Trancing the Tiger (Chinese Zodiac Romance Series Book 1) (9 page)

Master? Spirits?

Lucy peered over the window ledge, an icy shiver of awareness rippling down her spine. Sheng crooked his fingers at his opponents who both huffed as though out of breath, sweat glistening on their bare chests. Their right shoulders bore the same
yin-yang
tat as Sheng. Beneath her leather jacket, did Mei sport one too?

Sheng, on the other hand, appeared cool, like he hadn’t exerted himself in the least.

“What are they doing?” Mei whispered.

“Sheng, Fang, and Kassian are fighting. I think Sheng’s winning.”

“See anything else?”

Lucy scowled, beyond frustrated everyone kept asking her that.

The three men below sparred, their strikes knocking each other so fast her eyes had trouble focusing on the individual blows.

Sheng sprang into a back flip, dodging Fang’s arm as it swiped at him. Damn, he was agile. Back on his feet, he ducked a punch from Kassian and a kick from Fang without hesitation.

He must have studied his entire life to be that good. She’d never witnessed anyone fight as well as he did. A perfect blend of strength, agility, and grace.

He seemed to prefer a forward-weighted stance, offensive, and allowing for more aggressive strikes. Although he just as effortlessly fell into a backward-weighted stance, defending himself. If she were being objective, she’d venture he was going easy on his opponents, letting them get in more blows than he handed out. Regardless, his body defaulted to a crouching position.

Tiger.

The word floated through her mind, shivering across her skin. Each of the twelve animals in the Chinese Zodiac possessed positive and negative traits believed to define the personality of the people born into that specific year. It wasn’t unusual for a Chinese person to give their Zodiac animal considerable weight, even choosing occupations and relationships based upon the compatibility of their animals. Lucy’s mother had been a Sheep and her father a Horse—an ideal match. Their loving marriage was proof this belief had merit.

Tiger and Rabbit made suitable matches.
Nope, don’t go there.

Did Sheng truly believe he
was
a tiger? What about Mei? “Which animal are you?”

“Monkey.” She smiled, holding out her hand and wiggling her fingers. “Go on. Take my hand. Tell me what you feel.” Being born in the year of the Monkey placed Mei’s age around twenty. Sheng at twenty-six. If Kassian was an Ox and Fang a Rat, that made them twenty-seven and twenty-eight.

“Um, okay.” Lucy slipped her hand into Mei’s. Warmth pulsed through her. She tugged her hand away, but Mei held firm. Lucy glanced at the woman; Mei shook her head and jerked her chin toward their hands.

As Lucy stared, the lines between them blurred. Their fingers blended together. No, wait, the air between them fuzzed, like a cloud forming around Mei’s fingers. Her mouth dropped open, and Lucy squinted harder. The image of their hands grew hazy. Why didn’t it freak Mei out, too?

“Meet Monkey, Lucy.” After pulling back her hand, Mei cocked her head. “So, the Red Death, huh? What’s it like? I mean, I’ve examined the virus under a microscope, but I’ve never met an infected person. Do they really cry tears of blood?”

Lucy stared at the girl’s hand. How the hell—

“Amazing how anyone could survive. Well, I mean not you, because we’re practically immortal—”

“Mei.” The bellow from below jerked Lucy from the spell. “That’s enough. Bring Lucy down so we can see what she can do.”

Sheng. That was Sheng calling to them.

“Ah, damn him,” Mei muttered. She raised her voice to call through the window. “I said ‘practically,’ Li. I know we’re not really immortal. Sheesh.” She grumbled while waving toward the ladder for them to join the others below.

Wait. Sheng could hear them? This whole time? Lucy slapped her hands on her flaming cheeks.

Mei grinned. Mischievously. “We’ll try this again later.”

Uh-huh.
Later. When she had a clearer head. Lucy glanced at the girl’s
normal
hand.
Must’ve been a hallucination.

She climbed down the rope ladder and hopped off the last rung. Sheng greeted her, crowding her the second her feet made contact with the floor. He set his hand on her waist.

