Jade Tiger

by Reese, Jenn

  "She sent me away," Ashton continued. "To England. To live with him."

  He jerked his hand. Shan's shirt ripped just below her neck, and fresh blood oozed from a new cut. Shan rolled onto her back and let her shirt staunch the flow. So far, Ashton had kept the wounds shallow, but Shan didn't doubt he could reach in and pull out her heart if he wanted.

  A plan. She needed a plan. But what could she do? Ashton had all the power.

  "Yes, I do," Ashton said.

  Truth from lie, thoughts as truth. Her mother had been able to sense people's minds as well, though she used it rarely.

  "I'll kill you anyway," Shan growled. Tried to growl. The words came out broken.

  Ashton laughed. "Lie! Not even you believe that nonsense, yet you expect me to?"

  Shan swallowed, the metallic taste of blood traveling slowly down her throat. Ashton was right. She couldn't kill him. Even before he'd taken the animals, she hadn't been sure that she could. Now...now it was impossible. A lifetime of searching, and she'd lost in the endgame. The Jade Circle was gone forever.

  Shan looked up, and her gaze fell on the ring of monitors. The images slowly came into focus.

  And when they did, Shan watched her mother die.

  The screens--all of them--flickered, and the show began again on every screen. The security cameras in the Jade Circle sanctuary had captured it all.

  Her mother ran into the main sanctuary room--probably right after she'd left Shan in the hallway and blinded One-eye. Men attacked. Lin-Yao moved like the ancient dragon, fluid and wise and utterly deadly. Men fell, most dead before they could even scream. Shan had never seen her mother kill. Lin-Yao was so beautiful and even more terrifying in her perfection. Shan could never dream of matching her skill.

  The camera angle changed, and now Shan saw a new man in the video. The leader of the assault. A man who was, most definitely, a young Victor Ashton.

  More men came, faster and faster. A kick knocked Lin-Yao backward into Ashton's arms.

  Ashton snapped her mother's neck.

  Shan watched her mother's body, suddenly lifeless, drop to the floor in the only display of clumsiness her mother had ever shown.

  The video flickered and started over. Lin-Yao ran into the main sanctuary chamber.

  "Good footage, don't you think?" Ashton said. "Just remember, the cameras add ten pounds."

  Lin-Yao fought, and men fell.

  Ashton continued, "They called your mother the dragon. I remember her from before they sent me away."

  More men attacked. Lin-Yao stumbled back.

  "You're a pale shadow of her."

  Her mother's neck twisted and broke. Her mother slid to the floor.

  The video flickered.

  Her mother's perfection shone in every frame. Shan had never been as patient or as wise, even as an adult. Her mother would still love her, she knew, but would Lin-Yao actually be proud?

  Lin-Yao fought, killed, stumbled backward.

  Shan couldn't stop watching. The pain in her chest swelled until she felt as if her heart might explode. Her beautiful, graceful mother, and then...

  The video had no sound, but Shan could hear it. The crackle of bones in her mother's spine as they separated, severing nerves and ending life in one meaningless, simple motion.

  Is that how Ashton would kill her, too?

  "I haven't decided how I'm going to kill you, girl," Ashton said. "But you'll definitely watch the professor die before you go. Of that I am certain."

  The video flickered. Lin-Yao ran into the sanctuary room. Men attacked.

  Shan was vaguely aware of Ian's voice, harsh and broken, when he said, "I'm not going to die."

  Lin-Yao killed the men.

  "Of course you're going to die," Ashton said. "You know it, too. Your words were a lie."

  One of the men kicked Lin-Yao, and she stumbled backward.

  "Maybe so," said Ian, "but Shan will kill you. This is your first and only time with the jade animals."

  Lin-Yao spilled onto the floor. The video flickered.

  "Lie," Ashton said, but there was a strange tone to his voice.

  "No, it's not," Ian said. "She'll kill you."

  Lin-Yao fought in the main sanctuary room of the Jade Circle.

  Ashton laughed. "Your opinion won't make any difference."

  Shan watched her mother fight. Flawless. Beautiful. Her mother spun, and...

