Tiger's Quest (20 page)

I struggled but couldn’t even move because the men held me so tightly. Kishan roared. One of the men had used a pronged weapon that had some kind of electric Taser attached to the end. The black tiger whirled, knocked the weapon to the ground with a paw, and snapped it in half with the weight of his body.

Quickly, Kishan jumped on top of the man who had fallen to the ground and bit into the man’s shoulder. Kishan lifted the man off the ground with his powerful jaws, and jerked his head violently until the man stopped moving. Kishan dragged the limp body several feet, and with a fling of his head, threw the man into the bushes. Then, he raised himself up on his haunches like a bear and swiped at other men who came near. His jaws dripped blood as he snarled viciously.

Ren kept trying to get back to me, but men always stepped between us. I took advantage of the momentary distraction when Ren dropped a man at our feet to kick one of my attackers in the groin as hard as I could and elbow the other one in the stomach. He doubled over but kept a tight grip on my arm. Then, he cuffed me at my temple and my vision got blurry.

I heard Ren’s terrible roar. I kept struggling, but I felt dizzy. The man held me in front of him as if I was bait. He taunted the tigers by handling me roughly. I knew it was to distract the brothers, and unfortunately, it worked. Ren and Kishan kept trying to clear a path to me and frequently looked my way, which allowed more men to get behind them.

Other men arrived. Apparently, reinforcements had been called, and these men had more weapons. One of the men pulled out a gun and fired at Ren. A dart hit him in the neck, and he briefly staggered. I saw red and suddenly my vision cleared. I felt power sizzle through my limbs. I popped the back of my head into my captor’s nose and gratifyingly felt the cartilage break. The man screamed and loosened his hold enough for me to jump away. I ran to Ren. He changed into a man. Another dart hit. He was still on his feet, but he was moving much slower. I yanked the darts from his body.

He tried to push me behind him, “Kelsey! Move back! Now!”

A third dart hit him in his thigh. He staggered once more and fell to one knee. Men surrounded him, and, knowing I was near, he began fighting again to keep them away from me. Kishan was enraged, mauling man after man while trying to get to us, but more kept coming. He was too busy to help me with Ren. He was barely holding his own ground. I tried to pull the men off Ren, but they were big. They were also professional fighters, maybe military, so they mostly ignored me and focused on the two more dangerous targets. I was just an annoying fly they swatted away.
If only I had a weapon.

I felt desperate. There had to be something I could do to protect Ren. He finished off the last man near us and fell to his knees panting forcefully. Bodies were piled in groups around us. Some dead, some wounded. But, more men were coming. There were so many! I could see them creeping closer, eyes trained on the weary man at my side.

Fear for Ren’s life steeled my resolve. Like a mother bear protecting her young, I stood in front of Ren, determined to somehow stop the men from advancing, or at least give them a different target to shoot at. There were more than a dozen men stalking toward us, most of whom had guns. A fire burned in me, a need to protect the man I loved.

My frame shook with energy, with power. I faced the man closest to me and stared at him darkly. He raised his weapon, and I raised my hand in defense. My body burned hot, and I felt a molten inferno travel down my arm and into my hand. The flames ignited, and the symbols Phet had once drawn on my hand reappeared and blazed crimson. A lightning bolt exploded from my hand to the body of my attacker. It lifted his body into the air and slammed him into a tree hard enough to make it shake. He fell in a crumpled mass at the base.

Not having time to question or figure out what had happened, I turned to face the next attacker and the next. I was overcome with rage; a furious wrath bubbled through me. My mind screamed that no one would hurt those that I loved. Euphoric in my power, I took them down one after another.

A pinprick struck my arm and another one hit my shoulder. They felt like bee stings, but, instead of burning, numbness spread. The fire in my hand sputtered and went out, and I stumbled to the ground in front of Ren. He shoved an attacker back, still fighting, though he had been shot with darts several times. My vision was getting dark, and my eyes were closing.

Ren picked me up, and I heard him yell, “Kishan! Take her!”

“No,” I mumbled incoherently.

The whisper of his lips brushed against my cheek, and then I felt iron arms lock around my body.

Ren shouted, “Go! Now!”

