Tiger Eye (40 page)

“I would have preferred death!” Hari reached over Dela’s body to grab Long Nü around the neck. “You did this, didn’t you? You killed her!”

“To save you! To break the cycle. There is a price for everything, Hari.
Everything.”

“And what price to bring her back?” He dragged Long Nü close. “What price would I pay?”

“A piece of your heart,” she whispered. “A piece of your heart, in the shape of your skin.”

“Take it, then,” he said, throwing out his arms. “Give it to her. She is all the heart I need.”

“As you say,” Long Nü breathed, after a heart-stopping moment of silence. “Kiss her, Hari. Give Dela back the breath of life. Give her your skin.”

Hari covered Dela’s mouth, kissing her with every ounce of passion and love he could muster, willing her to live, begging it with every fiber of his being. Tears ran down his face, bathing her cheeks, and he tugged her close into his arms, falling, losing himself to everything but her cool still lips. He breathed for her, wishing dreams into her head, beseeching her with desire, with his soul—because if she left him he would follow.

Light filled him, golden, soft, flooding his vision with unearthly beauty. The shimmering vision passed from his body
into Dela’s, sinking into her skin. She glowed, and Hari’s heart did not feel lessened—he felt so full he might burst, and the beast sidled against the light, wild and content.

Dela’s lips moved. Hari choked back a sob and he clutched her tight against his chest, drinking in her sudden warmth, the breath escaping from her sweet mouth. He felt her hands creep into his hair, and he tasted tears.

“I love you,” he whispered against her lips. “Oh, Delilah, why? I would have died for you.”

“I wanted you to live,” she murmured, caressing his throat with her fingers. “I wanted you to live for me. And you did.”

Chapter Nineteen

Help came from an unexpected source.

As Artur and the others later explained, the Suburban quickly proved unfixable, while attempts to flag down cars were met with less than polite responses from passing motorists. The four men were preparing themselves for a long, directionless walk, when a battered minivan pulled up. The driver had a familiar face.

“All you bastards are lucky I’m a curious fellow,” Koni said, sitting naked in the driver’s seat.

Curious enough to change shape and follow everyone home from the Kosmo Klub, tracking their movements since that night. Sharp enough to see the Magi kidnap Dela, and tail him to his mountain home. Concerned enough to return and find her friends—and just crazy enough to steal a car when he flew over their stalled vehicle.

Long Nü was the first to hear the car’s approach, and she warned the others with a sharp word. Scales rippled down her
wrist, dancing color against flesh, shaping bone—and then in an instant, gone. Humanity restored. She glided into the shadows, haunting the rim of light coming from the house windows some distance away.

Hari cradled Dela in his lap, his arms warm around her shoulders. He could not stop touching her, his lips pressed against her hair, her cheeks, her brow. Lise sat near them, hugging herself. The handcuffs were gone—Dela had just finished snapping them off.

Dela closed her eyes, feeling a warm glow inside her heart. Like an etching in steel, the imprint of something unnamed and wild slowly turned circles in her chest.

“I was dead,” she said to Hari. “What did you do?”

Hari kissed her mouth. “I gave you my skin.”

“I can feel it.” Sorrow mixed with joy. Hari seemed to see the conflict in Dela’s eyes. He held her face between tender hands.

“The transformation is a superficial thing. What matters is the spirit
within
the skin. The tiger is still inside me, Delilah. Just as now, a part of it is inside you. That is the way it should be, and I am not sorry.”

“Hari,” Dela said, hesitating. “I want you to know … the Magi … he never … he never touched me. Not like that.”

Hari briefly closed his eyes, brushing her cheeks with his fingertips.

A minivan drove up the long track; Artur was the first out, hitting the ground at a run. He said nothing when he saw Dela’s face, but his eyes were so very grave Dela held out her hands to touch him.

“It’s not that bad,” she said. “Please, don’t look so worried.”

It was the truth. Whatever Hari had done, it had healed her ribs and some of her worst contusions. Most of her body still hurt and she was too exhausted to walk, but she would live. She would live.

Blue, Dean, and Eddie fussed worse than a pack of mother hens. Hari stood, cradling Dela in his arms. Beyond the men, Dela saw Lise tugging her blouse closed. She looked very uneasy and out of place, and she could not stop glancing at the dead Magi, still sprawled some distance away on the ground.

