Tiger's Voyage (3 page)

“Almost every technological development can be used for either the benefit or detriment of mankind. I understand the fear associated with such a device but there are many valid reasons for exploring technologies such as this one. Luckily, I have military contacts, and they often walk where others fear to tread. Our tags can do all of those things and much, much more, transmitting data constantly even well above and below sea level.”

He finished with Ren and looked at me. Hesitantly, I pushed back my chair and switched places with Ren. When I sat down, Mr. Kadam patted my hand briefly. I found myself staring fixedly at the needle as he switched needles again. He chose the hand not marked by Phet’s henna tattooing and repeated the wipe-ointment process.

“I’m giving you a topical medicine that will numb the area slightly, but the injection will still hurt.”

“Okay.”

He placed a chip into the tip of the large needle. When he pinched my skin, I shut my eyes and drew in a tight breath through clenched teeth as he found the right spot.

Kishan’s warm hand took mine, and he said tenderly, “Squeeze as hard as you need to, Kells.”

Mr. Kadam slowly inserted the needle. It hurt. It felt like he was shoving one of my grandma’s giant knitting needles through my hand. I squeezed Kishan’s hand and started breathing fast. Seconds ticked by that felt like minutes. I heard Mr. Kadam say he had to go a little deeper.

I couldn’t bite back the whimper of pain and wiggled in my chair as he twisted the needle and pushed it farther. My ears started ringing, and everyone’s voices became thick. I was going to faint. I never thought of myself as wimpy, but needles, I realized, make me sick. About to keel over, I cracked my eyes open to look at Ren.

He was watching me with concern. When our eyes met, he smiled my favorite lopsided grin, the sweet expression he used only with me, and for just a moment the pain disappeared. For that brief instant, I allowed myself to believe he was still mine, and that he loved me. Everyone else in the room vanished to leave only us.

I wished that I could touch his cheek and brush back his silky black hair or trace the arch of his eyebrow. I stared into his handsome face and let those feelings overwhelm me, and in that fleeting time, I felt the ghost of our emotional connection.

It was just a mere whisper, like a scent on the breeze that blows past too quickly, bringing with it a memory of something you can’t quite grasp. I wasn’t sure if it was a trick of the light, a flicker of something real, or something I fabricated, but it captured all of my attention. My entire being was focused on Ren, to the point that when Mr. Kadam pulled out the needle and replaced it with a cotton ball, I realized that I’d dropped Kishan’s hand completely.

Voices rushed back into my consciousness. I nodded in answer to Kishan’s question and looked from my hand to Ren again, but he’d left the room. Mr. Kadam asked Kishan to assist him in placing his own device. He began explaining the difference between our technology and the others he’d described.

I only half-listened, but I did hear him say that we could access one another’s tags with new cell phones, which he then distributed. He explained how the power source worked. I sat nodding slightly but snapped out of my trance when Kishan stood up several minutes later. Mr. Kadam offered me some aspirin and water. I swallowed the pills and headed to my bedroom.

Restless and uncomfortable, I lay on top of my covers unsuccessfully trying to fall asleep. My hand was sore and sleeping with it tucked under my cheek was out of the question.

I heard a soft knock on the door. “Come in.”

“I heard you wiggling around and guessed that you were still awake,” said Ren, closing the door softly behind him. “I hope I’m not bothering you.”

I sat up and clicked on the bedside lamp. “No. It’s fine. What’s the matter? Do you want to go out onto the veranda?”

“No. Kishan seems to have taken up permanent residence out there.”

“Oh.” I looked through the window and saw a black tail hanging over the edge of the loveseat twitching lazily back and forth.

“I’ll talk to him about that. He doesn’t need to babysit me. I’m perfectly safe here.”

Ren shrugged. “He likes to watch over you.”

“So what did you want to talk about?”

He sat down on the edge of my bed. “I … I’m not sure exactly. How’s your hand?”

“It stings. How’s yours?”

“Mine’s healed up already.” He held up his hand for inspection.

I took his hand in mine and studied it. I couldn’t even tell anything was under his skin. He wrapped his fingers around mine briefly. I blushed, and he brushed the backs of his fingers lightly against my warm cheek, which caused my skin to burn even hotter.

