Tiger and the Unicorn

by Susan Hayes

  “Stop? No. Definitely not. But maybe…” He felt the heat of her blush. “Does the door lock?”

  And once again, she’d rendered him speechless. All higher functions ceased operations and he swore his common sense had left a sign on the door that read “Out to lunch. Come back later.”

  He tried to get his brain to work. Checking the door meant letting go of her. Definitely a negative. But if the door locked? That was a positive.

  He kissed her again while struggling toward some kind of decision, but before he could commit to a course of action, the universe made the call for him. Someone rapped on the door to their room, proving once and for all that the universe had a lousy sense of timing.

  4

  If it got any hotter in here Tabi suspected they’d set off the smoke alarms. Her fantasies about what it would be like to kiss Sergei couldn’t hold a candle to the real thing. All her plans to be honest and upfront with him before anything happen went up in flames the second he asked if he could kiss her. At that point, a snowball in hell had better survival odds than her good intentions. The knock at the door had probably saved her from throwing the last tattered remnants of her caution to the four winds.

  The door opened before either of them could move.

  “Sergei? Sorry to interrupt your dinner. I’ve got some news you need to hear.” Alyce Cooper walked into the room, took one look at the two of them, and stopped dead in her tracks. It was the first time Tabi had seen the normally unflappable academy director speechless.

  “Sorry. No one in the kitchen mentioned you had company tonight.” Alyce nodded to Tabi. “Ms. Willows.”

  “Director Cooper.” Tabi untangled herself from Sergei and stepped back, half hoping the earth had cracked open and she could vanish forever beneath the surface. Death by magma was preferable to staying here under her boss’s unblinking gaze.

  Sergei turned to face Alyce, positioning himself so that Tabi was shielded behind him. “Director. What’s so important you had to interrupt my first decent meal in days?”

  Tabi held her breath. No one talked to the director that way. She was a no-nonsense sort who would happily chew up and spit out anyone who didn’t toe the line. And since Alyce was a llama shifter, spitting was one of her specialties.

  Alyce didn’t so much as bat one of her overly long lashes at Sergei’s tone. “Play nice, Sergei, or I’ll tell Tabi about that mission to Moose Jaw.”

  “You wouldn’t. We vowed to take that one to our graves.”

  Alyce just stood there.

  “Fine. Fine. I’ll be nice. Welcome, Director. Lovely evening. Delighted to see you.”

  Alyce snorted. “And I thought you were in show business. You didn’t even try to sell that.”

  “No motivation.” He deadpanned. “But honestly, Alyce, why are you here? It’s got to be important for you to deliver the news yourself.”

  She pulled out a piece of paper and handed it to him. “You’ve been MUFF DIVEd.”

  Sergei stiffened. “What? No! It was just a kiss.”

  Tabi stepped around him to get a look at the paper and caught Alyce hiding a laugh behind her hand. Since the director seemed incapable of speech, she explained. “MUFF is short for Merrily United Furry Friends against the unethical treatment of non-sentient animals by shifters.”

  He shot her a confused look. “Seems like the acronym is missing a few letters.”

  “Don’t look at me, I’m just a librarian. I didn’t name them.”

  Alyce got herself together and finished the explanation. “The second part stands for Disclosure of Intent against Vile Enemies. It’s basically MUFF’s version of a declaration of war.”

  “Who are these people again?” Sergei asked.

  “MUFF is a problem group that appeared after you left us. They started out as a minor disruptive force, but they’re popping up more often these days.” Alyce pointed to the paper. “Basically, they’re targeting you because you eat animals on your show.”

  “A bunch of wackadoodle shifters are up in arms because I eat meat? I’m a tiger. What am I supposed to eat, tofu?”

  Alyce shrugged. “It’s more because you hunt and kill your own meat and teach others how to do it. The animals you kill haven’t been certified as non-shifters, and well…” She sighed and tapped the paper. “It’s all in there. The important part is that you’re on their radar, and they’ve staked out your show’s next shooting location. They’re not very stable, or smart, but they are disruptive. You’re going to need to postpone the shoot.”