“Lise,” Dela called. The girl moved close, ducking her head when the men focused their attention on her. A strange expression passed over Eddie’s face. He shrugged off his denim jacket.

“Here,” he murmured, holding out the garment, careful not to touch her. Dela hid her smile as the girl took Eddie’s jacket, clutching the denim like it was a life vest.

“Lise,” she said again. Hari turned slightly so she could better see the girl’s face. “Do you have anyone we should contact?”

Lise tore her gaze away from Eddie’s face. “No. That man … he was all I had.”

Hari’s chest rumbled, and Dela reached out to touch Lise’s cheek. The girl’s breath caught, and Dela could see fear and hope fill her dark eyes.

“You’re not alone,” Dela said. “Don’t worry. We’ll take care of you.”

“Absolutely,” Eddie jumped in, blushing furiously when everyone looked at him. Dean bit his lip, fighting a grin.

“Um,” he coughed, trying to school his face into something resembling seriousness, “what should we do about El Freako?” He gestured at the Magi.

“I will take care of him,” Long Nü said, eliciting gasps as she solidified from the shadows. “I can hide his body in a place where no one will ever find him.”

Like your stomach?
Dela frowned. “What did the Magi mean when he said you had a bargain?”

Long Nü’s smile was cold, tight-lipped. “After I sold you the box and the Magi failed to waylay you, he came back to my
stand. The Magi knew I was a shape-shifter, and was afraid I would try to help Hari out of a sense of loyalty. I promised I would not.”

“You’re a shape-shifter?” Dean asked, somewhat skeptically. Long Nü’s eyes flashed, and she raised a clawed hand. Scales erupted along her flesh.

“Oh,” Dean breathed. “Yeah.”

“Why did you sell me the box?” Dela asked. “And why were you at that market in the first place? When I tried to find you again, everyone said you were dead. Later, I discovered some woman with an altered ID had taken your place.”

“Surely you will let me keep some mystery,” Long Nü chided, but she tapped her head. “I had a vision, many years ago, of the person to whom I should sell the box. I am nothing but patient. As for the rest …” This time her smile seemed genuine. “There are still some people left in the world who do not mind doing favors for dragons.”

Hari narrowed his eyes. “I know your face.”

“You know my grandfather’s face. Your friend, who came looking for you and found the Magi instead, possessed of an odd little box that smelled like a very familiar tiger. My grandfather, after wringing the tale from the Magi, attempted to kill the man—and found he could not. The Magi was immortal.

“The Magi managed to escape with the box, and though my grandfather searched for him, he never found another trace of the man. Until, almost a thousand years later, the Magi came seeking my father. The Magi wanted our help. He was desperate.” Long Nü shook her head. “You did not know it, Hari, but the Magi spent the past two thousand years linked to you. Everything you suffered, he felt. He experienced the deaths of every man you killed. When you slept, he felt the nothingness of the void crowding upon him. Even his own powers turned against him, causing him pain with every use.”

Dela glanced at Lise, wondering what the girl made of all this. She was listening carefully, her eyes wide, startled. Behind her, Dela noticed a familiar, very naked figure.

What is Koni doing here?
The shape-shifter seemed quite intent on looking anywhere but at Long Nü.

“Where do I come into this?” Lise asked, tugging Eddie’s jacket close around her shoulders. “Why did he want Hari to have sex with me?”

“He wanted Hari to have sex with you?” Eddie’s brow wrinkled.

“His own daughter,” Dela supplied, inviting grimaces and some speculative glances at Lise. Long Nü looked deep into the girl’s eyes.

“The Magi finally realized, correctly, that the only way to break the spell—and the connection—would be to exchange a life for the one he had already taken. For some reason, though, he believed the only way to do that would be to sacrifice someone who carried both his blood, and Hari’s.”

“He was going to kill me,” Lise whispered. “He was going to get Hari to have sex with me until I was pregnant, and then kill me. My own father.”

“He has been cultivating daughters for the past one thousand years, in the hope that if he found Hari and summoned him, he could force him to impregnate one of his children.”

“Does he have more daughters out there?” Dela asked, appalled.

“I do not know,” Long Nü admitted. “I also do not know why the Magi was unable to summon Hari in the first place, or how he lost possession of the box after escaping from my grandfather. There are some stories the Magi carried to his grave.”

