them.

Shan pulled him down into the water's dark embrace. Her need grew until she was barely more woman than tiger. But still woman enough. She raked Ian's back with fingers instead of claws, nibbled his neck and shoulders with teeth instead of fangs. And she rubbed against his hardened body instead of just taking it, here and now, into her own.

Ian answered with an animal of his own, strong and confident and lost to the now. His fingers found her, and she writhed in his arms. Her eyes, she knew, would flash between green and tiger yellow, her pupils large and round and limitless.

The eyes of a hunter.

His lips met hers with a ferocity barely contained. Shan shoved his arm away with a growl and wrapped her legs around his waist. Ian maneuvered them to the edge of the pool for a condom from his discarded pants. She gave him the room he needed to put it on, then reclaimed her place as he drew them back into the deep.

Shan pressed her body against his, strands of her wet hair clinging to her cheeks and throat. She touched the tip of her nose to his nose, her forehead to his, and gazed at him with her tiger eyes.

His pupils widened in the shadow of her.

Shan took the swirling pulse of chi trapped inside of her and projected it through her eyes, through the touch of her hand as she buried it into the hair on the back of his head.

I want this
, she told him,
but only with you
.
Only because it's you
.

He answered with a look that mirrored her own. He whispered, "Shan..."

She took him.

He gasped. Her lungs screamed for oxygen as she crushed her body to his, trembling from the power of their combined chi. Energy sparked along her meridians--a chain reaction of fireworks igniting every nerve. She couldn't stop saying his name, kissing him, kissing his face, his smile, his brow. And in the depths of his eyes, she read only joy and passion.

Joy. Passion. And what felt like love.

She awoke in the bed, in his arms. Or maybe he was in hers. It was hard to tell by the tangle of their limbs under the sheets. Ian's eyes were already open, watching and protecting her as she slept.

"Mmm." Shan stretched, languid, like a cat in the sun. He kissed her midway through, pulling her body even closer to his until her breasts were almost flattened against his chest.

"Thank you," she said. "For earlier."

Ian laughed. "Yes, I did you a big favor."

"Several, actually," she said, playing with the hair at his temple.

He kissed her forehead, her eyebrow, her nose. "Like...?"

"Like stopping me from killing Ashton in the hallway."

"Oh, that," said Ian. He kissed her lips, her chin, and her chin again. "That was nothing. I wasn't terrified at all. Nope. Not one bit."

Shan laughed, "I didn't think so." She exposed her neck and let his trail of kisses continue.

He looked good after sex. Way too good. And now she had even more appreciation for his toned muscles after feeling them bunch and move under his skin. His hair had always looked like it was mussed from sex, but now that she knew it was...she couldn't keep her fingers out of it.

"I like you," she said, grinning.

"Mmm." He was busy drawing a line down her neck with his tongue. Already her body wanted him again. Her mind and her heart had never stopped.

But hours had passed, and she still needed to find the jade animals. Preferably before they were sold off to the highest bidder at Saturday's auction. The tiger wasn't ready to let her rest.

Ian pulled himself away from her collarbone, but not without giving it one last, deliciously wet kiss.

"Did I mention that I have a present for you?" he said.

Shan raised an eyebrow and smiled. "Another one, you mean?"

Ian groaned happily. "Stop that. All that sexy looking and touching and just, I don't know,
being
. I'm trying to have a conversation."

"Sorry."

"Good."

"But not really."

He groaned again, then kissed her. On the lips. Shan melted into the bed, her whole body relaxing. Hours. Days. Years. She wanted to do this forever.

Ian ripped the covers off, shattering that daydream, and hopped out of bed. "Stay there," he commanded.

He slipped something out of his pants, still piled on the floor, and climbed back under the sheets. Unfortunately, he'd grabbed a piece of paper and not a condom.

"What's this?" Shan asked. The scrap of white paper had seven numbers scrawled on it: 2082606. "If this is Rachel Sexton's phone number, I'm not amused."

"Oh, I already have her phone number," Ian said easily. "But this is even better."

"Hard to imagine."

"Even if it's the security code to the museum wing?"