I was being carried swiftly through the trees, but Ren wasn’t following. He was still fighting, as the attackers closed in on him. He switched to a tiger again. I heard him roar with outrage and pain, and I knew in the soft fuzziness of my mind that it wasn’t the physical hurt that caused him to cry out. It couldn’t have been, because I felt it too. The horrible, ripping pain was because I had been taken from him. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I reached out a hand and grasped feebly at the air.

I pleaded hazily, “Ren! No!” before falling into darkness.

T
he deep thrum of an engine stirred me. My head throbbed, and there was a funny taste in my mouth. Something was very wrong; my mind was still fuzzy. I wanted to wake up, but I knew that on the other side of consciousness, a new kind of horror awaited me, so I allowed myself to sink back a little deeper into the murky blackness, and hovered there, like a coward. I needed something to hold onto, a crutch that I could lean on to give me enough strength to face what lay ahead.

I was lying on a bed. I felt the soft sheets and stretched out my hand hesitantly. A furry head butted against my fingers. Ren. He was here.
He
was the motivation I needed to rise above the darkness and step into the light.

I cracked open my eyes. “Ren? Where am I?” Every part of my body hurt.

A pretty face looked down at me. “Kelsey? How are you feeling?”

“Nilima? Oh, we’re on the plane.”

She pressed a cold wet cloth to my forehead, and I mumbled, “We got away. I’m so glad.”

I stroked the tiger’s head. Nilima looked at the tiger next to me briefly and then nodded. “Let me get you some water, Kelsey.”

She left, and I closed my eyes again, pressing my hand against my throbbing forehead.

I whispered, “I was so afraid you weren’t going to make it. I guess it doesn’t matter now. We were very lucky. Let’s not split up ever again. I’d rather be captured with you than be separated.”

I slid my fingers into his fur. Nilima returned with some water. She helped me sit up, and I took a long drink then mashed the wet towel over my eyes and my face.

“Here . . . I brought you some aspirin,” she said.

I swallowed the tablets gratefully and tried to open my eyes again. I looked into Nilima’s concerned face and smiled. “Thanks. I feel better already. At least we all made it. That’s the important thing. Right?”

I looked over at the tiger.
No. No!
I started gasping for air. My lungs locked. “
Kishan?
” I pleaded in a raspy voice, “Where is he? Tell me we didn’t leave him behind! Ren?” I yelled. “
Ren? Are you here? Ren? Ren?
”

The black tiger just watched me with sad, golden eyes. I grabbed at Nilima’s hand.

“Nilima, tell me! Is he here?”

She shook her head, tears filling her eyes. My vision became blurry, and I realized that I was crying too.

I desperately clutched her hand. “
No!
We
have
to go back! Tell them to turn the plane around. We can’t just leave him there! We
can’t
!”

Nilima didn’t react. I turned to the tiger.

“Kishan! This isn’t right! He wouldn’t leave
you
. They’ll
torture
him. They’ll
kill
him! We have to do something! We can’t let this happen!”

Kishan changed to a man and sat on the side of my bed. He nodded to Nilima, and she left us alone.

He picked up my hand and spoke quietly, “Kelsey, there was no choice. If he hadn’t stayed behind, we wouldn’t have made it.”

I shook my head in denial. “
No!
We could have waited for him.”

“No, we couldn’t. They shot me with tranquilizers too. I only got hit once, and I barely made it to the plane despite my ability to heal. He’d been hit at least six times. I was amazed that he could still stand. He fought bravely and well and bought us time to get away.”

I grabbed his hand as tears dripped off my chin. “Is he . . . ?” I sobbed, “Did they kill him?”

“I don’t think so. None of them had weapons other than Taser sticks and tranquilizer darts. It appeared their instructions were to take us alive.”

“We can’t let them do this, Kishan. We have to try to help him.”

“We will. Mr. Kadam is already working on locating him. It won’t be easy, though. He’s been searching for Lokesh for centuries, and the man has kept hidden well. There is one thing in our favor. Ren doesn’t have the amulet, so Lokesh may be willing to offer a trade: the amulet for Ren.”

“
Fine
. We’ll give him the amulet if we can get Ren back.”

“We’ll worry about that when the time comes, Kelsey. For now, you should rest. We’ll be in India in a few hours.”

