The Matchmaker hummed in amusement as she continued her inspection. “She’s healthy enough. Young. Strong. Has she passed the tests?”
She directed this question at Kassian. Not Sheng. Though it was Tiger’s duty, not Ox’s.
Kassian blanched, as anyone would delivering unwelcome news to her.
Fuck. Sheng hadn’t meant to lapse in testing Lucy. He’d just been so bloody distracted by his attraction to her, he’d allowed his impulses to override his responsibilities. Damn. This was so unlike him.
“Ah, not yet, Matchmaker. She just arrived. I’m sure Li—” He cringed, shoulders hunching as he averted his face the instant he spoke Sheng’s name.
The Matchmaker didn’t pounce upon it, but her long, red fingernails curled into her palms. “Go on, you, with your pitiful excuses.” She scoffed. “It’s not as though the balance of the entire world,” she indicated the room with a graceful sweep of her arm, “is hinged upon your good leader’s shoulders.”
“Leader” was spoken with such derision, Sheng shrank back, concerned for a second she might have detected his presence.
As if his own misgivings about leading his Kongsi weren’t enough, the Matchmaker never failed to take any opportunity to point out his unworthiness.
He ground his jaw. He was trying, dammit. Fucking AWOL Dragon.
“Of course, of course, Matchmaker. I’m certain he intended to test her today, but your summons came first. We did not wish to keep you waiting.” Kassian bowed, ending with an elaborate flourish.
The Matchmaker inclined her head. Sheng smirked. Kassian’s efforts placated the woman. This was why he’d sent Ox in his place. She had a soft spot for him. Not that she’d ever confess as much.
“Make sure he does. I cannot admit her otherwise.” The warning panged straight through him. He hadn’t planned to test Lucy until she’d accepted Rabbit. Now he had no choice. Exclusion from the Hai San Kongsi was unlikely, because even the Matchmaker knew damn well where Lucy would turn.
Snake.
Tiger’s claws punched through its cage, cracking the tiles beneath Sheng’s fingertips. Easy. He reigned in the beast. The Matchmaker could hold all the threats she liked over his head. Didn’t change a damn thing. Lucy might not possess the Dragon or the Hound, but they still needed her.
On their side.
“Of course, Matchmaker.” Another gracious bow. Kassian poured it on, hard. Badass charmer.
“Come now, tùzi. Do not hide. You are safe.” The Matchmaker brushed the hair from Lucy’s face. She tensed at first, but then her shoulders relaxed. The woman continued stroking, murmuring to the Rabbit inside Lucy.
Sheng clenched his jaw. Rabbit inched forward, the cloaking of the spirit condensing and revealing long, furry white ears. Lucy’s delicate nose twitched and Rabbit’s pink nose overlaid hers.
Tiger pounced against Sheng’s walls. Furious. Jealous. Indignant.
Mei told him Monkey had coaxed Rabbit out too. Why the hell did Rabbit trust everyone but Tiger? For him, she’d fallen lifeless in fear.
Yet Tiger insisted on greeting her. Rabbit was its family.
If Sheng didn’t bloody well secure Rabbit’s loyalty soon, he feared how far he would need to go to make it happen.
The Matchmaker combed her nails along Lucy’s scalp. Abrasive, yet also…maternal? She lifted her lashes and dared to gaze into the woman’s eyes. Those obsidian depths seemed centuries old. Wisdom, confidence, reassurance. This whole experience reminded her of China’s past, when women were examined prior to being assigned as a good match with another household. Yet she didn’t get the impression she was being considered for marriage.
But something more.
“Are you familiar with the story of the Great Flood?”
No one had said anything about this being a test of Chinese history. “Um, sure. Lots of myths in cultures around the world mention a flood.” Nice, political answer.
“As there are also tales of great plagues.” The Matchmaker’s ruby lips pursed and her hands dropped from Lucy’s hair. “Each time, the world has been knocked from a state of balance to one of imbalance.” Her mouth caressed the word. Reverent.
“Since the beginning of time we, alone, have prevented the world from dissolving, from an apocalypse.”
