Rakshasa Book I, Part #3: Tigerheart by Alica Knight Read Free Book Online Page A

Ishan’s phone told us that sunrise was at 5:48am. We had less than ten hours before we had to meet the Champawat Tiger to follow the next stage of his directions.
    Most shops were starting to close by this stage but Ishan drove us into the city centre anyway. The ride was performed mostly in silence but my mind was whirring. Why would the Champawat Tiger even want to bargain with us? What did he stand to gain from doing what he had done? What was out by the wind turbines that could matter so much to him, so far away from the Garden of Shadow and our home in the mountains?
    Ishan’s car sped through the evening traffic, weaving expertly between cars. In the past I might have freaked out over it all, but speed seemed to matter less to me now. Despite being well in excess of the speed limit and attracting a number of annoyed honks the car seemed to be moving terribly slowly.
    We pulled up at one of the car parks on London circuit, right at the centre of town. As I pushed open the door and stepped onto the pavement, three figures moved towards us. Initially alert, I recognised one as Asena; a tall Caucasian woman with frizzy red hair. She was one of us, one of my coven. I gave them a firm nod as they approached.
    “Aurora,” Asena said, gesturing to her left, “I want to introduce Vriko…”
    Vriko was a shorter, dark skinned, youthful looking Indian man with a thin beard and goatee and black rimmed glasses. He seemed nervous to me, constantly glancing around as though expecting the shadows to reach out and grab him.
    The name Vriko was familiar to me. On the night I had first met Ishan I’d been locked out of my apartment. I broke a window with my rain-destroyed iPhone but in the morning it had been completely repaired. Ishan told me that Vriko had the ability to repair broken things simply by touching them.
    “… and Susi.”
    Susi, even shorter than Vriko, was a lighter skinned Indian woman who was wearing comfortable looking slacks and seemed relaxed and composed, her hands casually resting inside her pockets. She gave me a friendly nod.
    “Hi,” I said to them both, then to Vriko, “thanks for fixing my window.”
    “No worries,” he said, looking to Ishan with a wary look on his face. “Is it necessary to bring him ? Do we need to involve the Rewa in this? This is an Altaican matter.”
    I could sense Ishan’s unease. There was a sudden, palpable hostility in the air, as the three Altaican Rakshasa stared down Ishan, the lone member of the white-stripped Rewa clan.
    “Ishan’s with me,” I said, keeping my tone even. “He’s going to help us with this. All I want is Katelyn to be safe, I’m really not concerned about inter-clan politics.”
    Vriko looked unhappy with that answer but looked to Asena anyway. “Right, well, so what’s the plan, with Eclipse?”
    Eclipse was the Rakshasa name of the Champawat Tiger. The human papers thought he was a serial killer and had assigned that name, perhaps ironically, to him. He’d been killing people for some time, but things had only recently come to a head.
    The name Eclipse conjured worrying images in my mind. Since my transformation I’d experienced powerful, shared dreams with Ishan; always ending with an eclipse and a gunshot.
    Asena spoke to all of us. “We don’t know what Eclipse is planning, but we know what he wants. He wants us,” she glanced to Ishan, “and the Rewa, eventually, dead. Taking human hostages is a new thing, for him, but I think he realised when you and Ishan confronted him that the only way he can kill is if he finds the fledglings alone, which we’re making harder for him. Perhaps he wants to split us up, perhaps he wants to test our strength…”
    Vriko spoke up. “Or perhaps he’s just playing with us and Aurora’s friend is already dead. Or maybe this whole thing is a Rewa trick.”
    “Or maybe,” Susi began, but I cut her off.
    “Her name is Katelyn ,” I said, “and I heard her voice over the