“I was asleep that long?”

“You were hit twice and were knocked out for about fifteen hours.”

“Did they follow you to the plane?”

“They tried. Luckily, the plane was ready to take off. Jason probably saved our lives.”

I thought about Ren being engulfed by enemies while we ran away, and I choked on a sob. Kishan leaned over, wrapped me in a hug, and patted my back.

“I’m sorry, Kelsey. I wish it had been me, not Ren. I wish I’d had the strength to carry both of you out of there.”

My tears dripped on his shirt. “It’s not your fault. If you hadn’t been there, we both would have been captured.”

I sat up, sniffed, and wiped my eyes on my sleeve.

He ducked his head to look in my watery eyes. “I promise you, Kelsey, that I will do everything in my power to save him. He’s still alive. I can feel it. We’ll find a way, and we
will
defeat Lokesh.”

I wished I felt as sure as Kishan that we could save Ren. Nodding, I squeezed his hand and whispered that I’d be all right. He asked if I’d like to eat something, and even though I felt knots twisting my stomach, I said yes. He looked relieved as he rose to look for Nilima.

I wondered if he was right.
Could Ren still be alive?
Since the day I first saw Ren at the circus, there was a strange connection between us. Tentative and wispy at first, it grew stronger. When I went back to Oregon, the link stretched and pulled like a rubber band.

It tugged me and tried to draw me back to him. And, in the last few months as we became closer, the connection solidified and tightened, forming a steel connection. We were part of each other. I felt his absence, but the bond was still there. It was still strong. He was alive. I knew it. My heart was still tied to his. It gave me hope. I resolved that I would find him, at any cost.

Nilima invited me to eat something. She set out a dinner with a glass of lemon water that I sipped slowly while I thought about what I could do to help Ren. Kishan had changed back to his tiger form before resting at my feet. His golden eyes watched me sadly, and I leaned down to pet his head, reassuring him that I would be okay.

By the time we landed, I still didn’t have a clue as to how I would find Ren, but I knew that I would never let myself be so unprepared again. The next time something like this happened, I would fight. Now that I knew I had this . . . this lightning bolt power inside me, I would practice it. I would also ask Kishan to continue to train me in martial arts and maybe even in weapons. Perhaps Mr. Kadam would teach me too whenever Kishan was a tiger. Regardless, I would never let someone I loved be taken again. Not while I was still alive.

Mr. Kadam met us at the private airport. He wrapped me in a hug. “Miss Kelsey, I missed you.”

“I missed you too.” My eyes stung with unshed tears, but I refused to let them spill over.

“Come. Let’s get you home. There is much we need to discuss.”

When we got home, Kishan took my bag upstairs and left me alone with Mr. Kadam in the peacock room.

Books were piled high on his beautiful mahogany desk; the normally organized and clean top was covered with papers. I picked up a few papers to examine the notes written in his elegant script. “Have you figured out the second prophecy?”

“I’m close. Actually, it’s thanks to you that I’m as close as I am. The landmark that puzzled me turned out to be the Himalayas. All this time, I’d been searching for a certain mountain, not realizing that it was a mountain
range
I needed to find. Thanks to your report on the Himalayas and their weather patterns, I was able to open my mind to that possibility, and it led to new discoveries for me.”

“Glad to be of help.” I set the papers down and asked quietly, “What are we going to do? How are we going to find Ren?”

“We’ll find him, Miss Kelsey. Don’t worry. There’s even a chance he may be able to escape on his own and call us.”

A thought occurred to me. “Will he be able to change into a man if he’s captured?”

“I don’t know. He wasn’t able to before, but now you’ve broken part of the curse. That may make a difference.”

I squared my shoulders. “Mr. Kadam, I want you to train me. I want you to work with me on weapons and martial arts. You taught both of the boys, and I want you to coach me too.”

He looked at me thoughtfully for a minute. “Alright, Miss Kelsey. It will take discipline and many, many hours of practice to become competent. Don’t expect to be able to do what Ren and Kishan can do. They have been trained all their lives, and the tiger within each of them makes them stronger.”

“That’s okay. I’m prepared for that. I plan to ask Kishan to continue working with me. I can learn faster if I practice with both of you.”