  Tabi expected Sergei to swear, or argue, but he just hummed and kept reading, his face impassive. When he finished, he nodded. “I’ll make a few calls. I’m not putting my people at risk over this. You good with me staying here a few extra days?”

  “You’re welcome to stay as long as you like. In fact…” Alyce cleared her throat. “I was wondering if, given this news, you’d reconsider taking some of our best cadets out on a training excursion. A short one.”

  “You are a very sneaky woman.”

  “Of course I am, I’m FUC.”

  Tabi tried to move away so the two could make their plans in peace, but Sergei caught her hand and drew her back to his side. “No more than six students, and I’ll want another staff member along, too.”

  “I can recommend several instructors who would be—”

  Sergei cut Alyce off with a wave of his hand. “I’ll take Tabi.”

  Tabi felt like a bug under glass the way Alyce was staring at her. “You want to take Ms. Willows with you. A librarian? Do you want to go on this trip, Ms. Willows?” The question was loaded with undertones. Alyce knew Tabi’s situation, and how tenuous her control over her new form was. She was giving her a chance to bow out.

  Tabi thought about it for all of three milliseconds. Sergei’s lack of communication skills aside, it was a once in a lifetime opportunity. If ever she was going to try to step outside her comfort zone again, this was the moment. “I’d really like to go, Director Cooper. If you’re agreeable?”

  Alyce blinked. “You want to go? The cadets…”

  “Will be too busy trying to stay alive to have time for anything else.” At least, Tabi hoped so. She could handle their sly looks and whispered comments, but she wasn’t sure Sergei would be as tolerant. And she still hadn’t told him what she was. She’d have to do that tonight, so he had time to change his mind.

  Sergei grunted. “Damn right they will. Some of them need a boot to the ass, Director. There’s no place in FUC for judgement or bias, and I saw both tonight.”

  He wrapped his arm around her shoulders protectively, and Tabi leaned in a little more than was appropriate, but dammit, the man was hot when he was growly and protective, especially when the one he was protecting was her.

  “That’s part of what they’re here to learn. I’ll send you the information you’ll need. Names, shifter types, backgrounds. You’ll want them prepared with the same kits as the agents, I assume?”

  “Please. And remind them no outside food or extra equipment.”

  “I’ll make the arrangements. And I really do appreciate this, Sergei. I know the cadets will, too.”

  He snorted. “Ask them how they feel after we get back. They might have a different opinion by then. Oh, and can you please make sure all the cadets are hardy types? No fluffy prey species or delicate birds this time around.”

  “No fluff. Got it. When can you be ready?”

  He cocked his head in thought. “As much as it pains me to say it, the sooner we go, the better. The colder weather won’t last much longer, and I’d rather not be up there when all that snow starts to melt. Mud. Flooding. Treacherous footing in any streams we need to ford—it’s a lot of extra risks.”

  Alyce nodded. “Agreed.”

  He sighed. “Can they be ready to go by tomorrow?”

  The director looked insulted. “We’re training agents here, not delicate flowers. Of course they’ll be ready.”

  “I’ll send yo
u our planned route and coordinates later, along with a pickup location for day three.”

  Tabi finally found the nerve to interrupt the two as they made plans. “Uh, what can I do to help? That’s why you want me along, isn’t it?”

  “Director Cooper, you are going to want assessments on the cadets’ progress, yes?”

  The director nodded. “I know that’s not your usual thing, but yes, I would.”

  “And I am not good with paperwork. One of the many reasons I’m no longer an agent. Tabi will help me assess the students.”

  She brightened. Organizing and recording information was something she did well.

  “You’re sure?” Alyce pressed.

  “I’m sure.” The experts kept telling her she needed to push her boundaries and try to find a new normal, one that included eating meat and transforming into something that looked like an oversized My Little Pony after a goth makeover.

