Here There Be Tigers (37 page)

Her screams echoed off the distant
walls.

CHAPTER
THIRTY-SIX

Exhaustion finally forced Nila into silence.
Her body ached from her attempts to escape the manacles and from
being held in the awkward position. Blood dripped down her arms in
grotesque stripes and her wrists burned from having the metal rings
gouging into the injuries. Her ankles weren’t as sore because she
couldn’t move enough to cause herself much more injury than
bruising.

The longer she stood there, contemplating the
huge, echoing space, the more numb her limbs grew. They would hurt
like a bitch when she was released—if she was released. But numb
was better than screaming pain.

As the overwhelming animal panic eased, she
searched the area near her for some exit other than the barn doors.
Her hope of finding a trap door or something to use for a weapon
was short lived as the floors were scrubbed spotlessly clean, not a
stray bit of straw, piece of wire, or plank of wood
anywhere.

Waiting gave her too much time to think, to
regret, to imagine the worst. She tried focusing on something good,
something positive, and her thoughts turned to Mitch. Was he okay?
Did he realize she’d been taken yet? Had they found Victor in time
to save his life? Would Mitch try to find her?

Rescue might be her only hope, but she had no
idea how they’d locate her. Could they follow her scent despite the
smell of the truck? She was apparently still in estrous. Was that
scent strong enough to leave a trail? They’d been counting on
Petrov following the smell of her on Alexis’ clothing. Did that
mean Mitch would be able to track Nila to same way?

And would they kill her before he could find
her?

She pushed that thought aside. Panicking had
only hurt her. She had to concentrate, to study her surroundings,
and be ready for anything. She opened her other senses, focusing on
what she couldn’t see. She had trouble smelling anything beyond the
stink of her own fear and blood, but she could listen. And maybe
with that newly discovered sense of the presence of tiger shifters,
she could pick up how many were in the area.

Closing her eyes, she listened, searching for
anything useful, and opened her awareness. In the distance, she
could just hear the sound of a single car, but it never got closer
so obviously wasn’t coming her way. Birds were in the trees
surrounding the barn. A breeze ruffled the leaves in quiet music.
The barn itself was an echoing silence. Except for her own
breathing, there wasn’t even the scurry of rodents to distract
her.

Beyond what she could hear, she did get that
pinpoint sense of awareness that she’d learned indicated the
presence of shifters. She felt three different points of danger,
two together at the front of the barn, one off past the direction
they’d parked the truck. So no more tiger shifters around than the
ones she knew about—at least not near enough for her to sense.
Since she was as scared now as she’d been at Gregory’s cabin, she
wondered if she’d been unable to sense individuals there because of
the number rather than her fear, or if she just didn’t know how to
use this new sense well enough yet?

No way to answer those questions yet. It was
enough to know, if she concentrated, right now she could sense the
shifters in the area.

She frowned and finally opened her eyes,
contemplating the barn’s interior. Was it really new? Or was it
this clean because Petrov had made it this way? If it wasn’t new,
what had it been before it was turned into her prison? Or had he
built it for her? That didn’t make sense. He hadn’t known about her
long enough for that. But he’d had almost a month to decide how
he’d kill her. He could have found this place and cleaned it out.
He had so much money, maybe he had had it built.

Since no one was around to answer any of her
questions, she concentrated on the sounds surrounding her. If there
was a cellar, it was sound proofed because she couldn’t hear so
much as a scratch of movement beneath the cement floor. A car
whooshed by on the road, making her heart jump. It didn’t even
pause. Even if her throat wasn’t sore from screaming earlier, she
doubted passengers in the moving car would hear her
anyway.

Every time she thought she sensed movement, she
popped her eyes open. But the barn remained empty. When she
concentrated on trying to sense them, she continued to feel the two
shifters just outside the barn doors. They remained in the same
location every time she opened her awareness—though when she wasn’t
trying, she couldn’t sense them. The third tiger moved beyond her
ability to feel not long after she started keeping track, so she
was left wondering where he’d gone.

Hours passed as she listened and watched. And
waited.

When the barn actually started getting darker,
she realized it must be close to sunset. No one had come inside to
check on her. Even though she knew there were still two shifters
just outside the barn doors, she was terrified they’d just leave
her dangling here to die a slow death. But since that meant she
wasn’t being raped and murdered, she had a hard time viewing that
as the worst outcome.

She was parched, though, and her stomach
rumbled with a combination of hunger and fear. She’d been standing
in her forced spread eagle for so long now, her fingers were icy
cold and chills raced over her exposed skin. The cool air was
actually making her a little crazy. She liked heat and summer. Her
personal Hell would be a frozen wasteland. The barn wasn’t actually
cold. Just cool. A temperature that might have been pleasant under
different circumstances.

Her thoughts scattered when the barn door
opened.

The dead-eyed tiger stalked in, carrying
something in one hand. Surprisingly, she relaxed with relief that
it was him and not Stephen. His utter lack of concern or interest
in what was happening to her was somehow comforting. At least she
knew where she stood with him. Sort of.

When he neared, he held up a water bottle. “You
need to drink.”

She studied the bottle as her dry mouth yearned
for a sip. Caution had her asking, “Is it drugged?” She knew this
man would tell her the truth. He had no reason to lie. He didn’t
care enough.

“
No.” He glanced at her wrists.
“Should have been. But he wants you hurting.”

“
Why? I’ve never done anything to
him.”

“
You exist.”

“
That’s not my fault.”

“
Fault has nothing to do with
this.”

The way he said “this” made her wonder if there
was something he found fault with in the situation, but he didn’t
elaborate.

