Jade Tiger (17 page)

Shan saw an opening in One-eye's defenses and drove her knuckles into the joint at his shoulder. Then she swiveled her arm and drove those same knuckles into his ribcage. As her right hand pulled back, she channeled its force into her left. Her knuckle sank deeply into the soft flesh of his neck.

One-eye stumbled.

Shan whipped out her right hand, all but her two longest fingers folded inward, and pierced his one remaining eye.

The same move her mother had used to blind him over fifteen years ago.

One-eye screamed. He dropped to the floor and writhed, both hands covering his oozing socket.

But Shan did not enjoy suffering, even his. She stomped on his throat and crushed his windpipe.

And quickly--almost quickly enough--One-eye died.

His hands fell away from his face, and Shan forced herself to look, really look, at the damage she had caused. She wanted to feel remorse for taking her first life, but there was no honesty in that emotion for her. The world was a better place for this man's passing. Shan owed him nothing. Even the speedy death she had given him was undeserved.

"Buckley..."

Xia was trying to raise her head. Shan knelt beside One-eye and searched his body. She found keys in his front pocket.

"Buckley," Xia said again, her voice as broken as her body seemed to be.

"He's safe," Shan said. "Ian is taking him back to the room. They're both safe."

She moved to Lydia first. A Chinese character, bloody but precise, was carved into Lydia's shoulder. Shan cursed silently. The character said "whore."

She released Lydia from her straps and helped the young woman sit up. Fresh bruises covered her upper arms, her cheek, her right thigh, yet Shan said nothing about them.

"Hold Xia while I release the cuffs," Shan said. "Don't let her fall."

Lydia, her face tear-streaked and dirty, pulled the gag from her mouth and said, "Buckley's a traitor."

"Dash, wait!"

Ian heard Buckley lumber into the secret passage, but didn't stop. Buckley was willing to leave Lydia here. Lydia, the woman Bucks supposedly loved. This was not the same man who had stood by Ian's side in the wilds of the Brazilian rainforest and faced down a gang of guerillas spoiling for a fight. Something had happened to Bucks, and it wasn't something good.

Ian ran his hand along the smooth wall to his right and stepped carefully, hoping that Ashton hadn't thought to install any pressure-sensitive pits or poison darts or huge rolling boulders. Shan needed to know about the boat, even if Buckley took it for himself. Maybe there was another boat. Its very existence gave them a chance of surviving this night that they didn't have ten minutes ago. Maybe...

Oh, who was he kidding? The boat was simply an excuse to find Shan and to be with her, no matter what happened. Ian had persuaded himself that Shan knew best, that his presence would only weaken her chances of defeating Ashton. But Shan wasn't all-knowing, and she wasn't all-powerful. Help, even his, might be all it took to shift the balance in her favor. And he was willing to risk his own life on that chance.

"Come on, Ian, wait up!"

Amazingly, Bucks remembered to keep his voice down. Ian ignored him anyway.

The hallway ended in a velvet curtain. Ian pulled the curtain back an inch and peered into a large, circular chamber about thirty feet wide. Ringing the wall about ten feet up were dozens of huge monitors showing some elaborate fight scene in unison. In the very center of the room stood a low table carved with intricate animal designs. A statue of pale green jade rested on top of it. Ian squinted and recognized the bottom part of the statue as his crane.

Ashton had rebuilt the Jade Circle.

Buckley shuffled up behind Ian and said, "You should have gone to the boat with me."

"We found it," Ian said. "Where's the boat? As soon as we find Shan and Lydia, we can get the hell out of here."

"You aren't listening."

Ian felt the cold, heavy barrel of a gun pressed against his spine.

In some bizarre self-defense maneuver, Ian's mind filled with rapid-fire images. The only ones that mattered were of Shan. Shan bursting through the door back at the university like some mythic goddess. Shan kissing his chin in the Alps, like a sweet-hearted teenager. Shan in the hot tub... The image flickered, then froze.

Shan in the hot tub.

She'd already rescued him once. She shouldn't have to do it again.

Ian spun and swept the gun away from his back with an arm that suddenly felt like a wing. He kept turning, and his other arm floated up, extended. The edge of his hand slammed into Buckley's neck with the full force of Ian's spinning body behind it.

Buckley choked and fell against the wall, clutching his throat with the hand of his broken arm. He tried to raise his gun, but Ian moved faster, kicked the gun out of Buckley's hand, and heard it skitter into the darkness.

Ian remembered the bar, and Buckley's sudden possession of the gun that chased the bad guys away. He remembered France, and the two wrong turns Buckley had taken when they were driving. All the pieces slid together into a terrible picture of betrayal.

