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Rakshasa Page 4


  Epilogue

  The Eclipse

  I closed the door of my apartment, leaning up against it with my back, giving a low sigh to the empty room.

  “What a day, huh?”

  Stepping inside I kicked off my shoes. The place was trashed. Katelyn and the cops had gone over everything looking for clues. Somehow Kateyln had convinced them that I was lying dead in a ditch somewhere and they had moved with surprising speed. Between my smelly shoes, my ruined cupboard and now this, my apartment was a war zone, but tidying up could wait until tomorrow. The sun was about to come up and I felt deathly tired.

  I stepped down the hallway, following the sound of the mewing kittens towards my bedroom. I remembered, then, that I had forgotten to buy food for Clintonette.

  “Mince in the fridge,” I said to myself, nodding. Clintonette had just become a mother; surely I could splurge out on something a little fancy.

  I stepped into the kitchen, freezing instantly. Something seemed instantly, totally wrong.

  The faint sound of breathing.

  “Quite the scene you made tonight,” came a voice, quiet and gravelly, unnaturally deep. I slowly turned around. Standing in the tiny living room, shrouded in gloom, was a tall creature—it shaped like a man but had the head of a tiger, covered in the same tiger-stripe markings that I’d seen on myself in the dream, the pattern running all over his body. Black and orange, with a white patch running down from his jaw, down his throat, disappearing into the overly large t-shirt he wore. His arms were folded, confidently, but with a strange aura of menace about him.

  “I didn’t realise anyone was watching.” I rested a hand on the kitchen cabinet, trying to look composed. “Who are you?”

  The creature chuckled, a mirthless action that I found belittling. “Eclipse,” he answered, his face splitting in a grin revealing an impressive set of sharp incisors, “Although you’re more likely to know me as the Champawat Tiger.”

  “That supposed to impress me? Make me afraid?”

  “It should.”

  I locked gazes with him, his dark green eyes glinting in the poor light of my small apartment. “What do you want?”

  “What I want with the other Rakshasa-fledglings I find.” Another chuckle, this time with a little more energy, and the Rakshasa took a step forward.

  “To kill you.”

  To be continued in Rakshasa: Aurora…

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  Rakshasa

  “Rakshasa”

  “Rakshasa: Aurora”

  “Rakshasa: Tigerheart”

  “Rakshasa: Shadowfall”

  (Coming soon!)