White Tiger (44 page)

J
ohn was able to join us for dinner, but Leo slept on. ‘Wong took us to some sort of prison,’ I said. ‘An apartment with no doors, no windows. He didn’t hurt us. He tried, but Simone was too strong.’

‘Then the other demon came and took us out,’ Simone said.

‘Tell me about the other demon,’ John said. Ah Yat poked her head in the room. ‘The King is here with the donkey, sir.’

‘Oh my God,’ I said. ‘Calls himself George. Eyes the colour of dried blood, clothes the same colour. Looked about twenty-five. That’s the King?’

‘That’s him,’ John said. He hesitated, thinking. ‘No, I won’t leave either of you here, you’re safer with me. Come with me and we’ll talk to him. What donkey?’

‘He bought me a baby donkey in the animal market,’ Simone said. ‘I thought he was nice. Then he killed everybody in our house in the city.’

‘He should not have been able to get into that apartment,’ John said. ‘It’s sealed. Not even the King himself should be able to enter.’

‘I told Ah Yat to open the door and let us in,’ Simone
said. ‘I forgot, Daddy.’ Her little shoulders shook with sobs. ‘It was my fault!’

I wrapped my arm around her shoulder and held her as she cried. We all walked together down to the gates.

‘So the King came into Wong’s nest and took you out,’ John said. ‘Only he would be able to do that, and only if you agreed to go with him.’

‘We did agree to go with him,’ I said.

‘That’s interesting,’ John said as we neared the gates. ‘He was within his rights to keep you in his own nest, once you’d agreed to go with him. That’s the way it works.’

‘I made him promise to let us go,’ I said.

John stopped and stared at me. Then he grinned and shook his head. ‘Well done!’

The King was waiting on the other side of the huge metal gates. The tiny donkey stood beside him with a piece of string around its neck, its little tail swishing furiously. John raised his hand and the gates swung open.

Simone moved towards the donkey, then stopped. She shifted to stand behind her father.

The King saluted John. ‘Xuan Tian.’

John saluted back. ‘Mo Wang.’

The King waved and smiled. ‘Hi, Emma.’

I didn’t respond.

‘Why did you release my wife and daughter?’ John said. ‘If you’d let One Two Two keep them, you could have had my head by now.’

The King grinned broadly. ‘If you went off and married her on the sly, you are in even bigger trouble than everybody says you are. I didn’t think even
you
would disobey the Jade Emperor that much.’

John waved it away. ‘To me, Emma is my wife, and she will be for as long as she lives.’

The King bent over with mirth, his hands on his knees. ‘Oh my God, that is just so goddamn
cute
!’

‘That’s the way I feel too,’ I said. ‘The fact that we can’t formally marry right now is beside the point.’

The King pulled himself upright and shook his head. ‘What a pair of idiots.’

‘Why did you release Emma and Simone?’ John said.

The King shrugged. ‘Maybe I just wanted to piss off that little bastard. Somebody else will bring me your head. It’s just a matter of time.’

Simone squeaked and grabbed her father’s leg.

‘Sorry, pet,’ the King said with genuine remorse. ‘I didn’t mean to say it like that.’

‘Why did you kill my demons?’ Simone snapped from behind John. ‘They didn’t do anything to you!’

The King bent to speak kindly to her. ‘If a demon defects, they know the penalty. If I find one of mine that has been tamed by a Celestial, I destroy it. That’s the way it works, Simone. They knew they were dead the minute they saw me.’

‘And
I let you in
!’ Simone wailed.

The King gestured towards Simone. ‘You’re a fool, Xuan Tian. She’s a delightful child. And every single one of my demons wants her.’ He shook his head. ‘You should never have done this. Creatures such as yourself should never attempt to have human children.’

‘I know,’ John said.

The King sighed. ‘Love makes fools of us all.’ ‘I know,’ John said again, softly.

‘Come and get your little donkey, sweetheart,’ the King said. ‘I won’t hurt you, I promise. You’ll need to give it a name. It’s a girl donkey.’

Simone buried her face in her father’s leg and didn’t move.

‘Emma,’ the King said, and raised the piece of string. I glanced at John, who nodded.

I sidled forward and took the string. The King smiled into my eyes and whispered to me, ‘I know he can’t
touch you, but I can. Any time you want a really nice touch, just give me a call.’

‘Go to hell,’ I whispered back, and led the donkey to Simone. She wrapped her little arms around its neck.

‘Have you told him about that dark thing?’ the King said.

John glanced at me.

