“That’s because you’re not a tiger.”
“So… about that,” Eliza said. “You can be any form of feline you want. What made you choose the forms you take?”
“Some of it is natural inclination, honestly,” Chance said. “It’s like being right handed or left handed. With concentration, you can write with either hand, but you naturally lean one way or the other. I naturally lean toward tiger. Pangur naturally leans toward snow leopard, because he’s a show-off.”
Pangur laughed. “Don’t hate me because I’m beautiful.”
“Don’t worry,” Raja assured him. “We hate you for a lot of other reasons.”
“My natural inclination is toward the cheetah,” Shashi told her. “But I can also be a leopard without too much difficulty.”
“A snow leopard?” she asked.
“No. A regular leopard. One whose tail doesn’t get in the way all the time.”
Pangur complained, “That was one time. You’ll never let me forget it.”
She smiled. The banter between the brothers was warm and comfortable, and she could feel the great affection between them.
“Is that the same with your physical appearance? Raja and Shashi, you look Indian. Pangur looks… I don’t know, Chinese? And Chance here is blond. That’s quite an outlier.”
“We can choose our human appearance, too, at least as far as coloring goes. Our bone structure is our bone structure, though, so we always have the same faces,” Shashi answered.
Chance smiled. “Do you have any idea how easy it is to get stuff when you’re a blond, blue-eyed white man in this world?”
Raja groaned. “Quit with the politics. We have more important things to deal with.” He nodded at Eliza. “You hit Ghost with the serum, so he’s locked in cat form for the next twenty-four hours. He’s also had his ass kicked by two of us, so he’s feeling pretty awful right now. He should be easy to track by the scent of his blood and his distress.”
“And when you find him?” she asked.
“Then we bring him back here,” Shashi answered. “I have a spot in the basement prepared for him.”
She frowned. “A spot?”
“Well… a cage.”
Pangur looked sad. “We have to contain him while we work on deprogramming him. He’ll be too dangerous otherwise.”
“I can certainly attest to the dangerous part.”
Shashi assured her, “While he’s here, he’ll be kept under constant guard, and so will you. He will not be allowed to hurt you again, I swear to you.” He picked up her suitcase. “If you will, please follow me and I’ll show you to the room where you can stay.”
Eliza followed, and the brothers followed, as well, since all of them were unfamiliar with the house. She wasn’t sure why she had agreed to come here, since she had a place of her own, but it had seemed like a good idea at the time. She honestly just didn’t want to be alone. Now, though, she wasn’t sure if she should be here, or how long she should stay. She had failed to disable the cameras in the zoo before all hell had broken loose, and the video would clearly show her letting Pangur and the tigers out of their cages, as well as her unexpected and completely rule-violating sleepover in Pangur’s enclosure. She was as good as fired, and she knew it. If Dr. Armstrong saw those videos, which would also include the attack by Ghost, he would know that she was in on the secret of the existence of rakshasas.
She stopped short on the stairs, and Pangur almost bumped into her. Sudden realization followed by fear struck her nearly dumb.
“What’s the matter?” the snow leopard asked.
“If Dr. Armstrong is an asura, and if he can sense rakshasas, and if I’m half rakshasa… he knows that, doesn’t he? He’s known it since the day he hired me.”
Shashi turned and looked back down the stairs at her. “I guarantee it.”
She shuddered. “Well, so much for that job.”
“Unfortunately. Asuras play the long game, and I’m certain he hired you to keep you close. I’m equally certain that he has plans for you, and I’m not coming up with many happy options about what those plans might be.” Pangur put his hand on her arm. “But we won’t let him hurt you, either.”
“You guys are making a lot of promises.”
“And we’re going to keep every one.”
They continued up the stairs, and Shashi said, “There are four bedrooms up here. I have the master down at the end of the hall, but I’m willing to share with someone. We’ll all have to double up - except Eliza, of course.”
Raja frowned at their brother. “Don’t be a pig. Eliza gets the master. She’s an honored guest.”