Lucy stiffened. What experience did these people have with devastation? They lived here, unscathed, while so many of her friends and acquaintances suffered. If they claimed the ability to stop an apocalypse, they were too late. Bitterness seeped through her tone as she grated, “Newsflash. It’s already begun.”
A pencil-thin brow lifted. The corners of the Matchmaker’s red lips curved. “Good. This is very good. You’re strong. Stronger than you would have been.”
“Stronger?” Lucy squeezed back the tears threatening to break loose, her voice raising an octave. “You’re saying it’s a good thing so many people died? What the hell is wrong with you?” Anger and guilt over surviving surged inside her. The force of her fury shook her body. She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth to stop from slapping this righteous woman.
The Matchmaker didn’t wipe the curve from her lips. Like a feline, satisfaction flashed in her eyes. “Yes, yes, this is good. You’re angry? You didn’t save them…did you want to?”
Her throat dried, rage vibrating through her body like ripples in a pond, fading. “Of course, but I’m not like Mei. I could never have engineered a vaccine. Still, I want to help.” Conviction set her shoulders. This place was a bubble, safe from the horrors of the past year. Here, she could pretend none of it had ever happened.
Or she could make a difference. Help them smuggle the vaccine and save lives.
The Matchmaker leaned forward, tucked Lucy’s hair behind her ear, and whispered, “Contrary to what the extracurricular activities of our Kongsi imply, the vaccine is not the solution.”
Her mind stumbled over the concept. “Why not?”
“Vaccinating the world would imply an end. There is no end to this plague.”
No end? Her teeth sank into her bottom lip. Parts of the Earth remained unaffected. Eventually, the world would fix this. They had to.
“It isn’t for science to solve. Follow me.” She didn’t wait for Lucy to obey as she rose and glided into an antechamber.
Lucy gaped after her, unmoving, even after Mei nudged her arm. “Aren’t you going to follow her?”
“I’m not sure. You guys buy into this?” She scanned Mei, Kassian, and Fang’s expressions. None of them acted crazy. In fact, they bore matching frowns of sorrow mixed with solemn respect.
“You should,” Mei encouraged.
Ignoring the tingling that spiked the hairs on her arms and neck, Lucy stood and crept into the antechamber.
A square room, reminiscent of a tomb, stretched before her. In the center, a jade statue of an emperor reigned over them. The Jade Emperor, the monarch of all the deities in Heaven. Around them stood bronze sculptures of each of the Chinese Zodiac animals. Below each statue was a plaque inscribed with names in Chinese characters.
The Matchmaker paused in front of the Rabbit.
Lucy swallowed hard. Again with the rabbit thing.
“What happens when the animals are joined?” As she posed her question, the woman swept her graceful arm around to encompass the statues.
Lucy frowned, following the line of the Matchmaker’s arm. Hesitating at first, she rotated until she’d spun about one full turn. A circle. “They make a circle.”
“Good. What happens if the circle is broken?”
Lucy shrugged.
“Imbalance.” The Matchmaker’s smooth tone flowed across the chamber like the gentle trickle of a water fountain.
“We caused the imbalance?”
“No. The Plague God did.”
Plague God?
The Matchmaker smoothed her hands down her skirt. “You can stop him.”
“How?”
“By joining with Li Sheng and the others.”
; Sounded too simple to halt the millions of deaths the world had seen. Lucy frowned. The Matchmaker must be concealing a deeper secret. “All we have to do is find each of the animals and hold hands in a circle?”
A laugh that chimed like a bell escaped the Matchmaker’s throat. “Hardly. There are other details but, for now, what is most important is accepting you are Chosen.”
“Okay, so who chose me?”
“The Jade Emperor.” Her elegant hand drifted to the central statue. “Throughout time, to safeguard the world against imbalance, the Jade Emperor has sent his warrior spirits to bond with a human host. Those chosen for the task are bestowed with the great responsibility of restoring order to the world.” The Matchmaker narrated her story, conviction in her tone.
“You think I’m possessed by one of these spirits?”
The woman’s dark, glittering gaze settled on her. “I don’t think, Lucy. I know. And you are not possessed, you are Chosen.”
Though the room was warm, a chill shivered across her skin.