Shan looked up from the paper and into Ian's grinning face. "How?"

He shrugged, but was clearly pleased with himself. "Rachel and I go way back. I figured out she was dyslexic on our first dig together, by the way she always wrote down every measurement and read each digit back to me to verify. When we walked by the museum wing door and I saw the security panel, I figured she'd have the number written down somewhere."

"You went through her stuff looking for the number?" Shan asked, astonished.

"So it would appear."

Shan gave him her most dazzling smile. "Ian Dashell, that's the best present anyone's ever given me." She let her gaze wander down his sheet-covered body and remembered the hot tub. "Well, the second best, at any rate."

Ian grabbed the piece of paper from her hand and tossed it over his shoulder. There was a new spark in his eye that brought heat to every part of her. He said, "Let's go for third best, shall we?"

Shan pulled her dark hair into a loose bun at the back of her neck and dressed in conservative black. The big martial arts tournament was starting soon, so Ashton and his lackeys would be busy for hours. There'd never be a better opportunity to go for the jade animals.

"You ready?" Ian asked. He wore another one of his impeccable tuxes. It wasn't fair, Shan thought. The man looked better with every hour that passed. Even the tiger in her seemed torn between heading to the museum wing or ripping off his clothes and staying in.

"Let's do it," Shan said. More sex--even sex as soul shaking as they'd shared--could wait. Soon, all five animals would be reunited in one perfect circle of jade.

Soon, her mother's spirit would be able to rest.

Shan led the way, pretending to be one of Ashton's employees with a guest in tow. She saw few people along the way, and all of them were hurrying toward the big fight. Shan had only an academic interest in tournaments. The way you handled yourself in a controlled fight bore almost no resemblance to how you reacted when your life was at stake.

Shan kept her eyes straight ahead and her expression stoic as they neared the security door, despite the fact that her chi was almost singing in her veins. Ian watched the hallway while Shan tapped the correct sequence on the number pad.

Click
.

She was in.

Shan grinned at Ian as they slipped into a dimly-lit antechamber. Wall hangings, statues perched on pedestals, signs in Mandarin and English--Shan ignored them all and headed for the imposing gold doors on the other side.

"Wait," Ian whispered. He caught up to Shan as she was reaching for the huge wooden latch.

"Why?" she hissed.

"Because we don't know what's in there. It could be Ashton, or security guards, or, I don't know, maybe even guard dogs."

"Yes, I know," Shan said, and pushed the door.

It swung open into a huge room with an arched ceiling. Recessed lights cast a yellowish glow on the dozens of black-clad tables arranged like a maze through the room. The artifacts, each with its own tiny spotlight, sat in perfect rows on the dark velvet.

But Shan didn't care about artifacts. All she wanted were the jade animals.

"I'll take the right," Shan whispered. Ian nodded and headed left. Shan watched him a moment longer. His gaze swept the room, not once, not twice, but continually. Something was bothering him, and it was more than just the thought of theft or security guards.

Shan frowned. She didn't like it. But the sooner she found the animals, the sooner she could take Ian and leave this room, this fortress, and this whole damn island.

"Don't touch anything," Ian called softly from the other side of the room. "Pressure sensors."

Shan nodded and turned her gaze to the first table. A dagger. A belt buckle. A small bottle. She moved on to the next table, and the next. Each held an array of seemingly mismatched items--books, jewelry, pottery, weapons, sculpture. Ian would probably understand the groupings.

Especially since he was progressing much slower through the room than she was.

Shan grinned and headed toward the next table.

Something breathed.

Shan stilled her body. Across the room, she saw Ian pause as well, his eyes scanning the darkness.

She heard it again, the heavy pant of an animal, not more than a few feet away from her.

Shan took a deep breath and stepped around the next table toward the noise.

"Ian," she said softly, "I think you were right."

His voice floated back, "About the guard dogs?"

Shan stared into a pair of huge, golden-green eyes. Eyes filled with expanding black pupils and surrounded by orange and black fur.

"Yes," she called back, "but they're not dogs."

