Page 138 of Tiger's Dream
“Move away from her,” I said, pushing my hand against his bare chest and shoving. He simply smiled at me and then I felt a woman’s hand on my arm. I threw her hand away. “I don’t think so,” I said.
“Now, Sohan,” Ana said, “You are being impolite to our guests.”
“Guests? Really?” I hissed. “Do you know what they are? What they can do?”
“Of course.” She walked over to a young man and he offered his elbow. A chair materialized and he bade her to sit and relax. The girls gave me a wide berth as I glowered at them and strode over to Ana, where she sat lounging on the chair. One of the young men had removed her boots and was massaging her feet. “Ah, that feels nice,” she said. “I think your massage even rivals my tiger’s.”
“Ana,” I said, my voice sounding sulky and petulant. “I insist we leave here at once. You don’t know how dangerous these creatures are.”
“Dangerous?” she laughed. “They are about as dangerous as a robe spun of silk.”
I folded my arms. “A silk robe can be dangerous if worn by the right person.”
Her eyes narrowed. “I assure you, they mean no harm. They are outcasts from their realm. They are clouds without water. To receive love and give love gives them purpose. It fills them.” One of the men knelt at her side and rested his head in her lap. She stroked his hair and it lit an unquenchable flame in my gut to see it. Almost fondly, she toyed with his hair as she said, “They have drifted for millennia like clouds pushed about by the wind. I have allowed them to take shape. I give them purpose.”
“You know they literally love people to death.”
Ana had never, ever been as physically comfortable around me as she was behaving around them.
Sensing the change in her mood, they backed away and helped her stand. “Is that so wrong?” she argued. “Even when the ones they love turn old and gray, they love them with all the energy of their souls.”
“They cloud minds. Confuse people. Manipulate their emotions. Titillate their senses. They’ve even managed to seduce you within the span of a few seconds.”
“No,” Ana insisted. “They give the lonely what they want. Fill the emptiness in their hearts. I will admit there is a certain dulling of inhibition, but they do not take away freedom of choice.”
“And what if their victims want to experience that connection with other people? With someone special?”
“You know nothing of what it means to be a victim.” She spat her words with trenchant cuts. “There are many people in this world who never find someone special. True, the affection they shower ends with the death of their chosen vessel. In fact, they cease to remember them after they are gone, but at least those people have experienced touch and kindness and companionship. There are many who die with less.”
Distraught, the four sirens circled behind her and laid sympathetic hands on her shoulders.
“Ana,” I said slowly, “I didn’t mean…”
“I will not be a flower that wilts on the stem, unnoticed and shrinking. Yes. I have been razed by a storm. I have been crushed by a man’s bootheel. What is weak and vulnerable in me has been exposed and then tossed aside like so much rubbish. But I am alive still. This broken girl has sprung back. I have turned my face to the sun and taken nourishment from it. Do you not see? I, too, long for human contact. I want to be touched and loved by one who treats me with kindness and caring. I will accept nothing less, Sohan. Not when I’ve seen what is possible.”
I looked from her intense and pleading eyes to the four beings standing behind her. My hands itched to tear them all to shreds. Then I looked at her and my heart ached. Ana had become important to me, but if being with them would make her happy, then who was I to stand in her way? The man squeezed her arm lightly and she didn’t even flinch like she had when I touched her. My mouth in a tight line, I said, “Fine, Anamika. If they are what you want, I’ll leave you to them. Come and find me when you’re ready to leave.”
Turning on my heel, I tore out the back of the house, and, finding a familiar set of stairs, I bounded up, changing into my tiger form on the way. I roared out my frustration as I ascended the tree, only stopping when I found a little hollowed-out corner. It was fortunate I spotted it at all since I’d barely been able to see without the light that surrounded Ana’s body naturally. Crawling inside, I put my head on my paws and closed my eyes, trying to ignore the disparate feelings coursing through me.
I must have slept deeply because Ana came upon me without me knowing. “Have you stemmed your volatile emotions yet? Are you ready to wake, Sohan?”
Rising abruptly, I bumped my head on the roof of my little cave. Shaking my head, I hopped out and changed back into human form.
She had no idea what volatile emotions I was feeling right then. I had no idea how long I’d been asleep. How long Ana had stayed with the sirens. Just the thought of those men putting their hands on her, kissing her, holding her was like a vice around my chest. How could she kiss me like she did before and then turn to them without so much as an explanation? It didn’t make sense.
“Are you not going to speak to me?” she asked as we made our way forward.
“I see no reason to.”
“Ah, you are upset.”
“No. You can do what you want with who you want. It’s not my concern.”
“Oh? Then if it is not concern I see on your face, what darkens your mood?”
I shrugged. “I just want to get this over with.”
“I, too, want to get this over with.”
