Rogue Descendant (Nikki Glass) - By Jenna Black Page 0,22

it literally.

“Oh, come on, you dumb animal,” Logan said, moving to put himself between me and the tiger. “She’s no threat. I’m the one you have to worry about.”

Sita roared, and I didn’t know if she was pissed off because Logan had gotten between her and her prey, or if she was smarter than your average tiger and was insulted by the “dumb animal” comment. Logan crouched, ready for the tiger’s attack, but Sita decided that was a good time to remind us that she wasn’t really a tiger and was in fact a supernatural being. Instead of attacking Logan to get him out of the way, she merely leapt over him, her ridiculously powerful haunches lifting her so high that she sailed over the point of Logan’s knife as he tried to strike at her.

“Shit!” I yelled succinctly, and though I knew running would only stimulate her predatory instincts, I didn’t have a choice.

I bolted for the door as Logan yelled again, trying in vain to distract Sita. I could have sworn I felt the vibration of her footsteps as she thundered after me, but that was probably just my imagination. I knew better than to look over my shoulder, because the last thing I needed was to lose speed.

I made it to the door and shoved it open, skidding over the threshold and practically falling flat on my face. I turned to push the door closed, and saw that Sita was almost upon me. I pushed with all my might, and this time I really did knock myself down. But the door closed before Sita made it through, and for a moment, I lay there on the floor and tried to regain my breath and slow down my frantic heart.

Until Sita gave me another nasty reminder that she wasn’t a natural tiger and passed right through the door.

There was nothing I could do to defend myself. I was lying on my back on the floor, gasping for breath, and she was practically on top of me. She roared directly in my face, so close I could feel the heat and dampness of her breath. I closed my eyes and tried to brace myself for the pain I was about to suffer, and the horrifying ordeal of death that would come shortly after.

She roared again, nowhere near as close to my face, and I opened my eyes to see that Logan stood in the doorway and had grabbed her tail with his left hand. That finally got her attention, and she turned to swat at him with one massive paw. He let go of her tail and jumped backward, moving faster than should have been possible, and she just missed him. I could almost see her moment of indecision, as she tried to decide which of us she wanted to kill first.

“Sita, stop it!”

Jamaal’s voice was about the most welcome thing I’d ever heard. Sita gave a snarl that sounded almost surly. I didn’t want to attract her attention by moving while she was still in easy swatting range, but I didn’t much like lying flat on my back on the floor, so I cautiously pushed myself up into a sitting position.

Between Sita and Logan, my vision was well and truly blocked, and I couldn’t see Jamaal.

Logan couldn’t see Jamaal, either, because he was still focused on Sita, his knife at the ready. “I am going to kick your ass six ways from Sunday,” he said with feeling, and he wasn’t talking to the tiger.

Sita roared out another challenge, this one directed at Logan, not me.

“No!” Jamaal yelled, and his hand clamped down on Logan’s shoulder and pulled him back out of the doorway. “He didn’t mean it!” Jamaal said to Sita. “It was a figure of speech.”

I blinked at him. He looked terrible, his clothes drenched with sweat, his eyes bloodshot, but at least he wasn’t passed out somewhere.

“Does she understand you?” I asked.

Jamaal nodded. “I’m not sure exactly how much she understands, but yeah, she definitely understood that.”

Yet another reminder that she wasn’t a normal tiger. “Well, maybe you could have a talk with her about the difference between the good guys and the bad guys.”

Sita snorted, and flicked her tail across my face. I took that as an insult, though if she had to hit me with something, I definitely preferred her tail to her paws.

“Enough excitement for one day, sweetheart,” Jamaal said, smiling fondly at the creature that had just almost eaten Logan and me