Danny stood aside when Jie and Meg reached the doorway, and Jie saw her friend take her hand protectively as they passed through.
The same two lang ren that had come in earlier stood in front of the cash register, only now, they were joined by two others, as equally huge as the goon-like one who’d stood motionless and wordless behind the skinny gap-toothed lang ren who’d done all the talking.
Although Jie’s heart pounded fiercely, his long habit of affecting a calm demeanor fell into place like a familiar shroud. “May I help you?” His voice sounded distant to his ears.
This time, one of the new werewolves, one with hair as light as Meg’s and eyes that practically glittered with unsated hunger, stepped forward. His large frame exuded tension, and Jie could feel the currents of restrained power sparking off his giant, obviously muscular body.
Before he spoke, however, the bells on the door tinkled. Everyone turned in unison to see a young Chinese woman with a young boy enter the store.
“Why don’t we talk in the studio?” Jie suggested.
The tall lang ren nodded. “Good idea.”
Jie noticed he spoke with the same thick Russian accent as the skinny one.
Meg’s hand closed around his arm. If she’d spoken out loud, she couldn’t have conveyed the message of don’t leave me more clearly. He looked at her. “Come with me,” he said softly to her in Mandarin.
She nodded and moved at his side back into the studio.
Leaving Danny and Dave in the store to help the customer, Jie closed the door behind them and they came to stand in the center of the small studio, Meg pressing close against his side. The scent of her fear filled the room. Unfortunately, however, he wasn’t the only one who could smell it.
“I think you know why we’re here,” the large one said. Jie realized then that the group of them must be from a pack and the one who spoke was the alpha.
Jie folded his arms across his chest. “I am not quite certain. Perhaps you can spell it out.”
The Russian visibly suppressed a scowl. He was obviously someone used to getting his way and brooked no opposition. He pointed to Meg. “The girl.” He looked at her, his eyes widening with a look of greed.
Jie’s gut tightened. He detested the way this lang ren stared at Meg as if she were a piece of meat. He had to work very hard to remember the teaching about showing compassion to one’s foe. There was no point in pretending. If he tried to hedge cautiously, he risked igniting his opponent’s ire.
“It did not take me long to realize that jade, ivory and golden silk were not items that the woman was to present me, but her own physical qualities,” he went on before Jie could answer. “Apparently, you also figured out the riddle.” He pointed to the short greasy-haired lang ren. “My colleague here is not colorblind. Perhaps you are a beta, like him, natural born, retaining your ability to see colors.” He took a menacing step toward Jie.
Instinctively, Jie stepped in front of Meg, putting himself between her and the aggressive lang ren.
The Russian chuckled. “Or, perhaps you are an alpha, like myself, bitten ... created by another. We see in black and white, like true dogs.” His voice remained low and controlled, a constant growl, like a threat. “A fight between two alphas is more than a fight,” he went on. “It’s a masterpiece of violence in which only one emerges the winner.” He paused, his gaze perusing Jie head to foot, obviously sizing him up as an opponent. “Even though you don’t answer, I can see you’re an alpha. Nature would not be so unjust to me as to pit me against a weaker foe.” He shot a glance at Meg. “Let her know that the victor will have earned her.”
Jie stared at him, searching his mind for his next words. Behind him, Meg released a small whimper. Her terror radiated through him. The mere thought that this lang ren wanted to touch his woman started a fist of anger tightening in the depths of his gut. “I do not wish for violence,” he forced himself to say.
The lang ren’s lip curled in a snarling grin. “Violence can be avoided ... that is ... if you are willing to give her up to me without a fight.” He took a step toward them.
In a reflex, Jie stepped closer to Meg.
The Russian stopped and glared at him. “Otherwise, there is no alternative. Two alphas cannot occupy the same woman at the same time.” He chuckled at his pseudo-clever words.
Jie heard Meg swallow another tiny whimper in her throat. She was being incredibly brave, despite her fear, and he admired her, even in the midst of this threat.
The Russian’s gaze flickered to her, and his lip curled upward in a grin.
