Trancing the Tiger (Chinese Zodiac Romance Series Book 1) (37 page)

The stuff of nightmares. Only, they were real.

“Once they’ve escaped
Dìyù
—Hell— they seek immortality.” Sheng grimaced. “Through the consumption of humans souls and the destruction of the world, basically.”

Her uncle’s head was thrown back, an eerie glow beaming from him as he summoned the demons. She shuddered. This was what her father had tried to prevent his brother from doing. It hadn’t worked. Stealing the Dragon from her uncle served not to discourage but whet his appetite for power.

Her mind ran back over the letters between her father and uncle. The warnings. These weren’t the only demons the Ghee Hin had released. Oh no, they were, in fact, merely minions of a much greater evil.

The Plague God, Wen Shen.

“You did this. You unleashed the Plague God. You killed
millions
of innocent people. Children. Mothers. Fathers.” Her hand wavered in the air as she pointed an accusing finger at her uncle. “You’re insane. I—”

Sheng snatched her hand. “We’ve a bigger problem than your uncle’s mental health.”

“You can surrender or you can try to fight your way out.” Snake jerked his chin toward the waiting demons. “Either way, you’ll join with us.”

Bending to her ear, Sheng whispered, “If we can get out of here, I’ll find us someplace safe. Will you fight with me?”

She planted her lips against his. “Always.”

Tiger’s claws cloaked Sheng’s hand, and he slashed them forward. “Yeah, we’ll take the third option. Slaughtering your asses.”

“So be it.” Snake smirked as he waved for his minions to attack.

One of the demons leapt onto the courtyard, landing twenty feet from Sheng and Lucy. It screeched and flashed in and out of its corporeal form, advancing. The others followed suit. Hordes of them. They kept coming until the dark, menacing creatures filled every inch of space between Lucy and Sheng and safety.

Sheng handed her a dagger he pulled from his boot while he relied on Tiger’s claws. Keeping their backs to each other, they struck at the demons.

Her first blow slashed straight through one’s chest and the creature splintered in front of her. By the time she landed her second strike, Sheng had already cut down several of the demons. Their bodies shattered like glass upon contact, their fragile link to this world severed.

Her fortitude renewed, she concentrated on vanquishing the demons back to
Dìyù
.

She didn’t dare count how many flowed over the side of the roof. If she and Sheng managed to cut through the demons, they could carve a path to safety.

A demon with bat-like wings vaulted onto the shoulders of the one she danced around. As she drove forward to strike the demon below, the one atop slashed its claws across her shoulder, slicing her flesh. She cried out and dropped her blade as her legs buckled. Stumbling, she collapsed onto the ground.

The demons swarmed her, but Sheng leapt to her aid, crouching protectively over her body. “Use the Rabbit, Lucy.”

The second she did as instructed, cloaking Rabbit over herself, Sheng completed the circle. The haze of their spirits floated around them, through them. A demon lashed out at the shield and reared back instantly, shrieking as its skin sizzled.

Ha! Their circle proved too holy for these evil spirits.

The other demons retreated from their comrade’s melting flesh, regrouping.

Sheng helped her to her feet, one hand putting pressure on her bleeding wound. Crimson liquid oozed from between his fingers, dripping onto the ground until the healing power of the circle spread across the gash. She grimaced at the searing sensation, but refused to give up.

Because their only other option was far worse than death.

Damnation.

Chapter 29

Fuck. Too many.
Sheng gritted his teeth. In the past ten minutes of battle, they’d barely cut a dent through the throng of demons.

More kept coming.

An endless sea of blackness, revealing the occasional glowing red or yellow eyes or brilliant snap of teeth. Xiaodan commanded them forth, his head thrown back, his orifices emitting a freakish neon radiation.

Thanks to the circle, Lucy’s injury had healed. She’d be fine if he ever got her out of here.

The holy energy would keep the demons at bay for a few minutes, until they realized they could break through the circle. It was just him and Lucy, after all. Two Chosen couldn’t manifest an impenetrable circle forever.