Tiger. He wants to touch me.

Heat flared from the point of contact on her lower back, the erotic flames spearing through her body. She pressed her hand against his pec in an effort to peel them apart, but his chest rumbled beneath her palm.

Almost like a purr.

He’d barely broken a sweat while the others wiped down with towels and guzzled bottles of water.

“Eyes on me, Lucy.” Using his finger, Sheng tilted her chin to his face. Her gaze stayed riveted on his mouth, on those lips he refused to press against hers.

Would he be a good kisser?

Was there any doubt?

He angled her face higher, tearing her analysis from his lips and forcing her to stare into his eyes. Hypnotizing. That’s what his eyes were. Shifting from black to a glinting, pale blue-gray. How could eyes even do that?

His rough finger continued to stroke her cheek and she felt herself drifting. Falling.

His warm breath mingled with hers, and the deeper she fell into his spell, the stronger her senses became. His masculine scent, spicy and intoxicating, floated through her nostrils, settling on her tongue. So vibrant she tasted him. Her ears detected his heartbeat. Strong, pounding. Louder than hers, which slowed to a dull thudding. Her muscles fell limp, and her body crashed to the floor.

Around her, muffled cries echoed as though from a distance. Her vision didn’t fade, but sharpened. Colors brightened, shapes enhanced. She tuned out the background noise, her focus on what was right in front of her. Of Sheng crouched above her body, his hands gliding over every curve and dip. His firm caress would have been sensual if not for the panicked tone of his commands.

Her gaze slid into his, mesmerized by those glinting eyes.

And then her breathing stopped.

***

Sheng ran his hands over Lucy’s body, fighting the dread icing his muscles. He cupped the back of her neck and brought her mouth closer to his face. Had she hit her head? His fingers found no lump. What the bloody hell was happening? One moment, they’d been flirting. The next, she’d slumped to the ground without a fucking warning.

“Mei. Kassian. Fang. Get help.” The shrill note of panic laced his voice. Lucy laid limp and lifeless in his arms. Hovering his hand over her mouth, he didn’t detect any sign of her breathing. Terrified she would die right here, in his arms, he laid her down, adjusted her neck, and parted her lips. Determination surged through him as he bent forward to begin resuscitation. He refused to lose her.

Dammit, Lucy. You’re not leaving me. Not like this.

Mei squatted at his side, ready to help him with chest compressions. He pinched Lucy’s nose, making sure her airway was clear.

Her eyes glazed over and her heart stopped beating.

Tiger roared in helpless confusion. Sheng slammed the beast back into its cage, requiring a clear head.

As he drew back to suck air into his lungs, Lucy gasped. Her body jerked, hands shooting forward, smacking his chest. The force flung him backward while she vaulted to her feet and launched into the trees.

Sheng righted himself. His shock was mirrored in Mei’s widened eyes. He sprang to his feet, scanning the rafters. Where was she and what the fuck was going on?

“Lucy,” he growled, half in frustration, too confused to release his panic. It took him only a second to detect her twenty feet above, dangling from a tree branch. “Lucy, get the fuck back down here.”

He wasn’t sure if he should be furious or elated. Was this some kind of joke? How the hell had she pulled it off? She’d been deathlike in his arms.

One of her legs scraped against the bark as she tried to swing her foot over the branch and right herself. Her foot slipped and so did her grip. She fell, but managed to hang on, arms embracing the branch, legs dangling in the empty space below.

“H-help me.” She chittered the words as if petrified.

“Mei.” He didn’t have to issue the command, because she was already in the tree, swinging toward Lucy.

Lucy’s grip loosened and she dropped lower. “Hurry, please.” Her high-pitched squeak grated the last of the rage from him. This wasn’t a game. Not to her or him.

He vaulted off the side wall and leapt into the tree. Advancing on his belly, he crawled along the branch to her. “Grab my hand.” He reached out with his right hand, maintaining a firm grip on the branch with his left.

Mei leapt onto the branch angled below Lucy. “Gotcha.” She snagged Lucy’s legs and balanced on her tiptoes to prevent Lucy from swaying forward. Pushing upward, she boosted Lucy toward Sheng.

