Tiger Eye

by Marjorie M. Liu

  “He was going to kill me,” Lise whispered. “He was going to get Hari to have sex with me until I was pregnant, and then kill me. My own father.”

  “He has been cultivating daughters for the past one thousand years, in the hope that if he found Hari and summoned him, he could force him to impregnate one of his children.”

  “Does he have more daughters out there?” Dela asked, appalled.

  “I do not know,” Long Nü admitted. “I also do not know why the Magi was unable to summon Hari in the first place, or how he lost possession of the box after escaping from my grandfather. There are some stories the Magi carried to his grave.”

  “And how did you find me?” Hari asked.

  “Good sex.” Long Nü smiled. Dean coughed and Artur patted his back. “I was … facing the wall, and saw the most curious little box on my lover’s nightstand. I recognized it immediately, and in the morning took it with me. That was over a hundred years ago. I was much younger.”

  “Information overload,” Lise said, holding her head. “But I think I’ll recover.”

  “Thank you,” Dela said to Long Nü. “For everything.”

  Long Nü inclined her head. “It is you who should be thanked. It was my grandfather’s last wish that his family help Hari. We might have spent the past two thousand years searching for him, but you were the one person who could truly set him free.”

  Blue found two Jeeps parked on the other side of the house, and he and Eddie drove them close to where everyone was still gathered.

  “This guy had a thing for Cherokees,” Blue commented. “Makes me think he was the one following us that night we left Le Soleil.”

  “I was nearby,” Long Nü said, “but I could not interfere. I, ah, was taking care of your other problem.”

  “She killed Wen Zhang,” Dela said. Dean jumped into the air, crowing, and wrapped the dragon woman up in a tight bear hug. Her golden eyes sprang wide with surprise.

  “You’re my kind of lady!” Dean grinned, though his smile turned rather sickly when Long Nü raked a speculative gaze over his body.

  “Uh,” he said. “You know, it’s a long drive back. Maybe we should get going.”

  As they walked to the cars, Long Nü called out Koni’s name. The shape-shifter froze, and then very, very slowly walked back to the dragon woman. She shared several words with him, and he slowly nodded like a whipped dog.

  “Wonder what she’s got on him?” Blue mused.

  “Hell, man. He’s probably slept with her.” Dean buckled in, reaching back to help Hari settle Dela. Artur climbed into the Jeep.

  “Where’s Eddie?” Dean asked, peering out the window.

  “He is taking the girl back in the other Jeep,” Artur said. Dean opened his mouth.

  “No jokes!” Dela said. Dean gave her an injured look.

  Long Nü and Koni walked up to the car. Hari rolled down the window.

  “Good-bye,” the dragon woman said.

  “Will we see you again?” Hari asked.

  “Yes,” she promised. “Your family and mine are connected, Hari.”

  “Thank you,” he said. “For all you’ve done.”

  She smiled, and stepped away from the car. Koni shrugged, glancing from her to the humans. “I’m, uh, staying behind to help clean up.”

  “Don’t be a stranger,” said Blue, grinning.

  As they drove away, Dela glanced over her shoulder through the back window. Golden light filled the night, and just as the car rounded a curve in the gravel driveway, she caught sight of a coiled body, rearing up toward the starry sky.

  Dela glanced at Hari, and found him watching her. He brushed his lips against her mouth. Warmth spread through her body, chasing away pain and fatigue.

  Now this … this was magic.

  Epilogue

  Six months later, Le Soleil hosted Dela Reese’s return to the art world.

  The guests at the private dinner were few in number, but spirits were high, and the walls rang with laughter as mouthwatering dishes were passed around the sizeable circular table.

  “I swear,” Kit howled, leaning into Blue’s shoulder, “Maz Randall nearly died when he saw your new sculptures, especially the one of that tiger-man. Dela, honest to God, I saw him touch his loins.”

  Cheers erupted, with quite a few amused glances thrown at Hari. It seemed that everyone knew who had inspired those impressive nether regions—even if the other qualities of the sculpture remained mere fantasy to some.

  Hari sighed, trying not to smile.

  “Personally,” said Pierre, “the dragon woman is my favorite. I might just buy that one for my home, if you do not mind, Dela.”

