“Answer the question.”
I let him sit in silence for a moment, but Ishan nodded for me to speak, so eventually I said, “Yes. Silver.”
“Wrong. That is how you kill a Rakshasa. You kill them with silver or powerful firearms, or drowning, or flame. Hurting them takes something more. You see, I respect the power of the Rakshasa, but not in the way you might be expecting. You see, the Rakshasa are the greatest predators on this planet. They have no fear. But a life without fear is a life spent believing that your power is unlimited. That, itself, is a weakness.”
I glanced around, reflexively, behind me, and put my back up against the dented fridge. Ishan moved beside me, slipping a hand against mine, squeezing tightly. He put his ear close to the receiver, listening as well.
“I don’t feel like my power is unlimited,” I said.
“And you are wiser for this. So my riddle for you, little fledgling, is this. How do you hurt someone who doesn't fear death? Someone who shrugs of pain and suffering, who lives amongst their lessers, someone who is demonstrably better than the mindless cattle who make up the human species? How do you hurt those who cannot be hurt?”
I shrugged, holding the receiver to my ear with my shoulder. “I don’t know, but I figure you’re about to tell me.”
I could hear the noise of a phone being passed from one person to another, then a quiet sob.
“Libby?”
My blood ran cold. “Katelyn?!”
“LIBBY!? L-L-Libby, Libby, l-listen, there’s a monster, a-a tiger monster, don’t come looking for me, he knows you, it’s a trap, it’s a—”
Silence, then the Champawat Tiger again. “You hurt their friends.”
I gripped the receiver so hard the plastic creaked and I had to stop myself before I broke it. “Let Katelyn go. She’s just a human, she has nothing to do with this. It’s not her you want.”
“You’re right,” the Champawat Tiger purred down the line, “it’s you. She means nothing to me, nothing at all, so don’t think for even a second that I won’t tear this little friend of yours to shreds and mail her remains to you piece by piece.” A pause, then, “If you want your friend to survive, you’ll do exactly as I say.”
I looked into Ishan’s bright blue eyes. I could tell he wanted me to hang up, to let the Champawat Tiger do whatever he wanted to do Katelyn, but I couldn’t. I just couldn’t.
“Okay,” I said, inhaling slightly as I steadied my nerves. “Tell me what you want me to do.”
To be continued in Rakshasa: Tigerheart…
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Rakshasa Book I, Part #2: Aurora Page 4