‘Obviously not,’ the King said. He saluted John. ‘Xuan Tian. See ya.’ And disappeared. ‘What dark thing?’ John said.

‘Let’s go back and finish our dinner, and I’ll tell you all about it,’ I said.

‘I negotiated him down to a kiss. He kissed me, and pushed his way into my head, and then the dark thing came out.’ I dropped my head into my hands. ‘I am so sorry.’

He poured me some tea. ‘Why?’ I stared at him.

He leaned back and glared at me. ‘Don’t for one minute think that I am jealous. Of course I’m not. What we have is greater than any jealousy, and you know it.’

‘Oh my God,’ I whispered. ‘You’re an Emperor.’

His face went rigid and he watched me.

‘I know the tradition: it’s the Emperor’s duty to have as many children with as many wives as possible.’

He didn’t say a word.

‘How many wives do you have? In the Northern Heavens? On the Mountain?’ I raised my hands. ‘No. Don’t tell me. I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know anything about it. Just please make sure that I never meet any of them.’

‘Any of my other wives?’

‘Yes.’

‘Not going to happen, Emma,’ he said with a small smile. ‘My number is one.’

‘Only one wife?’

‘Right now, you are my only one,’ he said. He leaned forward and gazed into my eyes. ‘You were prepared to share me?’

‘Women do incredibly stupid things for the love of a man,’ I said.

‘And vice versa.’ I smiled. ‘Yeah.’

‘So this dark thing was powerful enough to push the King away?’

‘Yes. It was pretty scary.’

‘What was scary?’ Leo said from the doorway. He saluted John and me. ‘My Lord. My Lady.’

‘Cut it out and come and have some tea,’ I said. ‘How do you feel? Up to eating something?’

Leo sat at the table. ‘I have the biggest migraine in the whole world. Right now, all I want is coffee.’ He glanced around. ‘Where’s Simone?’

‘Asleep,’ I said. ‘Ran around with the donkey so much she wore herself out.’

‘Donkey?’

‘I’ll tell you later.’

‘But you’ll tell me more about this dark thing right now,’ John said. ‘He kissed you and invaded your mind. Something dark rose within you and pushed him out. Yes?’

‘Yes.’

He leaned his chin on his hand. ‘I didn’t see anything like that when I looked inside you.’

‘He said maybe it was just him,’ I said. ‘What did he mean?’

‘Maybe it only comes out for someone with a demonic nature.’

‘Damn,’ I whispered.

‘Don’t worry about it.’ He poured some more tea. ‘If it’s important, it will emerge. If it doesn’t emerge then
it’s not important. It didn’t welcome the King; it forced him out. That’s good enough for me.’

Ah Yat came in with Leo’s coffee and he nodded his thanks to her, then turned his attention back to us. ‘King?’

‘The King of the Demons has taken a shine to my Emma,’ John said. ‘He rescued her and Simone from One Two Two and bought Simone a baby donkey for good measure.’

‘Just when I thought our lives couldn’t be any more complicated,’ Leo growled.

The next morning Leo was fine but John was still very weak. He put on his navy suit and changed to his older form, ready for the border crossing. Leo drove.

John kept falling asleep in the car. I had to constantly remind him to change his hair; he seemed to have trouble keeping it short.

When we reached the stables, John pulled his bag out of the boot and went inside to change. Simone lay on the seat next to me.

Leo stiffened, then quickly pulled himself out of the car. Five armed demons approached us in the car park; level twenty or thirty. They looked like triads; their hair was dyed blond and red. They wore filthy jeans and T-shirts, and carried Chinese cleavers, the weapon of choice for Hong Kong gangsters.

I hopped out of the car, leaving Simone sleeping on the seat. I went around and stood next to Leo.

‘There’re some swords in the boot.’ Leo moved his hand and the boot popped open. ‘Pull out Dark Heavens for me, will you?’

I went and pulled out Dark Heavens, the sword that usually resided on clips in the hallway back at the Peak. My sword was there, and I took it as well, then slammed the boot shut.

I passed Dark Heavens to Leo. ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘Go and get Mr Chen.’ ‘No need,’ I said. ‘We can handle this.’ He glanced down at me.

‘I’ll take the two on the right. You take the three on the left.’ I pulled my sword from its scabbard. ‘Ready?’

Leo turned back to the demons. ‘Hell, yeah.’

They ran towards us and we moved to give each other room.

I pushed some chi into the sword and made it sing; it didn’t affect them at all. They continued to run at us. I threw the chi at the demon on the far right and it exploded. The demon next to it was too close to hit with chi. It came at me with weapon raised and its face a grimace of anger.

