Rogue Descendant (Nikki Glass) - By Jenna Black Page 0,9
would disappear if he passed out. It was also possible she wouldn’t, which would be bad.
“The name suits her,” I said, rather inanely. She wasn’t creeping closer anymore, but she was still giving me the evil eye, and the tip of her tail was twitching. In a house cat, that wasn’t a good sign. I didn’t know what it meant in a tiger, but I tended to think it was bad. “She’s truly magnificent,” I continued, “but don’t you think it’s time for her to go away now?”
Sita’s lips pulled back in a snarl, as if she’d understood me and been insulted. Maybe she had.
“Come here, Sita,” he called, and she obeyed, though she kept me pinned with her eyes the entire way.
Jamaal pushed away from the tree when Sita was an arm’s length away, and I saw his legs trembling. He was pushing himself too hard, and it was dangerous as hell. Sita might not be able to do me permanent harm, but if he passed out and left her to her own devices . . . We didn’t have any close neighbors—that was part of the point of the mansion—but the tiger wouldn’t have to go very far to find more vulnerable prey.
I bit my tongue to stop myself from editorializing. The last thing I wanted to do was get Jamaal’s back up while he had a lethal carnivore under tenuous control. So instead of urging him to hurry the hell up and put Sita away, I stood there and held my breath.
Jamaal reached out toward the tiger with a shaking hand, and she finally dragged her attention away from me. She closed her eyes and pressed her head up against his hand in what looked like an affectionate gesture. She followed that gesture by butting her head against his hip. I couldn’t say with any accuracy how big Sita was, but if I had to guess, I’d say she weighed around five hundred pounds, most of it muscle. Her gentle head-butt was too much for Jamaal’s shaky legs, and he went down.
“Jamaal!” I cried, instinctively taking a step toward him.
Sita whirled on me with a roar that made my bones vibrate, putting herself between me and Jamaal and crouching menacingly. But she didn’t pounce on me, and I had the feeling she was defending Jamaal, rather than attacking me. I wasn’t about to argue with her, and I stepped back slowly, trying to give her some space without making her want to chase me.
Luckily, Jamaal had only lost his balance, not passed out. While I stood there with my heart in my throat, he reached up and touched Sita’s flank. She gave me one last snarl, then disappeared.
For a couple of minutes, neither one of us moved. Jamaal lay on his back on the ground, his eyes closed as the sweat evaporated from his skin. His breathing was deep and steady, and I might have thought he’d passed out after all if it weren’t for his bent knees, which didn’t flop to the side as they would if he were unconscious. For myself, I continued to stand still, willing the adrenaline to recede.
Unfortunately, when I didn’t have the heady rush of adrenaline keeping me warm, I noticed that I was freezing. I was as sweaty as Jamaal from my run, and I was wearing even less clothing. It was a nice day for January, but it was still January. I shivered and crossed my arms in a vain attempt to keep warm.
“What are you doing here, Nikki?” Jamaal asked without opening his eyes.
“I was running,” I answered, although surely he’d figured that out on his own based on how I was dressed. “Did you send Sita out to stalk me, or was that her own idea?” Jamaal wasn’t what I’d call the mischievous sort, and I doubted he’d have used Sita to scare me like that, but I didn’t much like the idea of a magical tiger with a mind of its own.
For a moment, I thought he wasn’t going to answer me, which was answer enough in its own way. Then he opened his eyes and levered himself up into a sitting position with an obvious effort. I almost reached out and offered him a hand, but I knew better by now. Jamaal was not the type to graciously accept help of any kind.
“My guess is she heard you running and decided to investigate the potential threat,” he said. “You might have noticed she’s a little