He held the bottle to her lips and tipped it so
she could drink.

When she’d gulped down a few large swallows,
ignoring the excess that dribbled over her chin, she leaned her
head back against the wall. “What’s your name?”

For the first time, she saw a very slight
change in his expression. His eyebrows rose just barely, but enough
to assure her she’d surprised him.

“
Joseph,” he said, his voice even
quieter than before.

“
Joseph. What happened to
you?”

“
You should be worried about
you.”

“
I am.”

He turned and started back toward the
exit.

“
Thanks for the water,” she called
after him.

He didn’t acknowledge her.

Then she was alone again. Her eyes narrowed to
tired slits, she stared at the door, still with more questions than
answers. Not the least of which was why had they bothered giving
her water when they intended to kill her. And what the hell were
they waiting for?

CHAPTER
THIRTY-SEVEN

It was full dark when Petrov, Stephen, and
Joseph returned to the barn. As Nila watched them, she wondered
where the human men were. For that matter, where was Vlad and his
brothers? She had never sensed more than these three tigers all
day—or at least three individual tigers; she couldn’t tell who the
tigers where just by sensing, not the way Mitch could. She kept
expecting more shifters to show up to torment her. This waiting and
not knowing was as tortuous as anything Petrov could do to
her.

Petrov stopped a few feet away as the other two
flanked her. He looked at her arms and shook his head. “Not very
smart are you?”

She didn’t rise to the bait.

He smiled. “You’ve led us a fine chase, Nila.
I’m going to savor your death.”

Petrov was sick, twisted. And like with
Gregory, she couldn’t understand why these other men would support
him. Petrov didn’t just want her dead to prevent her from bringing
her human DNA into his lovely little tiger world. This wasn’t just
about preserving his species. He wanted revenge on her for
something she had no part in or control over. Both Stephen and
Joseph had to know that. Why did they go along? What had he offered
them?

She remembered what Joseph had told her about
Stephen, that he’d run for and even caught Anaya. “Did you savor
your mate’s death?” she asked Petrov, just to see how Stephen would
react.

Petrov was in her face, nose to nose, so fast
she never saw him move.

“
She was a freak,” he hissed. “An
insult to everything we tigers are.”

“
Because she loved my
father?”

“
She never loved him. He was an
accident, a passing fancy.”

“
You think she loved
you
? Why
would she lie to you about me?”

His face turned red and a fine tremor shook his
body while she watched. She was pushing too hard. He was going to
lose control and snap her in half. But if there was a chance, even
a slim shot at gaining help, she had to take it. She felt Stephen
and Joseph both move in closer, but she didn’t dare turn away from
Petrov.

“
How’d that feel?” she murmured.
“Knowing you’d mated with a woman who didn’t trust you?”

“
She was a whore,” he spit. “She
deserved to die.”

“
You did kill her, didn’t you?” she
whispered, keeping her tone as even as possible, though terror and
anger made her tremble.

He snatched her chin in a brutal grip. “The
fact that you look like her will make it easier to kill you,” he
said. He set his mouth against her ear and said, “I’d kill her all
over again if I could. She went too quickly. So you’ll suffer for
her betrayal. And I’ll make sure nothing like you can ever happen
again.”

He pinched her chin so hard between his
fingers, she thought he might actually crack her jaw, but then he
released her with a sharp jerk and stepped back several
paces.

“
Take her down.”

A blinding instant of relief at being freed
from the chains was followed immediately by panicked fear. Joseph
knelt in front of her and released her legs while Stephen freed one
of her wrists. She wanted to look at Stephen to see if Petrov’s
admission had done any good, but she didn’t dare look away from
Petrov.

As soon as her one arm was free, her entire
body sagged toward the floor and pain shot through her limbs. Her
still manacled wrist screamed with pain as it took her full weight
and her wounds were rammed against the metal. Fresh blood dripped
down the inside of her forearm.

Stephen held her while Joseph released the
final manacle. Once fully freed, she fell heavily against Stephen,
unable to support her own weight. Her vision blurred as blood
rushed to her limbs.

After several long moments, she got her feet
beneath her and straightened away from Stephen. She had to keep her
stance wide to keep from falling, but she managed. The fact that
she managed to stand on her own, despite having gone without food
since morning, barely any water all day, severely cut up wrists,
and a full complement of fear chemicals racing through her blood,
was a point of pride. She raised her chin a fraction and faced
Petrov.

He looked over the blood on her arms and the
abused skin of her wrists. “The smell of blood and estrous
together…my tigers won’t be able to resist.” He practically purred
the last statement.

Her stomach clench and her skin went cold, but
she didn’t respond.

“
Let’s go,” he snarled.

Stephen and Joseph snatched her arms and
dragged her toward the barn doors.

She couldn’t resist asking, “We’re leaving?”
She’d thought for sure whatever he intended would take place in
this huge, cool, bare space. Why bring her here
otherwise?

“
This was storage.” He glanced over
his shoulder. “Until night. But we prefer to play in the
woods.”

She scanned the floor. “What happened to the
other two, the human men?” She didn’t expect an answer, but the
fact that she’d seen no sign of them since entering the barn left
her with an awful suspicion.

Petrov gestured to the left, toward the barn
wall. “Cold cellars are great for hiding the scent of dead flesh
for a very long time. You’ll join them. If there’s enough left of
you.”

She bit the inside of her cheek to keep from
saying anything more. She didn’t want to know anything more. The
fact that he’d killed the two men so casually, men who’d been
working for him, only proved how deranged he was. Mitch had warned
her Petrov would do this, but she hadn’t expected him to kill off
the humans so soon.