Shan knew what a tiger could do--she had studied its methods and prowess her whole life. This one looked to be at least eight or nine feet long, maybe five hundred pounds. Its fur glowed a deep, warm rust color, its stripes crisp and black. Five hundred pounds of muscle and natural grace, edged with deadly fangs and claws. She felt more affinity for this creature than she felt for most other human beings.

And it scared the hell out of her.

The tiger leaped straight at Shan, a blur of fur and flashing teeth. Shan dropped to the ground and rolled. Its back foot grazed her shoulder, and then it was over her, landing on its huge paws and turning to attack again.

Its ears lay flattened against its head. The tiger roared, its huge maw open wide, and ripped the silence of the room to shreds. The roar echoed and echoed, making it sound as if a hundred tigers filled the space instead of just one.

But one is enough, Shan thought.

Shan jumped to her feet and faced the tiger. A low growl crawled out of her throat, threatening. Promising. Chi hummed in her veins, down to her toes and up to her head.

And adrenaline.

And fear.

She let all these energies flow freely. Animals used their instincts as much as their eyes or their noses. She wanted this one to sense her power, to know that she, too, was more predator than prey.

The tiger's tail swished in the air behind it. The damn thing was close to pouncing. Close to leaping at her, claws extended, and trying to rip her throat out with its teeth.

Or, it might just bite her in the neck and wait until she suffocated before disemboweling her with its claws.

Not a pretty set of options, in her opinion.

Shan saw Ian at the edge of her vision, moving quickly from table to table--far faster than he'd been moving earlier. And then, she shut him out.

"It's just me and you," she whispered to the tiger. "Don't tangle with me, or it won't end well for either of us."

The tiger retreated, but only a step.

And then it reared up into the air and balanced on its back legs. It swatted the fragile distance between it and Shan, roaring. Shan could see the soft white fur on its belly, could smell the fresh meat of its last meal still on its breath.

"Oh, shit."

Her plan had worked too well. Now the tiger saw her as competition, as another tiger encroaching on its territory. The tiger danced in front of her. Its claws raked the air far faster than a creature that size had any right to do.

And it wanted to fight her as an equal.

Shan started to back up, but stopped herself. If she showed too much fear, that mass of fur and teeth would be all over her. On the other hand... She took a step back, and a paw whizzed by her head.

Shan felt her mind and body shifting more to fear than strength, and she gritted her teeth to make it stop. She flipped up and forward. She landed softly on an exhibit table near the tiger, her feet on either side of a small stone artifact. Hopefully the pressure sensors were keyed to the artifacts, and not the table. On the other hand, she'd rather be fighting a dozen guards than the beast before her.

No, not until Ian finds the jade animals.

The tiger dropped to all fours, and pounced.

Shan leaped to the side, cartwheeling along the table but keeping her hands and feet off the artifacts. The tiger cleared the table completely. Its claws screeched along the marble floor as it stopped itself. Then it spun around to face her again, snarling.

Shan spared a moment to scan the room for weapons. Not far off, on the wall, Ashton had a display of mostly ornamental swords and spears. But it was the staff that caught her eye. Ornamental or not, that just might keep the tiger at a safe distance.

She ran across the black velvety tables, skipping her feet over small artifacts and hopping over the big ones. Shan didn't look back, just kept her gaze on the staff. When she got close enough, she jumped, somersaulted, and plucked the smooth wooden staff from the wall. She landed softly on the marble floor, the staff resting in her hand just as it did in one of her practice routines.

But the tiger hadn't followed her. Instead, it was back where she'd left it, and it was closing in on Ian.

Ian pressed his back against the wall, his gaze darting left and right for some sort of opening. But the tiger wasn't leaving him any. From this distance, Shan was awed by the tiger's size. It made Ian look like a child, a plaything--and Ian was a hell of a lot taller than she.

"Over here!" Shan pulled out of her staff pose and ran straight at the tiger, yelling.

The tiger's massive head turned in her direction, and it roared its response. It turned and bounded toward her.

Shan planted the tip of her staff on the floor and vaulted into the air. She held onto the top with both hands and kicked. Her foot caught the leaping tiger in the head.