Jie stepped toward him, his hands raised in an on-guard position. “All right. Let’s do this now.”
The Russian stared at him a moment, his light colored eyes now glittering with amusement. He laughed, a loud hearty sound that rumbled from deep within his belly. The laughter echoed through the studio, ringing with a derisive tone clearly meant to humiliate Jie and make light of him as an opponent.
Jie felt the beginnings of his anger unfurl from the cavern of his soul. The cruelty in his opponent reminded him of so many of the bureaucratic officials in China whom he’d come across in the wake of his parents’ death, automatons to whom true justice meant nothing. The greedy bastards whom Lao Tzu had called “laughers” at the true way of life. “I’m sorry, I don’t see the humor.” He did not relax his on-guard stance as he spoke.
The lang ren ceased his laughter, but the deprecating humor still sparkled through his eyes. “We cannot fight to the death in human form,” he said. “We die only as bodark.”
Jie’s muscles remained tensed to fight, but the werewolf’s statement stabbed through him like slivers of cold steel. He looked at the skinny lang ren.
“It’s true,” the smaller one answered. “Whether you got the bite or whether you are bodark born.”
Meg let out a soft cry. “Jie, no!” she breathed in Chinese, her voice trembling with a violence that sliced through his heart.
He glanced at her, then back at his rival, never letting his on-guard stance down. “Then you can’t have your fight,” he muttered through clenched teeth. “Not until the next full moon.”
The Russian laughed again. If he was trying to annoy Jie to death, he probably had a chance at success, even in human form. “What are you talking about, bodark? This is not the movies. You can change whenever you want to.”
Again, almost as a reflex, Jie glanced at the skinny one.
He nodded, his large grin showing yellowed teeth, some cracked, others missing. “This is also true. Perhaps you are new and don’t know yourself so well. You can change right this second if you wish.”
Jie looked hard at him, then at his opponent. “How?”
To his great irritation, the colossal, presumably blond lang ren began to laugh again, his obnoxious, derisive guffaws bouncing off the walls of the studio. His laughter continuing, he began to unbutton his starched white shirt, tossing it to the floor when he’d removed it. He lifted off his undershirt, revealing a torso of chiseled, rippling muscle.
Jie watched him, his hands curling into tight fists, his body tense, ready to spring in defense, if necessary. He glanced at Meg, whose gaze bounced between him and the Russian, who’d by now nearly divested himself of every stitch of clothing.
He’d pulled off his shoes and socks and now stood in a pair of briefs. He looked over at the two other large lang ren. “Perhaps our friend here needs a jump start for his change,” he said, his voice full of cruelly edged amusement. “Give him what he needs.” No sooner had he issued his command than he stood still, every muscle of his body tensing, the cords of his muscles tightening beyond what seemed humanly possible.
In the next moment, he slid into what appeared the Change, his body morphing rapidly into the transition from human to lang ren in an accelerated version of what Jie had experienced.
Meg screamed.
“Meg!” Danny yelled from inside the store.
“Stay back!” Jie ordered when both Dann
y and Dave crowded the doorway to the studio.
A large wolf, its coat as sleek and light-colored as the Russian’s hair, now stood where he had been. It growled, its huge fangs bared, its large dark eyes trained on Jie.
In the next moment, the two other large lang ren lunged for Meg, grabbing her, one by each arm.
“Jie!” she screamed. She struggled and twisted, helpless in their iron grip.
Raw molten anger poured through Jie. He yelled and lunged for Meg’s captors with a growl in his throat. He delivered a chop with the side of his hand to one’s chest. The force of the blow caused him to release Meg, freeing her to twist around and kick her other captor hard in the knee. He still held on to her, but now only with one hand, and she was able to chop him in the rib cage, freeing herself.
From the corner of her eye, Jie saw Danny and Dave charge into the room, standing over the fallen lang ren. When he tried to get up, Dave punched him down while Danny pulled Meg away.
Knowing Meg was relatively safe, Jie was able to keep his attention riveted on the growling, snarling wolf. The creature seemed to be waiting for Jie to change. The other two, still in human form, closed in on him.
