Asprin, Robert Lynn – Catwoman – Tiger Hunt (With Lynn Abbey)

The temperature in the cul-de-sac where Batman had hidden himself dropped noticeably when the sun dropped below the roofline of the piers. Batman shook himself out of autopilot and assured his conscious mind that nothing had changed—Tiger still sat on his piling and Batman’s criminal sense still told him Catwoman was near. Shadows lengthened and a scattering of streetlights sizzled to life. Isolated pools of halogen light emerged from the twilight. There was a movement, a shadow within a shadow, at the front of the pier nearest to Tiger. Batman became fully alert.

Tiger began moving. So did the shadow. So did Batman. They moved together toward Broad Street. Tiger started down the middle of the street. A piece of shadow separated from the piers. Batman adjusted his course for an intercept once she reached Broad Street. She slashed at his face when he forced her against a wall. The mask took the brunt of it, but one claw had found its mark and he felt a warm trickle across his cheek.

“It’s over,” Batman told her. He locked his hands firmly over her wrists and held the vicious hooks at arm’s length.

Catwoman’s face contorted with hate and fury. The twin passions stripped away her ability to speak. She hissed and growled like the alley animal she pretended to be. They were close enough to taste each other’s breath.

“Do you want to die with him? He’d like that. He still thinks you’re on his side—a figment of his ‘tiger spirit.’ “

Batman’s arms were longer; when he straightened them, she couldn’t move. The raw rage in Catwoman’s face was tempered with fear. She couldn’t take him in a fair fight. So she lashed out with her boots against his shins and drove her knee into his crotch. He bore the assault stoically, but he released her wrists. She made a bolt for the building Eddie had entered just as the ground lurched beneath her feet. She stood flat-footed, not believing her eyes, as the walls of 208 Broad Street bulged outward.