The Matchmaker tilted her head toward the Rabbit. “Tell me you sense nothing when you regard this animal, and I will let you go. Back to America, if you wish.”
Let me go? Was she a prisoner without even being aware of it?
Steeling her shoulders, Lucy marched to the statue. When she’d touched the stone rabbit with Sheng, she’d been zapped, but she must have imagined the jolt. Right? The impulse to prove the Matchmaker wrong pounded through her veins, so she extended her hand. As her fingertips grazed the animal, a current like one from an electric socket sparked through her fingers. She gasped, snatched back her hand, and glared at the smirking woman. Twice couldn’t be a coincidence, could it? There had to be a logical explanation. “You wired it.”
“Indeed, I did not.” The Matchmaker brushed her fingers against the Rabbit’s bronze fur. “See? Nothing.”
Unable to erase her frown, Lucy placed her fingers exactly where the Matchmaker’s had been. Another zap jolted through her body but, this time, it came from within. She forced her hand steady against the statue, curious how long the energy would vibrate and what would happen if she kept her hand there. The buzzing dimmed but, as it dissipated, the skin on her hand blurred. Tiny ruffles of white fur spread across the top of her hand, ending in long, thin claws.
A rabbit’s foot. Her hand didn’t transform into a paw. Rather, the image formed over her hand, the way a hologram hides a secret picture. As she angled her hand back and forth, she could view both images separately. Her hand. The Rabbit’s foot. When her hand tipped midway, both skin and fur blended and blurred together. Amazing. Maybe the Matchmaker wasn’t crazy.
“Little Rabbit,” the Matchmaker murmured, nodding in reassurance. “Coax out the spirit and you will discover the world like you’ve never imagined it.”
***
Sheng’s heart pounded in time with Tiger’s.
Rabbit, Rabbit. Come to me.
Rabbit was more than a soldier to Tiger. They were friends, family. Always together, except whenever one of their hosts died and they had to wait for a new one.
Tiger missed Rabbit.
The yearning ached through to Sheng’s chest, joining with a deeper longing. He craved to know Lucy. She fascinated him like no other woman ever had. Shy and uncertain of herself, yet so passionate underneath.
Her display of anger toward the Matchmaker intrigued him. Such fierceness. Maybe she hadn’t been like this before the Red Death. There was something to be said for trial by fire, emerging from the flames unscorched and forged into stronger metal.
The two women emerged from the antechamber into the main hall. He crept along the tiles and followed the action. After exchanging commands and farewells, Mei, Fang, and Kassian departed with Lucy.
The moment the hall emptied of visitors, the Matchmaker lifted her head toward the window he occupied. “You may come down.”
Shit.
She’d detected him the whole time. Why the fuck hadn’t she called him out on his spying? Devious shrew.
He leapt to the ground, thirty feet below, landing in a graceful crouch right in front of the Matchmaker. His landing hadn’t even made the hairs sweeping over her shoulder flinch.
Ice Queen.
He rose from his haunches to tower over her even though he really ought to display some form of submission. They might have their differences of opinion, but they were on the same side—he on the lower end of the hierarchy.
Tiger chuffed and Sheng obeyed, dipping his head. “Matchmaker.”
She raked her gaze over him while circling him just as she’d done earlier with Lucy. Unfortunately, the Matchmaker was an excellent judge of character. She could take one look at a person and know everything from their favorite color to how many people they’d screwed.
Probably why she hated him so much. From their first meeting, he’d never stood a chance at impressing her. His lips tugged into a smirk.
She thought she knew better than everyone else, especially when it came to matters of love. If she had her way, no one would ever fuck anyone unless they were eternally bonded.
True love and all that bullshit.
Even as he mocked her in the manner he always did, something new yanked at the organ inside his chest.
Lucy.
“You really shouldn’t attempt to outwit me.” She halted her perusal in front of him. “Bringing Lucy yourself would have made one statement. But hiding in the rafters? What do you suppose I should conclude from that?”
Fuck. Yep, he was fucked.
He forced his dry throat to swallow. “Why conclude anything, Mistress, except that I thought you should form your own opinion of her? Not exactly a secret how well we get along.” Her nostrils flared. He winked, pleased her hackles had risen. She hated when he called her Mistress.