“Yeah, Shash,” Chance said. “What are you thinking?”
Shashi blushed. “Well, clearly, I’m not. You’re absolutely right.”
“I don’t want to take your bedroom away from you,” she said. “Honestly, I’m fine with any other room. Just… I’m not an honored guest, okay?”
Pangur took her hand and kissed it. “You most certainly are.”
She looked down into his incongruously blue eyes. When their gazes met, her skin tingled, and she shivered. One corner of his mouth turned up slowly, and the other brothers looked at one another.
“I…” She swallowed a sudden lump in her throat. “Okay. Thanks.”
The room she was given was next to the master, and it shared a bathroom with the next room down the line. The window overlooked a perfectly manicured lawn, and a stained glass Om symbol hung from a suction cup on the glass. There was a statuette of Shiva on the dresser with a tiny incense burner beside it. Otherwise, the room was nondescript.
“If you don’t want Lord Shiva in here, I can move him,” Shashi told her. He put her suitcase on the white bedspread. “And if you want to burn incense, I have a collection in the top drawer of the bedside table.”
Raja made a face. “Incense stinks.”
“It’s beautiful.”
Eliza smiled. “I think I can do without it, but thank you for the offer anyway. For what it’s worth, I like incense. I just don’t normally burn it. It can be too strong.”
Raja nodded. “Told you.”
“We’ll just leave you here to settle in,” Shashi told her. “You can probably use a little space from us.”
She sighed. “I don’t want to seem ungrateful, but… this is a lot. But I have a ton of questions, and I’d really rather stick with you guys.”
Pangur smiled brightly. “Well, you’re definitely welcome.”
Raja shrugged. “Then come sit in the living room with us and be bored while we talk out our strategy.”
“I don’t think I’ll find that boring…”
“We’ll see.”
She looked at the brothers. “You don’t have any clothes or anything, do you?”
“Nope,” Chance said, smirking. “Been living in a zoo, you see.”
Eliza blushed. “I know that. I just… Do you need someone to shop for you while you’re busy finding Ghost?”
Shashi shook his head. “That’s a kind offer, but we’ll be just fine. I don’t want you going out until we’ve got him collared.”
“Literally?”
“If it comes to that, yes.”
They went back down the stairs to the family room. Pangur gestured for Eliza to sit on the couch, and she complied, sitting with her back pressed into the corner. Pangur sat beside her. Shashi took one of the armchairs, Raja took the other, and Chance sat on the hearth, his back to the fireplace.
“He can’t be that far from the zoo. He was wounded, and his ability to cover ground would be limited,” Raja said, opening the discussion.
“But he had all night,” Chance said. “He’s licking his wounds, but don’t forget, he has the power to heal, too. There’s no reason why he wouldn’t be at one hundred percent by this time.”
“The fight was just before midnight,” Pangur said. “It’s now just before noon. He’s not back up to full, I can promise you that. Raja and I laid a pretty good smackdown
on him.”
Shashi nodded. “All right. So… does anyone know that area well enough to know where he might be hiding?”
Eliza said, “There’s a rocky area just to the west of the zoo, with a lot of crags and caves. There are a lot of hiding places in there. Real cougars have been seen in that area, so that’s probably where he’d be.”
Pangur chuckled. “Looks like we have a native guide.”
“I can take you there,” she offered rashly.
“No, that’s not smart.” Shashi held up his hand. “I appreciate your bravery in making the offer, but taking you there would be the worst thing we could do.”
“Why? Because he’ll catch my scent and come out of hiding?”
The brothers looked at one another. Raja said, “She has a point.”
Shashi frowned. “I don’t use living people as bait.”
Eliza didn’t know where her conviction and courage were coming from, but she knew that she was right. If she was there, they could lure Ghost out of hiding and the brothers could capture him.
-It’s a good plan, but there’s one problem. If we’re close enough to keep him from attacking you, he’d be smelling us, too.-
Pangur’s voice rang in everyone’s head, and Eliza sighed.