“You’re blushing.”

“I know. I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry. It’s … quite becoming.”

I sat very still and watched his expression as he concentrated on my face. He lifted his hand and touched a strand of my hair. He trailed his fingers down the length of it. I sucked in a breath, and he did too— but for a different reason. A bead of sweat trailed from his forehead down his temple when he pulled back.

“Are you alright?”

He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “It’s worse when I touch you.”

“Then don’t touch me.”

“I need to get past this. Give me your hand.”

I placed my right hand in his, and he covered it with his left. He closed his eyes and held my hand for a full minute. I felt a light tremor in his arm as he cupped my hand gently between his. Finally, he let go.

“Is it time for you to change back to a tiger?”

“No, I have time left. I can remain in human form for twelve hours now.”

“Then what is it? Why are you shaking?”

“I don’t know. It feels like something’s burning me when I touch you. My stomach cramps, my vision blurs, and my head throbs.”

“Try sitting over there.” I pointed to the couch.

He stubbornly sat on the floor with his back to the bed and brought up a knee to rest his elbow on.

“Is that better?” I asked.

“Yes. The burning is gone but the blurry vision, headache, and stomach heaving is still there.”

“Do you feel pain when you’re in another part of the house?”

“No, only touching you causes the blistering pain. Seeing you or hearing you brings on the other symptoms in varying degrees. If you’re sitting far enough away, it’s barely a twinge. It’s merely uncomfortable, and I have to fight the urge to get away. Holding your hand or touching your face is like handling red hot coals.”

“When you first came back and we talked, you put my foot in your lap. Didn’t that hurt?”

“Your foot was on a pillow. I touched it for only a few seconds, and I was in so much pain at the time anyway that I barely noticed more.”

“Let’s test it. Stand over there by the bathroom door, and I’ll go to the other side of the room.”

He moved.

“So right now, how do you feel?”

“I feel like I need to get out of here. The discomfort has lessened, but the longer I stay, the worse it will get.”

“Is the need to leave a creepy feeling, like you need to run to save your life?”

“No. It’s a desperation that builds … like when you hold your breath underwater. It’s fine at first, maybe even nice, but soon it feels like my lungs are screaming for air, and it’s all I can do not to claw my way to the surface.”

“Hmm, maybe you have
PTSD
.”

“What’s that?”

“Post-traumatic stress disorder. It’s a condition you get when you’ve been exposed to terrible trauma and high stress levels. Soldiers in combat usually have it. Remember when you told Kishan that when you heard my name, all you could picture was Lokesh torturing you, questioning you?”

“Right. There’s still some of that, I guess. But now that I know you better I don’t associate you with him as much anymore. I can distance that from you now. It wasn’t because of you that it happened.”

“Part of your symptoms with me might still be related to that. Maybe you need a therapist.”

Ren chuckled, “Kelsey, first of all, a therapist would put me in an asylum for claiming I was a tiger. Second, I’m no stranger to bloody battles or pain. It wasn’t the first time Lokesh has tortured me. It was definitely an experience I wouldn’t want to go through again, but I know that you are not to blame.”

“It doesn’t make you less of a man to ask for help once in a while.”

“I’m not trying to be heroic about it if that’s what you’re getting at. If it makes you feel better, I’ve already started talking with Kishan about it.”

I blinked. “Has he been helpful?”

“Kishan is … surprisingly sympathetic. He’s a different man now. He said he’s changed because of you. You’ve influenced him. Brought out a side of him I haven’t seen since our mother died.”

I nodded. “He’s a good man.”

“We’ve talked about many things. Not just about Lokesh but about our past too. He told me about Yesubai and about how the two of you have become close.”

“Oh.” For a panicked moment, I wondered if Kishan had shared other things with Ren, things like maybe his
feelings
. I wasn’t sure I wanted to broach that subject, so I changed it. “I don’t want you to feel pain or suffer when you’re near me. Maybe it would be better for you to avoid being around me.”

“I don’t want to avoid you. I like you.”

“You
do
?” I couldn’t help but smile.

