To Tempt A Tiger(35)

“When?”

He looked at Zoe, his gaze thoughtful. “I think we should start as soon as she’s recovered. Maybe after dinner? We need to let her get her strength back. I’ll let you tell me when you think she’s ready to handle it. But we should start tonight. We can’t afford to delay even until morning.”

Rose nodded. “Yeah.” She stared at the cold fireplace, wanting this moment to last longer than it would. Her daughter blissfully ignorant and resting peacefully. The new reality still out there somewhere in the future. For this one instant, everything was okay and her daughter was fine.

It was an illusion, she knew, but it was a nice one.

“It’ll be okay, Rose. I promise.”

She forced a smile and kept her doubts to herself. “Okay” wasn’t something she was overly familiar with anymore.



After dinner, Zoe was her usual self again, bouncing around as if nothing had happened. It never ceased to amaze Rose how quickly she rebounded from the episodes, like she was a perfectly healthy, perfectly normal little girl.

Because she knew they were in for a difficult few hours, she let Zoe have two cookies after dinner instead of just one. Zoe was clever enough to realize this meant something bad was coming, but her suspicion didn’t keep her from scarfing down both treats.

“No doctors,” she said around a mouth full of chocolate chips, her expression pinched into a stubborn pout.

“No doctors,” Rose agreed. “But we do have something…interesting to show you tonight.”

Her eyes widened. “What?”

Rose exchanged a glance with Vlad, then ushered Zoe to the couch. “Okay, this is going to sound very strange, baby, but we know what’s been causing your pain. And Vlad is going to help it go away. Forever.”

“He is? How that?”

“First, there are some things you need to…learn. Is that okay?”

She nodded.

“One of those things is that you are special. You’re a lot like Vlad.”

“I am?”

“You are,” he said, coming into the conversation. “Which is why I can help you. Do you want to see what makes me special?”

“Yeah! Is it same thing makes me special?”

“It is.”

Rose took her daughter’s hands. “Baby, this might be a little scary, but everything is okay. You remember the tigers we saw at the zoo? You liked them, right?”

“Love tigers. Soooo pretty!”

Rose smiled. “Yes, they are. Do they scare you?”

She shook her head.

“Good. Okay, well, the thing is…” She looked at her daughter’s wide dark eyes and plunged in. “The thing is, Vlad can change into a tiger.”

Zoe’s eyes got even wider and she looked at him. “You can?”

“I can.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

For a long moment, Zoe stared at him. Then she grinned. “Cool! Show me.”

Rose blinked. “That doesn’t scare you, baby?”

“No. Why? Is cool!”

Rose puffed up her cheeks then released the breath. “Okay.” She was saying that a lot. “Vlad is going to go into his bedroom and when he comes out, he’ll be a tiger.”

“Why he go away to change?”

“I have to take off my clothes first,” Vlad answered.

Zoe giggled into her hand. “Silly.”

“Yes, I suppose it is. I’ll be right back. But when I come out, I’ll be a big tiger.”

“Yay!”

Vlad shook his head and flashed Rose a befuddled expression that reflected her own mood perfectly. He disappeared into the back, leaving Rose to wonder at her daughter.

Several minutes passed as they waited for him to return. Rose continued to hold Zoe’s hands as her daughter swung her legs against the couch, bumping them off it loudly. Rose glanced back down the hall when she caught a very slight sound. A moment later a huge Bengal tiger walked slowly out of the shadows.

She sucked in a breath. She still saw Vlad in the tiger’s dark eyes. And yet, the beast was so…primal, so terrifyingly beautiful, it was hard to reconcile the fact that it was Vlad. The jump of her pulse at the sight of a wild animal in the cabin held a little too much excitement and not nearly enough fear.

She squeezed Zoe’s hands and nodded to the tiger. “Here he is.”

Zoe turned to stare and her mouth dropped open. “Tiger,” she breathed. “Wow.”

The tiger came around to stand in front of them, sitting a few feet away, looking as innocuous as a six hundred pound cat could look. He stared at Zoe, calm and casual—not the intense focus of a predator looking at food. Though as Rose took in Zoe’s rapt expression, she wasn’t sure her daughter recognized the potential danger in this situation. She seemed fascinated and not even remotely worried.