The tiger crashed to the ground, knocking the base of the staff. Shan tumbled hard against the cool marble and regained her feet. She twirled the staff in a wild figure eight until it whirred through the air, its tips blurred with speed. The tiger reared and clawed the air, but was too smart to actually test the wooden barrier Shan had created.

Eight feet tall the tiger stood. Muscle and fur and teeth and claws. Tigers could swim and climb, fight and hunt, leap and balance. It could easily fit her entire head inside its mouth. Shan spun her staff, her heart thudding loudly in her ears.

"They're not here," Ian called from across the room. "I've checked every table."

"They have to be!" Shan yelled back. Her grip on the staff was starting to slip. She spun the weapon behind her back, around, behind her neck, and in a wide arc in front of her, forcing the tiger back. If the tiger called her bluff, she'd only get one chance to hit it before its claws sank into her flesh.

"No," Ian called. "Trust me, they're not here."

If the jade animals weren't here, it meant Victor Ashton wasn't intending to auction them off.

It meant he intended to use them.

Shan looked at the snarling beast in front of her. The tiger radiated raw, untamed power. And the desire for fresh, hot blood. Shan's blood.

"Then let's get the hell out of here," Shan yelled.

"No arguments from me," Ian said. "Just let me know if you need a distraction."

Shan nodded. She spun her staff, mixing up the routine to keep the tiger on the defensive. When she saw Ian disappear behind the double-doors where they had entered, she focused everything on the tiger. And on her plan of escape.

Despite the spinning six-foot-long piece of wood in front of it, the tiger was becoming more bold. It lashed out with a paw and connected with her staff, knocking it from her hands. As the staff clattered to the floor some fifteen feet away, Shan forced herself to stay in control of her fear. To take the energy and divert it into action.

The tiger leaped. Shan dodged, but not fast enough. Her cheek burned as the tiger's claws snagged her flesh and ripped a trio of gashes. Shallow, judging by the fact that she could still use her jaw. Shallow but searing.

But she kept moving. Dodging. Flipping over tables. Flat-out running. Shan yanked the black velvet from one of the tables and threw it over the tiger's charging head. Artifacts flew into the air. Something smashed. Somewhere, Shan knew, alarms were going off.

But, more importantly, the tiger slid to a stop.

It growled and roared, shaking its head and body in attempt to free itself. But Shan didn't stick around to watch the show. She sped across the remaining tables and leaped for the doors. Her hand found the latch, and she pulled.

It didn't budge. Ian had locked the door behind him.

"Ian!"

Shan pounded on the door, then stepped back and kicked it with her heel. The door shuddered, but held. She'd need a lot more weight if she wanted to break it down.

She turned back to the tiger. It had shaken the velvet blanket off of most of its head and shoulders, and was now reorienting itself.

Its gaze found her again.

"Ian, let me out!"

Shan threw her shoulder against the door. She backed up and kicked it. And again. And again. Her heel slammed against the heavy wood. Five more minutes, and she'd break it down, easy.

But she didn't have five more minutes. She didn't even have one.

The tiger's claws screeched against the marble floor as it bounded toward her. Gritting her teeth, Shan held her ground. Sweat trickled down the side of her face and mixed with the blood from the tiger's scratches. Her legs told her to run, leap, hell, even to fly away from that tiger. But her mind proved stronger.

The tiger roared, showing off its four-inch fangs. Under different circumstances, Shan might marvel at its beauty, at the amazing pattern of stripes covering its face and back--as unique to the tiger as fingerprints were to a human.

Instead, she stood with her back to the locked doors and let the tiger come.

It leaped when it was still over a dozen feet away. Five hundred pounds of cat hurtled toward her, claws extended. Shan stared into its eyes, into those fiery pits of pure animal fury.

And dove.

She was still rolling when the tiger's body crashed into the doors and ripped them from their hinges. The tiger disappeared into the other room.

Ian
!

Shan rolled to her feet and ran after the tiger. "Come back here, you bastard," she screamed at it. The tiger roared. Something heavy thudded to the floor.