Damn. What had they done to the Council? Where the fuck were the others? His brother? Snake wouldn’t kill them, not when he might extract their spirits from them first.

Through Lucy.

No matter what, Sheng had to prevent them from capturing her. They had to continue fighting until they collapsed.

Each demon he sent back to
Dìyù
added to the flames of his vengeance. He’d cut them down, one by one, until his family rested, avenged.

Unless there was another way?

Lucy nodded to him as she resumed her fighting stance. The demons didn’t seem to attack her with the intention of killing her. They wanted her weakened, not dead.

Him? One hundred fucking percent dead.

Snake and Xiaodan had no use for the Tiger, not when the Dragon would command the Chosen. Giving someone else the Tiger meant introducing another variable they might not be able to control. By killing Sheng, they’d buy some time before the Jade Emperor sent Tiger into a new host.

Fuck yeah, that was the answer. His mind spun back to Lucy, to what her seemingly impotent Rabbit could do. “Lucy!” He whipped her around and hoped like hell she’d grasp what he inferred. “We can’t make it out of here.”

“Of course we can. Sheng?” Despair haunted her features as she looked to him to fix this. His heart seized with the knowledge she’d follow him anywhere.

Blind loyalty was precisely what he asked of her.

Fortifying the shield of the circle around them, he bent forward, kissed her lips once and murmured, “Trance me, Lucy.”

Her lips parted. Did that clever mind of hers arrive at the same conclusion he had?

Only one way out.

Death.

Or at least the pretense of it.

She stared down at her hands as they quivered, until she glared at them hard as if to force strength into herself she didn’t believe she possessed.

That’s my girl.

He snarled at the demons creeping up on him before they could finish the final act of their deception.

“We have to kill them all, Lucy, or die trying!” he shouted, though she was close enough for him to whisper.

“I can’t, Sheng. I don’t want to die.”

Ah, she was a terrific actress. He almost grinned. Instead, he hardened his features and growled. “I’m not giving you a fucking choice. Fight. Better to die an honorable death.”

The one thing he counted on when it came to the bad guys? They assumed everyone acted with the same nefarious intentions they did.

Selflessness never registered in their minds.

He howled as Lucy stabbed him in the abdomen with her knife, the blade angled to draw blood, but not kill. As he crashed to the ground, she sucked the essence of the Tiger from his body into hers. The haze generated by their circle concealed her slipping the Rabbit into him.

Rabbit’s spirit washed over him, familiar and yet entirely different from Tiger. Still, he knew what to do, how to control the beast.

Lucy bent forward and bared Tiger’s fangs, stunning Rabbit into a trance.

The world around him slowed. The sounds dulled before everything spun into a heightened state.

His vision sharpened. Her blurred form shone above him as she rose from his side and spoke. The precise intonations of her voice sang over him, through him. Beautiful, as if watching a symphony but experiencing the sounds instead of only listening to them.

“Call off your demons,
Shūshu
. I will fight them no more.”

His head lolled to the side. She hugged her arms across her middle, evincing the most perfect victim.

Vulnerable. Weak. Defeated.

Too bad they didn’t fucking suspect the Tiger rested within her, poised to strike.

Xiaodan snapped his fingers. A whirlwind swept over him, lashing onto the wisps of the demons, hauling them into its center, and swallowing them into the black hole at its apex.

One threat down, three to go.

Keep at it, Lucy.

“A little harsh to kill him.” Snake sneered, jerking his head toward Sheng.

“I…I…” The bloody knife clattered to the ground. She wept and stared at her hands, trembling convincingly in front of her. “He said he’d make me fight until we died. I don’t want to d-die.” Her sobbing was bloody perfect. A true damsel in distress, she’d bring out the protective nature in any man.

“There, there,
sayang
.” Xiaodan strode to her side and patted her arm. “It’s for the best. Li never had a place on our new Council. But you do.”