They touched her, Jie thought, his anger still pouring through him in waves like lava down the side of a volcano. The heat of his anger caused him to break out in a sweat. They made her scream in pain and fear.
The lang ren lunged at him, throwing a punch.
Jie caught the punch in his open hand, following the weight of the attack down toward the floor, diffusing its force.
A flash of pain ripped through him, driving him to his knees. He thought for a moment the wolf had attacked him but when he looked up, it stood nearby, watching him. Waiting.
Jie realized what was happening. The lang ren had grabbed Meg on purpose to release his anger. To release the beast.
The change was slow, tearing at him the way it had two days before. He fell onto his back, staring up blankly, pain ripping through his limbs.
The skinny lang ren’s face appeared, hovering over him, grinning. “I’ll help you move faster, my friend,” he said. “Imagine that large Russian bodark running his hands over your mate’s breasts, squeezing them. Tasting them.”
A surge of change rippled through him, the speed increased. Each mention of Meg being raped by the other lang ren caused a surge of uncontrollable anger.
“Imagine that tongue teasing her nipples --”
That did it. The change ripped through him with such speed, he didn’t have time to remove his clothing first. Part of his clothes ripped, while other parts slipped off.
In the next moment, he was in wolf form, his clothing hanging around his canine body in tatters.
Catching a glimpse of himself in the mirror, he saw the contrast of his sleek ebony coat to his opponent’s. Their sizes, too, were unmatched. The Russian was nearly two of Jie in body weight alone. But Jie had only to think of his rival in human form forcing himself on Meg, raping her and making her cry. He looked at the Russian and growled, his hackles rising.
Meg watched the two creatures circling around each other. Tears slipped from her eyes, streaming noiselessly down her cheeks. Only after several moments did she realize she had fistfuls of Danny’s shirt, pulling it in tightly curled fingers. She couldn’t see how Jie would defeat this monster nearly twice his size. Yet only one of them would finish the fight alive.
The Russian growled and leaped at Jie.
She screamed.
The large yellow-furred lang ren landed on Jie, causing them to slide across the floor in a black and yellow heap. The two wolf bodies hit the mirror and bounced off.
Meg stared as the fighters clashed together and then separated after several moments. She could see that even in wolf form, Jie seemed to be using tai chi to fight, diffusing his opponent’s attacks by absorbing the force and rolling if necessary or sliding across the floor until the momentum died.
The Russian took another leap at Jie. Jie skidded off to the side, avoiding him, causing his opponent to slide into the mirror. The large yellow body hit the mirror with such force that the glass cracked.
At first, he seemed stunned. But after another moment, he turned, fixed a stare on Meg, and growled.
The next thing she knew, he charged her. She screamed.
He never reached her. Jie intercepted him in a flash of huge canine jaws. The Russian yelped from the impact of Jie’s fangs sinking into the yellow fur. The large wolf bucked and reared, obviously trying to shake Jie off of him, but Jie held on, tenacious.
When Jie finally pulled away from the bite, he reared up and grabbed the other wolf around the neck with his front paws and sank his teeth again into his opponent’s head.
The Russian yelped again and headed for the window to the street. When he neared it, he leaped, taking Jie with them. They crashed together through the old plate glass window onto the street.
Meg heard only the sound of crashing glass and then human screams of shock as the two large creatures rolled onto the sidewalk, still locked together.
The Russian finally disengaged himself from Jie’s bite, portions of his yellow fur stained crimson. He seemed momentarily disoriented.
Meg watched the fight, her body frozen.
Jie stood watching him, his hackles up, shards of broken glass scattered around his paws.
The Russian growled at him and lunged again. The contrast of their opposite-colored fur flashed as they rolled and writhed in the street, stopping traffic.
The screams of frightened people continued, mingling with the sounds of honking horns and crying children. Jie disengaged himself from the Russian’s attack and leapt onto the hood of a cab that their fight had halted. The driver cowered visibly inside, quickly rolling up his window.
Jie clambered up onto the roof, followed by the Russian. Jie leaped off and moved toward the broken window of the studio.