  Made a mistake.

  Her mother had made a mistake. Lin-Yao could have stopped the kick that sent her tumbling back into Ashton's death grip. For all her training, for all her skill, her mother had made a mistake that had cost her life.

  But Shan had seen it. Shan would never have made a mistake like that. No, she'd have made different ones. Shan wasn't perfect, but neither had her mother been.

  "My opinion does matter," Ian said.

  Shan looked away from the video screens as they flickered and restarted. She looked at Ian.

  His shadowed eyes stared back at her.

  He said, "Because I love her. Because I'm in love with her. Because she can do anything."

  Shan was not a pale shadow of her mother. She was a different person entirely.

  Tears welled and spilled down her cheeks. Tears born of Ian's love, and tears born of anger and hatred for Ashton. They ran together on her face.

  Her mother had loved her.

  Ian loved her.

  She'd never felt stronger in her life.

  Shan rolled onto her stomach and pressed her palms against the marble floor. The chi was there, flowing through everything.

  The jade animals didn't create the chi. They weren't a power unto themselves. They helped with focus, like a magnifying glass. One animal focused chi on one aspect of life: strength, tenacity, flexibility, balance, mutability. But all five animals together made a person whole.

  And right now, Shan didn't need to touch the animals to feel whole.

  She pulled chi in through her feet and hands where they touched the floor. She thought of the snake and its endurance, its powers to heal. Energy flowed through her, knitting skin and cleansing wounds.

  Ian loved her. He believed in her. It was about time she started believing in herself.

  Ashton didn't see the first blow, but he sure as hell felt it. Shan spun where she stood, her arms outstretched like the crane's powerful wings. Whipcords of energy swept across the room and lashed Ashton in the face. He stumbled, clutching his cheek, and took his hand from the jade animals. He didn't need to touch them to use their power, just as Shan didn't. But maybe he didn't know that.

  "You bitch," he said.

  Shan laughed.

  Ashton unleashed a furious attack of kicks and hand strikes. A fist--either his or a fist of energy--clobbered her in the head and sent her flying. Shan's arms extended again, and she landed gracefully on one foot, in crane stance.

  Ashton charged. Shan's hands bit his arms and neck at pressure points like a venomous snake. He countered, his long black hair swirling around his head, his mouth twisted into a half smile. A smile without mercy.

  "You couldn't be a part of the Jade Circle," she said, "so you destroyed it."

  "When you're dead, and that bitch joins you, the Jade Circle will be just a legend," Ashton spat. "A legend that no one will even bother to remember."

  Shan whipped fingers at his temple like a dragon's tail. She pounded at his throat with her fists curled tight like leopard paws. And she raked with hands curved into tiger claws. Raked at his face and his neck and guts, and roared when she tasted blood.

  Ashton fought back, his eyes blazing. Shan circled him, catching her breath, and attacked again. She came in low, coiled, and struck his solar plexus. Ashton staggered. He snapped a kick into her ribs, but Shan stayed rooted to the ground.

  "I'm going to kill you," she said. "Tell me if that's a lie."

  She grabbed his wrist and jerked it up and over his shoulder. He flipped backward to avoid the joint lock.

  "You're pa
thetic, and I pity you," Shan said. "Tell me if that's a lie."

  Ashton pulled chi into his body. Shan refused to let him take any of hers or Ian's. He flew at her, his foot extended and aimed at her head.

  Shan dodged to the side and punched out his knee with a sickening pop. Ashton screamed.

  She grinned. "It's not your neck, but it's a start."

  Ashton landed on his good leg and caught her face with his fist. The deep scratches left by the tiger reopened and bled fresh.

  Shan paid him back by grabbing his arm and breaking it over her shoulder.

  He broke three of her fingers on her left hand.

  She kicked him in the groin.

  He cracked two of her recently mended ribs.

  She jumped, swung her arm in a huge circle, and landed a smothering punch directly over his heart.

  Ashton staggered backward, forgot about his broken knee, and fell to the ground. His hair still hung straight and sleek, a perfect black backdrop to his suddenly pale face.