“I do?” Her voice squeaked.

“Of course. You are my flesh and blood.”

She slapped a hand over her mouth as though to stifle more sobs. “Bring me the Dragon. I will place it in whatever host you wish.”

“Yes,
sayang
. I know you will.” Xiaodan snapped orders at Boar.

She sniffed into her uncle’s shoulder. “Is he really dead?”

***

Lucy nearly gagged on her uncle’s cologne. Musk…and evil. She forced the fake tears, playing the weak female he perceived her to be.

Xiaodan released her and hovered above Sheng. The trance would wear off any second and then… Bang! A surge of energy like nothing he’d ever experienced.

Sheng would kill her uncle. He had to because Xiaodan controlled the horde of demons.

Her
target was Snake.

Tiger prowled inside her. Though the spirit had been itching to sink its fangs into Snake’s host for years, death wasn’t Snake’s fate. Not today.

Xiaodan withdrew a knife from his waistband. “Let’s make sure, eh?”

What? No! Just as her heart lodged in her throat and panic seized her, a low rumble rent the air.

Sheng snapped out of the trance, seized the knife, twisted her uncle’s arm, and stabbed him straight through the heart.

Her uncle’s eyes bulged and his tongue flopped around like a fish out of water, a hoarse cry escaping his throat. He sank to his knees before collapsing onto his face.

Snake’s jaw dropped as he lurched toward Sheng, but she caught him first. Cloaking the Tiger over herself, she snared his ankle. Drawing upon her
Shèhúnzéi
powers, she sucked the Snake from him. His shrill cry raised the hair on her arms.

After snatching up an ornamental axe hung on a plaque inside the corridor, Sheng snapped, “Don’t watch, Lucy.”

Yet she had to. He brought the axe’s blade down swiftly and efficiently, rending her uncle’s head from his body. The blade clanged against the stone tiles beneath. He tossed the axe aside as both of them advanced on Snake.

The man stared at his hands, his features twisted in horror. “What have you done to me? Give it back. Give it back!” He lunged at her, but Sheng stopped him with a punch straight to his face, knocking him backward.

At that moment, Boar returned, prodding a shackled Delun in front of him. The second Boar stepped into the scene, he spun on his heel, fleeing.

Sheng rushed to Delun’s side, but Dragon’s talons had already sliced through his shackles.

“Should we go after him?” Delun inquired.

Sheng shook his head. “The Council will deal with him and Snake. Or should I say, Zhao, since we can’t be calling you
Snake
anymore.” His lips curved in a superior grin as Zhao cast him a glower of pure menace.

“The Council.” Lucy rushed past them, inside and up the stairs to the Grand Chamber. The Matchmaker, the Elders, their
Kongsi
. They were inside.
Please don’t let them be harmed.

She dashed to the doors and wrenched them open.

A pungent, inky mist choked the oxygen from her lungs. She pressed the sleeve of her shirt over her nose and drove forward until her feet kicked something solid. A leg!

Squatting, she probed until her hands hooked around a thick waist. She dragged the figure a few feet into the corridor where Sheng rushed past her and inside. She squinted at the man, recognizing him as Phoenix. She slapped his cheek once. He gasped and relief flooded her chest.

“Lucy?” He choked and coughed into his fist. “Where, what?”

“You’re safe now, but I have to get the others.” She nodded and dashed back into the room, passing Sheng and Delun dragging two bodies each on their way out.

Cloaking the Tiger over her, she scanned the room, detecting the Matchmaker. She bounded to the Matchmaker’s side and hauled her into the corridor. The space soon filled with coughing, choking members of the Council.

After they’d dragged out the last victim, Sheng threw his arms around her, crushing her against his chest. She soaked in his embrace, basking in the warmth of his love.

“You’re a bloody good actress, Lucy.” He winked before planting his mouth against hers.

Pulling back from their kiss, she smiled. “You’re not so bad, either.”

“Now, about Tiger?” His brow quirked.