  “She’s yours,” Dela said. “Consider her a gift in return for this lovely party. I haven’t had so much fun in ages.”

  “Are we still going to the Kosmo Klub?” Dean asked. “If we are, I need to pad my ass. Unless Artuuur wants to distract Rose for me.”

  Artur smiled into his glass of wine. “A distraction will be unnecessary. I believe I made the better impression.”

  Which led to an immediate argument over who was the sexier man.

  Dela laughed, leaning against Hari. He pulled her close and kissed her cheek, his warm chin rubbing against her skin. Desire thrilled through Dela’s body, and she ran her fingers along Hari’s thigh, marking the hours until they returned to the hotel.

  Dela glanced at Eddie and Lise, their heads bowed together in quiet conversation. Lise was older than Dela had previously thought—on the high end of seventeen—and more than willing to make her own life, away from the memory of her father. Three months previous, Dela had given Lise the keys to the warehouse. In addition to living there, Lise was now Dela’s new gallery manager. Dela thought it was a good fit; Lise worked hard, and she had good instincts for business.

  It pained Dela, remembering Adam in that job, but time had brought a sense of peace—even, perhaps, true forgiveness. It was no use hating the dead.

  If Lise hated her father, she never said so. She never spoke of him, except in the beginning, when she had wanted to learn everything the Magi had done to Hari and Dela.

  “My dad was an immortal psychopath,” she said, and that was the end of it, even about her psi-abilities, those glowing silver orbs. Dela hoped Lise would relax in time, especially with Eddie helping her. The two of them had become as thick as thieves.

  I’m so nosy. Though who could blame me for being curious about the kinds of things she can do? Her father might have been crazy, but he was also powerful.

  And if he had more children left in the world …

  “Would you like to take a walk?” Hari asked.

  “That sounds nice.” She looped her hand through Hari’s arm as he helped her stand. “We’ll be back soon,” she told the others, who waved their wine glasses at her with merry abandonment.

  The air outside was cool, and Hari wrapped Dela up against his side. The night sky bristled with city light, starlight, and the sidewalk was almost empty.

  “I can’t wait to get home,” Dela confided. “I love seeing everyone, but I miss it, just the two of us.”

  The two of them, alone in their new home set in the forest, nestled in the lee of a mountain.

  Hari’s laughter was low, soft. “I need to finish the last room.”

  “Oh, you’ve got time,” she said, leaning into him. “Besides, I really can’t see us using it all that much at first.”

  Hari kissed the top of her head. “I think I like the sound of that.”

  He froze then, eyes flashing. A shadow slipped free of the alley ahead of them, and Dela smelled the scent of sandalwood, stone.

  “Long Nü,” she said. The dragon woman glided forward, greeting them with a smile.

  “I am glad you are both well,” she said. “I thought I would … drop in and say hello.”

  “You could have joined the party,” Hari said.

  Long Nü shook her head. “I think I would remind everyone of darker days, and t
his should be a time of joy. Shall we continue walking, though? I am curious to hear of your lives since we last met.”

  So they walked, telling Long Nü of their new life together; their recent marriage and their home in the mountains, built with Hari’s own hands. They told her of Dela’s art exhibit, with its shape-shifting theme, and then they told her of the other shape-shifter who had recently joined the ranks of Dirk & Steele.

  “How nice for Koni,” Long Nü said, though she did not seem very surprised by the news. “The raven has finally found his roost.” She looked hard at Dela, and her eyes were sharp, canny. “And what of your powers, Dela? Have they continued to grow?

  Dela blinked. “How did you know?”

  “I am not just a shape-shifter,” Long Nü said. “You should remember; I see with more than my eyes.”

  “I remember,” Dela said, “but no, I haven’t grown any stronger. Which is fine with me. I figure stopping bullets and breaking handcuffs is good enough. I don’t want to be greedy.”

  Hari made a low sound in his throat. “It is still a mystery, why Delilah’s gifts grew in strength after she met me. We believe it had something to do with opening the box, but even that answers nothing.”

  Dela thought of the riddle box, locked in a safety deposit box. She and Hari had decided to leave it there. For now.

  Long Nü smiled. “I believe the box might be part of the reason, but not in the way you imagine. I suspect you always had great potential, but merely lacked the belief to unlock it. Being near Hari, exposing yourself to true magic, released the block you imposed upon your mind. With Hari, you began to accept anything was possible.”