It attacked me with the cleaver. I felt perfectly calm as I watched it coming at me, then sidestepped.

The demon was fast; it followed my movement, and turned to hit me horizontally.

I blocked the cleaver with my left hand on the demon’s elbow, then pushed its arm in the direction it was already going. As the demon unbalanced with the push, I raised my own sword, spun, and sliced it in half.

I didn’t have time to get out of the way, and the demon exploded all over me.

I checked Leo; he had already destroyed one and faced the other two. He sliced one demon’s head off with a swinging arc of the sword, then swept down, moved back, and took another demon through the abdomen with an upward backhand slice. Both demons exploded on him.

I saw movement and glanced up. Simon Wong stood at the end of the car park, arms crossed, watching. I filled with ice-cold fury, hefted my sword, and ran towards him.

‘Leo, there he is,’ I cried. ‘Let’s
get
him!’

Leo looked up and saw Wong. He leapt to run towards the demon as well.

Wong uncrossed his arms, put his hands on his hips and disappeared.

Leo and I skidded to a halt.

‘That freaking
coward
!’ I shouted. I nearly threw my sword on the ground with frustration, but I’d put a great deal of work into its edge. ‘I am going to
get
him!’

‘Scary,’ Leo said.

‘You have no idea,’ I growled.

We turned back to the car. John stood at the entrance to the country club, holding his bag, waiting for us.

‘I am going to
get
that ugly little freak if it is the last thing I ever do,’ I said.

‘You know what?’ Leo grinned down at me. ‘I believe you.’ He wrapped his arm around my shoulders and gave me an affectionate squeeze, nearly knocking me off my feet. ‘We’d better go into the change rooms and have a shower, my Lady.’

‘Call me “my Lady” one more time and you’ll feel my sword as well,’ I said.

‘Yes, my Lady,’ Leo said, saluting me with Dark Heavens still in his hand.

‘Shit,’ I said under my breath. I tried to shake the black stuff off my hands but it stuck. Leo was right; we both needed a shower.

Simone had woken and hopped out of the car as we approached. ‘You were terrific, Emma!’ she squealed, jiggling with delight. ‘You were as good as
Leo
! Isn’t she, Daddy?’

John smiled with admiration. ‘Absolutely.’

‘Let me get a change of clothes. I need to have a shower.’ Leo popped the boot again and I threw my sword in, found a towel, and wiped my arms and face. Leo put Dark Heavens into the car. I handed the towel to him and he wiped the demon stuff off as well.

I scrabbled through my duffel bag for a change of clothes. Leo opened his bag as well.

I stopped dead as I saw the contents of Leo’s bag. ‘What?’ Leo said.

Leo’s bag was immaculately packed. Everything was neatly folded and arranged.

‘Geez. You can pack
my
bag next time,’ I said.

‘It would be an honour and a pleasure, my Lady,’ Leo said. ‘Your bag looks like it’s full of dirty laundry.’

I found a pair of jeans and a shirt. ‘You are so going to keep, Leo.’

Leo saluted me. ‘My Lady.’

‘We’ll have something to eat on the terrace while you change,’ John said. ‘Simone says she’s hungry.’

‘Okay.’ I shoved Leo as I walked past him. ‘Bastard.’ ‘I heard that,
my Lady
.’

When we arrived home, Leo parked the car under the Peak apartment building and we all piled out. He went to the boot and grabbed John’s and my bags. ‘I’ll take my own bag,’ I said.

‘It is my duty as Retainer to serve you, my Lady,’ Leo said with a broad grin. ‘I’ll return to the car later and collect the other luggage.’

I tried to grab my bag from Leo but he wouldn’t let me. He moved it out of the way every time I tried to take it, and eventually just raised it out of my reach.

John took Simone’s hand and led her to the front door. ‘Watching you two is the most amusing thing I’ve seen in centuries.’ He glanced down at Simone. ‘What do you think?’

Simone giggled. ‘Yeah, they’re
funny.
They’re
stupid
.’

Jade and Gold were waiting for us inside. They both fell to one knee and saluted us. ‘My Lord. My Lady.’

Leo took the bags down the hall, grinning broadly. I wanted to thump
him.

‘We have an urgent problem that must be dealt with immediately,’ Gold said. ‘The engineers have discovered that the student dormitories on the Mountain are so badly damaged they must be demolished. We need to find somewhere for the students to live while we rebuild.’