They could go like this for hours. They had. Partly because he’d refused her advice, cutting off an engagement to a woman who hadn’t actually chosen him.
The Matchmaker insisted true love would blossom between the two of them. She’d been wrong and had hated swallowing that bitter pill.
Ning was happily married, expecting her third kid.
In your face, witch.
He chuckled, causing the Matchmaker to shoot daggers at him from her eyes. Those dark depths narrowed, and he braced. He knew that look, and nothing good would come out of her mouth next.
“Keep your paws off her.”
He opened his mouth, both to protest he hadn’t touched Lucy and that the Matchmaker could go fuck herself, but she beat him to the punch.
“She isn’t for you, and if you defy me in this, I’ll have your hide.”
He slammed his mouth shut. She nodded in approval, as though whatever she’d observed in Lucy was unbreachable.
“You’ve been wrong before, Mistress.”
Her eyes flared in warning. “I’m not wrong about this. Lucy is special, more than even you can fathom.”
He clenched his jaw. Lucy was special and he’d sensed that before anyone else. He didn’t need some fortune teller ordering him around. “Forgive me if I have less than utter faith in your divinations.” A dry tone seeped into his voice.
“She is pure for a reason. Do. Not. Touch. Her.”
Crap. The Matchmaker knew Lucy was a virgin. He shuddered as the extent of her powers slithered across his skin. She surmised things no one else could. Her revelation shouldn’t have surprised him.
“Test her, train her. Nothing more or I’ll castrate you myself.” She flashed him a smile bearing a tad too much eagerness. Yeah, he bet she just waited for him to really screw up, to tear him down a notch.
Her hand shot to his balls, cupping them. “And I’d do it with so much pleasure.”
Sweat beaded on his forehead as he hissed at the daggers of her nails digging into his sensitive flesh. “Like what you got there, Mistress?” He clucked his tongue. “Always trying to get your hands on my balls.”
Her plan backfiring, she released
her threatening grip, but smirked. “Do your job, Li. Or I’ll do mine.”
Yeah, screw that. He squeezed his thighs together, his bollocks cringing at the delight in her voice. She’d love to whip him into line. He masked the unease shooting through his body at her threat, unwilling to give her the pleasure of sensing his distress. “Ah, now, don’t pretend you weren’t just looking for an excuse to cop a feel.”
Tiger leapt out. Not bothering to snag the spirit back, Sheng freed the beast. Tiger snarled once and, gratified by her flinch, slunk back. Sheng refused to allow anyone, Mistress or Master, to leash him.
Her features settled into a collected mask once again as her chin tilted toward Sheng. “You are treading on dangerous ground. This isn’t a matter of marriage or my distaste for casual affairs. This is the fate of the entire world. The last time I checked, the key to the survival of humanity wasn’t in your pants.”
She paused for effect and, dammit, her words did carry weight.
Tiger shrank back into the corner of its cage. Ouch. Her words stung, her tongue like a barbed whip. Yeah, they’d fooled around, years ago when Sheng had been overwhelmed by the responsibility bestowed upon him after Tiger revealed itself. When he’d first met the Matchmaker, sparks had flared between them, and he’d mistaken their attraction for the good kind. Turned out, they were magnetic opposites, destined to butt heads. He hadn’t exactly performed to her standards in bed, his cock going off before they’d gotten down to it. She’d never let him live his ineptitude down.
He’d been young, far less experienced, and she’d…well, she’d appeared damn near the same as she did today. Ageless, the woman was. Witch.
Later, when he’d learned her views on random fucking, he’d realized the whole thing had been a setup. She’d pretended to want to have sex with him just to humiliate him. Or teach him about control. Or whatever fucked-up lesson her scheme had intended to drill into him. He had no desire to bring up the subject and ask her which.
He shrugged off the blow to his pride. Neither of them itched for a rematch, so what the hell twisted her panties into an endless knot?
Before he chose an appropriate retort, footsteps echoed toward them from a side room. He jerked his gaze from her to the source.
Trancing the Tiger (Chinese Zodiac Romance Series Book 1) Page 9