“Yes. I imagine that’s why I dated you,” he said dryly. He slid down to the floor and rested his back against the bathroom door. “Let’s see how long I can last. Come closer.”

Obediently, I took a few steps forward. He gestured to me again. “No. Closer. Sit on the bed.”

I got on the bed and watched his face for pain. “Are you okay?”

“Yes.” He stretched out his long legs and crossed them at the ankles. “Tell me about our first date.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes. It’s tolerable now.”

I scooted to the edge of the bed farthest away from him, crawled under the covers, and put my pillow in my lap. “Okay, our first date would probably be the one you tricked me into.”

“When was this?”

“Right after we left Kishkindha. In that restaurant at the hotel.”

“The restaurant? Is that the one right after I got six hours back?”

“Yes. What do you remember about that?”

“Nothing, except eating dinner for the first time in centuries in a nice restaurant with a table full of food. I felt … happy.”

“Ha! Well, I imagine you
did
feel happy. You were very smug, and you flirted shamelessly with the waitress.”

“Did I?” He rubbed his jaw. “I don’t even remember the waitress.”

I snorted. “How is it you always know the right things to say even when you can’t remember anything?”

He grinned. “Must be a gift. So about the waitress … was she pretty? Tell me more.”

I described our date and how we’d fought over dinner. I told him about how he’d ordered a feast and tricked Mr. Kadam into bringing me there. I described how handsome he looked, about how we’d argued, and how I’d stomped on his foot when he winked at the waitress.

“What happened after dinner?”

“You walked me back to my room.”

“And?”

“And … nothing.”

“Didn’t I at least kiss you goodnight?”

“No.”

He raised an eyebrow. “That doesn’t sound like me.”

I laughed. “It’s not that you didn’t want to. You were punishing me.”

“Punishing you?”

“In a way. You wanted me to admit my feelings.”

“And you didn’t?”

“No. I’m pretty stubborn.”

“I see. So the waitress flirted with me, huh?”

“If you don’t stop grinning at the thought of the waitress, I’m going to punch your arm and make you physically sick.”

He laughed. “You wouldn’t.”

“I would.”

“I’m too fast for you to even come close.”

“Want to bet?”

I crawled across the bed while he watched me with an amused expression. I leaned over the side, made a fist with my good hand, and swung, but he quickly spun away, got to his feet, and was now standing at the foot of the bed. Getting off the bed, I walked around the side, trying to corner him. He laughed softly and motioned me closer. I stalked toward him slowly.

He stood his ground with a soft smile of confidence and let me approach him. When I was five steps away, he lost his smile. At three steps, he grimaced. At one step, he groaned and staggered. He moved several feet away and clutched the back of the couch for support as he took some deep breaths.

“I think that’s all I can handle tonight. Sorry, Kelsey.”

I took several steps backward and said softly, “I’m sorry too.”

He opened the door, and gave me a small smile. “I think it was worse this time because I touched your hand for so long. The pain built up too quickly. Normally, standing next to you doesn’t affect me so strongly.”

I nodded.

He grinned. “Next time I’ll just have to remember to touch you at the end of the evening. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight.”

A few days later, our tiger’s curse adventure started up again. We set off to visit the shaman Phet who had finally replied to Mr. Kadam’s courier and indicated that he wanted to see “Tigers, Kahl-see, and Durga’s special gifts.” He was adamant that just the three of us make the journey.

Although I didn’t voice the thought, I hoped Phet, with his odd, mystical ways and herbal potions, would be able to reverse Ren’s memory loss.

Even though Ren and I were on much better footing and both brothers seemed to get along since our last road trip, I still felt a bit uneasy about being trapped in a small space with two hot-headed tigers.
Well, if they act up, I’ll just blast them with a little lightning burn. That’ll
teach them not to fight when I’m around
, I thought with a grin and stepped into the morning sunshine.

The men were standing by the newly washed and gassed-up Jeep when I walked out the front door. Mr. Kadam placed the backpack full of weapons on the backseat, winked at me, and hugged me. I swung another bag containing my grandmother’s quilt, which had so far proven to be lucky, next to our weapons.