  “She is sure. I am sure. We will do this.” Sergei’s accent was getting thicker by the second. “You go now. I’m starving, and apparently, I’m only going to have a few meals to carb-load before I’m back to foraging for food.”

  The director smirked a little. “I’m going, I’m going. Predators. Always so pushy.”

  “Prey shifters, always trying to stay in groups.” Sergei waved Alyce toward the door. “Shoo.”

  Once they were alone again, Tabi turned to Sergei. “I can’t believe you just told the director to shoo.”

  “She interrupted my dinner. And my dessert.” He bent over to brush a gentle kiss to the top of Tabi’s head, making it very clear just what dessert he was referring to. “I’m sorry about that. I had no idea anyone would interrupt us.”

  “It’s okay. Thanks to the director, we’re going to have more time together.” She took a deep breath. “That is, if you still want me along once I tell you what I am.”

  He jerked a thumb at his broad chest. “I know you are a predator, like me.”

  She slipped out of his grasp and dropped into her chair. The second her ass hit the seat, she added another dollop of Bailey’s to her mug and started drinking. It took four swallows before she felt ready to answer him. “I am now, yes. Sort of.”

  “Sort of?”

  “They don’t actually know how to classify me.”

  He’d taken a seat while she downed her Irish coffee and looked at her intently. “Why not?”

  “Because whatever they did to me made me into something new.”

  “What are you?”

  “Equus Fantasia Gothicus,” she replied.

  His brows hit his hairline. “And what the fuck is that, exactly?”

  “I’m a unicorn, Sergei. The only one in existence.”

  He didn’t laugh or let go of her hand, but his brow furrowed into creases deep enough to get a geologist excited. “Unicorns aren’t predators.”

  “How do you know?” She pointed to her forehead. “Know any other horny horses? Um, I mean horned, not horny. I mean I am, but I’m not… and… Gods, I’m babbling now, aren’t I?”

  His eyes danced with mirth but he managed to keep a straight face. “Not at all. So you are Equus Fantasia… what was that last bit?”

  “Gothicus. It’s just nerd speak for a black, goth-looking unicorn.” She tugged on a lock of her hair. “This isn’t a dye job. It changed the first time I shifted and stayed this way.”

  “Black unicorn. Okay. But why don’t you talk about it?”

  “Because most people freak a bit when they find out. Especially since me and my shifter side aren’t exactly in synch. She’s kind of temperamental.” And stabby.

  “That’s understandable. How long ago did this happen? What happened?”

  “A few months ago I got a fancy invitation to an all-exclusive shifter resort that was opening up. I’d been looking at all sorts of vacation packages, and I figured I’d entered a contest and didn’t realize it. I thought it was my lucky day. Boy, was I wrong.”

  “The whole thing was a trap?”

  “It was. They drugged us a few at a time so no one noticed. I got one day on the beach before I ate the wrong breakfast pastry and woke up in a cage. I bet the doughnut wasn’t even vegan. I knew it tasted too good to be true.”

  “Who did this to you?”

  “I don’t know. FUC handled it and said it was ‘need to know’ information.”

  “They didn’t tell you who was behind it?” His tone had a hint of a growl to it, now.

  “Knowing wouldn’t change anything. What’s done is done. I’ve been poked and prodded and tested by every expert FUC has. The change is permanent. I just have to deal with it.”

  “Did they hurt you?” It was a question not many had asked, and none of them had said it with a murderous gleam in their eyes. Like he’d happily kill the ones to blame if she said yes.

  It was a new experience. Her parents were pacifists. A pair of gentle vegans who hadn’t known what to do for their daughter, or how to deal with the changes she’d undergone. The Academy staff had welcomed her back and given her much-needed support, but no one had made her feel the way Sergei did. He wasn’t afraid of her. There was no pity in his eyes. He hadn’t run from the room. In fact, he hadn’t let go of her hand.