“And how did
you
find me?” Hari asked.

“Good sex.” Long Nü smiled. Dean coughed and Artur patted his back. “I was … facing the wall, and saw the most curious little box on my lover’s nightstand. I recognized it immediately,
and in the morning took it with me. That was over a hundred years ago. I was
much
younger.”

“Information overload,” Lise said, holding her head. “But I think I’ll recover.”

“Thank you,” Dela said to Long Nü. “For everything.”

Long Nü inclined her head. “It is you who should be thanked. It was my grandfather’s last wish that his family help Hari. We might have spent the past two thousand years searching for him, but you were the one person who could truly set him free.”

Blue found two Jeeps parked on the other side of the house, and he and Eddie drove them close to where everyone was still gathered.

“This guy had a thing for Cherokees,” Blue commented. “Makes me think he was the one following us that night we left Le Soleil.”

“I was nearby,” Long Nü said, “but I could not interfere. I, ah, was taking care of your other problem.”

“She killed Wen Zhang,” Dela said. Dean jumped into the air, crowing, and wrapped the dragon woman up in a tight bear hug. Her golden eyes sprang wide with surprise.

“You’re my kind of lady!” Dean grinned, though his smile turned rather sickly when Long Nü raked a speculative gaze over his body.

“Uh,” he said. “You know, it’s a long drive back. Maybe we should get going.”

As they walked to the cars, Long Nü called out Koni’s name. The shape-shifter froze, and then very, very slowly walked back to the dragon woman. She shared several words with him, and he slowly nodded like a whipped dog.

“Wonder what she’s got on him?” Blue mused.

“Hell, man. He’s probably slept with her.” Dean buckled in, reaching back to help Hari settle Dela. Artur climbed into the Jeep.

“Where’s Eddie?” Dean asked, peering out the window.

“He is taking the girl back in the other Jeep,” Artur said. Dean opened his mouth.

“No jokes!” Dela said. Dean gave her an injured look.

Long Nü and Koni walked up to the car. Hari rolled down the window.

“Good-bye,” the dragon woman said.

“Will we see you again?” Hari asked.

“Yes,” she promised. “Your family and mine are connected, Hari.”

“Thank you,” he said. “For all you’ve done.”

She smiled, and stepped away from the car. Koni shrugged, glancing from her to the humans. “I’m, uh, staying behind to help clean up.”

“Don’t be a stranger,” said Blue, grinning.

As they drove away, Dela glanced over her shoulder through the back window. Golden light filled the night, and just as the car rounded a curve in the gravel driveway, she caught sight of a coiled body, rearing up toward the starry sky.

Dela glanced at Hari, and found him watching her. He brushed his lips against her mouth. Warmth spread through her body, chasing away pain and fatigue.

Now this …
this
was magic.

Epilogue

Six months later, Le Soleil hosted Dela Reese’s return to the art world.

The guests at the private dinner were few in number, but spirits were high, and the walls rang with laughter as mouthwatering dishes were passed around the sizeable circular table.

“I swear,” Kit howled, leaning into Blue’s shoulder, “Maz Randall nearly died when he saw your new sculptures,
especially
the one of that tiger-man. Dela, honest to God, I saw him touch his
loins
.”

Cheers erupted, with quite a few amused glances thrown at Hari. It seemed that everyone knew who had inspired those impressive nether regions—even if the other qualities of the sculpture remained mere fantasy to some.

Hari sighed, trying not to smile.

“Personally,” said Pierre, “the dragon woman is my favorite. I might just buy that one for my home, if you do not mind, Dela.”

“She’s yours,” Dela said. “Consider her a gift in return for this lovely party. I haven’t had so much fun in ages.”

“Are we still going to the Kosmo Klub?” Dean asked. “If we are, I need to pad my ass. Unless
Artuuur
wants to distract Rose for me.”

Artur smiled into his glass of wine. “A distraction will be unnecessary. I believe
I
made the better impression.”

Which led to an immediate argument over who was the sexier man.

Dela laughed, leaning against Hari. He pulled her close and kissed her cheek, his warm chin rubbing against her skin. Desire thrilled through Dela’s body, and she ran her fingers along Hari’s thigh, marking the hours until they returned to the hotel.