  “You haven’t been thinking about this much, have you?”

  “I am merely wise. The result of advanced age.”

  Dela shook her head, smiling. “Well, I am neither wise nor old, but something tells me you had another reason for wanting to see us, besides curiosity.”

  Long Nü sighed. “Am I so transparent? I suppose you are right. Mere curiosity would not have been enough to bring me here, not with all my work left undone.”

  “Your work?” Hari frowned.

  Long Nü stopped walking, and for the first time, Dela thought she could see past the ageless quality of the woman’s face to something darker, more weary.

  “I told you I helped Hari because of a family promise, and that was true—but I had another reason, one even more important than honor. And that, my dear children, was survival.”

  “I do not understand,” Hari said, but Dela did, and Long Nü nodded at her.

  “There are so few of us left, Hari. The world has changed, and we must change with it, or else be lost forever. It is not enough to live alone, stuck in the old ways of clan and territory. We must find each other—help all we can, preserve what is left. Otherwise, where will all the legends go? We are the creatures dreams are made of.”

  “You want us to help,” Dela said.

  Long Nü looked up at the stars, scales rippling iridescent against her throat. “I am growing old, Dela, and soon—soon I will be too old to journey the world, in search of my people. It is my one great fear, that I lapse into the shade without this last task complete. Dragons have always been the guardians of our race. It falls upon our hearts to protect the shifting kind. To fail in this, when I am one of the last, does not bear imagining.”

  She stared hard at Hari, and then Dela, her pupils narrowing into the eyes of the dragon. “Before I met you, I did not think it possible to seek help from a human in a task of this magnitude. But you and your friends have resources, and you are familiar with the unusual. And who knows? Perhaps we can all help each other in the long run.”

  Dela knew all too well that Long Nü’s idea of helping could be quite different from her own, but she had to admit that the dragon woman had taken care of their mafia problem. No one had heard a peep from Wen Zhang’s family. Of course, financial problems might have been the cause of that. Dirk & Steele had made good on its plan to expose as many shipments of illegal immigrants as they could. Recent Coast Guard confrontations with ships in the Pacific had been making the news.

  They began walking again, until Long Nü stepped into a dismal alley.

  “I must go now,” she said, “but you will see me again. Take care of yourself, Hari. You are the very last of the tigers.”

  “No,” disagreed Dela, smiling, placing Hari’s lean strong hand over the budding swell of her belly. “There will be others.”

  And the dragon laughed, embracing them with arms of golden light.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Without the love, support, and encouragement of my parents, none of this would have been possible. My gratitude is endless. Thanks also to Cord Buckner, detective and lawyer-extraordinaire, who let me use him in my (shameless) search for knowledge, and never once complained. To my grandparents, family, and friends—many thanks for your cheerful support and compassion. And to my editor, Chris Keeslar, and my agent, Lucienne Diver, thank you again and again for being so kind, and so very supportive.

  Finally, deep thanks to all of my wonderful friends and teachers from Clarion East 2004. What a group. You guys are the best. Here’s to a bright future of making our word choices “more better.”

  Woof.

  RAVES FOR TIGER EYE!

  “I didn’t just like this book, I LOVED this book. [Marjorie M. Liu] has a great voice, a fresh new premise, everything I love to read. Anyone who loves my work should love hers.”

  —New York Times Bestselling Author Christine Feehan

  “A star is born! If you are a fan of first-rate paranormal romantic adventures, [Tiger Eye is] the jackpot. Marjorie M. Liu is an amazing new voice who is ingenious, fresh and utterly spellbinding!”

  —RT BOOKclub

  “Wow! Once I started reading Tiger Eye, I could not put it down. Fans of Feehan and Kenyon will love this exceptional paranormal story and should embrace Marjorie M. Liu with great enthusiasm. Liu’s distinct voice, complex characters and unique premise make Tiger Eye a standout novel in the genre. I can’t wait for more from this talented author.”

  —Tanzey Cutter, The Best Reviews

  Copyright

  This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author's imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  TIGER EYE. Copyright © 2005 by Marjorie M. Liu. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition JUNE 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-201371-2

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