She got to the doorway just in time to see the tiger pounce at the hulking form of Leopard Man. Ian lay crumpled against the wall, rubbing his throat. The thudding sound had been him.

Ian looked up. His gaze met hers. Shan spared him a worried glance, then turned her attention back to the two deadly creatures sharing the room with them.

Leopard Man, probably three hundred pounds himself, shook off the tiger in a shower of red droplets. He grabbed a device clipped to his pants and pressed a button. The tiger howled and reared back. Leopard Man pressed the device again. The tiger fled, running right past Shan and out into the main room.

While the man was still focused on the tiger, Shan leaped at him with a flying kick.

And bounced off his massive torso like a rubber ball. She fell, hard, and winced at the pain shooting up her leg. The man's body felt like solid iron. He reached down to grab Shan's ankle, but she scuttled out of the way.

"He said you would be in here, when he didn't see you at the fight," he said in Mandarin, probably referring to Ashton. "You look tighter than that other Jade Circle bitch--the one with the snake." The man grinned. "If she'd begged like I asked, I would have killed her much faster."

So this thing had raped and killed Chen Sun? Instantly, Sun's smiling face appeared in Shan's mind, but she shut it out. Bile rose in her throat. The tiger fought to defend itself, its territory. It fought to survive. But this thing that called itself a man--this beast--took pleasure in the pain of others. He used his power to destroy and humiliate.

Now was not the time for anger or disgust, however violently they tried to overtake her senses. Shan emptied her mind, relaxed her body into readiness. This fight was new. This fight was different.

This fight would end in death.

The man bent and punched for Shan's gut. She rolled to the side and saw his fist smash into the floor.
Six inches
into the floor. She kept rolling, trying to draw him away from the corner where Ian was still trapped. Leopard Man followed.

Shan leaped to her feet. The man punched. She dodged. If even a single one of his strikes connected to her body, he'd break every bone he touched. Including her skull.

In contrast, if she hit him anywhere but in his most vulnerable spots, she'd likely hurt herself more than him.

On the next punch, Shan dove between his legs. As she did so, she swept her right foot up and drove her heel into his groin. Most men would have hit the floor immediately. Leopard Man just grunted and turned around.

He reached for her arm. She swiveled, grabbed his wrist for leverage, and kicked him in the bundle of nerves at his underarm. He staggered back a step, clearly surprised. For all his strength, the huge bastard was slow. Yet another example of an incomplete jade circle resulting in an incomplete person.

He kicked at her while she was still on the ground. Shan saw it coming and rolled backward. He kicked again, faster. This time, the tip of his foot caught her in the chest. Shan flew up and backward. Her back collided with a stone pedestal. She fell, face down, onto the marble floor, and groaned.

"She was limber like a gymnast," Leopard Man said, still in Mandarin. "I put her body in positions that would have killed other women."

Shan swallowed thickly and pushed herself off the floor. Her back started to ache, but adrenaline quickly washed away the pain. At least for now. She refused to respond to this man. He was trying to taunt her, trying to force her to make a mistake. But she fought on her own terms, not some--

"You unbelievable bastard."

It was Ian. He was standing now, his perfect tux scuffed and hanging awkwardly across his shoulders, the angles of his face accentuated by his anger.

Leopard Man turned and smiled, as if he'd forgotten that Ian was even in the room with them. Well, he remembered now. The man looked back at Shan.

"Is your man a good lay? I'm not picky about my toys."

Shan charged. She leaped onto Leopard Man's back, and onto the back of the huge cat tattooed there.

At first, the man laughed. A huge, booming sound that jarred her teeth. She tried to snap his spine, but the muscles in his neck were too strong. She went for his eyes, but his big, meaty hand swatted her fingers away.

Under the ears
.

Shan squeezed her thighs to hold herself in place, then drove her thumbs into the tiny soft spots under each of Leopard Man's ears.

He shrieked and dropped the tiger device. As he clutched at his ears, Shan dropped to her feet and lunged for the device. She got to it a second after one of Leopard Man's feet smashed it into shards of plastic.