  Ashton's heart had stopped. His mouth hung open, a silent cry for air. His Western eyes widened in his Eastern face.

  Shan did nothing but watch him die.

  When the muscles in his face finally slackened and his head slumped back against the carved pedestal in the middle of the room, Shan pulled her gaze away.

  "Ian."

  He'd propped himself up on one elbow. His face--his impossible face--was a disaster of blood and flesh. Shan knelt beside him, her own body crying out in pain from the sudden loss of adrenaline.

  "Are you in there, Ian? Talk to me."

  "Greeb," he said, his voice cracking. "Your eyes are greeb."

  Shan smiled. "Good job, professor."

  His eyes smiled back, even if his mouth couldn't.

  "Can..." He coughed. "Can we go now?"

  "Almost," Shan said. "I just needed to see if you were okay. I have one more thing to do."

  Ian swallowed, a move that clearly caused him pain, and nodded.

  Shan ran her unbroken hand over the tips of his hair, careful not to touch anything that looked like a wound.

  Then she turned and shattered every last video screen in the room.

  Shan could tell that Rachel Sexton didn't want to believe them. Rachel kept looking at each of them: Shan, Xia, Lydia, Ian, and trying to come up with some plausible explanation for their injuries that didn't involve the cruelty of her late boss. According to Rachel, she'd known about the illegal artifact sales. But the murders, the torture...that was apparently news to Ms. Sexton.

  It was Ian who finally convinced her. Ian, Rachel's ex-lover and colleague. Ian who could barely talk through his pain.

  "The boat is gone," Rachel said. "I don't know who took it. But I can have another one here from Hong Kong in a few hours." She looked at Ian. "I've already sent for the doctor. Just don't say anything about how this happened. I need time to think this through."

  "Thank you," Shan said. "We won't say a word." The jade animals were in a pouch at her waist, and most of the people she cared about were alive and at her side. She couldn't care less what happened to Ashton's estate now that he was dead. "We appreciate your help."

  Rachel nodded, her lips pursed, and left the room.

  Xia was the worst off, but possibly the most determined to live. Bitterness proved to be a powerful salve when possessed in such quantities.

  Lydia...Lydia was more pissed than hurt. Xia had told her what the symbol on her back meant. Shan had already suggested some tattoos that might hide the scar. But Lydia heard none of it. She did as she was told--held bandages and fetched water. Her wounds, Shan feared, would be the slowest to heal of all.

  But it was with Ian that Shan spent those last hours before the boat came. She propped him up on the bed where they'd made love earlier that day, and she touched him. Stroked his arm. Ran gentle fingers through his hair.

  Ashton had broken his jaw, but not his spirit. Nothing Ashton had done had come close to dulling the brilliant spark in Ian's eyes. Shan sat on the edge of the bed and held his hand in her unbroken one.

  "I love you, too, you know," she said.

  Ian tried to smile, winced, and stopped. "Then you're not as smart as you look," he mumbled.

  Shan laughed.

  EPILOGUE

  Los Angeles, California

  The Way of the River

  Shan sat next to Ian on a low wooden bench. Inside the studio, Lydia practiced her new form. Upstairs, Xia finished packing.

  Shan lifted Ian's hand up and studied it. "You have long fingers."

  "You're very observant," Ian said. Over the last three months his jaw had mostly healed, though a patchwork of silver scars on one side betrayed the latest round of surgery. As if following her thoughts, he ran one of his long fingers over the three parallel scars on her cheek.

  "It's like a landing strip," Ian said. "I have no choice but to follow."

  He bent over and kissed her. Shan sank into the sensation. It was so like the no-mind state of readiness that she entered when fighting. Except instead of nothing, her mind was filled with thoughts of Ian. Only Ian.

  Reluctantly, she pulled back.

  "Tell me again how safe you're going to be," she demanded.

  "I'll have Xia with me. Does that answer your question? Buckley won't know what hit him." Ian stared into her eyes. "But also, a little not safe. But that's the point, now, isn't it?"

  Shan nodded, smiling. "My crane is leaving the nest."

