Dave Frost died in combat five years ago, but his soul survives, magically bonded to the body of his partner -- a six-hundred pound tiger. Dave can conjure a human manifestation, but nobody treats him as a man anymore. Especially not women. Until he meets Ariel -- his costar -- while shooting a reality TV competition in the Bahamas. The show’s producers have assigned him to the beautiful witch for an onscreen showmance.
Ariel Piper’s talent is strong enough to turn the competition in their favor. Unfortunately, she also has a condition that makes using her magic agonizing. When they discover Dave’s touch kills the pain, he’s driven to help.
Their showmance soon becomes the real thing, though Dave fears she’ll dump him when the show wraps. Can Ariel convince this heroic, wounded man to trust her love -- before the show comes to a lethal climax that’s not in the script?
In the following scene, Dave and Ariel find out what the show's producers have in mind.
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The tiger looked up at me, blazing with the combined magic of Familiar and man.
His manifested hand released mine, and my aura slowly began to kink again, stinging like a mild sunburn. Still, it was far less intense than it had been. I had to fight the impulse to grab for him, hungry for more of that cooling relief. Even my blocking spell hadn’t killed the pain so completely.
Somehow contact with Dave Frost’s powerful aura had stabilized mine.
Tisha eyed us, then shook her head as if dismissing an inconsequential mystery. “We need to talk.”
She led us out of the tent and across the beach toward Jackson Gilbert’s Bali-style main house, currently serving as the production team’s headquarters. It was a stunning structure built of bamboo bent in long curving arcs, its roof thatched over teak support beams. The whole island had an eco-tourism vibe, right down to its wind-turbine-generated electricity.
Not that I gave a fuck about the decor. I was too busy trying to figure out exactly how Dave had just done what he had. And was it something he could do again?
A guard nodded at Tisha but didn’t stop us as she led the way up the steps to the house’s wide veranda. A cluster of fiddle-leaf fig trees in ceramic pots screened a pair of rattan grand peacock chairs with fat cream cushions. I dropped into one of them, settling against its high fan-shaped back, my gaze fixed on the tiger as he sank to his belly on the bamboo flooring. He really was enormous -- his head was easily three times the size of mine.
Hmm. His ears were angled back. If it meant the same thing as when my cat did that, he was uneasy about something. His tail flicked back and forth like a metronome.
“So we’ve got this idea,” Tisha began, leaning toward us in her seat. She lowered her voice until I had to strain to hear her over the sound of the wind and the screech of seagulls. “We want to do a showmance.”
That jolted me out of my Dave fog. I’d researched reality shows when I’d decided to do Arcane Island, and I knew a showmance was a romance between two cast members. She can’t possibly mean…
“Me and Valeria?” Dave asked, sitting up. His ears rotated forward like Floofinator’s when she heard the can opener.
Tisha shot him an impatient look. “I told you, you can’t even talk to Valeria except when she’s judging. I mean you and Ariel.”
I’d been afraid of that. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. We want you to have a showmance with Dave.”
The tiger’s mouth dropped open, exposing impressive fangs as his eyes rounded. “Are you out of your mind? Too many legs!”
Tisha frowned, clearly puzzled. “What?”
He manifested a hand and waved it. “Private joke. Which wasn’t very damn funny to start with. This is even less so.”
“Do I have to remind you that bestiality is illegal?” I demanded, thoroughly disgusted. I should have seen this coming. Any deal that sounded this good was bound to blow up in my face. That was the way my luck always ran.
“We’re not talking about having sex,” Tisha said impatiently. “You’d just kiss his manifestation. The visuals would be amazing.”
“So would the death threats on my Twitter feed.”
Tisha’s dark eyes narrowed, taking on a black-ice glint. “May I remind you, you signed a contract. You agreed to attempt the challenges you’re given. You’re being paid well, even aside from the shot at the million. Plus, we footed the bill for your Aurarest for the past few months. If you back out now, you’re going to owe the company fifty thousand in reimbursement for drug costs, because that shit doesn’t come cheap. And that’s aside from the judgment when we sue your ass for breach of contract. Which you will lose.”
“Drug costs?” Dave’s tail twitched as he looked from me to the show runner. “For what?”
Glaring at Tish, I growled, “I have Kimura Syndrome.”
“That’s what’s causing the thing with your aura?”
“That’s the one.”
“And the treatment for it costs ten grand a month,” Tisha said coldly. “Which Hammerhead Productions has been paying for since she signed the contract.”
He eyed me. “Did the meds stop working or what?”
“I had to get off the Aurarest to compete. It blunts my abilities too much.”
“That sucks.”
“If you break that contract, you’d better get used to the pain,” Tish said. Yeah, Hammerhead Productions’ rep for playing hardball was well deserved.
My stomach clenched as I realized I couldn’t afford to tell the showrunner to go fuck a coconut tree. Even aside from being sued, I needed that prize money. And not just so I could afford my prescription. It was my only chance to get out from under the parade of ruthless assholes who’d made my life a living hell since I was thirteen. “Fine, God damn it,” I spat. “I’ll do it. I can’t take much more of this shit.”
“And you knew that.” Dave stared at Tisha, his gold gaze so menacing, I found myself edging back. “You figured that of the female contestants, Ariel was the one who’d agree to the Beauty and the Beast bit. Because she’s just that desperate.”