The Russian leaped after him, landing on him squarely. Their death struggle continued. Jie seemed to be working his way back to the studio, hovering around the edge of the broken glass. He reared up, causing the Russian to rear up with him. On their hind legs, they locked again in a struggle, moving around on their hindquarters.
In the next second, Jie locked his front legs around the other lang ren’s neck, twisted around, and fell over on top of him.
The Russian let out a loud yelp, then lay perfectly still, a pool of scarlet running out of his side from the large shard of glass that had impaled him.
Jie rolled off of him and took off, running so fast he disappeared in seconds.
“Jie!” Megan yelled. She pulled away from Danny’s protective embrace, ran to the broken window, and jumped over the mess of broken glass and dead wolf to peer down the street. All she saw was a crowd of confused frightened people and backed-up cars.
Jie was gone.
Chapter Fourteen
Meg ran through the streets until her lungs burned for air. Her desperation to find Jie mounted more with each second. What if he’d been badly hurt in the fight? She skidded to a stop, gasping for breath, her hands on her thighs.
When her breathing had calmed enough, she straightened up, scanning the buildings and streets. No sign of Jie. Tears crowded her eyes.
As she stood, watching for him, a new terror rose. She felt what he felt in her heart, their deep connection giving her access to Jie’s emotions.
He was shocked and ashamed. He’d just killed another living creature. No matter that it was in self-defense and in her defense. He hated killing. It horrified him, yet he’d been forced to do it. He hated what he was and didn’t want her to look at him.
He wasn’t sure if he was going to come back.
She whimpered as a fresh spate of tears pooled in her eyes. She rubbed roughly at them with the heel of one hand. Her heart still pounded and she felt torn. She wanted to be out looking for him, but if he came back, she wouldn’t be there. Yet sitting and waiting for him would also be a torture. She knew beyond a doubt th
at he’d run so far away by this time, she’d never find him, even if she went driving around in a car looking for him. With her shoulders sagging, she turned and walked back to the store.
The side street on which the fight had taken place was now cleared out. The only evidence of the earlier death struggle was the broken glass and some bloodstains on the sidewalk. Even the dead lang ren was gone.
“Meg!”
She looked up at the sound of Danny’s voice. He came through the broken window and rushed over to her, pulling her into his arms. “Meg, I was so worried about you.” He squeezed her tightly.
Meg let her body sag against her friend. His embrace was a small haven from the horror of what had just happened. “I couldn’t find him,” she murmured into Danny’s shirt.
Danny’s hand moved across her hair in a brotherly caress. “Don’t worry, he’ll be back. Come, let’s go inside.” With his arm across her shoulders he began to lead her around the corner. “Dave locked up the store. We’re going upstairs. You need a rest.”
Meg only nodded, letting Danny lead her as if she were a child. “I want to find him,” she said as they went around the corner to the back entrance. “What if he’s hurt?”
Danny squeezed her shoulders. “I’ll ask Dave to drive around and look for him.”
“I want to go too.”
“All right. Just rest for a few minutes first.”
They turned the corner.
Meg looked up and gasped. The skinny lang ren stood in the alleyway near the entrance to the staircase that led to her apartment. A black car was parked, its engine running. The two large lang ren occupied the front seat. She shrank back in fear and prepared to run, but he held up a hand. “Don’t worry, we’re leaving.” He gave her a strange smile. A gleam of satisfaction, almost peaceful, shone in his eyes.
“Where’s ... the body?” Danny asked him, shielding Megan somewhat with his body in front of hers.
Yelin gestured with a nod of his head. “In the car. We’ll see to his ... disposal. We take of our own.” He smiled his gap-tooth grin at her. She had no idea that he was actually the Chinese bodark’s rival for her, not Schenko. However, there was no need to divulge such information. The Chinese had rid the world of Schenko for him. The Chinese bodark only wanted the girl. That was obvious. They weren’t going to come after him. “And don’t worry, dyevooshka, he’ll be back. Do not pursue him. He will only feel ashamed. But you already knew that.”
TOL2 Kiss of the Werewolf Page 10