It was enough for him to snatch her hand. “I’ve got you.” He stared straight into her eyes, those panicked golden depths. Whatever had happened, it had terrified her as much as him.

Didn’t mean he had control over his anger. Not even an ounce.

“What the hell were you playing at, Lucy? You scared the shit out of me. Fuck.” His tongue rolled off a steady stream of chastisement as he secured her in his arms and dropped to the ground. Half of him itched to shake some sense into her. The other half feared bringing on another episode.

Kassian sprinted into the room, a phone clutched in his hand and a handful of monks at his side. “Should I call off the ambulance?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Yes, of course.”

He and Mei responded simultaneously.

He cast her a lethal glare. “She should go to a hospital. She might have neural damage.”

Mei stepped forward, hands held out in placation. “You know why we can’t do that.”

Dammit, she was right. Paramedics were one thing. A visit to the hospital was out of the question.

“Besides, this feels familiar. Give me one minute, okay?” Her hands shot into her jacket pocket, and she withdrew her phone. She boasted the fastest fingers around. They were practically attached to that thing. Monkey was famous for its wisdom, and Mei was forever fascinated by every ounce of knowledge she could get her hands on.

He suppressed a scowl at the cellular device. Reliance on such technology was responsible for the rift between man and nature. In this case, he’d let it slide.

“Aha.” She smiled in triumph and slashed her hand horizontally through the air to signal Kassian to cancel the ambulance.

The monks turned to Sheng for a command and he waved them off. “This had better be good,” he grumbled, clutching Lucy against his chest. He sank to his knees to get a better view of her face and probed her with his fingers, checking for signs of a concussion while his other senses focused on her vital signs.

“I’m fine.” She brushed off his efforts.

He nodded. Her vitals appeared to be normal, if a little stressed.

Mei waved the lit screen in front of his face. “Trance. It’s called a trance. My neighbors where I grew up owned a rabbit farm. They showed me this thing once.”

“Trance?” He let the word hang, waiting for a more thorough explanation.

“Oh, yeah. Lucy’s got the Rabbit and they have this cool, built-in self-defense technique.” She crouched beside them and wriggled her nose. “So smart, really.”

“What are you talking about?” Lucy clutched at his bare chest, trembling, her pores emitting the sharp, citrusy note of fear.

Mei rambled on, spewing technical vocabulary, but Lucy’s augmenting heart rate drowned out the explanation. Talk about the spirit animal only frightened her further. “Mei, give us the short version.”

“Sure, boss.” She pouted, but an instant later became animated once more. “A trance is an involuntary, automatic response, like a sneeze. Trancing is a last-ditch tactic rabbits use when they’re caught by a predator. Basically, they play dead. If the predator releases its jaws, drops them, or turns away, the rabbit will bolt to life and make a run for it. Pretty cool, huh?”

Actually, it was. He inclined his head to study Lucy. She had layers of toughness built in that perhaps neither he nor Lucy, herself, had given her credit for.

“Why did she go into this…trance?”

Mei rose, placing her hands on her hips. “Well, I don’t know. Did, perchance, the big, bad Tiger come out to play?
Hmm?
” She tossed him his shirt before strutting off, entirely full of herself.

Big, bad Tiger? He scowled at Mei’s retreating form and tugged on his shirt. Was it possible that when he’d let Lucy catch a glimpse of his beast, Rabbit had observed Tiger too?

Yep. He whistled low. The predatory Tiger must have spooked the timid Rabbit.

“Did that make sense to you, because it sure as hell didn’t to me.” Lucy squirmed in his lap, attempting to break free.

While the others returned to their training, he tightened his grip, unable to let her go just yet.

Chapter 7

Sheng’s arms remained fastened around Lucy. She squeaked and he eased his steel grasp an inch, peering down at her and studying her like she was some sort of anomaly.

One he’d like to devour.

Okay, that made her breathing even more labored. Her brain couldn’t grasp what her body had just done. Vaulting into the trees?
Insane.