  She told him the truth. More of it than she’d told anyone but the agent who took her statement. Not even her parents knew everything. She hadn’t known how to tell them. “They hurt me. I was pretty banged up by the time the rescue came. They believe some of it was from my attempts to tear the cage apart, but… not all of it. I was sedated a lot of the time, but I remember bits and pieces.” She shivered and pushed the dark memories away. If they took hold, her other half would come out.

  “You okay? We don’t have to talk about this.”

  “We do. You need to know before you decide if you really want me along on this trip. I’m not stable, Sergei. And my other half can be dangerous. The injuries I suffered were retaliation for killing the two men who were inside my cage the first time I woke up. They never had a chance.” And that was the real horror of what they’d done to her. They’d stolen her sense of self and made her into a killer.

  She’d thought he’d recoil from her, or at least reconsider. The last thing she expected him to do was to throw back his head and laugh.

  “It’s not a laughing matter.”

  “That depends on what side of the table you’re sitting on. You are afraid of your new nature. Yet, here you sit, having dinner with someone who was born a predator. I’m laughing because I know I’m far more dangerous than you are.”

  She scowled at him. “Want to bet? The cadets call me Stabitha. All that whispering in the hallway? That’s because I lost control one day and stabbed a hole in the old card catalogue. Paper flew everywhere, the wood shattered, it was a mess!”

  He raised a brow. “Messy, yes. But hardly dangerous. Except to antiquated filing systems.”

  “We keep it around as part of the cadets’ training. They have to learn not to rely on computers for everything.”

  “A good lesson. And I think that’s what you need, too.”

  “A lesson in what?”

  “How to be a predator.” He gave her a smile that melted an alarming number of her brain cells. “When I am done with you, you will not be afraid of what you are, Tabi Willows. But other people should be.”

  The part of her that used to be a thoroughbred horse shied away from the idea, but that wasn’t who she was anymore. Meditation, yoga, and self-affirmations weren’t working, so it was time to try something else. Either that, or she would wind up running laps around the obstacle course every day for the rest of her life. No one needed that much cardio. “Alright, Sergei Molotov. Teach me.”

  His grin turned utterly wicked. “With pleasure.”

  5

  One kiss from Tabi wasn’t enough. Unfortunately, he hadn’t considered that need when he’d arranged for the next outing to start less than twenty-four hours later. He should have asked for a few days off, first
. Bad planning on his part. Instead of a leisurely dinner and conversation that might have led to an unforgettable night in bed, they’d spent the rest of their time coming up with a plan for their last-minute adventure.

  She’d made notes on her phone, and when he’d woken up this morning, he discovered she’d sent him an itemized list, a timeline for their departure, packing lists, names and pertainent details for every cadet on the trip, and several pages of indexed notes and photos of what flora and fauna they might come across in their trek, and which ones were edible. All he had to do was arrange for copies to be made, and he’d have handouts for the cadets. The woman was amazing.

  He looked over the list of names of the cadets on this trip. Four men and two women, all highly rated in both academics and physical training. Tabi had presented him with laminated copies of their information, with space for him to make notes and a collection of waterproof markers to go with them. It was something he hadn’t even considered, but it would make assessing the cadets a lot easier.

  The cadets were only one of his worries, though. MUFF was another one. He’d read through the files last night. They were robe-wearing wackos, and Alyce hadn’t been kidding when she said they were tenacious. If that group of New Age ding-dongs got wind of where he was, they were just as likely to show up at the academy and cause trouble, which wouldn’t be good for anyone.

  While he was musing, the cadets wandered over to the bus, some of them solo, three of them arriving together. He recognized them right off as part of the group who’d been making comments about Tabi last night. Son of a bitch.

  Once all six of them were present, he put two fingers to his lips and whistled. “Line up along the side of the bus. I need to do a quick inspection of your gear.”

  They formed up quickly, which was gratifying. Tabi had been inside the bus talking with Chet, the driver, but she reappeared, hovering on the steps, clearly uncertain. He gestured for her to step out, and then pointed to the ground beside him. He wanted to make it clear from the very start that she was with him.