"Money?" Ian said, his voice almost broken.

Buckley laughed. "You'd never understand. Not with your millions in the bank and your fucking twisted ideas about honor. You should have gone to the boat with me. This isn't your fight."

Ian shook his head. How could he have been so stupid? And Shan had trusted them both, risked her life to keep them both safe. He should have seen through the deception.

"You're right. I'll never understand, Daniel," Ian said softly.

And then they were both bathed in light as the curtain opened behind them. Ian started to turn around when something grabbed him around the waist--something invisible but painfully strong--and pulled him backward into Ashton's shrine.

Shan and Lydia eased Xia's torn and bloody body onto the massage table while Shan tried to calm her growing fury. Buckley was a traitor. She had sent Ian with Buckley. Ian was in danger again. Why hadn't she seen through his lies? Why hadn't Ian? Too wrapped up in each other, that's why.

"Lydia..." Xia mumbled. "She...broke his arm."

Shan looked at Lydia.

"He poisoned us," Lydia spat. "And if I hadn't fallen unconscious, I would have broken more than just an arm."

Xia chuckled. Her laughter quickly devolved into spasms.

"Help her," Shan said to Lydia. "If I'm not back soon, then try to hide until Sunday and sneak onto one of the boats. I'm going after the animals."

Lydia's gaze burned.

"And then after Buckley," Shan added.
But first, Ian
.

Lydia nodded. Shan could feel the hatred swirling inside the girl. If Shan didn't survive this next ordeal, Lydia would be well on her way to becoming another Xia. Lydia deserved so much better than that. Everyone did.

Shan ran, and tried not to think about Ian. But it was hopeless. She saw his face as it had been in the university that night, bloodied and almost unconscious. If Buckley touched him...

Shan growled. She burst into room after room, startling servants and setting off alarms.

It didn't matter. If they came at her, she would drop them. Ian would not die in this place, by his friend's hand. Shan would not allow such an injustice to occur, even if it meant ripping out six dozen throats on her way to find him.

The clusters of servants thickened as Shan raced through the hallways. And dispersed like birds when they saw her coming.

Smart servants.

Ian
. He had given her the crane. He had taken her to the dragon. He had brought her to the auction and into the artifact room. He had found the secret passage.

Would she even be here without his help? Her father had never helped her mother like that. He'd sat in his musty room with his books and read all the hours that she trained. Shan's mother had been a better fighter for being more alone. A far better fighter than Shan.

She was getting closer to Ashton. Shan turned a corner. Three men jumped in front of her. She barely slowed as she kicked the first in the groin, popped the second man's shoulder from its joint, and slammed the third man's head into the wall. Four more men came at her. A few screams later, and they were down, clutching their wounds and bleeding into the carpet. They'd live, and they'd remember.

Ahead of her, at the end of the hallway, stood gold-gilt double doors carved with twin dragons. The heart of Ashton's fortress.

And she wanted Ashton's heart.

Ian tried to struggle against the invisible force dragging him backward, but there was nothing to grab hold of, nothing to twist away from. He was helpless as the force yanked him into the room and then pinned his back against the stone wall. Ian tucked his chin down toward his chest just before he hit. No time for another concussion when Shan needed him conscious.

Victor Ashton stood in the center of the room wearing a gold-embroidered kung-fu suit. One of his hands rested on the circle of jade animals while the other hand stretched out and directed the invisible grip around Ian's waist. Ashton smiled.

"Impressive, yes? It's quite a bit more power than even I was expecting. I'm looking forward to testing it on our little Jade Circle friend."

"She's not here," Ian growled. "I'm doing this alone."

Ashton chuckled and twisted his hand slightly. Ian gritted his teeth against the sudden pain crushing his ribs and stomach.

"The circle shows me truth from lies," Ashton said, "and you are most certainly lying." He flicked a finger.

Something kicked Ian in the gut. Air left his lungs in one great whoosh. His body wanted to double over, to ease the pain, but it couldn't. Ashton's power held him firm against the wall.

"Hey, Vic. We agreed you wouldn't kill him."

Buckley had regained his feet and his gun, and now leaned against the wall by the curtain, his broken arm still pulled tight against his torso. He held the gun loosely in his good hand, not an obvious threat, but still a present one.

Ashton's mouth quirked into a smile. "We also agreed that I wouldn't kill you."

They stared at each other, giving Ian a chance to fill his lungs with air again. If Bucks shot Ashton, maybe Ian would have a chance to grab the jade animals and get the hell out. The two golden doors on the opposite side of the room looked like a promising route for escape.

