Here There Be Tigers (18 page)

She swallowed and took a moment to really
consider if she could or not. She’d had to put wounded animals out
of their misery before, but this was a different kind of killing.
Not mercy. But definitely self-defense. If she didn’t shoot to
kill, those shifters out there would tear her apart without any
hesitation.

She nodded, though she couldn’t actual say the
words aloud.

He studied her for a moment, a moment she
wasn’t sure they had, then he dropped a swift kiss on her mouth and
moved into the bedroom.

“
Be prepared,” he said as he
unlocked the gun cabinet in the bedroom closet. “I might have to
shift to hold them off. It won’t be pretty. Don’t look, and if I
tell you to, keep running and don’t look back.”

“
I can’t just leave you.”

“
You might have to. Don’t argue and
don’t get heroic. I won’t be distracted during a fight if I know
you’re away and safe.”

She knew he was right. These were creatures she
couldn’t even comprehend. Seeing her half brother shift in front of
her, knowing the strength, speed, and deadliness of a regular
tiger, she knew she didn’t stand much of a chance against five
shapeshifters, even with a gun.

“
Fine. But I don’t like
it.”

The corner of his mouth tilted up in a half
smile as he pulled out her rifle. She tried not to flinch when he
handed her the weapon. Another loud thud sounded from the living
room. Nila shivered. That front door wouldn’t hold against the
pressure for long. In fact, she was surprised it had held this
long. She suspected they were toying with her and Mitch, not really
hitting hard enough to shatter the wood. Maybe they were attempting
to drive them into a trap.

When she voiced the fear, Mitch nodded. “They
have the cabin surrounded. There’s no way to get out without
encountering one of them.” He handed her the box of ammunition for
her rifle, then pulled out his own gun.

“
Is it Petrov?” She checked the guns
safety and loaded the cartridges. Her rifle would hold three rounds
in the magazine and one in the chamber. She had four shots against
five shifters before she had to reload. She hated those
odds.

Mitch loaded his own rifle with quick
efficiency then put the rest of the cartridges into his jeans’
pockets. “Smells like Petrov and two of his sons,” he said. “Not
Vlad, though.”

“
You can tell? You’re sure?” She
filled the side pockets of her cargo pants with the remaining
ammunition from her box.

“
Scents carry a shared
familial…element. I memorized Vlad’s scent. Three of those outside
the cabin are related to him by blood.”

“
Could it just be Vlad’s other
brothers? He’s got three.”

“
Maybe. But Petrov would want to be
here, so I’m betting he’s out there.”

Her gaze flicked toward the front door. “If
we’re surrounded, how are we getting out?”

“
Front door. I’ll lead.”

“
Why the front door?” Her heart
hammered so hard she was afraid she might pass out. She worked at
slowing her breathing and calming her pulse. Panic wouldn’t help
now. She needed to maintain some semblance of rational thought so
she could help Mitch get them out of this trap. But her hands still
shook as she hoisted the rifle into a position that would make
bringing it to her shoulder and firing easier.

“
The weakest of the tigers is there.
The brothers and Petrov are around the back of the house. The fifth
is to the west of the cabin, near the bathroom window. He feels as
strong as Petrov and his boys.”

“
You can tell that? How?”

“
I don’t know. Instinct. I’m told
not all tigers can pick up as much as I can about others. Probably
got it from the years of fighting. Their scents also tell me a lot,
even without this other instinct.” He studied the front door from
his position in the bedroom. “They can tell a lot about me,
too.”

“
Will they know you’ll go to the
front, then? Maybe we shouldn’t do that.”

“
They’ll assume we’ll try escaping
through the back, which is why Petrov and his boys are back there.
Going out the front is our only option.”

“
Jesus,” she whispered. She took off
the safety and settled her finger alongside the trigger without
touching it. “Are we shooting our way out?”

“
Yes. But don’t waste ammunition. We
need to put some distance between them and us so we’ll have time to
reload.”

She let loose a steady stream of curses under
her breath to release some of the fear and tension building in her
blood. The colorful array earned her a raised brow and another half
smile from Mitch.

“
Better?” he asked.

“
Kind of. It does help.”

“
Keep it up.” He pumped his rifle’s
lever, cocked the hammer, and pressed his hammer block safety to
the fire position, then he settled his shoulders.

Though she’d noticed he only had on jeans and
no shirt, for the first time, she realized he wasn’t wearing any
shoes. “Can you run without shoes?”

“
Better than with them,” he
murmured, his gaze still on the door. “Are you ready?”

“
Absolutely not. Let’s
go.”

They eased out of the bedroom, Nila following
his lead and moving as quietly as she could manage. She was wearing
the same hiking boots she’d had on since India, not easy to run in
but they’d have to do. She
couldn’t
run better in bare feet,
even though she was part tiger.

The thought of trying to outrun something that
moved at least as fast as a tiger made her stomach flip flop. All
her training screamed that running from a predator was a bad idea.
She had a lot of experience with ordinary tigers and had always
taken extreme precautions so she wouldn’t have to try outrunning
one, even to get to the nearest tree, because running only
triggered their hunting instincts—prey runs, predator chases. Her
instincts had also helped her avoid being in dangerous positions
with any large cats. Was that part of being half tiger or just
training?

At the moment, she hoped like hell, whatever it
was, it aided her with tiger shifters, too, because she needed all
the help she could get.

She did not want to die, not now, not yet.
Especially not this way, by someone who hated her just because she
existed. Fear wouldn’t help her if she let it rule, so she tried
with all her will to push it aside as they neared the front door.
She focused on opening her senses so she could be ready for what
lay outside that flimsy wooden barrier. Again, she noticed those
five points of danger—in the exact positions Mitch had told her the
others were located. That wasn’t her imagination. She was
sensing
the shifters. She’d never felt that with normal
tigers.