Tisha winced. “Look, I’m sorry. It wasn’t my idea. Jackson thought…” She flicked a hand. “… It would humanize the Ferals. People are suckers for romance.”
“As I recall,” the tiger drawled, “the reason Humanists gave for opposing gay marriage is folks would want to marry people like me next. They’ll lose their fucking minds.”
I snorted. “How would you be able to tell?”
Tisha leaned her elbows on her knees and dialed the earnest up to eleven. “Dave, I wouldn’t push this if I didn’t think it would help the Talent cause. If we can show that you’re like any other guy, just trapped in a tiger’s body…”
“Yeah, right. We’ll be lucky if they don’t start burning crosses in front of BFS again. That crap is why I had to do this to begin with. Donations go in the shitter when you’re picketed by assholes with AR-15s.”
Tisha glowered. “I’m telling you, this show will make you so popular, they won’t dare give you any trouble.”
“Don’t piss on my head and tell me it’s raining.” His ears pinned flat against the huge skull in question. “I don’t like it.”
I’ll give her one thing: she didn’t back down from all that enraged tiger. Either she had ice water in her veins, or she thought Dave was a lot more harmless than I did. “Will you do it or not?”
Rumbling a deeply pissed sound, he turned to give me a long look. “If I say no, what happens to Ariel?”
I blinked. What did he care? He didn’t even know me.
“You’ll both be in breach. And we’ll sue the shit out of you. And your Tiger King buddy, since he gets the money for his cat sanctuary.”
A familiar grating voice screeched, “I’ll get you, my pretty. You and your little dog, too!” Sounded exactly like the Wicked Witch from The Wizard of Oz. I’d heard Dave do imitations on his YouTube videos, but I hadn’t realized how startling it was in person.
“Well?” Tisha demanded, refusing to be distracted.
He looked away, his tail lashing so hard I expected to hear a bullwhip crack. “All right. Fine. Yeah, I’ll fake your fuckin’ B story.”
“Thank you,” Tisha said, her tone too polite. She glanced down at her watch and rose to her feet. “Look, I’ve got to set up for this afternoon’s production meeting. I have to go.” She rose and paused, looking down at us, frowning. “I really am sorry about this.” Then she vanished through the double doors into the house.
“‘I have to set up for the meeting,’ my striped ass,” Dave growled. “She wanted to get out while the getting was good.”
“Probably. I…” Suddenly it felt as if a knife had plunged into my guts and twisted. The shock of it bent me double, swearing, as pain scoured my skin like steel wool.
Alarmed, Dave jolted to his feet. “What’s happening? Do I need to get Tish to call the doctor?” Reality shows had to have an on-site physician to get insured.
Clinging to the rattan chair arms, I concentrated on breathing through the pain. “No, there’s… there’s nothing… there’s nothing they can do. Whenever I get… get upset, it can trigger attacks.” The pain intensified, and I clenched my teeth against a scream.
Glowing hands caught my wrists. Instantly, a wave of cooling relief surged through me.
Astonished, I looked down at the shining fingers and watched my tangled aura smooth. The burn snuffed out as if hit with a fire extinguisher. “Wow.”
I looked up. Dave had manifested, his human form shining against the background of the palms. I stared at him in wonder. He’d probably never been handsome, but he’d have been striking with that long, strong-featured face and leanly muscled build. Especially clad in an Arcane Corps uniform.
Dave blinked, probably at my awed expression. “What?” He frowned. “What’s going on, Ariel?”
“Touching you makes it better. Why does touching you make it better?”
Dave looked down at where his hands gripped my arms, then closed his eyes so he could see my aura. “It does seem to help. Weird. Wonder why? I mean, I’m not trying to do anything.”
“Probably something about the way our auras interact.” I sighed. The relief almost made me feel dizzy. “Hell, who knows? I don’t understand what causes the problem to begin with.”
His manifestation’s lips tightened. Unlike the rest of Dave’s angular face, his mouth looked soft. “Maybe I can teach you some of the techniques Genevieve Briggs and I developed when we were fighting those terrorists. We might be able to figure out a way you can control your Kimura’s, too.”
“What kind of techniques?”
“Gen can use me as a battery whenever she’s doing a particularly tricky spell. She came up with it when Indigo Ford was trying to break Gen’s ward so her husband could eat us. Trust me, you don’t want to be a polar bear’s chew toy.”
On sheer impulse, I reached up and cupped Dave’s manifested face in my hands. He felt as warm and solid as flesh and blood. Yet my aura swirled at the contact, its normally jagged contours sliding across my skin like skeins of silk. “That’s really kind of you.” I thought of the showmance Tish wanted. Maybe this won’t be all that bad after all.
Impulsively, I leaned forward and kissed Dave’s manifestation right on his glowing mouth. His eyes widened. The taste of his magic flooded over my tongue to roll down my throat like brandy mixed with warmed honey -- thick and sweet. Every hair on my body rose in a wave of erotic heat. I hummed in delight.
Dave jerked away as if my lips had burned him. “Don’t do that,” he said roughly. “Don’t do that unless it’s for the cameras. Not like it’s real.” He slipped from my grasping fingers like the ghost he resembled. His manifestation vanished as the tiger whirled and leaped off the porch.
I jumped to my feet. “Dave! I didn’t mean…”
But he’d already disappeared into the trees.
Yet my pain didn’t come back. For the first time since I’d been fired from the CIA, I felt hope. Maybe there was a way to win this thing. Maybe just this once, there was a way not to lose.
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