Buckley laughed, breaking the silence. "Yeah, we did agree on that, Vic. You thinking of reneging on that part, too?"

"It depends on what you intend to do with that gun, Daniel."

Ian tried to think. He tried to empty his mind. Those flickering video screens captured his gaze, and he watched the same fight from earlier, a woman against a dozen men.

Buckley's voice cut into Ian's reverie. "I don't want to shoot you, Vic."

Ashton laughed. "Actually, you
do
want to shoot me," he said, "but the relevant question is, will you try?"

Silence while Buckley pondered. Ian wanted to shout, "Do it! Kill the fucking bastard!" But the longer Ashton's attention stayed trained on Buckley, the better his own chance of survival.

"No," Buckley said finally, "I don't think I will."

Ashton nodded. "Then if you don't want to see your friend die, I suggest you leave now."

Buckley looked at Ian. "Sorry, Dash. I tried."

Ian said nothing. There were no words for what he felt, no number or arrangement of insults that did justice to Buckley's betrayal. If Daniel wanted forgiveness, then he needed to ask his god, because he sure as hell wasn't going to find it on Earth.

Buckley shrugged. He dropped his gun to the floor, turned back, and slipped through the curtain. That cowardly, worthless piece of--

"Now," Ashton said, "let's see what we can do about getting you killed."

Ian only had time to see Ashton's hand start moving before his ears rang from the sounds of his own screams.

The screams were Ian's.

Shan ran for the double-doors. Ashton's lackeys popped out of hallways and alcoves to bar her way. Ian's voice filled her head, made her drunk with anger. She kicked too hard and crushed a man's throat. She broke a woman's knee, and then her other knee. She slammed another man into the wall so hard that his eyes rolled to white.

And still, Ian screamed.

A small part of her mind not occupied with destruction recognized these sounds as a good thing. Ian was alive. Whatever was happening, at least he was still alive.

Ashton, however, was as good as dead.

Shan launched herself at the doors, determined to shatter them as the tiger had done. They opened just before she hit. Shan tumbled into the room, and the doors slammed shut behind her. She flipped to her feet.

Ashton, draped in gold silk, stood in the center of the room with the Jade Circle animals. Ian lay crumpled, but moving, against the far wall, amid several large smears of blood. His screaming had stopped as soon as she had entered the room, but Shan could still hear it in her ears, could still feel it grating against her bones.

Energy crackled and flowed through everything in the room--the walls, the floor, Ian, Shan--and Ashton pulled it all into himself through the Jade Circle. Shan wouldn't be surprised if the net reached even farther, and gathered chi from the mountain itself. Video screens flickered around the room, but Shan ignored them. Her vision only had room for Ashton and the ruined lump of Ian's body behind him.

"Let him go," she said to Ashton.

Ashton dropped his hand. Ian slumped to the floor with a groan, his face hidden against the wall. "That was the only request you get to make," Ashton said.

Shan leaped.

Ashton lashed out and raked the air, his hand shaped like a claw. What felt like four huge knives sliced Shan in the side and flung her backward. She twisted to minimize the damage as she struck the stone. Deep gashes ripped her clothes and flesh. She left her own bloody trail as she slid down the wall.

The pain seared. It felt as if her insides had caught fire. Shan gritted her teeth and struggled to her feet.

"Nice trick." Shan turned and spat blood onto the perfect marble floor.

"I've got more," Ashton said.

His hand blurred. A brick of force smacked Shan in the side of the head and knocked her off her feet again. Blow after blow fell on her body. Her legs and arms bruised. The air left her lungs and refused to return. Her eyes rolled back in her head as her skull hit the floor, the wall, and the floor again. Her body tried to block the onslaught. Tried, and failed.

The attack stopped.

Shan's vision returned as the pain receded. Ashton, with his long black hair, watched her from the center of the room.

"Is this why you don't allow men into the Jade Circle?" Ashton said. "Because we wield the power so much better than you?"

Shan struggled to make sense of his words, but the meaning seemed just out of reach. She shook her head. Blood spattered the floor around her.

"Men..."

It was all she could manage.

"Yes, men," Ashton said. "Do you know how badly I wanted to study there, at the Jade Circle, with my mother?"

"Men..." Shan tried again, "...temple."

Ashton's white teeth glared. "Oh, yes, men can study at the temples. Men can give up their lives and become monks and live off rice and rats in order to learn. But that's not how it worked at the Jade Circle, was it?"

Shan shook her head. The Jade Circle had been full of love, happy children, and adults at peace with life and each other. Martial arts training added texture and depth to one's life; it didn't replace it.

"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 pathetic, 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.