She’d have to ask Mitch about that later—if
they survived.

Fear continued trickling in despite her
efforts, making her stomach clench and her adrenaline race. By the
time they reached the door, her hands were shaking so bad, she
clenched the rifle tighter in an attempt to steady
herself.

Another loud bang shook the frame. This time
the wood gave, splintering down the middle. Nila swallowed the
screech scraping her throat and edged the barrel of the gun up,
settling the rifle into position against her shoulder so she could
fire. Mitch held his weapon by his thigh as he stared at the
damaged door. The couch was still in their way, Nila realized.
They’d have to move it to get out and that would leave the door
wide open. They could get trapped inside.

She was about to mention this snag in their
plan, when Mitch reached out with one hand and faster than she
could blink, shoved the entire couch to the side, sending it
tumbling away. Before she could even begin to process the strength
it must have taken to do that, he flung open the door and fired one
shot. The sound of a high pitched yowl filled the early
morning.

The next thing she knew, Mitch had her by the
arm and was rushing her toward the cover of the trees. She glanced
around but didn’t see the tiger Mitch shot. He let go of his hold
on her as soon as he knew she was following, which freed her to use
her own weapon if necessary. She let her peripheral vision pick up
any movement and concentrated on following Mitch’s lead.

A sound to her left and the flash of orange
striped fur caught her attention. She swung the gun and fired in
the direction of the tiger without thinking and without aiming,
absorbing the surprisingly light recoil through her shoulder.
Another hissing yowl confirmed she’d at least hit something, which
surprised her. The flash of fur fell back as she and Mitch picked
up speed.

Her worst fears were confirmed, though. The
others were chasing them in tiger form. Which meant they were
faster, and stronger, and she only had three shots left until she
had to reload. She didn’t know if her first had done more than
distract that particular tiger anyway. Mitch had assured her the
ammunition they had would slow the animals down, but he hadn’t said
whether they’d kill a tiger shifter or not—or how many shots it
would take to stop one.

Afraid to think too closely about the
overwhelming odds against them, she raced as fast as her feet would
allow over the uneven ground, keeping Mitch’s back at the fore of
her attention while still trying to maintain an awareness of her
peripherals. She stumbled, more than once, but terror brought her
upright faster than she might have expected, and she managed to
stick close to Mitch without him having to drag her.

She still felt the hunters around them, but the
faster her adrenaline pumped, the harder it was for her to
concentrate on their locations. Her lungs burned and her muscles
screamed, a stitch clawing at her side.

Mitch must have known because he started
weaving through the trees, leading them on a more erratic, slower
path. The tigers loped fast enough to keep pace, but they hung back
outside shooting range. That was something at least. They were wary
of the guns now.

Unfortunately, even with Mitch’s new tactic,
Nila couldn’t run long enough to get away from their pursuers. Her
human legs, even if they were trained and prepared to race through
the woods, wouldn’t hold up against the strength and stalking
persistence of a tiger. And she knew the enemy scented them. The
shifters didn’t even have to keep up. She and Mitch were leaving
behind a trail, like it or not. All the tigers had to do was
follow, wear out their prey, and attack when they were
vulnerable.

Sucking in a breath, she forced herself not to
look back. Even a glance would risk another fall, and she really
didn’t want to see five tigers coming for them. She only hoped
Mitch had a plan, because she had nothing.

They ran past the point when Nila thought she
might collapse. Her thighs and calves screamed at her, the stitch
worsened, and she sucked in rough gulps of air that were just
barely enough to keep her upright. Her fingers loosened on the gun,
making her afraid she’d drop the valuable weapon. She didn’t even
have enough oxygen in her lungs to call Mitch’s name and warn him
she couldn’t continue much longer.

When she tripped over a root and fell face
first onto the ground, the gun nearly flying from her grip, she
knew she’d reached her limit. She struggled to her feet as Mitch
hurried to help her up.

“
You hurt?”

“
No, but I can’t run anymore.” She
panted, struggling for enough air to speak. “My body won’t let me
keep up.”

Mitch looked behind her, still with a hand on
her arm. “They’ve fallen back. They’re staying beyond the range of
our guns.”

“
Figured. What now?”

“
We get to high ground and defend
from there. Try finding a place where we can see them coming, a
clearing or something.”

“
Have a spot in mind?”

“
Maybe.”

He tugged her back into motion. She stumbled
along beside him, working desperately to keep the now heavy rifle
firmly in her grip. The thing weighed less than eight pounds but
felt like a ton to her tired muscles. She was trembling so hard
from exertion, she wasn’t sure she’d even be able to fire it now,
but she was safer with it than without it, so she held on for dear
life.

Though Mitch continued moving them as quickly
as possible, they no longer ran. All Nila could manage was a weak
trot and even that slowed into a drunken walk after ten minutes.
She had no idea how far they’d gone or where they were. She had to
trust Mitch’s sense of direction entirely. Again. The trust wasn’t
as difficult as it might have once been. She had complete faith in
his ability to get them out of this disaster. She just had to keep
up and do her part. Working together was their only
hope.

Finally, they pulled out of the cover of the
trees into a meadow which angled up. From the top of the small
hill, they’d be able to see the tigers coming out of the tree line.
Once they reached their vantage, she realized they could see 360
degrees and there was at least ten yards of grass between the hill
and the trees in all directions.

“
If they have guns, this is not a
good idea,” she muttered, squatting down to make herself a smaller
target. She chambered another round and held her rifle at the
ready.