Bullet Page 0,174

thin disguise for her fear. She was so afraid, afraid of me, afraid of how weak she was, afraid that her mother had sent her here to die.

“Let go!”

I let go of the joint lock but not the arm. I rode that down so that I was straddling her waist, pinning both her arms to the floor.

Fear and anger fought in her eyes, down her skin, across the energy of the red tigress. She tried for bold, and said, “Are you going to fuck me, too? Is that all you know how to do here in St. Louis?”

I laughed, and felt my eyes go, not tiger, but vampire. My eyes if I’d been one for real. I felt the fear win out over the anger, as I moved her arm down, so that I could pin it under one knee. She could have fought me. She had the strength, but for all she tried to do she could have been human; hell, most people would have fought, but she didn’t. I put my hand against the back of her neck. Her skin was warm; the small curls at the back of her neck, silky against my hand.

“What are you doing?” she whispered.

“Making my point,” I said, as I leaned into her. I kissed her, and she froze against me, as if she didn’t know what to do. I let my tiger spill into my mouth, and into hers. Not because I was about to change, or in danger, but because I needed her never to fight me again.

I tried to think, but the red tiger would have killed her, and distant behind that was a very practical thought, that if we did this there would be no more arguing. I looked up from the woman under me and found Jean-Claude standing by me. I knew it wasn’t my thought. The problem was that I agreed with that very practical, very ruthless thought. It’s hard to fight the bad thought when you agree with it.

I had a moment of choice, and then I closed my eyes and I kissed her. It wasn’t just the red tiger that spilled through me, it was all the other colors, only gold held back, but the others spilled into my mouth and across my lips and into her. The energies tore her apart. I straightened up a second before a wave of clear, warm fluid and blood exploded across me. The violence of it tore screams from her, her body bucking underneath mine, until a tiger lay underneath me, shivering as if everything hurt. Her fur was so dark a red it was almost as black as her stripes. She stared up at me with the same eyes, but now they were full of pain, and very afraid.

I got up from her, a little shaky on my heels. Jean-Claude was there to take my hand, to steady me. I looked into his eyes and they were as blue and blind with power as mine were brown and black with it. I was covered in blood and fluid.

“The dress is ruined,” I said.

He smiled. “We’ll buy another.” He led me until we stood in front of the gold tiger who was still kneeling between the guards. His eyes were a little wide, lips parted. He was afraid of us.

“Do I need to make my point again?” I asked.

“What point do you want to make?” he asked.

“That the tigers are ours. That we can be Master of Tigers. That’s what you and the rest of your people came to St. Louis to find out, isn’t it?”

“You read that from Jade’s mind,” he said.

“We did,” Jean-Claude said. Jake had also told us that, but we let that slide. We were winning. Never overexplain when you’re winning.

“My master knows what I know. He knows you only need gold to complete the tigers.”

That was our cue, or rather Devil’s and Envy’s. We were keeping the other golden tigers hidden, but the two that were ours would get trotted out. The rest could stay hidden for now.

I didn’t have to use a phone. I just thought of Dev, and Jean-Claude did the same for Envy. Micah had Dev by the hand and led him to me. His hand wrapped around mine and my skin was flushed and warm, like being wrapped in a blanket of comfortable power. Richard had Envy by the hand and handed her to Jean-Claude.

The other golden stared at them. “The young ones we cared for were massacred.