Free Hunters (Spirit Blade Part 1) by M. A. Nilles

her, but she stood ready.
    A second later, the clearing where they rested exploded in white and orange as tigers poured from the trees and brush.
    Like the battle of the Nik'Terek Gate all over again, the melee took her back.
    The tiger-form Je'Kaoron stayed by her, and Kaelen joined them. The tigers didn't seem concerned with them as much as mauling each other.
    Nadia caught Kaelen's questioning glance.
    "What are they doing?" he asked, his sword in his hands.
    "I'd guess Je'Rekun's supporters," she said. The realization twisted her stomach. If Je'Rekun's allies were determined to undermine High Lord Je'Dron, they would want revenge on the man who had taken out their leader—Lord Je'Kaoron.
    "They're after him. We have to protect him."
    The tiger glanced at her, those pale blue eyes meeting hers with understanding. Already, many of the guards lay wounded, but they took down many of the other tigers with them.
    However, it seemed that the others had a larger force; more emerged from hiding and joined the fight, overwhelming the numbers who had accompanied her and Kaelen.
    "There are too many," Kaelen said.
    "We can't let them take him."
    His face hardened.
    "Don't even say it!" He'd done enough insinuating of her and Je'Kaoron already.
    Two orange tigers made it past the falling guards and approached them warily, tails lashing and teeth bared.
    Nadia swallowed her anxieties about facing the demonlords and tightened her grip on the dagger.
    Je'Kaoron snarled, teeth bared and ears back as he put himself between the other tigers and her.
    The bloodlust of the dagger called to her to protect the one person there she cared about, but she didn't need the dark power to realize that he couldn't defeat them and needed help. And it would test the extent of the dagger's power, which might not be as powerful as its aura projected.
    The tigers circled wide to where Je'Kaoron couldn't protect her from both. They would attack together, she was certain of it.
    Nadia moved with the tiger nearest to her, and noticed the tall shadow next to her. She didn't have to look to know it was Kaelen sticking next to her as if she couldn't protect herself. He said nothing, but the sword made it clear.
    The tigers snarled at them and continued moving.
    Something brushed along the back of her legs, Je'Kaoron's tail most likely.
    A white tiger approached, its teeth bloody and bared, and joined the others circling them. None attacked, but other white and orange tigers joined, until the three of them in the center of the circle were too far outnumbered and Lord Je'Kaoron pressed into the back of her legs, nearly knocking her forward.
    "They want him alive," she said aside to Kaelen.
    One of the white tigers blurred and transformed, a woman of scathing beauty with a white and black tail of hair from the top of her head. She stood in white leggings and a coat belted at her slim waist with a back that hung behind like half a skirt, white with jagged horizontal stripes. "He will pay for his crimes against High Lord Je'Rekun. You are another matter." Her voice was smooth and calculated.
    Behind her, Je'Kaoron transformed.
    "Lady Je'Diri," he said calmly.
    The snarling around them ceased as the others transformed.
    "Lord Je'Kaoron. It is my pleasure to bring you to justice before Lord Je'Tiren."
    Her pleasure. Nadia bristled at the brutality which that "pleasure" might involve.
    Kaelen adjusted his sword, and Nadia imagined him trying to behead the lady with it, and failing utterly. Those who supported Je'Rekun considered humans no better than livestock. Their lives meant nothing. They were lucky not to be dead already.
    Not wishing to start a fight they couldn't win, Nadia reached over and pressed the sword down. He turned with a cold fire in his eyes. She shook her head. His hatred for the demonlords would get its chance, if he stood down this time.
    After several seconds, Kaelen sheathed the sword.
    "Wise choice, Hunter," Lady Je'Diri taunted in her smooth