“He’s going to smell you anyway, no matter how you go to him.”
“Yes, but if we leave you here, there’s less of a chance that you’ll get hurt.” Shashi made a dismissing gesture with his hand. “No. No bait. We’ll just hunt him the old fashioned way. Split up, catch his scent, catch him in the middle.”
“There’s only four of you,” Eliza said. “Won’t you need more numbers to do that?”
“We’ll be fine. And there will be three of us.”
She frowned. “There?”
“Yes. Pangur, you’re staying here with Eliza, just in case the asuras or Ghost come knocking while we’re elsewhere.”
He nodded. “My pleasure.”
“But how would he even know where this house is?” she asked. “And as for the asuras, if they haven’t bothered you yet, why do you think they’d come now?”
Shahi sighed. “I don’t think it’ll be Ghost, because I do think he’s hurt too badly to make it this far in cat form. The asuras… I don’t know. They’ll know by now that my brothers aren’t in the zoo any longer, and that will make them act. I’m just a huge believer that if we leave an opening, someone we don’t like will take it. I might be paranoid, but there are reasons why I’m still alive.”
“Nervous as a cat is a cliche for a reason,” Chance pointed out. “Always, always watch your back. Paranoia can be a useful skill.”
“We should go now, before the day gets any older,” Raja said. “Get a headstart on tracking him in the daylight.”
“We’re nocturnal hunters,” Shashi said, “but I get it. Better to get the lay of the land with our human eyes, too.”
“Exactly.”
Chance stood. “Okay, bros. Let’s go do this thing.”
The three of them got into Shashi’s car and drove away, leaving Pangur and Eliza alone. The silence in the room was heavy for a long, uncomfortable minute. Finally, he turned to her with a smile.
“Want me to check if he has a deck of cards? We could play poker.”
“I don’t know how.”
“I’ll teach you. Come on.”
She sighed and stood. “Might as well.”
Chapter Seven
They found no playing cards, and there were no board games or other amusements on offer. There was also no television, something that seemed immensely strange to Eliza. She’d never been in anyone’s home except her own that didn’t have a boob tube. There were dozens of cook books and an office with a laptop and wifi connection, but that was it.
“Well,” Pangur said at last, “as a holiday rental, this place is pretty substandard. No entertainment. Would not rent again.”
She laughed. “Well, I don’t think he was expecting to have to entertain a couple of short attention spans.”
“No, probably not.” They sat back down on the couch, and he asked, “So… Do you want to ask me any questions? I might not know the answers, but I’ll tell you what I can.”
“About being a rakshasa?”
“That, and anything else you might want to know.”
Eliza gestured vaguely. “I have so many questions…”
“Well, hit me with them.”
“Okay. How old are you?”
He smiled. “Old enough to know better.”
She groaned.
“All right, all right. I’m twenty-four. I’m the next-youngest, just a year older than Ghostie.”
“So that’s why they’re being protective of you by making you stay here.”
He frowned. “Uh… no. They’re making me stay here so I can protect you.”
“In the highly unlikely event that there’s an attack?” She shook her head. “Nuh-uh. They’re protecting you just like they’re protecting me.”
“Hmph. I’ll have to take that up with them.” He shrugged. “Anyway, the birth order in my family was Dad, Mom, Dev, Lakshmi, Shashi, Raja, Chance, me, and Ghostie.”
“Big family,” she commented. “Were you all in a litter, or were you single births?”
“Some of us were singles, some of us were twins. Lakshmi and Dev were twins. Shashi and Raja were twins. The rest of us came one at a time.”
Eliza was fascinated. “Is that normal? I mean, for twins or singles?”
He grinned. “Yes. Startlingly similar to human families.”
She squinted at him. “Are you mocking me?”
“Only a little.”
“Well, stop.”
“Sorry.”
She smirked. “No, you’re not.”
His grin widened. “So true.”
“Ugh!”