  "Your crane will come back part tiger, part dragon, part snake, and part leopard. Your crane will come back more worthy of you."

  Heat suffused her face. "You're already more than worthy."

  "Then I need to be more worthy of myself. Like I used to be." He bent for another kiss, changed direction, and kissed her chin.

  "Harlot," she said.

  "Mmm," he countered.

  Lydia refused to see Ian and Xia off, still angry that she hadn't been allowed to go with them. Shan drove them to the airport by herself, hugged Xia, and kissed Ian within an inch of his life. When she got back to The Way of the River, Lydia was sitting on the front porch, waiting.

  "We got another sign-up while you were gone," Lydia said.

  Shan nodded. "That's nine this week. We're going to need more space soon."

  Lydia's blonde hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail. She turned her head and pretended to stare at the stars. Stars that were never visible in the gloomy gray sky of Los Angeles.

  Shan sat in a chair next to Lydia and looked up at the same nothingness.

  "They can feel the Circle," Shan said quietly. "That's why they're coming. And they'll keep coming, I think. Men and women, adults and children. They'll come, and we'll welcome them all."

  "Etienne will be here next week," Lydia said.

  Shan looked at her friend, seeing the struggle for hope so evident on her face. "You'll like him, I think."

  Lydia nodded, but said nothing. For now, that was enough.

  They both had a lot of work ahead of them. But now it was Shan who drove her own destiny, not the tiger, and not the memory of her mother. It was a good feeling.

  Shan gazed up into the L.A. night, and swore she could see the heavens.

  THE END

  Acknowledgements

  So many folks helped me with Jade Tiger. Here are just a few of them:

  Christine Ashworth, who read every single chapter minutes after I finished it and convinced me to keep going. Without her, I'd still be working on the prologue. Sally Felt, who got me over every major barrier with her unique brand of creativity and panache. Evelyn Vaughn, for her continuing support, advice, and expertise.

  A lot of people read the first draft and gave me fantastic advice. Among them were Sarah Prineas, Tim Pratt, Heather Shaw, Michael Jasper, Shelley Stuart, and Greg van Eekhout. I want to thank Sarah for coining the phrase "Shan fu," which has become an integral part of my vocabulary.

  Thanks to Laureen Shea for a great copy edit, to C. A
. Hoffman for an endless stream of good advice and friendship, and to Vera Nazarian for far too many things to mention.

  Thanks to Deb Coates, Samantha Ling, and Tobias Buckell for help with eBook conversion. Special thanks to artist Timothy Lantz for use of "By the Tail" for this eBook edition.

  And finally, I want to thank my martial arts buddies, Lisa Mia Moore and Wally Skelton, as well as the amazing Master Armen Heroian. They offered me a safe, fun place in which to begin my journey in the martial arts. Nothing will ever be as it was before I walked into the studio that summer day in 2001.

  About the Author

  Jenn Reese

  www.jennreese.com

  Jenn Reese is a writer, martial artist, and geek. She lives in Los Angeles where she writes science fiction and fantasy adventure stories for readers of all ages. She's currently at work on Above World, a middle grade series for Candlewick Press.

  Jade Tiger is her first novel, and combines her love of martial arts, kick-ass women, archaeology, ancient societies, and goofy romance. For a full list of her published stories and novels, visit www.jennreese.com.

  About the Artist

  Timothy Lantz

  www.stygiandarkness.com

  Timothy Lantz is a full-time illustrator and graphic artist with degrees in art education and communications.

  Lantz's work, often described as "beautiful melancholy," has been inspired by a lifetime of reading. From the best of fantasy fiction and sci-fi to 1930s crime fiction and comic books, Lantz's bold and edgy artistry is all about "story." His themes of mystery, romanticism, tragedy and aspiration convey this, as though his life's quest is to create illustrations for relevant yet aching stories that have not yet been written.

  Underpinning Lantz's powerful aesthetic is long experience. His exacting technical abilities, which go far beyond the traditional skill set, combine with core strengths in color and composition to create art that reflects--and refracts--the essence of beauty.