Pangur laughed. “Okay, come on. More questions.”
“Will you answer them seriously?”
“I was already answering truthfully,” he said with a pretend pout. “Isn’t that good enough?”
“Fine.” She laughed. “You’re a menace.”
“Thank you.”
“Some of these questions might be stupid, but just bear with me, okay?”
“No stupid questions, just stupid answers.”
“You are really unhelpful. Has anybody ever told you that?”
Pangur laughed. “Pretty much every day of my life. I’ll try to be good. Honestly.”
She wasn’t sure she could trust him to keep that promise, but she tried again. “When you’re born… are you baby humans or baby cats?”
“Baby humans. Our ability to shift comes when we’re probably three or four years old. If we shift much before that, our bones are too soft and they might not make the transition there and back very well.”
She leaned forward. “Speaking of that… Since everything about you chances - your bones, your muscles, your organs… Does it hurt?”
“The first few times? Yeah. Like a son of a bitch. But eventually it gets better. It’s like teething, in a way. We all have to go through it, and it hurts at the time, but it’s not something you really remember later on. And you can’t stop it from happening.”
“You say I’m half rakshasi.”
“Yeah. Your mom was a full shifter.”
“How do you know?”
He sat back and propped his ankle on his opposite knee, his arms spreading out over the back of the couch. “Because that’s the only way a half-breed can come about. Male rakshasas can only mate successfully with a female who has rakshasa blood. I mean, we can and do have sex with anybody, but babies? Only with rakshasi. So now you know why we’re all so hot and bothered over you.”
“But I’m only half.”
He smiled. “Still counts.”
“And what if I don’t want to have kids?”
Pangur paused as if the thought of such a thing was surprising to him. “Then I guess you’ll have some very disappointed boys on your
hands.”
“How many rakshasas are there in the world?”
“I’m not sure. The last I heard, there were, like, a hundred in India and maybe seventy or so in Mongolia. A few in Nepal. The last one in Pakistan was killed just before we were captured. Who knows what the hell is happening in Afghanistan. Less than five hundred, certainly.”
She frowned. “That’s terrible.”
“Tell me about it. And you thought I was an endangered species as a snow leopard.”
“What happened to your race?”
“Humans happened. Interbreeding and monster hunters took a heavy toll on us. The asuras didn’t help.” He shook his head. “We’re hunted, and our numbers are dwindling. Again, now you know why we were all so excited to meet you.”
Eliza closed her eyes for a moment and took stock of what she was feeling. She was powerfully attracted to the brothers, every one of them, but she didn’t know if that extended far enough to want a family with them. She’d once thought she’d go the marriage and family route, but Pete had changed that. She wasn’t sure she could be that open with anyone again.
“I don’t know if I can be what you want me to be,” she admitted finally, opening her eyes again to look at him in apology. “I’m afraid I’m going to let you all down.”
He looked away. “Well, it’s your choice. We’re not going to force your hand one way or the other. That’s why we’re hunting Ghostie right now - because he would force you, and we won’t stand for that.”
“Do you think you can turn him back to the good?”
“We have to.” For the first time, Pangur turned solemn. “There are so few of us, and we’ve already lost so many of our family. I still can’t believe that Mom and Lakshmi are gone. It doesn’t seem real, even though I know Shashi wouldn’t lie. It’s just…” Tears flooded his blue eyes, and he blinked them away. “I can’t lose anybody else.”
Spontaneously, she scooted across the couch and hugged him. He hesitated at first, then put his arms around her and accepted the embrace. She could feel his tension as he struggled not to cry, and she stroked his silky black hair.
“It’s all right,” she whispered. “Nobody’s here that you have to be strong for. It’s okay to grieve.”
He buried his face in her shoulder and made a very cat-like sound in his throat. Eliza held him tighter, and the floodgates opened. He sobbed into her, and she could practically feel his heart breaking. It brought tears of sympathy to her eyes.
Falling for Shifters: A Limited Edition Autumn Shifters Collection Page 37